About a month ago, my husband and I had a heart to heart conversation about bills, income and expenses. We talked about clubs that the kids attend, classes that we take as a family, and summer plans. While we were discussing this, I mentioned that I'd need to determine how to pay for an airline ticket to San Diego this summer for Blogher. I also wanted to fly to Texas to visit my dad - Nik wants to go this summer and I was thinking about joining him.
About a week after this conversation, my husband told me to clear the calendar for the next day - Friday evening. Apparently, he'd received a phone call to listen to a timeshare presentation. He'd been promised two free round trip airline tickets to anywhere in the US as well as a $100 gas card. He was so, so excited to be able to help me out with this.
I was skeptical. I'm ALWAYS skeptical. But I thought about it and figured, hey, we know how to resist high pressure sales - we've been to these things before, and if I could get at least one airline ticket - well, that'd be more than I already had, yes?
Don't EVER deal with Kings Creek Plantation, Williamsburg Virginia. Parent company Grand Incentives, based out of Florida.
Ok, cool. Whatever. I'm by nature a non believer, and my husband is by nature a very big believer. So I promised to look into the stipulations while secretly knowing it was a big flop. He was sure it'd be a good way for me to get to San Diego.
Flight stipulations:
- Send in a $50 non refundable postal order per person
- Pay all federal fees, taxes, excise charges, 911 tax and any other tax that the airline charges
- Provide 3 different travel days 30 days apart
- Provide 3 different departure airports
- Provide 3 different arrival airports
- both tickets must be ordered for the two adults who had attended the presentation, and you had to send in copies of your driver's license
And if any one of these isn't completed correctly, you forfeit your money and get nothing.
Gas voucher stipulations:
- You may only file for reimbursement of gas
- You may only file for $10 at a time
- You may not file for the next $10 chunk until 30 days have passed
Because I'm the skeptical sort, I googled the crud out of both Grand Incentives and Kings Creek Plantation.
So, SCAM. Just like I thought, and it pisses me off that companies are allowed to get away with this.
Talk about setting you up for failure! You won't know the taxes/fees for the fare until you know the routing and cities for the tickets. That varies quite widely.
That is exactly why I don't do stuff like that presentation. I've done 1 at Disney but then we were handed the Disney Dollars as we walked in so I was ok with that.
Sweet that your husband tried though.
Posted by: Elizabeth | March 25, 2011 at 10:42 AM
my husband and are the EXACT same way!!! Try filling a complaint with the better business bureau; you can do that online. B/c they actually gave you NOTHING but promised a lot more.
time shares a such a damn scam
Posted by: mary | March 25, 2011 at 11:11 AM
My sister went through almost the exact same thing with Kings Creek Plantation, if not worse. They went to the seminar and were basically thrown out the door when they said they weren't interested. But they were told that the airline tickets were temporarily out and they would be contacted to receive them if they attended another seminar in the future, then they were handed a $25.00 coupon for a laptop computer in lieu of the $100 gas card they were promised. It really is disgusting that companies can get away with that stuff. It's all in the fine print.
Posted by: Jennifer | March 25, 2011 at 02:32 PM
Holy Identity theft!!!
Posted by: kyooty | March 25, 2011 at 04:13 PM
We went to a similar presentation early on in our marriage. Essentially same story, same outcome. But I got a good dinner afterwards from DH since "I told him" it was a scam. ;) It's good one of you is skeptical...better than forking over $$.
Posted by: Sabz | March 25, 2011 at 10:42 PM
boy not like when I lived in a military town near the ocean and they'd woo you in with a free rocking chair. Living in such piss poor conditions off base a free rocker was an awful nice incentive :)
Posted by: Amy | March 26, 2011 at 12:00 PM
You know what scares me about those things? I am so nervous about saying no and upsetting someone that I'm afraid I'd cave and agree to something just to please them. Even though it's just a corporation trying to rip me off.
Then again, with the cheapest option being $9, I hope I could be strong.
Anyway, at least you didn't lose anything, and maybe this is the last time your husband will try to talk you into this. I feel a little bad for him, being all excited about the tickets and then it didn't work out. It's sweet.
I made the mistake of calling a 1-800 number to activate a new credit card recently, rather than do it online, and was trapped in a 4-minute spiel about the great program I was going to be enrolled in. And then when I declined, I was given another 2-minute spiel. No, really, I don't want to pay extra to be given the same credit protection that's already given to me by law. Frustrating when I'm already a faithful customer.
Posted by: Megan | March 26, 2011 at 07:40 PM
My husband and I went through a similar thing quite a few years ago now in London. We too knew we'd resist the high pressure sales, and thought at worst we'd waste an hour, at best we'd come out with an item for our new (and pretty empty) home - I forget what, now. We hadn't expected to be left alone in the building after the other potential customers had gone, nor to have all the lights but one turned out, nor to be threatened by the company's representative. Obviously, we escaped to tell the tale, and had we not been so young, would (should!) have pursued the company. But a salutary tale, and pretty worrying that these companies are still behaving in such an unethical way.
Posted by: UKCraftySal | March 29, 2011 at 07:49 AM