time share query shakespeare classic line

StuieUK34

advice?
Your f**ked! sorry not what you wanted to hear, but when you hear more horror stories of timeshare stuff, its always gonna end in tears

however, can you not change bank accounts, and the contract doesnt have a stake on your house kinda thing ? so can u simply ignore the requests for money and not pay ?
ie. like Crown Currency Exchange taking my money, i cant do anything to get it back, so surely the timeshare peeps cant get your money if u say p**s off just like CCE have ?

clove_2

Has anyone actually managed to get out of the contract or actually been on the holidays??

We were advised just to ignore demands for payment but wonder whether they can prosecute us as we signed with them?

janbe

Not sure where to start have read post after post with horror terror and with sympathy
I had a phone call a few weeks back only a few questions about holiday habbits very short and one of the nicest cold callers ever encountered normally i tell them where to go sounding familiar yet
Then out of the blue another phone call about 2 weeks after the first i have been chosen then all the guff and chat free holiday 4 people only 49 quid pp admin fee you get the picture and boy oh boy was she good
seminar in Hatton won't be going though came to my senses
i feel for all the people who have been duped by this
the point i am trying to make is that you people are not alone and need to get in touch and keep in touch with others who have fallen foul of this and fight it together don't go it alone
the thing i have noticed is the amount of company names involved so searching the net for this is hard
good luck

salty65

There are sevaral people caught up in this misleading practice. if you were told it was timeshare ,would you even had considered attending the presentation. Keep records of all calls and letters between yourself and Shakespeare. You may need this if you are taken to court. A action group has been set up. Any one interested please private message me with your details.

techdojo

I'd just like to say that Shakespeare Classic Line are still up and running and doing business at their Hatton offices.

My wife and I were talked into going by somebody from "A marketing company" (Which in happended to be Stride Forward - contact number 0800 520 0323) and I was initially intrigued as I've been to "timeshare" and holiday points presentations before and I'm good at saying no (just ask the wife), plus the idea of a £49pp for a week in the Canaries and the promise (yes Connie at Stride Forward you DID promise) £50 worth of Toy's R Us vouchers (just in time for Christmas) seemed like a fair swap for 2 1/2 hours of our time.

(on a side note - I actually used to work at that location (it's in a beautiful setting) for a video games company back in the mid 90's - if anyone ever goes again, the ATD brass nameplate on the wall is still there, it seemed a little serendipitous to me so I'd let my guard down a little, maybe in hindsight it was a bad omen (hi Fred)).

We went through all the rigmarole and sat through the usual crap - I very quickly sussed out that the "Interval International" membership that supposedly tagged on the cheap holidays for life was just fluff designed to blind you to the facts and figures and when we finally got down to the nitty gritty the deal put on the table was this.

We buy 1/200th of said yacht in Turkey for £15,900 and they would "give us" £3500 as the guaranteed investment return for the first three years (with which we could make the first three years loan repayments), then they'd give us another £1400 to spend with Interval international to blow on fancy holidays. The minimum advised figure for year 4+ less the "maintenance" fee should have been enough to cover the loan payments and leave us about £700 per year in pocket (again to spend with Interval if we wish), then after 24 years when the trustee organisation (who actually owned the boat) was forced to sell the boat we would receive 1/200th of the final sale.

So basically for no money down, £700 a year in my pocket and a big bung up front how could I loose.... ????

Something about the figures didn't add up so on further investigation it actually panned out like this...

I borrow £15,900 from Barclays at 9.9% (or I arrange my own finance for the same amount), I then immediately deduct £3500 and put it on one side, this was their "bung to me" (which is nice seeing as they're giving me my own money back - very generous) with which I can make the first three years payments with, again I deduct another £1400 for spending with Interval International - woo hoo, they've just given me £4900 of my own money - this company is great!

I then agree to pay them (at last) £800 in two installments to cover the maintenance fees for 2011 and 2012, and I then have to pay the remainder of £10,200 to the trustee company for the "actual" cost of the share.

So I've borrowed £15,900 to pay them £10,200 so I can use the rest to actually start paying off the loan and blow some extra on a holiday I've not budgeted for ???? is it me or does that sound a bit suspect.... - I'd suspect there's something fraudulent about that kind of advice, I'm sure my accountant would slap me if I asked him if was kosher

Anyway at that point my wife and I decided to walk away, which we did without any attempts by Diane or Andy (the lady doing the presentation and the big bloke with the figures) to change our mind - we'd only been there about 3 1/2 hours at that stage so we probably got off lightly, we duly collected our "free" holiday and were told the Toy's R Us vouchers would be in the post.

Upon closer inspection the holiday turned out to be crock of s***, basically we were told by Connie at Stride Forward that we wouldn't have to pay ANYTHING until we had the written confirmation dates back from the holiday firm, and then pay £49pp (which was fine), but the fine print ACTUALLY stated we had to pay £49pp upfront and then go through all sorts of tooing and froing to get a date that might be acceptable (I don't know about any of you, but who right now's got £200 to throw out on a gamble, three weeks before Christmas - no - me neither), so writing off the holiday as a waste of time (if anybody want's the sugar reef brochure and can make use of it before the 12th Dec - then PM and it's yours) we decided to just use the TRU vouchers and be done with it.

