Mis-sold 'holiday'

Zozzer

Hi All

A bit of advice required please!!

I received a phone call a couple of weeks ago from Club La Costa telling me I'd won a 4 night break to either Scotland or Cornwall, my choice at the end of January. I chose Scotland as I was told it was a 5star lodge in a hotel in Gleneagles, I took this to be 'THE' Gleneagles hotel. I was put under a fair amount of pressure to hand over £58 on the spot as a booking/ admin fee and everything else was to be free. I specifically asked the question as to what the catch was, to be told there was no catch and I had won the holiday.
A few days later I received a very brief letter through the post with a leaflet of the hotel we were to be staying at, not the Gleneagles as I'd thought but one down the road called the Duchally estate- still looked very nice but I was a bit miffed it wasn't as I thought.
I then received a letter at the beginning of this week stating that 'as discussed' I would be required to attend a 90 minute presentation on the benefits of a Club la costa timeshare- my worst nightmare. I was also told in this letter that if I did not sign up to their terms and conditions then my holiday would be cancelled. The terms and conditions state that if I did not turn up for the presentation I would be charged the full nightly rate for the 'holiday'.

My husband and I don't want to sit through any presentations particularly when they are stated to be more like 5 hours hard sell on tripadvisor and want to cancel. I know my rights under the supply of goods and services act and know they can't legally introduce the terms and conditions after our agreement and payment was made, but I'm now having trouble getting through to them on the phone- they said yesterday they were having technical problems and would call me back but no call today and I've been on hold for nearly an hour before giving up. All I want is my £58 back, but I don't think it's gonig to be easy, has anyone else been in this situation or had any dealings with club la costa and be able to offer some advice?!??!?!

If they don't agree to give me my money back is my first call to trading standards or a solicitor or just to put it in writing?

Thanks!!!

Zoë :mad:

Much appreciated

sarahg1969

Search for Club La Costa on here. There are plenty of other disgruntled "customers", I'm afraid.

Hintza

No such thing as a free lunch!

gordikin

Did you win something out the blue you hadn't entered? It's a dead giveaway if you have!

Meadows

I won a holiday abroad for four yesterday and a holiday last year and another one two weeks later and yes they wanted £29 per person booking fee. Amazing how many of these holiday I have apparently won in such a short space of time.

angelsmomma

I got a telephone call saying I had won this. I googled Club la costa while they were on the phone and saw it was timeshare. I said "are you timeshare?" they said "we are a holiday club" I said "no thank you, goodbye" I don't think you will get your money back. Did they ask you to confirm you were working and had a partner? if you do go, when you attend the presentation just say you have lost your job now and are on benefits.

I attended one of these things with my ex in Tenerife a couple of years ago. We only went because they offered free lunch and a play area for our then 3 year old and we had trouble with our bank card so couldn't get any money for the last couple of days holiday. We were not actually living together and they did not ask if we were.

My ex is a psychiatric Nurse so not easily swayed and just kept saying it is far too expensive for what it is. They kept saying it is luxury accommodation. What a load of rubbish. In the end my ex said we don't want, it we can't afford it and its not worth it. I ended up saying we did not have joint finance and I did not work so don't ask me. They then turned their attention to my ex. All in all we were there 5 hours !!!!! They were really aggressive and persistant but we walked away without signing up. I would never do it again. It was far too stressful.

Zozzer

Thanks for the responses, I completed a survey a couple of weeks ago, that yes asked about earnings etc but didn't say it was Club la Costa.

I'm assuming I'll get no joy when I finally get through to them, so what should my next step be? Would trading standards be interested? I don'[t want to just walk away from my money as they've completely misled me and have no right at all!

Freddie_Snowbits

Zozzer wrote: »

Hi All

A bit of advice required please!!

I received a phone call a couple of weeks ago from Club La Costa telling me I'd won a 4 night break to either Scotland or Cornwall,

At this point Freddie would go. 'Oh how f..k..g wonderful, as you know my name and address, please be free to forward this onto me.

Phone down,

bookworm1363

Zozzer wrote: »

Hi All

A bit of advice required please!!

