Bad Call For Globe & Mail

I like to think I’m a fairly astute person, not easily taken in by the barrage of “special” offers, computer spam in the form of “you have won a million dollars, now please send a cheque for processing and it’s yours” etc. and exhortations that pour into our computers, drop through our mail boxes, beseech us on our telephones all to let us know if we just respond in the next few minutes we’ll hear something to our advantage.

So it was with some degree of skepticism and surprise that I found myself actually listening to the spiel being fed me on the telephone by a very nice young man from The Globe and Mail Newspaper. He advised me that if I took out a three month subscription for delivery of the paper I would be eligible for two round-trip airfare tickets to about 40 different locations in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Europe. The only “catch” apparently being you had to stay at a resort or hotel designated by the travel company. The tickets would be transferable and the offer valid for 18 months from receipt of the promotional package. It seemed a fair offer and I didn’t mind receiving the Globe and Mail paper for a while and it could always be cancelled without penalty if I didn’t like it, so I signed up for their “Travel Spectacular” promotion.

I duly started receiving the paper and a few weeks later the information package regarding the Two Complimentary Airline Tickets arrived from “One Stop Travel Inc.”

The first thing I noticed was that the company is based in Florida. Why not a Canadian travel company I wondered. Next, as I poured over the very small print re the rules and regulations for claiming the tickets at the back of the colourful brochure, I found that the airline tickets did not include taxes, surcharges; fuel charges etc. and we all know that these charges generally make up the bulk of the airfares!

As I looked at the holidays available I also saw that there was a minimum stay required depending on the departure airport and of course my being here in Vancouver, the stays were generally longer than anywhere else. Also, all the hotels and resorts that I would have to stay in were top of the range and there is no way I could afford to stay at any of those places anyway.

The most disturbing item however, was listed under “Payment Form” which stated that “All monies paid to One Stop Travel must be in U.S. dollars and the form of a cashier’s check or money order, made payable to OST Trust Account”. I found that very worrying as most vacation transactions are paid by credit card which affords you some modicum of protection.

I immediately called the Globe and Mail customer service department and requested cancellation of my subscription and told them exactly what I thought of their so-called Travel Spectacular promotion. They were sorry to hear of my dissatisfaction and would pass on my comments to their marketing department and of course they would cancel the subscription right away but I was also welcome to make use of the tickets or pass them on to anyone else who might be able to use them……so for a small handling fee, payable to me in cash of course, they’re yours!