High Street Survey

Nicky321

If its in the wrong place i apologise, and please move.
I recently got talked into a lifestyle survey while in town shopping, by Whiteword Enterprise Ltd. Today I received a phone call giving my answers to the survey and informing me that I had one a weeks holiday including return flights for 2. They gave me a reference number and told me to ring their main travel agents on a 0871 number... and they will till me exactly where i would be going, and then put it in writing via first class post. Is this a scam? has anyone else had this?

naughty_10382

Sounds like a scam - the 0871 number is expensive, and you'd probably have to pay booking fees or something - don't waste your time!!

JasonLVC

Never, ever do the high street surveys - you end up giving them all personal information (address, phone numbers, etc) for a start which unless you tell them personally, means they can sell your inforamtion on to all sorts.

I don;t think this is a scam as such - but depends upon your deifition of being ripped off/scammed.

A friend has done one before and they got a call for a free holiday too - but they had a very tight window in terms of dates they could choose from and then they had to pay for insurance, flights taxes, some other taxes and pay for breakfast or lunch (can't remember) at the hotel which was somewhere in Spain - all in all, it didn;t actually work out for free and in the end she didn;t go.

In suspect if she had gone, she'd then get caught up in some sort of time share sales pitch, working on the basis of that you must be easily persuaded having come this far already - so a two hour presentation will have you signing away £20k no problem.

I repeat my warning. You'd never give your details to a complete stranger, why give it to someone who just wants to know what soap powder you use, etc...

Astaroth

You will have won a holiday... some of them are simply that, some are you have to spend 2 hours of your holiday listening to a time share speech but all the rest of the time is your own (a friend takes his family on holiday every year free of charge buy "winning" these - they think they are great but say the food/ drinks are very expensive in the hotel so they just go to local resturants/ bars etc) and others charge you things like the taxes etc but the rest is free.

an 0871 number costs from 6p-10p (BT landline charges) a minute so is more expensive than many but certainly isnt one of the £5 a minute numbers.

hollydays

Did they mention if the accommodation was free or if you had to take a fixed number of meals in the hotel?This is often the catch.

hells_2

Was this in Manchester by any chance?
I did this one day but refused to give my home phone number or address...I gave them my works number after being offered 'shopping vouchers for John Lewis'...
So...the inevitable phone call came....I went through their terribly exciting "free holiday" offer....and because I love to argue.....
Me: "So it's totally free is it"
Them: "yes"
after other bits of conversation....them: "so we need an admin fee of £89"...
Me: "I thought you said it was totally free....so it's not free at all is it this 'holiday' you're offering me....by the way...this 'holiday'... do I have to spend it locked up in a hotel somewhere while you sell me a timeshare?"
Them: "No, there is no timeshare involved"
Me: "Oh really....you surprise me"
Them: "So you have to go our office in Haydock (i.e. 30 miles away) to pick your prize up at x time on x date"
Me: "Doesn't sound like an office to me...sounds like a hotel....Well I can't make myself available then, what about xx day....(just for a laugh)"...........waits....
....and waits....next person comes on phone....
"So, we would like to invite you to our holiday club"
Me: "click...........brrrrrrrrrrrrr"
Lol!
Thing is, I've been stopped again by a woman who stands outside M&S in Manchester every day. I've upset her though....I've told her to her face I will not be embroiled in their timeshare scam, to which she denied any involvement....so you don't even know who you're working for love? Dear me, I'd be worried about getting your wages this week!

I just love to wind people up, especially when you know they're after stitching you up!

superhappytop

Hi. this has happened to me last weekend in our local high street. Ive just had a call from this woman art Whiteword Enterprises in Essex saying ive won a 7 day holiday in a five star resort somewhere in Europe. She gave me an 0871 number to ring immediately to claim my prive valued at £1500 - £2000 although very attractive seems too good to be true - there must be a catch somewhere. Ive decided not to ring the number she gave me as ive searched the net and discovered that an elderly couple not far from where I live have been duped by this company. Again the moto springs to mind "If its too good to be true - it probably is" My advice stay well clear of these surveys in the street they only end up costing you money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lilolil_3

HI I had just been offered a job by whiteword enterprises they told me the questions you ask are purley for market research I asked if it had anything to do with time shares etc and they said no! Thanks to the above comments I didnt give up my current job before I found out what the job really was - looks like another trip to the job centre for me!

ManAtHome

You should start asking if it's anything to do with "Holiday Clubs"... Since the timeshare lot were more heavily regulated, they all transformed into Holiday Clubs. With this one, you pay several grand up front on the promise of getting cut-price holidays at various resorts (normally ex-timeshare) for a number of years, and surprise surprise, you normally find you could have booked something similar cheaper anyway and/or you can never get any dates to suit.

It's pretty much the same thing as the scratch-card touts who infest many tourist resorts.

silverfairy

Hi.
On a similar theme.had a phone call (withheld number) today saying that I or my partner had done a survey 18 months ago and now we had been randomly selected as winners of a 7 night luxury holiday to Spain but first he had to check he was talking to the right person.(His English was very poor but I let him continue as I knew it wasn't a genuine win).He would read out the details that they had- I was married or had a partner-yes
Aged between 24-62 Yes
homeowner Yes
One of us was employed NO
Is that early retirement No
Is one of you employed No.
Line then went dead.
So looks like no free holiday.!

brumchump

The street walkers have been out in Birmingham recently too. I received the 'you have won a free holiday' call earlier today but having read the comments above I don't think I'll take it any further.