I received a phone call a couple of weeks ago from Club La Costa telling me I'd won a 4 night break to either Scotland or Cornwall, my choice at the end of January. I chose Scotland as I was told it was a 5star lodge in a hotel in Gleneagles, I took this to be 'THE' Gleneagles hotel. I was put under a fair amount of pressure to hand over £58 on the spot as a booking/ admin fee and everything else was to be free. I specifically asked the question as to what the catch was, to be told there was no catch and I had won the holiday.
A few days later I received a very brief letter through the post with a leaflet of the hotel we were to be staying at, not the Gleneagles as I'd thought but one down the road called the Duchally estate- still looked very nice but I was a bit miffed it wasn't as I thought.
I then received a letter at the beginning of this week stating that 'as discussed' I would be required to attend a 90 minute presentation on the benefits of a Club la costa timeshare- my worst nightmare. I was also told in this letter that if I did not sign up to their terms and conditions then my holiday would be cancelled. The terms and conditions state that if I did not turn up for the presentation I would be charged the full nightly rate for the 'holiday'.

My husband and I don't want to sit through any presentations particularly when they are stated to be more like 5 hours hard sell on tripadvisor and want to cancel. I know my rights under the supply of goods and services act and know they can't legally introduce the terms and conditions after our agreement and payment was made, but I'm now having trouble getting through to them on the phone- they said yesterday they were having technical problems and would call me back but no call today and I've been on hold for nearly an hour before giving up. All I want is my £58 back, but I don't think it's gonig to be easy, has anyone else been in this situation or had any dealings with club la costa and be able to offer some advice?!??!?!

If they don't agree to give me my money back is my first call to trading standards or a solicitor or just to put it in writing?

Thanks!!!

Zoë :mad:

Much appreciated

First stop speaking to them on the phone, because then you have no proof of what's been said.

When did you receive that letter? You have a short window to cancel under the DSR and get a full refund, but time is of the essence.

You letter should say something like this:

Dear sir/Madam,

I am in receipt of the written confirmation for [state the event, date etc] and those written terms are substantially different from what was actually discussed over the phone, in particular about being a timeshare presentation, cancellation rights etc...

Under the Distance Selling Regulations, I can cancel and get a FULL refund within 7 working days of receiving the terms of the agreement, and I hereby confirm that I received your letter on [date of receipt] and am fully within the required time scales to comply. I therefore ask you to cancel the whole thing straight away and refund me in full within 14 days of this letter.

Yours...


Or something like that.
If they try to phone you, tell them you want everything in writing. If they don't respond, go to your bank and start a disputed transaction on the hotel "deposit", under the new rules, the bank MUST refund you first and then investigate. Be aware you will have to fill in a form stating why the transaction is disputed and return it to the bank or they might revert it at a later date. Make sure you cancel the card with which you made the payment and have it blocked (bank should do that automatically anyway)

Never part with money from someone who phones you out of the blue, this could have been anyone posing as anyone else and they could have emptied your account!

Good luck, and next time, be more careful. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

DVardysShadow

Zozzer wrote: »

I then received a letter at the beginning of this week stating that 'as discussed' I would be required to attend a 90 minute presentation on the benefits of a Club la costa timeshare- my worst nightmare. I was also told in this letter that if I did not sign up to their terms and conditions then my holiday would be cancelled. The terms and conditions state that if I did not turn up for the presentation I would be charged the full nightly rate for the 'holiday'.

Loads of options on this.

It starts with a polite letter back, listing the T&C's you were not made aware of before paying, giving them the option of refunding your money or striking out the T&C's. State that if they do not reply accepting one of the options, the default is [whatever]

Go along, don't attend the presentation.

Go along, do attend the presentation and give them hell from the floor.

Optimist

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Loads of options on this.

It starts with a polite letter back, listing the T&C's you were not made aware of before paying, giving them the option of refunding your money or striking out the T&C's. State that if they do not reply accepting one of the options, the default is [whatever]

Go along, don't attend the presentation.

Go along, do attend the presentation and give them hell from the floor.

The latter option sounds more fun