We Got Scammed into a FREE Bahamas Vacation

Рет қаралды 4,010

Ай бұрын

This is our story about how we got tricked into paying thousands of dollars for a free Bahamas vacation and why it took us 5 years to pay for it!
Full disclaimer- We did have a wonderful vacation. We realize that the travel company did deliver on a Bahamas Vacation and that the form does say that applicable taxes must be paid, but our opinion is that this was a deceptive marketing practice.
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AikenAdventures is a Florida-based travel family with young children. We motivate families to make meaningful memories together through experiences.
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Пікірлер: 59

@MarkTrades__ 29 күн бұрын

Great piece of advice these days is always, "If something is free, YOU are the Product"

@AikenAdventures 29 күн бұрын

That’s so true! Once we went to a vacation club presentation, and one of the sales reps kept going and asking someone else for advice, so I asked if we could just speak to the person to while she was reporting. He came over and yelled at us about how he had spent $X for us to be there and that we were going to sit there and listen to the presentation. Of course we weren’t going to buy that!

@mirandasapphire8203 19 күн бұрын

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! This helped me understand what this "free" trip truly entails. I filled out a slip identical to the one you shared on the screen at the mall in Monroe, Louisiana, back in early May. I received a text today saying I won, and here I am, researching because it felt scammy. We also have two children who would be coming along with us. Thanks again for the warning. I'm genuinely sorry you all dealt with all of that stress on top of the financial burden resulting from a supposedly free vacation.

@AikenAdventures 15 күн бұрын

We ended up having an enjoyable time and perhaps it was significantly cheaper than if we had booked the same trip ourselves, but the marketing feels a little like a bait and switch. It is weird how this trip weighed on us for a number of years, though, we were kind of glad to get it out of the way-such a weird way to feel about a vacation! 🤪😂

@TappedOutTravel 29 күн бұрын

Glad you all turned a bad situation into a much better vacation. loved that video! Safe travels and god bless!

@AikenAdventures 28 күн бұрын

Life turns out best for those who make the best of how life turns out!

@jade_lowerlash 18 күн бұрын

this just saved me so much money, thank you guys!!

@AikenAdventures 15 күн бұрын

Glad to help!

@roseannameagher7832 12 күн бұрын

My "free" trip is in August. I got everything paid for and I'm excited non the less. I'm glad I found your video. It helped with knowing what to expect.

@AikenAdventures 8 күн бұрын

You know, it’s not that bad of a deal really. It’s not “free,” typically races have to be paid on ANYTHING that is “won.”

@carlacardozo955 Ай бұрын

Oh boy. That was some trip. I love the sit down style video, I would love to see that with recommendations and ideas as well, I love the vlogs but this format is very informative too.

@AikenAdventures Ай бұрын

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, for this video, we felt like we needed to be able to take a little different approach in order to tell the whole story!

@thepotential-u 5 күн бұрын

39.98 account set up fee 279.96 cruise administration fee 258.00 port and services fee Total = 577.94 Did you get to $2,733 because you added your kids not because there was more charges? It sounds like technically my wife and I could take the trip for $577.94 + food, drink, and lift rides. So all and all it could be $1,500-2,000?

@stugooden7826 Ай бұрын

We filled out that exact same card at the mall and “won” the Bahamas deal too. Still haven’t followed up on it… nice to see it is legit

@AikenAdventures Ай бұрын

We suspect that everyone “wins.” Although, we can’t say for sure.

@travisbuck4571 20 күн бұрын

Just got the text hours ago. We won 🧐 they sent us a screenshot in the text of my card. It says 4 days, 3 nights in the Bahamas. Representative that text me back said 5 days, 4 nights.... Off to a bad start already 😂 appreciate the info!

@stugooden7826 20 күн бұрын

@@travisbuck4571 hope it works out!

@gabrielarodriguez3929 14 күн бұрын

@@AikenAdventuresmy whole family filled it out and I was the only one who “won”

@nancywells5626 Ай бұрын

I love the hand's free bucket. LOL Thank you for sharing your video.

@AikenAdventures Ай бұрын

Hey! Always great to hear from you! Thanks for all your support! By “hands free” are you referring to the fact that we weren’t holding the camera for most of this video?

