Travel Club Complaints Rising In Ohio This Year
Thursday, May 7, 2009 5:13 PM
John White is one of the people who has complained, 10TV's Kurt Ludlow reported.
Last year, White joined a vacation club so he could see the world. He has not seen anything yet. It began with an offer in the mail to attend a vacation club seminar.
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"They make everybody in the room tell them what their dream vacation is," White said.
According to White, Global Vacation Network agents told him and others that they could make it happen.
"Whatever you pick, they've got a place there," White said.
A place, for next to nothing, Ludlow reported. Audience members just had to join to get the "Guide to the Necessary Luxuries of Life."
The cost was about $10,000 in the beginning, White said.
"I want to go on vacation. I don't want to buy the island," White said.
The talk continued and, according to White, so did the pressure. Eventually he wrote a check for a little more than $6,400.
For that, the White family could get five trips a year. They could choose any destination, any date, any time and a book a place to stay. They would get incentives, including two free airline tickets, a $300 gas card and the "Access Alliance" card, giving them deep discounts on hotels, cars and jewelry.
It sounded so good, but White said that he spent seven months trying to get what was promised to him.
White said that he has had one disappointment after another. The company encourages people to book trips 2-4 months in advance. White tried to book one seven months early and could not get what he wanted.
He received just half of his $300 gas card. When he tried to use the hotel discount card on a business trip, no hotel would accept it. White claimed he tried 17 times.
"It's my money," White said. "You're going to give me what I pay for, or you're going to suffer the consequences and that's usually having to get an attorney involved. In this case, it was the attorney general."
Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray said that his office took 80 complaints about travel clubs last year, up from 30 in 2006. Global Vacation Network receives more complaints than any other in Ohio. It had 17 complaints in 2008 and has nine so far this year, Ludlow reported.
"We're aware of the company that you're talking about," Cordray said. "We've had a high number of complaints with that company. It concerns us."
Global Vacation Network is owned by a Florida company and operates a Dublin office. Inside, 10TV News could hear the muffled voices of sales pitches as we waited to speak with the office manager.
He said that he was too busy to talk.
"Because we've got a whole room full of people conducting business, we just don't have time," the employee said.
Despite 10TV's repeated requests for an interview, the only response from the company was an e-mail asking us to submit everything in writing. That's not our policy, Ludlow reported.
"I went into an honorable agreement with the company and all I'm asking for is what I paid for," White said.
According to White, some of the company's promises are still unfulfilled but he was finally able to book his first trip. He said that after what he has been through, it won't feel like much of a vacation.
"I really was taken for a ride," White said.
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