Geo Holidays Scam!! Read if you care.

[Nhiem]

Okay, so since this company has been around for a few years, im pretty sure that many of you know of it. Many. Not all. So I just wanted to bring this to peoples attention.

Quite recently I received a (desperate) phone call for a call-centre. I agreed and came in Thursday, January 27, 2005 to start training.

The place was so ******. Totally not maintained. The room that we were being trained in was also the "kitchen". It seemed like its suppose to be used for a reception desk. There was a sign next to the coffee maker that said "Please unplug the coffeemaker if you wish to use the microwave or else you might knock out the computers!" Nice wiring we got going on there.

Anyways training went on, and we were told that what we would be doing is calling people up, and offering them one of four marvelous getaways. All you do is come in for a 90 minute seminar where you will not be obligated, or forced to sign and buy anything you don't want to. They get the numbers supposedly by some ballot the receipient filled out within the past 6-12 months. (Seems akward right there as most people don't remember filling any forms at all). Anyways, today was my second day and there seems to be a lot of pressure. Still training but the people were making like 50 calls an hour. Overall I think there was about 15 bookings.

(I'm worried for myself that neither myself or the others would be getting paid, one of the people said they would be moving offices soon; not very comforting now is it).

So I got home today, and decided to do some research cause already from the begnning I felt that this business was practising shady business practices (Didn't need ID or SIN card...). I wasn't even forced to fill out any sort of application form. I came up with the following sites through the power of Google:

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/FAIRFIELDSCAMS/
http://ourexperience.org/ (appears to be down?)
http://www.talkabouttravelling.com/g...?q=geo+holiday

That last one was very detailed. I belive there were one or two posts that seemed like an insider did it (IE trying to reassure people that this was not a scam).

http://www.bbbmwo.ca/commonreport.html?bid=20030 <== What BBB has to say about this all.

To sum it up...people basically attend the seminars and were forced to sign a contract and being charged ~$1500 for a down payment. Here is a quote of one person:

Hi All,

I just wanted to post this as a warning to people out there.... about a
company named Geo Holidays... aka Fairfield Affiliate.

We got a call from someone from Geo Holidays last week. This person
claimed
that we had won one of 4 free vacation packages to various locations in
the
world. He stated that every year his company chooses 4 lucky couples to
which are given free vacations. Instead of advertising on TV, radio,
billboards, etc.. he said they believed word of mouth advertisement is
what
they want. We would enjoy our vacation so much that we would happily
spread good word of mouth. (We are in Toronto, Canada by the way).

Being skeptical I asked what the catch was. I asked this guy, "what
will
you people try to sell me when I come there? is this in any way a
timeshare?". He assured me that there were no strings attached and that
nobody would try to sell me anything. We just have to go there and draw
for
the prize (but said we had to be there for approx. 90 mins).

If I hadn't of entered a draw for a vacation at a store earlier this year
I
probably wouldn't have gone at all.... but I didn't want to miss out if I
was mistaken. I also couldn't turn up anything bad for Geo Holidays when
searching on the internet....

Anyways, we drive to the place Saturday morning (our prearranged meeting
time)... and the sign outside on the building says "Fairfield Affiliate".
Interesting... the name Geo Holidays is seen nowhere (apparently they are
just a partner). Inside we were led to a room where we wait a while and
then every couple gets a salesperson sitting beside them to start talking
us
into buying this vacation crap. "All we ask is that you keep an open
mind.
When you get over the anger you have by how we got you all here, you will
be
happy. At the end you just need to say yes or no." Yeah, right. This
strange black guy from Tennessee comes in and start making a big
presentation trying to be funny and all. The audience felt so fixed with
the agents everywhere... they laughed on cue... clapped on cue... like
puppets. The poor people in the front row should have been wearing
raincoats since that speaker guy kept spitting when he talked. The whole
thing felts like something out of the Twilight Zone... it felt like one of
those cults where you are waiting to take your special pill so the
spaceship
will come and take us all away. Creepy...

The speaker goes on talking about points and a system called FairShare
(but
explaining that it is not timeshare). He goes on mentioning it will cost
us $1066 to go anywhere in the world each year... blah blah blah....

He finishes... and it is time for our little salesman to continue to try
to
talk us into it. He reminds us that we are guaranteed our free vacation
no
matter what happens. Out of curiousity I ask how much this actually
costs.
So... we go to a room with about 40 tables with paper and calculators on
them.

