Free 2-Nights At Viva Res From Royal Prestige

Thanks and kudos to all who posted their experiences. I got "the call" yesterday afternoon. They will be doing a seminar here in Birmingham, AL this weekend. I am chosing to not go. I don`t need cookware. And, I`m always cautious of this type of thing, especially recently. I have only been to David`s Bridal ONE TIME looking at dresses and have gotten not only the 4 calls from the girl who helped me there (look, i`m not ready to buy a dress yet, get off my back!), but also a few solicitations (which is exactly what this is). How many others also were told they won a cruise to the Bahamas? That scam turned out to be that you could purchase that vacation free and clear through a regular travel agent for the same price you had to pay in administrative costs and fees to some company in Tampa FL. I`m furious with David`s Bridal for giving out my information to any company who paid them for that info and wish I had read their fine print better (usually I`m careful of that kind of thing, so I was really surprised). I plan on going back and reading more about their privacy policies. This was even more annoying because I only use a cell phone, so these calls have been interupting me at work. Ok, enough venting. Just to all those who get this call and or any other call claiming you "WON" something, beware.
Mere

Hey I just got that call today so i was checking this out on the internet...looks like other people have won this "prize." I`m supposed to go to some presentation this weekend but it sounds suspicious, especially if other people are writing about this....yes, and i`m sure it was david`s bridal that gave them my information. What is the deal with this, does everybody win this "prize" and should i waste my time going?

Yeah, it`s totally a scam. I have done some further research online and it seems they have been taken to court in a few states. I would steer clear unless you need $2,000 worth of cookware for some reason.

I have received the calll tonight also. Now I am very skeptical about this trip I have "won." I bought my dress from David`s Bridal two months ago. I have won this trip and also won a facial for myself and attendants. I am now not sure if I should attend this show on Sunday in order to win this trip. Did any of you actually go on the free trip and also what were the 25 locations?

David bridal has also done the same to me. I also went in once and didn`t even look at dresses, because no one would help me. I also got the call tonight and i plan on going but I DO NOT PLAN ON BUYING ANYTHING. I`ll let yall know how it went.

I just got a call tonight and it seemed a little too good to be true, so I decided to check it out on the internet, and I`m glad I did. Obviously other people have had this call as well, and now I`m not sure if I should go this weekend? Anyone out there who has gone to one of these things and can clue me in?

My fiance and I also signed up for something at a bridal show in Appleton Wi. And got the same call. It just so happens there is a limosine service by the same name (royal prestige) in our area. My fiance thought that it was from the limosine service. I went to work yesterday to find out that my friend`s fiance got the same call. Thats when I got suspicious. I think we will steer clear of this offer.

I, also, received a phone call this evening. I attended a Bridal show in Austin, TX and was stopped by a booth that wanted to pick my favorite China pattern to be entered in the drawing. I complied so the annoying guy working would stop following me. It all seems very suspicious....

All please look at this link I found, regarding the so-called free trip, it apprears this is a scam and the company was taken to court in Texas.

Http://www.oag.state.tx.us/newspubs/newsarchive/2001/20010913royal.htm

Looks like we`ve joined the crowd and won the "free" vacation. We`ve made our appointment to preview thier cookware for this sunday.... Anyone been? We figure we might as well go and get the free food but want to know if it`s just a waste of time?

Hi my name is james about 4 years ago my wife and i also got a 3 day 2 night trip. We thought it may be a scam. We went to a "showcase" and saw the cookware. We fell in love with it i got a 7 peice set. One year later we went on the viva trip and had a blast it was GREAT

My fiancee and I actually attended the seminar last week. I have to say these guys must have some of the best salesman in the country or the best thieves...a very fine line, but i`ll lean towards the latter. I told the salesperson i couldn`t make a decision right away and that i needed to do research on the company first. Of course, he threw his pitch about losing the discount and the fact that I will never get a chance to buy these products ever again, so i left thinking what if i just lost an opportunity of a lifetime...nottttttttttt! I have a $500 gift certificate to shop on some gift site and 3 days-2nights stay at a hotel somewhere. I didn`t use either one of them yet. By the way, the products are available through a distributor listed by state on their website. After doing a little research i came across a few sites that convinced me of this scam but i`ll only list this article (link below) from ABC as the scale tipper for me to stay away from this. I`m not saying the products are defective as i couldn`t find anything online about the products being bad. I think the people that works for them are scam aritist trying to make a quick buck, and will do or say anything to make the sale. If you have the time to attend, do so...don`t take my or ABC`s words for it, judge for yourself.

