It’s been a good long while since I’ve seen one of these, and with the lousy economy, I suppose it’s a good time to sucker people in to some sales pitch by dangling a “complimentary” cruise in front of them.
I can’t help notice that it doesn’t say “Free” cruise since that’s a marketer’s favorite word, but the FTC or some other regulatory agency probably decided this particular “offer” did not pass the smell test when it came to the use of the “F” word.
We got one of these many years ago, although I think the pitch that came in the mail was a bit more elaborate than this simple postcard. It was convincing enough to get me on the phone when them and that is when they started talking about the need for a credit card number. That was the end of that conversation.
I’m not going to waste my time making any calls this time, since we have the internet now and it was easy for me to do a little poking around and reading about the experiences of other people that received these post cards and made the call.
Most of them said it involved a requirement to sit through some sales pitch event for time share condos or something of the sort. The wording on the postcard claims it’s not about timeshares, so they must know that the public is onto that one and they must be pitching something else. I dunno, maybe they’re selling off abandoned U.S. manufacturing facilities or something. There must be plenty of those on the market these days.
Anyway, you can bet that only those that sit through their little dog and pony show get a shot at a “complimentary” cruise, but most folks reported that even getting that worked out was a hassle and those that did actually manage to finagle a trip out of these weasels didn’t enjoy the best of accommodations.
It’s interesting that they prominently display the Carnival Cruise Lines logo on the front to lend a bit of credibility to their little scheme. Makes one wonder why Carnival lets them get away with this in light of the fact that so many people reported negative experiences after responding this these postcards. If I ever do consider a cruise, it probably won’t be on a Carnival ship. I have a long memory.
Anyway, here’s the little gem that I’ve been talking about. My advice: Toss it in the trash.
(Click images for a better view)
Interesting to note that these people don’t even print the name of their company anywhere on the postcard. A first impression might lead someone to think this thing is directly from Carnival. Also, grand opening of what? A new mall? Supermarket? Hot dog stand? Who knows!
They sure leave a lot of questions unanswered, but I suppose that’s what the toll-free number is for. Silly me!
Leave a Reply