Sundance Vacations’ Phony Promotional Cruise
Rating: 0 Posted By: AngryConsumer2010
Views: 577 Replies: 6
My experience is best explained by the following comments which is EXACTLY what the voucher says. Because it’s only a voucher it must first be registered, but all the restrictions, blackouts and other discouraging conditions renders it, in my opinion, not worth the hassle. You can also register your complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at its toll-free hotline: 1-888-382-1222. Since I am on the “Do Not Call” list Sundance Vacations should not have called me in the first instance. That sweepstakes entry form does not waive my privacy rights to be free from invasive telemarketing as explained at Sundance Vacations Sweepstakes Vs Do Not Call!
This company is a FRAUD. I also got suckered into going down to pick up the free cruise I had been given as a “gift.” Now, the customer service agent was correct in that they never use the word “won”. Its just a matter of wording to keep their scams on the border-line of legal. And I understood that I had to sit through an hour of a sales pitch. which I was fine with. What I was not fine with were the LIES that they had told me in advance about this free cruise.
LIE #1: I could go on the cruise at ANYTIME during the year. I was told repeatedly by the woman on the phone about how I could basically go whenever dates I wanted to, anytime during the next year. Well, that is a lie. When I received my vacation voucher, I looked at the fine print on the back page. You CANNOT use this cruise during the months of June, July, August, or any week of which there is a holiday.
LIE #2: If I didn’t use the cruise, I could do with it whatever I wished. I could give it as a gift or sell it. The fact is, you CANNOT. It clearly states that the name of the trip is non-transferable and cannot be sold.
LIE #3: I was told airfare was included and that I could fly from my local airport. which is a major international airport. That isn’t true. They tell you where to fly out of. For example, they mentioned Newark, New Jersey as a possibility. Plus, the fine print says it only includes “base” airfare. I’m not even sure what the fine print is on base airfare.
LIE #4: I was told I would simply have to pay minor taxes on a trip which values at about 1, 200 dollars. Well, the taxes start at $225 dollars per person (35 percent tax???????) Plus, there are all kind of registration and booking fees on top of that.
LIE #5: I was specifically told on the phone I would even receive free gift cards to Applebees, Red Lobster, and Olive Garden if I came to the 5pm presentation. When I inquired about them, the girl gave me a funny look and told me that “they didn’t give them out anymore because people don’t use them.” What??? I was told only the DAY BEFORE I would be getting them. So, they gave me this piece of paper and said to go eat somewhere (anywhere), attach the receipt to the paper, send a self addressed stamped envelope, and I could get up to 15 dollars for my meal. I’m not holding my breath. Bottom line, this company is a fraud. They told me out and out lies about the cruise just to get me in. They are very shrewd. They have people designed to search these very blogs just to tell you how wonderful they are. There is an old saying. “Me thinks thou protests too much.” If someone has to over and over again tell you about all the awards they won and how great they are…makes you wonder why…doesn’t it?????
The following links will offer you substantial information about Sundance Vacations and their sweepstakes giveaways used to induce the consumer to attend a $15,000 high pressure sales pitch for a vacation club membership:
http://sundancevacationssweepstakes.blogspot.com
http://sundancevacationsmanipulation.blogspot.com/
http://www.ripoffreport.com/searchre…s&searchtype=0
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By DealGuruMantra
Comments (6)
I too fell for this scam.. I paid 4000 up front and 8000 over the next 5 years.. I have not seen one vacation 1. when you book you are almost paying triple. I let my sister book a place over the summer she paid 375.00 for a place in SC only to get there the first day and the place was infested with roaches.. This is a scam and in this day and time with how people are scrapped for cash.. I can’t see myself throwing away money anymore for this type of mess. The scam people and then decide if and when you can really take a vacation.. If anyone reads this they need to NOT deal with Sundance Vacations or PLAN WITH TAN, or TRAVEL ADVANTAGE NETWORK.. THEY ARE all the same company.. I almost got a tripled booked to CANCUN only after writing to the BBB and getting a call from them and they decided not to charge me the upgrade fee because i needed a place to sleep 4 only to find out that they flight would cost me 2 grand.. I ended up paying insurance and not being able to go due to my son being sick.. Call to cancel and was told i didn’t do it with in 30 days.. well i don’t plan for my child o be sick.. 30 days in advance.. This is a rip off.. I hope some one sees this and can tell everyone on this board how to get out of this. They are taking people money and getting away with it.. I am not paying anymore. I can see paying for something and not receiving anything.
The linked article was published in the Philadelphia Daily News on November 10, 2009 in which financial adviser Harry Gross warns against “free seminars” conducted by “travel clubs.”
