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
Hello All
Just had a brief glance at the latest postings. Curious to know what the little bird heard …
I recently chatted to someone who’s just spent the last 15 years living in the States. He says that these special package deals cost a dime a dozen to the travel companies and it’s obviously all part of a sales pitch in getting people to buy time-share – as that is where most of the accommodation is apparently offered. This is a personal opinion and I am in no way making specific reference to any company in this regard.
As you can imagine, someone who is well traveled and does so regularly, would not fall for the sales pitch or the package deal. They know good places with affordable rates and have definite ideas as to where they want to go.
I personally think that the travel companies make their money out of people who buy the package deals and then end up NOT using them. Be it because they are disgruntled with the purchase or, after having been bombarded by at least three people with heavy American accents (whom you barely understood on the telephone in the first place) you realise that it’s just not worth the effort. You have to expend huge amounts of money to travel from a foreign country in order to cash in on it, and attend some arbitrary breakfast tour of a city. *Yawn*
Since Sunkissed Travel has agreed to honour my holiday package, I’ll again see if I can find a buyer for it. Wish me good.
Dear Lane Geyer (Sun Kissed Travel)
It was about time that you made notice to this site. It was interesting reading your comments written in September 17th. You still claim to be a serious company but you sure don’t act like one.
I don’t deny that I gave you my acceptance to make a withdrawal from my credit card account and I’m sure that you can prove this by a recorded verification. This method is not unique. There are companies here in Sweden too using the same method in telemarketing but with a big difference, it is always possible to change your mind and have your money back without complications.
What makes Sun Kissed Travel a scam-company is that you refuse your “customers†to have their money refunded if they change their mind within 30 days from purchase even if they have a legal right to do so, according to US law.
A serious company does not blame their “customers†for giving away there card details. A serious company does not call attention to their “customers†obligations in the same time as they refuse to follow their own regulations. A serious company follows the law whether the “customer†lives in Sweden or in the US.
I have not had a refund yet. A while ago a guy called Mark phoned me and told me that my order was cancelled in Sun Kissed Travels ordering system and that I could expect to have my money refunded in a few days. I answered him that it sounded great but asked him to confirm this in an e-mail, but of course he didn’t. I have checked my account and there is no refund made yet.
Now I’m just sitting here waiting for the 30 days to go because before that time there is nothing my Credit Card Company can do to help me. I still believe there is a bit of justice out there and that my the Card Company can help me get my money back because they can also read US law and Sun Kissed Travels terms and conditions.
At last Royalty Holidays have given me a refund, they have kept there refund promise. Well almost, it was short of £121, they have told me that this was kept back until the package was received,and that that will be refunded in 7-10 working days.
I’m getting there, maybe tonight I’ll sleep without worrying.
Rich,
You provided some very valid points regarding our website and protection from events beyond our control. I have already addressed some of these issues and will continue to find viable solutions. Thank you for your input.
As I write we are preparing for another hurricane impact tonight and tomorrow thanks to Hurricane Rita. Wish us the best!
I would be intersted to know how gareth got on regarding getting a refund fron ‘Florida Holidays southsea’. My grandad who is 83 and gets a little confused got one of these calls in June telling him he had won a holiday and they managed to get his bank details and promply withdrew £698 from his bank account, which left him overdrawn. He has never received any letters or communication from them since. It wasn’t until he went into hospital recently and we went through his finances that we discovered this. I have reported it to Trading Standards but hold out little hope of getting his money back, he shouldn’t even get these calls as he is registered with the telephone prefernce service. how can these people sleep at night!!
Dear Lane Geyer,
Yes, it’s me: Sunkissed Travel’s most loathed purchaser of a holiday package! At least I imagine that I am.
You gracefully sidestepped Rich Boakes’ valid questions re your connection to Travasaurus. My related question: why does the Travasaurus blurb appear on R J Randall’s website, and no longer on http://www.travasaurus.com?
More worrying, is the fact that RJ Randall has the audacity to give a good testimonial i.r.o. Sunkissed when he/it’s part of the same outfit. That’s how I found the blurb on http://www.rjrandall.com. Is there not a huge conflict of interests in giving a good testimonial to a company that you’re in partnership with?
