Okay, I received a call from Robert,1 419 867 6783 . He stated that I had entered a contest and was in the final stages. I don't remember when or where I entered the contest. He told me that I'd at least win 4th prize which was a flat Screen Toshiba TV. He mentions a car, cash, and a trip as well. He did explain to me that there would be someone talking to me about a new network to save money on travel and accommodations etc. and that afterwards I would get a ticket and would win one of the 4 prizes. I wasn't sure, and thought what the heck. He made it sound very legit. He did say it wasn't a scam, and they were following the letter of the law. I got an address and a time to be there. He was very polite to me and very enthusiastic. He said I'd receive a confirmation email with all the info that I needed, and if I didn't get one, to call him back. I did get the email.
Okay, what this is, is a sales pitch. They get your name from contests that they hold, or if you purchase from Travelocity, Expedia etc. It's for United Travel Network. What happens is you get there to their office. You register. They give you a questionnaire to fill out. Once you fill it out you wait until all the other people are there and registered. Then someone calls you into a room and you listed to a presentation on how they can save you money on your next vacation. Once this person is done explaining how they save you thousands on hotels, etc, then the owner comes in and talks to you. He's going to tell you that for $11,900 you can join their group and you can go anywhere you want within their network of hotels, motels, retreats, condos and more for $96 for the week. He tells you that since this is their grand opening he's going to drop the price down to $8,600. And that each year you will be paying $400.00 a year in renewal costs. That if you don't plan on vacationing that year that you don't have to pay the renewal for that year. He makes the package sound too good to be true.
What he doesn't tell you is that it's only $96 for the hotel, condo etc. He doesn't tell you that you will need to pay for food, flight, entertainment etc. Even though they say they can save you up to 70%. But that's probably a rare case. Most will probably be like 25%. Also you join and pay this one time fee. What if this network flops? Then what? You're out your money. You could have saved the money and used it on a trip that you'd get your money's worth on and would not have wasted it.
After he speaks to you then he has his "travel consultants" talk to you and they try to get you to buy into this "great deal." I told the travel consultant no that we were not interested. He kept asking us why and we told him that right now we just didn't have the money to be spending. He dropped it down so that our "payments" would be $90 a month. We told him NO.
Finally he accepted that we were not going to buy into this sales pitch and then brought us to the front and gave us a scratch off ticket. We won the trip. However, there were several selections to choose from Trip to the Bahamas a 3 day two night stay at one of their 60 locations etc. Most of the cruises you have to pay taxes of $175-$300 per person. You pay the airfare plus taxes. Also it's not that great of a deal because they make you pick from THEIR resources. You can't just pick what you want.
We got the "free 3 day 2 night trip" but their $1000 online shopping spree is not a shopping spree. They send you to their "official shop zone" and purchase items from their store. They take the SRP (suggested retail price) off of your certificate total but you still have to PAY what their "Their price, S&H" charges. It's not an actual "shopping spree." It's just a way to get you to purchase from their store, and to get memberships." It's a rip off.
There is one car, one TV and one $2500 for the whole midwest area. Once they are gone..everyone gets the "trip".
Suzy - thanks for the post, I found it when my husband was trying to get me to go with him to presentation by this 'United Travel Network'. We got an 'invitation' from them by mail, saying that we 'won' free airline tickets..
Thanks for the ammunition I needed to convince my husband that it's a scam before wasting any time going to their 'presentation'
Thanks again :)
Got a message from this number that I was a finalist in a contest for an SUV and a Flat screen TV. Of course I have not entered any such contest. I decided to call the number back, blocking my number. An answering machine picked up saying his is Robert from Verifications or something of that nature. The answering machine sounded like a Big Lots special. I did a search and found the post above. First time I have seen this site. It will be in my favorites. Good looking out for our fellow man.
I just got home from work and I too had a call on my answering machine from Robert @ 419-867-6783. I smelled a scam and decided to research the telephone number and low and behold, I found all you lucky people LOL. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for your posts about a message from Robert. I didn't enter any such contest either. I have recently won a contest from Yahoo! and "won" a drawing from a bridal show - but the bridal show and the yahoo contests were both legit. Thanks to those of you who poston the internet to save your fellow Americans from going on a wild goose chase.