Destination Paradise Hawaii RuinningVacation Extremely pushy. Convince you to sign the worst contract! Their presentation does not match their actual company! Honolulu Hawaii

Before I go into my story I want to know if there is any way to SUE Destination Paradise because I saw that many other people got ripped off. I barely graduated from school and this is ruining my life, my credit!

My boyfriend and I went to Hawaii September 6, 2008. September 8 while we were walking on the streets of Honolulu, an extremely pushy yet somewhat nice sales person approached us and told us about Destination Paradise and their presentation, which he said will last only 1hr. At first, we said no, but he kept on offering more and more things just to get us to go. Since we said we were hungrey and we were headed to get dinner, the sales person told us there will be food there and non-alcoholic drinks and it's just a presentatioin. He said that in order to even qualify for the presentation we needed to live together and make over $50,000 together yearly. We said we don't fulfill either one of the requirements but he told us we can just say that we do because it's not like they are going to ask us for paycheck stubs or a bill to proof that we live together. He said: You guys are on vacation and people do not bring such things to vacations; therefore, they have no way of verifying that information. I believe that was the amount he told us. He also gave us some free tickets and pretty much didn't let us walk away until we agreed.

Finally, my boyfriend and I agreed and we went to the presentation. When we got to the front lobby there was a little plate with some cookies and small cups with juicy. We thought k maybe the food is inside. That should have been our red flag that there was something fishy going on. Anyhow, we went in, listened to the presentation and then the whole sales pitch started. Gosh, they were so pushy. There was no food and we did have to say that we qualify and the lady at the front desk let us in. They didn't let us walk away without signing up for the package. Which we finally did and we left a $250 deposit and the package was for $7999. They said that we'll get out username and password in 2 weeks. By the way did I mention they gave us $60 cash for coming to the presentation? Red flag number 2 should have been right there. When was the last time you have gone to an honest and reputable company where they gave you cash (bribing you!!!!) for visiting their company and bying one of their products????

We got home, and in 2 weeks we did receive the username and password. However, when we loged in, we realized that their services were not how they presented them!

I called on September 28, which was only 20 days later and told them we wanted to cancel. I spoke with Mike Balicki. He said they can't do that and the cancelation policy is only 2 days! I told him that's ridiculious since we didn't receive our login information for 2 weeks!!!! How can we possible find out if Destination Paradise's services are not accomadating for us in 2 days if we can't even look at their website for 2 weeks! Well, guess what Mike told me that if he really wanted to HE CAN CANCEL THE POLICY, BUT HE IS NOT GOING TO DO IT BECAUSE HE DOES NOT WANT TO LOSE MONEY! He said that he'll lose $4000 and I told him that I don't want to pay for their services becasue we are going to lose $8000, well actually more with interest rates.

I called Destination Paradise Hawaii since September 2008 until May 2009. They constantly gave me the run arounds! The girls that work there were lying ALL THE TIME! For instance, one time I called the girl told me that Mike was on vacation, he had just left for Vegas yesterday and he won't be back for 2 weeks. Ha! The next day, Mike calls me and he said oh no I just came back from Vegas yesterday! Really? Mike said the girl probably just got confused! Really, Mike???? Your own employees don't know what's going on in the office of what 10 people???? Please, I am not stupid. In addition, to all the lies, APPARENTLY there is no supervisor above Mike!!!! There is no corporate number to call!!! Quoting Mike Balicki: "You can try and speak with the guys from corporate but they are a bunch of rich people who play golf and do not want to deal with you!" I was going to die when he said that! I said: Wow, what a great way to run a company! Plus, they started the company and I can careless if they do not want to speak with me! Customers are what made them rich to begin with and if they did not want to deal with people then they should not be in the PEOPLE'S BUSINESS!" Not to mention after I called them for months, Mike said: "I gotta give you credit, you are very persistent!" Yes, of course I am, loosing almost $10,000 isn't a joke for some people!

I also told Mike how we didn't even qualify for their services and how they told us to lie and the fact that my boyfriend and I do not live together and I am still a college students so I definitely do not make that much money! I also told him how I already had somebody mess up my credit last year and I had to pay off $6000 in debt because of someone else. I told Mike how I am barely rebuilding my credit and I do not want this to ruin it because I wasn't going to pay $200 per month for something that I WILL AND I REPEAT WILL never use! Especially after all their lies. I told Mike that just becasue of all the runarounds I will never consider keeping their package because that just shows me the kind of company that they are and if we have any problems in the future, no one will take care of it.

We even offered them to keep the deposit and that we'll mail them their free airline tickets back, which you cannot even use because you have to send it to Hawaii first them sign it and them send it back to us! But the answer was no. Finally we gave up and we decided we're just not going to pay for it! By the way, Mike said he doesn't care if we pay for it or not becasue Destination Paradise already sold the contract to Universal Account Servicing and he made his money, so now it's on Universal to collect the money!

Let me tell you about my horrible experience with Universal Account Servicing! I have been speaking with Kelsey at ext. 208. A couple of months ago Kelsey and I came to an agreement that I will be paying about $200 per month. Kelsey also said that she will speak with her supervisor to see if they can work something out, so I don't get reported to the Credit Bureaus because I had explained to her that just last year I paid close to $6000 in debt because of somebody else. I also had told her that I really do not want my credit to get ruined any further since I was trying to reestablish it. However, at that time I lost my job and I notified Kelsey. I told her that whenever I get a job, I will be calling her to make new arrangements. She made me aware of the fact that this is still an outstanding account that is affecting my credit and I told her that I was not able to pay for it because I don't have the funds to do so.