As regards my package, I was persuaded to sell it rather than get my refund within the 30 day period. You know my sop-story about weeks of no communication or cooperation from Sunkissed Travel in Tamarac. My buyer lost faith in your package, saw it as a scam and pulled out of the buy.
Surely that should be sufficient grounds for me to cancel the dreaded package which has been a headache fom day one?
Surely you can understand my frustration at not getting any cooperation or customer service from the people who “vacation the nation”.
Sunkissed Travel and its representatives refused and/or neglected to contact me. They only got in touch after I threatened to contact the FBI on a telephonic message I left.
Please tell me this: Is SunkissedTravel is not in breach of it’s own terms and conditions by ignoring a paying customer for weeks on end? You purport a 24 hour turn-around time I.R.O. enquiries (on your web site).
I look forward to having my questions answered as where I come from, a breach of contract is as good as a cancellation.
I would also appreciate you reminding Michele Taylor that I am still awaiting the snail mail arrival of my voice recording as regards my purchase of the package.
Update: rjrandall.com is currently showing only an ISP generated error page. It used to look like this.
Thank you Rich. Affiliated travel companies surely should not boast the same seller of travel licence number, even if they work hand in hand.
Each company should surely still be registered as a separate entity regardless of who it “partners” with. Just a lay opinion…
These travel companies seem to be well protected by their fine print. That same fine print and their code of conduct does not seem to protect the rights of the customer when it is THEM reneging on an agreement. 24 hour turn around time/48 hour turn around time in my opinion should be substituted with: “It may take us weeks to respond to your polite enquiry as to your travel dates.”
Hey Rich, keep up the good work, a few more developments, it would appear celebrationpromotions.com are back doing the rounds, although when you click on their website you go to destinationsforyou.com and title of the web page is Celebration World Resort.
Also around the South Manchester/Cheshire area a company called Sunshinetravelescapes.com are calling delighted customers with news of their “vacation of a lifetime”
Oh and it’s now 112 days since I was promised my refund from Robert@amerivacation.com or calypsocay.com who have now reduced the size of their mail box to stop my email bombardment to them.
I may be one of the very few people who actually received a refund this week from Amerivacation after being conned into buying a holiday package. It has taken me from 12th May to obtain this refund and I had just about given up. After numerous phone calls, emails and letters, I followed the advice about writing to cancel by quoting the Florida Consumer Law to them. I received my refund twelve days later.
I was amazed to say the least. I also wrote to the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services and sent copies of all my correspondence to Amerivacation. Whether this helped I don’t know as I have not received any reply from them yet. I still can’t believe that I actually did get a refund (albeit minus £14)and that they actually did what they said they would (even if it took over 3 months for them to do it!)
Hi everybody,
what I wanna know is quite simple: did anybody go on vacation with sunkissedtravel? I bought the package and I am planing to go in two months and after reading all this… Will I come to Florida and there will be no hotel booked……
Any lurking sunkissed veterans out there? Note: if you’re going to break silence, you’ll probably end up being asked all kinds of questions about total costs, flighs, hotels, missing nights, taxes, how much you spent, how easy it was to get the dates you wanted, etc. etc!
Spela, I assume you read this already.
I have begun a process to cancel an offer from Royalty Holidays, has anyone heard or dealt with them already???
Their address is texas although they are offering holidays in florida, does the florida state statutes cover this as I have sent the standard letter of cancellation from the boakes.org address.
Any suggestions??
Hi Oonagh,
you can use this search to quickly discover each mention of the company.
There’s definitely been one successful cancellation.
Rich
Saved by my creditcard’s excess limit!
SunkissedTravel’s discounted holiday offer is like putting a financial gun to your head.
Let the buyer beware.
Hi
Thank you for this website. It lets me know I’m not the only one out there, who falls for these scams… An hour and 30 minutes after hanging up the phone, I called my bank to close my card!! Now I’m just hoping that they didn’t empty my account during those 90 minutes…
This was by the way Starr-Getaways and the Danish Government has a website alerting us not to fall in…
I’ll keep in touch to let you now how fast they are
TC, Denmark
Help!!!!!!!!!!! (Travasaurus)
Hi Rich,Amerivacation on Yahoo now goes back to the HolidayFloridausa.com website,same phone number, different address but still nobody to answer the calls or return them.
