Think Before You Click
This post is a consumer warning to anyone who might be tempted by the “Congratulations - You’re the 1,000,000th Visitor!” banner that periodically appears at the top of this page.
First off let me assure you, you are NOT the millionth visitor as A) I highly doubt my humble blog gets that much traffic (I see this banner several times a week) and B) I am not running a counter on my blog so even I don’t know how many people have visited.
The banner further asks you to click to contact the awards department. There is no awards department. There IS however a website (https://www.ashoppingspree.com/us/default.asp?cp=DNC-Can-Ldr) set up by an organization called Travel Universal (also known as Universal Promotions) which also runs two other websites (www.universalpromotionsflorida.com and www.traveluniversal.net) and operates under 4 different mailing addresses.
This organization (I hesitate to call them a company as this implies more legitimacy than may be due) currently has an unsatisfactory record with the Better Business Bureau of West Florida (http://www.bbbwestflorida.org/commonreport.html?bid=90005609) who was not able to provide further information when contacted. A simple google search of either the name or address of this organization will reveal numerous horror stories for time share vacations gone wrong, some of the author’s complaints are legitimate and others less so but regardless I feel it my duty as your humble blogger to make you aware of these issues.
To clarify I have zero first-hand experience with these people and I am not advocating you immediately assume they are a scam, however they do lie to you twice in their initial advertisement and so I leave you with the oft repeated caveat: Buyer Beware.
Personally I prefer that banner where you shoot the ninja…I don’t even know where it links to but ninja’s just ASKING for it.
