Worldwide Destination Services False Promises, Scam Artists, False Advertising Tampa, Florida

Last week I received a postcard in the mail notifying me that I had been "personally selected" to receive a "complimentary" six day, five night cruise for two.  All I had to do to receive my "complimentary" cruise was to call and make an appointment to come for their 90 minute presentation of their services. 

My best friend and I went to the 5:00pm presentation last Thursday night.  There were perhaps ten or twelve other people there, all of them "personally selected" as well, and expecting to receive their "complimentary" cruises.  We were then taken into another room where we sat at little round tables and a Worldwide Destination Services Sales Manager sat at each table and proceeded to ask us numerous questions about our travel preferences, what we did for a living, where we went on our last vacation, etc.  Our Sales Manager was Tedd.  This lasted for about 15 minutes. 

Then a gentleman by the name of Bill came in and proceeded with the supposed "real time" presentation of the program.  He was logged onto their website and very quickly (and I mean VERY quickly) explained the Worldwide Destinations relationship with different Hotel Chains, Cruise Lines, Airlines, etc.  It's all still pretty much a blur to both my friend and I.  Bill kept saying during the presentation, " I know a lot of you are only here for the "free" cruise, but bear with me a little longer...".  Bill showed us wonderful resort properties where you can stay for less than half the advertised price, and then he showed us a 7 day Alaskan cruise (sailing during a holiday week) for $999 for a balcony cabin and that includes the taxes and port charges.  Sounds great doesn't it?  Too bad it's not real.  I looked and looked for this cruise on their website, and never found anything even close to that price for that cruise.  I also looked for condos near where my son and his family live in Alabama and there wasn't anything near where they lived.  I looked for condos in Jamaica that I could take my grandchildren on vacation to and the only condos listed during the months I checked were in Negril.  I hardly think the nude beaches of Negril would be an appropriate vacation spot to take my 7 and 10 year old grandsons to.

And what is the price for all these wonderful travel services you may ask?  They started with the shocking price of $7,997.00 for the unlimited membership, with a monthly "Support Fee" of $29.95 for the rest of my life, and that of my children. Yes, this plan passes on to your children after you're gone!  After Bill finished his presentation, Tedd sat down with us again to see if we had any questions or concerns.  When I told him the price was way out of my league, he offered several other packages by limiting the number of weekly stays at their condos per year.  He also offered me an additional $1,000 discount because I'm in law enforcement.  I'm sure the nurse at the next table was offered the same discount because she was a nurse, and the teacher at one of the other tables was offered the same discount because she was a teacher, you get my drift, right?

The final price they offered was $2,997.00 with only two week long stays per year at their list of properties and unlimited cruising and unlimited nightly hotel stays.  When I balked at that I was told they offered financing (at a whopping 17.9%) over a 3 year period, with 10% down and a $250.00 (non refundable) processing fee (to run your credit card through their machine).  So the total I would pay for the discounted $2,997.00 package over a 3 year period would be...$5,005.90!!

Then I was introduced to Matt from customer service and he asked if he could call me the next day to show me how to navigate their website, I said "sure, I work until 3pm every day so please call me after 3:30pm"...Matt called me a little after 10:00am and left a message.  When I called him back at 4:00pm, he said he was just going into a meeting and would have to get with me on Monday.  Now keep in mind that in Florida you only have 3 business days to cancel a contract, so by Matt putting me off until Monday, it would put me at the 3 day cut off point.  Somehow I don't think Matt would have been available after 3:30pm on Monday either.  So I sent Worldwide Destinations an e-mail on Friday evening canceling my contract with them.  Saturday morning I got a call from Matt wanting to schedule another time to go over the navigation of the website, but since I was at WORK he got my answering machine again.

Oh, and that complimentary cruise they offer...the cost is $199.00 per person for an inside cabin on a lower deck.  Black out dates are all major holidays (including President's Day and Columbus Day!) and one week before and one week after the major holiday.  When I asked what the $199.00 per person covered I was told it covered taxes and port charges.  I went on the Royal Caribbean and Carnival websites and the total ports charges and taxes for a 6 day, 5 night cruise out of Tampa is $42.84 per person, Port Canaveral is $56.57 per person and Mobile, AL is $29.90 per person.  I am currently booked through a travel agent on an 11 night cruise on Royal Caribbean in December, 2010.  When I compared the price of the same cruise with the same category of cabin on the Worldwide Destination Services website, the total savings would have been $81.00 per person, but I would have lost the $100.00 per person on board credit that our travel agent got us, so in effect we would have paid $19.00 per person more to book this cruise through Worldwide Destination Services.

The reason I have gone into such detail in this report is to desperately try to warn other people who might be fooled into thinking this is a great program.  They are very smooth talkers and I'm ashamed to say I believed what they were telling me was true before I actually researched the company.  I have still not received my refund, and I'm being told it takes 10-14 days after my credit card payment posts to their account and I also have to drive back to Tampa to return their Members Manual Kit before they will refund my money.  And they have told me several times they will not refund the $250.00 processing fee!  Buyers Beware!!!!!

Please, please think long and hard before you hand over your hard earned money to these people!