i hv to face many prblms bcoz of compnies calls nd sms on mah phn....nd it truly disturb me alot..plzz it's mah hammble req to u..stop these calls nd sms as soon as posbl

i recieved a call from this number 202-552-1557 and he told me that my name got selected demo graphically.....

Now they're working in Las Vegas. I was put up at the Tropicana Hotel, one that I would NEVER go to again. I can't believe I let them talk me into it. I went through the same experience as many on Weds. Now I want to cancel and the cancellation needs to be handed or certified mail received by 5 calendar days which is Monday. I will fax and then certify mail to them today if possible. They gave me the 1 week for about $8,000 plus yearly maintenance fees for 15,000 points (+ an additional 15,000 pts) anywhere in the world. When I came home and finally read the report they gave me, I see that 15,000 points will NOT buy me anywhere to go. It will take several years to accumulate enough points to get anywhere. I am thankful this site is here and wish I had read it before. I will be doing everything I can to cancel today.

Their still at it . I got the same call . Asked how they got my name and number and they said I filled out a coupon at the fair and I " won " .
WRONG I didn't fill out any coupon and I haven't been to any fair for years . I called the Bellevue BBB and she said they have an " F" rating - ( F= Bad ) with many complaints. She said thats all the BBB can do , give consumers a rating of the company . WE have to file complaints with the Fed Trade Commish.  Let's all do it and see if we can do something .
I am .
Righton people for Googling and finding out the truth.

Found a very important story about GeoHolidays. I hope the one who wrote this won't mind me pasting it for all of you to see. The story about his experience with GeoHoliday (aka Fairfield Resorts) was difficult to find, since it was about three years ago (~2005).

Disclaimer: This quote was taken off a site (linked from another site that no longer exists). I do not own this quote/story. Hopefully Jeff is alright with me posting his experience here.

**********
Hi All,

I just wanted to post this as a warning to people out there.... about a
company named Geo Holidays... aka Fairfield Affiliate.

We got a call from someone from Geo Holidays last week. This person
claimed
that we had won one of 4 free vacation packages to various locations in
the
world. He stated that every year his company chooses 4 lucky couples to
which are given free vacations. Instead of advertising on TV, radio,
billboards, etc.. he said they believed word of mouth advertisement is
what
they want. We would enjoy our vacation so much that we would happily
spread good word of mouth. (We are in Toronto, Canada by the way).

Being skeptical I asked what the catch was. I asked this guy, "what
will
you people try to sell me when I come there? is this in any way a
timeshare?". He assured me that there were no strings attached and that
nobody would try to sell me anything. We just have to go there and draw
for
the prize (but said we had to be there for approx. 90 mins).

If I hadn't of entered a draw for a vacation at a store earlier this year
I
probably wouldn't have gone at all.... but I didn't want to miss out if I
was mistaken. I also couldn't turn up anything bad for Geo Holidays when
searching on the internet....

Anyways, we drive to the place Saturday morning (our prearranged meeting
time)... and the sign outside on the building says "Fairfield Affiliate".
Interesting... the name Geo Holidays is seen nowhere (apparently they are
just a partner). Inside we were led to a room where we wait a while and
then every couple gets a salesperson sitting beside them to start talking
us
into buying this vacation crap. "All we ask is that you keep an open
mind.
When you get over the anger you have by how we got you all here, you will
be
happy. At the end you just need to say yes or no." Yeah, right. This
strange black guy from Tennessee comes in and start making a big
presentation trying to be funny and all. The audience felt so fixed with
the agents everywhere... they laughed on cue... clapped on cue... like
puppets. The poor people in the front row should have been wearing
raincoats since that speaker guy kept spitting when he talked. The whole
thing felts like something out of the Twilight Zone... it felt like one of
those cults where you are waiting to take your special pill so the
spaceship
will come and take us all away. Creepy...

The speaker goes on talking about points and a system called FairShare
(but
explaining that it is not timeshare). He goes on mentioning it will cost
us $1066 to go anywhere in the world each year... blah blah blah....

