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- Joined
- Feb 19, 2011
- Messages
- 179
So back in May, me and my fiance at the time went to a music festival and filled out registry forms for "free vacation." I only filled it out because the girl said she gets a dollar for every filled form. I tried to help her out. Well a few days after the festival my fiance got a call saying she won a free vacation to tampa or miami or something, and also 3 other locations. The woman said inconspicuously we had won it at a discounted price of only $498. Immediately then I figured it was a scam but I didn't want to be an ass on the phone (3way call) because I know my wife would have flipped out and got all butt hurt about it. Anyway, the lady could tell I was skeptical and she was getting a little defensive when I talked. I was telling my wife to slow down and we need to think/talk about it first. The woman was trying to persuade me into thinking what a great deal but I was just like whatever, I don't care. Well my wife falls for it and gets transferred over to another department to pay for the package via credit card. I was supposed to get off the phone, but I just muted my line and listened - smh. The guy read the terms and conditions, supposedly word for word, and recorded the part of the call as a verbal contract/receipt. After it was all done, she was supposed to get confirmation emails and documentation but she never received anything. I talked her into trying to cancel when I got home and this is where the headache began.
She had 30 days to cancel and the company stated they would happily cancel within the period - bullshit. She called many times trying to get a hold of them but would only either get stiffed on the phone calls or transferred over and over. Most of the time there was no answer, but if there was, she would get transferred and then no pick up. It was just ring and ring and ring. She also tried emailing but out of the few emails she only got one reply stating she had to send in a written statement or cancellation form; they didn't even attach the cancellation form. Of course at this time she only had about a week left to cancel; so she just kept trying to contact the company. She did get the cancellation form in before the 30 days but of course it was too late since the company took their time before filing it so we'd miss the time frame. She called her credit card company and filed a dispute against the charge.
We sent a written call log with explanations and we filled out the dispute forms stating in a summarized form what I have said as well as other details such as we received no documentation whatsoever. Well the company overturned the charge and it looked like we won the dispute but of course the travel agency filed an appeal on the dispute and she is now getting the charge reapplied until we submit more documents. The problem is we have nothing to submit other than what we submitted previously and by our own word. The appeal paperwork contained copies of her registry form - which was altered --- she marked single in relationship status and they changed it to married; you can tell its not the original markings. The paperwork also contained lies stating she called and contacted them unhappily stating our 18month time frame for our vacations was not enough time and that they would extend it to 3 years. Well that never happened and she never agreed to that, though that is what the paper work states. They also have the confirmation email that we were supposed to get showing the date and time it was sent, though we never received. They really have their shit together for scamming so many people.
Now I know this is a lot of headache for $500 but there is no point in just paying $500 for something we will never use, especially when we don't even make enough money a month to have a spare $500. If we were to just keep it, we'd still have to pay for travel costs and food.
Now, this is where I need advice. I have no real knowledge of legal matters, very little if any and its not related to business such as this. We have no idea how to fight this when we weren't given any documentation, the company falsifying their documents, etc. I've tried filing a complain with the BBB. I'm really lost at this point because really we have such a weak case right now, with only our story against theirs and their fake files. I don't want to take this to court because of the potential costs we would have to face - lawyer fees, court costs, and on top of that the $500 if we were to lose or whatever.
I can get a good lawyer (hopefully) through my company and I'd be very confident in his/her ability. This is just so stressful. I can't even think of the questions I really wanted to address. Please give me some suggestions and advice guys. We really need it and I really need to relay it to my naive wife. Damn us young people for being gullible and naive.
She had 30 days to cancel and the company stated they would happily cancel within the period - bullshit. She called many times trying to get a hold of them but would only either get stiffed on the phone calls or transferred over and over. Most of the time there was no answer, but if there was, she would get transferred and then no pick up. It was just ring and ring and ring. She also tried emailing but out of the few emails she only got one reply stating she had to send in a written statement or cancellation form; they didn't even attach the cancellation form. Of course at this time she only had about a week left to cancel; so she just kept trying to contact the company. She did get the cancellation form in before the 30 days but of course it was too late since the company took their time before filing it so we'd miss the time frame. She called her credit card company and filed a dispute against the charge.
We sent a written call log with explanations and we filled out the dispute forms stating in a summarized form what I have said as well as other details such as we received no documentation whatsoever. Well the company overturned the charge and it looked like we won the dispute but of course the travel agency filed an appeal on the dispute and she is now getting the charge reapplied until we submit more documents. The problem is we have nothing to submit other than what we submitted previously and by our own word. The appeal paperwork contained copies of her registry form - which was altered --- she marked single in relationship status and they changed it to married; you can tell its not the original markings. The paperwork also contained lies stating she called and contacted them unhappily stating our 18month time frame for our vacations was not enough time and that they would extend it to 3 years. Well that never happened and she never agreed to that, though that is what the paper work states. They also have the confirmation email that we were supposed to get showing the date and time it was sent, though we never received. They really have their shit together for scamming so many people.
Now I know this is a lot of headache for $500 but there is no point in just paying $500 for something we will never use, especially when we don't even make enough money a month to have a spare $500. If we were to just keep it, we'd still have to pay for travel costs and food.
Now, this is where I need advice. I have no real knowledge of legal matters, very little if any and its not related to business such as this. We have no idea how to fight this when we weren't given any documentation, the company falsifying their documents, etc. I've tried filing a complain with the BBB. I'm really lost at this point because really we have such a weak case right now, with only our story against theirs and their fake files. I don't want to take this to court because of the potential costs we would have to face - lawyer fees, court costs, and on top of that the $500 if we were to lose or whatever.
- What would you guys suggest or do yourself?
- How can we fight this?
I can get a good lawyer (hopefully) through my company and I'd be very confident in his/her ability. This is just so stressful. I can't even think of the questions I really wanted to address. Please give me some suggestions and advice guys. We really need it and I really need to relay it to my naive wife. Damn us young people for being gullible and naive.
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