October 7, 2008

  • Will somebody please put my mom in a straightjacket already?

    I can't seem to find an entry about it, but back in February when we went to Mexico, my mother got conned. Despite our years of dire warnings not to hand out her credit card number over the phone or believe in a deal that sounds too good to be true, she gave her number to a "travel company" on the phone and purchased a Mexican holiday good for four people, supposedly for $600. After paying for flights, a separate room for me and Gilly, food, and a number of other things not included, the trip came to more than $5000 for 8 days. The 90-minute sales presentation turned ugly and I had myself thrown out after 3 hours because I told the guy to shove it. Gilly walked out soon afterward. Mom, left alone, threatened and overwhelmed, somehow gave them her credit card and they charged $2600 to it. She told them she wanted the charges cancelled, she didn't want the membership, and she was told she had not been forced into anything and had agreed to the purchase of a time-share thing on her own. Knowing we would be angry, she didn't tell me or Gilly. She kept sneaking off on her own over the next 5 days, and while we were curious what she was up to, we just laughed and decided to let her get herself in all the shit she wanted to. On the fifth day, the last day she could back out of her "purchase" under Mexican law, she was still being given the runaround by the travel company, so she went to the hotel where they were doing the sales pitches and threw a hairy fit in the restaurant, going from table to table and telling people they stole her money and not to give them anything. The staff rushed her out and supposedly cancelled the transaction. It still took three months and a fraud complaint to Mastercard in order to actually get her refund. Also, $300 in promised refunds for air travel turned out to be fraudulent as well. Although she followed all their rules, the "travel agent" said she didn't qualify.

    So Mom said she had learned her lesson, and would never do such a thing again. She threw out the brochures about the Florida trip they were offering us for the following year.

    Predictably, she has fallen for the same scam again.

    She called Gilly the other night and mentioned she's going on a cruise in January. Gilly pried into the source of this "fantastic" cruise deal, but Mom was evasive. She called me tonight and I asked about it, and finally got it out of her that it was another random phone call where she'd put out her money. A three-day cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Nassau, which she insisted on extending to 5 days by paying an extra fee. Also included is 7 days in Orlando and Daytona with one "90-minute" sales pitch, a week-long car rental, all meals included, two tickets to Disney World, blah blah blah. All for $800, which doesn't include flights. And she doesn't have anybody to go with.

    So I looked up the cruise line online and discovered that she's not taking a 5-day cruise, she's taking a 3-day cruise twice. It's just that the ship arrives and leaves on the same day. She can pay for the cruise herself and get a very good room for under $300 for the 3 days. The I looked up package deals to Orlando, and found that for $400 you can get a hotel room for 7 nights, and flights included. I tried to convince her to go to a real, reputable travel agent, but of course that would be ridiculous. And when I told her that if she chooses to take this trip she'd better keep her wallet closed and not hand ANYBODY her credit card, she blew me off. Multiple times.

    Mom claims this is a different company offering the trip, but that company goes by so many different names I'm sure it's the same crowd. Also considering they're offering basically the same Orlando-Daytona "deal" they mentioned in January, I'm quite certain it's the same bunch of con artists.

    Mom says she received the "information package" already, which probably means she's given them her credit card info over the phone again. She had to do that to get the last package in the mail. I hope I can convince her they're full of shit before she gets conned again. At least this time, I won't be sucked into going with her.