To Whom It May Concern:

I am extremely upset and disgusted with your company. I have a complaint with your agency's overall experience, and I hope bringing it to your attention will result in a prompt response. I'd imagine you'd like to keep customers happy, so I hope you'll take this seriously.

Specifically, my problem concerns the people you use to market your scam vacations. They call themselves "Ramada Plaza Resort Customer Service" but are really: MVI MARKETING located at 410 Ware Blvd. 10th Floor, Tampa, Florida 33619. 

Specifically, here's my complaint: In October of 2000, My husband and I received an offer through the mail for a vac package.I called the 800# and spoke with a customer service rep who told me it was an ALL-INCLUSIVE package for 3days/2nights in Orlando, 4days/3nights in Ft. Lauderdale, an Alamo rental car w/unlimited mileage (that would pick us up at the airport), 2days/2nights "first rate luxurious cruise" to Bahamas on the S.S. Ocean Breeze, Universal Studios

tickets, food and refrigerators at the hotels (very important since my husband is an insulin dependant diabetic) ,water sports, the Dolphin Experience in Nassau etc (everything but transportation to and from Florida.) I thought Ramada was a reputable company so I placed a deposit of $689 on my Chase Credit Card and set my travel date. Soon after I received brochures of the places I'd be staying and a video of the cruise portion of the vacation. All of it truly represented paradise. Soon after I needed to change the dates so they agreed it would be no problem postponing the date another 3/4 months. They ended up charging us $29 for that. We booked our airfare (had to take 2 planes there and back) or the total amount of $698.A month before our vac we called and booked the other ticket for the amount of $698.

We arrived in Florida 6/30/02 and went to pick up our rental car. We were sent to Continental even though our reservations were supposed to be Alamo. We were treated rudely and charged $120.88, had to fill the tank and pay a $200 deposit for a car that was supposed to be free. Our "reserved vehicle" was a rundown Suzuki Swift (all they had left), no power steering/brakes and horrible wipers. This was not suitable for the 4hour drive we would have to make to Ft.Lauderdale. We drove an hour to the Welcome Center where we were given our hotel vouchers and hotel directions only after he collected $20 from us and scheduled us on a mandatory 90 minute timeshare tour.

We drove 40min to the Radisson Barcelo in Orlando to check in. There we had to pay 11% tax and $50 a day deposit. They said nothing was included and they weren't responsible for anything we were told by Ramada. Our room was dirty and smelled of smoke (non-smoking room). Dirty towels were hanging in the bathroom and there was hair in the sink We called the front desk several times and no one ever picked up. We left to do a little sight seeing and food shopping so we could save money on food instead of eating out.The second day we went on the timeshare tour from hell. We were there for more than 3hours and were passed from person to person when we said we weren't interested and wanted our tickets/deposit back We didn't get tickets to Universal but they gave us ones for SeaWorld. We got to go a few hours before closing but had to pay $8 parking. The tickets said "parking not included for the second day" which leads you to believe parking is included on the first. It's not. False Advertising. We checked out of the hotel and were billed for $34 worth of calls we didn't make and were reimbursed only after arguing with the manager.

On 7/2 we made the 4hr drive to Ft.Lauderdale WelcomeCenter.Had to wait for over an hour before we were helped.Rep tried to sell us on another tour and exposed us to more of the lies.He told us marketing companies were paid $400 for every person they got to book a vacation and see how much $ they could get from them.The marketing company we spoke with was MVI Marketing in Tampa.We were angry, complained, finally got our next hotel directions.

We drove to the Hilton Airport Hotel in Dania and checked in.(Not the place where our itinerary stated we would be staying and it wasn't even in Ft.Lauderdale)We paid more taxes,deposits and fees amounting to about $75.Again nothing included.The room was dirty,infested with mosquitoes and no clean towels were available our entire stay(we had to take towels from the pool house).We stayed in our room to avoid any more stress.

We checked out on the 5th and drove to Port Everglades where we were to board

the "OceanBreeze"a"luxury cruise liner" which turned out to be a 48 year old rust ridden tub.We were ushered up the ramp to the front desk where we were told we needed to pay a $100 per person "credit deposit" before we were allowed to board.The room we were escorted to was small and smelled of human urine. Anything bought on board was ridiculously expensive and a 15% gratuity tax was added even though we had already been charged $20 per person for gratuities when we boarded.The food in the buffets was horrid and they were not 24 hours as stated.There was no roomservice as promised.The pool was a 5x5 hole in the deck and the jacuzzi was even smaller.They were both locked down the entire cruise.We were called to an assembly where the excursion staff tried to sell us on different packages once we got to Nassau, none where worth the amount they were charging.For example:for $51 per person you got a trip to"Blue Lagoon Island",which included the round-trip boat ride,snorkeling (only a half hour-no scuba diving equipment available),a meal and all the "amenities" of the island.However, when we got to the island we were told "that way is the showers and this way is the food."Drinks were available but for a charge of $3 for a small can of soda.The "buffet" was a small table of warm side dishes and fruit that was supposed to be served until 2:30pm but was packed up by 1:30.No one directed us to the "Blue Lagoon" or hammocks, or any of the other facilities or clubs.The lovely white sandy beaches turned out to be full of rocks (onshore and in the water) and was littered with cans and garbage.Anything you wanted to do such as the Dolphin Encounter (supposed to be included) was on the other side of the island and it would cost more than one hundred dollars per person.Then we were supposed to be back at the ship by six for the six thirty departure so we had to hop on a ferry at around five. We were never able to go out on a single night of dining or dancing.The next day we returned the rental car,shuttled to the airport and we

ost travel time and money and emotional distress.I feel like a fool for falling for their scam. The bottom line here is that Ramada is currently holding my hard, earned money which was obtained by using fraudulent marketing practices. Any fine print disclaimers upon which Ramada may rely, which are in themselves unfair and deceptive, were not made available until after I had signed up for the vacation package. Not only that, but details about the package remained unclear even after I received the materials.These actions by Ramada constitute unfair and deceptive trade practices and are violations of the Consumer Protection Act and FTC regulations. Had we booked this vacation ourselves, it would have cost us less than a thousand dollars and instead it cost us about $2700 including airfare.I just called today pretending to be interested in the vacation we just came back from and they quoted me a price of $1300 for 2 people. That just proves that it could differ with every customer/call.

To date we have contacted the following:

2 of our local TV news stations,our local newspaper,Better Business Bureau, the Florida Division of Consumer Services, the Florida Attorney General, the Massachusetts Attorney General, Department of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, Ecomplaints.com,Ramada Customer Service in Fort Lauderdale Florida,cendant,the Federal Trade Commission, and we plan on contacting anyone else who will listen.If contacting any of the above places does not prove successful, we will get a lawyer to handle this matter.

Here's what you can do to help: Our sole purpose here is to get reimbursement for all of our lost money and time and to help prevent this from happening to others.

In the future, I will not be doing business with you. Also, I will never recommend any of your hotels with others. I'd recommend sleeping on a subway rather than staying in any of your hotels, at least then we'd know what to expect.

I'm confident you'll address my complaint quickly. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Thanks.

Sincerely,

arisden@parlex.com 

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