BEWARE- Holiday club Club Class Concierge

Allan1859

GT14 wrote: »

Hi Allan1859, I am another Terranova /Club class sucker, I have contacted my ccc and am just about to make a section 75 claim. Have you any tips to smooth my path, as I fully expect them to make it as difficult as they can. cheers.

You can PM me and I can send you copies of the letters I used if that's any help.

Allan

morny001

My parents were scammed by ETOO/CashbackEurope/Clubclassconcierge. They paid £857.21 to ETOO consulting to process the purchase of their Portugese Timeshare and they were offered £4350 for the timeshare, which apparently included the above mentioned 857.21. They then took £1827 for membership of club class concierge. They received the Cash back voucher for £6500 and three years later because they had followed everything to the letter they received £1894.53. What's more the ownership of the timeshare was never transfered out of their name and they were hounded by the management company for maintenance fees. In the end the management company sold the timeshare to recoup their mainenance fees which my parents didn't pay and ETOO who now owned it didn't pay either. I lost my father on boxing day 2011 and my mother emailed CCC to tell them to cancel the membership. The email response was discusting and I telephoned them in Gibralta and told them we would not be paying and they could sue if they wanted but seeing as the conned us out of money and never even transferred the timeshare out of their names, I don't think we will hear from them again. I would love the opportunity to face these scamsters in a court of law. Below I have pasted a copy of the email they sent to my grieving mother
Dear Mrs. ................

Membership No. CS2504 4235

Though we understand the loss of your husband must be difficult, unfortunately in order to cancel your membership, you most follow the appropriate procedures.

You have signed an indefinite contract which is legal and binding and if you wish the terminate the agreement; thus avoid paying any additional costs unnecessarily, then I suggest your ensure it is done properly.

Firstly you must ensure your account is fully up-to-date and according to our records your currently have an outstanding balance of £95 for Club Class Annual Subscriptions which were due 30/11/2011.

Then you should follow of cancellation procedure as fully outlined with the reminder and reiterated below.

Membership Cancellation Procedure

• If you have any outstanding annual subscriptions, they must also be paid up-to-date.
• To comply with data protection laws, to complete this cancellation and therefore no longer receive any further communication from Club Class, this must be done in writing and posted to our Gibraltar address.
• You should also include all of the membership cards you wish to concede if possible.
  
  Club Class Membership Department
  Garrison House
  3 Library Ramp
  PO Box 1323
  Gibraltar

• Please do not send any payments to the above address.
• Your membership cancellation will be complete once that above has been adhered and you have received our confirmation letter that will either be emailed or posted to you.
• I f you believe that you have already canceled your membership then we will require a copy of the acknowledgment letter we would have sent to you confirming the termination. If you cannot supply us with this letter then your claims will not be accepted and any subscription arrears will remain your responsibility.

We are simply trying to help you by preventing the possible; though unnecessary, intervention of our contracted debt recovery company that handle such cases where applicable.

If you have any further queries or you have sent payment using one of above methods, please contact us by return of email or by using the contact information found beneath.

Kind Regards

Justin Gilson
Customer Relations Manager
Club Class PLC

Tel: 0870 224 7994
Tel: 0034 952 922555
[EMAIL="customerservices@clubclass.net"]customerservices@clubclass.net[/EMAIL]

So now you know what kind of people you are dealing with. We have every piece of correspondence from 2007 to present date, so bring it on CCC.

Allan1859

We just got our money back from Reclaim - about 15% of what we paid. - Not very happy, but better than nothing! And at least we had the full amount back from the second payment through our credit card!

Allan1859

I just got a phone call from another company saying they had been given my details by Club Class and could see I was not using my membership, so they would like to buy it from me! I told them I had canceled my membership - they said I hadn't. I promptly told them to go away (but was tempted since I have already had a full refund from the bank!)

tinade

Hi
We were scammed and bought into Club Class, we never used the membership for 5 years and got offered a getaway to Tennerife last Sept. It was a very good deal £200.00 each for 5 nights inc air hotel and transfers. We took advantage of it and after we paid we were told we would have to go to a short meeting. We were collected by the salesman and taken to the offices where we were given another hard sale to upgrade our membership, which would set us back another £8000. it all looks great (as did the first time). I told them we had no money free as we were in the process of buying a second home and didnt want to have any other debts showing, they tried everything they could to get us to take a loan, put it on a card even suggested a second mortgage!!!!!!!!!! We refused outright and they even started to sound a little nasty, so I suggested they take us back to our hotel as I wasnt going to give them a penny. On the way back to the hotel the salesman informed us that we would have to now find our own way back to the airport as the return trip wasnt included. This cost us 60 euros. A small amount to what we could have ended up paying.
Now we have just been contacted by a company called Carlton Consultants who have informed us they have a Mr & Mrs Johnson interested in buying our membership for £8700. which we felt we would love to do as we havnt used the membership, I said yes we would be interested and was then informed that they would require a retainer fee of £1497. just incase we pulled out. Yet another scam!!!!! I am wondering if these companies (club class and carlton )are all the same people as Carlton had all our details. (for more complaints about resale companies go on to mindtimeshare site before considering). The lady that seems to be calling (as mentioned on mindtimeshare) is called Heather and her number she left is 01983 898384
I know this has been long winded but if I have helped 1 person from being scammed by these unscrupulous vermin it has been worth it.