Check out the guarantee page where they say that Florida state law only offers a 3 day cancellation period but they will “generously” make this up to 30 days, very nice of them, that means they are now 85 days overdue on my refund.
Its good to see that somebody has received a refund from Amerivacation or Amerisuites or Calypsocay or HolidayFloridausa or whatever they will be called next week, maybe it will be my turn soon!!!
I have to say that even if this matter gets sorted out and somebody offered me a “legitimate” free holiday of a lifetime in Florida with no hidden extras i would have to tell them to put it where the “sunshine state” dont shine.
just found out that i have been conned by celebraionpromotions.com the phone number given is the one you put out. number 08009177462 i have been trying it to find out when i can book the holidays but cant get through so i tried to find out through the internet. i found your site with the scam. anyway of getting back the money ??? i paid in full. i feel like a jerk now.
It seems Sunkissed Promotions Inc alias Sunkissed Travel is an existing travel agency with a licence located in Orlando. I found the name of the business in a recent business list of Orlando [PDF].
However, I could not find ‘Amerivacation’ in this list. So, I believe that we can conclude that everyone who was contacted by ‘Amerivacation’ was the victim of a scam operation because Amerivaction is also supposed to be located in Orlando.
AmeriVacation
7800 Southland Blvd. Suite #120
Orlando, Florida 32809
A lot of people have wrote about ameriscams and my wife also got into trouble with this from Sunkissed Travel.
As a matter of fact we got our money refund in less than a month (Eureka!) though but after lots of emails, letters, facsimiles, phone calls and finally even contacting the Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services. They did respond in less than two days and I really want to thank them for their help to refund our money.
To everybody out there, be persistent and you will get it back!!!
Hi Dan,
To inform you we just managed to get our money back from Sunkissed Travel. That is hopeful. Just be persistent and follow the steps as boakes.org tell you in one of their links.
It took us by the way a lot of phone calls, emails, letters, facsimiles and even contacts with the Florida State Agriculture and Consumer Services. Trust me, it is worth contacting them. They got back to me the next day by letter.
/Another swedish guy.
I am still awaiting my tape-recorded verification from Sunkissed Travel.
I am happy to see that obtaining refunds have become much less painful.
The address given for Sunkissed Travel on the Orlando Business List does not match the Tamarac address provided on their website and on their correspondence, but I do believe that they have more than one branch, so it’s all looking good.
Hi there, could Lorna who posted on the 20th September please let me know which address and what phone number she used to get her money back from Amerivacation as i have 4 different addresses and 5 different phone numbers, none of which ever get answered, thanks.
Hi again
Just want you all to know that they didn’t get my money…
So at least they are over 90 minutes to collect…
They still haven’t send me that e-mail they promissed though, even though I should have received “within an hour”… I hope they have forgotten me!
Saved by this and other great internet sites…
Hi there, after I hang up the phone and thought, well what an fool I have been, not looking for your holiday yourself but let the holiday look for you………..and a destination you do not want to go to I cancelled immediately with the sunkissed travel over the customerservice e-mail since all the others given were not working. I instantly got a positive reply, cancelled at no costs, the rest is the credit card company’s business.
The working e-mail adress for Sunkissed is: joseqamgr@aol.com. If you believe or not – it got through. We have to be honest, the whole is our own fault, not hanging up the hook after 2 minutes.
Just wanna thank everyone for helping me lose my job at Sunkissed Travel, the Longwood(Orlando) office is now closed.
With all your negativity about a legitimate company look what you have done. If I knew where you all worked, if you lame people even do work I would be on the phone to them about your actions. JW
Hi John – I’m sure everyone reading your message will no doubt extend sympathies to you at this difficult time, and I dare say some will be disappointed that your tone has turned negative, but I’m sure they’ll see your predicament. Your comments regarding this whole curious affair have been constructive (until this last one) and interesting, so I don’t doubt your ability to find alternative employment, and I’m sure everyone will wish you every fortune in this.