He finishes... and it is time for our little salesman to continue to try
to
talk us into it. He reminds us that we are guaranteed our free vacation
no
matter what happens. Out of curiousity I ask how much this actually
costs.
So... we go to a room with about 40 tables with paper and calculators on
them.

He slowly (and I emphasis slowly) explains everything to us. The total
cost for the package came out to about $40,000 something. The membership
is for 45 years. I'm thinking... these guys must be nuts!! And that is
just for the package itself... let alone the annual maintenance fees of
around $500. He does some calculations and says I will only have to pay
$900 per month to get this package. Yeah, right!! ha!! I told the guy
bluntly that there was no was in hell he was going to get a "yes" out of
me.
He told me to wait while he got another representative to tell us about a
package he might not of heard about.

So... some lady who smelt like armpits came over and sat down with us.
She
offered us another package that was for about $15,600 with much less
included (of course). But she said today they had a special on it and
that
it was only $13,600. It came out to about $290 per month or something
plus
the extra $400 maintenance fees (they write a US$ figure to make it seem
smaller). I told her even if it was $20 per month we wouldn't say "yes".
After talking for another half hour she said she wanted to talk to her
boss
to see if there was anything else she could do. She comes back and says
there was a promotion on that she wasnt aware of and the price would
actually be $11,000. We still said "no". She made it seem that us
saying
"no" just boggled her mind.... like she couldn't comprehend how someone
could say "no"! She told us that she was in this program herself and
that
we would be fools not to join.

(Inbetween these discussions we are interrupted 3 times by people
announcing
who has just bought the package. "Quiet everyone. May we have your
attention. Mr. and Mrs. Smith all the way from Toronto have just signed
up
with us." <<Clapping>>. Again sounding so fixed and creepy. And when
we
are talking about the packages when this happens the armpit lady tells us
to
be quiet and listen.)

Still not understanding the answer no, my wife writes the letters "NO" on
a
piece of paper a dozen or so times, shows it to them, and tells them that
we
are leaving. They finally understand. They lead us to the prize office
and we draw our 3 days accommodation-only prize for Orlando, Florida.. and
we leave. At least we got something... but I won't fall for that again!!
These companies lure us in with deceit and lies... I don't understand how
anyone would hand over any money to people.

They wanted word of mouth from me.... and now I have fulfilled my duty.

Thanks

Jeff
**********

Careful! This number can also appear as 1-888-301-1251.
Got a call from them, claiming the person I am speaking to is the 'manager'. Asked him numerous times what his name was, but he keeps yapping about the two vacation tickets prize. Some other employee had called before and also claimed he was from GeoHoliday, claiming to be 'Jerry'.

Asked him who he works for, and he claimed to be working for Geoholidays.com, telling me to pick up the prize at
60 West Wilmot St., Unit #1
Richmond Hill, ON.

Apparently, the company GeoHoliday was also under the name of Fairfield Resorts, and a new name (which I'm unsure whether they have started using yet) Wyndham Vacation Resort. Depending on who they are calling to, their offices are found in the US and Canada and they go by various names.

Note this, after searching around on the Internet, you can be qualified for this so-called 'prize' IF you are between the age of 25-70 with a least a certain income amount.

Hey Owen,
Thanks very much for posting your experience. I signed up for one of these sessions but after reading your visit, I will cancel. Sorry, you and your wife had to waste an evening. You're good to help others avoid a similar fate.

Same call as many of the above.  The first guy I spoke with had a very heavy African accent; he said I had won one gift out of 5 possible gifts after filling out a ballot at Walmart last June (I never fill out ballots). I was then transfered to his manager, a Kevin Austin with a heavy Spanish accent, who told me I had to travel to 216 Chrislea Rd., Suite 202, Woodbridge, ON (just north of Toronto) to receive my prize during a dinner.  If I could not make the dinner, I needed to call 416.628.9766.  I was given "the answers" to three questions I would be asked upon arrival; this was to make the registration process go more quickly. I was also given the confidential claim number FSC110.  The whole telephone conversation left me really skeptical so I decided to go on-line to check it out.  Am I ever glad I did!  Thanks to all of you for sharing your scam experience.

