My husband and I just went to Charleston, SC on vacation and as we were walking through downtown, we were pulled aside by what seemed to be a nice gentleman in a Visitor's Information office on Meeting Street. At first he told us of all the great restaurants and asked if we were interested in any specific tours and we told him that we were. The gentleman then proceeded to tell us that there was a place called the Church Street Inn and they offering $75 in vouchers towards sightseeing excursions or dinner for free as long as you toured their property which would just include a 90 minute tour of their history, their grounds, their rooms and enjoy free coffee. We had to give them $20 to hold until we got there but we would get it back. The gentleman at the visitor's office told us that this was just an "Open House" promotion by Church Street Inn to get people in to look at their hotel and have you recommend it to anyone you knew. We thought this was too good to be true. We get to the Inn where they proceeded to ask us for ID, they wanted to see a major credit card but did not write anything down and then we had to fill out a questionnaire stating that we made more than $50, 000 per year. My husband got a little weirded out by this question and asked the girl why they needed to know this information and she told us that our "tour guide" would fill us in on all of that. We start seeing people getting herded out like cows individually with their "tour guide" and not in a group and we got even more concerned but by the time we were getting up to leave, our guide convinced us to start the tour. We could tell within 5 minutes that this was a timeshare or vacation club sales pitch and we were not interested in it whatsoever so we told the guide that we were lied to on the street about what it was that we were really walking into, which was a sales pitch to buy into Festiva Adventure Club which was a vacation club based on points.
Now the funny thing is we told him we were going and he begged us to stay and listen so that he did not get in trouble and he would make sure we got our $75 in food vouchers if we just listened and then at the end he told us to fill out a form stating that the reason why we were not buying is because we were lied to by the gentleman at the visitor's office. We felt like cattle being poked and prodded into a cage and cornered. The person at the visitor's office is just a ranch hand who helps rope the cattle in. These people need to stop using the visitor's centers as their recruiting stations, looking for any couple who is younger and looks as if they have money because this is what we saw in the waiting room, no one single and no one over the age of 50. To make matters worse, they gave us the $75 in vouchers but never gave us our $20 back.

My husband and I were recruited in the exact same fashion (off the street by someone by the Visitor's center). We were told straight up that it was going to be a sales presentation. If you went there thinking anything else, you are naive. All of those questions about income, etc. were asked to us when we were pulled off of the street and asked if we wanted to participate. Why would they want to present to someone who cannot afford their product? They are looking for viable leads. When we showed up and checked in for the presentation, the very first thing that they did was give us our $20 back without us ever mentioning it or asking about it. Also, everyone in the room was over 50 except for my husband and I. People need to have realistic expecatations. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. But if you are willing to give up about 2 hours of your day to get some free tickets to local attractions such as Fort Sumter or Plantations, then it is worth your time. If they don't give you your money back, ask for it. Do something about it rather than just complaining about it online.