Readers may remember one of JohnW’s previous comments which said:
I’d held back from posting John’s original comment, and also edited the above text because to publish John’s stated intention would have rendered it unfulfillable.
John’s said he was going to “go undercover”. Here’s the original message, in full:
At the time I had no reason to believe that John hadn’t “just moved to Orlando”, but I also had no reason to overtly trust him. It just seemed sensible to hold back on that message if John was “gonna go undercover”.
From John’s message today, it appears he may have accepted a position with Sun-Kissed Promotions Inc. and not Eastern Pacific Holdings as he originally stated.
It seems that I have been ripped by the same kind of people.
when i started google a popup appeared,saying that i won a nice price and to contact them direct. What I did, stuppid enough.
The name of the compagny starr-getaway.com.
I am from Holland can anywone tell how to get my money back
thank you for helping me
emanuel mol
Hi Emanuel, there is a fairly detailed action plan that you can follow; hopefully that is enough to get you started.
Hey John W, us lame people work damn hard and it peeves us off when people like you try and screw us. There is a big list of companies on the first page of this site, i am pretty sure one of them will give you a job, you probably know most of the people concerned with them anyway.
To a girl from Germany,
What is our own fault? Is it that we let us being fooled by swindlers? I wonder if you would have the same opinion if you hadn’t got your money back?
To John W (former Travel Agent),
I’m sorry you lost your job but I don’t think you can blame all dissatisfied customers. If Sunkissed Travel had acted like a legitimate company in the first place they had probably not ended up on this website and you would still be working as a Travel Agent.
It sounds as though John W was rather attempting to take on an investigative role with a travel company than as that of a permanent employee. In stating as much, I got the impression that John W was on the consumers’ side and was hoping to uncover something interesting…
Alas. It turns out that this was not the case. Why pose as a martyr on this site and then bust our balls because you lost your job, John?
I doubt that Sunkissed Travel would be happy to know that you intended accepting a job with them, only to see if you could uncover some juicy irregularities in their business practices.
I too have been rentreched, so I know the feeling. Maybe you should start by only accepting positions with ASTA members. Just a thought… use it, don’t use it.
I got a popup from probably ww.carols.org.uk, it told me i had won a free cruise with Florida Sunny Holiday. When I clicked on the link it led me to a page that said “Calculating your winnings” and came to a total of £1101.00. I called and spoke to a gentleman Dan Morris a very nicely spoken man, but he seemed to keep answering questions that I hadn’t asked him!
He told me that becuse of high volumes they could only process my claim number one time, so I had to decide before the end of the phone call, but in the meantime he would tell me all about it. He did, at length. After 10 minutes I felt a little uneasy about the deal (because I hadn’t really won anything) so I asked if they were ABTA bonded (or maybe something similar). Dan didn’t know so I spoke next to Bill Stevens.
Bill began by congratulating me again, thre were lots of congratulations on the call.
Bill told me there is a thing called the Florida Sellers of Travel Bureau that his company (Celebration World Resort) belong to.
Bill then started to “process” my details. He asked for my Credit card, but (no!) I’d left my wallet in the car. Bill was kind enough to put me back through to Dan, who WAITED on the line for TEN MINUTES while I fetched my wallet!
While I was away I thought about the travel license thing and when I returned I asked Bill for their membership number and he said he didn’t know it. I was uneasy about that, so pushed a little more. He said “somebody in legal will probably know it”. So I asked to speak to them. Bill said he’d put me through to legal once he had a few of my particulars, including my American Express number.
I told him I wasn’t parting with my number until I was sure that his company was registered and licensed with this bureau he’d just told me about, but Bill refused and said I should look at the website of the company “cos they’re not going anywhere” and that the “Florida Sellers of Travel doesn’t protect you, it’s your credit card that protects you”.
Bill asked me “to give him 5% of my trust now”. That 5%, surprise surprise, is the 5% that protects my credit card number, so I repeated my request to speak with someone who might know about their license number.
Bill said nobody was available! He’d just put a transatlantic call on hold for 10 minutes, but refused to find out a license number for me. I told him that unless he could prove his company was licensed, I would not be taking my “prize”.
Bill politely ended the call.
