I was waiting again in the tourism company office with my Syrian friend and my children. My friend had filled in a questionnaire with the promise of entry into a free prize draw. She was thrilled when they said she had won and went to the office to collect her prize. However the company tried to sell her a time-share programme in order to collect her prize of 2 free nights at one of their resorts. In the end she paid £100 (which was money she really couldn't afford to spend!) for a third night at the resort to go with the two free nights.
However it soon became apparent that the whole scheme was a scam and she tried to get her money back from the company when there was no booking at the hotel for her and her family.
We had been to the office two days earlier to demand that they return the £100 and the secretary and a co-worker were very rude and in the end told us to make an appointment and return when the manager "Aiman" was in the office for him to return the money.
Where's Aiman?
So we were waiting for Aiman to arrive for the appointment at 1pm. The secretary assured us that he would be there by 2pm although it seemed that Aiman had not actually been contacted about our appointment. Our local Jordanian friend also phoned the office and pressured the secretary to return the money to my friend.
Another Aiman
A number of phone calls and discussion later, the secretary handed me one of her phones saying it was Aiman. I talked with him and he assured me he would be there by 2:05pm. It seemed promising since there was the sound of traffic in the background of the phone call. However by 2:15pm Aiman still hadn't arrived and when I called the phone number that I had for "Aiman" a different person answered the phone, again assuring me he would be there in 10 minutes and that he was just driving past a nearby hospital, however there was no sound of traffic in the background of the phone call.
Is Aiman real?
When I challenged the secretary about the two "Aimans" she got cross with me and finally showed me on her phone the number that I had for Aiman, and yet there was also about a dozen other phone numbers for Aiman!! I think that the manager "Aiman" doesn't exist and is just an excuse to say that they cannot return money unless the manager is in the office.
By 2:30pm the children were bored and fed up and our youngest was running around squealing, so I told the secretary that we would leave and come back at 5pm for the appointment that she had originally arranged for us to meet Aiman. She told us to wait just 5 more minutes. We spoke with our Jordanian friend again and he insisted that the secretary should give us the money and threatened to phone the police if the money wasn't returned.
Finally at 2:45pm the other co-worker (not Aiman!) arrived and had the £100 in her hand. I was astounded by her tenacity when, at the last minute, she insisted we give her not only the receipt but also the cards for 3 free nights. My friend had never had 3 cards for 3 free nights, only 2 cards for 2 free nights and the £100 was paid for the 3rd night! The co-worker refused to return the money until the 3rd free night card was returned - an impossibility. She also snatched the receipt and 2 cards out of my hand, locked them in a drawer and dropped the key down her bra! At this point I thought that all was lost since we didn't have the cards, receipt or returned money. I quickly phoned our Jordanian friend again and after heated arguments and further phone calls the co-worker gave the secretary the £100 and she finally gave it to my friend. We dashed out the office before they had time to change their minds!
Targeting Syrians
Subsequently I've talked with local friends about the incident and it seems that this sort of scam is widespread. With the enticement of a free gift people end up signing contracts for time-shares that they don't really want and then they have to pay a fee to be released from the contract. Or people have to pay an administrative fee to receive their "free" gift which is then worthless anyway. Syrians seem to be targeted currently because if a Jordanian person complains about a Syrian person to the police then the Syrian person will be sent back to Syria. The secretary even threatened my friend with this! So customers are fearful to complain against the company. It is heart-breaking to hear about so many people being taken advantage of.
