Holiday club.... Suckered!

[rowan600]

Last August we went on holiday to paphos, cyprus.

During a family stroll along the beach we were approached by a nice English lad handing out scratch cards. The kids thought these were great and were delighted when they matched three symbals and won a prize.

The catch of course was that you had to collect the prize from a hotel / apartment complex.

We were whisked away rather nervously to this location, greeted by a rep and treated like royalty! Free lunch all round and soft drinks only!

Then came the selling part..we were shown the most amazing apratment and told that if we joined the holiday / travel club this was the standard of accomadation we would enjoy for the next 3 yrs. It also included a free return holiday to cyprus for 6 people, with £300 each towards our flights.

 

Well with our 25th wedding anniversary looming it sounded just to good to miss and so we signed up and left there £1700 lighter. We paid using our credit card and the balance was due on our return home.

Once we were home, the tan had faded etc I began to get quite nervous about paying the balance..especially as things that seem to good to be true usually are! I did some serching on the web and the concensus appeared to be to 'steer clear of holiday / travel clubs'

The company pursued us for the money and threatened court but didnt pursue it further, we lied and said that we had seperated!

I suppose my worry is that did we make a mistake in not payting the balance? Obviously we have been left with nothing for our money and feel like we have been completely suckered...please someone out there tell me that we are not the only ones.

[abbas]

Hi.

 

Well, the easiest thing would be to call your credit card company and tell them you didnt get the good/service. The fact that it was abroad may or may not go against you. I.e., people could just go abroad, spend loads of money on their CC and say "it was'nt me". However, if you have all the paper work, you should be able to get it all back.

 

Sorry, but I havnt been a victim, however, it is an almost common thing.

 

Good thing you paid by credit card.

 

Hope it all works out.

 

Abbas.

[rowan600]

Thanks.

I contacted the cc company, sadly they may have been able to help if we had reported it to them within 120 days of our return to the UK (al esson to us all!).

Sadly they can offer nothing now and have suggested that we contact a solicitor.

Not sure if this will just mean incurring huge costs and still not getting any money back,

Any thoughts??

[Bookworm]

You might not like my thoughts...

 

You did sign for it, and you're the ones who pulled out, so I think you should maybe count yourself lucky the company is not actively pursuing you for the rest of the money, tbh.

 

there are solicitors that will give you 1/2 consultation free, you might try that, see what they say.

[abbas]

Thanks.

I contacted the cc company, sadly they may have been able to help if we had reported it to them within 120 days of our return to the UK (al esson to us all!).

Sadly they can offer nothing now and have suggested that we contact a solicitor.

Not sure if this will just mean incurring huge costs and still not getting any money back,

Any thoughts??

 

 

MMM... now that is interesting...

 

This should'nt be the case. As far as I understood, if you dont recieve the service or good, regardless of how long it has been they should re-imburse you.

 

Who is the cc company (i bet its barclays bank)... I will have a look at their TOS/Fraud protection policy.

 

Abbas.

[rowan600]

The cc company is MBNA, not Barlays!! Wouldnt touch them with a ten foot bargepole!

Genuinely MBNA were very helpful, sadly rules are rules, unless of course you can tell me different!

[abbas]

They are supposed to be the best.

 

I will look into it, but you will have to bear with me. I am very busy, but am not a big fan of credit cards...

 

I will get back to you in a few days time....

 

Abbas.

[heppy23]

Last August we went on holiday to paphos, cyprus.

During a family stroll along the beach we were approached by a nice English lad handing out scratch cards. The kids thought these were great and were delighted when they matched three symbals and won a prize.

The catch of course was that you had to collect the prize from a hotel / apartment complex.

We were whisked away rather nervously to this location, greeted by a rep and treated like royalty! Free lunch all round and soft drinks only!

Then came the selling part..we were shown the most amazing apratment and told that if we joined the holiday / travel club this was the standard of accomadation we would enjoy for the next 3 yrs. It also included a free return holiday to cyprus for 6 people, with £300 each towards our flights.

 

Well with our 25th wedding anniversary looming it sounded just to good to miss and so we signed up and left there £1700 lighter. We paid using our credit card and the balance was due on our return home.

Once we were home, the tan had faded etc I began to get quite nervous about paying the balance..especially as things that seem to good to be true usually are! I did some serching on the web and the concensus appeared to be to 'steer clear of holiday / travel clubs'

The company pursued us for the money and threatened court but didnt pursue it further, we lied and said that we had seperated!

