1st American Travel, 1st American Reserach, Feel Perfect International, Affiliated With Success Matrix Group, Trendwest, Worldmark, Cendant ripoff Advertised Las Vegas Trip on local radio stations, tried a bait-and-switch, made many promises and did not follow through on any of them, and wasted eight hours of our vacation time. Las Vegas Nevada

This company advertised a free hotel room for three days/two nights during a weekend, or four days/three nights if we went on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. We were also supposed to receive show tickets and a fun pack. Since my husband and I were already planning to go to Las Vegas, we thought we'd call and find out what it was all about. We would have to take a tour of a new resort while we were there, which was supposed to be 90 minutes.

We were told that we would be put up at our choice of the Orleans or Emerald Suites, receive show tickets and a fun pack, and we would have to put down a $95 deposit on our credit card. We were told we would receive the deposit back when we attended the tour. I was expecting this, so we went ahead and put the deposit down. Less than a week later, we received paperwork asking what dates we would like to go. I was told the only stipulation was that I had to give a 30 day notice. So, knowing it was getting close to the 30-day deadline and knowing that this was the only time my husband could go, we chose three consecutive three-night blocks of time.

I received a call about a week later asking if I could choose different times. I explained to the lady on the phone that both my husband and I are very busy and this was the only time we could go to Las Vegas. She said that May was a very busy time for us and the response was overwhelming. I told them at this time I would just consider the $95 forfeit and call it quits. (You win some, you loose some, I guess.) She said she would check with her supervisor and get back to us.

For days we didn't hear anything, so I figured it was over. Then I got a call from a gentleman at work asking if we would like to take a cruise or fly to Disneyworld. I explained to them that my husband can't fly, and that we really don't have time or money for a cruise. He told me to think about it and give them a call back. (Huh? I don't remember this being part of the package. Oh, well. I didn't intend to call them back.)

At this point, I figured they weren't going to come through with their promise, so we booked our own rooms at the Orleans (I checked their website and it looked like a great place to stay by the way, it really is a good place we did have a good time there.)

Then, about two weeks before we were supposed to go, I received another call saying that our rooms were booked at the San Remo. I explained to them that I had no intention of waiting for them, so I booked my own room at the place they said they would put us up. I received a surprised response of Oh? I'm glad you could get in. Get in? As far as I understood, they weren't sold out. I was then told that they would call and make arrangements to pay for my room. I figured it was never going to happen, so I just wrote it off. (By the way, this is the bait-and-switch part I was referring to. The San Remo was not acceptable. This was like saying they'd put us up on the Marriot and then offering us Super 8.)

So, off to Las Vegas we go. We were planning to pay for our own rooms, considering everything that had happened. We came prepared (thank goodness.) We hung out by the pool, watched a movie, ate a nice dinner, and the next day I went to the spa. After returning from the spa at 2:00, I received a voicemail on my phone. The time/date said it was left at 11:00, and the message said that they would be by to pick us up at 11:30 (What? Nice notification, hour before we were supposed to go.) So I called them back and told them that I wasn't planning to attend their tour since they didn't pay for our rooms. The response I received was Yes we did. You're staying at the San Remo, right? (Holy Cow! Can they have any more miscommunication? Keep reading it gets better.) I explained to them that we were at the Orleans, and I was told that they would call me back. They did, and told me that they would pay for our rooms if we attended the tour. They would send a driver by at 11:30 to pick us up. We were to be downstairs in the valet area at 11:25 to meet the driver.

OK, so I figured it was worth a shot. At least I'd get my $95 back. The next day, my husband and I were downstairs at 11:25, as they said. At 11:45, we didn't see a driver, so I called them and asked what was going on. They told me the driver was there.?.? Apparently he was waiting at the front entrance, while the valet and hotel entrance is on the side. He pulled around, and we crawled into the van. This was quite the drive He cut off at least five people and didn't signal while he switched lanes. I figured this guy was a taxi driver that had been fired and this was confirmed later. As he dropped us off, he said he was going to go and get us our gifts and would be back to pick us up in 90 minutes.

We attend the presentation. (Anyone who buys into this stuff needs to have their heads checked they wanted to charge us $6700 for 4,000 credits, about the amount of credits needed to go to Las Vegas on their program. If I took a Las Vegas trip for $6700 bucks, I would be totally living it up! Needless to say, none of this made sense, and I wasn't about to be suckered in. So, we were directed someplace to get our gift (which was our $95). We were told that we were supposed to receive an American Express giftcard, but they were out. We could come back later (like this was how I wanted to spend my vacation), or they could overnight it to us. By the way, it's now two days later and I still haven't received it. As we had already spent two hours there, we said they could overnight it to us. We went to go catch our ride. Apparently the rides from Worldmark/Trendwest don't go to our hotel, so they called to find our where our ride was. About an hour and a half later, the driver showed back up. So we're going on four hours now. He didn't have our gift and told us that he'd have to come by the hotel later. As we get closer to our hotel, there was some construction going on. This guy actually cut through the barriers, crushed one of them, and then moved the others out of his way. As he got out to move the barriers, I looked at my husband and said Holy (Bad word.) I would never have the guts to do this.

So, back at our hotel, I checked to see if they paid for the room. Guess what? Nope. I called them again and asked what was going on. They said the would be by later that afternoon to pay for the room. At 7:00, our room still wasn't paid for. The next morning, we were planning to leave by 11:00 we had an eight-hour drive ahead of us. I called them at 8:00, and Natalie was as surprised as I was that the rooms hadn't been paid for. They said they would send Martha over to pay for the rooms as soon as she got in at 9:00. At 10:30, our rooms still had not been paid for. Checkout was at noon, and they said someone would be there ASAP. Apparently they sent money with the driver, which, if you remember, took an hour and a half to get to us the day before. At 11:30, I told them we had to pay for the room or we would be charged another day, and they said they would send someone over with Cash to reimburse us. And apparently the driver was stuck on the strip. Knowing how our trip the day before was, I didn't believe this he would have just plowed someone over or driven on the sidewalks or something..

At 1:00, (four hours after we were supposed to leave), Martha shows up with $165. Our rooms were $228. She said that they had negotiated a better rate for us casino rate. Um, nope we paid the same price as agreed when we booked our rooms over the internet. At this point, we were going to take what we could get so we could get the hell out of there. On our way out, my husband and I discussed the fact that we'd never been so happy to leave a vacation.

So, only partial reimbursement for the rooms, no fun pack, no show tickets, and we're still out $95 and eight hours of our life that we'll never get back.

DON'T EVER DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY. They will just take your money and make many empty promises unless you like roller-coaster rides.

Jessica
Magna, Utah
U.S.A.