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Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet

Online Users: 1,058 guest(s), 0 user(s). Replies: 106
Guest
Re: Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet
Posted: Apr 1, 2008 2:04 AM Go to message in response to: JennaOhh

Don't do it. Me and my now husband went to the show in Monroe, LA. We bought an electric skillet. We have received NO information about the trip. I sent in both coupons and I have gotten no replies. DONT DO IT!!! That was in June of 2006. It has been almost a year and I am just figuring out that this is a scam. My husband and I are pissed. The skillet was 300 dollars. I dont think that its worth it. DONT DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I Can't Wait to be Mrs. Q!!!!!

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weddingblisssss Posts : 1 Registered: 4/3/08
Re: Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet
Posted: Apr 3, 2008 4:42 PM Go to message in response to: Guest

ok i did the same thing last weekend! i knew there was some kind of catch but i just wanted to check it out...the cookware was awsome but now i dont want it, im not sure what to do....im not a rich person and of cource after i signed everything i figured out the price...it's like $35 a month but after a year it's $70!!! i reallly dont know what to do, i dont want this to mess my credit up! If they send me the stuff can i just send it back and not get charged? the people that approve us keep calling my fiance and i but im not answering!!!! HELP PLEASE

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Guest
Re: Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet
Posted: Apr 7, 2008 7:19 PM Go to message in response to: Guest

I went in March and the trip was great, I just wanted to let you know though that my friends went a couple years ago too and tried to send off their trip and they called simplicity gourmet and they sent them a new trip because the travel agency just went up and went out of business on them. Simplicity sent them their stuff about 5 days after they called and booked their trip for june to the paradise island harbor resort in the bahamas check out their website it is very nice. Just wanted to let you know bc you can get a new trip too, if you wanted one.

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lil1one Posts : 312 Registered: 2/13/08
Re: Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet
Posted: Apr 8, 2008 10:01 AM Go to message in response to: Guest

I got that call and was so excited then my cousin came over who is also getting married and as i was telling her her phone rang...guess who yes Simplicity. Needless to say we didn't go.

Soon to be Mrs. Hatcher!!!

September 20,2008

 When is my wedding

WhenIsMyWedding.com

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Guest
Re: Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet
Posted: May 5, 2008 12:30 AM Go to message in response to: Guest

i actually attended the demonstration... it was for cookware. reallllly, ungodly expensive cookware. $445 for a 5" frying pan. also, i think more than one of the couples attending were plants. they were way too agreeable and over the top in "audience participation." we didn't have to buy anything to receive the trip voucher, but in doing some research on the actual resorts they offer, there are some terrrrible reviews. also, they require you to send in a $200 deposit, through the mail, before you can even talk to a travel representative. they are supposed to contact you within a week of sending in the deposit. there is no phone number what so ever listed. there was also a domestic travel package available and we were told that if we decided we weren't interested in the international packages, we could trade our voucher for that. i'm still undecided as to whether or not i'm going to bother with it. i don't like the idea of sending money to someone i can't contact. if you want some free broccoli spears and actually quite tasty carrots, i highly recommend attending.

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Guest
Re: Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet
Posted: May 30, 2008 4:26 PM Go to message in response to: Guest

Ok I was waiting until I talked to the people regarding my "free" vacation before I made any judgements.  Well here it goes.  I got my World Adventures travel pin number in the mail immediately after sending it in.  I called to get my free 7 night vacation.  I was well aware that I have to pay for the taxes, and I was fine with that.  When I called, the lady told me that there were only two condos available for my dates- one Barefoot'n the Keys and the other, the Liki Tiki resort.  These 2 were one-bedrooms (suitable for a honeymoon) and one-bedrooms were all that they had.  The Liki Tiki looked really great online when I looked it up.  It was going to cost me $539.00.  When I looked on Hotels.com, I found the EXACT same condo for $480 for the exact same dates.  Of course I was ticked off, called the lady back and asked her why I was being "gifted" a vacation that cost more than what I could do with a simple google search.  She said that their rates were definately cheaper and put me on hold to check.  She comes back on the phone and tells me now they only have a two-bedroom available at the Liki Tiki and its going to run me $600 and some odd bucks.  I politely told her no thank you and hung up.  Well so much for the free vacation. 

All can say is don't book your trip right away.  Get the names of the condos and go look them up online.  If you're like me, they're ripping you off.

