CheapTrips.com review: Cheap Trips is a Scam! 47

You're not the only idiot. Not only did I buy a membership, I also fell for the misrepresented 'Vacation Club' package. I on the other hand cannot reach them by phone because they're toll free numbers are not available in my area (Canada), which makes it impossible for me to book they're services by phone.

Following is they're refund policy...

"30 Day No Questions Asked Refund Policy: CheapTrips is a membership travel organization. You have 30 days from enrollment to request a refund for all services purchased. If for any reason, you are not satisfied within 30 days of enrolling, simply return all of your membership materials along with a letter of cancellation via return-receipt certified mail, referencing your International Membership ID number, and stating the reason you wish to cancel to: ACA/CheapTrips, PO Box 2036, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034. A refund will not be issued until all materials are returned. Absolutely no refund can be given after 30 days from the date of enrollment."

The last line is the killer --- as they take so long to get you you're package that it is impossible to return the materials back to them in time even by return-receipt certified mail.

SINCE MAY/JUNE 2006, I am still waiting on my refund as of yesterday. Also Cheap Trips/ THIEVES, double charged my credit card. I reported this information to my credit card company, they will do all the investigation and proper actions will be taken... What's in your wallet? Also, never received membership package. They ripped me off, and took little over three hundred dollars and it makes me angry that Americans steal, abuse, and dishonesty from each other... Which makes it sad to be proud of your "freedom" country... Where everything is free including your identity.

SAD: STEALING, ABUSING, DISHONESTY. I guess this our country's new logo replacing: BASEBALL, HOTDOGS, APPLE PIE...

Cheap Trip Victim,
L.Spears

CHEAPTRICK!

CHEAPTRIP.COM = EXPEDIA.COM

CHEAPTRIP.COM change all the time the name of the "company",beware everybody! CHEAPTRIP.COM is in Sun Valley, Idaho and you can try to talk with the office manager of this "business". [protected],726-2212.

I've been waiting for my package. No sign as of yet. Judging from the comments it is a long time coming. I feel so duped! I can't find info. on how to reach them at this point. Anyone have a phone number?

I could go on and on; but, I would only be repeating what has already been said. I will say though that I tried to reply to one of their e-mails titled Top Travel Deals. My e-mail was returned indicating "all relevant MX records point to non-existent hosts". Shame on me for not doing my research prior to joining this bogus "organization".

If you google this name it is also associated with another "[redacted]" issue. Her family must be proud...

Does one have to have a graduate degree from a institute of higher learning in order to gain employment @ Cheaptrips.com? Her mother must be a gem.

Cheaptrips= Cheaptricks
CHEAPTRIPS.COM IS A SCAM, A FRAUD!
Cheaptrips location is in Sun Valley area in Idaho (p.o box 4500 Sun Valley 83353), but they are moving back to New Jersey, and change the name of the company, like this is easy to scam more persons.

If you need your refund call [protected] maybe you can.That is the manager person of the "business". BEWARE! THEY GOING BACKTO N.J.

I regret that i hadn't checked the internet for scam reports. I was solicited by phone and given all these numbers etc and i did call the next day and cancel but to date I haven't received a packet in the mail to mail back. It has been about a week. I have learned not to do any transactions by phone especially if i am solicited. Well lesson learned. I any one have any information or phone numbers I can call and try to get my money back or addresses where I can write etc. I would appreciate you passing it on.

Thanks

I wish I would have done more research about Cheap Trips before I agreed to purchase a membership. I have been doing research online trying to find a good deal on airline tickets for my family and me to take a summer vacation, I am always giving out my e-mail & possibly a cell # the next day I began to recieve phone calls, 5-7 calls a day some within minutes apart, Cheap trips is very persistant, for about a week, I finally took one of their calls quite late at night 9pm, spoke with someone named Drue, he offered me 4 free airline tickets, told me i would save 70- 80% on airlines, cruises, hotels, we like to vacation, it sounded like a great deal, He promised if i was not completely satisfied i could cancel within 30 days. The next morning I decided to access the website to find out this is a fraud, I immediately called the company to cancel, also notified my credit card co. Charges already went through so I reported it as a fraudulant charge, I hope I get my money back.

