My old neighbor "Mindy" is or was a phone rep there at Sun-dance... She IS a lying piece of crap and manipulates all of her friends.  She fits in well with the scammers.

She's an alcoholic and hates to see other people having any type of fun if she inst included.

Her husband in a 40(ish) year old guy with a 12 year old mentality.

attended baseball game in Delaware and signed up for car raffle
a woman from this number called today, said I won the raffle,  and offered me an android tablet or a cruise
I stated I wanted the tablet.
I was then told I must travel to PA with my ID to obtain the prize!
When I objected, I was told I could send someone in my place.
How could this be legal?

Attended Blackhawks game on April 3rd.  Signed up at entrance to win free play-off tickets.  Just got a voice message from Dalia at this number telling me I won a free 4 day, 3 night trip to Bahamas!  Yeah!  Of course I did not believe the message and foudn many entries about this number that confirmed my disbelief.  No such thing as a free lunch. Sorry Dalia, I will not be calling you back.

Same thing happened to me.  "Sign up to win Blackhawks tickets".  Yeah, right.  I bet they didn't even give them away.  Don't sign up for ANYTHING at a sporting event unless you know the team or the league is giving something away.  It's a freakin' scam!  I e-mailed them and told them to stop calling me.  The calls stopped for a while and they just started again.  I'm reporting them to the Do Not Call list.  

I just got a call saying my name was picked from a card I filled out at an event.  I won a 4 nite cruise to Bahamas. All paid for 2 ppl...just have to go listen to an hour presentation.  Is this worth my while? Will have to pay about 200$ bucks per person for taxes

I entered a raffle at the NY Times Travel Expo in 2014.  I got a call from Sundance Getaways saying that although I hadn't won the raffle I had been selected for a prmotional 4day 3nt cruise with airfare for 2 but I had to pay taxes/fees/portcharges/ and attend a 1-hour presentation in Parsipany, NJ.  

I requested that they remove my name from their call databse.  

Best wishes to all of you and thank you for sharing your telemarketing experiences on this website...  

One day I picked up the phone and told them I wasn't going to allow them to take money out of my account and this was about 2 months ago. I haven't heard from them ever since. They haven't sent me a notice or anything like that. I basically told them that I was recording the conversation and that I found out how much of a scam they really are. I also did the same with tri state financial and they haven't bothered sending me anything notice. I also found out that sundance and tri state are the same company!!! and neither of them are accredited companies.
Another word of advice, try to get in contact with the Pennsylvania attorney general and they will send you a form about consumer satisfactory and fill it out then send it back. I recently sent it back so I'm waiting on a response.

Me and my wife took the kids to great adventures in March 2012 and got the call in June 2012. I save the message and listen to it a couple times. The caller identified themselves as a representative of Six Flags Great Adventure, but here is the catch she never said the word "WON". After checking the internet and found out about Sundance Vacations. Its hard to phantom that we could be scammed and taken advantage because we took our kids to Six Flags to have fun. Six Flags and other reputable companies need to cut loose these blood sucking companies.

Jerry Dye is very shady.  Bad background, jail, etc.  Hope you did not buy anything!!!!

Art With a Conscious,

Thank you so much for your post.  My husband and I were scheduled for a meeting yesterday in Cleveland (Valley View), but they had to reschedule for next week, because the office was flooded.  I told my hubby  that I would do some research.  We will not attend next week, we will not waste our time.  Thank you

Have had numerous calls since approx. 3 weeks ago regarding a card that I signed at a mall for a trip to the Bahamas with Smart Travel...we have a scheduled appointment on Monday(2-29) to discuss the trip, fees etc.--based on the majority of the blogs, doesn't sound like we should be making this scheduled appointment which would take approx. 45 to 1 hr.

Company called Travelwise called me in UK, stating I had been selected by my Visa/Mastercard company as I had ammassed travel points through card useage and being a good customer.I apparently won a luxery all inclusive for four persons in one of four destinations, Bahamas, Cancoon
etc. Aked for name address and Tel number. He stated he was supervisor and gave his name as John PARKER. Then asked me to confirm details from my card, but was he was asking was the card details. I challenged this as an ex-police officer and he hung up. I have informed Lloyds Visa.

Company called Travelwise called me in UK, stating I had been selected by my Visa/Mastercard company as I had ammassed travel points through card useage and being a good customer.I apparently won a luxery all inclusive for four persons in one of four destinations, Bahamas, Cancoon
etc. Aked for name address and Tel number. He stated he was supervisor and gave his name as Jihn PARKER. Then asked me to confirm details from my card, but was he was asking was the card details. I challenged this as an ex-police officer and he hung up. I have informed Lloyds Visa.

I believe the $190.00 is for sales tax (same as if you won the lottery, or a new car..consumer pays the tax) and it also covers the port charges. I got a call today too... I'm going :)   I can't fly to Miami for 187.00, let alone a cruise. As far as buying a time share.. wait till they run my credit  :P.. haha, but I'll take that cruise ! :)

We also got the call and went to the sales pitch.  The last guy we saw (I guess he was the closer) kept lowering the prices and was trying to make us feel really stupid for not taking the deal.

