CLC Exhibitions Free Holiday

21BL

I have supposedly won a free holiday for 4 with the above. Only have to call freephone number and pay for airport taxes aftre I have booked. Aanyone know anything about this company and is it for real or will I be ripped off. Thanks

Voyager2002

Make the call, since it is free. If possible record it so you can be sure what they said. And do NOT have a credit or debit card handly when you make the call, so that have a chance to think things through before paying anything.

My guess is that: i. your holiday will include being exposed to high-pressure sales talk for something like time-share; ii. those airport taxes will turn out to be rather more than the total cost of an air ticket with a different airline, iii. you will be obliged to pay for (very expensive) meals in the hotel where you stay.

swampduck

which I have replied to (can't do the boffin thing with links!! )

It's gives you some idea of what to expect!!


Swampy:cool:

jellypants

My partner received a phone call to say that we had been lucky enough to win a FREE holiday and gave him a free phone number to call to collect our prize, which my sceptical partner decided to call and firstly was told the holiday was NOT FREE and subject to a £29.95 per person booking fee and also to claim the prize we would need to visit Club La Costa' Birmingham office to choose our vouchers, free holiday and to go through the options available.
When I arrived home at the end of a hard days work my partner told me the good news and asked me if I had entered any competitions recently, which I had.
We of course then set about debating whether we would or wouldn't attend, whilst searching vigorously on the internet to find out any information we could on Club La Costa' our research confirmed that this more than likely going to end up as a time share sales presentation and after careful deliberation and reading the terms and conditions detailed on our appointment confirmation letter we decided to go and collect our free vouchers and holiday.
So we arrived at the Birmingham office and walked into reception where we were given a form to fill in (Just basic details) and asked to take a seat and someone would be with us shortly. We completed the form and within about 30 seconds a lady called us by name and asked us to follow her.... we then sat for 2 hours and battled to try and find out how much this scam was going to cost after some serious pressure from my partner and I the sale rep finally told us what the cost would be for the timeshare, everyone has to go through their trial period first which cost £3995 and then if you wanted to continue for the rest of the 58 year term you would need to give the another 10k. The sales reps certainly turned on my partner and I as they didn't like that we took control of the situation when they thought we weren't interested they asked us to sign another form to say that we'd received our vouchers and took us into another room to do this and asked us to leave via a door away from their other clients. Overall we left feeling slightly harassed but we did get our vouchers and details to apply for a holiday which on closer inspection at home wasn't such a good deal you had to choose 4 dates the first of which had to be no sooner than in 3 months and every date thereafter had to be 8 weeks apart so the likelihood of you going away whilst it was hot seemed slim and you also had no idea where you would be going, what the accommodation was like and you would be notified 60 days before the holiday. The best thing about this unless you want to buy timeshare is the free voucher, which I am off to spend today!!!!

maggoo266

Had mine through a phone call. No need to attend Birmingham for me.

After a lot of pressing for information I finally got it out of him that you have to attend a "complimentary breakfast". Mmmmmmmmm...

llama13

Hi

I got a call last week from CLC, saying I'd been awarded a holiday bla bla bla did I meet the criteria? I was in the right age group, I am a homeowner, I'm living with my husband BUT he doesn't have a British or EU passport. At this point the lady said I was not eligible and sorry for disturbing me! I said along the lines of 'hang on, I've just 'won' a free holiday and I'm not going to get it because of my husband's nationality? What's that got to do with anything?' She went away to speak to a manager, then returned saying she was sorry, it was fine as long as one of us is British. Hm, odd! She then went on to invite me to a presentation that would take 2 hours to pick up the holiday details and £50 vouchers for the inconvenience of coming.

I'd picked up that this was probably something dodgy, but with the lure of £50 for a trip to the west end (not too far from me) and a couple of hours of my time was tempting. I booked a time and figured I can always cancel if I choose to, no loss for me.

Of course I did my rigorous googling and came across forums on MSE and one called holiday watchdog that was very helpful. It gave me a better idea of what it was all about... basically they are a 'holiday share' company (technically not a time share because the initial agreement is only 34 months, which is shorter than whatever it is for a timeshare) and they drag you in so you can sit down with someone who will hard sell you a very expensive longterm holiday package. There were some mixed reviews, some people felt completely ripped off, where as others were pleased with the vouchers and some went on the reduced price holiday (it's not free as you still have to pay a booking fee and some other fees).

I decided to take the hard sell as a challenge so I prepped my husband on the way and told him that whatever they wanted to sell us, we weren't going to buy, we were definitely not going to sign up to anything on the day, but we would listen so we could get some lovely John Lewis vouchers and a cheap holiday :j:j

When we arrived, we filled in a form and went to sit down with a guy. He had a spiel on how CLC get their customers in through surveys (I know mine was through giving details on getmeaticket.com) and lures of holidays and £50 because it's cheaper than advertising on TV and press. He even referred to the vouchers and holiday as 'dangling the carrot in front of the donkey' (while motioning with his hands) and 'catching the mouse in the trap with cheese'. I pointed out that mice get killed in traps, he agreed and repeated the donkey line with hand motions. So basically, their tactic is get them in, hard sell, then give a 'take it or leave it' ultimatum that you can only take today.

We chatted about holidays, prices, where we want to go. He showed us some nice CLC properties all over the world, we watched a video, and cheap hotel prices if you paid the mystery joining fee. But the mystery joining fee was around £16k for 58 years of one holiday per year included. We laughed. Of course we weren't going to pay that today, and that's a commitment that is more than twice the length of my mortgage. He then said the trial price of three years is £4k, and that would include 6/7 holidays. Well, very nice accommodation, as you have to pay for your flights. We could only accept today or we can't come back to CLC in the next 12 months.

We were not going to commit to paying £4k for an offer that we had just been given and were not allowed to consider for even a day. So as planned, we said no. I was surprised as he accepted it and went off to sort out our vouchers. I did think he was a bit cheeky as I had asked specifically if there are any other costs on top of the joining fee and the holiday prices and he said no - but in other posts people refer to a maintenance fee that keeps going up, and some kind of points system. Our guy didn't mention this at all.

So we toodled off with our 'award' and vouchers and went straight to John Lewis on Oxford Street! I treated myself to some nice make up and we bought some goodies from the food hall. It was completely worth it for a couple of hours to chat about holidays. I wish I could do it again!

As a general rule, the more expensive and longterm the decision is, the more time you should spend to consider and research it. I think signing up on the spot would never be a good idea.

I'm glad I knew what I was walking into and I hope this post will help others to walk in with their eyes open. I'm sure many people have been convinced and then regret paying so much. My tactic was to say no and get the vouchers!

Good luck for everyone else who decides to go!