So when we received a giftcard for Tesco's yesterday I was a bit suspicious... I checked the balance on the card and lo and behold, it had £10 on it.... somehow the "other" £40 had just vanished.

I managed to find a phone number for Shakespeare online (01926-844-222) and was told I need to speak to a lady called Linda (I suspect this is the same Linda who's mentioned on this (and the other) thread).

Surprise Surprise Linda was in a meeting, but to her credit (or is it mine she was after) she actually rang me back, and I must say it was a pleasure, she was the rudest most arrogant woman I've ever had the mispleasure of talking to, as you can imagine I got fobbed off with the "we promised you nothing, we never mentioned what "prize" you would receive, we deal with several "marketing companies" take it up with them" standard line of bull.

I can only hope for Linda's sake that she probably would have been a little nicer had I agreed to take out a 16 grand loan over 15 years for which she (or her boss) would have had a nice kickback from Barclays on - although I doubt it (about Linda ever being nice I mean, not the kickback)

So next it's off to deal with Stride Forward who've initially told me that the ACTUAL value of the voucher would have depended on the distance I had to travel (ok Stafford to Warwick isn't that far, but as I had to take a detour to the inlaws to drop the kids off first - I doubt £10 would actually have covered the diesel), I'm still waiting to hear back from the "marketing company" regarding the "other" £40 but I'm not holding my breath, I'm just thankful (doubly so after a little bit of internet research - Google truly is your friend!) that we walked away from all of this having just about broken even (not if you include my Sunday afternoon, c'est la vie) and my sympathies go out to those who brought in to this - the lack of cooling off period in itself should be enough to make anyone with any "nouse" run for the hills.

Please let this serve as a warning to anyone else who is ever considering trading their time (or what would amount to 15 years hard labour) to anyone who rings them up over the phone...

As to the Tesco vouchers?

I think the best thing I can do with them is buy as many rolls of loo paper as possible so that every time I take a **** I'll be reminded of Shakespeare Classic Line and Linda in particular (do you think she'll be on Santa's naughty list this Christmas?).

Jon...

Ps. If anyone from SCL or Stride Forward is actually reading this, please feel free to pass my comments to Linda, Connie (at Stride Forward) or the lovely Diane (bless her 72 year old cotton socks) who spent over two hours telling me and my wife about all of the fantastic cheap holidays her and her family have been able to take all over the world, and I just hope she doesn't develop a peanut allergy before she heads of to Koh Samui this Christmas - the things pensioners are forced to do these days just to keep the heating on, it's almost criminal.


EDIT: I've had a couple of phone calls / conversations with some people at Stride Forward today and I have to say so far, I've been impressed with their desire to help sort out the issue regarding any mis-information that was given regarding the Sugar Reef holiday offer and the value of the voucher that was to be supplied (but who in their right mind would travel all the way to deepest darkest Hatton on a cold Sunday in November for £10 - not me that's for sure!). I'll update this later when the matter with Stride Forward is concluded.

Whilst I realise these are tough times and that no company can afford to loose clients, I would advise Stride Forward to be a little more choosy in future who they take on as clients if Shakespeare Classic Line are anything to go by.

PCKAZ

We also had a call from Stride Forward to tell us we have been selected to receive a holiday for 4 in various European destinations including flights at a cost of £49 per person. The only requirement was that we had to attend a seminar for 150 minutes about holidays in Hatton, Warwickshire. As we do travel quite often we decided it might be of interest.


We went on Saturday, 5th December 2010. On arrival we had to book in and were introduced to Diane and taken upstairs to the sales room. Diane, who is a lovely lady, spent the next 2 1/2 hours explaining what Shakespeare Classic Line had to offer. In time it became pretty clear this is a glorified timeshare scheme. They just call it fractional ownership (to bypass all the timeshare laws). When we asked what the difference was, we were told with timeshare there is a cooling off period, with what they offer, fractional ownership, its yes or no on the day, you can’t change your mind tomorrow (warning bells)! Basically, you (and 199 other people) buy a cabin on a yacht in Turkey for the next 25 years.


During the seminar at key intervals the likes of Dave (the manager), Andy and the golden concierge (can’t remember his name) would join us at our table, trying to crack a joke and then disappear as quickly as they came.


After listening to what they all had to say, we knew what Shakespeare Classic Line was offering was not for us. We found it very off putting to have interruptions from Diane’s managers and colleagues who were very smug and proud of the fact of when people who has said yes, signed on the dotted line and then change their mind was taken to court straight away to obtain the money they wanted.


Diane informed us because we were not going ahead that she would have to get her manager to sign her out. She called Andy over and when asked why it was not of interest (apart from the fact that we don’t want to be tied in for the next 25 years with maintenance fees etc) we explained that their sales technique was off putting and a bit corny though we are sure it works for them and some people. Andy stood up and shouted: ”F*** off out of my building you cheapskates, you only came for your f***ing £49 holiday”. We were just shocked. On leaving the sales room we approached Dave, thanked him for his time, complimented Diane and commented on our disgust how Andy acted. Dave replied by only saying:” you must have said something that upset him”. When we left the room, we were again met by Andy at the top of the stairs, again swearing at us: ”Aren’t you brave enough to say what you said inside there to my face, f*** off out of my building. Take your £49 holiday and f*** off”. It gave my husband the opportunity to let Andy know that his initial gut feeling about what Shakespeare Classic Line had to offer and their managers was correct and how happy he was to have seen through them and not give them any of our money.


