Complaint Review: Travel Agents Direct - Suntasia - Tampa Florida

To begin with Suntasia Marketing is located on 8751 Ulmerton Road, Largo, FL 33771. All telemarketing calls originate from there. Their corporate website is www.suntasia.com Bryon Wolf is President and CEO, Michael Berndgen is the Chief Financial Officer and Roy Eliasson is the Vice President of Management Information Systems. There are about 8 rooms total that hold about 24 agents in each. Six of those rooms are outbound (an automatic dialer that calls you), the other 2 rooms are for inbound calls (people who call in and are curious about who called them or maybe have a complaint). There is also one big room for customer service only, where they are suppose to handle the cancellations or any other concerns from customers like being billed without receiving the product. Any phone numbers (727-471-#### or 727-683-####) you get for their products they're selling like Travel Agents Go Direct, Floridaway, Prism Communications, Distinct Advantage, Freedom Gold, ALL lead back to the same place, SUNTASIA MARKETING in Largo. Your name, address and phone number are obtained through a third party company that they purchased it from. The third party company gets their information by the products you buy, or any other transactions you do that contains your personal information. They DO NOT and are NOT allowed to have or sell your SS#, DOB etc. Once the information is bought by companies like Suntasia, it is put into their dialer system to call you. The dialer clearly labels the list of names that are brand new leads and also how many times that specific list has been called. Unfortunately, this information is only seen by the manager of the room. He or she has access to it from the bridge (the big, high desk overseeing the agents when you enter the room). Vericheck is a software system connecting them to all the banks nationwide that confirm whether you have an open checking account or not. Grocery stores, retail stores all use them to scan your checks to make sure your account is legit. The only information the agent has on their computer at the time when they call is your name, address and telephone number. That's it. After they give you their mumbo jumbo script about how you qualified and the free gifts (gas, airline vouchers etc), they tell you it's a reward for maintaining an active checking and ONLY active checking account holders qualify or that you've won the trip which is illegal to do. They then ask you for your bank name and the city you opened it in. The reason is b/c they can obtain your routing number through what else? That's right Vericheck! It is only then that many are fooled to believe the agent has your account number as well. The excuse the agent uses is, we need you to verify the number to make sure it's you, but when you call their bluff they either hang up or put a manager on the phone to push for the sale and get the account. Their tactics are slick even downright insulting. They usually say that you made a purchase through one of their 400, 1000, 1700 affiliates (pick a number yourself) and that is how your name was entered into their system for this special promotion. ALL A BIG LIE! Like I said before, they bought the names and numbers from another company for anywhere from .20 cents to up to .60 cents per name. Oh and by the way this same information that can be sold to another company by the people who bought them in the first place. If you make them mad the agent can recycle your name back into the system. B9 is the code for DNC (Do Not Call List) on their system but unfortunately many times it is not used b/c they want to get back at you. The only way to get these people off your phone is by sending them a "certified" (keyword) CEASE and DESIST letter to their corporate address. Donald Booth is their lawyer and the letter should be addressed to him. When they call again ask them for their FULL name and let them know they need to code your phone call as a B9, Do Not Call, after you hang up with them. Hope this helps.

Expedia does not sell or give personal information out to 3rd parties. You might check other resources, such as restaurants, stores, etc. -J

I just got a call from a Marisol Smiley at Travel Agents Direct. She offered me the same offers you see previously-free airline vouchers nationally or internationally due to a recent trip I took to Las Vegas. Her customer id is 139 (like that means anything). She'll ask you a password like place of birth and your bank name. Many software systems allow you to get a routing# in 2 seconds. Then she'll ask you to verify your account# to make sure it's active. There's where I brought up the "Rip Off Report" site and advised her ahe has more complaints than i have ex girlfriends! I asked for her email address to prove it-turned out to be bogus! Surprise! Stay away from answering to 727-683-1112/1113/1114 etc. They use a trunk line. My only source of her knowing about my vaca was Expedia.com I booked my reservation using a debit card and they apparently sold it to the scam artists. I dount my bank turned me over.