Ameri-scam.
Two months ago I wrote a short article about a telemarketing call that I received from AmeriVacation. It has very quickly become one of the most viewed pages on this site, and also the most commented upon, by many people who are worried that they have been conned.
With just a little digging I’ve started to unearth some more information on AmeriVacation, and some “companies” that appear to be related.
It appears that AmeriVacation is only the latest front. They set up a website, to appear legitimate and then cold call people, anyone whose number they can get using an automated calling mechanism (which is very simple to do with a computer). They then sell a package that is not what it appears to be and then make it very difficult to obtain a refund.
Sadly the people that get scammed are often the most vulnerable people who can least afford to lose such a large amount of money.
Through my digging I discovered a little about the history of the scams, and a little about how they’re all related. What follows is a brief review of the links so that others may pick up the trail more easily.
The currently active websites (which can be linked through identical wording, identical phone numbers, IP addresses that resolve to the same physical machines, etc) are:
- www.amerivacation.com
- www.expertholidays.com
- www.yourvipholiday.com (bad press) (more)
- www.flbahamastravelhome.com
- www.mydiscountholiday.com (bad press)
- www.doublevacations.com
- www.affiliatedtravelnetwork.com
- www.brilliantholiday.com (bad popup press)
- www.destinationcenter.net
- www.myffc.com (bad press)
- www.mydiscountholiday.com
- www.floridaholidayusa.com – discovered July 2005
- www.holidayfloridausa.com – discovered July 2005
- www.sunrisetravels.us – discovered August 2005
- www.imperialvacation.com – discovered August 2005
- www.5starholidays.net – discovered August 2005
- www.floridatouristbureau.com – discovered August 2005
Now, anybody that sells a holiday from Florida, or sells a holiday to Florida must be registered. The last entry in the above list , “mydiscountholiday.com” claims a Florida Seller Of Travel License Number of ST35170. In fact, this next list of sites all claim to have that same license number.
- www.mydiscountholiday.com (bad press)
- www.usafamilygetaway.com (bad press)
- www.sandyvacationsllc.com (bad press)
- www.floridabureauoftourism.com
- http://www.destinationsforyou.com
- http://www.celebrationpromotions.com
Another useful thing for linking companies is the address, several of these companies have used “600 North Highway 1792, Suite 120, Longwood Fl 32750″ including:
- www.yourvipholiday.com
- www.usafamilygetaway.com addres link also mentioned here
That link is important because without it these appear to be two separate groups of companies, when in fact, it’s one big cloud.
The next link in the chain is the phone number, all the sites below are connected because they use the same UK freephone number 0800-917-7462. What’s especially nice is that three of them have also decided to share testimonials too!
- www.windsorvacations.com
- www.myvacationschoice.com
- www.vacations-paradise.com (bad press)
- www.sohovacations.com -bullshit testimonial (bad press)
- www.centuryvacations.com – bullshit testimonial
- www.firstclicktravel.net – bullshit testimonial
- www.usafamilygetaway.com
The other address in use is “7632 Southland Blvd, Orlando, FL 32809″ and this is used by:
- www.myffc.com
- www.mydiscountholiday.com
- www.brilliantholiday.com (bad press)
- www.destinationcenter.com
Currently www.destinationcenter.com looks like a bit of a sales force advertisement. However, by looking at the caches on google and web.archive.org, it’s apparent that it was also used as travel sales site (hence I got the address match above), selling these same packages – i.e. not just a coincidence, this was the same outfit.
So, who’s behind it? Well, according to this story, it all comes back to to a Altef Hemani (aka Alex Hemani), who has a history of such scams.
His name is as good as mud on the internet, so he’s tried to combat this by buying a few websites and and writing eulogies about himself.
Each of those sites, incidentally, is owned by the same company: Travel Express Investments 385 Center Point Cir, Altamont Springs, FL 32701.
What’s especially interesting is that the administrative contact for the domains is Arif Rajan who may be the same business man whos only newsworthy moment until now was that in 2002 he was was questioned and released without charge regarding money laundering for terrorist organisations.
