Third voucher firm ceases operations

My Free Travel offered rebates for purchases of furniture, other items

Heath Combs -- Furniture Today, January 4, 2010

CHICAGO — Voucher promoter My Free Travel, a division of Hort Financial Services, both based here, has laid off its staff and ceased operations, the Better Business Bureau of Chicago is reporting.

The company, more than two decades old, has been subject to hundreds of complaints through the BBB in recent months. My Free Travel offered free travel, gas and dining rebates with purchases of items such as furniture.

A story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said that My Free Travel was a replacement program at some retail stores for BBZ Resource Management of Mesa, Ariz., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late June.

It also said that My Free Travel's principal and director of sales, Eugene Vinnykov, told the newspaper earlier that his company had underestimated the complexity of its program and hired extra workers.

St. Louis-area retailer Rothman Furniture plans to sue My Free Travel over the promotion and is requesting assistance from the attorneys general of Missouri and Illinois, the Post Dispatch story said.

Meanwhile, the Victoria Times Columnist is reporting that Dodd's Furniture, a Victoria, British Columbia-based retailer, lost at least C$100,000 through the program.

Dodd's is offering either an in-store credit on purchases or a flight and two nights in a hotel in Las Vegas to replace the promotion. The story said that Dodd's started the program about 2 1/2 months ago and had planned to run it through January.

My Free Travel follows BBZ and Tidewater Global Marketing Consultants of Largo, Fla., as a third major voucher promoter to furniture retailers to go out of business.

The majority of the complaints against My Free Travel were from consumers who were denied rebates for free gas and groceries because they did not provide of a copy of a state-issued identification. That condition that wasn't disclosed to consumers when they signed up for the promotion, the BBB reported.

My Free Travel had about 25 affiliated Web sites for consumers to register.

The Post-Dispatch story said hundreds of thousands of consumers had been waiting unsuccessfully to get their rebates.

The BBB said that consumers with complaints should contact the Illinois Attorney General's Fraud Hotline.

My Free Travel's BBB accreditation was revoked by the consumer protection agency on Dec. 30. The agency had given My Free Travel - against which the BBB had processed 721 complaints - an F rating.

According to the BBB, My Free Travel failed to respond to 162 complaints and failed to resolve the underlying causes of those complaints. Another 118 were resolved while 411 were not pursuable, the BBB reported.

My Free Travel has regional offices in New York, Boston, Dallas, Phoenix, Seattle, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Omaha, Neb., Sacramento, Calif., and Toronto.

Several furniture retailers were the subject to litigation in 2009 due to consumer complaints about the vouchers.

Retailers entered into agreements with marketing firms that offered promotions such as free gas and grocery vouchers to entice customers to buy furniture. Consumers were supposed to be able to turn in receipts from gas and grocery purchases, and then receive debit cards for the value of the promotion.