anyone heard of club la costa resorts & holidays? ligit or scam

blindman

There is a Club La Costa Owners club web-site and forum if you want to check out others experiences with their memberships.

I’m only here for the free vouchers and the free holiday

The “free Holiday” will cost you £30.00 per person (for up to 4 people)
It includes flights for up to 4 people.
If you take 6 then the extra 2 will pay £99 per person and their flights will not be included.

The locations and dates you get to choose are Spain, Tenerife , Algarve and up to 12 months away (IIRC).
The locations you actually get will be the cheapest La Costa will give you (Spain?) in February? Do not expect Easter or summer holidays!

Vouchers
We got £50 of M+S vouchers at the end of the presentation without any fuus.
We had signed up to the membership though…

The actual presentation: Lots of smoke and mirrors.

Here’s my experience-

Introduced to a Rep sat who then asked questions about our holidaying habits.
Questions worded so that our answers fitted the La Costa scenario.
At the outset he said he would not discuss the cost of membership until the very end as we would know if we wanted the membership or not by then. (Means we would be brainwashed to accept it…).
To be fair they also asked of we could say at the outset if we would be likely to buy.
We said Yes, not sure what the presentation would have been like if we had said No…

Lots of form filling and calculations scribbled on A4 by the rep. Asked general questions about us, but he really wasn't listening.

The conversation was broken into by various managers being brought over to 'assist' the presentation, almost at random.
Possibly used to confuse and make it hard to keep track of where you were and what you were looking for out of the meeting as well as what the figures actually were and would mean.
There was loud pop music in the room, possibly to give a party feel. (or possibly drown out others protestations?).

After one hour there was a DVD presentation, which TBH did not add to the presentation.
Jenny Bond enthusing about the product….
Probably a psychological means getting you to relax before the next onslaught.

The next hour was much of the same with figures being bandied about in a smoke and mirrors kind of way.

Crunch Time
Would we sign.
We said Yes, but I did confirm that there was a 14 day cooling off period.

More (serious) form filling now…)

Got ushered into a different office, with the Customer Liaison chap.
Obviously he was all sweetness and smiles.
He did go through the contracts etc and explained everything and asked if we understood etc.
There was no pressure (as such) to sign the contract.
His demeanour did falter slightly when I got him to confirm there is a 14 day cooling off period….([STRIKE]I haven’t tested this yet, so cannot report if it is easy to do![/STRIKE])

We got the £50.00 M&S vouchers no problem ( but we did sign)
After not two hours (the stated time period needed) but over 3 hours we left.
They were all handshakes and smiles.


Little did they know this was a Mystery shop.:cool:

blindman

Additonal:

As part of the MS shop I had to cancel:eek:

I actually found this very simple to do.;)

IIRC I had to write a letter within the 14 days saying I wanted to cancel and this would be acted upon.

True to their word it was done, I think I only got one phone call asking why but otherwise it was a simple job.

Overall:
This is NOT a scam-Just a strange (IMHO) way of selling a high priced "Timeshare" with LOTS of caveats.

A normal sensible person would easily be able to get better value holidays without really trying IMHO.

Gullible people who only see the "free" aspects of this high pressure sale should stay well clear.

budgetflyer

Having paid over £150 per night for 4 star hotel high season, on Costa Del Sol, I can guarantee you will not find better high season family accom for under £800 per week.
If you buy resale, then you can pick up enough points for about 10% of what CLC sell them. Of course, the management fees still have to be paid, but as I said, it is good value if used properly high season.
TENERIFE may not represent as good value, as generally accom prices are cheaper there. The CLC properties there are still nice though.
Timeshare and holiday point ownership is not about cheap holidays. Its more about securing a certain level of accom and facilities.

macko54

Hi I have been telephoned by someone from CLC Worldwide who says that i've won a holiday. They invited me to their office in Regent Street to sit through what I gather will be a presentation to try to sell me a sort of time-share thing and it will last 2 hours. I have no intention of buying a time-share or whatever else they have to offer, however they said that they would give a £100 gift voucher to spend in shops on Oxford Street for my time. Just wondered if the voucher promise is true and if I do sit there for 2 hours without buying something will I really be able to walk out with 100 quids worth of shopping vouchers. Anyone had any experience of this or CLC Worldwide?

Thanks

Voyager2002

macko54 wrote: »

Hi I have been telephoned by someone from CLC Worldwide who says that i've won a holiday. They invited me to their office in Regent Street to sit through what I gather will be a presentation to try to sell me a sort of time-share thing and it will last 2 hours. I have no intention of buying a time-share or whatever else they have to offer, however they said that they would give a £100 gift voucher to spend in shops on Oxford Street for my time. Just wondered if the voucher promise is true and if I do sit there for 2 hours without buying something will I really be able to walk out with 100 quids worth of shopping vouchers. Anyone had any experience of this or CLC Worldwide?

Thanks

Try reading the previous posts: your question has already been answered.