Sources
Naturally the information I’ve been able to gather and present here is all freely available to the public. Please feel free to check, corroborate, dispute, disprove or otherwise extended it through your own investigation.
I have found the following resources most useful:
- http://whois.net/ which provides information about the owners of domain names.
- http://sunbiz.org/ which provides information from the Florida Department of State regarding companies, and the persons legally responsible for those companies.
- http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/ the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which regulates travel in Florida.
681 Comments
Dear Christina,
My comments on here had nothing to do with you so why don’t you mind
your own business. My problem with this site is that it is named
wrong, that is what has infuriated me. Seems to me if you look at the
people(Altef Hemani, Arif Rajan, Alamin Jessani) behind these scams they are not American, no matter if they live in this country or not. I’d be glad to ship their asses over to you and let you have them in your country. So I think that you need to GET A LIFE *****!!!
Ah, I see we have another Jackie B here
The poor woman may be falsely accused of things I have said/done as regards the travel saga. LOL
Congratulations to Christina for getting her refund!
USCitizen commented (in Christina’s direction) :
All posts can be read and commented on by anyone, that’s why USCitizen has been allowed to post.
USCitizen arrived here and demanded to be heard, suggesting that the content herein is only “what we want you to hear”, which, by allowing USCitizen to repeatedly comment, I aimed to disprove.
USCitizen’s posts have done wonders for proving the legitimacy and simple honesty of the rest of the messages because we’ve been able to re-state the issues in order to explain them to someone who’s trying very hard not to listen. This can only help future victims, readers and contributors.
Today USCitizen stated:
This is what I mean when I say that USCitizen is “trying very hard not to listen”.
When this point was initially made, it was explained that it is the article not the site that is called “Ameri-scam”. The reasons for its naming were clearly listed; as was the fact that there is no anti-American sentiment herein.
Whilst the scams certainly could be damaging to the reputation of Florida and America, there are effective measures in place that protect consumers, and which therefore protect and enhance that reputation.
Describing to people how and why they are protected should only appear harmful to the narrowest of minds.
Yes… so having had that explained, USCitizen still wanted to argue more, so again said the site was named wrong only this time because it uses “a US Domain”. Again, it was shown that this is not the case.
Above is a good example of why USCitizen’s comments appear confused to readers. The names Hemani, Rajan and Jessani are indeed all listed on the domain registration details (or websites) of travel companies that are mentioned above. Hemani and Rajan were named (with a reference to the source) in the above article as being related to the companies.
There is no apparent logic behind this duality, USCitizen appears to just want to have an argument. Sometimes USCitizen appears angry towards these people, and wants them to stop what they are doing (as we all do), and then at other times, USCitizen is suggesting that by enlisting their interest, this site might be swamped and unable to continue helping people.
Confusion reigns supreme in the head of USCitizen.
I’m sure that Christina will be able to afford a much bigger and happier life now that she has received a full refund. Christina’s comments are useful; they give hope to other people that have been conned. Christina has a reason to be here. Christina is helping by contributing knowledge.
USCitizen has his or her own agenda and has constantly sidestepped questions whilst having just about every comment responded to in full. Obviously some of the questions posed to USCitizen require time in order to formulate an adequate response; complex, difficult and probing questions such as:
USCitizen appears stuck on broadcast mode, yet doesn’t bother to check the facts before posting, which is why so many times, USCitizen has been corrected (e.g.FEDMA).
The anonymity afforded to USCitizen so far has become the equivalent of a digital clown costume – there may be honest reasoned opinions underneath but these are now are obstructed by the garish mask and diversionary novelty squirting flower.
Today the anonymity stops. Last week I set up a temporary automated email address for this site, and until USCitizen sends a message to that address from his or her ISP email address, with a real name (and also quotes the false email address that’s been used) all future posts from USCitizen will put in the ignore queue, or discarded.