Alan_Bowen

It is a sad fact that once they know you are vulnerable they come after you again and again. If they weren't all part of the same group, they would have broken data protection rules by sharing your names and contact details with other companies.

Never pay a lump sum for the promise of discounts in the future, never pay with the hint of a cash back in the future, never make decisions that you would think about for a week at home in 5 minutes at a hard sell presentation, whether here or abroad. Anything that sounds too good to be true, is.

AnotherWalter

I have a similar situation to 'Tinade' (post#127).
In the early 2000's after years of trying to sell my Tenerife timeshare through various waste of time companies, I was contacted by Club Class, who took my timeshare as payment for membership, along with an annual membership fee.
After using their services only once, I was not impressed with the accommodation and price so let things drift. When they contacted me to remind me to pay my annual fee I told them I did not want to remain a member, to which I was told I they would be cancelling my membership and I would have no entitlement to the timeshare or their services. I agreed because I did not want anything to do with timeshare and holiday clubs again.
Last December I was telephoned by Premiere Travel and given a very good offer for a week in Tenerife, when I told them I did not want to be involved in Timeshare, Holiday clubs or anything to do with paying annual subscriptions I was told the company had been taken over, they were only offering travel agency services and they would like me to use their services again so that is why I was getting a good offer. Perhaps I should have refused, especially when I was told that I had to attend a 'welcome meeting', but it was a good offer at good hotel that I was familiar with.
Now I've had an email from Club Class, who could only have got my latest email address from Premiere Travel, to tell me that my annual subscriptions have been overdue for some years and must be paid up to date. Whether or nor I believe otherwise, my membership has simply been suspended and all accrued debt remains in my name pending its payment.
If I don't pay they may "utilize the certainly more effective intervention of our contracted debt recovery group who will use more advanced methods to obtain any outstanding debt."
Has anyone else had threats like this and has 'morny001' (post #124) had any further communication with Club Class?

Allan1859

I had phone calls and e-mails most days for a few months threatening debt collectors for my outstanding fees. I have just ignored them all and they have stopped. I don't think they'd be able to come after us as they have no leg to stand on - they mis-sold us our membership and won't acknowledge cancellation! If in doubt look at the mindtimeshare blog (https://www.midtimeshare.me) and ask them for advice.

Club Class and Premiere Travel are based at the same address in Gibraltar, though they claim to be separate companies, I'm sure they're not!

D_De_Dutton

In May 2005 we were conned into joining Club Class/Leisure Alliance while on holiday in Lanzarote. The deal wasn't all that attractive in that for an annual sub of £55 and a RECOVERABLE joining fee of £5900 we would be able to book 5 star accommodation via Club class at significantly discounted rates. The only reason we went for it was that we were told our £5900 would be repaid after five years provided we filled in the claim form and submitted to the Bank (Banco Bilbao in Madrid). By Septemeber we had still not received the important reclaim form and emails and a letter to Lanzarote Leisure - the selling agents failed to produce one.
We used our membership once in 2006 to book a hotel holiday in Lanzarote, but to be honest a half decent independent TA could have got us a similar deal.
We cancelled our standing order for our annual sub in 2007.
Since that year I've had four or five emails every year with escalating levels of 'threat' regarding liability for unpaid subs and over the past couple of years the debt collection agency threat as quoted in earier recent posts.
We too had a phone call or two about the 'new' company and inviting us on a cheapo trip where we would probably be able to recover some of our original investment. We declined the wonderful offer!
One would think that generic email shots are not the way to go about debt collection as people do tend to change ISPS and email addresses. I'll continue to ignore them.
Just wish that OFT or someone would sort out this bunch of crooks and con-merchants.

helpsky260412

we have recently been contacted by a so called debt collector on behalf of club class saying that we now owe them over £300 in subscriptions for some thing we have never used as we were also conned into joining via the scratch card con in Tenerife, nearly 9 years ago. Has anybody else had this happen to them? is this also a con?