I received yet another call today from a familiar number. The number is familiar because it’s almost like mine. This call centre is hammering calls around Ontario with the same area code and exchange as yours and making up a random 4 digit number to slap on the end.
They start the call with an automated system reading that they’re calling from Air Miles Canada and you’ve won 260,000 Air Miles! Press 1 to claim them. The first few times I got this call, I hung up here.
Then you get to speak to a real human and they congratulate you for being ready to be scammed and ask if you’re 30 years old or older and have a credit card in your name. The next few times I got this call, I yelled at this person to take me off their list and die in a fire.
Then once you confirmed that you are over 30 but were still born yesterday, you get to the real meat of the pitch. They go through and tell you about their fantastic Sandos Resorts on the Rivera Maya and that once the call is over you have to make a decision about whether you want the deal or not, it’s a one-time deal after all. And after going through the entire pitch once to the very end, they explained that I just need to give them my credit card now and I believe the price ended around $1000, but who knows what they would actually slap on your card.
I called Sandos after going through all the pitch, with hopes of finding out who was running it, but I only ended up speaking to a very nice gentleman there who assures me that Sandos is a real resort and they have many dealers, so it could easily be any one of their dealers doing this and he couldn’t really figure out who. He’d also never heard of this report. (Odds are because only irritated people like me or suckers get to the end of the call.)
This last time was different though, I saw it coming so I recorded the call and I wanted to see if I could get anywhere with the guy. The call ended on a funny note but I still didn’t get anything to find these scum bags.
Listen here:
[audio:http://ianservice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/sandosscam-trimmed.mp3]If you have a couple minutes the whole call is worth listening to but skip to 1:40 to hear it all wrap up for a good chuckle.
December 13, 2013
Thanks for sharing this – that prick on the other line will get whats coming to em; slap on the wrist.
January 10, 2014
I bought a package 2 months ago. It’s just a timeshare promotion. For 90 minutes of your time you get a cheap holiday. So what!? I’ll take it. We already have our dates booked. So maybe some people are just trying to make a living, doing their job. Doesn’t mean you have to call them all scumbags. The guy I spoke to was so nice. So maybe don’t have as much of a pessimistic view in the future, you might miss some great opportunities
January 31, 2014
I’m not opposed to people making a living. But using blatant lies to get in your front door is unacceptable. False caller ID information. A complete lie about affiliation on the automated recording. Claiming they’re giving you 260,000 Air Miles or a free West Jet trip is a complete lie. They are not affiliated with either of those organizations and the promotion has nothing to do with them. Why would you give any of your hard earned money to anyone who is a blatant liar?
February 19, 2014
Shame on Royal Elite timeshare!! how is it possible that whenever a client is trying to do everything from their end to do payments and believe everything the sales associated told them the membership was about, and turns out its not and that everything was a Lie.. and that Royal Elite did nothing to respond their client’s email or phone calls, but it is not until we start posting in the internet our stories when they want to do something about such as “opening” a new Quality Control Department