Okay, so a few weeks ago I recieve a letter in the mail from Carnival Cruise Lines. I get a lot of junk mail like that and most of the time I don't ever even open it, but for some reason I opened this one. (I think Jeff was in class and I was bored or something...). Anyway... this is what it said at the top...
I know. Cheesy right? But I had recieved a phone call back in September telling me I had won two free round trip tickets anywhere in the continental U.S. if we just came and listened to a presentation and I didn't do it so I wanted to see what this little promotion was all about. I called the hot line. They told me that we were GUARANTEED our choice of a 4 day cruise from Galveston to Cozumel or a 2 night stay in either Orlando or Vegas, airfare and accomodations included. Now, we knew that there would be black out dates or whatever and we figured there would be some sort of fees, but in ALL the fine print (and we did read all of it) it simply stated that you couldn't go on MAJOR holidays and for the cruise you couldn't go in the peak season which is June-August. And that we would have to pay the taxes on the trips. ALL we had to do was go listen to a 90 minute presentation and take a tour of the Villages Resort on Lake Palestine.
Now, yes, I might have been a bit gullable to really believe that all of this was true, but Jeff didn't start to research all of this until this morning during church. Our appointment was for 2:00 and I was so looking forward to seeing how it would all work out. We had heard how these things go and how 'high pressure' they were supposed to be... and even how they have duped people into thinking they have money that they don't have... even putting the timeshares on their credit card, but surely we would be smarter than that, right???
As Jeff was doing his research this morning, he began to put his 'lawyer' hat on. If any of you know my hubby well, you know that he looks for the 'catch' in anything that sounds too good to be true. Part of me thinks that this is why we make a good match - we balance each other out... and then part of me gets annoyed that we can't just go and see what comes of it. It turned out that there were SEVERAL complaints against this "silverleaf" thing on a website called ripoff.com. (Sounds a little like a Wikipedia sight to me!) Anyway... they said that they ended up staying for 3 1/2 hours and then had to be a $100 deposit to get their trip and then there were all of these extra fees and vouchers that you had to send in. He was totally skeptical, but at the encouragement of his dad, we went anyway. (I had been viewing this as an adventure, and I think Jeff was totally looking at it as a business sort of situation). So off we went... keep reading, I promise that it gets good.
On our way there Jeff started to "prepare" me for what he might say. He doesn't take it too lightly when he feels like he's getting ripped off, where I might just say "Oh, ok..." and then go on my way. Again... we balance each other out. So I started to get worried on our way there, but in my mind I was thinking that we're never going to see these people again, so why am I worried about what he says to them??? The truth is that I just get uncomfortable really easily when there is any sort of conflict so I had to keep convincing myself that I didn't care what these people were going to think about us.
We arrive at the Villages "Resort" on Lake Palestine. Lake Palestine is right outside of Tyler. Let me preface this with the fact that I love this lake. My parents used to have a house out there and the lake is so smooth and private... and clean... so please don't hear me wrong when I start to explain what happened. When we drove up, we saw this family getting out of their car. It's two different couples with about six kids. The couples look like they're about 19 or 20 years old and they have 3 year-olds... are you getting my drift? It ended up being packed in the parking lot! I truly thought to myself that there was no way this could be a scam if there are this many people there. We walked into the 'registration' area and there were probably about 20 people scattered throughout this lobby. We had to fill out this form and give them two forms of ID, a driver's license AND a major credit card... are you starting to see a problem?
I knew we were in trouble when Jeff asked the receptionist who was checking us in if he could RECORD our conversation!! Are you kidding me???? Only a future Attorney would ask a question like that! It turned out that this would be our first encounter with Michelle, the Office Manager. She comes out to visit with Jeff and tells him that it's their company policy that their converstations cannot be recorded. (Really? Company Policy?) So Jeff tells her that he's going to write down every person's name that we talk to along the way.... and she said that was totally fine. (I mean, what could she have said?)
This was the moment that I realized we had been flagged like a foreign person in a major airport. It was a situation where we were sitting in the lobby amongst some really elderly people and some terribly young people and a different salesperson would walk through a door, call someone's name and then take them into another room. Every single time a new salesperson walked in the room, they would go over to the receptionist, pick up some paperwork from the her, look over at us, and then call someone ELSE'S name. This could NOT be good.
Finally, a nice-looking young man, about our age, calls our name. He just had a baby right around the same time we had Brady. Coincidence? I think not. (This is the part where Jeff would say his whole story about having a baby is made up as well.) Anyway, he was really nice and he took us into this giant lodge-looking lobby where about a hundred other couples were sitting with their own salesperson who probably had something coincedentally in common with them. Immediately, Jeff asked about the cruise. Shawn promised us that we didn't have to purchase anything, nor did we have to put any deposit down today in order to get our vacation. I could feel Jeff get a little more relaxed... and then the presentation went on.
About three minutes into his 'monologue' about the resort, a lady comes over and interrupts us.
"Shawn, some new owners would like to speak with you for a moment." Shawn excuses himself.
He then goes over to talk with some other couple on the other side of the room and then a man comes over the loud speaker and announces their newest owners who were sold on the resort by none other than Shawn himself. (Jeff also thinks this was an act.) I also think this was the part where the higher-ups warned him about us, if he hadn't been already... and to tell him to make sure Jeff isn't recording the coversations. Anyway, we go on the tour and it was fairly nice, although Jeff didn't think it was at all. Let's just say this, it wasn't horrible. They had a really cool waterpark and with all of the questions I was asking from the back seat, Jeff was starting to think that I was 'falling for it'.