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20091110_Harry_Gross__An_alert_about__free_seminars_.html
Here is another newspaper article, Philadelphia Inquirer, August 9, 2009, addressing Sundance Vacations specifically:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20090809_Consumer_Watch__Her_vacation_buy_was_no_day_at_the_beach.html
Then you have this article by a very well respected travel journalist, Rosemary McClure of the Los Angeles Times, reprinted in the Chicago Tribune:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/la-tr-freetrip10oct10,0,764590.story
Bottom line; I simply refuse to believe the Sundance Vacations Propaganda and that three independent consumer reporters are wrong! If those reporters were not telling the truth Sundance Vacations could sue the newspapers for libel. But that will never happen because the reporters are telling it like it is!
Just like any other Sundance Vacations report starts… my boyfriend & I were called up telling us we had won a cruise if we agreed to sit through one of their seminars for 1 hour. We had to be able to come in the evening within the next two days. I had already declined a call from them the week before and told them it was impossible for me to get there that week and would have to skip the offer. Nonetheless, when they called once again, we chose to go in the very next evening and sit through what turned out to be a 1 1/2 hour seminar…backed by another hour of explaining why we didn’t feel we could manage more payments for vacations that just seemed too good to be true. The girl we were paired with accepted our decision shortly into the conversation and went back to get our free cruise paperwork but not before telling us that one of the managers/con-artists would probably be stopping by just to make sure she had treated us nicely. BS! Yes, he did ask ask how she had treated us, but he also turned out to be the most persistent pains in the ass we’ve ever dealt! When he was finally done with his sales pitch and clearly frustrated with us, he went on his way and the sweet young lady got some paperwork and came back again to tell us that she thinks he was just trying to work something out into our budget that would suit us best. The initial downpayment is really the only thing that was holding us back. Anyone that has ever sat through one of those episodes knows exactly how wonderful they make it sound! So of course you get yourself to the point where you’re wishing there was some easier way to get into the program. That’s when she told us that we would be able to just put as little as $100 down and walk out of their with a package for 10 vacations to the beautiful places they kept talking about. We were hooked! Another 30-45mins later, we walked out of their with more paperwork than we even knew what to do with. Needless to say, on the way home, reality started to set it. We realized that we had made a mistake, simply from the standpoint that we knew we shouldn’t have taken on another monthly payment when we’ve been trying so hard to buy a house. The girl told me they work really late since they need to work when other people are off so I called SunDance Vacations as soon as I got home. I explained to the receptionist that we had felt pressured into going with the offer and needed to cancel everything. She transferred me to what she said was a corporate line and gave me the number in case I would get disconnected. That girl spent several minutes explaining to me that it was a contract so I couldn’t break it but she could bring the package down to $3500 thus lowering my monthly payments. She said I could either take that offer or just keep my $5000 offer that we had left with. I asked her why they wouldn’t have given me the $3500 offer in the first place, and she told me it was because she was with corporate and they were able to do special things like that but there was no way she could cancel my contract. So we ended the conversation with her saying she would print up the new contracts and send them to me. That was not even a full 48 hours ago and since then I have checked out their website which is sparse much to my disappointment. Some of the places where they claimed to own property aren’t even listed on there. Aside from that, for such a great company that’s supposedly growing so rapidly, you’d think they’d have a high-end website that’s more pleasing to the eyes and everything. It looked like it had been thrown together by an amateur! That led me into researching like crazy, and sure enough, I’ve found so many negative things against SunDance & TAN that it makes me cringe to think we came so close to walking out of there safely! Obviously I’ve never gone on one of their vacations, but take some time to look at all of the feedback. By the sounds of it, all their properties are low quality, outdated, some infested. You have to give them several dates you want to try to go on vacation and they will choose what date you get to go and which property you get to stay in based on the area that you choose! What the heck is that?! I don’t want someone telling me where I’m staying and when I can go based on what they have available at that time! They did not specify those stipulations at all! Plus, how long is the contract binding for anyway? I saw it referred to as a 30-year contract and thought I’d faint! I grabbed my contract and looked over absolutely everything…fine print & all! It states nothing about how long the contract is supposed to last. I just hope that anyone else that gets roped into going to one of their seminars takes the time to do something as simple as google “SunDance Vacations” before they walk in there! It will save them so much! I’m not giving up on getting out of this though. I just read another report in which someone had called telling them he was going to report them to the attorny general and then ended up faxing a letter with his conversation to one of the receptionists and telling them once again he was going to the attorney general about everything and ended up receiving a call saying they would cancel his contract. I did find something listed as the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Hotline. I’m going to call in there. If it’s legit and can help, I’ll be posting that as well. Good luck! Plan your own vacations!
Wow man, I didn’t new that, cheers.
I too was scammed! I am recently divorced from a real jerk off that took off and left me with all our debt. I pay $100/month for this vacation package I dont even use, nor do I care to use because it is such a gimmick! Can anyone help me sell these weeks before I end up defaulting in my payments!
Incridible solution admin. You just help my homework for next exam Thanks admin