Wow am I glad that I found this site.   I got a call from "Dan" telling me that I could pick up the vacation prize for seeing their presentation in Bellevue with my wife.  I had done one of these time share sales pitches before in Vegas for free show tickets so I figured what the heck lets give this a shot.  Boy was I wrong, and I feel awful for having dragged my wife along to this.

Star Point Resorts' "office" was upstairs in a complex reserved as a branch campus for Seattle University.  Our appointment was at 8 pm and there were still classrooms full downstairs of students.  The building itself was fine, but it threw me off when we actually walked through their door because it looked like they had just thrown the place together.  There was dated furniture, bright red carpet, a tiny old tv playing a sales DVD with a mustached spokesman with feathered hair and a gold chain.
This was supposedly the place I would pick up my free "5 Star Resort vacation", so why were there cardboard cutouts of hula girls on the walls that looked like they picked them up at a party supply store?  Very, very sketchy.

It took about 10 minutes until someone actually walked to the front desk to "greet" us, which consisted of a short hello and a request to fill out their form.  I could hear other people in closed doors down the hall getting the hard sell.  I knew this wasnt going to be a cakewalk, but I just wanted my free trip.

We were stuck listening to their spiel for 90 minutes, of which we were handed off between three different sales people.  The first was a Lithuanian immigrant with a thick accent, the second seemed like a creepy over caffeinated youth group leader, and the third seemed like one of Tony Soprano's cronies.

Finally at the end we were handed a tiny brouchure for us to mail in to receive our vacation.  My wife and I were nothing but polite to them during our time there, but I could almost feel the soles of their shoes pushing us out the door.  They gave us no literature about their company to take home, no business card, no phone number to call if we changed our mind about buying the timeshare.  Very weird.

Anyways, the brochure for the "prize" he handed did NOT have the vacation they promised us.  We were initially told we could have a 2 night stay including airfare ANYWHERE in the US, Canada, or Mexico.  This brochure had NOTHING like that on it.  Before we left, Tony Soprano's friend said "make sure you mail this in soon because if its too late the offer is void."

The clincher was when we got home and I opened the brochure again to see a printed expiration date for our prize - August 31, 2008.  Well we had met with them on NOVEMBER 20th, so the price was void from the very get-go. The promotion was to be claimed through some company called "Grand Incentives" but it had no phone number or website to call to talk about the expired date.  What kind of company doesn't put a phone number on something?  That is Marketing 101, unless you have something to hide.

This company is a total scam.  I can't believe how they can go to work every day and continue this pathetic joke of an operation.  Part of me is laughing about the ridiculousness of the whole thing, but I am equally peeved at wasting an entire evening and gas driving to it.

If I didn't live so far away from the office, I would consider going up there again at one of the scheduled times they have set for presentations and showing my void "prize" to the folks waiting in the front office.

I just went to richmond hill and to the geo presentation.  No problem; I already own a condo but wanted the trip to florida because I have a cruise I purchased but have to find travel.  I went there just for that reason and got the brochure and have just registered and have yet to send it in.  They were very good with me and I had no problem; 90 minutes and left there.
What I want to know did you have problems getting your airline tickets?  How much do they charge and do you pay airport taxes.  Have you used them yet.
So sorry lots of questions but want to extend my tickets for 10 days so I can also go on my cruise.  These were from funplanetvacation.com and I just went to presentation yesterday so I have no idea when I will hear from them again.
Cordially
Linda   please email me at roadrunner69@sympatico.ca  thank you

Same Indian Accent guy called us on July 28 saying you have won a coupon for some hotel stays + plasma TV which does not make any sense at all.  Hardly know what he is trying to say and he repeat a lot of stuffs that I did not ask for.  

He calls himself Alex.

My wife and I did go, 2 and a half hours of presentation, we did like it for some of the things they said was different from the rest of the timeshares and bought a introductory package for three years and should allow us up to three weeks of time share use in Fiji.  Since then, they have several times tried to get late charges from us when they had accepted the online bill-pay one week before the due date.  Our RCI membership was not paid for the first year as promise and they upped the maintenance fee by over a hundred dollars the first year.  All in all, one of the worst decisions we made.