@nancywells5626 Ай бұрын

@@AikenAdventures I was referring to Pierce wearing the green sand bucket on his head with the handle as a neck strap. He can carry the bucket on his head and not depend on carrying the bucket by the handle with his hands.

@AikenAdventures Ай бұрын

@@nancywells5626 oh yeah, that makes more sense. 🤪 he LOVED wearing that bucket as a hat. 🤦🏻‍♂️ 🤣

@KktravelandEducationvlogkc3zk Ай бұрын

Awesome video you guys

@AikenAdventures Ай бұрын

Thanks so much!

@KktravelandEducationvlogkc3zk Ай бұрын

@@AikenAdventures no problem and I hope you guys enjoy your cruise vacation time

@karlafranco-ti4ge 5 күн бұрын

I felt SCAMMED watching this video 😩

@AikenAdventures 5 күн бұрын

🤷🏻‍♂️

@rkenzie5235 Ай бұрын

I loved paradise cove!!!! I went there as an independent shore excursion! So fun and worth it!

@AikenAdventures 29 күн бұрын

We heard mixed reviews, but it was one of our favorite things from the whole week!

@toot0107 19 күн бұрын

We did the same thing a year or so ago and we're about to go on our trip. Imagine paying for airfare to get to Florida on top of all those taxes and fees 😮‍💨

@AikenAdventures 15 күн бұрын

Wow! Glad we didn’t have to book plane tickets to take this vacation!

@johndefalque5061 Ай бұрын

Time share torture! I fell for a "free vacation', but when I called to book, I sussed out that there was no free.

@AikenAdventures Ай бұрын

There’s always a fee of some kind! I guess technically most of these fees are standard resort fees, taxes, etc., and $800 was for bringing our kids along, but there was DEFINITELY a cost.

@jos6878 Ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing! Yeah, I think we all are looking for frugal, family fun. So, our attention is piqued when we see the word FREE! 😂

@AikenAdventures Ай бұрын

Truthfully, I guess we only paid the taxes, and we probably wouldn’t have considered taking this trip if it hadn’t been for the way it was marketed to us, so it all worked out, but we almost felt like we were just glad to “check this off the list” so to speak, so we could finally move on. It felt like this ways just looming over us for a while. Cool thing about this trip, though, is that a pastor showed us around town so we got to experiment with highlighting a ministry on this trip (more videos coming soon), which is something we’d like to lean into more in the future with potentially more international trips.

@KktravelandEducationvlogkc3zk Ай бұрын

Love what you guys do you guys are amazing people I hope you guys enjoy your cruise. We’re gonna be going on a cruise in 2025. I hope you guys enjoy your cruise. Have a lot of fun with the kids. I hope they enjoy it as well. Much love to you guys and your family thank you guys for what you do, I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your day. Keep doing what you’re doing.

@AikenAdventures Ай бұрын

Thank you so much! Hope you have a wonderful time on your cruise. We will be releasing another couple of videos soon emphasizing the cruise a little bit more.

@KktravelandEducationvlogkc3zk Ай бұрын

@@AikenAdventures well I hope you guys enjoy that. I will be doing a cruise video too. Hope you guys enjoy it.

@emma.s.1 Ай бұрын

I went to that resort last April

@AikenAdventures Ай бұрын

Did you enjoy it? What was your experience like?

@emma.s.1 Ай бұрын

@@AikenAdventures it was okay, same experience as you, it wasn’t that good but really beautiful

@AikenAdventures Ай бұрын

@emma.s.1 yeah, the rooms weren’t that great, but we enjoyed everything else.

@annefernandez2452 Ай бұрын

How did you get out of the presentation i have one in June in orlando and want some tips.

@AikenAdventures Ай бұрын

It wasn’t required for this trip. They just offered it to us for another “free” 7-night vacation, so we just told them that we don’t think it would be a good idea for us to attend since I no longer handle the sales presentations very well.

@rhondalockrey9592 Ай бұрын

It seemed the delays did add up to higher costs then maybe it would of been. Its great you did get a trip out of it because I use to work for a company that traded peoples timeshare rooms to go other places. Some people just never kept up on payments to even use their timeshare & got nothing. It was a win you got a trip & didnt buy timeshare lol

@AikenAdventures Ай бұрын

Very true, and $800 of the whole thing was adding our children which wasn’t a part of the original agreement. All-in-all, we actually had a good trip, but we were glad to finally get this one out of the way, so to speak.

