877-313-3326

I received an invitation to attend a presentation for Global Vacation Network in Wisconsin. Heading on invitation was Happy Birthday.  It was actually the month of my birthday, wondered how they new.  Invitation said we would get a $300 food certificate good at any grocery store we choose, plus a WiFi ready Microsoft Laptop/Netbook complete, with new Microsoft software.

I called & asked about gifts & the presentation. The guy confirmed what the invitation said. He said everything was legitimate, company was a wholesale travel service, wholesale vacations, grand opening, with promotion & advertising by presentation, hoping attendees would spread the word about their awesome travel service.  The guy sounded honest & legitimate. I still thought the gifts were too good to be true.

He also said in order to qualify for the free gifts, the following requirements need to be met:
1. Need to attend the entire 90 minute presentation
2. Need to have Household income over $40,000
3. Need to be working or self-employed, cannot be unemployed
4. Need to be married or have significant other
5. Need to be between 25-72 years of age
6. Need to have photo id / drivers license in possession
7. Need to have major credit card in possession

Here is information regarding the $300 Food Certificate.  The $300 Food Certificate is actually a Cash Back Certificate, which is a scam.  You have to send $19.95 in cashier's check or money order (not from the US Post Office) within 3 days of registering on their website. The envelope HAS to be sent registered, certified with a return receipt to qualify. Every month have to send $150 in grocery receipts to Cash Claim Center within 1 day of printing voucher online & again it has to be sent registered, certified with return receipt to qualify which costs $14.75, then Cash Claim Center will send $20. Actually only get back $5.25 every month. There are so many Terms and Conditions that it would be very difficult to qualify every month for only $5.25 in profit. At end of 15 months would have paid $221.25 to register, certify & get return receipts in return for $300. Profit is actually $78.75. At end of 15 months IF I do everything correctly to letter of Terms & Conditions will get back $19.95. Full profit is $98.70. If at any time fail to follow their Terms and Conditions, will not be paid.

My husband & I sat through presentation. An employee spoke first, gave presentation & cost of 15 -year membership, around $8,998. After presentation, several employees sat with couples individually. During those sessions, price kept decreasing from  $8,998 to $3,200 with $400 off if put the full amount on a credit card right now.  We were honest & said we wouldn’t really be able to take advantage of this membership, don’t travel that much, not interested in purchasing.  Then he said what about $79, just checking?  Shall I say more. He then took us into another room to get our free gifts. We also had to sign another piece of paper saying that we received the gifts. Didn’t read the small print, now wonder about that, too late.

I read online where others actually purchased the membership, promises & expectations end up being false.  They are trying to get their money refunded, with no luck. They were really scammed.

We received the useless $300 food certificate. Also received the Laptop/Netbook Computer, they said was new & complete with new Microsoft Software. I should of researched the netbook beforehand.  Ended up being this tiny netbook computer dated 2000, software was dated 1999 & fingerprints all over the monitor screen.   Haven’t yet found a use for it & not able to utilize.  What a scam, both the 2 gifts & membership.

Wish I would of taken the time research online before attending the presentation. When we checked in, they needed to see our drivers licenses & major credit card, now wonder about letting them see those cards, too late now. They required us to fill out 2 other forms, which required information such as name, address, date of birth, age, income, amount  spent annually on vacations, job title, etc. Heading at top of forms was Simplicity Travel. Well, this is enough info. Don’t attend their presentations, it is not worth the time……… Research first online to get feedback, If it says it is free

Additional names: Global Vacation Network, Wholesale Travel Service, VTU, Vacation Tours USA, Simplicity Travel. Additional Phone#s: 877-547-7302, 877-313-3326, 708-429-0432   Email address:  Name@vacationtoursusa.com.  I imagine they change their names & phone numbers on a regular basis, to keep the scam going.

Additional names & phones numbers were given to me by others & may or may not be accurate, just possibilities.

My above summary was a first-impression summary.  I use the word scam because the gifts, especially the $300 food certificate, were portrayed inaccurately.  We have not experienced the actual purchase of the membership & travel deals.

In actuality, the company may be legitimate, all involved seemed honest & trustworthy. If you don’t mind taking the time, you may want to attend one of their presentations.  You don’t have to purchase the membership.  The representatives were very professional & did not pressure us at all to purchase the membership.  Just keep in mind that the gifts might not be what you expected.  Good luck.

Thanks you so much for posting this.  I received the same birthday card.  I made my appointment, confirming I would leave with both gifts in hand.  Feeling taken advantage of before even going, I started doing some research on line.  (just like you are told growing up, nothing is ever "free").  After reading your e-mail and a few others, I did cancel, my time is worth more with my kids than sitting there and listening to liars. When I cancelled, the girl on the phone confirmed everything you said about the $300 gift certificate, she did say the netbook would be 2011, but I'm sure something is up with that too. When I asked if it was new, she didn't say yes, she said "why wouldn't it be?"  