I am actually a telemarketer FOR cheap trips. And I work with Drew. DREW. D- R- E- W. For those coming across this page for the first time, please note that all of these people who felt like they have been scammed, are not spelling anything correctly, and might be too dumb to jump through a few frickin' hoops to get where they WANT to go.. FOR FREE. Of course, it's free. The way the tickets work: You put down a fifty dollar refundable deposit on the tickets, so that if you don't hold up your end of the deal, and confirm your reservation at the hotel, (which no matter how many times I tell the people who buy it about this function, they always call back and complain..) In other words, they are just not getting it. In other words, a smart buyer would realize first of all that cheap trips only takes the four major credit cards BECAUSE of their buyer's protection. Double charges are usually an accident, on behalf of the ### telemarketer, not because we wanted to charge you twice, in fact, the computer system we work on, will not allow it. Even for another product. "this card has already been used to buy a product from this location today" is what is says when I had done it once trying to upgrade a person in the same day. Any time a person thinks it's a scam is usually because the telemarketer did not represent our services properly, usually because they're new. (or they're drew) And I don't think cheap trips can be blamed for it. (customer service #: [protected] )

I have tried to call your 1-800 number and have got no response. My question is how in the world can a company that sales airline tickets and hotel reservations be closed? So if is not a scam then why can't I login with the password and user ID that you gave me, also I have tried to reach you by phone repeatly and a recording comes on and said no one is available at this time. This is no way to run a company, therefore I am lodging a complaint against your company, because you are stealing people's hard earned money and you should be put under the jail house.

I'm just curious as to why a Telemarketer is attempting to reinforce the integrity of a company who bills itself as "Cheaptrips"? Back to school you go & I would bet a dollar you might find your life a tad-bit more enjoyable making more than 50, 000 a year. Loser

Call JOHN FERRY his phone number is [protected] or Tiona Chistensen the lady than lie all the time, they are stealing people's money, they should be behind bars!

I've been a member of cheaptrips.com for a few years, and I've never had a problem with their services. Getting through on their customer service line is easy depending on what time of day you're calling (I alway call before noon EST) and not one person at that company mislead me on explaining how to use certain features. In addition, they were nice enough to send me a new certificate for the 4 Free Tickets deal even though I didn't use it when I was suppoosed to.

They claimed that I would receive a $100 gas card and free hotel stays. No gas card came and the free hotel stays had underlying charges that were more expensive than the hotel nights themselves. FALSE CLAIMS

My complaint with cheaptrips is this, for over a week I have received numerous phone calls asking for someone named Cherise. After the first couple of calls I politely told the man on the phone he had the wrong number, AGAIN, and I wanted to stop receiving calls for this unknown Cherise. He assured me my number would be removed from his list.

I thought it must be a credit company trying to hound this woman. I also thought that would be the end of it.

However the number of calls has increased. I tell every caller they have the wrong number. I don't know Cherise. She cannot be reached at my number.

Earlier today I got another call, this time identifying the caller as being from CheapTrip. I didn't even bother to speak, just hung up.

A few minutes ago the phone rang again and a man again asked for Cherise. I asked him who he represented and he said CheapTrip. I explained that I had been receiving calls for this Cherise person for at least a week and I was tired of it. I wanted them to stop calling my number.

The man then proceeded to argue with me that I was wrong, that it must be someone else who has been calling for Cherise, and that CheapTrip had never called my number. As though Cherise is such a common name that he and ALL the other callers, unconnected with Cheaptrip according to him, had coincidentally called MY number looking for someone with her name. Yea, right.

What I want to do now is to contact someone in their corporate office, if there is such a thing, so that I can register a complaint about this particular salesman. You don't call total strangers and then accuse them of lying because they ask you not to call their number again. I'm fed up with trying to be polite with these people. I want to know how to get my number off their stupid list AND who I can complain to about this .

Can anyone help me with the current address/phone number. Or better yet is there an agency that handles consumer complaints like this?

