Warning for winning prizes at www.travelengine.net.

[JupCre]

Warning for winning prizes at travelengine dot net.

This is part of the eMail in which we tried to resolve not getting the prize we won.
It was not really winning a prize, becasue we had to pay over 300 USD pp,
for a week in a resort which would normally have costed 2200 USD.

We never got a reply on this EMail, see following text. Now in we been put in a another hotel
as promised, with one night less than what the prize stated, without the all inclusiv part.
The price of food and drinks are far beyond, of what we are willing to pay
under these circumstances.


Our story with winning this price is as follows:

I got onto your Website through Angelice Members Site stating
that I was the 10.000.000th Visitor for this website.
and I finally got to the following address:

travelengine dot net/rprpromos/mexico/landingpage.htm?ph1=1-800-852-7118&ph2=LI-834-10&#

(this page was still active after I found out we could go to VistaReal)

This happened in July 2003 one the day before our 30th wedding anniversary.
(so you can imagine, what state I was in)

This win gave me a nice chance to have a nice present for my wife.

I talked to David Dear (I hope I understood his name correctly on the phone)

He promised me several thing (see below),
and I recall he had to tape our conversation for the purpose I im
not totally clear about, but I presume, if I did not pay, you would have
this taped conversation as a witness, to collect the money with which we
must buy the winning prize (what a contradiction!).

So if I do not tell the truth in the following lines, please refer to this
conversation.

Things that were stated, (I made some written notes)

FIRST OF ALL CONGRATULATIONS TO WINNING THE Prize, (I really believed
in winning at the time. (now I am a bit wiser!))

Than, the Price includes:

1) 3 Nights stay at all inclusiv Hacienda Vista Real
2) 3 Nights Cozumel (I knew allready about this excelent scuba diving resort)
or another place, for us irrelavant now
3) your office would help in finding a cheap flight (seeing I am in pension now,
this fact help making me a fast decision, in that phone call)
4) I had to make the decision to take that offer while on the phone, otherwise
I would loose my winning price.
5) it is an all inclusive package, also all offered free activies as scuba diving
except motorized sports.
6) free transport to/from airport.
7) one year garanteed offer.
8) only 10 days notice is enough to confirm a date that we would arrive in Mexico

So all in all a good offer for a normal price from 2200 USD, which I normally could not pay for.
This is also what I told David Dear, but the money I had to pay, I found reasonable, and affordeable.

Our original Reservation was LI-834-10

Our Confirmation Number is HVR891865.

Now, what is the situation:

1) I had to pay a full flight, because nobody in your office could help
me finding a flight with a discount of any percent (up to 80% was promised)
(in matter of fact it costed me a few phone calls, with no result)

2) When trying to get a confirmation for our stay, it took over 10 days, to find
out that we could not go to Cozumel. (what about our 10 days notice
if we would have been flying at that time????)

3) it took another week to find out, we had to go to Cancun. This is really
not were we wanted to stay, as pur lifestyle is away from busy, and big towns
with a lot of traffic and hassle, we would have loved to get to know the green
area of VistaReal

4) In Cancun we only have 5 nights, instead of the 6, which we had been confirmed
in our travel document (my user name is tr1764)

One of your collegues is trying to get a new confirmation for us right now,
so that should have been settled by next week I hope.
(Now being in Cancun we have to pay for the sixt'th night ourselve!!))

5) In Cancun we do not get all inclusive, (ask me why not!). Seeying winning a price
is for us something, not getting it is not only a dissappointment, but also ruins
our budget, which, as beying a fresh pensioner,
is not as large as your people might think.

As you can see, we will not be the happiest customers, but I sincerrelly do hope,
that there has been a mixup of matters,
(because you had to switch hotels) which still can be resolved.
After all we have a nicely written contract which states all inclusive.
Honestly, the preparation for this trip costs me more nervous than any trip that I have done before....

I hope you can help us out of this bad situation, where we have to spend much more money, as we
expected when winning a price!

Please answer us by EMail when replying this EMail,

Please let me also know your phone number, so I can call you directly, if still necessary,
so I don´t have to go through a long connection time, as my phone bill in this matter
is allready getting far beyond to what we are willing to spend.

Best Regards, and as the Germans say "nichts für ungut".
We really do hope, that we keep our believe in promises
made by people on your side of the ocean........

our user Internet Access account is tr1764 and password is mx5155,
and as everybody who is interested can see,
nothing which offers more information or any additional help for Europeans.

We payed for Hacienda 685 USD. For Club Regina we were required to pay extra 100 for all inclusive, (which we allready payed for). Club Regina promotional goes for 300(-allIN), so winning a price in this case is loosing well over thousand USD.

Best Regard Jo & Renate Cremers
Germany

[ranchhand1024]

The key element in this common scam is "you had to decide on the phone or you would lose the deal". Decide in haste, repent at your leisure. Sorry for your misfortune, but thank you for warning others of this type of merchandising. How do you say in German (or any other language) "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is"?

[james]

Originally posted by "JupCre"

Warning for winning prizes at travelengine dot net.

that's why at PlayaInfo, it's almost impossible to win anything... ever. 8)