Club La Costa - sound or con?

[MCANNEY2K]

Letter from Linder myers at last anyone else got one ?????? need to reply by 5pm on Friday 29th October Let's all support this action if your not on board go to there web site.....TEAM" together everyone achieves more"

[MCANNEY2K]

Linda myers action have you had a letter

[alisonleahy21]

hi i'v been trying to get my money back from C.L.C i also wih i had never heard from them but everybody needs to contact linder myers solicitors stright away so a group can be formed to get our money back we need everyone who is unhappy to join they must do this by the end of octber

[alisonleahy21]

i am waiting to hear from linder myers they say if they have enough people there should'nt been a problem forming the group everybody needs to join

[majka]

Letter from Linder myers at last anyone else got one ?????? need to reply by 5pm on Friday 29th October Let's all support this action if your not on board go to there web site.....TEAM" together everyone achieves more"

Yep , got the letter, sending back the questionnaire tomorrow ! everyone should join !

[nobby64]

Registered this site a few years ago (www dot clublacostascam dot com). Seemed to do the trick (haven’t had any maintenance requests since, though I’ve obviously lost my points).

Anyway, what do people think about me actually doing something with it? Maybe we could collectively embarrass CLC and force some changes. If we could get the site to the top of the search engine listings, it’d be a warning for anybody else even considering attending the sales pitch.

Like most that have been burnt by CLC, I still owe more than I borrowed to GE Money after 4+ years and am in dire financial straits because of it. Maybe we could also set up a site that highlights GE Money’s support for CLC?

[awendy10]

December 2010. People.....can't see anything recent on Club La Costa. My partner and I are pretty smart business people and knew what to expect. We asked many challenging questions which they would not respond to with expectation that we would have over 35k without reading the T&cs ( im a contracts specialist ) what we didnt expect is that my partner, who,when left on his own was threatened by the Club La Costa staff. Police and Trading Standards informed. Things I have to do to to get a free tesco voucher !!!!!

[solana]

Yep , got the letter, sending back the questionnaire tomorrow ! everyone should join !

 

Hi everyone,

 

I too have received my letter, and have sent the money etc to Linder Myers, it is now going to a barrister, so fingers crossed everyone.

I have had a court claim form from Link financial and am worried sick, but hopefully there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I also hope that the people who have been really affected by clc will start writing on here rather than the other ones (think everyone knows who i'm talking about)

 

chin up everyone.

[mutaf76]

ok

[arman_z207]

Guys, this is an absolute rip off and a [problem]. I was pressured into buying a 3 year membership for around £3800, with a promise of 5 weeks of holiday. 2 and a half years on, not a single weeks used. Everytime I phone to book, everything seems to be full, despite the fact that im calling at least 6 months in advance. And when I called them this morning, they simply said 'Your membership is expiring in 6 months and you are going to lose all your money'. This matter is definately going to end up in the courts and hopefully we can raise enough awareness so that people will stop being ripped off by these expert conmen.

[jolanta1282]

Me and my husband just signed up with CLC for a trial membership for £3795.00 for 3 years,which will give us 7 weeks of (as they call it) luxury holiday. i wish i had spend more time on researches about this company.after reading all reviews we would never go there; the appointment we attended took 4 hours ). we still have 14 day coolling off period and i just hope it won't be a big problem to cancell that membership. i don't even want to try none of their "free" holidays they have given to us!!!!!

my advice to everyone just stay away from them!!!!! and it's really cheaper to book a 5* holiday with a travel agent than with them.

[simplesteve]

Please anyone who has signed up for this trial period cancel now.send a letter signed, recorded delivery asap.it isnt all its cracked up to be,will include my mobile if needed steve.

 

** Mod edit, mobile number removed **

[lucky08]

Hi,

Please beware. I've lost thousands of pounds with club la costa. If I was to wind back time, I'll never have gone to any of there presentations.

There are things to consider.

1.Maintenance fee every year is about £1000. This has to be paid wether you go to the club la costa resort or not that year.

2. Membership fees can be £18000 and more.

Club la costa is a timeshare that I deeply regret. I call it a trap that will'll find almost impossible to get out of once you've signed

 

Be careful!

[Tethersend]

I wonder if somebody could please help me as I am now at the end of my tether

 

In February 2008, I took up a trial membership with a company called Club La Costa. At that time, both my wife and I were in full time employment and the terms seemed affordable. In May 2008, we went to Spain for the "Free Holiday" and attended the mandatory breakfast meeting. Although we were told this would take no more than an hour, we were with the company rep from 10am until almost 7pm getting the hard sell to upgrade to Full Membership.

 

I do suffer from some fairly major mental health issues and diabetes and despite telling them I needed to eat and rest, we were constantly assured that we could finish soon. After agreeing to go with the full membership package, finance was hastily arranged and my trial membership relinquished as part of the upgrade. Unfortunately, my circumstances had changed and I was no longer in full time employment. I informed the rep of this and after commiserating with me, we spoke about my future plans where I told him that I was planning to work as a self-employed training consultant.