I hope this is a warning to any other couples that might be unfortunate enough to come across Shakespeare Classic Line (t/a World Wide Travel and Dames de la Mer). In the 25 years of dealing with businesses this has to be the most unprofessional company we have ever come across…


Please, please be aware!!!!



We will not be using the £49 holiday voucher from Sugar Reef. After reading reports on MSE is sounds like you have to pay additional charges for baggage, taxes etc and then again have to sit through a timeshare presentation and if you do not meet the criteria you would be made to pay for the accommodation.

PCKAZ

We also had a call from Stride Forward to tell us we have been selected to receive a holiday for 4 in various European destinations including flights at a cost of £49 per person. The only requirement was that we had to attend a seminar for 150 minutes about holidays in Hatton, Warwickshire. As we do travel quite often we decided it might be of interest.


We went on Saturday, 5th December 2010. On arrival we had to book in and were introduced to Diane and taken upstairs to the sales room. Diane, who is a lovely lady, spent the next 2 1/2 hours explaining what Shakespeare Classic Line had to offer. In time it became pretty clear this is a glorified timeshare scheme. They just call it fractional ownership (to bypass all the timeshare laws). When we asked what the difference was, we were told with timeshare there is a cooling off period, with what they offer, fractional ownership, its yes or no on the day, you can’t change your mind tomorrow (warning bells)! Basically, you (and 199 other people) buy a cabin on a yacht in Turkey for the next 25 years.


During the seminar at key intervals the likes of Dave (the manager), Andy and the golden concierge (can’t remember his name) would join us at our table, trying to crack a joke and then disappear as quickly as they came.


After listening to what they all had to say, we knew what Shakespeare Classic Line was offering was not for us. We found it very off putting to have interruptions from Diane’s managers and colleagues who were very smug and proud of the fact of when people who has said yes, signed on the dotted line and then change their mind was taken to court straight away to obtain the money they wanted.


Diane informed us because we were not going ahead that she would have to get her manager to sign her out. She called Andy over and when asked why it was not of interest (apart from the fact that we don’t want to be tied in for the next 25 years with maintenance fees etc) we explained that their sales technique was off putting and a bit corny though we are sure it works for them and some people. Andy stood up and shouted: ”F*** off out of my building you cheapskates, you only came for your f***ing £49 holiday”. We were just shocked. On leaving the sales room we approached Dave, thanked him for his time, complimented Diane and commented on our disgust how Andy acted. Dave replied by only saying:” you must have said something that upset him”. When we left the room, we were again met by Andy at the top of the stairs, again swearing at us: ”Aren’t you brave enough to say what you said inside there to my face, f*** off out of my building. Take your £49 holiday and f*** off”. It gave my husband the opportunity to let Andy know that his initial gut feeling about what Shakespeare Classic Line had to offer and their managers was correct and how happy he was to have seen through them and not give them any of our money.


I hope this is a warning to any other couples that might be unfortunate enough to come across Shakespeare Classic Line (t/a World Wide Travel and Dames de la Mer). In the 25 years of dealing with businesses this has to be the most unprofessional company we have ever come across…


Please, please be aware!!!!



We will not be using the £49 holiday voucher from Sugar Reef. After reading reports on MSE is sounds like you have to pay additional charges for baggage, taxes etc and then again have to sit through a timeshare presentation and if you do not meet the criteria you would be made to pay for the accommodation.

techdojo

I wonder if Andy has been getting some customer service advice from Linda

Just out of interest - we're you offered any vouchers by Stride Forward for going and if so how much and how much did you ACTUALLY receive?

Jon...

salty65

A word of warning to you all.Shakespeare use many different promotion companies including worldwide travel, first class promotions, country breaks . Check out these companies, they all have simalar websites. ( not a address will be found on the websites ). First Class promotions even claim to be ABTA bonded. I contacted ABTA, surprise, surprise ABTA knows nothing about them. By the way is Andy the tanned guy with the cornish accent who also claims to be a financial advisor. He has proberly made enough out of this scheme to buy his own yacht. Has anyone received their income from the rental of the yacht, was it the £3000+ that was promised. I did here that one lady received £64.00. What a great return:rotfl:

perky61

Search Google for "Holiday firm five to pay £150,000. Apparently this is the crew who provides the tele marketing. They work in conjunction with another company lots of info on google.

Also it would appear that the man behind shakespear claasic lines is also a Disqualified Director. As he runs the company in the background which he shouldn't do then any contract may be fraudulently obtained.

Maybe worth investigating as another course of action to get your money back. The salesmen always seem to get away but at the end of the day they actually carry out th scam so should be brought to task.

Pm me for more info or if you are inclined to take action.