We received phone call after filling out a card at a football game.
Wow, they promised on the phone they wouldn't be selling anything, just letting us know about their travel agency.  Then they told us we wouldn't have to pay anything for the cruise until we booked, but that is a lie, you have to pay $200 to get an "invoice" to be allowed to call to book.  This is no different that post cards you receive in the mail.  You can't book a week before or after a major holiday which includes "Columbus Day".......I feel really sorry for the employees who are low on the totem pole, they will soon feel bad about scamming people, and talking people into paying for nothing.

hey thanks for the information i knew it was too good to be true

I heard the same BS. Doubt it's legit, afterall nobody gives you anything for free.

The call back number they gave me is 800-309-6500, which is the same name and location as TravelWise. The number they called from is 630-324-7357.

I received a thing in the mail offering a free netbook computer and roundtrip air line tickets for going to there sales pitch. I called the number and was told it was a promotion to increase business in the travel agencies and not do travel booking online. The name of the place is wholesale travel group. supposed to go this evening in Dublin Oh.

I bet all of these positive comments come from Smartravel / David Wise trying to mitigate the negative press. Its not that people cant afford it, the issue is the company is clearly and intentionaly misrepresenting what they are selling. Want an example? Look at your contract and see where it talks about the annual membership fee. It was $359 a year when I was there and the contract states it can go up 5% per year CUMULATIVELY. So if they dont raise the fee for three years, it can go up over 15%. Yet as a rep we were told to say that it has never and will never go up. Thats a complete lie because it has gone up almost every year. Its deceptive and the company is well aware of it. There are many examples. There is an additional weekly charge of between $210 and $350 for prime/holiday seasons and oh by the way prime season is almost year round. The kitchens are supposedly "full" kitchens - look at the pics of the properties in Lake Tahoe - its a mini fridge and a microwave. Again its the deception thats the problem.

Hey Johny I worked there too! They changed their name from Travelwise to Smartravel because of all the negative reports online and with the Better Business Bureau. They actually show TAN's BBB report when asked - not even their own and stupid people buy into it!

For all potential employees: Smartravel will rip you off! You make sales and are supposed to get paid commissions but every paycheck there are HUGE deductions for mysterious "cancellations". Most sales reps net less than a few hundred dollars for each two week pay period. You as a salesperson are not allowed to contact the person that cancelled to ask them what happened or why they cancelled. Many people who work there think the owner David Wise does this just to avoid paying commissions to his reps. Supposedly there is some class action lawsuit out there by former reps trying to get the money that the company stole from them. You are told that you will earn a commission between 6% and 8% for EACH sale. Thats a complete lie. 90% of the commissions are only $90 per sale which reduces the effective commission rate to 2%. Stay away from this SCAM palace.

Yes its the same company.. I used to work there unfortunately, Smartravel and Travelwise are one in the same. They changed their name because they were concerned people were looking up Travelwise on the internet and seeing all the negative comments on the company before they came in.

Every negative comment you see in regards to Travelwise and Smartravel are completely TRUE. I was fired because I refused to lie to clients. My manager/trainer John W told me to say "whatever it takes to make a sale". I was reprimanded for not wanting to tell the clients we had resorts in places where we had NONE. I was specifically told to say whatever it takes to make a sale and then deny I said it. I refused and then was fired. John W actually escorted me out the door!

The free cruise / trip to Vegas are nearly impossible to book according to the talk in the office. The resorts are dumps and not one person who works there actually bought the travel package. But to show you how shady they are, many of the sales reps have fake membership cards so they can claim they are members. I had discussions with the owner, David W, but nothing changed. He is as dirty and as arrogant as they come.

The company your dad was contacted by may not be relevant here.

Insist this company disclose in dollars the amount you'll be liable for and I guarantee you won't be as impressed with them.

I went on a cruise like this years ago.  We had a lot of fun.  It was not a scam.  We had to go to the timeshare presentation once we were in the Bahamas.  Becuase I went with my dad and I was in college and my mom wasn't there they told us we didn't have to sit through the presentation at all becuase we didn't qualify.  They were really nice and realized we didn't want to waste our time sitting there.  We were leary about the whole thing but it was legitimate.

Years ago my dad got contacted by a company like this.  I'm not sure if it was the same company or not but he won a trip to the Bahamas.  My dad and I went and I also took a friend.  It was legitimate.  It was a little different because we booked it over the phone and when we went on the trip we were supposed to sit through a time share presentation.  None of us qualified for buying a time share so we got to leave the presentation.  The hotel and airfare was paid for, I don't remember if we paid any fees but we had a great time.  Everyone is trying to make money especially in this economy but I don't think it's a scam.  It just sounds like they are trying to upsell and that's true, you will pay taxes on anything you win...like the lottery, etc.

1-800-501-0100 x155
Remove me from the list

ya i'm sure... you probably work for these a***oles

Insist they disclose the dollar amount on the "taxes" you will be liable for before arriving in their facility.

My experience is they will refuse to give any number over the phone (but repetitively say "minimal") and BEG you come to their office to find out. Other postings indicate the "tax" rates eventually charged were 30-40%, resulting in around $300 fees on an $800-valued trip, where you stay in Vegas rooms you could have booked on your own for $20/night.

Sorry i forgot to post the number but here it is...1-800-501-0100