WHERE IT HAPPENED?
-Okay so I went to a festival on Labour day weekend in Hamilton at Gage Park. I entered this draw to win a "Free" vacation to Fort Lauderdale Florida, or to the Bahamas. A few days later I got a phone call from a private name/private number. It was the Ramada Plaza Resort Orlando-Fort Lauderdale.
I thought I won this amazing dream vacation. Only to find out they needed my visa card. Not thinking I gave it to them. Afterwards I asked the representative why they needed my visa if it was a free vacation and she then said it wasn't. It was a "promotional" deal. Then she said I'd have to pay $795 US plus hidden fee's for the vacation. So what did the vacation consist of?
VACATION PACKAGE:
-11 day 10 night Imperial cruise to the bahamas. A trip to Fort Lauderdale Florida, Orlando and a bonus trip of my choice to Mexico (5 days 4 nights), or Las Vegas (3 days 2 nights). I'd stay at Daytona Beach with a 7 day car rental in Florida plus free tickets to Disney world. A round trip for two adults to the bahamas with stops learning to snorkle, scuba dive & while aboard free dinner, spa treatement etc.
I could use this trip or sell it. I'd have to call them 60 days in advanced before I wanted to go on my vacation. The total package in retail would be $3285. $795 American would be the total that I'd have to pay for this amazing vacation (not including my own way to florida & insurance).
After hearing all this I was pissed off. The lady already had my visa number and charged the $795 Us ($1060.22 Canadian) to my visa. She then refered me to another guy on the phone a security coordinator. He asked me to confirm my address and asked all these questions. I said "this sounds like a scam, and I dont give you authorization to bill my visa account." (the conversation was recorded, again). He tried fighting it by saying "Ya but would you just give your visa to anyone? you just did! " I told him there is no way I give him any authorization to use my visa at all and he said he'd lower the cost for me. I said no, you still don't have my permission.
Then he said the only thing he could do would be to 'freeze' my visa account for 10 days. After the 10 days the money would be put back on my visa. He said that usually the money is replaced within 3-4 days. I asked him for a contact number and he wouldn't give me any other then the one he called. I said listen, you just got done telling me that if I was a customer and had a problem I could talk to a customer service rep. So I asked him for that number & then he said "you are not a customer are you, so you don't need the customer service number".
After fighting he gave me the customer service number. My dad heard the whole thing (the idiot was on speaker phone during this whole ordeal)& faught with the guy. Anyway the guy told me that if I wanted to cancel, I'd have to call the customer service tomorrow and see if it'd still be possible and fight with them about it. I immediately called my visa specialist and told the manager what happened.
They are trying to work with me now on this case. I found this site by going to Yahoo.com & typing in the customer service number (1-800-203-9783) in the search engine. Now, I know it really is a scam. I guess if something seems to good to be true, it probably is.
RAMADA INFO:
-Ramada Plaza Resort Orlando Fort Lauderdale Vacation:
1-800-203-9783 customer service.
-Oh and their Original site is :
"Disneyworld hotels"
www.4biz.com/nts/rsg.html
WHAT TO DO? :
-If you go through the same thing, you have to call the customer service number (above) and fight for your rights. You have 10 legal days to get your money back in Ontario if you've bought something over the phone by a telemarketer by using your visa. In the states it's 30 (Hung, Albania Ontario wrote). You also ask for a "authorization-reversal" & confirmation sent to your email address incase you need it for legal purposes.
Good luck to everyone, some people are sick.
Brianne
Hamilton, Ontario
Canada
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