This phone number 202-552-1557 is connected to people operating out of Moscow.  They infect your computer with a malware virus and a popup appears on your computer screen to order XP Security Center antivirus software.  It all looks real legitimate but it does not work and is nothing more than a scam.  These people should be shut down and imprisoned.  My desktop has pretty much been disabled because of the malware.

THE SAME THING JUST HAPPENED TO ME!! Some guy with an Indian accent called me with a very bad connection, saying that I had filled a ballot and was eligible to win one out of five prizes. He said that I checked a box saying I was 27 to 70 years old on my coupon.  I responded by saing that I was actually just 24 to which he responded, "okay ma'am just say you are 27 to the receptionist".  He listed off all the prizes.
He also assumed and asked me what my yearly earnings were...UGH!  
Then asked me if I was married.  I said no.  He said do you have a boyfriend, I said yes.  Apparently I checked off the box that said I was married on the coupon!?? I was starting to get suspicious...they asked when me and my boyfriend would pick up the prize together. I said maybe in a week.  He then said no that is too late because there is a time limit to get your prize....WHAT?! So then he said to go to Woodbridge as a single lady and would have to say that I was 30 years old and to bring my credit card as one of my ids.  I would have to sit through 90 minutes of dinner and pick up my prize.  He said I could only go alone.  He gave me my confirmation number and I hung up.  Another person called 3 minutes later asking to make sure I will come on Tuesday.  I said maybe.  He very strongly emphasized that I needed to confirm now because he was arranging seats for the dinner.  I asked him why I could not bring anyone.  I said I wasn't going to go by myself.  He then asks me if I will bring a girl or a guy! He again stresses that I show up on time and on that date, and we hang up.  During this time I find this forum....and I'm definitely glad I did.  There is NO way I am going.

I'm throwing my two cents worth in on this Star Points thing in Bellevue Washington. We got a postcard in the mail today saying we could get free airfare (round trip) for 2 anywhere in the USA as well as a 3 days 2 nights in a hotel; my husband said why not? Listen to their presentation then ask for the airline voucher and go! So we booked but after reading all this I will probably cancel. I see someone else had the same deal and they asked for a $100 deposit. Imagine if 100 people bit and all paid the $100 deposit! That's a pretty good amount of money they pocket! I think their presentation will have to start without us this Saturday!! Thank you to all of you; maybe another scammer will bite the dust.

Sorry, previous posted phone number should read : 905 695 9047
Apologies for the incorrect number.

They're calling the GTA now aswell.
905 695 4097
Caller ID failed to get a name : Unknown.

Heavy accent.
Claimed my fiance had filled out a ballot of some type, and I had an option of 5 prizes.
-25,000 in cash.
-Trip to Cancun.
-Ford Explorer.
... can't remember the other two.

They actually called twice.
The first time they attempted to verify my age incorrectly, and attempted to verify my marital status incorrectly.
When he realised the mistake, he simply hung up.

Second call (same day) : I informed them that if it is my fiance who filled out the ballot then it should be her they speak to. The heavy accented caller then proceeded to ask "Is there anyone else there who has access to her account?"
That was the final straw. I asked for him to repeat himself sternly, and, like the previous caller, he hung up.

Accent : Heavy Eastern accent. Possibly pakistani or indian, the phone line was too weak to get a clearer impression.

They don't have a very solid script. You will find they are unsure of what they are saying, you can easily catch them off guard by asking a few simple questions.
They can't be very intelligent, as they can't retort to questions posed, they simply lock up and hang up.

I didn't get far enough with them to determine if they wanted me to meet them anywhere, but the second caller clearly intended to access financial accounts.

Sorry, I posted this off an earlier post. Today is Friday, June 6th, 2008

Just hung up on the same 'group' that all of you have been contacted by --   GEO Tours or NGC. Same guy with East Indian accent -- didn't ask or want his name.  