My web browser saved the web addresses and they are:
http://media.fastclick.net/w/pc.cgi?mid=45368&sid=14326 and
http://216.130.184.136/adv106/Winner.htm and
http://www.urprize.com/FCV/Insurance.htm
I don’t feel so bad now for telling him there is a spelling mistake in the headline of that last page! Does anybody know if this company has a license?
i am a scared and worried young girl,some time back i came across this website”travasaurus.com” i was led to believe that i had won a cruise for two. the problem is that i give them my personal information: my real name,phone nr,country and email adress. i even called their number.
is it possible for them to use my my personal info in an iligal way? and will they do so?
my parents are going to kill me!!
To Dan,
I am talking about those people that cancel their package before they even get it, they See a pop-up ad, buy the package, and then cancel without even getting the package yet. People are being led to believe that the company is a scam by what people are posting on here, so they cancel right away. Sunkissed travel is a legitimate company. I experienced the cancellations due to this site. I sold many a holiday to find out later that they had cancelled. I called them back to find out why, and the main reason was that they saw negative info on this site.
JohnW
Just been called up this evening by some American/Canadian sounding woman who said she was calling from a company who call themselves “Holiday Rewards”, the first thing I asked was if I was being charged for the call as that is another scam, especially with SMS text calls. She told me that they were paying for the call, that I had also won a holiday and was really excited for me, I was struggling to find the equal amount of excitement as I was sure that this was a scam, after all, you never get something for nothing. I gave her my name and number, she gave me her name as “Millie” before the line went dead… She must have realised by this time that I wasn’t up for falling for the scam. I’m glad she didn’t realise I was a Brummie as she might have kept me on the line all night
)
I had a phone call about 15 minutes ago tonight (29.09.05) from holiday rewards, Margaret telling me I’ve won a holiday. Yes, and you’ve woken my baby up! I am so mad as my 8 month old son is full of cold (as am I) and the phone woke him. Obviously if it had been a friends/family call fair enough, but to have the hassle of soothing him back to sleep with a stuffy nose & a cough because of these scamsters is extremely annoying. If I had an address for them they’d be getting a very strongly worded letter from me!
Hi Rich
How is my change to get a refund from SunShineTravel. When they say´s, yes – we have received a cancellation letter from you, but not the vacation package before the 30 days, and then we can not refund you.
We have return the package, but they received the package pass the 30 days, because we have som problems with DHL, we thought they have returned it.
Hi Lone, contact the DOACS as soon as possible.
To paraphrase the relevant section of Florida State Statute 559.933:
What this is saying is that, firstly, you have thirty days from when you receive the package, this means that you have more than 30 days after the booking is made. It’s also saying that you only have to request to cancel, that is enough, if a licensed seller of travel refuses to honour a request to cancel, then they are being unlawful.
Returning the package is merely a part of the process, of course it should be returned promptly, but the Statute is quite specific that you only have to request the refund.
Hi John W,
I’m in absolute agreement with you that Sun-Kissed Promotions Inc. is a legitimate (i.e. real) company. It is a registered seller of travel in Florida, and the DOACS have confirmed this to me personally, which I’ve already mentioned elsewhere. Furthermore both Paul Gustke (Florida Reservations Manager) and Lane Geyer (General Manager) have visited this site and been involved in the disussion, their comments leave me in no doubt that Sunkissed is a legitimate (i.e. real) company.
You mentioned that you had “experienced cancellations due to this site”, and in so doing you confused the disussion forum with the reason for the discussion.
This site contains comments from several Sunkissed customers, who, for various reasons, are unhappy because they have had difficulty interacting with Sunkissed. Jacqui Burger’s situation (for example) appears to have been caused by poor communication, and Lane Geyer’s comments support this interpretation. Lane’s comments suggest that Sunkissed does not have a resilient communications infrastructure; they also confirm and explain why people have had difficulty emailing, telephoning or just visiting the sunkissed website.
At the time of writing http://www.sunkissedtravel.com is again blank, whilst home.sunkissedtravel.com is working. Such communication problems are unlikely to leave a glowing impression on anyone who experiences them, or reads about them, but they are not the fault of this site, responsibility can’t lie with any party but Sunkissed.
