Travel pitch prizes turn out to be costly

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – The promise of prizes is luring area residents into a sales pitch for an out of state travel service. Some winners are not feeling so lucky.

Six on Your Side’s Mike McKnight conducted a hidden camera investigation to get to the bottom of the scam.

Receiving a mailer to call in and win a prize is just the beginning.

When calling in, the message said, “You’ve been invited to attend a grand opening reception to claim your gifts.”

Gary Brodeur went to the reception that McKnight investigated.

“They bait you saying you’re going to win with one of these and you got a chance to win the Toyota Hybrid,” Brodeur said.

The prize would come after a 90 minute presentation by Elegant Concierge Services offering a discount vacation club membership for $11,000.

“Four weeks every single year to pick and choose where you want to go, when you want to go, exactly how you want to do it,” said the person giving the presentation.

A car is just one of the four gifts offered for attending the presentation.

“About 99.9 percent of people are going to win the seven night cruise with airfare,” said the seller.

However, when the salesman continued the presentation, the Caribbean cruise that was won doesn’t sound quite so sunny.

“It’s not the greatest room on board, so they’re going to try and get you to upgrade. There’s port taxes and it actually doesn’t include food on board,” said the Seller.

McKnight followed up.

“A cruise without food?” he asked.

“Exactly. That’s what I’m getting at,” said the seller.

The seller went on to explain that the cruise and airfare could be traded in for $1,000 off of the membership.

Brodeur took up the trade-in offer.

“Pressured, pressure if you walk out this door you’ll never get this offer again,” he said about his decision.

With other incentives, Brodeur and his wife ended up paying $4,000 for an Elegant Concierge Services membership offered at the end of the presentation.

His credit card was billed that day.

Instead of a free prize, Brodeur ended up paying thousands of dollars.

“Instead of a prize, we got a surprise,” Brodeur said.

Elegant Concierge Services has not returned messages for comment or called back the Better Business Bureau who also made inquiries.

Brodeur filed a complaint with the Nebraska Attorney General claiming the company didn’t allow him 72 hours to rescind his membership purchase.