Any time anyone offers you a vacation to anywhere for $33, your initial reaction should be: ”Scam!”
During the last several months, ads have appeared in major newspapers from coast to coast, including the Chicago Tribune, offering a deal that seemed too good to be true. The ad began, ”The National Air Safety Advisory Service will provide round-trip air fare certificates to Orlando, Florida, or Freeport/Nassau, Bahamas, for 6+/7+ nights . . . for only $33 a person.”
All you had to do was answer a short questionnaire when it arrived with your air fare certificate.
Last month, the Department of Transportation found the ad misleading and asked the Department of Justice to halt the firm from ”further deceptive advertising and illegal sales of air transportation,” under provisions of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958.
U.S. Atty. Joe B. Brown filed suit Feb. 23 in U.S. District Court in Nashville. Federal Judge Thomas A. Higgins issued a temporary restraining order Feb. 26 against the firm to prohibit the advertising and sale of certificates.
The suit was filed in Tennessee because NASAS` principal office is at 604B S. 14th St., Nashville, although its ads carry the address of Capitol Hill, 325 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E., Washington, D.C. 30003. The suit describes the Washington address as ”a private mail company which forwards all responses to defendants` advertisements to the principal place of business.” The ad also lists a customer-service number, which is in Minneapolis.
I called the Minneapolis office in an effort to track down a certificate I ordered Feb. 4, and for which a personal check was processed Feb. 12. Dave Workman, who answered the phone, described the Minneapolis operation as ”an answering service” to handle calls from consumers. ”We`re just here more or less to answer questions on the program itself. There`s an office in Nashville and one in Washington.”
`108,000 responses`
As for my own missing certificate, Workman said the process takes four to six weeks, ”just like the ads on television say. If you don`t get it in another week or two, we`ll trace it for you.” As of March 13, neither the certificate nor the questionnaire had arrived.
When asked about the delay, Workman described the order volume as
”tremendous. I think we`re up to 108,000” sales.
A call to the Washington number, obtained through directory assistance, brought a similar reply. ”Harriet,” who answered, ”Good afternoon, National Air Safety,” described herself as a receptionist for a research office.
”Ordinarily you would have gotten your certificate in three to four weeks. But they`ve had such a heavy response, it`s taking five to six weeks. We get over 1,000 (requests) a day. They`re not offering them anymore.”
Office is mail drop
A Tribune reporter went to the firm`s Washington address and found the following:
The NASAS Washington office is on the second floor of an old storefront building about three blocks from the Capitol. There`s a shoe repair shop in the basement and a natural food store on the ground floor. ”National Air Safety Advisory Service” is lettered on the front door to the stairway leading to the office. Inside, a portion of one wall is taken up by locked mail boxes. Office equipment included a copying machine and a Pitney Bowes postal scale. One of two women working there identified herself as a NASAS representative. Also sharing the address are Aaron`s Business Service and Mail Boxes Professional Services.
Steve Workman, who handles customer services and exchanges in NASAS`
Nashville office, said the firm no longer is advertising or selling the certificates. ”All the orders we received are being fulfilled, as far as I know,” Workman said.
On Feb. 28, the DOT alleged NASAS` advertisements were false and deceptive in several ways.
”Its ads fail to adequately inform the public that once a travel certificate is purchased, it cannot be used unless the buyer also purchases hotel accommodations from Venture Vacations, a Florida-based company (in Orlando) named on the certificates, for six or seven nights at standard room rates, which could cost as much as an additional $1,400. In the ads, NASAS also fails to advise the public that a nonrefundable deposit is required in order to make hotel reservations, falsely states that the average value of each travel certificate is $990 and misleads the public about the true purpose and nature of its operations.”
Defendants in the suit are John Lewis, Steve Acker, Wilber Adams and Juanita Adams, all of Nashville, and the National Air Safety Advisory Service. Phone calls to Acker and other principals were not returned.
The suit said NASAS did not hold contracts for air transportation and was not a provider of air transportation. It charged the firm failed at the time of initial contact with prospective purchasers to disclose the actual cost of round-trip air fare or a hotel/air package.
The NASAS advertisement, which stated $990 is the average value of the air fare from 10 origination cities across the country to Orlando, or to Freeport/Nassau, is deceptive, the suit said. ”Today, most passengers travel on discounted fares between most any two points in the 48 contiguous states for far less than $990.”
The suit alleged that the firm`s ”use of an implied safety-related name and safety survey justification is intended to mislead the ordinary consumer to believe that the airline industry or an industry-related safety institution is able to offer a steeply discounted air fare in exchange for participation in an industry-sponsored safety survey.”
The suit also said one principal, John Lewis, was involved in a similar scheme that was found to be deceptive last year by the U.S. District Court in Nashville. He remains under a temporary restraining order in that case.
James C. Thomason III, chief assistant U.S. attorney in Nashville, said records show that from mid-December to Feb. 28, NASAS deposited approximately $1,197,000 into its bank account from the sale of the $33 certificates, plus an additional $3 for ”shipping and handling.”
He said that as of March 7, NASAS had received 9,356 pieces of mail, but couldn`t say how many orders for certificates each contained.
Consumers seeking refunds should send their requests and copies of proof of purchase to National Air Safety Advisory Service, 604B S. 14th St., Nashville, Tenn. 37206.
