Or, “More of Chris’s Gripes”
Funny (PATHETIC) story about us setting up this convention. I was online about a year and a half ago, and stumbled onto one of those “Winner! Call immediately to claim your free vacation!” prizes. It had a counter, clicking down my two minutes that I had left to call. It was a vacation package for four trips, including a stay in Orlando and a cruise out of Orlando. It would only cost $600, and the cruise would be an additional $600, to cover “port fees and taxes.” Elizabeth has always really wanted to travel, and this looked like a good cheap way to do it. Of course I saw right through their attempts to bill this as “winning a vacation,” and I knew the way they made their money was by people not ever taking their vacations. But they gave us a year and a half to claim the trips, and I saw two of these trips were in locations we could go to comic conventions, which made this package deal a business expense. Right before I hit the final stage, I realized it didn’t include air fare. But it still sounded like a good deal, and we’ve never done a cruise, so I signed up anyways.
Of course, we put things off for over a year, but we saw Megacon in Florida, and thought that would be nice to write off our plane tickets, and then do the Florida vacation and cruise in one shot. I set up the hotels and cruise. The travel company said we’d have to pay more for the cruise, because it was the busy season, even though they only asked for a month’s notice, and I booked three months in advance. Then we set up our convention table fees and flights.
I was really excited to see Michael Lark, our new friend from Baltimore, was listed for this Con. I hoped we would have time to hang out together. It turned out he had to cancel last minute. I found out a week before, and got a nice email from him, saying he’s really busy, but I’m first on his list of commissions.
I also couldn’t wait to meet George Tuska and Al Feldstein.I knew George must be getting on in his years, because I heard he’d been doing comics since the 1940’s, and I really wanted to see him.I suspected he didn’t get out to many conventions, although I noticed he was at MegaCon the year before.Naturally I hoped I might be able to get contact info from him, and set up a monster pin-up.
I didn’t know if Al Feldstein made it to many conventions. I hadn’t noticed his name very often. I had stumbled onto a website where he was doing commissions, but it stated in no vague terms that he was only doing commissions for painted re-creations of his EC covers. I actually contacted his representative, who it turned out was also representing Dick Ayers (which is how I stumbled onto his site). The representative had told me Al was not doing any pen and ink work. The paintings were all thousands of dollars, and I knew I couldn’t afford the cost, and reproductions would have copyrights that I certainly couldn’t publish in my own book. I assumed at the convention I might not have the opportunity to meet him. I assumed he would be a much-demanded legend, who didn’t come out much, so when he did, he would get swamped with hour-long lines that I couldn’t afford to wait in. I assumed I would be too intimidated to even mention a pin-up, since I’d already gotten an answer from the rep, and I didn’t want to pester him for the only two seconds I would get before I was hurried out of line for the next fan.
Back to the vacation package scheduling. We had been stressed about fitting this vacation package into our busy, and still-in-debt schedules. It was a relief to have two of the four vacations now taken care of. We received our official confirmation letter, which stated we would have to pick up our hotel vouchers at a “welcoming center.” Then they called and told us the cruise we had chosen had been chartered, and we couldn’t do it on that date after all. We could reschedule a cruise any time over the next six months. I told them I was coming from California. This was an expensive trip for us to come out. We couldn’t back out of this trip, because we had our plane tickets and a convention scheduled now, based on the confirmation that had originally told us. I told them, if this cruise doesn’t work, they should refund our money. She said she’d call back to see about other cruises during this week. Of course they weren’t available either. She said they could give my cruise money back, but there would be a service charge. I’d receive the check in a couple months.
Over the next few days, I waited to speak with her manager, who was coincidentally out of town. Now I wanted not just the cruise payment but the vacation package money back. I told her I understand her position, that we’re only canceling the cruise, and that if she wanted, we could still take the other vacations, but that I should receive back the cruise portion of the money. She lied, saying I paid for the vacations, and that the cruise was thrown in free. I called her on her lie, and she replied, “Oh, was it?” I asked about the “welcoming center,” and was finally able to get from her that it was at the location of a time-share presentation.
While waiting for her manager to “get back in town,” I called the Better Business Bureau and Seller of Travel. Sure enough, this company had twenty or thirty complaints in the year and a half since the company opened. I contacted my credit card, which thank God I had used to pay for the vacation. They said that it may not be easy to dispute the charges for this vacation package, because I had purchased it over a year ago. But I could try if they did not represent the product I paid for. I read all the fine print of all the brochures they gave me, and tried to rack my brain about this. I felt they may have had me with the cruise, because the small print stated they weren’t responsible for “acts of God,” or events beyond their control. I hoped the fact that they scheduled a charter meant it was within their control. But I realized my only hope was that I hadn’t been informed about the time-share presentation. I submitted my dispute to the credit card and sent a formal letter to the vacation people that I wanted all my money back. They immediately called and said they’d be happy to make sure I got my full money back for the cruise, and would extend my vacation package. I told them I’d wait to hear what my credit card company thought, and never heard from the vacation people again.
A couple weeks later, I got a letter in the mail from the credit card, saying the entire amount had been credited back. What a relief. But it said the travel people could dispute my dispute, and I’d better keep the money available for forty-five days. I called, and they said an amount this big, the company would definitely dispute. But they never did. What a relief.
Don’t sign up for these vacation packages, fans! Anytime you’ve “won” something, you’re gonna regret the hell they put you through. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I was SO lucky I came out unscathed, unlike so many of my damaged friends who have fallen prey to other schemes.