He slowly (and I emphasis slowly) explains everything to us. The total
cost for the package came out to about $40,000 something. The membership
is for 45 years. I'm thinking... these guys must be nuts!! And that is
just for the package itself... let alone the annual maintenance fees of
around $500. He does some calculations and says I will only have to pay
$900 per month to get this package. Yeah, right!! ha!! I told the guy
bluntly that there was no was in hell he was going to get a "yes" out of
me.
He told me to wait while he got another representative to tell us about a
package he might not of heard about.

So... some lady who smelt like armpits came over and sat down with us.
She
offered us another package that was for about $15,600 with much less
included (of course). But she said today they had a special on it and
that
it was only $13,600. It came out to about $290 per month or something
plus
the extra $400 maintenance fees (they write a US$ figure to make it seem
smaller). I told her even if it was $20 per month we wouldn't say "yes".
After talking for another half hour she said she wanted to talk to her
boss
to see if there was anything else she could do. She comes back and says
there was a promotion on that she wasnt aware of and the price would
actually be $11,000. We still said "no". She made it seem that us
saying
"no" just boggled her mind.... like she couldn't comprehend how someone
could say "no"! She told us that she was in this program herself and
that
we would be fools not to join.

(Inbetween these discussions we are interrupted 3 times by people
announcing
who has just bought the package. "Quiet everyone. May we have your
attention. Mr. and Mrs. Smith all the way from Toronto have just signed
up
with us." <<Clapping>>. Again sounding so fixed and creepy. And when
we
are talking about the packages when this happens the armpit lady tells us
to
be quiet and listen.)

Still not understanding the answer no, my wife writes the letters "NO" on
a
piece of paper a dozen or so times, shows it to them, and tells them that
we
are leaving. They finally understand. They lead us to the prize office
and we draw our 3 days accommodation-only prize for Orlando, Florida.. and
we leave. At least we got something... but I won't fall for that again!!
These companies lure us in with deceit and lies... I don't understand how
anyone would hand over any money to people.

They wanted word of mouth from me.... and now I have fulfilled my duty.

Thanks

Jeff

(That can be found here)

I really don't want to be scamming people. My personal plan is to do what im doing but if I make any pitches i'll call them back in the comfort of my home and tell them to call back and cancel. I do not want to be the reason why families across ontario are being screwed up.

What do you guys think I should do? How do you suggest I do that?

I've been contemplating about going to the poliec or media but the business appears to be perfectly legit =/.

Flame or whatnot if you want, leave if you want,

Oh, please pass this information on to your friends and family. Their target goal is for people who are married/commonlaw/seperated, make $50,000 in combined annual salaries, and between the ages of 27 & 68. Do not let them get the better of you, your family, or your friends. Good luck.

[Draff]

They keep phoning my house. We just pretend to agree to go to their meeting and then not show up.

[Nhiem]

They keep phoning my house. We just pretend to agree to go to their meeting and then not show up.

Lol I figure thats what usuually happens =p.

[pgcanred]

I don't believe there is anything illegal in what they are doing, although it is certainly questionable. There are plenty of companies who do the same.

What suprises me is the lack of protection for consumers from the high pressure sales tactics that these companies employ. There should, by law, be some kind of cooling off period.

[Nhiem]

I don't believe there is anything illegal in what they are doing, although it is certainly questionable. There are plenty of companies who do the same.

What suprises me is the lack of protection for consumers from the high pressure sales tactics that these companies employ. There should, by law, be some kind of cooling off period.

I never said that there was anything illegal with what they are doing. Its just they are not practicing good business ethics. They tell you theres no obligation and no one will force to to sign buy or do anything. Then if you agree you're stuck for the next 4 or 5 hours trying to be talked into buying something. There was someone on that travel site that said that there was so much pressure they paid the downpayment without even realizing it because of all the presssure =S.

I know some of you will say "Oh well its the persons fault for being so gullable".

Well theres a lot of pressure. They do things that try to get you in an upbeat mood. For example the music, the settings, the sales rep with huge smiles jumping laughing and etc on cue, I hope you understand my point of view.

[untaka]

my parents got that call and went, but my dad has alot of balls so the second the sales man opend his mouth he called him a few names and told him where to stick it and left.

Its simple harrasment and a scam **** em.

[mistry?]

my paernts unfortately bought one of thsese plans...and was wondering how one would go about selling this? this is such a piece of ****...they got pressured into buying it and regret that now...