Again, Thanks for posting!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much for posting this!  You saved my whole night tomorrow, babysitter etc..  I'm going to call and cancel right now!

We too went to a presentation in Crystal Lake, Il. We sat thru the 90 min. of a  non time share presentation or so they said but its a time share by a different name really.  The more we declined their offer the more the price went down, from around 12K to 2.5k. Yes, total scamming. We knew this was probably (99%) a scam and we will never get the promise of a free cruise and two air fare tickets.  I hope this helps to shed light on this nonsense. DO NOT BUY INTO THIS!

Thanks for posting I am cancelling my reservations ASAP.  Should ahve listened to hubby in the 1st place!

I have bee going on line all week to see if I have been approved and what the next step would be for me to receive my food certificate.  IF you can understand the directions, and I should have picked up on the scam because the instructions were ridiculous, it would be a miracle.

Definitely do not be fooled by this company.  We took a whole day to go to hear the presentation 90 minutes away from my home.  Their presentation was more than 90 minutes, then we had to speak with a counselor who tried to get us to buy.  Thank God we weren't that dumb.  So sorry I spent the money on gas and wasted a whole day.

Calling Better Business Bureau to report them.

Thank you for posting this!!! I received the birthday card, too, but didn't respond. Then "Simplicity Travel" called tonight. The guy claimed to be in New York and called himself Russel. He offered us two trips and was pretty aggressive. He said my husband or I had filled out a form and we were "selected." We never, ever fill out such things. Total scam. Remember - if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

Got a call from this company yesterday, Simplicity Travel, to come listen to 90 min presentation, and then we get a voucher for one of 4 types of free vacations.  This is in Madison WI this weekend.  Sounds to good to be true.  Definitely don't want to waste my time.  When asked how they got my number they had some random answer, I really do wonder how they got it...
If anyone else got this call would like to hear your take on it

I received a call also from Simplicity Travel, offering a choice of free vacations as their way of advertising their company, but needing to sit through a 90 min presentation.  There were enough questionable things during the phone call that I was thinking "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" and yet the person I spoke with had a reasonable answer for every question I asked.  I ended up agreeing to make an appointment to listen to the 90 min presentation, figuring that would give me time to do some research on the company and decide whether to attend or not.  BBB gives them an A+ rating, with no complaints received, so I'm glad to find all of these comments.

They called with the same Birthday gift message and said we had won 2 roundtrip airfares plus an 8 day 7 night cruise for 2.  I set an appointment with this so called A B Vacations, but now I realize nothing is for free.  I would have probably ended up in a Mexican fishing boat swimming the Mexican/American border.  Thx for the advice.

Complete scam don't waste your time. Could not understand first caller, Supervisor called back ten minutes later enough time for me to reshearch on internet and also file a ncomplaint wit BBB in Wisconsin,

Today I received a very official looking "FINAL NOTICE Verification of Reservation Information Required" with a different number to call [mentioned in CS's initial message above] 877-547-7302.  The Notice congratulated me, but to get my complimentary netbook and 2 roundtrip airline tickets, I had to call the number.  I had a pretty good idea this was a scam, but called anyway.  I have no doubt that the 90 minutes would be a complete waste of time.  The Notice says the netbook is new, but if that means it is an obsolete model [there are many out there] that just hasn't been used, there is no point in going across town and wasting a couple of hours.  Also, the airline tickets would undoubtedly have to be secured through the company and the hassle just would not be worth it.  We went through a painful process in the Riviera Maya area of Mexico last year going through a very high pressure time share pitch.  We initially fell for it, but did our research immediately and cancelled the next day.  A good result, but two days out of our lives that we'll never get back.  Bottom line--ignore the phone sales pitch and don't waste time to go in person to get worthless gifts.

As someone who works for Simplicity Travel in Madison, WI, I can tell you personally that the reports you find on this page are from people who are clearly misguided about the situation. First of all, Simplicity Travel will never contact you directly. We outsource our marketing to 2-3 different marketing companies and do our best to ensure that during their process of inviting couples to come down to our presentation, they do not mislead any person nor misrepresent any information. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen like that. We've already ended our partnership with one of such marketing companies exactly for these reasons.

The gifts that our couples come out for are certainly not worthless. We pay the marketing companies $300-$400 for every couple that attends our presentation. Vast majority of that money is spent on the gifts that are given to our guests regardless of whether they decide to join us that day or pass on their opportunity. That's right - in my opinion, the couples that do come to our presentations aren't sold anything, but rather come across an incredible buying opportunity. That's why 1 out of every 3 couples that come through our doors end up becoming members with us and leaving with the gifts in their hands and smiles on their faces.