@VonnaHussein Ай бұрын

Hi, I live outside of Daytona. May I ask what the name of the restaurant you went to? It looks beautiful

@AikenAdventures Ай бұрын

Actually, we borrowed b-roll from a Mexican Restaurant we visited in Gainesville, FL. We didn’t have our KZfaq channel in 2019, so we didn’t used to take videos of every place we went in those days and don’t have a video of the exact restaurant, but we thought some b-roll would help us tell the story better. Hope that makes sense.

@VonnaHussein Ай бұрын

@@AikenAdventures absolutely, thank you so much for the reply. We love your channel

@AikenAdventures Ай бұрын

@@VonnaHussein thanks so much for watching and commenting! So great to hear from you!

@donnaryland2777 19 күн бұрын

THANKS FOR THIS VIDEO. ME MY SON AN DAUGHTER ALL 3 WON' OUR BAHAMA VACATIONS YESTERDAY MORNING. I FILLED OUT THE CARD ON MAY 2. ONE FOR EVERYONE MY KIDS. GRANDDAUGHTER AN NEICE SISTER. WOKE YESTERDAY TO ALL 3 US WINNERS!! WE KNEW IT WAS A SCAM INSTANTLY. EXACT SAME PINK CARD U R SHOWING THERE

@AikenAdventures 15 күн бұрын

So funny that everyone “WON!” That’s what we suspected is that, with the fees, etc., everyone could be a winner and they wouldn’t be taking a loss.

@xpallodoc1147 Ай бұрын

Seems like a pretty awesome trip but you did not win a free trip. Those things are usually some type of scam. A did do a vacation points package time share presentation of course said no and got a 100% free vacation which was pretty good.

@AikenAdventures Ай бұрын

We have sat through numerous timeshare presentations, and at this point, we just decline to even do trips like that because I get a little combative now, so since I know I can’t handle it, I just don’t even go there. Don’t like the high pressure sales. But we have previously enjoyed some fun trips while doing those things.

@Theoneandonly-ir1je 8 күн бұрын

4 1/2 mins into the video and you finish get the review

@AikenAdventures 8 күн бұрын

👍🏽

@christinesmith2385 6 күн бұрын

This video sounds more like you had bad timing and apparently just had a normal "post hurricane" lodging situation. Most of this video is about all the fun you had. The company charged you exactly what you were told you'd have to pay for. The excessive fees ended up happening because you kept delaying, they had problems after the hurricane, and when you FINALLY got to go you had fun. You really should change the video title to "we had problems getting our vacation going, and then we had fun".

@AikenAdventures 6 күн бұрын

Sounds about right. Would you have clicked that video title? Also, we did make the best of the situation as we always try to do, but it is kind of a sly marketing practice to make people think they “won” a trip that’s actually going to cost them thousands and everyone who fills out a form is a winner…. So… sorry, not sorry…

@christinesmith2385 5 күн бұрын

@@AikenAdventures I absolutely would have clicked on something that was like, "The real story behind "You Won" travel". As it was, I found another video that was far more balanced and only talked about what you get vs. what you would have spent if you'd gone on the same vacation on your own. Your experience was far more about all your delays and life got in the way, and then oh by the way, we had a ton of fun and has about 20 seconds at the very end of the video that admits you would've spent more if you'd done this. Your experience had a lot of bad luck involved and family planning issues, NOT that the company did something nefarious. And btw, I only watched your video because someone posted the link on a FB page that asked whether the "free trip" was a scam in my local community page. I wasted 14:06 of my time, PLUS the ads, finding out that indeed they gave you thousands of dollars off your trip and you even had fun, but you had bad luck with the hurricane, COVID, and then family planning problems. Most of the extra fees and delays you experienced were first Acts of God that they can't control, and then you having to postpone due to children being born. ((Shrug)) Not really Truth in Advertising on YOUR part either. That's why I suggest changing the title...you WERE NOT SCAMMED. Thank you.