Won a lifetime membership with clubseasons is this a scam?

Lady_K

I recieved a recorded delivery letter today from clubseasons holidays www.clubseasons.co.uk. It says

Re: DLG Telephone Survey Prize Draw and a number in brackets

Congratulations!

I am delighted to confirm you have won a prize to the value of £3750 in the DLG telephone survey/seasons grand prize draw

To Authenticate your claim pleas contact Carol on 0800 xxx xxx between 12 non and 8pm within seven days from the date of this letter (it was dated 2nd july) failure to o so will result in the loss of your prize.

Once again congratulations and we look forward to hearing from you

Yours sincerely Clare Booth Administrations manager

I rang the number as its freephone there was a message saying busy leave your number we will ring back but I just rang till it was answered.

I asked for Carol and the man said he could deal with it as she wasnt there. He sounded surprised when I told him what it was about and he told me I had won a lifetimes membership to clubseasons holidays and I could have 1 week holiday per year for 4 people accom free, could be anywhere I would need to pay for any flights andd food. He said I needed to pay a £250 maintenance fee for upkeep of the appartment I dont know if thats per year or a one time payment but I did ask was it one time and he said yes but he may have meant per year.

I asked him to send me everything in paper so I can look over the details and he stressed that I could activate the membership by paying the £250 and look on the website and see which holiday I want

I thought a prize should be a prize and not be expected to pay something to get it.

I cant rem doing the survey but I do do a lot of surveys on the net

hollydays

Search the site-lots of postings about them

Butlers1982

Approach with Caution, it looks really fishy to me. It seems like it some sort of timshare. I looked at the website and it seems like they tell you when you can go and also:

More about your club seasons membership

So when can I travel?
Each year, upon payment of your annual management fee, you will be entitled to book seven nights accommodation. Annual management fees will become due on March 1st each year. Members must take their annual holiday entitlement between the first check-in date after March 1st and the last checkout date before the end of the following February, in accordance with Club Seasons booking conditions.

In your first year of Membership, all dates (including Easter, half terms and summer school holidays) may be requested by ‘Club Seasons’ members, subject to availability, up to 12 months in advance at any Seasons member or selected resort.

After your initial one year introductory period, until the year 2069, you may continue to request one week’s self-catering accommodation each year in a one bedroom cottage, villa or apartment (sleep up to four people) subject to availability in any green band period at any Seasons directly owned or affiliated resort in the UK and around the world, upon payment of your annual management fee Please refer to the week numbers which appear in the little green boxes featured on the resort pages throughout this website. Dates are available throughout the year but vary from resort to resort.

In your second and third year of Membership, Club Seasons may continue to request holidays for any date throughout the year in any Member or Selected Resort, subject to availability within 59 days of travel; alternatively dates may also be requested up to 12 months in advance in each holiday year within holiday periods which have been designated as green or yellow.

Generally, week number 1 is the first week in January, week 28 is the last week in July, and week 52 is usually the last week of each calendar year. Reservations will be able to confirm the colour band of any dates you request each year, as set out on this website. It is not possible to save up Club Seasons annual holiday entitlement in order to carry it forward for a longer holiday during the following year. For example any holiday entitlement in '2007' must be taken before the end of February 2008 at which time, the 2008 management fee will be issued creating entitlement to a 7 night holiday between March 1st 2008 and the end of February 2009.

Selected resorts
In addition to their wholly owned Member resorts in the British Isles and the Canary Islands, Seasons Holidays plc are constantly expanding the Seasons holiday portfolio with specially selected third-party owned resorts in sought after areas, in order to offer their members more choice within their own club, but with no exchange fees.
All these resorts, including Forest Hills, Alpinus and other high quality destinations offered from time to time are carefully chosen on the basis of their high standards, together with their strong international exchange demand.

Affiliated resorts
There are more than 70 affiliated resorts within the Seasons portfolio. Each one is owned by some of the world’s leading independent resort developers. Provided you have been a Club Seasons member for at least 12 months and you have enjoyed at least one holiday at a Seasons Member or Seasons Selected resort with your partner (if married or living together), you may request holidays at Seasons Affiliated resorts up to 12 months in advance of the date you wish to travel. If your holiday is confirmed you will be required to pay a small administration fee which is currently just £20 per week confirmed. Club Seasons Members may request any week number which appears in the little green boxes featured on relevant resort pages, until the end of 2069.

For example, if you wanted to travel to Durban in South Africa, you would be able to request dates between May 1st and May 30th or August 1st and 30th and so on. To query any availability within the weeks designated for Club Seasons Members, please ask Seasons Guest Relations or Membership Services and they will be able to answer any questions you may have about your future holiday entitlement.

Maintenance Fees
As with ownership of any property, there are annual running costs which are based on rates, VAT, insurance, refuse collection, gardening, cleaning, fresh linen, towels, repairs, maintenance and of course an improvement programme to make your holidays even better, year after year. In order to meet these costs, an annual charge is levied which is then used during the year to fund the expenditure.

The management fees for 2007 are as follows:

Studio
1 bedroom £326
2 bedroom £337
3 bedroom £358

I wouldnt be willing to pay any sort of annual fee and be told when i have to go on holiday. If you cant remember entering i cant see it being real and i have also done a search on here for that company and i cant see any posts recomending a survey

Dead_Eye_Jones

I think the obvious question is - did you enter such a competition recently? I'd personally ditch any unsolicited mail without hesitation. And yep, Im guessing you will pay them £250 and then get a holiday worth, oh i dunno, about £250.

Approach with caution!

Lady_K

I'm not paying it anyway, my guess is it wouldnt be easy to get the right week either so you could end up not going at all or during the out of season really cheap times to go anyway. The man on the phone made out it was something really good as he said they only give these out free to about 6 people a year. I just hope some elderly person doesnt get encouaged into paying his price thinking they could give it to thier children or something

mpython

Its a scam/ marketing ploy. Try googling the 0800 number.

Looking at the number of threads on MSE, I'd say it was more like 6 an hour they send out....

little_miss_5

Oh man... I received this offer a week ago and though my luck was in however after receiving the brochure and looking on the website it just doesn't make sense and who wants to go self catering anyway not me, I go on holiday to get away from cooking and cleaning.

Lady_K

About 2 weeks after the first your a winner letter from them I got a call from a woman there asking if I was ready to take up the prize. I told her I had read through the info they sent and also looked up online regarding this prize and it was strange as they had told me they only give out 5 of these supposedly free memberships every year as prizes only to find lots and lots of people recieving them and having lots of problems afterwards.

I also told her I thought a prize was a prize and not one you have to pay to get once its awarded, she was really angry and blurted out a load of rubbish about me not wanting a feee holiday for me and 4 other people and more or less told me I was an idiot for not taking it up then slammed the phone down.

I'd rather spend the £250 they wanted me to pay to activate my prize on something else

Mark7799

It's a marketing ploy - not a scam as you will get what you've been offered. In all honesty, if you are interested in timeshare you'd be better off buying one direct - these 'prizes' are all in limited areas of availability.