Thanks.

report them to fcc. they should follow do not call laws

I was called & agreed to get the package. Two days later I called to cancel the package & they said it was already sent. I told them that I needed the money for medical reasons. They told me when the package came, do not open & send it back to them. I would get the refund within a month. The supervisor told me just today, I did not qualify for refund because aI did not send them a letter. How can I get my $75.95 back. They sure are a ripoff.

These people are crooks!

Contact the Attorney General in the county where Cheaptrips is located: Their address: Camden County Department of Health & Human Services, Consumer Protection/Weights & Measures, Jefferson House, Lakeland Road, PO Box 9, Blackwood NJ [protected]. Instructions from their website on submitting a complaint: http://www.co.camden.nj.us/health/healthserv/instructions.html It sucks that they are still in business scamming people - I was pissed at the time. It took me 8months to get my money back. Nothing happened until I contacted the agency above. Whatever they did, it worked. You also have the option of contacting your credit card company and claiming it as a fraudulent charge - you didn't get what you paid for. It was too late for me by the time I contacted my credit card - I believe it was past 6 months. Maybe if enough people claim the charges as fraudulent, the credit card companies will stop accepting the charges from Cheaptrips...

I just got a call from cheaptrips, I knew the deals he offeres were to good to be true. I told him to call back in 15-30 min. Then I research the company. I sure was glad for all the info I found on this scamming company.

Hey, I started to do research when they told me that my wife had filled out a survey and that she qualified for the platinum membership. The platinum membership included a one time $99.00 fee, and 4 free roundtrip tickets to wherever. My research then brought me to this website, so i'm glad I said I would call them back instead of saying yes lol. It is weird, because I called [protected], which is a toll free call to find 800 numbers, and they said that cheaptrips.com had no toll free listings. THE PHONE # HE(Brandon) GAVE ME WAS [protected] and told me that his rep. # was 1172. I called it back, they answered by saying, "Hello cheaptrips.com" which is weird that they don't have a listing on their page or when I called that 555-1212 number. Hope this helps someone out like it did with me. Thanks for all of your previous postings.

INSIDE SCOOP FROM A RELIABLE SOURCE

- They have a few different offices... one call center in Cherry Hill, an office in Denver, an Office in Sun Valley Idaho.. and a couple others. The Cherry Hill and Sun Valley offices are legit with addresses.

- The company isn't technically 100% a scam. But you're essentially paying a membership fee to use a Travelocity booking engine.

- They make their money by setting up impossible refund policy and deny refunding peoples money through technicalities they have set up in small print contracts with their lawyers.

- Whatever the salesman sold you on the phone... be very doubtful of receiving it. So the 4 free plane tickets, 85% off airfares, etc... whatever it is... not going to happen. Read the fine print... you might get a free ticket... after jumping through hoops in back and forth mail, but now in order to be eligible you're booking a room that's twice the cost.

- They are using an affiliate portal search engine made by travelocity.com. So any prices you get as a "member" when logged into an account at Cheaptrips are the exact same prices you'd receive from Travelocity.

- They get A LOT of people requesting their money back because their services aren't legit.. so they can only refund so much money at a time to keep under the radar.

Regarding the comment from a telemarketing employee above, regardless of if people responses have typos or not its no judge of their character. I've seen this company scam thousands and its horrible. Even if there are technicalities that lawyers carefully set in place regarding if your eligibility of a refund... its FALSE ADVERTISING at its best.

Some of their travel discounts are for real - like the international fares. They had great rates for those. They also offered a $100 off your first airline ticket, if you jump through their hoops. And they offer a free membership to car rental companies high tier frequent renter clubs that usually costs something like $50. And the free hotel for a weekend freebie is not bad. They also offer free tickets, but I think you had to travel on a date and time of their choice - so it was hard for people to take advantage of that. Other than that, they do direct you to a regular booking site that you can access by yourself.