I suppose my worry is that did we make a mistake in not payting the balance? Obviously we have been left with nothing for our money and feel like we have been completely suckered...please someone out there tell me that we are not the only ones.

 

This happened to my girlfriends parents on a holiday in Cyprus. They got sucked in and paid about £900 deposit. They got home and I found out about it and looked into it. I think the company was called golden circle. They had signed up to pay this company another £2-3000. They went to see their solicitor with some stuff I had printed out from the internet. He did a strongly worded letter to the company. The company have left them alone but no refund. They paid by debit card so aren't covered by the credit card stuff. Hard lesson to learn for them.

[seylectric]

Oh dear, is this still going on? I was suckered into parting with £1000 20 years ago. I didn't pursue it then, I would now!

 

Just one point: There is no indication in the original post that this was in fact a bad deal. There are genuine good offers around of this type and this may have been one of them, it seems to me that the poster has decided from an internet search that it wasn't. It's rather dodgy ground if the company is indeed genuine.

[trundlecat]

Sorry you feel like you've been had

 

I don't want to make you feel worse but my next door neighbours signed up & paid for one of these and have had great holidays for 3 years now, they're even thinking of buying another week. We personally own a weeks time share in UK locations & it's been great, saves us a fortune per year especially now our family's growing & the accommodation & facilities are much better than the normal self catering "huts" you rent privately.

 

Any chance you could just pay the balance & enjoy your hols? Maybe say you & partner have reconciled & would like to procede with the joint purchase?

[abbas]

Hi. Sorry for the late reply I have been very busy.

 

You are in luck.

 

1st get a copy of the terms and conditions for the card. As you will note, there is NO 120 day limit.

 

You did not sign anything stating that you had to contact them within 120 days. If they say its in your TOS, look at it, its NOT there (I have looked at the online version for the Platinum credit card).

 

MPORTANT – READ THIS CAREFULLY TO FIND OUT ABOUT YOUR RIGHTS

The Consumer Credit Act 1974 lays down certain requirements for your protection which should have been complied with when this agreement was made. If they were not, we cannot enforce this agreement without a Court order.

The Act also gives you a number of rights:

1) You can settle this agreement at any time by giving notice in writing and paying off the amount you owe under the agreement.

2) If you received unsatisfactory goods or services paid for under this agreement, apart from any bought with a cash loan, you may have a right to sue the supplier, us, or both.

3) If the contract is not fulfilled, perhaps because the supplier has gone out of business, you may still be able to sue us.

If you would like to know more about your rights under the Act, contact either your local Trading Standards Department or your nearest Citizens’ Advice Bureau.

 

THEFT, LOSS OR MISUSE OF CREDIT CARD

If your credit card is lost, stolen or misused by someone without your permission, you may have to pay up to £0 of any loss to us. If it is misused with your permission you will probably be liable for ALL losses. You will not be liable to us for losses which take place after you have told us about the theft, etc.

 

DO NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER. Please call them regarding the above. If they still moan, let me know and I will help your draft a written response.

 

Abbas.

[rowan600]

Hi,

Any idea what company your nieghbours signed up with? (lion resorts / Interval international is the company we signed up to) we do have the opportunity to pay the balance...but have great reservations about doing so, you cannot see what is on offer to you until you pay the balance!

[trundlecat]

My neighbours are with club la costa (their own resorts are all in the costa's). As an Interval member (see paragraph below) you'll be able to use the same resort.

 

If the company you've signed to offers Interval membership then I'd stick my neck out & say you will be fine. Interval is the big vacation swap company, the company that we're with are members of this & it basically means that you can exchange your week & go with a different timeshare or holiday company world wide. Accommodation has to be of a very high standard (4*+) to be in the interval brochure (which is about 3 inches thick with destinations). For £20 per person we can go anywhere in Europe for our week & I can't remember if it's £50 or £100 per person worldwide (not sure on the price as I'd never consider flying long haul with my young kids). The world wide figure may seem a lot but this puts you in, for example, 5* Caribean/Australian hotels & 6/7* far eastern hotels.

 

Double check Lion Resorts offer you full Interval access & if they confirm they do I really wouldn't worry.

 

I don't want to harp on but after paying over £700 per week in the past & staying in 1 bedroom dives that are meant to be self catering lodges where we've had to take half our own home in basic equipment, then being charged extra for electric, cot hire etc, I wouldn't give up my time share.

[rowan600]

Thank you so much for all the MBNA cc info. Will check it out

[abbas]

No problem.

 

Let me know exactly what they say...

 

Abbas.

[rowan600]

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