free vacation offers-please give me your opinions

Hi everyone,

We've been planning our wedding since April and so far we've had three offers for free five day four night vacations. Two offers were from a place called "21st Century Concepts" that sells cookware products. We met them at a Bridal Expo and supposedly we were one of a "select few" names chosen for this trip. We had to go and listen to them give a presentation about their products in exchange for the voucher from VIP Travel for the vacation-no obligation. We did this (and didn't buy anything), and the voucher is sitting right here but we're afraid to use it because we think it might be a scam. The same company called us about a month later to say we won another one! When I reminded the woman that we had already "won", she said, "Oh, I thought your name looked familiar...Sorry, but you can't have two." Now a place called Prestige in Lynbrook just called and told us almost the same thing-we won it because we sent away for information from Modern Bride, five days four nights hotel accomodations, we just had to make an appointment and they would give us the voucher. We haven't gone yet but I wanted to get some opinions from you guys before we waste our time.

Has anyone had a similar experience, or heard of someone who has? I was thinking of checking out VIP Travel before we book anything. Has anyone heard of them? What kind of crazy scam is this? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

A friend of mine did this and went and saw the demonstration -- i will check with her but from what I remember it seemed to check out Laura

Thanks! I called Rainbow & the woman was one of the most pleasant people I have spoken with since this whole wedding planning thing started! We are going to an upcoming showcase. If anyone else has any input on Rainbow it would be super appreciated - we are looking for a fun dance band (not gimmicky) that really covers songs well.

Thanks for all the info! :)

Check out my post from about 1 month ago. I took the Royal Prestige trip to Cancun. Royal Prestige is the brand of one of the products sold by the marketing firm called 21st Century Concepts. You can check them out with the BBB. I did before I left. I will probably use another voucher I have from them to stay in Las Vegas for a few days on my way back from Arizona in November. I will be sure to post how that one goes.

Your friend and I think alike. I wanted a James Taylor song too (unfortunately there no way my fiance can dance to "How Sweet It Is"). We have been deciding on either "You've Got a Friend" or "Something in the Way She Moves." But we would like to use "Going to Carolina" because we both love it.

WOW! The park passes were not included in the offer they gave to me. I would be careful that they don't ask you to pay an "all-inclusive" fee that is = to or more than the cost of the parks. We had a $40/ day all inclusive fee for Cancun, but they told us about it up front.

Hi Stephanie,

Would you mind telling me (us) how it went?

It was the best day and the happiest day of my life. I would do it all over again.

There are plenty of scams out there, so you just have to be careful. We did not have to listen to 1 minute of a timeshare speech. Anyone who stayed at the hotel we were at were asked to make an appt. to fill out a survey. We simply asked for the survey ahead of time and droppped it off at the desk. We said we were not interested in hearing anything about the timeshares. They thanked us for staying at the hotel and wished us well on the trip back home. No pressure!! We asked all these questions ahead of time and even called the hotel ourselves directly to be sure there were no gimmicks and they had gotten our reservation from the marketing company.

Ask them if they can give you names of others that have used this.