Its really rather sad that following USCitizen’s initial misguided attempts to stand up for the good name of America, his or her angry, rude and racist comments are the only thing here that reflects negatively on the country’s reputation – fortunately the rest of the world knows better than to judge 295,734,134 citizens based on the comments of just one anonymous coward.
BRAVO! At long last, we are rid of the annoying drivel. Empty tins certainly do make the most noise. Thank you for ridding your ‘loyal’ readers of the irritation, Rich.
I’ll let you know if I get a response from USC in my personal e-mail inbox. If so, I’ll post it here. Should be good for a laugh.
I sincerely hope there will be many more success stories posted here, such as that of Christina. Thanks to all of you who have contributed and if you’ve not yet remedied the situation, know that you’re not the only frustrated purchaser of USA travel packages!
I have just been informed by another purchaser of a Sunkissed Travel package, that her boss has agreed to back her financially to seek legal advice and if need be, sue Sunkissed by way of edictal citation in Florida. This person has not yet posted on this blog. Being backed by British POUNDS will make this a more affordable option for her than for many other readers here.
She is pressed for time due to other travel commitments. I would therefore assume that she will obtain the legal advice soonest. There must be some impressive IT lawyers in in London!
This would be a most interesting exercise. I will keep you all informed should she proceed with a law suit.
Hi Guys
I live in the Virgin Islands and received a package from Sun-Kissed Travel. I thought it was bogus and came online searching, that lead me to this page. I called the Florida Agency that regulates sellers of travel and they confirmed that Sun-Kissed IS INDEED a legit company registered and regulated by them. Their licence number is ST35333 (as posted on http://www.sunkissedtravel.com). If you want further proof you may contact the Florida Agency at 1-850-488-2221.
Sean
British Virgin Islands
Hi Rich.
Thank you for responding to USCitizen on my behalf. I expected there would be a comment from he/she that would sound much like the one I recieved. But to be honest I had decided not to answer what ever came from that side, I mean, I do not think you can teach or tell a person like that anything.
You are right, the only reason I can imagine, for someone not wanting to go to the USA after visiting this side, would be the chance off running into USCitizen in person.
And Rich, thank you for helping me get my refund, your site has been very helpfull to me.
Yours Christina
Hi Sean, thanks very much for your message, it corroborates the information I was given by the same department a couple of months ago, when the license was pending renewal.
As well as letting travellers check whether a seller-of-travel license is valid, the DOACS also provide information on the past performance any license holder, for example, Sun-Kissed Promotions Inc. have fielded an all-time total of 63 complaints, 38 of which have been closed satisfactorily, one was passed to another agency and 24 are currently open and ongoing.
Dear Rich,
Just to let you know i will be sending your email address as well as your telephone # to all the companies listed on here that are legit
to let them know what is happening on here. When you do searchs of some
of these legit companies in here, the ameri-scam website comes up
and people think that these companies are a scam without even reading
anything. Your site does help certain people, but it is also hurting
others. U.S. Citizen
To All:
Seems like there is a lot of bickering going on in here so
I thought I would leave you with this.
Visitors to the site are reminded that the details contained within user comments are uncorroborated and as such should not be read as fact but as the opinion of the person who left the comment.
Thanks John
Even in USCitizen’s closing shot there is nothing helpful, even for “the companies listed on here that are legit”.
No mention of which companies may be being harmed, no mention of which searches may be harmful.
Just nothing useful. Even when waving goodbye USCitizen fails to help. Goodbye USCitizen.
Hi Rich ,a few more developments, it would seem that people have been buying holidays, you know the ones, a few days here and a few there with a Bahamas trip thrown in from http://www.wholesalevacations.net, seller of travel No.35540(legitimate or not??) whose website and domain name have suddenly disappeared.