Some of you just need to slightly temper you expectations. Please don't expect perfect gifts worth thousands of dollars for 90 minutes of your time. If you gifts are worth $300, is it really not worth your time to attend a presentation for which you are essentially being paid $200 per hour?

I may be biased in my perspectives, but I am quite passionate about my job. I make sure that whoever I sit down with on any particular day leaves the same way they came in - with a smile on their face, regardless of whether they decided to invest in their future happiness or if for whatever reasons they just couldn't do it that day. As such, certain comments and "scam" claims in here greatly offend me. I am not a scam artist and I do not associate myself with companies that scam people because going to bed with a clear conscience night in and night out is very high on my priority list.

Simplicity Travel Employee

this is a scam

HI all I have worked with Simplicity Travel for awhile, many think we are scammers; I assure you we are not. The reason we relocated to Milwaukee is because most the couples attending our Madison office were driving from Milwaukee. We have a temporary office to test the waters and we have been doing great. Within two months our permanent office will be relocated to Brookfield, and we all cannot wait! It is hard to be portrayed as professional when you are selling from a comfort suites, still 1 out of every 3 couples buy our membership. As for the 300 dollar food gifts, that marketing company is no longer with us, we apologize for that inconvenience. The netbooks have been updated and are no longer miniature laptops but they are a tablet in the same design an Ipad, they are an off brand, however, the wifi does work and the setup and use of these tablets are very simple. The cruise and or airfare you receive for attending the presentation are not free. Depending on which marketing company scheduled you, the gifts cost 75 dollars total for the airfare, or 100 dollars total for the cruise. The 75 or 100 dollars is fully refunded once you use the gift. These gifts do take about 6 to 8 weeks until they are fully usable and the tickets are in your hand with one of the 3 dates you selected. There is also one other travel gift given out, it is from the new marketing company we picked up once we dropped the marketing company giving out the food vouchers. Tuesday I will read all the small print and post up how long and how much that gift cost. Our company is not a scam we are just new and learning from our mistakes. The travel membership that we sell has been booking and sending people on wholesale vacations since 1982. So it is simple our travel membership we sell has 160,000+ members. The members join up at one of over 32 smaller travel companies (like Simplicity) that are licensed to sell and distribute the travel club membership. Our membership books 3.2 million vacations a year, as simple as a single plane ticket to go stay with family, or as complex as a European vacation with guided tours, and a cruise all packaged together. We book any type of travel and its obvious we are working seeing as our 160,000 couples with us are booking 3.2 million trips a year for themselves, their family, or even their friends. Anyone can use our membership but an active member must call and arrange the vacation. That is why we have 3.2 trips a year because our members allow anyone they know to take advantage of the great prices we have. Hope this helps, any questions please fire away at me I will get the correct answer as fast as possible and post back up here.

I also received a Happy Birthday invitation. We did go to Naples for the presentation. After filling out
the paper work, we were told that we did not meet their income standard. We had to have an
income of $60,000 or more. So as a result we were sent home with nothing. I told them that I
mistakenly checked the wrong box but they did not care. They go by what was checked when we
handed it in. I then called the main office and was told I could plead my case to them and we
would not get any free gifts. What a rip off. PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO ANY MAILINGS FROM THEM. What are they selling, GOLD.

If this is not a scam than why there are so many companies with different names using the same phone number?

"If you gifts are worth $300...you are essentially being paid $200 per hour?" is fake scammer math. CS above states that given all the onerous conditions attached to the $300 Cash Back Certificate (and NOT $300 cash in hand), CS would have only gained $98.70 after 15 months of painstakingly diligent effort to meet said onerous conditions and had CS stumbled anytime during those 15 months, the balance of the offer would be forfeited. The cost of 15 trips to the Post Office will wipe out the $98.70 so CS and her husband were actually paid $ZERO/hour in reality. $200/hour is totally fictitious and a scam offer.

For starters, don't call it a "300 dollar food gift." It's actually fifteen $20 vouchers with a string of onerous conditions attached to make them totally worthless. If victims were lucky, they would break even in redeeming those vouchers. If victims were unlucky, they would spend MORE than $300 to redeem those $300 worth of vouchers over 15 months. If victims stumbled anytime in those 15 months, they would forfeit future vouchers. And what about the crummy USED 1999/2000 netbook described by CS above that was PROMISED to be "new & complete with new Microsoft Software?" Yes, the free gifts cost you money but that does NOT allow you to deceive the public with FALSE DESCRIPTIONS. I hate to envision what your new prizes look like because "The 75 or 100 dollars is fully refunded once you use the gift" suggests a $75/$100-off coupon and not cash.