Teresa of Northbrook, IL on Dec. 3, 2009
I was contacted by a marketing company, Network Marketing on behalf of a travel promotion company, United Travel Network who was doing business as Global Travel. The promotion was by a company listed as ITC. The deception began from moment one when I was contacted at home, despite being on the do-not-call list, and told they got my contact because I filled out some promotion form at a mall. I was informed that I had won a free gift - one of 4 prizes, a Cruise to the Bahamas, a 32 Flat Screen TV, a Lincoln Navigator, or cash for $2500. All I had to do to get this was sit through a 90 minute Travel Club presentation offered by Global Discovery Vacation. The combination of slick salesmanship, high-pressure sales tactics, and a whole slew of lies later, I purchased this Time Share like membership for $699 (which does not include any physical property). My payment would be $164 per month for the next 5 years at 19.99 percent Interest with PCS Financial. I was told that if I was dissatisfied with the membership, I could resell the membership to United or just stop making the credit card payments altogether.
I had won the cruise to the Bahamas and walked away with two other gifts for signing up that day; A $1000 shopping spree & 6 Days at Daytona/Orlando. I was given a certificate with Millennium Travel, a FL based company, and told to contact them to collect my gifts. First, the fine print on the certificate mentioned that there would be a $140 processing fee per person which we had to send in within 6 months. Also, I was told that I could only use one gift every 6 months, thereby disqualifying my second, Daytona Trip. I sent in the $280 for the two of us for the cruise and after several months, I got a letter back from Millennium stating that to get the tickets for the cruise, I would have to send in the payment for additional charges:
Courier fee: $20
Processing Fee: $30
Surcharge-Cruise: $66
Fuel Surcharge: $56
Hotel (Optional): $140
Also, the cruise would have to be scheduled for a Monday travel date. I checked online on Expedia for the cost of a main cabin cruise for the weekend & they were listed at $144 per person. So my free gift that I had won ended up costing me $592 for two (worth $288 if I had booked online). I refused to pay the second round of charges and asked Millennium for a refund of the $280. Two months later, I received my money back minus a $14 processing fee for the privilege of holding my $280 for two months. Besides giving us the run around every step of the way, Millenniums customer service was so rude, I ended up complaining to the BBB.
I contacted Network Marketing to let them know about their free gift scam & they told me that they were only the marketing company and this was really Uniteds problem. Millennium gave me a similar story as well. In the meantime, I had tried to book a vacation through Global Discovery and was never able to book to the destinations that I wanted. I strongly believe that either United and/or Global Discovery have grossly misrepresented availability. I have also seen several blogs complaining about all of the above entities. One disgruntled traveler even complained that the beachfront property that they had booked turned out to be three blocks from the beach.
Twice this year, I contacted United to apprise them of the situation. I tried to get assistance to resell the membership, but have not had any success. In May of this year, I was told by their VP that he would get back to me in a week. Two additional calls and five months later, I still have not heard from them. Not only am I am stuck with a membership that is not what it was promised to be, but also, every company involved with the transaction has made money off me:
Network Marketing Commissions on the sale
PCS Financial 19.99% interest on my financing
Millennium Travel - $14 plus getting off the hook on the cruise (that they probably pay pennies on the dollar for anyway)
ITC, Global Travel, United Network Marketing, Global Discoveries - $6,900!