In reply to your posting on September 9th,8.29 this item may harm one of them as Amerivacation have now associated themselves with Ameri Suites Vacation club, which seem to me to be a legitimate company.After an initial call with Amerivacation with regard to “the holiday of a lifetime” confirmation arrived from “AmeriSuites Vacations Club” who then deemed to become Calypsocay with emails coming from “servicecenter@calpysocay” with a website http://www.calypsocay.com .Please note the telephone numbers on the emails are totally different to those on the website. What is going on?????
Wholesale Vacations Inc. was run by a David McGuire (named on both the domain whois information and the corporate docs) and went through voluntary dissolution July 2005, the rest of the corporate documents are available online here.
Wholesale Vacations is discussed (for example) in this .nl forum (English translation), which suggests the usual “you’ve won something” tagline.
Just thought that I would mention a company that my wife and I fell foul of end of July…Sunrise Travels. We cancelled by post, phone and email before the 30 day period was up and returned the useless, cheaply photocopied ‘holiday snap’ type pictures (allbeit A4 size) that they had sent to us with no information whatsoever. 26th August they emailed to confirm that a refund had been issued to our credit card account. Surprise surprise it hasn’t…..my last phone call to them was this afternoon…when they told me to see a solicitor and have a good day….before he hung up on me that is! All I can say is congratulations Thomas Hawkins & Brandi Crystal at Sunrise Travels…..but we’re not done with you yet! We have kept copies of all postal correspondence (with proof of posting), print-outs of all emails (including the one where you lied and said that the refund was issued to our credit card 26th August). Our credit card company has opened a dispute and we shall furnish them and other bodies both in the UK and USA with copies and we shall fight you. Rich keep up the good work….too late for us but if it stops companies like Sunrise travels from scamming others go for it!
Personally, I find it a disgrace that scam companies like AmeriVacation keep on operating. They clearly are scamming thousands of people all over the world who sometimes barely speak english. This website has been an enormous help for a lot of duped people. I really would love it if someone would put those scammers behind bars.
Hi all,
Today I received confirmation from Mastercard that they were able to get my money back, not from HolidayFloridaUsa directly, but from the American counterpart of Interpay (i.e. the company that processes electronic payments in the Netherlands). This refund was booked back to our credit card, but on certain conditions. Quote from letter: “Regarding your complaint concerning the above mentioned transaction with your Mastercard we have reclaimed this post from our sister association.
After receipt of this claim our sister association needs to bring up conclusive evidence that this payment was charged legitimately in order to recharge you. The amount has therefore been transferred to your cardnumber as credit (…).
Should our sister association be able to present evidence I will contact you again. If not, I assume your complaint was dealt with to your satisfaction.”
I am looking forward to receiving this “evidence” (if any) and I am even looking more forward to posting it here. Anyway, I can prove that I immediately wanted to cancel the complete trip so I have the fullest confidence in keeping my refund.
If I had not discovered this site I guess it would have been hell of a lot more difficult, not only because this site provides guidelines in helping you to get a refund but also the experiences from other people who have been scammed provide some consolation that you are not the only one.
Furthermore I want to stress that the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (where I filed a complaint against FHU) has been of great help. It is very encouraging to see that I, as non-US citizen, am supported by local Florida authorities
in such a great way (my local authorities could learn something from them).
Thanks to you all and to everybody who has been scammed: Don’t give up!
To Steve b.,
Depending on what your cutoff date for your credit card statement is
it may not show till the next statement.
Thanks for the message Steve.
Steve didn’t (yet) specify exactly which “Sunrise Travels” he’s dealing with – there are several companies using similar domains, so I’m guessing it’s SunriseTravels.us (and not SunriseTravel.us, SunriseTravels.net or SunriseTravels.com).
There’s also a startling similarity between it and imperialvacation.com – which happens to be on the same internet server (209.200.19.76).
That server delivers one other domain – optimalclick.com – optimal click doesn’t have a front page at the moment so it’s possible to see all it’s files including approximately 50 directories of pop-up adverts that congratulate the visitor on being a “winner winner winner” with the usual 180 second “call now” countdown.
