The Travel Company - Scam or Not?

minimomin

BaggieBoy wrote: »

Hi,

Had a call a few days ago asking a few questions about holidays. Thought nothing of it but today i had another call. This time they were offering a luxury holiday to Portugal including flights for one week for £49 for each of us (family of five) that can be used anytime over the next two years.

I've heard about these sort of scams before so i really pushed them about it but they kept saying its genuine. All we have to do is go to a presentation for 2 hours next week just down the road from us. Again i pushed them to say is this holiday conditional on us buying something at the presentation and they said it was not.

I asked them why this is so cheap and they said they are doing some advertising for "The Travel Company" and offering cheap holidays in the hope that we will rebook and tell our friends out it etc.

Has anyone had a similar call? Is it a scam? I've left it that they are putting the offer in writing and i will get back to them. I'd appreciate any information you people have

Bob

Hello,
I have also had telephone call from the Travel Company, if fact they have phoned us at least five times and we agreed in the end to go to the presentation in Hatton this Sunday 4th July.

I have tried to find the company on the web with no success, but found this site. So glad I know what other pepple's experiences have been and won't be wasting my time.

So thank you to to all that have commented.

EmmaG40

cdbe wrote: »

Thanks, the vagueness is my concern; the web is full of posts about these "deals" but most are very emotive (and often sad) from people who have taken the bait and lost large sums of money and tend to be a bit confused in their detail - it is often hard to remember things clearly when plunged into a hard sell situation.

They are calling back on Monday when we have had a think about whether to attend - I will get some more details then. I was only half interested until I moaned about the distance from our home to Hatton (not telling them we have relatives nearby who we would visit) at which point I was offered the £50 B&Q vouchers (sorry it was the "free" holiday admin fee that was £49). Just the job as we are planning to replace our kitchen with B&Q.

I was talking to my wife and we both agreed that the best thing about the Club La Costa holiday we had (in Cornwall) was watching the flowers.....

The sales team had their own (very impressive) marketing suite attached to the resort; when it was our turn for the pitch we noticed, near the entrance, a stand with a number of bouquets of flowers in - we quickly figured out that these were presented to the wife if the couple signed up.

Very immaturely we got into a routine of counting the bouquets before and after each days pitches to see how many sign-ups they had got - it was not very many in the 4 days we were there!

Cdbe - did you end up going to Hatton? We had a call last night from Country Break saying we had won a holiday blah blah and they are calling back tonight. I take it is a scam?? My other half thinks its a load of rubbish and now after reading all these I am inclined to agree!

smileybus

They call it fractional share when it is really a timeshare. They have found a loop hole in the law to get round timeshare laws. You cannot cancel a fractional share agreement after signing as there is no cooling off period. These are just a few of the names of the company that operates from Hatton, I am sure there are many more. See your solicitor. Has anyone successfully managed to get their agreement cancelled?

We are sensible intelligent people and they are so good at selling it to you as it all makes sense and if you holiday a lot like we do it seemed to be a good idea. Unfortunately you don't get to check them out before you sign then it's too late.

One you surf the web there seem to be plenty of people who are all in the same boat. DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING unless you do your research before attending the meetings - even better DON'T ATTEND.

Cosykitty

My husband and I have just had a call from Connie in the marketing department of Country Breaks telling us we can have a holiday for a £49 booking fee each in one of 10 european destinations, staying in a villa or apartment - self catering. We just have to go to a seminar in Hatton first to "hear about their other, full price holidays and to hear about the company". We're totally not interested in any kind of timeshare, but what we want to know is will they give us the holiday for £49 each if we don't sign up to anything at the seminar? I googled Country Breaks and couldn't find any reference to them which seemed odd, so I googled ''Country Breaks scam' and found this forum - so now I am on my guard.

Bob_the_Saver

If someone phones you out of the blue (for anything) you need only two words, one of them is OFF! - problem solved - NEXT

joandmol

We've just been to the presentation in Hatton also. We were told it would take 90 minutes, so we left our children to attend the presentation - only wanting the free holiday of course! After 90 minutes I was still none the wiser, only that I would have to buy a share in a yacht and I would then be able to have cheaper holidays - oh and I'd have to sign that day, no chance to think anything over. It got to the 90 minutes and we explained that we would need to pick up our children and asked what the actual cost was. We were told this would take another 10-15 minutes! I then said I wasn't interested - if they can't sell to me in 90 minutes it's a bad sales job. At this point the main guy (Andy) got aggressive and very rude. The main sales guy (oh yes you get 2 people selling to you) said we should come back next week to finish off the pitch. Andy said we shouldn't bother. He said we were using picking up the children as an excuse to leave. To be honest even if the product looked good, I wouldn't have bought anything off him. You could feel him conning you! When we left and picked up our 'free' holiday the conditions you can take it (as explained in other parts of the blog) make it impossible to take. Threw the whole thing in the bin and 90 minutes of our life has gone for good. Take my advice don't bother - nothing is free in this life! Horrid experience!

Bob_the_Saver

If you get calls you don't wan't /expect 2 words should sort it. One of them is off!

janbe

Well same here have had a call from someone from strideforward org uk or thats where they say they were from inviting me and my wife to hatton for a 2 hour session and same here we have been selected for a free holiday for 4 and all we have to pay is 49 quid each a choice of 12 destinations free vouchers for attending seminar and we are to pick up the booking form at Hatton this place must be very busy
a very believable young woman on the phone and nope this is not timshare no its not holidayshare and no its not what ever they call it now
will not be at Hatton so dont save me a seat
just thought i would post with another name used

JB

janbe

oh and have a look at this thread (holiday prize draw from dive show scam beware)
sorry but cant post links when a newbe

JB

EycplUK

Ah , Happy Days !
this reminds me of when we were on holiday in Malta , guy kept trying to get us and 2 friends to go to a "presentation" and eventually he said he would give us each £5 maltese (about £10 gbp then ) so we said OK give us the money when you collect us or we aint going , next morning he showed and gave us each the money , we got to the complex (timeshare/hotel ) walked in and said "Goodbye" all walked out went down the road and hired a car for the week with the money ! Free car hire from them ! :money:
Will always remember the guys plaintive " But you cant go ...." and our answers " Yes we can !!"
Priceless :j:money: