won a holiday????

[JENNDOUG]

i recieve a phone call last week a very nice girl telling me that we had eon a holiday for 4 people 7 nites &flights, that we had to come t a hotel and be presented with them, we were a bit warie about it but we went , when we arrived we found out it was a timeshare sales nite we stayed saying we had traveld down anyway, they taklked a good talk sucked us in made us think we would be saving money rather than wasting it, so we singed up for a 3 year trial period £3,499 we also paid a £95 deposit their and then it was going to work out £125 a month we tought that was ok at the time we had liked what they had to show us , but when we got home we realised their was a lot more to it hidden costs, and that we cant afford it, so 2 day i tried to call them to cancel it we have no information on right to cancel but i no that we can, acould some one help us out i need help writing to them what should i say??? :-|

[blacksheep1979]

How do you know you can cancel?

[StudentInDebt]

I think there shold be a 14 day cooling off period if your timeshare is within the EU.

 

Having had the misfortune to work for a call centre where everyone had won a holiday I can tell you that no-one ever has. These companies work by getting 100 people in to a room, giving each one some photocopies from old phone books and a script. The callers then work through their photocopied phonebooks from the top to the bottom and the script is quite simple

 

"Hello is that Mrs Jones? Mrs Jones I'm pleased to tell you that you have been selected in our prize draw and your are eligible for a free holiday. I need to ask you some questions - are you married, are you between 18 and 65, is your household income greater than £15k, where would you like to go on holiday - great thank you very much, someone will be in touch with you in a few days to confirm the details with you."

 

If the answer to any of the first 3 questions is "no" then the person will not be statistically able to purchase a timeshare so the call should be terminated as quickly as possible so you can move onto the next one. The 4th question is just rubbish to make the questions look legitimate. At the end of the evening the names and numbers are handed in and then another, more sophisticated, team steps in to get you to the presentation. Inital callers are rewarded for every 50 hits they get in an evening and receive a small comission payment if one of their people eventually buys a timeshare.

 

When I went to work for one of these companies I was so horrified by what I was being asked to do I did the first evening and never went back.

[heidi1]

Hi,

 

I should also think that you should get a 14 day "cooling off" period too. It would seem strange if your not. If they are unprepared to cancel if you are within this time sclae, then I should threaten them with some kind of courth action, like "I'm going to see my solicitor, and if you are in breach of your contract I will be taking legal action against you" and see if that frightens them into cancelling.

 

I almost went to work for a company that does the presentations that you went to... like the above poster, I was horrified and turned down the job. They liked my credentials being in Travel as long as I have, but I thought it completely immoral to do the job they were asking me to do.

 

I get these phone calls every now and agan and when they say "you have won a holiday" I say, yeah right love, whatever, do you realise I'm a Travel Agent, and they put the phone down on me!! lol

 

If you have the terms and conditions in writing, read them thoroughly, it should have a section in there regarding cancellation. If you dont have anything in writing yourself, you could maybe try and play on the angle that you were GIVEN the immpression you had a cooling off period. Might not work but its worth a try.

 

Good luck

 

Heidi

[StudentInDebt]

http://www.dti.gov.uk/consumers/fact-sheets/page38245_print.html

[JENNDOUG]

thanks for your help, i got through to the compiany to day they said i have to go back down to the hotel to cancel so we are going down tomorow, prob try and talk us out of canceling or to try to get us to take another loan rate but we are going to stick to our guns this time,

[heidi1]

Please do, dont be swayed, its a complete rip off!!

 

Good luck!

 

Heidi

[rosiecotton]

Please check whether this is a Timeshare or a Holiday Club - holiday clubs are not covered by the timeshare legislation.

[CMedinburgh]

rosiecotton has it exactly right!

 

Many of these companies are selling HOLIDAYS - cheap flights / cheap rooms or some combination. These are NOT covered by the Timeshare Directive and therefore there is no cooling off period. Holiday Clubs are a colossal ripoff by and large (there are a very few genuine exceptions), where you buy membership of a club that often seem to evaporate before it has to deliver anything.

 

With timeshare you actually buy something, and are protected by the Directive. It is that protection that Holiday Clubs were designed to circumvent!

 

Please check which you have bought!

 

And remember that if you paid by CREDIT CARD you may manage to get your card issuer to refund the monies you have paid.

[powelll]

Have just looked at this thread - any news?

[martynh99]

Personally I'm sick of receiving these types of phone calls despite being registered with TPS

 

The OFT provide this warning

The Office of Fair Trading: Bogus holiday clubs

 

And this leaflet

www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/consumer_leaflets/general/oft642.pdf

 

They also mention it in their publications

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/fair_trading/ft35holiday.pdf

 

promise to bring in a code of practice but don't appear to have done so in this publication

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/fair_trading/ft44.pdf

 

 

This I found on youtube

 

And there are a number of websites who discuss these and it doesn't make good reading

 

Holidayclubtales.co.uk - Beware the scratchcard touts when on holiday.

Timesharetalk Forum

CRIMESHARE - Timeshare Frauds & Scams

 

I would stear clear

[indebtstudent]

Please do not take offence, I feel compelled to ask why? Why did you sign up for something so expensive? You can stay at my house for a fraction of the cost

[JENNDOUG]

they made us think that we would be saving money because we spend about £2.000 a year any way , but never mind we got it canciled now,and have our free holiday so we are all happy, they did try to sell it to us for £700 pound less though,

[seobeglobal]

at least you could cancel it!.. that's great, well good luck and have a lot of fun.

[seobeglobal]

don't forget it, HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!

[bazza168]

I went to one of these presentations and bought the deal but when I decided to cancel they said I was too late and outside the cooling off period They have now passed my "debt" to a collections company and registered a default on my credit files because I refused to pay the monthly installments Is there anything I can do now

[martynh99]

Did you join up in the UK or abroad - it makes a big difference as that dictates whether UK law applies or EU law.

[bazza168]

I signed up in the uk and have sent letters back and forth. A citizens advice bureau told me to stand my ground and refuse to pay