What’s particularly interesting about the optimalclick.com site is that the links in some of the adverts are not properly set and instead refer to the files’ locations when they were still on the owners desktop machine. These links show that the files belong to a windows user called “Anirban Chowdhury”.
This name Chowdhury also matches the email address (chowdhury@smu.edu) given in the whois lookup details of SunriseTravels.us – so this could well be the person that Steve’s solicitors should be talking to.
There are a few photos of someone matching the name Anirban Chowdhury on the smu.edu website, though I have no idea whether this is the same person.
The whois details for the other two websites are as follows:
To Jacqui B.,
I have 2 questions for you
1st: Why did you buy the package in the first place?
2nd: Did you ever read there terms & condtions?
Thanks John W.
Hmm, OptimalClick.com don’t keep very respectable company either..
You may not want to follow this link if you’re offended by some domain names..
Chris
Hey Rich,
Just wonder why my last post regarding me [planning to do something interesting - Rich]……. was not posted.
Thanks
John W.
Hi JohnW, I thought it might defeat the object of your plan if I published it, so it’s been withheld it until you’re done.
GOOD NEWS! Further to my previous messages (here, here and here) , I have at last received a full refund of my £698. I couldn’t believe it, after all my badgering in the way of e-mails and telephone calls, someone at the other end actually listened to me – a Spanish lady who had never spoken before – like all the others she promised a refund would be paid into my account within the next 15 days, but this time it actually happened! So hang on in there, folks, keep persevering, pestering, whatever it takes, until you get some positive results.
Hello.
I too was scammed by starr-getaways. Just like everything else posted in this website so no need to repeat it.
I am getting a lawsuit together against these people but I MUST name everyone involved so action can be taken against this company. Like merchant account (so their merchant status can be pulled away) telephone provider (so their telephone system can be shut down etc)
Can some one please answer these questions for me?
1. Who provides those ring free numbers that ring back to the US? Some name of companies would be great.
2. Any one knows who their merchant account is?
3. The PRESS “9″ to receive your holiday vacation ( what company runs this system?
Thanks!
My girlfriend has also probably been scammed by SunKissed Travel. She was conned to think she had won a holiday and then they took money from her credit card. Now she would like to fill a lawsuit against this society. Could you kindly tell us which is the competent legal forum/tribunal? Apparently, the legal address of the company is Sunkissed Travel – 7110 N University Dr, Suite D – Tamarac, FL 33321. Which is the competent court for such issues in that place? Take into account that we are not from the US and neither we live there. Thanks a lot!
It has just been pointed out to me that http://www.sunkissedtravel.com has gone blank again.
home.sunkissedtravel.com appears to be working normally.
Hi Simone; if your girlfriend did not want to purchase a holiday and the transaction was made within the last 30 days, you still have a direct legal right to a full refund – see this for how to go about getting it.
Perhaps you’d also like to describe how the transaction occurred – internet popup / telemarketing / etc… I’m aware that a couple of Sunkissed Travel employees have been reading the comments on this article, so they may wish to comment on your experience.
Hi!
I’m a 23 year old Norwegian girl who has also incidentally bumped into travasaurus\SunKissed Travels. Only I did not get a call, but a pop-up on the net telling me I was visitor number 1 million to the site I was visiting. Then I was asked to click the pop-up and call a number, giving a Security Number that was posted on the following site.
I called the number and talked to a very nice guy, who ensured me after my countless questions to whether they were kidding me or not, told me very sincerely that it was no joke, and it was their way of advertising. “Nice advertisement,” I told him.
I had won a trip for 4 people, and with some money included that I could spend on what I wanted. I had to be 23, he said, to cash in the prize, and I was 22 at the time (this spring), and he told me to call them back when I turned 23. I haven’t called them back yet, I decided to check them up thoroughly first. I’m still checking. Just thought I should tell you about my experience!
Ane
Hi Rich, still no sign of my refund, after cancelling on the 1st June, they dont even bother replying to emails or answering the phone and I now find the Amerivacation website is up and running again, although under constuction, wonder how much comes from optimalClick.com?????
