A Story about Oasis Getaway in Southlake, Texas
The wife of The Watchdog understands that Valentine’s Day is a little different in our household. No fancy restaurant for us. Instead, we went to a sales presentation where we were offered free cruise tickets if we listened to an hourlong pitch for a travel club.
Thousands of North Texans recently received letters with Royal Caribbean International as the return address, but the letter didn’t come from the cruise line. It’s from Oasis Getaway in Southlake, Texas, and it includes a fake Royal Caribbean boarding pass with the recipient’s name on it.
The company's letter arrived with this logo, but Royal Caribbean issued a cease and desist order telling them to stop.
Several readers sent me copies of their invitation. When mine arrived, I quickly signed up. But Valentine’s Day evening was the only sales session Karen and I could attend.
As readers of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Dave Lieber Watchdog column first learned, when we arrived to hear the pitch, we were surprised when Michael, the sales director, told us that since it was a holiday, he would give us our travel voucher and we could skip the presentation.
“No,” I protested. “We drove all the way here.”
Michael relented and said we’d hear the fastest sales presentation “you will ever get.” Only one other couple was in the room.
Michael is a fast-talker from New Jersey. He began by telling us about his life. When he was 12, his father left his family after his mother was diagnosed with cancer. She died the day he graduated from high school. With his tough life, he said, he never got to go on vacation.
As a young adult, he got divorced, but his life changed when he joined the travel program he was now selling. He got to see the world.
He has since remarried. He’s happy, and he’s found God. “You have no idea how saved I am.”
Michael paced as he told us he didn’t care whether we bought the program he was selling. He has pitched it to thousands of people, he said.
Surprisingly, he announced the price at the beginning, rather than the end, as is the norm in these types of presentations: $8,995 for a lifetime membership and $309 in annual renewal dues.
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For that, we can get steep discounts for trips to fantastic locations: Colorado, Hawaii, Alaska, St. Maarten, Italy, almost anywhere.
This is how Oasis Getaway promotes itself on its website.
The secret? Buying in bulk means discounts for club members.
“You give me nine grand, and you’ll get it back” with one or two trips, he promised.
Near the end of the hour, he told us that if we had four specific numbers on our credit card, we’d get a thousand dollars. I had the numbers but didn’t see the cash. Instead, I got a travel voucher good only if I bought into the program.
Afterward, in a smaller room, Michael tried to close the deal. But for me, it was time to ask a bunch of questions.
“How long have you guys been working out of Southlake?”
“Five months. Why do you ask?”
“I’m just curious.”
The company website says it has been in business for 31 years, but actually it's only been around for less than a year.
I asked about Royal Caribbean shown as the return address on the invitation.
“We can’t do that anymore,” he answered.
“What happened?”
“We got in trouble,” he said. “We got a letter from Royal Caribbean asking us to cease and desist.”
Score a point for honesty. A Royal Caribbean spokeswoman told me the next day that her company sent Oasis Getaway a warning letter Feb. 2.
“It wasn’t our doing,” Michael said. “We have five marketing companies. … In order to get you to bite, they were putting that on there.”
Someone had complained, he said. “You weren’t the one that did it, were you, David?”
“No.”
(The Texas attorney general also lists five complaints against the new company.)
Then I said, “Before I came here, I Googled you and was reading comments.”
“Before you came in?”
“Yeah.”
“And you still came in?” he asked, surprised.
Search engines bring up comments about travel club presentations that aren’t kind. Oasis Getaway is no exception.
“How long has Oasis Getaway been in business?”
“Five months.” His company works with another company, Reservations Services International, that’s been in business a lot longer, he said.
“Each time we change offices, we have to have a different name for different states,” he said.
Why?
“Dave, I wish I could tell you.”
He saw where I was going. “You’re coming at me with logic, and I’m glad because you’ll be my best customer.”
Then came the clincher. He said: “I will incent you, and you’ll appreciate this. We weren’t expecting anybody to come in tonight.”
My wife interrupted with laughter. Valentine’s Day, remember?
“So any money I get tonight is free money for the company, OK? So you give me three grand, and you’ll be a member for life. How’s that? Cover my marketing costs. That’s cutting right to the chase. Get you out of here.”
I wonder what people who spent nine grand in Southlake in recent months would think about that.
Oh, and I said no.
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Are you tired of fighting the bank, the credit card company, the electric company and the phone company? They can be worse than scammers the way they treat customers. A popular book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, shows you how to fight back — and win! The book is available at WatchdogNation.com as a hardcover, CD audio book, e-book and hey, what else do you need? The author is The Watchdog columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber
