Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Sounds too good to be true

booze brothers

Recommended Posts

booze brothers

booze brothers

Posted
Posted

DH comes in with the mail. There is a post card "Complimentary 8 day cruise" Hmmm, sounds like a land deal.

 

So I call....."In celebration of our grand opening in your area, you have been selected to receive a complimentary 8 day, 7 night cruise for 2, outside cabin, leaving from any major port in the US, including NY. Plus, 2 r/t airfare leaving from or going to any major airport in the US

 

They want us to attend a 90 min. talk about travel (still sounds like a land deal LOL)

 

This is a Carnival cruise but I'm asking here because I never go to the Carnival boards.

 

Anyone get one of these post cards.

 

Bunch of hoooey????

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rozmat

rozmat

Posted
Posted
DH comes in with the mail. There is a post card "Complimentary 8 day cruise" Hmmm, sounds like a land deal.

 

So I call....."In celebration of our grand opening in your area, you have been selected to receive a complimentary 8 day, 7 night cruise for 2, outside cabin, leaving from any major port in the US, including NY. Plus, 2 r/t airfare leaving from or going to any major airport in the US

 

They want us to attend a 90 min. talk about travel (still sounds like a land deal LOL)

 

This is a Carnival cruise but I'm asking here because I never go to the Carnival boards.

 

Anyone get one of these post cards.

 

Bunch of hoooey????

 

I get similar mails all the time. Does the small print state anywhere that this is a solicitation for a time share sale, or does it say that both members of the household should attend. These would be warning statements that they want you to buy something. I think they have to disclose this information if indeed it's to promote a time share sale.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sassy12

sassy12

Posted
Posted
If it's a sure thing about the cruise, I'd be more than willing to sit through a sales pitch. I'd even tell them ahead of time that I am only interested in the free trip.

 

We "bit" on one of these promotions a year or so ago. The first timeshare presentation was ok and we were treated nicely when we declined their offer. However, the second presentation we had to sit through was an entirely different matter. After saying "No" many, many times they still were persistent - lowering their timeshare price from $27,000 down to $4,000! Finally, after sitting there for five hours we were finally "released". The kicker is that you have to sit through their _____ presentation in order to get your "freebie". I sincerely doubt we will EVER do that again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Merion_Mom

Merion_Mom

Posted
Posted
DH comes in with the mail. There is a post card "Complimentary 8 day cruise" Hmmm, sounds like a land deal.

 

So I call....."In celebration of our grand opening in your area, you have been selected to receive a complimentary 8 day, 7 night cruise for 2, outside cabin, leaving from any major port in the US, including NY. Plus, 2 r/t airfare leaving from or going to any major airport in the US

 

They want us to attend a 90 min. talk about travel (still sounds like a land deal LOL)

 

This is a Carnival cruise but I'm asking here because I never go to the Carnival boards.

 

Anyone get one of these post cards.

 

Bunch of hoooey????

 

The usual scam is to restrict the dates on which you can take your "free" cruise, and they keep moving the dates, putting you off until you give up.

 

All of this AFTER you have sat through the horrendous timeshare presentation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
thelion

thelion

Posted
Posted
We "bit" on one of these promotions a year or so ago. The first timeshare presentation was ok and we were treated nicely when we declined their offer. However, the second presentation we had to sit through was an entirely different matter. After saying "No" many, many times they still were persistent - lowering their timeshare price from $27,000 down to $4,000! Finally, after sitting there for five hours we were finally "released". The kicker is that you have to sit through their _____ presentation in order to get your "freebie". I sincerely doubt we will EVER do that again.

 

I did this in Vegas...he was a horrible salesman. After I commented on the beauty of the unmarked desert beyond the strip he said "Oh yeah, we are building over there pretty soon you'll only be able to see it from the window of our resort." :eek:

 

They started at $30,000 and after I said no many times it came down to $4,000. He said it was a steal and asked how much I spent on my vacation. I told him, honestly, my share was $104 including airfare. I know how to do Vegas ;) He had no salespitch for that because there is NO WAY he could have made offstrip vacationing for so much more seem like a good deal. I got my free cruise after many hours, plus gambling money, plus cash and show tickets. All in all it was worth about $1,000 in "freebies" and it took about 5 hours. I wouldn't do it again but it wasn't too bad a deal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Trevoli

Trevoli

Posted
Posted

I've gotten these before, and they make it so difficult to redeem your 'free' trip, that it's just not worth the hassle.