Hi Simon,
My undertanding is that Discount Holidays LLC (aka AmeriVacation) were previously contracted to the Calypso Cay Resort with a brief of selling vacations.
It appears that Calypso Cay may now have taken over the AmeriVacation site, and changed the front page so thit it only displays the simplest of contact details. The rest of the AmeriVacation pages are still there – it’s just that the front page no longer links to them.
You can either look in your browser history to see where you’ve been before, or use this Google search to tell you what the pages are (were).
Still waiting for my refund from Royalty Holidays, on the 7 Sep 05 they promised it would be in my bank account in 3-4 working days, guess what, I’m still waiting..!!!!
Come on Royalty Holidays keep your word…!!!!!
Hello there,
I have just been trapped in such a mess a few minutes ago…when the guy asked me to give a credit card number in order to block the reservation, I just asked: “why do I have to confirm something now, when you just told me a second ago that I have 12 months to take the package or not…?” Then the conversation switched to another guy who asked me if I could not charge a company credit card (hey, I do not want to be fired!)…smart, but not so smart! Then he asked me “do you trust your bank? Because you know they do not want to lose money…”
I said “yes I do trust my bank, but I do not trust a guy far away (where, actually?), when I am in Paris, France and when he asks for a credit card number for something that is absolutely immaterial and very hard-sold…”
I asked them to send the package and the contract to my home adress, I will let you know when I have it…okay, I am just pulling your leg!
More seriously, I hope the bad guys will be jailed someday.
Hi again, I forgot to tell you about the names…
The first link I was redirected to was: http://www.sunkissedtravel.com, that appeared to point to http://home.sunkissedtravel.com/
I had a guy on the phone that called himself Leon Shindoll.
Bye.
travasaurus oferd me the same as to all of you but i dont have
23 years of age so i cant collect the reward.
Still waiting…..!!!!!! I spoke to John Miller tonight at Royalty Holidays. He stated that my refund was processed on the 15 September, I told him thats funny a Carol Edwards told me the night before that it had been processed on the 14 September. It had better be on my account by next week or every complaint site and agency shall know that Royalty Holidays are not trust worthy at all. We shall see, its up to them…!!!!
I was called by this “company.” I’ve been trying to cancel the vouchers but only have a couple of days until the 30-day “look-over” period expires. My information came via FedEx, and I thought, after reading these pages, that there may be a tracking system. I’m a cyber toddler, so don’t know hat to do next.Should I call my crdit card company? Who do I report this to–AOL, the police, FedEx, or to whom? This Sunrise Travels literature came from Carrollton, Texas with both: 800-361-4140 CST # and 0-808-234-6559 #’s. If anyone has had dealings with them (legitimate or scam), or can give me a bit of advice, I would be forever grateful. Susan
Hey, good luck Neil, hope you get your money back. I’ve only been waiting for 109 days for my refund from Amerivacation or Amerisuites Vacation Club or Calypsocay or whatever the hell they are called this week. I understand they are “busy” as their telephone message says everytime you ring them and guess what, they never return your call when you leave your name and number. “Busy” avoiding people who are hacked off with them. I have resorted to bombarding them with at least 20 emails a day but still no result. We live in hope. Best of luck buddy.
Again, I am the General Manager of Sun-Kissed Promotions, Inc. (dba Sunkissed Travel). After reading the postings since my last entry it is time for another response.
I am who I say I am and can prove it. If I do not have a direct link through our website it is for good reason. I am the second in line to the owner and cannot possibly respond directly to all inquires from the thousands of people we travel a year. I am not trying to dodge people because we are a scam. As I stated before we are 100% legitimate and in full compliance with all laws. And, as an aside, if you think you are talking to a top executive of any other major U.S. corporation through a website you are sadly mistaken. All of their inquires are answered by an assistant. We choose to have our assistants answer directly. (i.e. Read response from Paul who works for me.)
