Pricey travel club no deal, members say
Customers say they have paid as much as $6,000 to join an Arizona travel club only to learn they mayhave been taken for a ride.
Premier Resorts, which solicits customers by phone to attend seminars at resorts and hotels throughout the Valley, promises to use its buying power to give its members heavily discounted vacations.
But some customers said af- ter signing up they found the discounts were no better than what they could obtain online, and their attempts to back out of the expensive contract were met with opposition, ridicule and refusal.
Complaints revolve around the company’s stated discounts and its contracts rather than vacations.
“They were telling us about the wonderful deals we could get through them,” said Frank
Warren, 80, of Scottsdale. “It wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. ... We tried to get out of it, and they told us there was nothing we can do.”
A Call 12 for Action investigation found that Premier Resorts uses postal boxes for its address, has no physical headquarters in Arizona and can be contacted only through unregistered phones and a 1-800 number where employees will not identify themselves beyond a first name.
Premier is not registered with the Arizona Corporation Commission, a legal requirement for businesses operating in Arizona. Premier’s website does not include a list of company executives, and employees will not provide any contact information for them. Although customers are told the company is run by a board of directors, no such members are listed on the website.
Call 12 found that Premier is one of three companies operating from nearly identical websites that use the same design, pictures, testimonials, company motto and phone numbers. The other companies, One Stop Travel and Global Adventures, also use postal boxes for addresses. None is registered with the Arizona Corporation Commission.
The three companies’ websites all feature specific resorts and quote specific rates for weeklong stays at hotels and resorts in Hawaii, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. But officials at some of those resorts said they did not recognize Premier or the other companies and do not do business with them.
“I’ve never heard of these names,” said Raymond Hull, inventory manager for Soleil Management in Las Vegas, which operates 13 resorts in Nevada, Florida and Hawaii, including one of those pictured on Premier’s website. “And I handle all of the inventory.”
At another hotel in British Columbia, Canada, executives say they are attempting to remove references and links from Premier’s website.
Officials with Premier did not return repeated phone calls last week. Employees who answered the phone would not answer questions about the company’s operation or about specific customer complaints.
However, hours after Call 12 contacted Premier, company officials called two customers with settlement offers for less than half of what each paid. Customers said company representatives required they sign non-disclosure agreements as part of the settlements.
When customers balked at the amount of the offer or declined to sign the non-disclosure agreement, they said company officials grew abrasive.
“That’s when he went off on a little tirade. He said, ‘We are not obligated to give you anything,’ ” Warren said last week. “He said nobody is going to pressure them. ... Neither (Call 12) nor anybody else could do anything about it.”
Sales seminars
Premier customers, many of them senior citizens, said they were contacted by phone or mailers inviting them to attend sales seminars with enticing offers of free travel or discounted hotels.
They said the presentations were attended by several couples, usually retirees, at the same time. They said the meetings were upbeat, featuring slide presentations of resorts at global destinations. When the presentation ended, the sales pitch began to join the club.
“Based on the same volume buying power concept as Costco or Sam’s Club but focused exclusively on travel, Premier Resorts is able to offer to our members affordable deep discount luxury resort stays for pennies on the dollar! Premier Resorts regularly obtains luxury resort accommodation stays for our members at 50 percent to 90 percent below retail,” the website states.
Warren said several couples attended his presentation. “Ours was at the Marriott on Camelback,” he said. “In our infinite wisdom, we gave them a check for $5,400.”
Warren, who worked as a travel agent for more than 50 years, said the presentation intrigued him. He liked the idea of joining a club that could offer travel discounts, especially with the promise of half-price cruises.
Premier customers are told they have a three-day window in which to rescind the contract.
Within hours of signing the contract, Warren said he began to suspect he and his wife had been duped. He said the discounts didn’t appear to hold up and similar deals could be found without paying a club-membership fee.
“It wasn’t all it was cracked up to be,” he said, acknowledging that he didn’t act within the three-day period. “It was probably three days later that we decided we didn’t want to do it. And then my wife was diagnosed with an extensive back injury.”
Patricia Warren, 77, was scheduled for surgery this month and would be unable to travel for months while recovering. That sealed Frank Warren’s deci- Frank Warren points to documents he received from Premier Resorts. He and his wife, Patricia, paid more than $5,000 to the travel club after a sales pitch. sion to try to get out of the contract with Premier.
Warren said his calls initially went unanswered and messages were not returned. He said voice-mailboxes for company representatives often were full. About six weeks later, in July, he got a call from a man named Michael Colvard, who identified himself as Premier’s director.
Warren said Colvard told him he was unfamiliar with his case and any reimbursement would have to be arranged with another representative named Gale Batista and through the company’s board of directors. Colvard would not identify the names of board members or provide any way to get in touch with them.
“I’ve never heard of a contract that can’t be broken,” Warren said.
Warren said he contacted Call 12 out of frustration. And a short time later, he said he received a call from Batista offering an $1,800 settlement. Warren said Batista claimed the settlement amount was based on a percentage breakdown of the company’s costs for hosting the presentation.
Neither Colvard nor Batista could be reached for comment.
Trouble backing out
Another customer reported problems in trying to cancel during the threeday period.
Larry Sternberg of Scottsdale said when he tried to get out of his deal, he was told he could do it only through the company’s website, which he couldn’t access for five days while his paperwork processed.
“We were gullible,” the 63-year-old Sternberg said. “I kept calling and kept calling and they were ignoring me.”
Sternberg paid $6,000 to join the travel club in April after a presentation at a country club in east Mesa. He said as soon as he got home and began checking potential discounts against other travel sites, he realized Premier wasn’t offering anything special.
He said he finally got hold of Batista. Sternberg said Batista told him it was a legal matter.
“He said, ‘I don’t have to do a damn thing for you,’ ” Sternberg said. “They outright lied to us.”
In July, Sternberg contacted Call 12. That’s when he said Batista called back and offered a $2,600 settlement. Batista also said he would provide the Sternbergs with a free trip for two.
Among other items, Sternberg said the settlement included a stipulation that Premier did nothing wrong. It also required Sternberg to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Sternberg said in July that he agreed to the settlement terms.
He said this month that he can no longer talk about Premier. He confirmed that he received a check.
Difficult to connect
Premier customers in Arizona would have a difficult time finding any official information on the company or its operators.
Without a list of officers, a physical address or any contact information beyond an online e-mail form and the 1-800 number listed on its website, customers