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Munsee Posts : 1 Registered: 5/31/08
Re: Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet
Posted: May 31, 2008 2:40 PM Go to message in response to: Guest

It wasn't a scam for me. The people on the phone were very nice. I called them back and they gave me all the necessary info I needed and I had an awesome time with my fiance at the cookware presentation. We did not buy a single piece. The food was really good and the guy was funny. We left with our brochure for the vacation.  A friend of mine got the same deal and is going on the trip in October as a honeymoon. It's not a scam.  BUT I will let you know when I have gone on my own trip before I say anything more
You never know what love is until you find your one and only, and at this time, your life is complete Kiss

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jrowell22 Posts : 1 Registered: 7/19/08
Re: Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet
Posted: Jul 19, 2008 11:49 PM Go to message in response to: Munsee

as a groom to be i know that my bride has envisioned her wedding day as a little girl. fantasy conflicts with reality as there is a budget. as a result people try to take advantage of this. i highly suggest having your groom to be handle these callers. from personal experience, my bride noticed that they took a complete different tone with me than her, signaling to her that they were attempting to take advantage of a bride who maybe under the gun of trying to fit everything in budget. as a result they called once, and have yet to call again.
military wife....the hardest job given to a select number of women who never know if they will be asked to perform the greatest sacrifice for our nation, and that is have their husband lay his life on the altar of freedom and forever wait for a ship that never comes in.

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TxBunnie Posts : 1 Registered: 8/1/08
Re: Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet
Posted: Aug 1, 2008 8:43 PM Go to message in response to: Guest

"elaura1" mentioned that she felt some people were planted. She is absolutely and totally correct!!! You have to understand that the people who write favorable testimonials and great "stories" (because that's all they are) are actual employees of the companies associated!!! BUYER BEWARE! There are way more negative reports. I know that we are ALL way too smart for this baloney Check it out for yourself or just follow this link!

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/250/RipOff0250385.htm

You'll have to copy and paste it or just perform the Google search yourself.

 REMEMBER: You're not WINNING anything if you have to pay for it! Spread the word!

I wish you all good luck! Love is in the air!!


Message was edited by: TxBunnie

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Brooke051609 Posts : 723 Registered: 12/31/07
Re: Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet
Posted: Aug 28, 2008 6:47 PM Go to message in response to: TxBunnie

  Ok girls, I just got the call, like everyone else I see! Here we thought we were special and "won" a drawing!!! So at first we were totally excited, we won a free all expenses paid trip! YAY! Then we came back down to reality and did some checking around. Thank goodness this was a thread that showed up in google! After reading all the issues, we're not going to the show and we're not taking our 3day/2night vacation. It's just TOO fishy for me. We don't have money to play around with, I'm not buying a $50 potatoe smasher and I hate the run around.

   What scares me about the people that DO come on here and say that it's a great company, NO problems, and great vacation is that this is there one and only post. People from the company? Maybe it did work out for them, but I'm not taking the risk. I'd be interested in hearing more from anyone who recently "won" this great deal!!


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HoneySuckle Posts : 1 Registered: 4/26/08
Re: Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet
Posted: Sep 17, 2008 1:45 PM Go to message in response to: Guest

okay i went to that stupid simplicty promo for those dumb pots!! Yes they are over priced and i did originally buy but later canceled my order....that was in july and i still haven't gottenany information about the vacation.  my husband to be and i were going to use that for our honeymoon because money is tight.  but i guess we wont be hearing from simplicty anytime soon.  I even called and the lady i spoke with assured me that it would be in the mail soon ....a month and a half later...still nothing.  So scam or no scam????

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jessmessica Posts : 2 Registered: 8/1/08
Re: Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet
Posted: Oct 28, 2008 11:49 AM Go to message in response to: Guest

It must be David's Bridal. I also got a call. After reading all of this, I've decided to cancel. Especially the $50 fee!!! If they aren't honest with me from the get-go, why in God's name would I entrust them with ANY of my money???? Not to mention, we were only offered a 3 day 2 night vacation. Screw that!! Especailly when other people are being offered bigger vacations!

