In January of 2007, I attended a Bridal show where I had filled out many ballots for prizes and of course free honeymoons.
I was contacted by this company and was told that I had won one of 5 prizes guaranteed. I had to go to a 20min presentation. I didn't have to buy anything at all, I just had to bring 2 pieces of ID to claim my prize. So on Saturday February 24th in the afternoon, my fiance and I had went to their presentation.
Once there, we filled our a little bit of paper work, basic info. We went into a presentation room where we were assigned this rep named Sarah who started asking us questions about the types of trips we take or have taken and would like to take. We then watched the presentation.
We were then brought into a room with many tables and it worked like a restaurant. Someone sat us and brought us drinks(coffee,tea,water,etc).
Sarah then went to ask about what we thought about the presentation and started to give us more info on pricing and trips she has been on. She went through how the " "fun Weeks" worked and the cost. The cost was too much for us we could buy a brand new car with that! Even better paid for our wedding!
She then offered less weeks for cheaper. Se saw we were hesitant. We couldn't even talk it over without her being there. She just kinda sat back wile we tried to talk it over. We mentioned we were called from the bridal show I had attended, she then got excited. She then offered us the same weeks at 1/2 price,"bridal show special". She then asked what our dream honeymoon would be, which is a Mediterannian cruise. She asked us if she was able to get us that trip for free would we buy. We said yes. A cruise in its own would cost us $10000 if we paid for it. Our membership was less than that. She came back with the trip approved.
We then were told to read over the contract and initial every page. I made sure to look for a cancellation policy. We had spent several hours there as it was getting dark when we left.
When we got home we double checked the contract. Then on that Monday we tried to look at the personal web site that came with the membership. We wanted to check out the pricing to see if it was a deal we bought. It was not up yet we couldn't log in. I e-mail the customer service to see how long it would take to be up and running. We were told 5-7 days which was very convienant as we were on day 3 of our grace period. So we decided to cancel.
I e-mailed the company that wednesday the 28th telling them we wanted to cancel. I also sent a registered letter. I tracked the letter on the Canada Post web site to make sure they got it. They did! I then expected a refund with in the 15days stated in the contract. 15days past. We tried calling got no answer. We even contacted M/C to try and refund the money to us. M/C told us we had to contact the company. Kept trying got voice mail every time.We then sent more e-mails. No one was responding to us.
At the end of March we contacted the Better Business Bureau(BBB). They were unsuccessful in getting a reply. I started getting frustrated as we don't live close to them to just go down there. When the BBB closed my case, I then contacted "City TV Silverman Helps" and the Government of Canada Consumer Protection Agency(CPA) as recommended by the BBB.
On May 26 2007, my fiance was in the area and went to their office. He waited an hour to talk to someone and finally spoke with a Brian. Brian had apologized for the fact that no one had called us back. He informed my fiance he was covering for the guy who usually deals with cancellation and refund, and that he was off sick with cancer and in Florida for treatment. He then told my fiance that he needed the original contract not a copy. My fiance wanted to give him a copy. Unfortunatly my fiance gave him the contract. Brian then gave him a release form that had to be signed by both of us and of course I was at home.
My fiance brought it home, I signed it and mailed it back. To this day we still don't have our money back. We are working with the CPA to try and get our money back. We were informed to call M/C for a refund under sec 99 of the CPA. We were 4 day outside of the 110 given to you for refunds. M/c however is working with us on this and helping to investigate it.
I am telling everyone that I know about this company. We have even thought of going down there one day and talking to people going in and telling them what has happened.
I hope that no more people get caught up in this. I am looking forward to having "Silverman Helps" contact us so it could be on TV where thousands of people would see it.
Michelle
Cambridge, Ontario
Canada