Another factor that I think is worth mentioning is that there is confusion about the multiple Sunkissed brands, which is (I think) largely due to a lack of information. I had hoped to clarify this but Lane Geyer was noticably unresponsive to a direct question about the relationship between SunkissedTravel.com, travasaurus.com and RJRandall.com, even when reminded. Ignoring such a straightforward question; one that’s obviously there to reduce confusion and clarify matters, might be misinterpreted by readers.
There is a deeper issue however. People have left comments describing how they have received phone calls or popups from Sunkissed/Travasaurus in which they are told that they have won something. So the initial contact with potential customers is based on the pretext that the customer has won something, when they have not, so the whole relationship begins with deception. Once the “lucky winner” gets off the phone, they start to realise that they’ve just been talked into spending a lot of money that they had not planned for, and start to wonder (worry) about how to get their money back.
Such deception, in the eyes of many readers, is an illigitimate practice, it does not alter the legitimacy of the company, but it certainly diminishes it’s reputation. Such loss of reputation is (again) not the fault of this site, it is the fault of any company that engages in the practice.
Finally, regardless of whether they’re qualified or valid, concerns about the recent hurricanes are also likely to feature strongly in people’s consideration at the moment, so whilst a telesales pitch may be good enough to influence an impulse purchase, I speculate that customers are currently far more likely to reconsider after the call has ended.
In summary, I have shown that the cancellations you have mentioned are, a result of the underlying issues that are being discussed here, and not a result of “this site” as you originally stated. I am, of course, pleased to hear that this site may have assisted some readers to make a more informed decision than they would otherwise have been able to make, and I am pleased that I have also been able to assist them in acting promptly upon that decision by informing them of the rights granted to them by Florida State.
hi im linda, this company rang me and asked me if i wanted a cheap holiday to florida, they said it would only cost £598.00, we already booked our holiday and we just wanted to know if its a scam.
their telephone number is 0800 066 4935 and their website is http://www.celebrationworld resort.com
Hello again
Happy and releived, all too soon…
They got my money even though I had cancelled my card!
The bank says, that since they had ordered it on the 22nd of September then it was possible for them to get the money even from a cancelled card the 28th… I’m pissed at my bank, since I was told this was not possible… I haven’t recieved anything from Starr Getaways no e-mails or packages or anything, nor do I have the energy to fight, but I will have to find it…
TC
I have just found out about Alex Hemani today and i actually work for him and dont even know what to do now…i have a wife and 3 step kids.
But i do know where to find him each day….is there a reward for him ? is he wanted by the police or journalists?
Rich,
I did go to work for Eastern Pacific Holdings for 4 days until a person I had met in my apt. complex told me that it was not a good idea to be there because I could end up in big trouble because they were going to be raided soon so my initial plan went down the drain. They seemed to be legit but apparently not.
JohnW
The best way to get your money back is simply refusing packages and writing cancellation letters to all parties involved. If you don’t accept the merchandise it should be pretty obvious to the credit card companies and the scam companies that you decided to cancel your contract within the 30-day cancellation period. Accepting packages that you do no want, only complicates things. The scam companies could claim that you want to make the trip without paying for it. Those claims could make it difficult for the bank to rembourse you.
However, if you refused the package and written cancellation letters and your bank keeps on refusing to return the money, I suggest that you cancel your credit card or close your bank account and start looking for another bank. My bank returned my money after 15 days. I do not even know if AmeriVacation returned the money to them. The point is that the bank returned me my money because I could clearly demonstrate that I had been ripped off.
Hi John (Smith), is your employment anything to do with the companies that have been mentioned?
Hi Linda,
How refreshing to hear of a company ringing you and asking if you’d like a cheap holiday, rather than telling you you’d won something. If you’re not registered with any do-not-call lists then you’re the first person to comment who’s been contacted in a wholly legitimate manner. Let’s hope such honesty continues.
The company you mention (CWR) is, from what I can gather, a timeshare resort that had previously contracted out it’s marketing to Amerivacation, which is why it’s involved in this discussion.
Rich
Hi JohnW, thanks for the clarification.
I think we have been caught in this one too! Is Sunshine Travel Escapes another of these linked companies?