 

After about 30 minutes of waiting, our new Fixed Term credit was arranged with GE Money who also provided the credit for the Trial Membership. I have often wondered how we got the credit approved with having lost my job and only this morning I waded yet again through the pile of documents CLC left us with to discover that I am listed as a self-employed training consultant and had been doing that job for a year(??) As the original credit arrangement with the same company, dated only 3 months earlier had clearly stated I was in full time employment, I would have expected the most cursory of checks to have picked that up and credit refused!

 

I have read the FSA regulations regarding negligent lending but I am unsure whether my own case could be considered so?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated... Please.

 

P.S. I never at any point told them I was in employment. On the contrary. I assume that the truth was less important to CLC than the success of the credit application. I do have all the paperwork.

Edited April 18, 2011 by Tethersend
Postscript added

[Tethersend]

I have discovered since making the above post that I am not alone in having this problem with CLC. I would please ask everyone to check their paperwork and see if your employment status and/or annual income has been misrepresented. If so, I'd love to know.

Thank you

[wildboy74]

god there seem to be some pretty bad reviews on here... had i read this last year I wouldn't have joined! I signed up to a trial membership last year on a visit to Tenerife, but I have to say my experience is some what different to most of yours...so far 1) I´ve had my free week already - no issues. 2) I was able to book my 1st week (back in Jan), again with no issues. My wife and I have booked another break in Sept, again no problems - granted it was our second choice of date, but it is a popular resort. Will see how it pans out, but at the moment the resorts are great, the staff better than most and the guests all seem relatively happy - not like this thread i have to say. maybe one day I'II be back with a horror story but at the moment can't see why - everything they told me is true. No it's not the cheapest holiday method but then if you want to expect x amount of standard each time I guess it's your choice. Previously I had wasted over 2500euro for a holiday from hell with Thomson's to a hell hole in Italy....

[Mr&MrsSmith]

Hi, We have been reading through the posts here and would like to add our pennies worth. We joined CLC in 2007.

 

How we signed up (skip this if you are not interested the latest meaty bits are below)

 

If you are new to CLC and are researching before you buy read on.

 

We went to a free weekend in Cornwall where we knew we would be subjected to a sales pitch. We were pleasantly surprised that the pitch sold points which could be used any time of year and at many different locations. This got our attention because one of the draw backs of conventional timeshare models was being stuck with a week which you then had to swap or upgrade.*

 

Having spoken to other members we worked out that we could get value for money out of the trial so we signed up.*

 

Whilst on our first free week in Tenerife we had the oppurtunity to see the quality of the CLC resorts and again were pleasantly surprised.*

 

We went along to the obligatory sales meeting (which goes on far too long). You get a free breakfast where you chat with the sales rep. You then get driven to the other resorts and then the sales office (our rep even took us to the supermarket to help us bring our shopping back). At the presentation you are subjected to a gruelling drawn out sales pitch designed to grind you into a sloppy "i'll buy it and pay anything, just let me outta here" confused mush.

 

We sat through the presentation. We had already researched through the web and had made up our minds to join so it was all down to cost and after holding out for a price that we thought was value for money we bought a Silver membership (700 pts).*

 

We used the credit facility offered knowing we had to pay this off or re-finance it before the inflated interest payments kicked in.

 

The rest of the holiday was spectacular and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

 

We were so impressed we thought we should buy more points but the cost was, to say the least, prohibitive. Enter re-sales auction stage left! We bought another 1800 points. The yearly maintenance fee just doubled.

 

On our next visit to Tenerife unfortunately one of us got sick. When asked to go to a presentation, where a whole bunch of "new exciting tips tricks and offers" (that had *been introduced since we signed up) would be revealed to us. We declined on the basis that one of us was ill.*

 

The representative said he can't talk to one of us. It has to be both or none (worth noting this as you will be bugged every time you go away to a CLC resort that has a sales office).*

 

However upon Mr Smith making a small recovery we acquiesced to allow their best representative to come to our apartment and do his sales pitch there. This was much more comfortable than sitting in the sales office and it meant Mrs Smith was not missing sun bathing time.

 

We told him we don't want to buy any more because we already had enough points. The penny then dropped that we had more points than was showing on the membership we had booked with.*

 

He then ground out a special deal where by if we bought 400 more points he would talk the management into letting us merge the two memberships which would save money on the maintenance costs.

 

After doing a quick calculation we worked out that over the course of a few years we would recoup the outlay through the extra upgrades and other privileges the now "gold" membership would allow us. So we bought the Extra points as part of this "extraordinary transaction".

 

A bit later we saw another 4000 odd points available on an auction site and bought these too!*

 

Now Mrs Smith really worked the points and upgrades well and we have grown fat on the fantastic holidays we have had at CLC resorts which include Cornwall, Tenerife, Portugal, Austria and Spain.*

 

By the way we met Jennie Bond and shes a real nice lady and we told her all about how glad we were to be members and as long as you use the points wisely, budget for the maintenance costs and avoid the sales people it's a good club.