Kelsey called me a couple of weeks ago and I told her that I haven't found a job yet; however, I am in the process of looking for one and I will definitely be calling her to start making payments as soon as I have a job. Kelsey said that as a company policy, she needs to follow up with me and she will be calling me in a few weeks. I agreed and the conversation ended. Until this point Kelsey was very nice.

Today, August 4, 2009, Kelsey called me at 9:40 am and I told her that I have not gotten a job yet. As soon as I said that Kelsey got extremely upset and told me: How are you planning on taking care of this account? This collection is for over $9000, which is not a small amount! I told her that I understand that; however, if I don't have a job how am I supposed to pay for it? Then Kelsey asked me: Well how are you living without a job? Her question upset me because I don't think it is the collection's agency job to treat customers in such manner. Getting personal with your customers is not the way to deal with them. However, I didn't say anything about her offending me by asking me about my personal life and I replied that I am a college student and that I live with my parents. I am getting my Master in Organizational Leadership. Kelsey said: Well if you are in school you have student loans right? My response to that was Yes I am, why are you asking me that? Kelsey then said: Then you have some income and you should pay for you debt. I told her that my student loans go directly to the school and that they are to pay for my tuition. Her questions offended me even more and I was trying to tell her that it is not her job to be questioning me about my personal life, but she started talking over me and I was not able to say a word. Kelsey started telling me that this account is for a lot of money and she is going to take further action and she went on threatening me. I obviously got upset and I had finally had it with her rude attitude and I told Kelsey: What are you going to do? I don't have the money to pay for it and no matter what kind of action she takes, until I get a job, I won't be able to pay for this account. She said: Then, I will take further action, Have a good day and hung up on me.

That upset me and I called her back and I said that I do not appreciate her hanging up on me. Kelsey laughed and said: You need to stop calling here and harassing me and instead you should go and get a job. Then she hung up on me again. I could not believe her horrible and unprofessional attitude! First of all, I only called back once because she hung up on me, therefore, I do not consider that as harassment and second, how dare her telling me that I need to go out and get a job! I called back and asked to speak with a supervisor. For some odd reason, Kelsey picked up and said: Yes? Oh you need to speak with a supervisor? Well, I'm in charge here. I then asked her to speak with her supervisor because I told her that I am sure she has one and she said: I am in charge here I asked Kelsey if she owns the company? And she said: I didn't say that and started laughing. I have never been so disrespected by an employee in any organization! I will admit, I did get extremely upset by her words and because she was taking this whole situation as a joke, so I ended the call with saying that I will find her supervisor and speak with him or her.

I called a couple of other departments but they all told me that I needed to speak with the Collections department. Every time I called the collections department, they always transferred me to Kelsey. I most definitely did not want to speak with her! The last time I spoke with Bonnie I believe was her name the supervisor for the billing department and I asked her if there is anybody else I could speak with and she said no and that Kelsey is the person to speak with because she is the supervisor. I told Bonnie that I do not want to speak with Kelsey because that is the person I am having issues with and that I needed to speak with Kelsey's supervisor. Bonnie told me that whatever issues I have with Kelsey I have to work it out with her because she is the only person that I can speak with. I asked Bonnie even if Kelsey was rude to me and laughed and told me to go and get a job? Bonnie said: Ma'am you have a debt that you need to pay and here at the billing department we tell people that they need to get a job as well. That shocked me even more and I thanked Bonnie and I hung up.

I understand that Universal Account Servicing is a collection agency and I am completely aware that it is Kelsey's job to collect these debts. However, I do not believe that as an employee at that organization and especially as a supervisor, Kelsey should use any means necessary to collect these debts. Her job responsibilities are to collect the debts but I don't think they are to be rude to customers. Furthermore, Kelsey had told me a couple of months ago that she would speak with her supervisor to see if they can stop reporting me to the Credit Bureaus. Today, I find out that she is the supervisor for the whole department. That tells me that she was lying to me and that she only said she would speak to her supervisor to make me feel as she is doing something for me so I can pay for the debt. Kelsey was giving me false information in order to collect the debt. That is what I meant by Kelsey using any means to perform her job responsibilities by giving me misleading information.

Finally, I do not believe that Kelsey has any right to judge me about currently not having a job. She does not know what my situation might be and why I am not able to pay the debt off. Even though I told her that it is because I do not have a job. If I told her months ago that I had paid close to $6000 for someone else's debt because it was under my name, if I had told her that I am a graduate student, if I had picked up my phone every time she had called me, if I called her to let her know that I will not be able to start making payments because I had lost my job, then why is she treating me with such disrespect? Her attitude today upset me very much because she acted as I was beneath her. I have showed her that I will pay for the debt as soon as I have a job but apparently she is not qualified to be a supervisor. I was and still am shocked that Kelsey is the supervisor at the collections department because she has no leading skills. She does not know how to handle customer calls and she most definitely does not know how to be professional.

Mila
Tujunga, California
U.S.A.