"Free" Travel offer

[love2fly Member Find all posts View Profile Close love2fly]

I got a phone call from a company called "Hallmark Travel", who would give us an all-expenses paid trip to Mexico, or Florida or Hawaii if we attend a 90 minute presentation.

Of course I am sceptical, so I tried to google them, and got very little information, so I am still curious about what they are up to.

Does anyone know the details of what they are up to?

[katiemack Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close katiemack]

I haven't heard of them..but what is it they are asking you to consider? Did they find you thru an ad? A little more info might help us to figure out the angle.

[love2fly Member Find all posts View Profile Close love2fly]

I haven't heard of them..but what is it they are asking you to consider? Did they find you thru an ad?

I did not think to ask. I asked the name of the company, and I have the phone number on my caller id. I assumed that would be enough for google.

How they found me .... that is another mystery ... and the number they called is on the Federal do-not-call list.

[WazzuCougFan Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close WazzuCougFan]

How they found me .... that is another mystery ... and the number they called is on the Federal do-not-call list.

If you've done business with the company before, then they are allowed to call you even if you are on the Do Not Call List. But obviously this company doesn't ring a bell with you. Did someone in your household enter a contest or drawing somewhere? That's how Trendwest/Worldmark contacted us (husband entered a "drawing" at an outdoor sportsman show.

Casablanca Express was the name of the company that handled our timeshare reward, and I highly recommend them. It included roundtrip airfare and hotel accomodations without any further catches; we paid about $75 for airfare taxes. They did offer upgrades, which we did not take.

Is the company including air transportation? Also, you might have to sit through yet another timeshare presentation once you get to the reward destination. If this is a concern, you might want to inquire.

Teresa

[JudyS Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JudyS]

...Casablanca Express was the name of the company that handled our timeshare reward, and I highly recommend them. It included roundtrip airfare and hotel accomodations without any further catches; we paid about $75 for airfare taxes. They did offer upgrades, which we did not take....

Hey, that sounds good! How did you get signed up for this Casablanca Express deal?

[katiemack Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close katiemack]

Doing a google search I found a Hallmark Travel in the UK...but it is unlikely that this is the entity. Then there is this on the CA Dept of Real Estate website, here

Also, I think that a caller ID number can be spoofed...in other words, you could get a call from someone who used a machine to input a bogus ID....

Recently we got a card in the mail from a local AZ timeshare company that is trying to sell us a 90 minute presentation with gifts like a cruise/Mexico or such. How did they get our address?? I don't know.

Perhaps in doing a recent TS trip, you may have submitted a comment card or something innocent that led them to contact you.

I did come across a reference to Hallmark on a webstie for ripoffs

[katiemack Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close katiemack]

There is some discussion of Hallmark here

[WazzuCougFan Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close WazzuCougFan]

Hey, that sounds good! How did you get signed up for this Casablanca Express deal?

My husband submitted us into one of those "drawings" that you see everywhere (that are actually designed to harvest a bunch of potential contacts for whatever they are selling, from fire extinguishers to vacuums). Anyway, we subsequently got a call from Trendwest/Worldmark, and to get our free vacation we had to attend a timeshare presentation in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. I suppose when you're in the middle of nowhere they have to entice people to attend with better prizes than at some of the other places.

We did attend, but didn't buy. I hadn't looked specifically at resale value of Worldmark before attending, but knew ahead of time that you could get better deals for timeshares on the Internet.

We have since received an offer in the mail to attend another presentation from Worldmark, but this time the offer was three days, two nights at a hotel in Seaside, Oregon... and no transportation offered.

Teresa

[JudyS Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JudyS]

My husband submitted us into one of those "drawings" that you see everywhere (that are actually designed to harvest a bunch of potential contacts for whatever they are selling, from fire extinguishers to vacuums). Anyway, we subsequently got a call from Trendwest/Worldmark...

Thanks, Teresa! I don't think Worldmark markets to people in my home state (Michigan), so I guess that rules me out.