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I can't understand how the law allows this kind of business to exist with the body of complaints that are out there. I just spent 90 minutes listening to some guy go on about how spending 9-10K+ for vacation membership was "putting money in my pocket". (He said that at least 5 times) I knew it was all a joke, just do the math -- you'd have to take 5 BIG trips a year to "break even". but when they try to get your guard down by asking what you do and then they say, "my wife is a nurse" that is all part of the reeling in. The want to make you vunerable, playing on your hopes, dreams, wishes and sense of guilt. "It cost me $500 for you to sit here..."
My 23 year old son and I, however, shut them up pretty good and left them to say nothing to us. First, the guy asks my son who probably looks more like an easier mark, "What are your travel plans? My son kind of smiles and replies, "Well, I have a different type of travel plans" The guy then asks my son what he
does, (me, to myself... this will be good, ha, ha) My son answers he's in the army to which I add, "Yeah, he enlisted when he was 17" And the guy says, "Me too!" (Sure, sure, buddy!) The guy is slick, "I was in the Marines" so I ask him, "Really? Did you go to Iraq the first time?" Now he's sweatin' "Well, no, I was on an island". My son rescues him and says, "Where, Barain? I was just in Jordan." and I look at the guy and say, "yeah, Do you have any five star hotels in Bagdad? Needless to say, we get jettisoned out to recieve our "free" plan tickets. Of course we got the same form all of you got and when you see "send
money order or chasiers check only" it automatically should raise suspicion. In retrospect, I should have known; there wasn't even a website on the promotional coupon I received in the mail (a good question to ask when they say, "Any questions?) I
could have saved myself the grief by googling this before I went but I did get to share a good chuckle with my son and we had quality time in the car.
In the end, YOU decide how you are going to spend your money and nobody else. There is no way you "save money" or have "extra money in your pocket" if at every turn, they are asking you to shell it out. It's a complete scam.
These guys are scam artists, when i asked them the question" what kind of guarantee that the company will be around in 5 to 10 years" the look on the faces of these clowns was worth a million bucks. When they asked me to write my offer, i wrote $99.00 and the guys was insulted, i was laughing my ### off. Do yourself a favor and stay away, felt sorry for 2 senior couples who signed on for 10K, but obviously they didnt pay attention in high school, when the teachers would say " if it sounds to good to be true, its probably is"
My wife and I attended a 90 minute presentation selling Vacation Discount yadda yadda as many of you have. Now we are at home going over our "Free" 7night/8 Day night cruise and flights with VIP. Going over the "Fine Print" is CRAZY! We did the math, and starting today 8/6/2011, if we were to mail in our money today, and assume they receive and process, and return to us the "vacation Planning form" in two weeks (8/20/11)... Terms state Cruise must be taken "low season" which is Sept - December. You have to book 90 days in advance, so the soonest cruise would be Mid to late October, THEN: you must request a 2nd date +45 days later, which is mid December - - HOWEVER, Addition charges will apply 7 days either side of Fed or State Holidays - - so, Columbus Day 10/10 and Thanksgiving 11/14 and of course Xmas to work around. As well: VIP does not guarantee that you will get booked on any particular vessel, as they have limited allocations on each ship. And they can change any terms and conditions without notice. Plus you must use the voucher within 1 year of issue - but, you can only use it Sept - December without additional undisclosed charges. It states NOT to make plans before VIP confirms your cruise - and they will not to that until within 30 of departure. So - it isn't FREE, and it is very likely NOT going to work out for most people's schedule. In addition, the plane tickets may not work with the cruise times. I am amazed that people like VIP, TSU, and IVS, can live with themselves, and then try to pretend that they really think it is ok. SCAM ... the terms seem to be intentionally difficult. I am hoping to know in advance of another such presentation ... I am going to take copies of the "Free Cruise" voucher to the participants while they are waiting, an let them read before they get scammed further, perhaps for thousands of $$$. We even considered purchasing the actual travel package ... thankfully we took a breath and backed out.
I'm embarrassed that I got SCAMMED by these people. They are liars, deceivers, and just basically crooks. I wish there was a way to warn people BEFOREHAND. The problem is that we are all thinking that we will get a free cruise out of the presentation, and they make it so that if you don't follow every rule at great inconvenience (cashier check or money order and by certified mail) they then void your air/cruise after you have already sat through the seminar in which they lie through their teeth about how few people complain. Get the word out about this crooked company!
We had visited a place for discount vacations. Got the voucher and sent it in with our money order, our two dates, dancing around the holidays and so on. We had sent our voucher in several months ahead of time and gave them plenty of time to get tickets for us. We wanted to go in November to be with a grand daughter on her birthday. We also had a date in January in case they couldn't get the ones in November. When I had called asking about the tickets for November, a man told me that they were just starting on them. It was around Sept. or October then. That should have been done when they got our vouchers so they could look for decent priced tickets. The info said they would let us know about 30 days in advance about our tickets. Not that they would start looking then. That is too late for anybody to save for the tickets, it is too late to change dates in case the first ones didn't work out. They also couldn't get the second date we mentioned. We got a letter telling us they couldn't get the tickets in the time we requested. (My voucher was to expire the end of January.) With all the holidays in November and December and having to be a week before or after. It was very difficult to pin down a date before the voucher expired. Had they gotten my tickets as we requested, there would be no problem. NOW... The letter they sent me after they couldn't get us tickets for Nov. or Jan. said to pick another date and mentioned if we got some place closesr to us, it would be easier to get tickets.(Even though it said fly "anywhere." ) So we picked a place that was too far to drive but close enough to fly so we would get the tickets. I picked the end of July, to go see a friend I haven't seen in years. There isn't a holiday that I am aware of then. I just got a letter back telling me that they couldn't get the tickets because of a breach in terms of my voucher. Well it isn't my fault they wait until the last minutes to look for tickets for us. That ran me out of time to make other plans, different dates, save up money to go, etc. We counted on those "free" plane tickets three times now. I know for a fact, because I check plane tickets all the time on the net, that they could have gotten some for Phoenix, AZ for our November trip for around 240 a piece. That is about as cheap as you can get. That was several months before we were to leave. The letter I received didn't say anything about an expiration date on it because they couldn't get the tickets for me the first time. That is when I sent the July request. Now they are telling me it's expired. The letter I have in my hand says unable to process my reservations due to a breach and conditions of the travel voucher. (which at the bottom said the breach is: my voucher is now expired.) But... at the top says Unfortunately I do not have enough time to give the required notice before my travel voucher expires. Which tells me it isn't expired yet. ? If my letter from the first request telling me they couldn't get the tickets told me to request another date and I did, my voucher was still good. It also tells me they should have been getting my tickets way before the month I was to travel the first time so I could make other arrangements. I jumped through all the hoops and would like my tickets. This has caused me a lot of stress and it shouldn't have. It wasn't just a vacation I was looking for, it is trips to visit people we love and haven't seen in a long time. It ruins a lot of plans not just for me but for several people. I will never go through this again. It seems to be bad business.
VIP Travel Reservation is totally built to rip you off. I got two certificates after a time share presentation for free flights and a free rental car. You send in the certificates with $125.00 deposit and the dates you want to travel. But guess what, no matter what dates you pick, there is never any availability. After 18 months of back and forth the certificates expire (not sure where it even stated that) and VIP keeps your deposit.I just got off the phone with them and they were completely dismissive saying that's just how it works. So they kept my deposit. So instead of being rewarded to attend a long winded time share
presentation, I got ripped off.
I am not going to any more time share presentations again that's for sure. And VIP is a terrible terrible company.