Narrow escape? - 'Club la Costa'

antenna

Only the very stupid or extreemly greedy deluded fools buy timeshare,which one will you be,or do you know better?.
Everybody regrets buying but are too ashamed to admit that they have been taken for fools,just see the list of timeshare fools that post after this one.......come on,dont let us down

antenna

No happy timeshare owners then? .............come on,crawl out of your crimeshare pit...remember your company slogan,"A fool and his money are soon parted" and "There is no fool like a old (timeshare) owner"......and as for timeshare resale companies..."you were stupid enough to deal with them,now deal with us"

anna1963

i too have just been called about "winning" a holiday for four. I repeatedly asked if it was a con - well, they were hardly going to say yes! But I also asked if they were selling a timeshare and they said no. I was supposed to pick up the voucher from a hotel in Bath this Saturday - no mention of a presentation, but once I got off the phone I googled them and found this forum. I then phoned the head office in London and asked that my details be removed from their database, that I did not want the holiday, etc etc. The person said it would be removed immediately.... we shall see.

scoobydee

We have been with CLC for a number of years and have found it to be really good, with three children holidays would certainly have cost us a lot more..wouldn't however recomend buying it on credit as that is very costly and may end up not saving you anything.. Not had a disappointing holiday yet.:j By the way ours isn't time share its a points system which alows you to travel all over the world almost. You build up your points.

scoobydee

arman_z207 wrote: »

Guys, this is an absolute rip off and a scam. 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.

Its a shame you have had such an awful time, we have been with them a number of years and had only a few occasions where we couldn't get booked, if its a really popular place it will be booked a year in advance, you do learn how to juggle things, you can get some very cheap holidays out of it if you go for short notice weeks and very cheap flights through the travel club etc.

blue_monkey_2

We have been with CLC for 11 years now. We are not on points - I would not recommend points to anyone tbh, we got offered but said no, we have a week with Destinations Club. This gives us a week anywhere from a list of about 40 place worldwide, or we put the week in the RCI timeshare band and go elsewhere. There is something like 15,000 resorts worldwide.

We are exchanging for 2 banked weeks for 2 Disney apartments this year for Florida next year. Had we bought this accomodation on their website it costs around £3-5k per week. The prices are there to see on their website - look for Deluxe Villa Resorts, these are Disney Timeshare (or DVC). Last year we spent a week at Disney Kidani Village in a 1 bedroom apartment - total cost per week with our maintenance and exchange fees was around £700. This is where we stayed in a 1 bed apartment: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/animal-kingdom-villas-kidani/

They can work for you if you know what you are doing and you like to stay in nice places on holiday - however, knowing what I know now, I'd not buy one. I'd look for someone selling one as they'll be wanting to get rid of it.

Had forums like these existed when we bought I would probably not have bothered but I am glad we did. There is no way in this world we could afford to stay at the resorts we do otherwise.

It will not work for everyone, if you are happy with cheap holidays then I'd say it's not for you, but if you spend £1k per week or more on your holiday accomodation then I would consider it as you'll save money if you go into Destinations. As with everything, research it first. I've nothing negative to say about them apart from the way they sell the products as I do not think they need to be this decietful. If they were honest they actually might get more people interested.

One thing has changed this year though and it is for the better, we have a red week in a 2 bed apartment and RCI give us 13 points for this. It used to be 1 week exchange for 1 week holiday but this has now changed and they now allocate 'points' to their weeks holidays. Some of the holidays are 6 points, some are 12 it depends on the size of the accomodation so if we take a 1 bed instead of the 2 bed we bought, then we get 2 weeks holiday by using 1 week in the bank so it is better. Some of the holidays are less points than this if you book last minute. It works for us. I know I'll get everyone slagging my descision off now as everyone on here seems to think that CLC are the sum of the earth but it CAN work.

And i believe that because they are based in Spain, if you have had enough you can decide to just stop paying your annual fees and walk away - but I am not 100% sure on this, I am sure I read it somewhere.

We paid 8.5k for our week and after last years holiday we 'broke even' so anything we save now is a bonus. Had we bought from Disney the 2 Disney properties would be setting us back around £3-4k a week at Easter - and we are paying around £750 a week pro-rata. We like holidays here and this is why it works for us.

blue_monkey_2

antenna wrote: »

Only the very stupid or extreemly greedy deluded fools buy timeshare,which one will you be,or do you know better?.
Everybody regrets buying but are too ashamed to admit that they have been taken for fools,just see the list of timeshare fools that post after this one.......come on,dont let us down

Yes, that would be me.

Am I a fool? You think so. Ashamed? No, why should we be ashamed? We LIKE staying nice places that we otherwise could not afford to. So that makes us a mug and a fool?? If you say so.

However, I do feel a tad smug watching everyone go back to their budget hotels when we are staying in luxury for the same price they paid for budget.

You just have to know how to play the game to get the most from it. Same as everything really.

I am struggling to see how likeing nice accomodation on holday makes us greedy though. Why would you think we are greedy?

And those who cannot get the weeks? Bank them - you get a better return for your points with RCI, this is what it is all about. We've not used a CLC property for years as we bank them and go to Florida. Maybe Dubai the year 2013 (Disney for 2012), we've not decided yet. However, we would not even be able to consider it without our timeshare.

And if we fall on hard times and do not have the money to fly, we'll just use our banked week to stay somewhere in the UK instead. It'll cost us £750 a week in the summer holidays to stay somewhere in the UK anyway, and we'll probably get 2 weeks for that price.

blue_monkey_2

johnggold wrote: »

I've just returned from a 5 day holiday at Duchally, and had a wonderful time after being offered a free holiday.

Snipped. Well said John, you just have to have a strong will. We did when they offered us points and this is why we had to sit through the breakfast and presentation, but 10 years on and we've not had any further trouble at all from them. They are much like double glazing salesmen but sometimes you need double glazing.

I think it's a shame that the salesmen act like t*ts as, if you kno what you want, you can make it work, the product is a good one the people who sell them are kn obs and I do not understand why they have to be so underhanded about it. Why not just be honest about it?

scoobydee

I'm with you..lol..People will probably now say we work for CLC.

scoobydee

Yes I must be a fool too! saved lots of money on family hols in places i would normally never afford, get to have 3 hols a year and get cheap flights sorted aswell...yes I am an idiot...