First they called our house using my first initial which I would never use on a ballot trying to convince my husband that I had won the grand prize.  After he got on the phone with a 'senior' manager who couldn't tell him where I may have filled out this mystery ballot, he called me to see if it was real or bogus (I have actually won a trip before through a contest).  He then told the guy, who sounds like the same guy that all of you have spoken with, to call me at my business, which he did.  Gives the address of where we are supposed to come to retrieve prize between certain times:  51 International Blvd in Etobicoke which is a burb in Toronto. Phone number is 905-695-4097.  When I asked why they couldn't fax me a copy of my ballot so that I could confirm, all he could say was that I filled it out on December 18th -- not possible since I wouldn't have been going to any mall let alone a Wal-Mart, where he said it might have been filled out (I don't shop there ever) because I would have been too busy in my own store! I finally hung up on him since he wouldn't verify my ballot by faxing to me so that I could see my handwriting.

Why do these people waste our time and how stupid do they think we all are???

Just hung up on the same 'group' that all of you have been contacted by --   GEO Tours or NGC. Same guy with East Indian accent -- didn't ask or want his name.  

First they called our house using my first initial which I would never use on a ballot trying to convince my husband that I had won the grand prize.  After he got on the phone with a 'senior' manager who couldn't tell him where I may have filled out this mystery ballot, he called me to see if it was real or bogus (I have actually won a trip before through a contest).  He then told the guy, who sounds like the same guy that all of you have spoken with, to call me at my business, which he did.  Gives the address of where we are supposed to come to retrieve prize between certain times:  51 International Blvd in Etobicoke which is a burb in Toronto. Phone number is 905-695-4097.  When I asked why they couldn't fax me a copy of my ballot so that I could confirm, all he could say was that I filled it out on December 18th -- not possible since I wouldn't have been going to any mall let alone a Wal-Mart, where he said it might have been filled out (I don't shop there ever) because I would have been too busy in my own store! I finally hung up on him since he wouldn't verify my ballot by faxing to me so that I could see my handwriting.

Why do these people waste our time and how stupid do they think we all are???

Is this a real scam?  Was it worth it?

Did you get any one of the rewards?  Was there any obligation?

Got a call today from man with a similar South Asian accent.   Also claiming as the National Gifting Center.  Manager name was Jerry Stevens, (716) 524-9957, x211.  Prizes: $2,500 cash, 6 days, 5 nights FL with $1,000 internet shopping card. 32" flat screen tv and a Lincoln Navagator.
Booksed my time to attend a presentation and collect prize at 1935 Shermer Rd, Suite 100, Northbrook IL 60062.  He also said something about the United Network.  The connection was bad so I couldn't here it.  I gave a fake cell number for call back so they won't keep bugging me.  We'll see if I can make it or not.

found my way to this page by searching for info on the "Star Points Resorts" at 114th ave in Bellevue. Anyway since it seems like everyone here just wrote these guys off I thought I'd share my experience of actually going to the presentation.

like others here I was offered the airfare + 2 nights vacation for attending a 90 minute presentation. Showed up on time, but they were still "closing" people from the previous presentation so everything started 30 mins late. The office is .. sketchy. It has a very fly-by-night look. And even though the reservation email said Star Points Resort, once we got there it was clear we were being sold on Geo Holidays.

Anyway, I would hardly describe this as high-pressure/hard sell. Everything they say sounds reasonable, and they always treated us well. Sure, they pulled the old "amazing deal if you buy now", but other than that they relied on their product selling itself. I know quite a few of the tactics  used in the hard sell and these guys were not using them. Once we had decided, and told them that our answer was "no", that was the end of the conversation. I mean, I won't even buy a book without first borrowing it from the library, of course I'm not going to buy a timeshare after just a 90 minute presentation.

As for the "prize", you get a brochure with a form you have to fill in and send with a $100 deposit. You can only travel on Tuesday. You provide them with destinations and travel dates you can make, and they mail you back the tickets/reservations they choose. So sure, it's very restrictive, but hey, IT WAS FREE. Oh- and if you're curious, the company arranging the free travel is Worldwide Travel Center, in Deerfield Beach, FL. They don't exactly have a stellar reputation, from what I've read on the internet.

