Seasons Holidays

ripongrammargirl

littlemissjayniee wrote: »

Not you, i'm talking about ripongrammargirl ! she joined 4th Feb 2009.

P.S Before anyone says that I am just saying the same thing as Netv (OH) please also note that I am a very intelligent person and can come to conclusions myself that do not always agree with OH!

SueB

The point is that when people enter a competition to WIN a PRIZE that is what they should get - a free item - holiday - service - whatever. They are NOT entering to win the chance to BUY a cheap holiday.
That would be like entering a competition to win the right to buy a fridge at half price.
If that is what that company is doing it should be made implicitly clear that this is the case.

Are they making it clear?

ripongrammargirl

SueB wrote: »

The point is that when people enter a competition to WIN a PRIZE that is what they should get - a free item - holiday - service - whatever. They are NOT entering to win the chance to BUY a cheap holiday.
That would be like entering a competition to win the right to buy a fridge at half price.
If that is what that company is doing it should be made implicitly clear that this is the case.

Are they making it clear?

I totally agree with you that they should make it clear but can you also see my point that you are winning the membership valued at £3750 that other people have to buy? All you will then pay per year for 1 week's hols in luxury accomm is a maintenance fee at £300 odd which you cannot get anywhere else for a holiday in a small hotel room! Maybe it is in the small print what you will win but how many people that are die hard comping fans read small print? Anyway, if i was in the market for a fridge then i would definitely enter a comp where i had the chance of 1 at half price. Makes money sense??

SueB

If it is made clear to you that you are winning the membership alone then fine. It seems to be though that winners are being misled into believing they are actually getting the holiday and when they turn up/phone up to claim it they are getting the unexpected hard sell.
You are right when you say most people do not read the small print. I'm the worlds worst for that - I get a little click happy at times :rolleyes: but in a case like this it should be clear from the start you are winning membership and will have to pay to get a holiday. Having not seen the offending competition I can't say whether this is the case but by the many threads it seems not.

ripongrammargirl

SueB wrote: »

If it is made clear to you that you are winning the membership alone then fine. It seems to be though that winners are being misled into believing they are actually getting the holiday and when they turn up/phone up to claim it they are getting the unexpected hard sell.
You are right when you say most people do not read the small print. I'm the worlds worst for that - I get a little click happy at times :rolleyes: but in a case like this it should be clear from the start you are winning membership and will have to pay to get a holiday. Having not seen the offending competition I can't say whether this is the case but by the many threads it seems not.

Unfortunately timeshare companies do have the knack of hard sell but as we are all money saving experts on here we should be able to stand our ground and say no and then run off with the freebie offered!! We do it all the time and so do our friends who have had some great free hols out of it all. It's just a case of learning how to play the system-like credit card balances; PPI etc that we are all so good at on this site! Take the prize offered and go to the presentations esp as people are saying you get champagne brunch etc. We have always had great breakfasts when we go and still do not have to sign up to the timeshare. Just think of it as a free day out esp in this economic climate. As long as you are single minded with the fact that you will say no at the end then there is nothing to lose, except a couple of hours of time and a free trip out with food and freebies-honest!

andrew71

Sorry but the comment you make about going for the food and freebies with no pressure to sign up involved is the most common tactics involved with this sort of company. These companies then pressure people to sign up, you may feel you have not been pressured to sign up and that is all very good however some people can be very vulnerable, they feel pressured to sign up after being at the meeting for a good few hours.

ripongrammargirl

andrew71 wrote: »

Sorry but the comment you make about going for the food and freebies with no pressure to sign up involved is the most common tactics involved with this sort of company. These companies then pressure people to sign up, you may feel you have not been pressured to sign up and that is all very good however some people can be very vulnerable, they feel pressured to sign up after being at the meeting for a good few hours.

It's only the same as looking at a car or going to the supermarket. Does everyone buy a car when they look at them? Does everyone buy all the latest deals in supermarkets esp now with costs being cut left, right and centre? No, because we all can say no and people have legs so that they can walk away (make sure you get the food etc first though:D) It is no worse than selling from any company in this economic climate. You may want new windows and get quotes from several companies but do not accept them all-you learn to say no to what you do not want. It's really easy!

lydias

It is [FONT=&quot]"knowledgeable" by the way!


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ripongrammargirl

lydias wrote: »

It is [FONT=&quot]"knowledgeable" by the way!


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Fairly irrelevant to the thread but thanks for pointing that out. I have arthritis and occasionally miss the E key for some weird reason!

Twopints

I agree that the marketing of this "prize" is dodgy. I have been on holiday at a Seasons Resort (Club Tahiti, in Costa Teguise, Lanzarote). I had a 2 week holiday there in August 2008 - it was a nice family resort. I booked there through exchanging another timeshare that I own.

We got the invite to a meeting to discuss Seasons ownership. When I asked, they said that the £3750 prize value had been "validated" by UK Trading Standards (I do not know if this is true) because that is the value they used to sell the same membership for. These were what they called "Green" weeks and were effectively the lowest value of timeshare in terms of time of year they were available and ability to exchange through RCI etc. They said that these weeks were no longer marketable i.e. couldn't be sold, so they were using them as a marketing tool to get people into the resorts so they could get them to sign up for further or better weeks.

I have seen Seasons ownership advertised on ebay (BIN) and through timeshare re-sellers (a 2 bed, sleep 6, Red week) for £1000-£1200 including legal fees and transfer fees. This is what they tried to sell me for nearly £10,000. That is why they try to get you into their resorts through this "prize" so they can sell you the product that you can get much cheaper elsewhere. If you really want the product then ebay is your friend .