In January of 2008 I attended a bridal show in Toronto Ontario. Myself and the bride to be had been filling out ballots all day to win all sorts of things – like you do at all bridal show venues. At some point during the show, a man and a woman handed us a ballot and told us we could win a free trip – we of course both filled out the ballot and away we went.

A couple of weeks later, I received a call from a very sneaky extremely rude – high pressure sales man who said he got my name from the bridal show ballot. He said “ Congratulations! You have won a free 10 night vacation to Orlando Florida! He explained about staying at the “luxurious Ramada Plaza Resort in Ft. Lauderdale".. pretty much the same story every single person on this report has mentioned – the wonderful cruise that I had a free upgraded cabin with – the passes to Disney .. all I had to do was go to a 10 minute presentation yady yady yada.

During the call I had a bad feeling about it and knew I should have hung up – but this man.. and his voice.. he almost put me in a trance and made me feel like I had no choice but to give them my CC #. I eventually caved in and did.. after I gave my CC # - the man said he had to quickly transfer me to this woman in dispatch to verify my credit card number and the sale. Once I was transferred to her – I stopped and said “can I cancel this if I do not want it". The woman on the other end simply said “ it looks like you have some additional questions before purchase – and immediately the man jumped back on the phone and said in Ontario – the law states that you have 30 days to cancel something like this. He then continued to get a little nasty and persuaded me to give them my CC #.

The second I got off the phone I thought about it, and decided to cancel it. I called my bank and spoke to a representative who already said the $600.00 charge was already applied to my card, and said I would have to wait a few days to do anything about it at the bank. He then suggested to call them right away to cancel it.

Once I called back I reached a woman who was very rude – she sounded like an older woman who had been beaten and abused, and spoke almost in monotone. She tried to up - service me on pretty much everything in the package (a better room – rental car – cabin with a view etc..) and ended up saying they could only refund 250.00 as the rest has already been given to the hotel and such. I then knew… I was screwed out of my money.

From the middle of January until the end of February – I called the 800 number they had given me.. Every single day I called and got hung up on, or transferred to someone who put me on hold for hrs and hrs (yes I waited the hrs and hrs .. only to be disconnected). I finally got someone on the phone.. who transferred me to about 5 other people.. and was hung up on once again. Once you mention you want to cancel – that's it! They take your money and they will not going to give it back! After all the hang up's I finally spoke to someone who gave me the name of someone who could help me – “Pam" When the woman gave me Pam's name – she said she wasn't in the office that day and that I would have to call back the next day. I decided to leave a voicemail for Pam.. actually I ended up leaving several voicemails for her over the span of a week. Eventually - weeks later .. I got a hold of a woman said to be “Pam" and she told me a cancellation post card would come in the mail – she also gave me a cancellation number and said it would go though no problem and I would be issued a refund.

During all of this – I had also been in contact with my bank . They told me I could also try another method. They told me to wait until I got the cruise package that the high pressure sales man from the cruise line said would come in the mail. Once I got it they told me to write on it “Return to sender – Do not want this" on it. Around the time that Pam was sending me this cancellation voucher – the package came – I paid $20.00 to have it shipped back to the ramada plaza resort – I sent it express mail to make sure they got it – and heard nothing but got a confirmation receipt stating they received the package back.

I waited and waited.. and still no refund! I had to start the process of trying to reach Pam all over again. After not being able to reach Pam – I finally spoke to a woman named Joan who said the exact same thing – You will get a post card in the mail that says it has been cancelled and your money will be refunded.

Finally at the beginning of March – I got my refund (although they still got $25.00 out of me when paying me back in Canadian funds).
When I read of all these reports – I figured I wouldn't get any money back all.. it was a lot of fighting – a lot of hang ups and a lot of cursing and swearing – the representatives at this call centre were extremely rude and said the nastiest things you could imagine.

These people should be ashamed of themselves – and I don't care who you are and how little a role you think you play working for these people. Weather you are just reading a script – or are one of those nasty scum bags trying to sell you a trip – you should be ashamed of yourselves! I truly believe what goes around comes around – and if you have to work in a place when you feel you are robbing people – and you know it – find another job! Many people who work for this company – have said they are single mothers with no money and kids to feed – well … what if it was your child came to you one day and told you they got screwed out of $600.00?? how would you feel? Or how would you feel.. if in your current situation – someone stole that kind of money from you?? And you couldn't make a rent payment or you had absolutely no money to feed your family?? .. there is no excuse for doing something like this to another human being – NO EXCUSE! People work hard for their money – and the ones you are stealing from are the ones that can't even really afford it!

I am a young woman with barely any money – and some sleazy man on a phone somehow painted a pretty picture in my head of an awesome trip – I feel sorry for those that actually go through with this trip and end up in the crappy hotel most have described with the run down tug boat they call a cruise ship.

This company changes their name but tries to sell the same type of product – they are at garden shows – bridal shows.. home décor shows – I have heard so many people who almost got scammed by them! My boyfriend also recently got a call from these people – and I told him to hang up the phone immediately – I also over the last couple of weeks (it now being the middle of November 2008) have had 2 more phone calls from a different company who started off the phone call the same way – they wont give up!

Unlike many people on this report – I got my money back – I am really sorry to whomever was not successful – and I truly hope every single person at that company gets what they deserve – 10 fold!

VeryAngry
GTA, Ontario
Canada

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