They do not refund money unless you complain to the attorney general's office. Better Business Bureau does you no good whatsoever. The other way to get yourself a quick refund is to call your credit card company and tell them you want your money back due to the company not honoring their cancellation policy. CheapTrips gets charged some amazingly high amount of money for each person who gets their money back from the credit card company. And they can get in big trouble from the attorney general's office. So, they will refund rather than wait and pay or get in trouble. Other than that, I think the policy is that unless you do one of the above, you will not get a refund. They try to avoid the attorney general's office in Idaho especially.

I looked at their site today and it seems to have gone away - maybe they finally went out of business. I'm sure, though, that the owner will just start another scam company.

I paid a $50 membership fee to cheaptrips and was able to book a multicity international flight, from NYC to Belize City To San Jose, Costa Rica to LAX to Phoenix for $435, half the price of anything on Expedia or Orbitz. Although everything about it seemed like a scam, I never had any false charge and I definitely saved a lot of money.
This was almost 3 years ago. I just received a call in the past month telling me that my membership which I paid for was a lifetime memebrship. No complaints here!

I was contacted by drew who misrepresented an airfare package. when it arrived I immediatly canceled and returned all the material along with a letter within the first week. No refund was ever sent. I call and have been told by at least 6 different people that the refund will be sent in the next two weeks. Even if you do everything right you will still not get the refund. They also put me into a credit watch program without my knowledge and started charging my credit card. fortunately I was able to get the credit card company to reverse the charges and I changed the number on my card. This very unethical company should be shut down.

Just got a lovely call from an aggressive telemarketer with CheapTrips. Beware, they are back to their old tricks again. This time they are offering 2 roundtrip airfare tickets for $139, plus $100 gas card. I would have probably fallen for it had the telemarkter not been such an aggressive jerk.

First let me say, I am sorry that people like this get away with what they do.
I just got off the phone with them. I knew it was a scam as soon as they started talking. It's a Saturday I had nothing to do so I decided to waist their time. I kept my interest very high. I had them go through the details again and again. I told them I would sign up but why did they need my C.C.#? They could just deduct the fee from the "$100 FREE GAS CARD" they were sending, or better yet I didn't need the gas card so just use the whole thing toward my membership. I kept him on the phone for over 40 min. I had him transfer me to someone else and then transfer back to him. I told him how nice he was but I just wasn't sure about giving out my CC# to someone.
All the while I was sitting at my computer looking this stuff up. I kept saying to him how do I know I can trust you? "Would you trust me?" I mean what if I asked you for your name and CC info, wouldn't you be suspicious? He said "No not at all because that is how safe it is to use a CC". I said well... OK I'll do it I'll sign up if you give me your name and CC# first. And then just to prove he was on the level HE DID! He gave me all of his info.
After he did I said " you idiot I am looking at page after page of SCAM information about your company the whole time we were talking. So you know what I did? I went and signed him up for a cheap trips.com membership.
How do I know it was him you ask? Well while I still had him on the phone I put him on hold and called back from my other phone and asked for him by name. They put me through and it was him so I just hung up and went back to talking to him.
OH it feels so GOOD!

The best thing is to try to CANCEL YOUR CREDIT CARD as soon as possible. I called them back after looking at all the scam warnings on cheaptrips.com and told them I was ready to pay. They asked for my name, address and as soon as they said "how will be paying", I asked to see the TERMS OF THE AGREEMENT. I asked what am I paying for. They said that the $99 was just for shipping and handling. When I asked some more questions, then it changed to only $9.90 of it was for shipping and handling. So my real cost was $109.90. So then I asked again for the TERMS OF THE AGREEMENT for the $99 membership. (there is a dollar missing somewhere) I asked her to show me on the website. I had to type in some other website, that had cheaptrips in the name. She told me go to the VIP log in. I asked where does it say what a VIP is? When I asked her to tell me the terms of agreement, she didn't mention the four free flights, until I mentioned it. She listed guaranteed flights, but would only refund my money if I bought a more expensive one, plus 10%. WHAT?

