mpalmer@dvinci.DEC (M. Lawrence Palmer) (04/25/85)
A few weeks ago, I received a flyer in the mail promoting a new condo timeshare development to be built in Newport. Like the many other flyers of this sort that assert their ways into my mailbox, it promised a week's vacation giveaway for just coming down to hear the salespitch. The difference with this one was that it also included roundtrip airfare - usually if you read the fine print they pay for a hotel room but the airfare is up to you. The destination - Honolulu! Specifically, it promised roundtrip fare for one and a hotel for two for 6 days. I called the 800 number and asked some questions; it seemed legitimate enough to warrant a try. So I drove down to Newport, listened to the pitch (not very high pressure), said a polite "no thank yew", and got a *trip voucher* for the Hawaii holiday. I was waiting all along for some catch, but the only restrictions seem to be : a) reservations 60 days in advance b) go before November c) * a $200.00 deposit * to be refunded upon arrival at resort they also include no phone number on the voucher and specify that everything must be done by mail. Has anyone heard of this? If I hear no bad news I'm going to send in the 200 and see what happens... the companies involved are: 1 - The Wellington Group, Newport - the guys building the condo who contract 2 - a marketing company whose name I forget, who offer vacations from 3 - Hawaiian Adventures, Inc. of Naples, Florida thanks for any help M. Lawrence Palmer decvax!decwrl!rhea::dvinci::mpalmer Save the Lemmings!
root@idmi-cc.UUCP (Admin) (04/30/85)
> > A few weeks ago, I received a flyer in the mail promoting a new condo > timeshare development to be built in Newport. ... > it promised roundtrip fare for one and a hotel for two for 6 days. ... > I was waiting all along for > some catch, but the only restrictions seem to be : > a) reservations 60 days in advance > b) go before November > c) * a $200.00 deposit * to be refunded upon arrival at resort > > they also include no phone number on the voucher and specify that everything > must be done by mail. > > M. Lawrence Palmer > decvax!decwrl!rhea::dvinci::mpalmer *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MASSAGE *** The only _potential_ misdirection here may be that you are *_required_* to use the hotel stay for 2 (count 'em two) people. ie/ if you show up alone you loose your $200.00 deposit. I can not say this will actualy be the case, but having had dealings with this kind of thing myself, I advise you to be extreemly careful and ask every question you can *_especially_* the stupid sounding ones. Also, read *_everything_* twice carefully, though many of these offers are reasonably on the level, some of them are designed to soak you on a technicality ("If you read your prize notice sir you will see we only pay for the guided tour _to_ the myan temple not back to your hotel, of corse for a fee.....). My point is that I and others on the net can theorize a whole lot for you, and even give you some tips from previous experience (like I did), but it will probably all boil down to - "Read every line in your prize notice, and ask about every line. If the answers you get do not match what you thought you read - get the 'clairification' in writing, signed and dated. If you are told to expect something that does not appear in your prize notice - get the promise in writing, signed and dated. The general rule of thumb this promotes is - If it isn't in writing, you can't prove it was promised, if it is in writing and you don't get it - you can take legal action to get it (or fair compensation) if you are so inclined."