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happyreagan77 Posts : 1 Registered: 9/29/08
Re: Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet
Posted: Dec 12, 2008 8:27 AM Go to message in response to: jessmessica

yeah it's definitely gotta be a david's bridal thing. i put my name in a drawing there recently and got the call from an overly excited lady a few days ago. my fiance kept trying to tell me that it was a scam. i don't really think it's a scam, but there definitely are a TON of catches. i'm not going anymore to the show, because i don't think it's worth it. i wasn't even considering purchasing the overpriced cookware.. but i was interested in the trip.

my fiance lives 6 hours away so i was going to have to take my mom. i'm not going anymore, but if my fiance was here, we may go.. cause i hear it is still kinda fun to sample food and see a show from a cook.. well just be wise and don't get sucked into anything!!!! :)

june_2009 , west_virginia
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VLS Posts : 1 Registered: 12/16/08
Re: Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet
Posted: Dec 16, 2008 4:57 PM Go to message in response to: happyreagan77

Hi Ladies - Just wanted to clear some things up! (I'm a bride to be, and if you're here, we're in the same boat.)

From what I can tell, and based on all the forums I've been checking out, it looks like when you apply for any kind of membership to David's Bridal, they pass along some information (like your name or phone number) to a variety of companies and vendors that are involved with weddings/special events. I don't think this is illegal, but do be aware that these people are all in sales - even DB!

Simplicity Gourmet is a real company. It is credited by the Better Business Bureau and markets very high-end cookware. This company works in conjunction with a travel agency and Simplicity Gourmet uses a promotion to attract potential customers to what is essentially a product show.

The show itself is informatve and entertaining, but the cookware is very expensive. My fiance and I are very big cooks, so we actually purchased a large set of the cookware for what we thought was a good price. Really, the prices they charge are almost twice what you would find at nice stores like Williams Sonoma. Remember that the friendly salesman in front of you making you chicken and telling jokes is doing a job - not doing you a favor.

They provide all the people who attend these shows with a voucher for a trip, and the trip seems to be legitimate. Of course, nothing is free: you pay taxes and some other small fees, but this is routine even with other deals (such as a time share).

I read on one post that someone was concerned about cancelling an order, or that they swindled you for money and you sign an unbreakable contract. This simply isn't true: after reading the various posts online, my fiance and I decided to cancel the purchase. As with other contracts - you have THREE BUSINESS DAYS to cancel. We sent in the cancellation information and called the customer service representative. To be safe, we also called the crediting company they work with and told them that we were cancelling our purchase. Today we received a phone call from Simplicity Gourmet confirming that all of our paperwork for cancellation has been processed.

For those of us who still want the trip, it is up to us to actually make good on the voucher: they will not contact you about it. Consider it a "coupon:" they won't contact us to make sure we use our "Buy One, Get One Free" coupons at a store, and this travel agency won't contact us to make sure we use the voucher.

I hope all this has been helpful. I really looked into this after I saw how many women were in the same predicament I was. Go to the show, eat the chicken (its good!), get the voucher and go on the trip. Just don't buy a $4000 set of pots.

may_2010 , north_carolina , june_2009 , west_virginia
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bucscheer Posts : 2 Registered: 12/21/08
Re: Beware of Free Vacation From Simplicity Gourmet
Posted: Dec 21, 2008 3:27 PM Go to message in response to: Guest

It seems as though most of the negative posts on here came from people that never even went to the show. If it helps anyone, I actually received a phone call from Simplicity Gourmet last June explaining the trip and details. Me and my now Husband (Fiance' at the time) went to the show, we had a great time, the person doing the show was hilarious. He told us about the trip first and then he explained that he was going to cook us chicken and vegatables, he told us up front that he was demonstrating high end cookware, and that the cookware was not for everyone, but we get the trips just for coming no strings attached. Me and my husband both love to cook, and had been looking for some quality cookware, needless to say we got a fairly large set, and love it. It is expensive cookware, but after using it, I could not cook out of anything else. I have seen high end cookware at Williams Sonama cost much more, but have never ran into cookware anywhere that was near the quality of the pots we got at that show.

If you are wondering about the trip, we went to Nassau Bahamas, we paid the sales tax, and our airfare to get there, That's it. We had a great time the resort their was amazing, it was called the paradise island harbour resort, I would love for us to go back on our aniversary if my husband will take me. lol. I spoke to my brother which is a travel agency and had him check the rates before booking, and the same trip should have cost us $1327 more than what we spent and that was with my brothers discount. It was well worth our 90 minutes, even if we had not gotten the cookware.

I was actually online looking for Simplicity's phone number if anyone has it, I am wanting my sister who is getting married in January to attend one of their shows if possible. I would reccomend it to anyone who is getting married.

I hope this helps,

Bridget

january_2009 , june_2007 , tennessee
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