SCAM! SCAM! SCAM! I thank you guys for all of your comments/complaints on this company. I was contacted by a representative several times stating that I could receive 4 free airline tickets and $100 gas voucher just for trying their services for thirty days. I was then told even if I decided to cancel I could still keep the airline tickets and gasoline voucher. If I decided to keep it, the membership would only cost me three payments of $49.95. I don't know if you can tell or not but by looking at my email address, I'm a loan officer so I've been trained to not only read contracts but decipher through the bull. ACA rep Mr. Kem Williams gave me a telephone number for him and while I had him on my cell I dialed the number from my home telephone, I only heard music initially and was disconnected. When I mentioned to him that I tried to call and what I heard, I took it upon myself to call back then I received his voice mail. I asked him for the actual name of their company and was told it's ACA Cheap Trips and their corporate office is in Richmond, VA. I informed him that I wanted to research their company with the Better Business Bureau and asked for a telephone number other than the 800 they give. He said the 800 number was the only number they're authorized to give. I went back in my phone records and saw that he called from a (619) area code. When I looked at the BBB website, this company didn't come up at all. In my opinion they're not a member or operate under a different name. Remember, if a business has been reported to the BBB that doesn't mean they're a bad company to work with. You have to take into consideration the business, nature of the complaint and how it was dealt with. As we all know, when dealing with people they can be fickled and difficult to deal with. Many times, clients expect something for nothing. I thank you once again for your complaint board because I haven't seen one good thing about this company.

This company solicited me by phone and charged my credit card nearly $200. I returned the paperwork that they sent (so-called 'free tickets', etc.) back to them. This request was made by them by telephone. They have yet (4 months later) to refund my money.

One more Vitim of the Cheap trips.com for a amount of $113.95, Only thing i don't understand is how is Cheap trip.com still in the market .Making calls .There should be some way to close them down .. I will try my to do that.starting with there web site ...i am working on in!

On or about October 22, 2008 I was promised several things when I agreed to purchase my Cheaptrips package. Two days later I found several charges on my credit card which I did not authorize. When I contacted them I was told the charges came from additional purchased through Cheaptrips. I cannot understand why Cheaptrips gave my credit card number to other companies. Thirteen days later I called Lisa, the girl who sold me the package, and I cancelled it. I never received my money back so I called again on Nov. 12, 2008 and a man promised me several things if I would keep the package. I bit for the pitch but never got nothing but promises. I could not make a reservation or get anything from my package. Then on Dec. 22, 2008 I called again and said I wanted to cancel the program again. I was told I could not get my money back because I waited over 30 days. I told them I could not get and assistance for anything and I was not interested in the program. However, I got no refund. On Feb. 23, 2009 I tried to make a reservation but was put on hold for several minutes and then disconected. I finally called back and got ahold of
some guy who could not help me so he transferred me to his supervisor
but I got disconected again. I called back again and asked for a supervisor. After 20 minuted I finally got a supervisor and he talked to me for over 20 minutes and kept explaining why I could not get my money back and why I was not getting any service becauise I was not doing this or that. I was also told there would be additional charges
for anything I do. I called back on Feb. 24, 2009 and got put on hold for several minutes. I called back again and was given a different number which was disconected. Another call back and I was given another number and there I was told all the supervisors were in a meeting. I am tired of this scam and think all of us have to get together and start doing some major complaining to someplace other than Cheaptrips since they are not going to do anything. If anyone has anything going I will help. My E-mail address is: themarshal1945@yahoo.com

I was scamed too. cant we do something? they promissed me 4 round trip tickets. when i got the package they are no good. i have to use their condos for 2ooo a week to use the ticket. then i called to compain they came right out and siad they are scamers and that its my fault that i fell for it. when i said that i was going to the BBB they laughed and said go ahead. i feel like i should be doing more to stop this behavoir i just dont know what i should do. i did report it to the BBB.

i too bought the whole package, my fualt for doing so. i travel alot so i thought i could benefit from it somehow, somewhere down the line. well its been a couple of years now and i have not once used there services, because i have always found it cheaper elsewhere and believe me i say i shop around alot. i am always making sure what i have paid is the best out there with all that is available online these days. so now i am looking at traveling this year and i wanted to login to my account and my password and id dont work and there page isnt coming up and i have tried calling all day today (3-3-09) and i cannot get a hold of this compnay. has a mailbox number and to please leave a message, WTF...this company should have enough people to answer the damn phones, we all have paid them enough damn money...oh and they are also calling me wanting more money for a new package that is out, well they can take there new and improved package and kiss my A**