Http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/GoodMorningAmerica/GMA020227Cookware_hunter.html

-Julien

Thank you to all. Esp. For the texas att. General web site. The internet is a beautiful thing.

James, you must be working for the bad guys.

My finacee and I went to the presentation and didn`t purchase anything. We did however get a travel voucher for the trip. We were skeptical at first too, but I did research and found that Carico and Viva Resorts are both members of the BBB. Also, I emailed both places and they confirmed the voucher is legit. We have not gone yet but some close friends have and they LOVED it (the Puerto Vallarta Viva Resorts). Seems like it`s not a scam after all. I have heard that the Dominican Republic resort leaves little to be desired.

I recieved the free trip call yesterday, the lady said that I was at a bridal show a few months ago, i wasn`t, and she said that I was entered in to the free trip giveaway. She said that I did not have to buy anything, she said not to bring money too. She gave me a voucher number and told me that all I had to do was go to the presentation and listen to it, then I had to give the people the voucher number and my husband and I would get the free trip. At first I thought, ok cool, but as the conversation went on she began to studder really bad, she said we could pick from 25 places to stay, I made her read them to me, and that`s when I knew she was full of it because like I said I was never at a bridal show to be entered into any prize giveaway. In my opinion I think this is a joke and would not take this phone call seriously.

I got the call a few days ago and called back yesterday. It sounded too good to be true but I thought I`d check it out on the net and then go to the presentation in 3 months. I think I will still go just to see what they say. But it does sound like a scam to me based on what I have read and what I read on the TX attn`y general`s website.

It seems like the only downfall is that we will have to purchase our airfare and they choose the dates you go. We had to choose 3 arrival dates (all on Monday or Tuesday) 30 days apart from one another, that were 7 days either before or after a national holiday. So, if you`re not picky about when you can go, then it`s not that bad of a deal. We are only out $50.00 and 1 1/2 hours of our lives so far. If it does turn out to be something we aren`t interested in, then we won`t go. I think people need to at least do their own research before they jump to conculsions about a phone call. Give it a shot and decide if it`s something you want to do. If you feel it`s too risky then don`t do it. I wouldn`t pass it up just because someone else thinks it may be a scam. I checked with the BBB and the resort as well as Carico before we decided to proceed. Good Luck!

I also had this phone call last night, I was all psyched! what a bummer if this is a scam. Has anyone gone on these trips yet? Is anyone in the process of going. It really sucks that this world cant be more truthful. We are all excited to get married and then people throw this crazy stuff at you. I am off to the meeting tommarow pm to test it out and buy NOTHING~keep you posted

Who ever put up the link to abc wow hats off to you. The show we went to was just like that. But not so bad (same setting). I called the BBB and thay said royal pres is a very large company. And they were started in the 50`s. And it turns out that the viva resorts just got bought by the Wyndham resorts.. I think thay are big.. They were not there when we went feel free to email any questions jldandjld@yahoo.com

My fiancee and I attended one of the presentations last night. We went solely for the trip voucher, but knew that even that might be a fraud. We felt like wasting 90 minutes at the presentation was not a huge loss if it turns out to be a scam.

I did find it interesting that the guy still made fraudulent claims about health problems associated with aluminum and other types of metal when the ABC news link above says that Royal Prestige has told its distributors to stop making such claims. Anyhow, some of their products seemed cheap, but the cookware didn`t seem bad. Of course, I`m not one to go to what is essentially a live infomercial and buy products I`ve never heard of from a company I don`t know, so we didn`t buy anything.

Also, it seemed very suspicious when they said that this was your only opportunity to buy the products and that if you didn`t buy them now you`d miss out forever. And I was really surprised because when it came time to talk to the salesperson at the end of the presentation, he didn`t pressure us because he found out we are both poor college students. But that was about the only "non-tricky" thing they did all night.

I did think it was funny that they talked about their low 1.75% interest rate. Of course, most people failed to realize that this is a monthly compounded rate so the annual rate is much higher. And the salesman totally lied about how long it takes people to pay off their purchase. He said that you could get thier main line of cookware for $1990 and make weekly payments of $20. He said that most couples who do this (making the minumum payments of $20/week) pay off thier debt in seven to 15 months. Which is total crap because disregarding the interest that is compounding on the principal:
$20/week x 52 weeks = $1040

So, disregarding interest, you can see in a year that you pay off $1040. At the $20/week payment schedule, it would take almost 23 months to pay off the principal. But when you throw in the interest, it is even longer.

Of course, we weren`t buying anything, so it didn`t really matter. We do have our voucher for the trip, and if the travel agent says that it is bogus, then we wasted 90 minuts. But if it`s legit, here we come Honlulu.