A final note- I've noticed a lot of the "IM A VICTUM" and "I WAS SCAMMED" forum posts I've seen while researching this are poorly written, and have lots of spelling mistakes. They are also very vindictive while being vague on details. My guess is they couldn't resist the sales pitch and made a financial commitment they're now regretting. Honestly, I think it's their own fault. Anyone who makes a financial commitment worth thousands of dollars after a 90 minute presentation is a fool, and only has themselves to blame.

Recieved a call on 05/09/2008 around 6.65pm,the caller with heavy "Indian" accent.Introduced himself as Brian Caster,the manager for national gift center,representing Bellevue Shopping Center. And I was selected to recieve a gift from Star Point Resort,1450 114th Ave Se Bellevue,WA 98008. "3nights and 2days" package in some countries.When I him asked a couple of things he hungup.

same thing happened to me today, the address they gave me was:
60 Westwilmont ST. unt#1 Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. "Manager" was Kevin Marshal (with Indian/Pakistani accent!!LOL gandoo). contact#: 416-628-9766

again: nothing is free, at least not anymore! so be aware!

i'm not planning to go, to waste time and get scammed!

caller ID: 880-077-1111

I got this call in Richmond Hill, this guy had an accent and probably got it  our names/number off the phone book. Sounds like a scam.

Hi,

This is still going on in oakville - I just got a call ten minutes ago. I decided to have a little fun with the caller because I have a PhD in Social Psychology and my research is in the area of persuasion... needless to say, by the end of the conversation, he was a little frustrated. I feel badly for the actual callers because i'm sure most of them hate their jobs and are just trying to make some money for their families... but still, I couldn't resist. Hopefully they won't be calling back any time soon. I say we all join together and call the 'real number' (if it is real) given in the above post and start telling them that they won something. Maybe send some faxes too :) actually... on second thought... the call tonight already wasted too much of my precious time, so i'll leave it be :)

The same scam is being ran in Toronto, we just received a call not much different from the descriptions given previously.  He said that we filled in a ballot on the 13th of December and listed off bunch of different stores where it could have been.  When I asked him what names was on the ballot he was not able to answer.  He said that we were guaranteed one of three prices; 2008 Ford Explorer (or $45,000), 27" plasma TV or 3 night stay in any of 30 North American destinations.  Tried really hard to set up a time to come in and attended the gifting ceremony - would take no longer than 90 minutes.  Address he gave us was Building #51, International Boulevard in Etobicoke.  The call kept getting cut off and he would call back right away and ask whether I had hung up on him, he then proceeded to blame Rogers for poor phone lines. He also said that we had to bring two pieces of ID, and our gift claim number.  I spoke to one guys who introduced himself with two different names, Peter and Robert, when the phone connection died.  From his accent it was very obvious that it was the same person.  Please do not fall for this and I am going to call him back now and give him serious s*** for being full of s***!!!  The number he gave us is 416-342-1547 and also at one point gave us extension 143.  I am also going to call them next week to tell them they won a million dollars!!!!!!

Got the postcard today. Called - Shouldn't have! Meeting is in Bellevue, Conifer Bldg. #205.  Looked them up in the BBB and found there are complaints and they are not in good standing with the BBB. I'm not going to the meeting.

Did some private investigating: Info about the Gift Centre as they claim:
Company Management:
Mr. Damien Radulescu
Original Business Start Date: January 1994
Principal: Mr. John Carroll, President
Customer Contact: Mr. David Ouellette, Secretary/treasurer ?
(905) 856-1747 or damian@vacationstore.ca  
Email Address: damian@vacationstore.ca  
TOB Classification: Travel Clubs
BBB Membership: This Company is NOT a member.
The Vacation Store, 216 Chrislea Rd.Suite 202 Woodbridge, ON L4L 8S5
Telephone: (905) 856-1747 Fax: (905) 264-2453
NOT ANY PART OF BBB, or the companies they say they represent! I have reported them to BBB.