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My wife and I own timeshares and received an offer to attend a "vacation club" presentation. For attending, we were to receive, through Travel Service Center/Getaway USA, a free 3 day 2 night hotel stay with airfare. In addition we were to receive a free 3, 5 or 7 day cruise on several well-known cruise lines. Skeptical we were but we decided to attend.
Stupid us signed up for the vacation club (another rip off which we won't go into now) but it cost us $4600 plus a timeshare we owned.
In any case after submitting our non-refundable $75 "activation fee" to some company in NYC (Madison 4 Corp), we received their beautiful brochure. We decided to check on our free air/hotel vacation but there were so many blackout dates that it was almost impossible to schedule a trip. So, we decided to just take the "free" cruise vacation instead.
Travel Services Center in Tampa provided us with a long list of possible cruises. We selected about 12 cruises (both 7 and 5 day). Three of the cruises were immediately denied for lack of availability (but the cruise line's website showed there was availability). For the others, in almost every case the added costs (processing fees, surcharges, etc.) that were charged by Travel Service Center exceeded the cost of the cruise had we booked directly with the cruise line. In only one instance Travel Service Center's cost was about $77 less than the cruise line (but that didn't take into account the $75 Activation fee we previously paid). All in all there truly is "No Free Lunch" and these companies continue to rip the public off. Needless to say, we are not using Travel Service Center's "Free" cruise offer! What a joke
!
There seem to be a lot of free cruise and vacation companies using the same box at a UPS store at 13014 N Dale Mabry Hwy #2, Tampa, FL 33618
Getaway USA
Prestige Travel
Cruise Deal of the Day
Sunshine Incentives
Solutions Incorporated
Getaway to Paradise
The phone number on the brochure - [protected] - isn't at all on their web site and is linked to many of the same companies.
Very fishy. I think I'll save my $50. (How can you call it a $50 refundable deposit if you'll only give $40 back? How is that legal?)
Getaway USA is a sham. They promise you summerbay resorts but never give you. They took refundable deposit of $50 and never gave back, its sane girl on the phone very glib talker. Always shows you ate at fault.
Correction- she always tries to show that you ARE at fault. She gets paid by all those refundable deposit.
I sent in a 14.95 processing fee to receive my certificate for a 2 night 3 day stay expecting to get information on the resorts that are honoring the certificate in the various locations. They advertise as 'Getaway USA'. The website is 'TravelPromotionsFAQ.com'. I received in the mail not a certificate but another registration activation form requiring a $50.00 refundable deposit. When I called the '813-569'6817' to inquire about having to send in yet another activation form and what the $50.00 deposit was for, I learned that $10.00 of the $50.00 REFUNDABLE deposit is NOT refundable but yet another processing fee. I also learned in this call that they send in your requested location/city to another 3rd party that in turns looks for an available participating hotel/resort. Meaning, that you do not know who the hotel/resort is until you've booked it. And, there is no information regarding the additional hotel/resort fees that you'll be responsible for until after booking. And, this is a promotion that the hotel/resort will want you to attend their seminar on the second day. STAY AWAY From this promotional offer. They got me for $14.95 but there is no way that I'll be sending in anymore money. Especially since they are not able to provide the participating hotels/resorts.
Had the same terrible experience with getaway USA, its a sham. Reported to BBB
I have also been a victim of this sham company, but I think that Expiria should know this and is the one who promotes and charges for these ghost vacation offers.
Yes my experience was the same, this is a complete scam. They ask for $15 cash non refundable along with a “refundable” deposit of $50. You have one year from activation to book your trip and for that entire year I kept getting the run around and the response that nothing was available. How for a year nothing being available in San Diego or Las Vegas especially 60 days ahead of time is possible makes no sense. Right before the expiration I asked for my deposit back since they don’t refund it if your trip does NOT get booked, also makes no sense so they sent me a check for $40 and not the full $50.. complete scam and was given to me for free because I “won”. Hours of frustration and $25 down the drain certainly does not feel like “winning” anything at all.