If you live in the Metro Vancouver area and have been to the recent Bike Show at Abbotsford then you will most likely have received a phone call telling you that you’ve won a trip for two to Ft. Lauderdale on a cruise with Imperial Majesty Cruise line to Nassau Bahamas.

I am personally a huge sucker and an idiot with a terrible time saying no. So I actually authorized some charges onto my card for this BS. After thinking about it for 3 days (and after CIBC flagging fraud on my card), I’ve finally decided to call and cancel it.

Thankfully, you ARE able to get rid of these guys unlike a lot of the other scams and here’s how to do it.

First, don’t even bother calling your Credit Card company’s fraud/dispute line. It’s useless. They will tell you that you have authorized the charges over the phone and therefore is no longer a fradulent charge.

Instead, call the customer service line (from a landline) of Imperial Majesty. If you didn’t write it down:
1-800-203-9783

Speak with the agent and ask to cancel your package. You’ll most likely be put on hold at this point. DON’T hang up. It’ll be a long hold.. hence the landline.

When the second agent comes, ask again to cancel. They will offer you a longer time period where the vacation will be good for, or a 100% garentee post vacation. Do not accept either. Just repeat one thing “I would like to cancel”. It is within your right protected by law that you can cancel within 30 days

Make sure they give you a confirmation number, the agent’s name and the extension of the agent. Those are information you can take to your credit card company for a dispute if the charges don’t come back.

This should be one of the reasons to keep your credit card limit small. I only had a $500 limit so they couldn’t even put the total amount through. But when I spoke with ICBC they said the company had tried 7 times to put through various amounts of total. Which, doesn’t even add up to the $299/person they were claiming.

If you need loop holes to poke at them for a dispute here are some:

• check with your credit card company. If you had a small limit like mine they’ll most likely have tried to put through various totals. Which don’t add up to the package price they claim.
• They claim that you were selected out of a few thousand. You were not, that was a lie on their part and use it against them.