Astoria Plaza Raffle Winners

From the time I posted about us winning a dinner for two in Astoria Plaza by raffle, I recieved a lot of comments saying they also won a dinner and was invited to Astoria Plaza to claim their winnings and attend a 90 minute seminar. You can read my story here.

Below are some of the comments I got:

Enchie: I'm a victim! I filled-up this raffle coupon at the Ark of Avilon in Tiendesitas. And I also received a call went, and yes its true that the food was for free. As usual, there was a catch. Offers!offers!offers! walang kamatayang offers! Not only that, the agent who talked to us, after a few days, called me and was offering another, that is not of Astoria Plaza anymore.

Anonymous: Sadly im a fresh victim of this astoria scam. Once you're there and hear them out, all your questions are answered wisely and that you would really think that it is not a scam. It would look as if you are putting money on a piggy bank, then use it afterwards for your travel. Since i love travelling, i thought this would be a good deal. My bad was not to check first thru net.. Now.. im suffering the consequence. I'll try to get a refund and truly, i want to spread this to stop their misleading operation.

Anonymous 2: i dont think its a scam. if you people are really into travelling, spending holidays then, be part of astoria. a marketing strategy i should say of offering you their deal and not any scam as you believe it is. after all, you cannot be a member or own a holiday ownership if you cannot afford ;since you know, people who have only excess money can difinitely be a part of that exclusive club. i guess, we should say sorry for those who never try their luck. God bless everyone!!!

Anonymouse 3: this is actually not a scam, its a form of a marketing strategy, what they are luring you into is a timeshare presentation. i used to work in a timeshare company in the states. astoria is a timeshare resort and if you buy from them you will own one weeks time in the resort every year. its difficult to sell coz its expensive and you are better off buying a condo so these people will resort to offering free gifts just to lure you into 3-5hrs of hardcore selling. the freebies by the way are crappy. my advice is just say NO if indeed you are lured into their trap. most people in the states will just take advantage of the freebie and will just say no up until the representative lays down his/her flag. they will really push you to buy that it would seem like a scam. this strategy is somewhat similar to the people in the mall asing if you have credit card and those with scratch cards saying that you won something.

Choco Pie: what they offer is a club membership called timeshare ..if travelling is your passion you might as well avail of this because the 7days per year can be spread out in local affiliated hotel if you are not going to use the home base accommodation that is Astoria Plaza..For an every other year option the cash price is only 186,000.00 payable in 90 days otherwise 240k in two years, 10%on the first month then 6.2k thereafter.
The free trip in the gift Certificate is true..We just booked ours for Bohol in August..

Brej: Yes, this is true, a call from astoria, a free dinner for two, a 3 days and 2 nights hotel accommodation in bohol or vegas, a 90 minute presentation. But because of my hectic sched, i was not able to go on the sched dinner. Last year, my sister and her husband also recd a call from them. They just avail the dinner, attend the presentation and get the certificate, that's why they were able to go to boracay at no cost on their hotel accommodation...We think that this is not a scam.. we agree on some blogger that this is just the astoria peoples' marketing strategy..if you really don't have money or intention to get one of their thing, then tell them, drop their offers. and just thank for the free dinner and the hotel accommodation.

Schweeter: I'm in no way connected to the hotel or timeshare industry, but I can tell you this is NOT A SCAM.
I've been invited to a similar thing before in the US (from Hilton group), were I get 3 nights w/ breakfast for a ridiculously low rate (79USD in total for 3 nights whilst same hotel in Vegas goes for more than US$ 100 per night during the week in low season) in "Paris" hotel in Las Vegas (4 star, on the Strip). All I needed to do was to attend a 90 minutes presentation with my girlfriend. They only had 1 minimum requirement: family income (both partners combined) must be over USD 70k annually.
We went to Vegas, we prepaid the $79. there were no other add on charges (we paid for our flight and food separately of course), and sat through a 90min presentation on an agreed date there at the Hilton club. They were not even that pushy to sell Hilton timeshares, and we managed relatively easily to tell them we were not interested at that point because we didn't have the money (although we met their criteria of 70k income).
there were ABSOLUTELY NO OBLIGATIONS to buy anything or agree to anything else.
We were very happy as to us, this was a very cheap trip to Vegas.
I'm not sure what Astoria does, but with Hilton, this was not a SCAM. Only 2 differences is Hilton club didn't say we won a raffle. they just said we qualify, because of our household income. And we paid a very small amount for the room whilst with Astoria it's free.
We got a call today, and we're going there tomorrow night.
I just hope the hotels you can choose from with the gift cert., are decent enough

If you must you can click the link above to see more comments about this post. Most of them are saying that when you got a call from Astoria plaza and they said that you won a free dinner, it is not a scam.. Their marketing strategy is very deceiving, telling people that they won a dinner for two when in fact, it is not even a free dinner. Just imagine how much you can do with the 90 minutes that you have to stay there. And lastly, saying to people that they won a gift certificate when in fact they need to purchase something is another dirty marketing strategy.