Well today was interesting…
This afternoon, I received a phone call regarding a contest / drawing I had entered recently at the Jackson Fair. The caller told me that I had won a “chance to win” the $20,000 or truck (winner’s choice). He explained that I could choose two prizes out of a set of six, then he rattled them off: $500 cash, 27″ Sony flatscreen TV, Disney vacation including airfare, watches, and something else I can’t remember now. I would just have to come to their business in Kalamazoo to “try my key” and would collect my prizes then.
Being a cynical person, I did not get excited. I figured it must be a scam. The caller explained further, “There will be no sales pitch, no obligation for anything. You just have to take a 90-minute tour of our Campground.” Yeah, sounds like one of those ultra high-pressure sales meetings where they try to get you to write a check on the spot for some obscene amount of money for something that you don’t really need or want.
But I humored the guy and refrained from hanging up on him. He asked if we could come tomorrow and I said no, we can’t. He (quite vehemently) wanted to set up an appointment, and reluctantly I agreed to a Saturday afternoon appointment. He said he would be sending the directions and my key in the mail, and we ended the call. About 30 seconds later, my phone rang again and it was the same guy. He just realized that I would probably not receive my document in time, so wanted to know if he could email them. I gave him my hotmail email (which is my junk email address).
After hanging up, I immediately googled this place. Topix.com had a nice discussion thread about the sales pitch and how they pressure you into buying a campground membership for – get this – upwards of $7,000. Um, right. No way in hell would I buy a campground membership to begin with, let alone for thousands of dollars.
According to what I read, there really isn’t a choice of gifts at all. You automatically get a couple of very cheap watches and a “buy one get one” travel voucher. This is not what the representative stated – he said you get a choice, so he was lying (at least according to several forum pages worth of discussion on this place). You are pressured to buy a membership. You are not even qualified to win the $20k/ truck unless you do buy a membership (isn’t that illegal?).
Again, the caller failed to mention this, but instead explicitly lied that there would be no sales pitch whatsoever. Just a leisurely tour. Sure enough, when I checked my hotmail account I had a message from this place. It was a form letter (Dear Contestant… blah blah blah) that did happen to have more detail. It listed the odds of winning the various prizes, and of course the odds for the good stuff like the TV or cash were slim. The way it really works is you get an envelope to open that shows you which prizes you win, and by the looks of it everyone wins the crap.
Needless to say we will not be honoring this appointment. I’m only concerned now because they have my phone number and I don’t want telemarketing calls non-stop on my cell phone.
