Juliet
Birmingham,#2Consumer Comment
Tue, January 23, 2007
Jeena, I am really impressed you're letting your conscience guide you. It's so hard to give up a paycheck, but when you don't feel good about what you're doing, selling yourself out, for minimum wage, no less, that's the best option there is. Sometimes we have to get that money, no matter what, but being able to look at ourselves, there's no price you can put on that. It SOUNDS like this isn't a "bad" deal, in some ways, if the vacations are really over $3000, and a person can get it for the range of $1000. BUT - the "free" come-on, pure deception, obviously. Even having to listen to time-share presentations for such a discounted vacation wouldn't be so bad, as long as YOU KNOW that's part of the deal. But that's not "kosher" with me, either, because of the hard-sell tactics such presenters seem to use. They work to make people feel bad or poor when the time-shares also seem to be such a ripoff, in the end. What makes it even worse, to me, is that the people who go to these presentations do seem to be the most vulnerable, as in not realizing the need to research such offers first, and also to have a problem with resisting high pressure sales tactics. How do they target low sales resistance people, I wonder? Just signing up for something free doesn't mean you are low sales resistance, but maybe it's low resistance people who actually go through with the vacation and presentations? Again, Jeena, good for you in walking away. Even if you had to stay, at least you came on here and gave your view of the company, for the benefit of others. Good luck, and thanks.
Jeena
Toronto,#3UPDATE Employee
Tue, January 23, 2007
I work for ASTAR vacations in Toronto, ON, CANADA, and we call up people all day in the USA and Canada and tell them how the lucky draw for a vacation entry that they have filled out has been selected, then proceed to hard-sell them on our Florida/Bahamas vacation certificate scam. I've only been here a week, but am planning to leave tomorrow, my conscious can not deal with scamming people this way. People get so excited that they've been selected, and then we scam them into paying $798 USD for the vacation coupons, then another $398 usd for the cruise port tax / processing fee. Then they have to pay approx $30 usd per night for tax on their hotel rooms, and a huge list of other charges, so this free vacation will end up costing them more money then if they had arranged it themselves. This is in addition to the hard-sell timeshare sales pitch they will have to endure once they get to Florida on their own dime. I guess they figure if you were sucker enough to buy the vacation coupon scam in the first place, it won't be too hard to scam you further once you're down there. STAY AWAY people, and don't fill out any free vacation contest drawings at tradeshows, as you will only be instantly marketed to, convinced you're so luckywhen in fact they CALL EVERY SINGLE PERSON that is stupid enough to fill out one of their contest entries in the first place. By the way, for helping to perpetrate this scam, I am getting minimum wage.
Brittany
Hamilton,#4Author of original report
Mon, July 11, 2005
HOW I GOT MY MONEY BACK:(THRU CREDIT CARD) 1.Call up your credit card manager & tell them what happened, immediately 2.Go to your bank and cancel your credit card. Dont get another one for a while since they have your info and can access your NEW credit card! (its horrible, better be safe). 3.Go on your goverment site and look up laws. Fraduent conveyences/activites aren't allowed through Canada and America. Ramada Plaza Resort violates Fort Lauderdale's laws as well. Also look up "Public Offering Acts" in your country/state/province.(that might be helpful for legal action) 4.Then, call up the 1-800 number and tell them you want a full refund back on your card. Dont take no for an answer, be a pain in the butt. Then say if you dont have it back within 3-5 business days you will take legal action. 5.** Make sure you take note of you who are talking to in case legal action is needed. 6.Then go on these sites: ****www.phonebusters.com =1-888-654-9426**** *scambusters.org (internet scam busters) *www.bbb.org(council of better business bureau) *www.fraud.org(national fraud info center) *http://www.njretest.com/study_notes/resfda.htm (public offering act) *https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01 (Federal Trade Commission) *http://cmcweb.ca/epic/internet/incmc-cmc.nsf/en/fe00077e.html (Consumer Measures) 7.Report what's happened. If it happened at a festival, report it to the city/festival. I went to phone busters as well(the 1st site above) and they made a claim against Ramada through the RCMP. They advised me to write a letter to Ramada, and then send a copy to my credit card company if my money wasn't returned. If Ramada doesn't refund you, the credit card company might. I however didn't have to submit my letter! My 'funds are now unfrozen'. -Then, wait. -Whether you do or dont get your money back, go to the media and tell everyone you know about what happened. Word of mouth is the best way to make or break a company. You could prevent the company from misleading/using someone else like they did you. CURRENT STATUS: Waiting for C.C statement in mail for written documentation stating the amount was returned.(even tho my credit card provider said I was refunded). Thank you everyone for your reports they really helped along the way!!! I had doubts, but within a week I got my money back :D