Imogene
Chicago,#2Consumer Comment
Sun, June 27, 2004
My suggestion is to go ahead and take the trip. The trip itself was not a rip-off and if you read the fine print in the confirmation letter, it says that it is for the purpose of selling timeshares. The hotel, this travel agency and the timeshare owner are all in this together, which isn't necessarily bad. Everybody has to make money. They give you this ridiculously low price so to introduce you to timeshares and also to book you at hotels in locations that you would never consider otherwise. The hotel we stayed at is the Amerihost, which you can look up online. The rooms need to be renovated and by the first day I was disappointed and promptly wrote out my comment card. However, by the last day, my whole family, including myself were glad we came. The buffet dinner and breakfast and the indoor and outdoor pools and the whirlpool/sauna were pluses for my family. It was close to a lot of attractions and even the shop inside was reasonable. They found and returned some prescription glasses that my husband had misplaced for two days and had courteous helpful staff. Yes, we did have to sit through a sales pitch, said no, but we did get our Universal Studios tickets without a hassle, checked out and only had to pay for hotel taxes and were informed that we would be able to get the rest of the package with no hassle. The hardest part was sitting through the timeshare sales presentation for 5 hours but my husband and I are old pros at saying no. They sell discounted tickets to Disney and Universal Studios, but I did better at [DELETED]. My suggestion is to just say no to the timeshare and enjoy yourself. If you go into the deal be sure you're not just suffering from "buyer's remorse". By the way, they are now under the name Take a Break Travel, 6400 N. Andrews Avenue, Suite 285, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309, 1800-316-4717, 1954-735-1189, OR Orlando Welcome Center, 3011 Maingate Lane, Kissimmee, FL 34747
Jennifer
Orlando,#3UPDATE Employee
Wed, June 18, 2003
I currently work for Vacation Showroom. I have only been there about a month but I'm already looking for another job. Talk about high pressure sales...The management sometimes yells at people to get us to sell....yea that's motivation. Today a long time employee stormed out and quit. And about that "we only have a few left" thing. They make us say that. The company monitors all the calls and if we don't follow their stupid script we lose our jobs. They pay their employees on commission only so its not like we are purposely not making any sales. Its just that nobody believes the dumb sales tactics they make us say...it's embarassing. The company is owned and run by a 24-year old boy. They are all money hungry. BUT the company is not a scam. The vacation is 4 days, 3 nights in Orlando (and 2 Disney passes); 3 days, 2 nights in Fort Lauderdale; 5 days, 4 nights in Cancun; and 3 days, 2 nights in Las Vegas. All the hotels are 3 and 4 star rated. They aren't the best but they are very nice. The whole price is $277. That's for 4 adults, or 2 adults and 3 children for all the trips. The airlines are not included. That is the whole thing and that's what the customer gets. The company accepts payment by electronic check. And thats because we have lost a ton of money because of fraudulent credit card information. What's wrong with electronic check? We don't ask for anything that isn't printed on the front of your check that you give the cashier at Wal-Mart. And we do a recorded process so that you know you are going to receive everything and you and your bank have access to that recording. We can even give you the tape number immediately after recording. We wouldn't lose our $50,000 bond with the state of Florida over $277. So anyways, the company is legit, the deal is legit. The sales tactics and the way they treat their employees are not legit. But please do us all a favor- DO NOT call if you aren't interested-you are wasting our time. I have to read that script 1000 times a day because people call who have no interest whatsoever to travel. And another thing- if you call and you hear something you don't like- ask the representative to clarify it and if you don't like it hang up. You aren't going to hurt our feelings. You are just doing us a favor. I am so sick of stupid people who call in and on top of that I deal with stupid managers. UGH. Ok I'm done rambling. I'm going to go on monster.com now and look for a new job.