There is a simple solution to the dilemas discussed here. If you do not wish to purchase our vacation offer do not give your credit card number and do not authorize it on tape. (And we do tape all authorizations and can prove it.) Just say no and hang up.
I have recently spoken with two local county law enforcement officers compiling reports from inquires from officials in Denmark and the Netherlands. The authorities here have confirmed that we are in full compliance with all U.S. laws because we tape all voice authorizations of anyone agreeing to the credit card purchase of our product.
We offer a great vacation value that we honor in all aspects of U.S. laws. If laws in your country are different than those here in the U.S. it is your responsibility to consider the differences before you say yes to any purchase of our package. It is an International transaction. The laws here are as equally binding as those in any country.
Respectfully, if you do not wish to travel to the U.S. or our other destinations in Mexico before considering all costs of our package just say NO. The final decision is yours.
If you say yes to the purchase and authorize it on tape we also have a repsonsibility to honor your travel. To say we were not honest in our offer is wrong. We will fulfill every aspect of what we offer within the boundaries of our terms and conditions. If you make a purchase (and, again, authorize it on tape) only later to say you want a refund because we were misleading is not fair. You authorized the charge on tape. You entered into a verbal agreement that you are also bound to honor. In our courts a confirmed (taped) verbal agreement is honored equally with any written agreement.
We successfuuly travel thousands of people a year who stay in beautiful resorts and truely have a dream vacation.
Again, wihtout trying to be redundant, if you have any question before you purchase our vacation package just say NO. We will not be offended.
Thanks for commenting again Lane. One of the recurring concerns appears to be that the Sun-Kissed Promotions Inc. website has been rather erratic in it’s availability. Can you provide any insight into this?
Has Lane from Sun Kissed Whatever considered the fact that most reputable companies on the whole do not change their names,telephone numbers,websites etc.every few weeks. Or the fact that in certain countries it is illegal to record peoples telephone conversations without telling them. Or the fact that a lot of people don’t even realise that they have commited to purchase these “Vacations” due to the sales pitch.Or the fact that in compliance with US laws if people decide they want to cancel for whatever reason, they are entitled to a full refund, as set by your own standard.”You may cancel this contract without any penalty or obligation within 30 days from the date of purchase or receipt of the vacation certificate,whichever occurs later.
My complaint is not against your company personally but it would be interesting to find out for example if Dan who posted on this site on September 6th has had his refund yet.
Dear ‘Lane’
I am sorry but your cheap arguments simply do not convince me. A reliable and respectable company would cleary inform its customers that all trips offered are subject to availability and that a 30-day cooling off period is applicable for travel vouchers. Furthermore, If Sunkissed Promotions alias Sun kissed travel was really an upstanding company, the name of your company would certainly not figure in an official complaint report of the nordic authorities.
http://www.forbrug.dk/fileadmin/Filer/Markedsf_ring_og_jura/DCO_to_the_FTC.pdf
Of course, every company has to deal now and then with disgruntled customers. However, a company becomes quite suspicious when the majority of its customers are disgruntled and feel they have been victims of fraud which with Sunkissed Promotions Inc certainly is the case. A great American already knew in 1865 that “If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.” and that “It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
Hi, I was called up by the dial 9 service like many others!
I ended up talking to a Mr Thomas Hawkins from Sunshine Travel Escapes Inc. After like 45 min conversation I ended up given him my VISA number. I requested a mail from him before how to cancel the offer. After The purchase I check on the internet and came to this side. After that I locked my VISA acount but the purchase amount of money thas already reserved. Today (1 day after purchase) I got through to my bank and they have stopped the reservation before the transfer were made.
I would like to thank the person that has been working with this page that opened my eyes in time. I also notised that the mailadress that I got from Mr Hawkins were from Customer Service [mailto:customerservice@sunrisetravels.us] Note company they said were Sunchine travel escapes but mail came from sunrisetravels. This proves that it is all bogus.
Luckily I stop the transaction in time.
I have also send a mail to Mr Hawkins, stated that I will never sign for any sort of packet from them.
