Be on the lookout for this Company!!!!
Grand Discovery, an entity of Millennium Travel and Promotions, invited me to attend a presentation they had regarding timeshares this past spring. I took my wife with me (who is allergic to sales pitches) to attend the presentation. She was already pissed off about going because (she is allergic to sales pitches) it was Friday after work and she was hungry. I thought the presentation was good but my wife was even more pissed off (her sales pitch allergies were acting up). The salesman brought his boss over to help him seal the deal. If he knew who my wife was, he would have realized that was a waste of time. The salesman’s boss made a joke that my wife thought was sexist. I guess it didn’t help that I laughed at the joke too. I guess marriage jokes aren’t for hungry wives with salesmen allergies. After the presentation, we decided that financially this would not be wise for us. We told the salesman that we would have to decline and he looked piss. He didn’t even say goodbye or shake our hands. It’s like being in a strip club without having any bills in your pocket. Eventually the strippers are going to stop asking you if you want a lap dance. I guess you are wondering why I attended a timeshare presentation when I knew I wasn’t going to buy a timeshare. Because they provided an incentive for me to go!!! Just for sitting through the presentation I was suppose to receive –
*2 roundtrip airfares anywhere in the Continental U.S.
*3 days and 2 night’s hotel accommodations for 2 adults.
*$150.00 in Gasoline rebate coupons.
*$30.00 in Dinner certificate good at any Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Smokey Bones or Bahama Breeze.
I thought I was going to leave with what I like to call the “Freeness” (aka Free Stuff). When people go to these presentations they usually end up with a gift. My Frat Brother received a Knife Set from one of these presentations. My parents have a grandfather clock because they attended a presentation. I know knives and a clock don’t sound sexy but roundtrip airline tickets do. But I should have known things were going to go downhill when I didn’t receive some of the “Freeness.” The first thing that was denied to me -
*No Gas coupon or Dinner certificate… : (
I was still holding out hope for the roundtrip airfare because I had it in writing (so I thought). All these cousins I have that are lawyers and I never called them. I should have because things got real shady when I wanted my airline tickets. To make a long story short –
They started making us jump through all these hoops in order to get the tickets. They kept returning our paperwork requesting that we change information. They would wait for months to request alternative documentation from us. And they would turn down all of our selected days. It finally got to where we were on our last possible date. Our last date selected was in April 2010. I didn’t want to wait that long to be turned down with some bogus excuse. So I called the company (one of many numerous phone calls) to talk to their customer service. She gave me some line that they were going to honor the last date. They only gave me 3 dates to choose from and I was down to one.
But I wasn’t the only one that was suspicious about Millennium Travel. The Better Business Bureau of Central Florida gave the company an F on their rating scale. Also the Attorney General’s office of Connecticut has a lawsuit against the company. Apparently they had found a way to weasel out of their own promises. Some folks were losing loot in the scam and the authorities in Connecticut didn’t like that. Others were disappointed in the timeshares they actually paid for. Everybody was getting suckered or screwed.
I swallowed my pride and told Millennium to forgo the last date and to give me my deposit back. After months of dealing with that company, it took them less than a week to give me my money back. I guess they were glad they didn’t have to come up with an excuse for why I couldn’t get my last date. I was glad our deposit was chump change and we didn’t lose major money like other folks. So I’m telling you this story because I want to spread the word. I’m not doing this because I’m disgruntled or attempting to get revenge. Businesses pretending to be legit while harboring ulterior motives need to be put on notice. I have a wife that is smart enough to not let me get to far gone. Other people might not have the same buffers in their lives. Some people actual went on the trips and ended up paying hidden fees. We were fortunate that it never got that far.
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