Complaint Review: Pqremier Incentives Group - Atlanta Georgia

In Dec 2014, we were solicited by a company named Diamond Departures to attend a 2 hour presentation on travel promotions. They promised 2 free domestic airline tickets to all attendees whether you bought or not. We attended, did not go for deal, and asked for our free tickets. They gave us a "Fly America" voucher we had to mail to a company called Premium Incentives.Then we would receive the actual Travel Certificate in the mail to use when we were ready to plan our travel.

It was not free by the way. It cost us $7.95 to register voucher and then they sent us forms to request travel. They then sent us a 'travel request form" which called for a $75 per person registartion fee or for 2 people a total of $150. never discussed at our travel seminar. They also had rules: 1. voucher must be sent in within 30 days of seminar we attended. The voucher was dated at meeting. 2. travel must take place in 12 months from date voucher sent in, 3. travel was not permitted with 7 days of state or national holidays. 4. 4 day minimum stay. 4. travel must be booked 90 days in advance.

So we were a little upset over $150 (not free), but we decided to call their bluff and sent money along with reservation request fro a 4 day trip to Chicago (from Charlotte). This was in December. Our travel was for June 13. By may 1 I had not heard from them, so i called office and actually spoke with someone. They acknowledged my reservation request, said it was in process of being completed and mailed..and told me there were no issues with my request (i asked). A couple of weeks later I received a email (went to spam) that i never saw. I called again to see where our tickets were and they referred me to email, which I found in spam, informing me my travel was declined because it fell within 7 days of ...Fathers Day. What? Fathers Day is an Observance..not a National Holiday. See they have this thing rigged so tight that most people just give up and get discouraged. I pointed out difference betweem holidays and observances,,,and they disagreed. What really pissed us off was that they waited 5 months to tell us this, meaning when we bought our tickets we were so close to travel date that we paid out the nose.....about $600 for both of us. I asked them what big deal was and they replied that flights were very expensive around fathers day. I replied..."not when you book them 90 days in advance" like you would have done if you intended to honor my d**n request. That was going to be it but I threatened to sue them (have attorney in family). They said they were sending me a refund and I should have it in 90 days. 90 days to write a check. I told them I had met with a lawyer and they sent me an email saying they were rushing check out to me.

 My belief is this is like a coupon you get offered when you buy something. Once the Sucker (us in this case) bites, then later sees "its not really free", most people throw voucher in trash. We had drinks after our presentation with 2 other families we did not know and that is what they did. Once we called their bluff, they did everyhting possibe to avoid fulfilling their part of bargain and discourage us from flying. I know this is a common scam that everyone at some time gets pulled into. I blame the Diamond Departure crew and premium Incentive for a lousy experience I think stinks of RIP OFF TO HIGH HEAVEN.