I work at a call center and had this older lady call in today for this company. Asking about her package and when it would arrive. I apologized said I wasn't familiar with that company name of Cheap Trips. She did read off the number they had given her to call. Which happened to be one we use for our sites. I apologized and said it wasn't us, but it seems like they did give you our number. I ended up looking it up after we were done speaking and i found this. I felt horrible for the lady. I mentioned if she thought it was a scam (she brought up that idea) that she contact her bank or Credit Card company in order to see if they could help. I certainly hope she gets a hold of someone to help her.

I called Cheaptrips on October 22, 2008 and spoke with Lisa (#1755).
She sold me the package for $59.00 and I thought I made a great deal.
A few days later I found my credit card charged with $73.95, plus there were two other charges from other companies. I contacted both of those companies and they told me that they got my credit card number and information from Cheaptrips. I cancelled both of those memberships and complained about Cheaptrips giving out my personal information.
I called Cheaptrips on November 4th. and got ahold of Lisa and complained about the problem and told her to cancell my account and return my money since it had only been 13 days and they had a 30 day money back policy. Se said she would take cancel my account and my money would be returned within 30 days then she apologized for the problems with the other accounts. I asked why it took them 5 minutes to take the money off my credit card but took 30 days to return it? Again she apologized and said that was policy.
I called Cheaptrips again on November 12th. and some man gave me a hard sale and promised me a lot of things if I would re-condsider
and keep the program. I told him I would re-purchase the program if they would do what he said and would not pass my information along to other companies. He promised to do so and gave me more gifts.
On November 22, 2008 I called and asked about a trip using my package. I had all kind of problems getting ahold of the right person. I had to make four different calls and waited on hold for 20-30 minutes each time. When I finally got ahold of the right person she gave me a price of $595.00 per person ($1190.00 for two). I had already called the airlines and hotel and had a price for $650.00 for two. I asked why the high rate and she said that was for last minute reservations but that was actually for 3 weeks away.
I again called back on cancelled my package again but was told I waited too long. I was transferred to seversal people but had no results. The supervisor would not take my call even though I waited for 30 minutes twice on two different occasions.
On December 22, 2008 I called again and after several calls and long waits I got ahold of a supervisor. He told me I waited too long and now I was stuck with the package even if I do not use it. He told me the cancellation with Lisa was no good because she did not have authority to make the cancellation. She never told me anything like that. It wasa just an excuese not to cancell my account.
On Feburary 23, 2009 I call Cheaptrips again and finally got ahold of another supervisor - Chris. He gave me the same story and told me there was nothing he was going to do about returning my money. He was very rude and kept telling me the same thing over and over. Then he said had other people to talk to said goodbye and hung up.
I called again on March 23, 2008 and finally got ahold of a supervisor who gave me the same story. He said I was not going to get my money back so I might as well quit calling them. He said I could file all the complaints and go on-line if I wanted to. He said if would do no good because several other people had make the same complaints. Then I found out it was the same Chris.
I have heard complaints to Camden County Dept. of Health & Human Services, Blackwood, N.J. have helped other people but I have not been able to get on their web-site. I have contacted my credit card company and they said they would send me a complaint form.
I am very upset by their actions and their supervisors need to be commended for learning to snow job people the way they do.
Stay away from this company unless you have a lot of money to throw away and want to go through a lot of hard times.
Lied to and cheated

I paid the $99.00 for a Lifetime Membership and that is the only disappointment I have suffered because the company no longer exists otherwise when I used them in November of 2007 I got a great rate and they handled my tickets and all other flight problems with professionalism so complain all you want I would also guess that your probably the kind that create their own problems when you actually buy the tickets at the airport never satified with things the way they are.

I think you are all stupid for believing the BS that they tell you..Have some more common sense..If you pay $100.00 for something and they are promising you a $100.00 gas card PLUS sume Free Airline tickets? come on now...BE SMART