Customers Claim Discount Travel Company Deceived Them
DENVER (CBS4) - A discount travel company is facing a lawsuit from the Colorado Attorney General's office after customers claimed they were deceived.
Arvada resident Kaeleen Buckingham told CBS4 an offer from Sea to Ski Vacations sounded enticing. It promised an amazing and entertaining eight day cruise.
"I just retired and I planned on traveling when I retired so I was looking for place I could
save some money," Buckingham said.
She listened to the pitch and joined the vacation club with $3,000 down.
And as for the cruise?
"Did you get the free cruise," CBS4's Rick Sallinger asked Buckingham.
"I did not. By the time they added on all the extras, I could almost book the cruise for the price I could get online, then I could choose what I wanted to," she said.
The attorney general's lawsuit claims the company deceived, misled and financially injured consumers throughout the nation.
CBS4 went to the company's address in Westminster. The office says American Travel Planners on the door, which is listed in the lawsuit as an affiliate.
An attorney for Sea to Ski Vacations issued a statement saying 90 percent of its members have found the services valuable enough to renew. But the attorney general claims so-called exclusive deals can be found on free websites, one time deals often don't exist and bargain properites are often unavailable.
"We were going to go to New York, and so I called and they said 'We can't get you in there. And that was like six months in advance," Buckingham said.
Buckingham and others are hoping they will get their money back.
