Where My Dreams Come True- Charlene Otto Travel Club Membership Scam Deland Florida

In response to a telephone cold call offering a free cruise, my wife and I attended a sales presentation in Rye New York, on July 28, 2014, held by a travel club called Where My Dreams Come True, a company located in Deland Florida. We are both 70 years old and retired and own a timeshare week at a resort in Orlando Florida. We were interested in discounted travel opportunities to places and times we could not trade our timeshare for. We were assured that this vacation and travel firm could provide locations and times at timeshares that were unavailable to us. They also made other claims concerning cruise arrangements and prices, which were unavailable and unknown to the general public and would be superior to anything we could get for ourselves.

When we returned home after the presentation, it took us some time to understand how their program worked. We assumed that the advantages we had been promised at the sales program existed, and that we had simply not yet found them. After many try’s, both using their web site and speaking with their reservation representatives, we reluctantly came to understand that these claims, regarding timeshares and cruises, were mostly untrue, seriously misrepresented what they were able to offer and we believe constituted unfair and deceptive trade practices that amount to fraud. We have never used their services, and would like to cancel our membership.

We paid $6,995 that evening with our MasterCard and signed an extensive contract. They suggested that we use our credit card as a preferred method of payment, explaining that it would simplify and accelerate the membership process.  Later, realizing that this program was not what was promised, we contacted the company and requested cancellation. They declined. We then contacted MasterCard and disputed the membership charge.

Our difficulty revolves around the fact that the contract stipulates that there is a 3 day cancellation period, but also a 7 day delay in activating membership access. Thus, by the first time we were able to properly view their web site to begin to understand that their offerings were no better than what we could obtain for free for ourselves, the rescission period had long since expired. We then made numerous phone calls over the next few weeks, thinking that we were confused and misunderstanding the situation, and continuing to try and find the benefits we were promised at the seminar. We never did.

When we asked the company about all the promises that had been made at the meeting, they directed us to the contract which said they are not responsible for any verbal representations or claims made at the sales meeting. Thinking back, we now realize that the presenter’s assistant who oversaw our signing of the documents was very reassuring in convincing us that the contract was merely boilerplate, and there was no need to fear that it would ever be literally enforced. To summarize, we sat through a ninety minute sales presentation at the end of which, the presenter’s assistant told us to rely on the presenter and not to pay any attention to the details of the contract we were signing. Later, when we tried to cancel the contract, we were told that we could not rely on anything that was said by the presenter or his assistant, only what was specified in the contract.

Finally we reluctantly came to the conclusion that this was a well-planned deceptive scheme, designed to misrepresent what had originally been promised, was little more than a scam and that we had been taken.

We live in Connecticut, signed the contract in New York with a Florida company that apparently is connected to Save On Resorts a California company that provides reservation services, which has assigned collection of the bill to In Compliance Services, an Arizona company. This is obviously confusing and I believe, purposely designed to take advantage of the elderly with complicated contracts and material misrepresentations and outright lies.

We have filed complaints with the Attorney’s General in Florida, New York and Connecticut and with the Departments of Consumer Affairs in those states as well as with the Federal Trade Commission.