Another CLC & Club La Costa threads get deleted - what is MSE scared of?

marleyboy

Martin, first of all thank you for your post, please let me re-iterate that I am not trying to be argumentative over the issue, the fact was (and still is), I just dont know if CLC is a taboo subject, if MSE is investigating a complaint from the said company, or if the subject of CLC is treading on peoples toes. (other than CLC's of course)

I always assume that the "vent" thread, is about one member issuing a complaint and members trying their best to point out any issues about said companies. To warn others about unscrupulous companies (like CLC) who prey on the innocent.

I am fully aware of the legalities of the site as well as the size of it, and beleive me Martin, when it came to CLC, (or any other topic) I am extremely careful in what I post, in regards to CLC (as this is what this thread is really about), I and many others have vigorously posted warnings using only authentic reports, investigations and\or independent reviews about them.

I have been particularly careful to be sure each post is only what is already "publicly available information". Particularly to cover MSE from anything libel.

Inevitably the first thread (which exceeded over 1000 posts), toward the end got trolled, this was of course I suspect a ploy to ensure its deletion, (I am not complaining to you that this thread got deleted), it was predictable, any dodgy company that does not want information made public in a forum (and not just MSE forums), can simply troll them, if a thread is too large, it will inevitably get deleted, rather than some poor soul having to go through each and every post.

But as other threads appeared about this company, they too got deleted, which is really the only reason I started this thread, as none of us are really sure if MSE are happy for this company to be discussed or not.

I have worked extremely hard to ensure nothing posted was libellous or would in anyway cause MSE problems, I was not alone in this, many other well respected members have helped, solely in the interests of the members queries as well as trying to protect MSE interests.

All it would really take is for MSE to say "its a touchy subject at the moment so please refrain", and you know yourself we are more than happy to oblige. But we really do not know what the situation is, only that the threads are removed for no apparent reason that we can find.

Again let me finish this post by reminding you that I am not trying to be argumentative or in anyway disrespect MSE, yourself or the MSE team.

mpython

I go to work for a few days, find yet another horror story to share about Club La Costa but return to find another deleted Club La Costa thread.

I am grateful for the replys from Dan & Martin, and I appreciate the time they are taking to investigate the "legal" challenge that has been made of MSE.

Personally, I find this highly enlightening and more evidence of the kind of company that Club La Costa is - and I read it as the last throw of their dice in their concerted & sustained attack on MSE. Over the years marleyboy and others have done a stirling job highlighting how people can save money by not joining Club La Costa & other Holiday Clubs or taking up their free/ cheap holiday offers. Previously, it was all too easy to spot the 'one off' poster joining just to say 'go for it' despite all the evidence to the contrary. What we have seen this summer, has been different in nature, and a concerted and sustained campaign to attack MSE warning consumers about this and similar companies.

Entering "Club La Costa Scam" into google and 9 out the top 10 returned searches are MSE - so I think it is little wonder that CLC have targeted MSE.

In the most recently deleted thread, we discovered Club La Costa had engaged an Internet Marketing Company to address their on-line reputation (who deleted the article immediately after it was highlighted here). Shortly after their emplyment, the original 1000+ post thread was trolled by an argumentative and offensive poster and the owner of the CLCmembers website joined in the attack on MSE, lying about its funding and was eventually PPR'd. Having lost the on-line debate, they now appear to have resorted to legal threats which we will have to trust Martin on how he responds to. I fully understand the argument about limited resources and using them to best effect. I look forward to the conclusion of MSE's investigations and would happily contribute to any fund should Martin like some extra support.

Its an off the top of my head idea, but maybe Martin could make a story out of this - maybe he could register with a psuedonym on 2 minute draw or similar harvesting website and experience the full Club La Costa experience from start finish - the misrepresentaion of winning a holiday you have to pay for, the initial hard sell, the difficulty in claiming the cheap holiday if you do not buy immediately, and then the even harder sell whilst on holiday plus the utter misrepresentation of what it is you are buying into. Might take a few months to complete the assignment but it would settle the argument conclusively for MSE. Despite having being exposed in many different media over the years, its a story worth investigating and bringing to consumers again.

thelurch

I have just come on this site after receiving an unsolicited phone call from
CLC about 10 minutes ago.
I don't fully know the in's and out of this company, but I have heard about their way of working on various TV programmes.
The person who called me, came out with the usual speech " hi I'm calling from CLC regarding that competition you entered with us a couple of weeks ago" which I obviously didn't, this in itself is dishonest trading.

When questioned what CLC stood for, the guy got very aggressive refusing to tell me.

They don't themselves any favours by their first sentence being a blatant lie.

Coopdivi

In a similar vein how's the BiteSizeDeals investigation proceeding seeing as it's been going on for the best part of 17 months?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1602601

MothballsWallet

Martin, thank you for your reply. I was wondering if this might be another case where, like with Redsave, you are able to bring the matter to the attention of other people you know in the media who might have more and better resources (please don't take that as a slight on the MSE Team), or should I say have better-placed resources, to conduct a more thorough investigation into cases like this, with the permission of MSErs to use their evidence/cases for information?

mpython

Dan. Martin

Can I ask if you have made any progress with regard to the legal challenges to MSE on discussing Club La Costa and other Holiday Clubs? Whilst I can believe they don't want their targets to know what the House of Lords investigation said about them, I can't believe they have managed to stop MSE hosting such information.

Google still returns MSE as top find in searching for "Club La Costa scam" but it now only has one entry in the top 10 returned searches. Their campaign to silence negative publicity appears to be working.

MP