When we get back to the big lodge place, Shawn sits us down and tells us what all we get with this vacation package. In my mind, I was thinking, "Ok, here we go... don't get embarrassed." Now, I didn't think the timeshare thing was a scam at alll, but obviously we weren't interested... and I was starting to get nervous as I knew the hard sell was coming. This is how the conversation went.
Shawn: "Mr. Leach, what do you think of this fabulous deal I'm offering you?"
Jeff: "I think you're a nice guy, Shawn and you did a great job... we're just simply not interested."
Shawn: "Well, Mr. Leach what can I do to change your mind?"
Jeff: "Shawn, I know how this thing works. I've done my research. We just want the cruise. We're not buying."
Shawn: "I understand, but don't you understand that you can go anywhere for $160 a week?"
Jeff: "Yes, we're not interested."
Shawn: "Ok, thank you for your time. My manager is going to come over here and ask you a few questions about my performance and then we'll get you your cruise."
A few moments go by in which Shawn proceeds to tell us about his baby girl and this bone malformation that she has had in her neck and has had to wear one of those helments. Do you think this is true? Hmm.
The next thing we know, a tall, slender, nice looking African-American man sits down with us. He and Shwan begin to make small talk about who they know that are lawyers in Dallas. An obvious time staller. I can tell that Jeff is starting to get antsy.
"Sir, I know that you're about to bring the hard sell, and we don't want to waste your time, but we're not buying anything today."
The man then proceeds to rudely tell us that we won't be wasting HIS time because he doesn't work on commission. He gets paid no matter what. Shawn apparently does not because he split soon after that to go find someone else to sell to. The man then tells us that they call him, "THE HAMMER" and that he wanted to ask us a few questions. Jeff then gets fed up and tells him that we are only here for the free trip and we sat through the 90 minute presenation and that's all we were obligated to do and we want our trip. What else do we have to do?
He said that we had to answer his questions.
Jeff asks him how many questions he has.
The Hammer hesitates and says that he has FIVE questions for us.
He asks us five questions that I can't even remember because I think even I was starting to get annoyed. Then yet ANOTHER person comes over but he doesn't say much because WE didn't say much. After about five minutes he sends us to the next building which is the "gifting" center. This is what we thought would be the even "harder" sell... but it wasn't... it turned out to be worse.
**I know this is a long story, but stick with me because this is the best part.**
We go into a room with a nice young woman named Brittney. Oh, poor Brittney, she did not know what she was in for. She begins to tell us about the trips we can choose from. She hands Jeff the literature and it turns out that for the cruise, you have to pay $174 PER person for an INTERIOR LOWER LEVEL state room (which are the ones with the bunk beds and community bathrooms I believe) for TAXES. Jeff starts to get really irriated, and to be honest I did too because they really didn't write this part in the fine print. THEN it says that we can't go within 7 days of a "Major" holiday. Since when did Flag Day and Grandparents day become major holidays? (I'm just kidding, those weren't on there but Columbus day and President's day were). We then ask about the Vegas trip.
Turns out that the 2 "Night" stay in Vegas would first of all be at some Howard Johnson motel in town. THEN the reservation company makes our reservations for us... we don't have a choice in the time of flight. The flights leave anywhere between 3 pm and 10 pm and then return anywhere between 6 am and 1 pm. So theoretically we could leave dallas at 10 pm on a Monday night and arrive back at 6 am on a Wednesday morning. What the heck?
Jeff asks to speak with her manager because he begins to try to convince these people that they shouldn't work for this company that is ripping people off. Brittney tries to call her manager and the phone line is busy. She gets up to go and get her and then comes back and tells us that she's on a conference call and it would be a while... would we like to wait. Jeff told the girl that he didn't believe her, but he would take her card so that he could call her later. She runs to go and get a card for him.
When she gets back in the office and hands Jeff her card, Jeff proceeds to call the number on his cell phone!!! He ended up not getting any service so he asked to use her phone! It didn't end up working either.... right when I thought he was going to tell her that she gave him a fake phone number, there was a knock on the door and who was it? Michelle, the Office Manager from earlier! To put it nicely, Jeff gave her a piece of his mind about what they were doing with these vacations. She told us that no one had ever questioned their fees, which I have a hard time believing, but nevertheless there was yet another knock on the door. When it opened, guess who it was... none other than The Hammer himself!! He asked to speak to Michelle privately and she told him no, but before she could answer him Jeff answered for her. He told The Hammer that she was busy and would get back to him when we left.
Immediately, I asked if we had to sign anything so that we could leave. Jeff told me that we weren't going to be leaving until we got the $40 gift card for gas that they had promised us for getting there on time. She then reached into Brittney's drawer and pulled out a Visa Gift card for $40 and gave it to Jeff. I grabbed our literature and stood up and basically pushed Jeff out the door.
I have yet to call the cruise company to find out what it would cost for us to upgrade our room. It LOOKS like I'll have to put a $100 deposit down before I can even get that information which is TRULY the biggest scam ever. Jeff told me on the way home that he would LOVE to sue a company like that but that they did not do anything that was illegal. He told me that they can hide all the fees that they want to... and it's OUR fault (correction, MY fault) for coming and falling for that!
Anyway... it was an adventure and we lived to tell about it. If we hadn't gone we would continue to wonder what would have happened, right??
1 comment:
I felt like I was reading a novel. I was on the end of my seating wondering what was going to happen.
Glad ya'll didn't fall into their trap. I've always wondered if those things are too good to be true. I guess they are.
Post a Comment