Freebies: Promised gifts may come with surprises

The wife of a Morning News reporter received an interesting call from Trendwest timeshare developers — which would help show that freebies offered by such companies come with catches or deception.

She was told that she had just won a contest that she had entered at a local movie theater — and would receive airfare and accommodations for two people for three nights in Florida.

She did not remember entering that contest, nor could she remember the last time she had visited the distant movie theater where she was told that she had entered it — but thought that it was possible.

"Do I just come by and pick it up?" she asked. She was told that, no, she had to make an appointment and come in and listen to a 90-minute presentation. Ironically, she and her reporter husband had just that week listened to such a Trendwest presentation as part of the research for this story, so she knew what Trendwest is.

"It doesn't sound like I really won anything. It's just for a sales pitch, right?" she told the caller. The caller confirmed after more questioning that the presentation would be for a timeshare sales but insisted she had won a contest. Utah law requires any solicitation for timeshare sales to be clearly identified as such.

Earlier that week, as the reporter and spouse attended a presentation at Trendwest's sales center in South Jordan — to which the reporter was invited after making an e-mail inquiry for information — a woman giving an orientation asked the 20 or so people attending an interesting question.

"Why are you here?" Someone eventually answered, saying it was to listen to a sales presentation.

"Good. Sometimes people claim they don't know that, and that they were just offered a prize and didn't know they had to listen to a presentation to receive that — even though they should have," she said. Those comments would make more sense later that week after the serendipitous "you've won a contest" call.

Trendwest had promised the Morning News reporter and his wife $50 for gasoline if he listened to a presentation — which it indeed gave him in gift cards.

It also gave him a voucher for a three-night trip to Las Vegas, Reno, Orlando, Hawaii or Mexico, which most of the other people attending that day had been promised to lure them to the presentation.

It had some interesting catches. It was good for about a year — but requests for reservations had to be made at least 60 days in advance. No reservations are permitted within seven calendar days of any federal holiday.