Free Holiday - Sugar Reef Travel Club

james10999 · 25 October 2009 at 11:04AM

Hi all,

I got a call from a promotional company stating that I had won a free holiday and needed to attend a presentation in order to get it (Timeshare). Me and my partner both attended, said no to the timeshare, got given our promotional pack by the "sugar reef travel club".

The facts:

Two Options
Worldwide destinations - £99 per person
(Florida, Mexico, Domincan Republic)
Europe destinations - £49 per person

The Add Ons
Europe Air Duty Tax, Security and Baggage Handling - £20 per person
Worldwide Air Duty Tax, Security and Baggage Handling - £40 per person

Total Price
For 4 adults going on this promotion:
Worldwide option - £556 total payable
European Option - £276 total payable

The Key T&C's
1 - We must choose 4 seperate dates on which we want to holiday to be on.
2 - We must choose 3 destinations on which we would go to.
3 - They will contact us between 90 - 15 days before the dates chosen to advise of where we are going away.
4 - The airport could be anywhere in the UK we are flying from at any time.
5 - Must sit through a timeshare presentation whilst on the holiday in order to meet the T&C's.

From reading a lot of websites saying that this promotion is a con, all complaints are all focused around the company contacting people 2 weeks before they are going.
We are planning to book the 4 dates we have chosen off work in advance so this shouldn't be a problem.
We don't mind what airport we are flying from - we are in Coventry so quite central for most.
We don't mind which resort we are going to - we just want a cheap holiday!

Apart from this - I don't see a problem with this promotion?! Can anyone else add there 2p to this bearing in mind what we have said above?

I'd be really interested to hear from anyone who has been on one of these holidays and what resorts you stayed in? We are hoping to get the Florida holiday but wouldn't mind either the Mexico holiday or Domincan Republic.

blue_haddock · 25 October 2009 at 11:07AM

There is no such thing as a free lunch. I have heard about these kind of things where initially they say you only have to attend one presentation that lasts a couple of hours which turns into 9am to 5p for every day of your 'holiday'

james10999 · 25 October 2009 at 11:29AM

blue_haddock wrote: »

There is no such thing as a free lunch. I have heard about these kind of things where initially they say you only have to attend one presentation that lasts a couple of hours which turns into 9am to 5p for every day of your 'holiday'

Hi,

thanks for your reply.

It does say we have to attend a hospitality tour that "which will explian the various facilities and services the resort offers. Non attendance of the hospitality tour may result in the full cost of the accomadation being charged up to a maximum of £500".

At the end of the day - we don't mind being shown around once or even twice. As long as we have attended it - thats fine with us!

budgetflyer · 25 October 2009 at 11:51AM

James10999 , if you are daft enough to hand over £556 to a timeshare promotions company for a holiday to "You dont Know where, from you dont know which airport, and you dont even know when" , if on the slim chance, they do send you away, theres a pretty good chance you will return £10K to £15K lighter, all on easy payment but nigh on impossible when reality finally strikes to get out of finance. You will be locked into legally binding management fees.
Timeshares are not for people who want "cheap holidays"
These promotion companies are not charities, nor are they "nice people". They will lie out their teeth for their HUGE COMMISSIONS .

james10999 · 25 October 2009 at 12:21PM

budgetflyer wrote: »

James10999 , if you are daft enough to hand over £556 to a timeshare promotions company for a holiday to "You dont Know where, from you dont know which airport, and you dont even know when" , if on the slim chance, they do send you away, theres a pretty good chance you will return £10K to £15K lighter, all on easy payment but nigh on impossible when reality finally strikes to get out of finance. You will be locked into legally binding management fees.
Timeshares are not for people who want "cheap holidays"
These promotion companies are not charities, nor are they "nice people". They will lie out their teeth for their HUGE COMMISSIONS .

Hi budgetflyer.

I will 100% not be getting timeshare. I never take out loans (apart from a mortgage) and to get a timeshare commitment in a foreign country is just daft. So no I will not be returning 15k lighter.

Fair point about I don't know the airport and i don't know when. As I said, I have to nominate 4 different weeks I might go away. All 4 of us have agreed to book these off work in advance. If we go away on one of those dates, great, if not, we'll enjoy the time off and go on one of the other dates.

We will know where were going from a choice of 3 - this is fine with us.

I don't see from the rest of your arguement where the problem is?!

costapkt · 25 October 2009 at 12:32PM

The problem is, is that you are going on a Timeshare 'date' . You might come away unscathed . But the whole point of them getting you to go is to put you through the hard sell. Fair enough if you feel you can cope with it, but do not say you have not been warned. Been there and got the T Shirt.

james10999 · 25 October 2009 at 12:38PM

costapkt wrote: »

The problem is, is that you are going on a Timeshare 'date' . You might come away unscathed . But the whole point of them getting you to go is to put you through the hard sell. Fair enough if you feel you can cope with it, but do not say you have not been warned. Been there and got the T Shirt.

Fair point - thank you. We are all getting prepared for a hard sell once on this holiday next year so we'll be polite but not buying anything. Thanks for the warning!

Have you been on this type of holiday before then? What was your experience?

Tojo_Ralph · 25 October 2009 at 12:39PM

....
I would seriously recommend that you read the following information from various sources including two Office Of Fair Trading rulings from 2003 and 2005 that detail the activities of the person reported to be behind the Sugar Reef Travel Club... a person by the name of Lisa De-Ville Bradshaw.

The articles state that Lisa De-Ville Bradshaw was also behind Devon-based Travel Quest, Global Traveller and Atlantis Vacations, all of whom are reported to have gone bust. The articles are in date order (new to old) dating back to 2002 and tell a sorry story of broken promises and broken dreams.

http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/sunday-mail-glasgow-scotland/mi_7994/is_2007_May_20/travel-queen-cruella/ai_n38499383/

http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2005/151-05

http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/sunday-mail-glasgow-scotland/mi_7994/is_2004_June_6/judge-return-cruella-holiday-queens/ai_n37236548/

http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2003/pn_121-03

http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/sunday-mail-glasgow-scotland/mi_7994/is_2002_Nov_10/judge-cruella-ii-scary-sequel/ai_n36774566/

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/opinion/article.html?in_article_id=351272&in_page_id=19&in_author_id=5

costapkt · 25 October 2009 at 12:45PM

Have you done any research on this so called Holiday Club ? If you Google
Sugar Reef Travel Club click the Holiday Watchdog one that comes up .
On their site you will find out a bit more about them.
Is the presentation you went to connected to anywhere near Exeter ?
Exeter is scam city as far as Timeshare is concerned.

dmg24 · 25 October 2009 at 1:04PM

james10999 wrote: »

Two Options
Worldwide destinations - £99 per person
(Florida, Mexico, Domincan Republic)
Europe destinations - £49 per person

The Add Ons
Europe Air Duty Tax, Security and Baggage Handling - £20 per person
Worldwide Air Duty Tax, Security and Baggage Handling - £40 per person

Total Price
For 4 adults going on this promotion:
Worldwide option - £556 total payable
European Option - £276 total payable

You have been offered a free holiday, that before you even leave is by no means free. I would suggest that you are not as savvy as you think you are.

NeverInDebt · 25 October 2009 at 1:20PM

I give you a free laptop if you want it just as long as you give me £300

I make sure you get it 1st class

Free Holiday - Sugar Reef Travel Club

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