 

We therefore have only one complaint. Would all sales representatives please now leave us alone. When we say we don't want to come to one of your meetings to discuss "the next best thing" we mean it.*

 

Which brings me to the meaty bit...

 

At our latest stay in Spain we spoke to the lady that phones your apartment to ask how your holiday is going (we had been in our apartment one night) and would we be attending the "Members Update" meeting? We wriggled and squirmed but as the morning was a bit cloudy and she assured us that there was no sales talk just a members update thats is not available on the Internet etc etc and that would only take a short time (over a free breakfast) to impart we foolishly agreed.

 

Flexible share thingy

9.15 am to 14:45 pm. After the usual pleasantries we ended up at the sales office being shown this fantastic offer of buying a 3 week 3/16 share in the apartments in Spain. CLC values the property at 3.5 times the current Market value with the promise that in 16 years CLC will buy it back or you can sell it on. You will pay lower maintenance costs because it's based on a cheaper resort etc etc. *Mmmm.

 

Just convert your points at £10 each into shares in a property, with a current market value of say £300k, which CLC has valued at £1,200,000.*

 

In 16 years time CLC will pay you back your share based on the value of the property. Doh! No no no.*

 

Not a good deal because you can bet the value will have only gone up but about 1% per year not 10% which is how they have come to their current valuation. Also you can bet you valuation falls short of the cost so you have to buy more points to buy the share. No no no*

 

I have already bought the points and you have just valued them less than they are really worth in holidays so no.

 

But Mr Smith you still have your vacation points to use as before (accept you lose the upgrades) and we have done away with booking fees and removed maintenance costs on them. It still don't add up.

 

Hold up all this talk of buying weekly shares of a property this sounds just like old fashioned time share. CLC sell the property 10 times over and make a mint. Also we lose an upgrade and we have to pay £30k no no no.

 

Good try but you won't get us signing up for that. I respectfully called the presentation to a halt and went back to my glorious holiday.

 

Conclusion.*

 

We bought into CLC knowing what we were getting. We wrote off the cost on day one but made a commitment to get everything we can out of our investment and thus far we are very happy. The booking office is second to none and the service at the resorts is excellent.*

 

If you think you are being pressured to buy just tell them to back off, get up and walk away. End of.

[aggiemac]

Hello everyone,Haven't been on this forum for 2 years probably. I was wonderning if anyone has any news about their debts and problems with CLC. Have we just all given up? Our debt has beek sold and we have a court order now to pay almost £22000 for one week of holidays in Costa del Sol. How stupid were we? It doesn't look to me like there is anything we can do other then pay it. I wonder how people who own and work for CLC can sleep at night while other's people lives are ruined.

[majka]

Hello everyone,Haven't been on this forum for 2 years probably. I was wonderning if anyone has any news about their debts and problems with CLC. Have we just all given up? Our debt has beek sold and we have a court order now to pay almost £22000 for one week of holidays in Costa del Sol. How stupid were we? It doesn't look to me like there is anything we can do other then pay it. I wonder how people who own and work for CLC can sleep at night while other's people lives are ruined.

Hi All

has anyone had further news frm linder myers about how the case is progressing ?

It has been quiet on the forum for the past months ...

[kaygee]

I would be really interested to see if anyone has been successful at claiming back the PPI from GE Money that was missold by CLC at their hardsell presentation? Also we were not offered the 14 day cooling off period - was anyone else? It was sign sign sign in the presentation and nothing about cooling off... any updates would be great as we are going to start looking at the claim in the next few days - thanks

[aggiemac]

Well we have lost the caise GE has put in the court against us and now we have to pay £25,000. That's all the news I have. Adding to it around £3000 I have already paid during 3 years, the one week holiday costed us around £28,000. Definately the biggest con ever.

[kaygee]

Well we have lost the caise GE has put in the court against us and now we have to pay £25,000. That's all the news I have. Adding to it around £3000 I have already paid during 3 years, the one week holiday costed us around £28,000. Definately the biggest con ever.

 

So sorry to hear that you lost the case... we too are suffering at the hands of the Club La Costa ethic of sell at all costs, and surrendered our certificates last year but are still paying for something that we are not using.... wish we had never even heard of them now...

 

I wish you the best

[solana]

Has anyone heard anything from Linder Myers? I keep ringing and emailing but have not got a reply.

[Jaynez]

Hi all, can anyone confirm they have gone with Linder Myers for the Group Action claim please? We have and are now trying to plough through the CFA!! Fingers crossed!!

[Jacqui Campion]

Hi, we fell for the hard sell with Club La Costa about 8 years ago. We went on the free holiday and signed up on the spot. We handed over the money and felt very pleased with ourselves. Only to find that for each of the holidays we wanted to go, on using our points, there was a very long waiting list (and I am talking years not months). Also at the sale we explained to them that we had a large family (2adults and 4 children) and they reassured us it was not a problem. However, whenever we went to book, the rooms were never big enough. In the end we ended up cancelling and getting our money back (after a huge arguement and solicitors letters regarding false selling). I would not recommend this company to anyone