please can you help Lifetime Marketing Solutions

sweetpig

I was cold called today by Lifetime Marketing Solutions.co.uk and offered a travel card for £495 which she said would guarantee discounted cruises, flights etc for myself and family and friends. Has anybody had anything to do with this company

odowdchr

http://www.timesharetalk.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11055

Stay away.

Alan_Bowen

You have asked this question before, they have got your number from your dealings with Club La Costa that you have previously mentioned. Don't touch them with a barge pole. If you will give £495 to people who you have never heard of, can I have your telephone number so I can call and collect it? No, of course not, you know it makes no sese at all!

linda_figala

we booked last november to go to thailand with them using our LMS Loyalty card. We found ourselfs never of the phone to them. Kept giving us different flight numbers evrey time we called. Then came the time for our holiday in july and still no tickets. They said they were posted out and should be with as in a few days. Days went passed and four days due to departure still no tickets then came the promise of sending us e-tickets they never arrived either. Then two days prior to our departure they called to say that they had no flights for us as they were all fully booked , bearing in mind we booked last november and had been given our flight details. So after several calls and several weeks later we still have had no money back from them. my advise is to stay well clear. linda

TiredTraveller_2

The previous poster Linda gives very good sound advice.
AVOID both Lifetime Marketing Solutions Tel 0870 192 2059
and The Holiday Specialist Tel 0870 192 2176
These two companies are twinned and operate from a base in Alicante, Spain.

Like Linda I was bombarded with calls from LMS last winter offering cheaper travel for frequent flyers through their loyalty trade club card. Incentives included discounted flights up to 30%, extra baggage allowance, use of VIP suites at airline terminals and a free holiday package on joining the LMS travel club. The cost of joining was set at £200.00 with an annual subscription there after of £90. All the staff I spoke with appeared to be of UK origin and the overall impression given at the time was I was dealing with a British travel company, the telephones numbers are registered to an address in Essex and their web site looked genuine.

I went a head and purchased a LMS membership in January 2011 and almost immediately purchased 2 discounted flights only tickets with Virgin to Antigua this coming November. The saving made after paying for the membership was £100 per head.

My first shock was to receive a receipt for my purchase from Spain that had been billed in EUR converted to GBP and charged back to my Visa card. The loyalty card arrived with the receipt but no tickets. When I questioned LMS the answer was I would receive my tickets 7 days before I travelled.
After my objections this was amended to 4 weeks before the date of travel.

Over the summer I too have been also been bombarded with further calls from LMS asking when I am going to book holidays with them. My response has been when you fulfil my first purchase and delivered the tickets for which I had already paid. One sales person actually offered me an enhanced VIP pack for the further sum of £700.00.

Over the past week I have tried to verify if I am actually booked on the flights requested. Where, at the time of booking, there was ample seating available in January allowing me to confirm my holiday accommodation in Antigua.

I know for a fact the flights on which I wished to travel are now both full. Through Virgin I have endeavoured to obtain my reservation details from LMS, where Virgin have been in direct contact with LMS. At the time of this posting still neither reservation details nor tickets.

LMS are not ABTA affiliated and part of their ‘sales spiel’ is that should there be a problem, by paying with your credit card the card company will pay out in event of default. In light of Linda’s experience have I already advised my credit card company of the strong possibility. Rgds. Stuart.

Addendum.
TATOC advise that LMS are cold calling Timeshare Owners , where I note many of LMS freebie holiday destinations are Timeshare Resorts .Therefore it is to be expected upon your arrival you will be subject to further sales hustle. Being it will have been the same Timeshare resorts who would have given spare weeks to LMS as an inducement to bring in more trade and potential purchasers. TATOC have a link which provides a list of all those companies who have undertaken cold calling to timeshare owners THROUGHOUT 2010 and 2011:

oilmans

I have only just found your forum so it may be that I'm too late to add my warnings to anyone who is tempted to deal with The Holiday Specialist or Lifetime Marketing Solutions.
I was also persuaded to part with a total of £850 to these scammers. This was for an initial £550 for the discount card & then £300 for the VIP package.
I won't go into too much detail as it may be that no-one will ever read this forum topic, but just to say,I am currently trying to recover my money from the credit card company under section 75 of the Consumer credit act 1974.
There WAS a long forum on the Trip Advisor site, but it was deleted as it got a bit toxic & maybe wasn't the correct forum.
Finally (unless this topic continues), DONT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM THIS COMPANY.

ena1946

Why don't all the people that have been scammed by LMS / The holiday Specialist get together and fight to get monies back.
We could all be witnesses for each other making the case easier to fight

Impstone

Agreed if we work together we will be able to overcome these scammers

Impstone

oilmans wrote: »

I have only just found your forum so it may be that I'm too late to add my warnings to anyone who is tempted to deal with The Holiday Specialist or Lifetime Marketing Solutions.
I was also persuaded to part with a total of £850 to these scammers. This was for an initial £550 for the discount card & then £300 for the VIP package.
I won't go into too much detail as it may be that no-one will ever read this forum topic, but just to say,I am currently trying to recover my money from the credit card company under section 75 of the Consumer credit act 1974.
There WAS a long forum on the Trip Advisor site, but it was deleted as it got a bit toxic & maybe wasn't the correct forum.
Finally (unless this topic continues), DONT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM THIS COMPANY.

Did you manage to get your money back as we have been scammed as well.

oilmans

Dear Impstone,
Sorry it has taken so long to answer your question,but I haven't logged on to this thread for quite a while.
Anyway,to answer your query. I have been trying to get my (approx) £850 back from the CC company since July 2012.
It's a long involved story,but I have written to the CC company on a number of occasions,& have been rejected every time. They (the CC company) say I cannot prove that The Holiday Specialist is a scam company, even though there are numerous complaints on many Internet sites. My latest claim for reimbursement has been rejected, so my only solution now is to go to the Financial Ombudsman (which I intend to do). The CC company say that The Holiday Specialist is still trading & booking holidays,so I assume they mean they are not a scam company.So why isn't there A SINGLE POST ON ANY INTERNET SITE PRAISING THE HOLIDAY SPECIALIST?
Also, please be aware that there are 2 new companies selling via the exactly method,i.e.around £500 to purchase the "discount card", plus £300-£400 to achieve "VIP" status, free (so called) City Breaks to European cities (these "free" trips cost £69.50 each time+£49.50 tax+luggage+transfers) The companies are Resort Direct Promotions & Direct Resort.
The story continues.