[Txiasaeia]

Good for you for being upfront about this! Why don't you give the police a quick call, telling them everything you told us? The worst that could happen is that they yell at you for being an idiot, but if it really *is* a scam, you could be helping out those people who do fall for your company's pitch. Call from a payphone, no obligation, just talk to a cop and see what he says.

[Final Lazy]

I have heard of various versions of this, all of them offer things like for $XXXXX, you can go anywhere in the world and stay in any resorts. They'll tell you about fancy castles in Scotland, or high class private resorts in the Bahamas (or the likes). But in reality, they have huge restrictions on where you can go. The places which they heavily advertised on have extremely limited spaces, and cannot be booked during high seasons. They won't run off with your money (or would they?) but you probably won't get the kind of holiday getaway that you would expect. You probably get no money back if the agency decides to go out of business (and reopen as another name elsewhere).

[Nhiem]

I have heard of various versions of this, all of them offer things like for $XXXXX, you can go anywhere in the world and stay in any resorts. They'll tell you about fancy castles in Scotland, or high class private resorts in the Bahamas (or the likes). But in reality, they have huge restrictions on where you can go. The places which they heavily advertised on have extremely limited spaces, and cannot be booked during high seasons. They won't run off with your money (or would they?) but you probably won't get the kind of holiday getaway that you would expect. You probably get no money back if the agency decides to go out of business (and reopen as another name elsewhere).

Yep, I believe its called timeshare. Google it sometime if you have the time later on =).

my parents got that call and went, but my dad has alot of balls so the second the sales man opend his mouth he called him a few names and told him where to stick it and left.

Its simple harrasment and a scam **** em.

Yes it is =/. Bet you didn't even get your free gift.

Good for you for being upfront about this! Why don't you give the police a quick call, telling them everything you told us? The worst that could happen is that they yell at you for being an idiot, but if it really *is* a scam, you could be helping out those people who do fall for your company's pitch. Call from a payphone, no obligation, just talk to a cop and see what he says.

I might just do that but quite honestly theres nothing that the police can really do about it. The only thing the police have against the company is that the callers are telling them that theres no obligation and theres no one to force you; yet you are forced there. You'd need a dedicated lawyer for this one; and at the rate that the company is going I am sure they can afford 10X the lawyers to backfire against yours =/.

Good for you for being upfront about this! Why don't you give the police a quick call, telling them everything you told us? The worst that could happen is that they yell at you for being an idiot, but if it really *is* a scam, you could be helping out those people who do fall for your company's pitch. Call from a payphone, no obligation, just talk to a cop and see what he says.

I might just do that but quite honestly theres nothing that the police can really do about it. The only thing the police have against the company is that the callers are telling them that theres no obligation and theres no one to force you; yet you are forced there. You'd need a dedicated lawyer for this one; and at the rate that the company is going I am sure they can afford 10X the lawyers to backfire against yours. =/.

[lsimeon]

Over the summer, Boston Pizza ran a "win a vacation" contest. Shortly after I completed a ballot, I was called by a Geoholiday representative to inform me that I'd won a vacation, but that I had to attend an all-morning information session at their offices out of town in order to claim my prize. When I read more about this company online (like the above postings), I determined that it was a timeshare scheme or some other vacation scam. I decided not to go to their information session, and I told them not to contact me anymore. But they have been harassing us with phone calls on almost a daily basis, calling us at home and on my cell. I don't know how a reputable company like Boston Pizza could get mixed up with this group, and I hold them accountable for this ongoing harassment to which we're being subjected.

[alkaseltzer01]

Anytime you go to a trade show or some fair, if there's some single person with a booth offering a draw, they are in the business of getting you to sign up so they can sell your info to these companies.

[illbashu]

Ya, my parents bought this plan also and we haven't actually used it. I can't believe she payed ****ing 40k!

Is there a way we can sell this?

[sprung]

if you don't mind sitting through their seminar you can score 2 tix for Mamma Mia and a hotel stay all for $79

[arsalanmustafa1989]

They keep phoning my house. We just pretend to agree to go to their meeting and then not show up.

Ha Ha when telemarketers call my parents house and I'm visiting, they always expect someone who will listen. The first thing I say is that I'll be recording this conversation for future use if need be and then depending on the promotion I try to sell them something, or haggle and get thier hopes up and then hang up on them. Ok i know its rude but I have worked on the other end and I couldnt give a s*** if someone hung on me , they are all young people and thier lives dont really depend on telemarketing. And if it does then they need to do better for themselves.

The only thing that pisses me off is those damn long distance rate calls from india and like 3am then I just rip them a new one and probably wake up a few neighbours in the process