Blue Green Travel

Free vacation Rip-Off with high pressure sales:

Folks,

I preach to my wife and kids about giving personal info over the phone.......especially bank accounts and credit card numbers!

What happened the "old man" did not heed his own advise.

Here's the story.........

My wife,, family and I visited the York RV show to look for local campgrounds to vacation. We recently purchased a used pop-up camper and want to use it for family weekends. During our visit to the show we filled out multiple "coupons" for freebies. In fact I won a cooler as a door prize! Hey life is good especially since I never win anything and maybe my luck has started to change!

Several days after the show I get a call from Clifford telling me I won one of the Grand Prize Promotional Orlando trips sponsored Universal Studios and the York RV show. Clifford catches me cold! Wow! I did remember filling out the Universal Studio forms at the show. I'm thinking maybe I really did win and my kids and wife have been expressing the keen interest of going to Disney World. We haven't been able to swing that vacation since I have some outstanding bills we have been paying down. I really do like to keep a great credit rating.

Regardless, I keep asking Clifford what's the "hook" and when are you "going to ask me for a check". Clifford says aren't you happy? and going over all the stuff I won. How fortunate I was! All I could do is mentally picture having a happy family going to Orlando a couple years earlier than expected. Hey maybe my frequent flyer miles from work could help off-set the cost of the flights. Clifford, my newest best friend, will also help me get the best flight rates. The trip is for to up to 5 family members for 6 days and 5 nights at the Radisson 5 minutes from the gates of Disney!

Now that my luck has changed....guess what....I also won a trip for 3 days and 2 nights to Vegas! Again, I start to tell Clifford how skeptical I am of the deal. Clifford asks me again aren't you HAPPY to have won and what a great package Universal and the York RV show has put together for me. I start to dig-in a little deeper! But Clifford reveals the last item which he really "shouldn't let me know about until after I'm registered." The last item is a trip for two to Aruba!

Twenty more minutes of intense pressure. Clifford "aren't you HAPPY!"

Ten more minutes .......Pressure...Pressure....Pressure....

Ok the fish is hooked. Pictures dance in my head of a smiling wife, a seven year old and a nine year old. OK register me, Clifford!

Set the hook the fish has taken the bait and it's a big one...

But wait for this small detail.

Now there is a small fee of $199.00 for the first two folks to cover the taxes. Hey that's $398.00..... and Oooh by the way Clifford works for Blue Green Travel who is setting this up for Universal Studios and the York RV show. My response is that I would like to research you guys but Clifford informs me he can not call back since Florida state law only allows him to call me once.....for my protection. Not too worry Universal's deal is so good since they take the cost of the trip as a write-off for promotional advertising. Clifford , my new best friend would hate for me to miss this great deal.

OK the visions of the happy family are still dancing in my head and by the way Dad's the cheap old fart. Has good fortune come to my door step and has skepticism jaded my life so much?

OK cheap dad will take the chance....the master card comes out. Why would I not want to take advantage of the good fortune!

Clifford takes the card and other info he needs to record our conversation as to what I'm getting. This is because the trip is so good to protect my interests.

Now I'm really uncomfortable with my new best friend. Are he and Blue Green setting me up as a non-paying bum if I back out! Slick!

The interview ends.....I end up with a customer service number, credit card approval number and an account number from Blue Green to set up the vacations later. No other documentation on the deal. I'm caught cold and pressured into a deal that I may or may not completely understand and oooh by the way I'm recorded taking the information that will serve Blue Green interests best.

Within the hour (my guess is minutes) the credit card charge shows on my account through the website.

I hit the web and find this site and Rip-off.com. Plenty of bad press on Blue Green Travel..........and they sell vacations hmmmmm.....

That's it I'm stopping the insanity! Common sense Dad reappears.

First I call the 800 number for customer service and tell them I want to cancel the charges before they go through. They are pending. Unfortunately, the accounting office has just gone home even though the charges have just showed up on my account. I'm sure I was the last transaction done for the day....yeah right. But Angel, the customer service rep thinks they will delete the charge prior to processing the following day. Guess what it's on the card the next day.

Next is the call to Master Card I cancel the card to prevent further exposure. Make a complaint against the charge....just in case they do not back it out. Much stress and a lot of extra work to try to put my mind at ease. I'm not their yet and still could be out of 400 bucks.

I believe I have the waterfront covered. But only time will tell.

The Moral of the story.....

1) Do not let your emotions come into play....if it's too good to be true, it is not true. I'm not greedy but only thought some good luck came my way.

2) Never give your personal info over the phone...if you do credit cards provide the best protection. I will personally never give info out over the phone, again. Not even the credit card.

3) If you get this type of call....stop the conversation as quickly as possible. These folks are good! The longer you are on the phone the better the chance they will find your "button" to push. Mine was my family. If you have to be rude do so...hang-up. My upbringing makes that level of rudeness difficult. As you hang up remember these folks... DO NOT HAVE YOUR INTEREST AT HEART.

4) If you go to an RV or other show at a fairgrounds etc. never sign the silly coupons. They are a scam and I'm sure the York RV show and Universal Studios is totally unaware of what they are doing. The fairgrounds/show only rents them the space.

I hope this provides value to some others out on the web.

Good Luck and God Bless!

Michael

Consumer Follow-up

Update to Complaint #71640, Blue Green Travel

After posting to the website I received a call from Blue Green Travel. The service representative apologized for the inconvenience and stated the high pressure sales methods were not in company "policy". He also noted that Blue Green Travel was publicly traded and wanted to assure they have a quality reputation.

All this activity happened after my posting to this website. Please understand I posted to this website and issued a complaint to their service department. Regardless, Blue Green Travel did not charge my credit card or contest the charges.

This closes my complaint process.