 

Also, you are usually expected to pay port charges and other government fees, so it's not truly free.

 

I would run, not walk, away.

 

This does fall into the 'if it seems too good to be true, then it is' bucket.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bothofus

Bothofus

Posted
Posted

We got one worded EXACTLY as you posted about a month ago. The "newly-opened located in our area" had been open for several years and was in our neighboring state, about a 40 minute drive away. We googled the name of the travel agency, only to find many pending lawsuits.

 

Rachel

Link to comment
Share on other sites
bethco

bethco

Posted
Posted

I "won" a cruise one time with a salesman. What it turned out to be was a boat that runs between Miami or Fort Lauderdale (don't remember which) several nights at the time share location in the Bahamas and the boat back to FL. Not bad if you want to stay in a condo in Nassau area, but with limited time, it wasn't what I wanted to do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
crookedhalo

crookedhalo

Posted
Posted

Yep, me too. Called and was informed that it wasn't a time share deal, but a vacation information seminar (can you say vacation club?:rolleyes:). And to claim my "free" cruise (you have to pay 'reservation fee', port charges, taxes etc.) all I had to do was attend the 90 minute seminar:p Said 'No thanks" and put the offer in file 13:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
twirlgirl

twirlgirl

Posted
Posted

Sounds like a Travel Club presentaion that we went to a few years ago. For big bucks you would become an outside travel agent and recieve many free perks because they are a mega agency and have many deals with consortiums. For thousands of dollars you can now book your trips through their agency and recieve all the benefits of being a real travel agent. Yes, it was more than a 90 minute presentation. No, we didn't buy into it. Agents don't get too many perks now a days. They passed out very real looking travel agent cards to some organization . Bev

Link to comment
Share on other sites
abhb

abhb

Posted
Posted

Twirlgirl-the vacation club you mention got us. We bit and lost 4 grand. They went belly up. They do this all over the country. After they get a whole bunch of people to sign up they go bankrupt. They keep opening offices using different names. Wish we had contacted the BBB before we fell for their sales pitch. We had a cruise book and when they told us how cheap it would be with them once we signed up they got us. We tried to get our money back with no luck:( Whenever I get anything like this, (phone calls or mail) it goes straight into the garbage. I am not going to get scammed again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jewopaho

jewopaho

Posted
Posted

We continue to receive the same type of "invitation" regularly. Yes, it's a "presentation" ... timeshare, vacation club ... whatever; they're all pretty much alike. By the time you get through that agonizing sales pitch, try to comply with all the restrictions on the cruise, pay the port charges, taxes and "fees" ... you get the idea. Toss it ... better yet, shred it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dickydonkin

dickydonkin

Posted
Posted
We've gotten three or four of them over the past couple of years. We toss them right away!!!!

 

Great advice!

 

Here in the UK we get stuff like that all of the time. Recently I had a phone call telling me I had won a 2 week holiday and I had to go and collect the 'prize' at a certain location.

 

As I knew this was a scam, I just played along with the caller and eventually I just asked them (as I had been so lucky:rolleyes:) to just mail me the tickets and I would gladly pay the postage.

 

The caller just hung up!

 

As advised above - straight in the trash can!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
foxesden1

foxesden1

Posted
Posted

my aunt got one a few years ago.. it was a combo cruise/hotel tour. (cruise was a ferry.. you know the type.. ) she spend a few days in Orlando, and ended up checking out of her "free hotel" because of the black mold in the room. She said the cruise, was just what i said it would be a ferry.

 

We did one a year or so ago, and we were told we would get a "free week at a timeshare" in exchange. It was through the Welk Resort. In the end, all we got was tickets to a So Cal theme park. The "free week" company never got back to us. 5 hours of HELL. :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...