tags: Scams
Ameri-who?
March 7th, 2005, by Rich.
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I just got a wonderful telemarketing call …
| Me: | Hello. |
| Me: | Hello?. |
| Me: | Helllllo? |
| Me: | [pauses] |
| Me: | Hello?. |
| Me: | Sorry I’m not receiving any audio from your end, so if you can hear me, hang up, or if you’re an automated dialler I’m just going to keep on so you pay for the call. |
| After just enough time for a generic answer phone message to have completed, a recording began to playback at me: | |
| Recording: | Congratulations! You have just won the jackpot! Hi my name is Michael Smith from the Corporate Reward Centre in Las Vegas. You have just won the jackpot! Please call ring free 0800 091 0084 to claim your prize and matching your claim code: Jackpot. Again that number is ring free 0800 091 0084. Congratulations, and we look forward to speaking to you. |
So, noting that my star sign is Inquisitive (with Curious rising) and knowing that 0800 numbers are freephone; I called them:
| Kitty: | Amerisuites Vacations this is Kitty, how may I help? |
| Me: | Who? |
| Kitty: | Amerisuites Vacations this is Kitty. |
| Me: | Sorry, What Vacations? |
| Kitty: | Amerisuites, like America but without the ca and add Suites. |
| Me: | Oh, OK, I’d like to collect my jackp… |
| Kitty: | *click* *beeeeeeeeep* [Kitty ends the call] |
My telephone number is registered with the Telephone Preference Service a UK body that regulates commercial phone spam, so legally they’re not allowed to call me, but they’re trying to force a loophole where commercial calls are banned but, they theorize, by calling it a competition, they can avoid prosecution.
So, not only has this company cold-called my TPS registered number, but they’ve also hung up on me, that’s just plain rude, I wanted to know who and what they are:
So, I called them, again:
| Carla: | Welcome to Amerivacations this is Carla. |
Carla proceeded to take my first name and asked for the number from which I’d called to check what prize I’d won. I gave her a false number. Surprisingly this had no ill effect because Carla came back and told me that I’d won £1301 towards a holiday in Florida, and that it was part of a prize fund allocated to 100 people and there were only 10 claims left on the fund - [irony alert] what luck!
Being a happy soul about this I mentioned that I’m in the UK, and that Carla didn’t sound local; she told me she was in Orlando Florida, and reiterated that this was a free call for me (just to make me really feel like I was special).
She then went on to explain that to claim my prize I’d need to pay the balance on a holiday in Florida at a Ramada resort near near Disneyworld - the package balance £598 for 16 days holiday for 4 - effectively an 80% discount.
The is is not a competition or a lottery, this company is selling holidays; there is no way to claim a “prize” without actually purchasing something, at which point they’ll discount the value of that prize from the purchase cost.
From the TPS website: “Under Government legislation introduced on 1st May 1999 and replaced on 11th December 2003 by the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, it is unlawful to make unsolicited direct marketing calls to individuals who have indicated that they do not want to receive such calls.”
Carla also explained that they are trying to rekindle interest in America as a vacation venue. She also explained that they are able to make these amazing offers because they keep their costs low, which they do in two ways:
- Direct Dialing.
- Word of Mouth.
Well, by direct-dialling me, unlawfully, they’ve certainly got a little word-of-mouth advertising.
The comments below add a lot of detail and you might also be interested in this followup article.
May 27th, 2005 at 8:58 am
Hello everbody,
Got my holiday package through yesterday, unfortunately for me somebody was in so they signed for it. I inted to send it back today through the post; I can’t afford to send it back by DHL!
It does state in a letter sent in the package:
The customer satisfaction bit makes me laugh! Jokes aside has anybody who has sent their parcel back recieved any money?
May 27th, 2005 at 9:42 am
Hello again!
Have decided not to send my package back. Instead l have used the watchdog draft letter cancelling an order, which states that l will keep the goods until a refund of my deposit let you know if anything happens. Wish me luck! I will send it by airsure so l hope it gets there in time!
May 27th, 2005 at 10:43 am
Hello Everyone,
If you manage to get the tracking number of your package and if you look it up on the DHL website you will find that the sender is not disclosed. You are also unable to follow the package en route. Now, why would an honest company do that? For example, if you buy a book with amazon.com, which i consider an honest company, you are able to track the whole voyage of package. This is cleary a scam.
Good luck everyone with these jerks,
May 27th, 2005 at 10:44 am
Hello Everyone,
If you manage to get the tracking number of your package and if you look it up on the DHL website you will find that the sender is not disclosed. You are also unable to follow the package en route. Now, why would an honest company do that? For example, if you buy a book with amazon.com, which i consider an honest company, you are able to track the whole voyage of your package. This is cleary a scam.
Good luck everyone with these jerks,
May 27th, 2005 at 10:48 am
Hello again,
Apparently hundreds of people have been scammed by these jerks. So, why don’t we start a class action law suit against them? They obviously only state the following in their package deals to avoid legal hassling:
This vacation package prides itself in CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, and in accordance to Florida State Laws, allows you to cancel this contract without obligation within 30 days from date of purchase or RECEIPT OF PACKAGE,which ever occurs later; under section 559.933 of Florida State statutes.
May 27th, 2005 at 10:49 am
Similarly, the if you lookup the domain registration information for amerivacation.com, et al. They’ve gone through an anonymising service for every domain, again trying to make if difficult to track themselves down.
May 27th, 2005 at 11:23 am
I’m TPS registered, and get about five of these calls a week. Are they using the TPS supression list as their call list?
What I’ve taken to doing, because I’m a twisted little bunny, is calling the number, saying hello, and telling them they’ve been selected as a lucky winner, and offering to sell them the first thing I think of. Several times a day, until I get bored!
It’s an 0800 number and therefore free from a BT landline
May 27th, 2005 at 2:55 pm
It seems others have come up with inventive ways of returning the calls of amerivacations and their sibling companies. Having taken some quotes from Tom Hanks movies they called back.
May 27th, 2005 at 6:32 pm
I don’t know if this better business bureau is worth more than the webpage it is written on since a search on Amerivacation nor on Amerisuites vacation club did come up with something. I suppose it should already come up with at least one complaint since Vicky filed already a complaint against them, no?
May 28th, 2005 at 1:38 am
I have emailed the company responsible for the TPS/MPS service. I have asked them to explain how any company can obtain numbers from the list of TPS registered people. I have also asked them to contact OFTEL so they can investigate the UK based company (Syntec UK Ltd). If you want to contact them and register your complaint then either of the following email addresses should suffice tps@dma.org.uk or dma@dma.org.uk