Per
A Little Bird has heard…
[Sorry Little Bird, what you had to say is very interesting, but, without being able to attribute it to anyone I'm a little uncomfortable publishing it, however, if you can provide corroborating information ... - Rich]
As to our website. We, as any company, have periodic server disruptions caused by our hosting company.
The major problems over the past year have been disruptions beyond our control. We had four major hurricanes last year that directly impacted South Floida and two this year – including the first impact of Hurricane Katrina. (Which, after it destroyed our Gulf Region caused sever web problems nationwide here in the States.) We are under another hurricane watch as I write this response. It is not uncommon for us to be without power for days after a major impact. It can take as long as a week for all services (including our website) to be fully operational. We have offices in Tamarac, Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando Florida. Any weather related disruptions in any of these areas can create problems with our website.
We do everything within our power to keep the website accessable at all times.
To calm the skeptics, If we were not legitimate you would not be receiving these responses from our company.
One final follow-up to my previous posting. This is straight from an Associated Press posting today on aol.com -
“Katrina and Dennis were among six hurricanes to hit Florida in the last 13 months. Last year’s four hurricanes killed dozens of people and caused $19 billion in insured losses in Florida alone.”
[This message has been extensively edited. It was posted anonymously, but contained names of companies, people, and certain facts that may have compromised the anonymity of the author. The original has been forwarded to certain members of the press in full.]
This will amaze you all. I have been employed by a travel company in Florida that operates like the ones named.
They are ripping you off. They ask for your credit card upfront because they run the cards to see if you have any available funds. You are not winnning anything. You all have made them very rich.
Dont give your credit card numbers they dont need the cvc number on the back because the systems they have don’t require it, they say its a visa/mastercard promotion, its not, they have no affilation with them.
The sales agents make 100 dollars or more off every deal, and as coments here suggest, they are currently working their way through several countries.
Please post this. It is my way of appologizing to the UK, and Europe. Please make this available to all the newspapers and television stations.
Please ask and I will respond how to cancel and get your money back. They arent allowed to charge you to cancel. A Florida statute states that you have 30 days to cancel, remember that, call and cancel the card immediately or report it stolen.
Again I do appoligize, sorry but I am tring to help…
Neil…..guess what I still haven’t received my refund [from Royalty Holidays] yet!!! I have an email from Jennifer Gonzales dated 25th August confirming the refund had been processed but, would take 10-14 business days. It is now the 17th day!!
Thanks for those comments regarding the SunkissedTravel.com website outages Lane, they’re most informative, and I think they might put the concerns of some readers to rest.
May I suggest you adopt a “sorry we disappeared, we’re all ok!” message in the future, it may halp to explain the circumstances and stop people from posting their concerns here, and elsewhere.
Additional information on the 2005 Hurricane Season is available for those who wish know more.
Peronally (from my experience of architecting fault tolerant and highly available internet systems for telecomms companies) I’d be tempted to choose a datacentre (or redundant data centres) that are outside a zone that I know is regularly threatened by extreme weather conditions; and I’d worry that having just one server in Altamonte Springs is not a particularly fail-safe way of mainting a shop-front. It’s a problem that many people fail to plan for or cope with.
On the subject of that server (63.251.159.66), it has been pointed out by several readers that it also hosts several other travel sites including freecruise.com, cruiseflorida.com and travelcadet.com – so now might be a good time to confirm whether these are (or are not) in any way connected to sunkissed.
This might also be a good opportunity to comment on the relationship between travasaurus and sunkissed, because several people are confused by their apparent interchangeability.
I won the 1804 award too, I was the
50,000,000th to log in to my mail. A travasaurus.com window poped-up and there was a check ready to sign.I had to call this number; 1-407-277-4957 and when they answered I had to say my Transaction number.
Of course, I had won!
The only problem was; I couldnt get my award into somthing useful without without giving them my Visa-account information and then purchase some other trip FIRST!
For two minutes I was happy, then i found this site!!