No SCAM here.
We go to crazy efforts to maintain the highest levels of honesty among the Sundance Vacations staff members. This means silent monitoring for the telemarketing staff, secret shoppers for our lead generators and videotaped presentations for our sales staff. Everyone who knows us also knows that we like to get feedback both good and bad about their Sundance Vacations experience.
A few nights ago we got a call from an acquaintance. “I just got a call from one of your telemarketers and they told me I won a free cruise from Sundance Vacations. I thought you should know,” she said.
“Yeah, thanks. Can you tell me who it was so I can fire him or her. They are definitely not allowed to say won,” thanked John.
“Not allowed to say won? But what about the free cruise”, she asked in surprise? “They shouldn’t be able to tell people they are getting a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas from Sundance Vacations.”
“Let’s start from the beginning. It’s important that you be specific. Did one of my staff members use the word won,” John questioned?
“They said I was picked for a free cruise from Sundance,” clarified our friend.
“Did you specifically hear the word free? Didn’t they tell you that you’d be responsible for some taxes and fees?” asked John.
“ Yeah, they said $200 bucks a person and that I had to come to your office to listen to a presentation. So you mean to tell me the person was telling the truth? If I come over to your office, listen to a sales pitch, I’ll get a free cruise to the Bahamas,” she asked incredulously?
“No, not a fee cruise,” he keeps correcting her.
“Ok, whatever. So you don’t care if I make an appointment to get the free cruise? I don’t have to buy anything?”
“No, of course not. But stop saying free cruise,” he reminds her.
This conversation illustrates the exact problem that we face each and every day when communicating verbally with millions of travelers. Sundance Vacations is truthful and honest in those communications but today’s very causal listeners are apt to paraphrase for ease of repeating just as our friend did.
Searchers can find seething comments claiming to unveil Sundance Vacations as a scam. Unaware, consumers read a slanderous or false post and then unknowingly add to the misconception by typing, “ I knew this was a scam.” In this next example a poster writes, “I researched the program and found out that my “free” and “won” cruise will cost over $800 dollars if it happens at all.” Unfortunately, by “research” the person is referring to anonymous, inaccurate, unofficial, casual, paraphrases found on the Intranet.
When trying to judge for yourself whether Sundance Vacations is a scam these are the facts that you can consider.
Sundance Vacations has been in business since 1991. That’s an 18 year business history.
Sundance Vacations was awarded the Torch Award from the Northeast and Central Pennsylvania Better Business Bureau in 2005. The Torch Award is given to a company that demonstrates ethical behavior. During the Torch Award process we were “secret shopped” by the BBB director at that time. He visited our office and personally congratulated Sundance Vacations on honest communications through-out his entire test. Some bloggers will say that we somehow bought the Torch Award. That’s just a slanderous lie.
Sundance Vacations is a member of the Better Business Bureau in every state that we operate in. We maintain a high grade with the BBB. We are not complaint free. Any organization that interacts with more than a million consumers every year is going to generate some unavoidable complaints. We address every complaint that we become aware of and solve them to the customer’s satisfaction.
We have won awards from our industry trade groups. We are the recipient of several “Call Center of Distinction” awards from the Association of Teleservices International. Again, this involves secret calls to our telemarketing staff to determine if they are staying on script. Nay-sayers would also claim that we are somehow cheating in this achievement.
We have been named one of the Best Large Company’s to Work for in Pennsylvania for three years in a row and one of the Best Company’s to Work for in Illinois. We employ hundreds of employees nationally. Again, I’m no expert but being an educated businessperson I believe that keeping a scam secret from the authorities would be pretty difficult to do. In 18 years wouldn’t at least one employee have blown the whistle, like at Enron.
The fact is, THERE’S NO SCAM HERE. Sorry to disappoint. Any consumer who reads the frequently asked questions on the Sundance Vacations website will have a great experience with the wholesale vacation company.
