I won a vacation, I guess.

[Invader3K]

You know those guys standing inside Miller Park when you get inside the entrance that try to get you to sign up to win a vacation, and/or other prizes? Well, I did fill one of their forms out with my friends at the last game we went to, and last night I got a call on my cell phone from a woman saying I had won a 3 day/2 night stay in either Las Vegas or Orlando. She gave me her name and direct number and said I should call when I plan to stop by and pick up my vouchers (or something along those lines). She did preface it by saying they would tell us about their other promotions/offers, etc and hoped we would tell our friends about their company.

 

Is this a legit thing, or is it a scam? It makes sense, sort of (they're giving away a pretty inexpensive prize, probably trying to get you to "upgrade" for a longer trip, etc). It could also be one of those things where you have to go to some timeshare seminar, for all I know (though she didn't mention that). Just wondering if anyone else had been contacted or heard about this company.

[bball123h2]

Watch the South Park episode when they go to Aspen for a "Free Vacation". You are in for a few hours of torture while they tape your eyes open and explain all the wonders of timeshare 30 times over.

[twobrewers]

150% scam.

 

Never talk to them again. Nothing good will happen. Everyone won a free vacation.

 

My brother won a "free vacation" a few years back. After talking to them for a bit, they needed his credit card number to ensure his place - even though he was assured the vacation was "free". When my brother got off of the phone, he didn't feel right so he called the credit card company. They had just billed him over $1500. (He was obviously able to have that taken off)

 

Your best case scenario is that they make you sit through hour upon hour of time share promotions.

[burniebrewer]

Someone here just recently talked about a similar free trip, but I don't recall who it was.

 

Edit-Search function reveals:

 

http://forum.brewerfan.net/viewtopic.php?t=12632

[patrickgpe]

don't do it, i filled one out after "tailgating alot" last season and they constantly called me trying to get me to hear there presentation in exchange for a dells trip.

[Invader3K]

Ah, thanks for the link. Pretty much summed up what I had suspected. After reading through all that, I'm definitely not even going to bother calling them back.

 

I'm somewhat tempted to call or e-mail the Brewers and let them know I don't think they need to allow a company like that to solicit in Miller Park. I don't know if it would be worth the effort, though.

[Beerambassador]

Next time they call you - and they will call again and again - answer and tell them to stop calling you. Otherwise they will call 4-5 times a week to pressure you. My wife signed up for this last year. I finally answered the phone and told them to stop calling after a month of it.

[Barbs4339]

I filled one out at the Bonecrushers opening family night game over 2 months ago. They are still calling me. They have probably left me over 50 messages by now. I would answer it but now I just thinks it's comical. Maybe I feel like I'm keeping someone employed by having to make calls all day long.

[Patrick425]

I entered to win a car at Brookfield Square. Same deal (same company I believe). They call and claim you won a vacation - but the catch is the time share hard sell. So, when I saw these same people at Miller Park, I said no thanks.

[Menotti80]

I went to the sales pitch thing a few weeks ago. I had to sit through 70 minutes of crap, but i got a $15 gift certificate out of it for dinner. I'm still debating of putting all the hassle into the 3-day free trip. i still have 40 days to get going on the free trip offer, but im not sure what im going to do yet.

 

its not really a scam. you have to pay for the taxes for the trip, and there are plenty of blackout dates and times. but in the end, you can get the free trip if you really want it. but then again, if twobrewers is right, maybe the $1500 was for the taxes...

 

i doubt i will pursue it, but going to the presentation was worth a free dinner. and also, the 30 vacation package is actually an incredible deal if i was older and had the time to take vacations annually...

[bigredrobbo]

I go by the simple adage. If something seems too good to be true - it usually is.

[sgtcluels]

1500 bucks in taxes? No way.. it's a scam. I had some place call med a good 5 years ago and said I won a free trip. I was like sure.. and he kept trying to get me more excited. I was like.. yeah why do you need my CC #? For a downpayment, but you said it was free. No thanks.

 

When I see those guys, I always tell them I hate whatever they are offering. "Want a vacation in the sun?" "No I hate the sun".

 

"Want to win a trip to the all star game?" "No I hate baseball".

 

Same with the people that try to offer you cologne samples, simply grab the site they sprayed it on and say it burns. Bam problems solved. Ask first jerks.

[LouisEly]

I sat through one of them once - a pitch to sell a time share in the Dells. Reward was a free trip to Vegas - 3 days, 2 nights plus airfare. Having been in sales for almost 10 years at that point (about 5 years ago) I went through the dog-and-pony show, the salesperson was a nice girl probably a little younger than me (college), she didn't pressure me too much but she did call over "the hammer". He could see that I could see through everything, and I told him the same thing I told her - it wasn't important to me, and that as a single guy without a family I didn't take vacations like this. All of their properties were domestic, most in Florida, plus the Dells, maybe one or two in California, maybe one in Vegas, so it was easy to say that I don't go to family destinations because I am not a family. I said that if I was married and/or had kids I would be more interested. "The hammer" worked on me for 10 minutes, saw that I wasn't going to be closed, and let me go and worked on someone else. And I got my vacation to Vegas - 3 days, two nights at the Tropicana (not a great hotel, but a great location - walk across the street to MGM or to the tram to Mandalay Bay; they actually gave me a choice of mid-level hotels). Like someone said, lots of restrictions - could not be on a weekend and could not be within one week of a holiday. But I went and it cost me about $50 in taxes. Not bad for two nights plus airfare.

 

The key - don't argue about cost, don't say you "can't afford it". They will always manipulate it to beat you there. Tell them you think it is a fair price but that it is not that important to you. Or tell them that your next vacations that you want to take are backpacking through Europe, Australia, Asia, etc.; if they tell you that you can trade them for other time shares (like they told me) in other parts of the country/world, respond (like I did) that "you CAN, but there's no guarantee that people who have those time shares will want to trade with YOU, or what kind of deal they will give you".

[temke]

just use the clark howard belief on this...make sure you go in to the sales pitch "with two broken arms"...do not sign to anything.

 

not a scam...but a very hard sell.

[Brewbadger]

Yep I "won" a vacation last year....never called em' back but they did call me a couple times a week for at least 2 months. Stupid scams.

[Bikeage77]

just go in there with a piece of paper that says NO on it. right when you sit down, as they start hitting you with questions just point at the sign till you get the vacation.

 

last year I won too, and I knew how the sales pitch went (my parents made my sister and i sit through one of those for about 2 hours once so we could all go to universal studios for free)...so i was ready to do it and just sit through the crap, but i didn't make 25,000 which was required, so i never went.

 

i guess another way for them to stop calling you is be like "that's terrific! my credit card company just cut me off and i'm about to file bankrupsy, so this trip will really be a stress reliever" i've done that with credit card companies back when i had a home phone and they back off really quick