Club Seasons worth £2950.00..

mpython · 27 February 2007 at 8:34PM

Hi Rocktop, yes, even I was a newbie once and made silly posts before I knew better. On what do you base your accusation of 'continually negative'. I'd appreciate it if you categorise all my posts into negative, neutral & positive and present the results here. If that's too much trouble, you can limit yourself to just today or the last week.

I'm all for the principals of Voltaire, but I do not accept the implication of your post that majority of the positive reports are 'freedom of speech' principles. To me they look like a poor PR campaign but enough of my views. I look forward to hearing your reports on the Lakes and Spain. But while you're there, can you find out:-

Why do you have to pay to receive a prize you've won?

What is the true lifetime cost of this product?

Why can you not cancel your membership with a reasonable period of notice? Either within the first year or after signing up for the full package?

Is there any independent research published of member's views?

Have a great time.

beach_buggy · 3 March 2007 at 10:27PM

We have won a prize! £3750 membership to Club Seasons, for £337 per year (first year discounted by 25%, with a free 4night midweek stay). As we live near their new acquistion, Clowance, we thought this was a bargain! So, as we didn't have any Terms and Conditions we wanted to find out just what we had paid for:
We've just sat through a 2.5 hr talk giving us a "For Today Only" Offer of upgrading our Green Week (low season weeks) to Red and it took us going red (and 2hrs) to find out how much this upgrade was : £12,000. Minus the £3750 = £8250 for a one day offer ONLY. If they had told us this at the start we would have either saved the two hours or not get so frustrated by their technique. I hope that Clowance doesn't get so busy it loses its charm, but, hey business is business. Just thought I'd tell you how much the upgrade was to save you the sales talk.

Missymac_2 · 5 March 2007 at 9:34PM

I

hope that Clowance doesn't get so busy it loses its charm

What is the resort at Clowance like?
We are only taking the first year deal of a short break and week's holiday and are trying to decide between the two Cornish resorts.

The "one day only" offer was offered to us at Brunston Castle but I'd lost the will to live by that point and just wanted out

beach_buggy · 6 March 2007 at 9:02PM

Clowance is fab - sorry - used to be fab. Now, thanks to new members like myself the place is busier. The lodges are luxurious - check out https://www.clowance.co.uk but if you can get in then do so before they build all over the place!

mpython · 6 March 2007 at 10:21PM

beach_buggy wrote:

We have won a prize! £3750 membership to Club Seasons, for £337 per year (first year discounted by 25%, with a free 4night midweek stay).
.......
.......
.......
"For Today Only" Offer of upgrading our Green Week (low season weeks) to Red: £12,000.

Thanks for the info beach buggy. Presumably the yearly 'maintenance fee' would also be 3 times as much on a red week?

So a typical 50 year membership would cost over £1m!!! (Assumes £1000 maintenance fee year 1, increasing at 6% per year). Even using an accounting technique called net present value (which converts future money into what it'd be worth today), if you sign up to this kind of thing you are commiting about £70k of your spare money to it.

I cannot see how this is a money saving deal.

sikejsudjek · 13 March 2007 at 11:00AM

We just got our 'free' prize through the door recorded delivery. Many thanks to all who have posted here. Its pretty suspicious that the only posters with a good thing to say about them are newbies. Company plants ? Looks like it.

I used to work in Trading Standards. My experience of timeshare is that they are run by criminal scum. Needless to say our letter is going in the bin.

littleholly · 13 March 2007 at 8:57PM

I have posted good comments regarding this based on our experiences but I think you'll find that i'm just as much of a 'newbie' as you! Oh, and i'm not a company plant either. Don't tar everyone with the same brush.

furndire · 13 March 2007 at 9:09PM

To all of you who are taking a "freebie" holiday, good luck, just don't take your cheque books, or credit cards with you, they are so good a wheedling money from you. I hope you all have good holidays, and let us know your experiences when you come back.

Spitfire750 · 24 March 2007 at 1:36PM

FAO - mpython

I have read this whole thread and your questions. If you are so concerned call them yourself 0800448448.

I got a recorded delivery letter this morning saying I too had won this prize. i agree with all that has been said about it not being fair and it being underhanded. I need to find out more about all this but have found this thread to be unhelpful. I only found this thread due to taping in Clubseasons into google and this thread came up. i shall be calling them this monday morning, i will try to address all your questions and concerns to them and see what i come up with. I will pass on what i find out.

One thing i have noticed with this thread is that most are saying don't touch this with a barge pole but not justifying it with experiences. I do understand that timeshares are dodgy, but none of the haters on here are actually saying clubseasons are bad because blah blah blah, just that time shares are. Or maybe I've just missed them completely.

Anyway for the record, I too am new, for my sins, and do not post on here unless I have too. I am also a lorry driver/mother and have nothing to do with Clubseasons

mpython · 24 March 2007 at 4:00PM

Hi Spitfire, nice to meet you.

This is one of a number of threads on MSE. Not everyone is anti-timeshare/ clubseasons, for instance Mark7799 and Littleholly have been putting the otherside of the arguement.

As to not justifying it with experiences, the "recorded delivery, you've won letter" only to discover you have to pay to receive a prize is ample experience for most people. Then there's sitting through a sales presentation rather than a prize award ceremony. I've actually been to one of these presentations and after declining their offer to sign on the dotted line, received a 5 piece silver tea service. (It was before the recorded delivery scheme.) It turned out to be 4 small tumbler glasses with tiny silver plated holders and a silver plated plate to stand them on (probably worth about £1).

My in laws bought a time share in New Forest about 12 years ago. Sounded good at the start, under £100 yearly maintenance for a very nice 6 bed apartment in 1st week of March - which seemed cheaper than hiring a cottage for a week. However, the maintenance has gone up enormously every year and this year is over £500. As you can imagine, they have no realistic opportunity to sell it, nor can they cancel their contract.

Don't worry about being a newbie, we all start somewhere. The one's that get flamed are people who sound like stooges for timeshares etc (e.g. bubbles8's posts 7 & 12 on page 1 of this thread). If you want to make your own mind up rather than listen to others on here, then please do go along, I'd be more than interested to hear back from you with your experiences.

I would just say one more thing beforehand in the hope of saving you time & money. Its what Martin (who owns & runs this site) says about these kind of holidays.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...d.html?t=45859

Rarely have any of these companies actually provided a good deal for any consumer. As a general point I would completely avoid attending such meetings. Never part with your money. In my view you're almost invariably better off going for a normal holiday.

Martin

Club Seasons worth £2950.00..

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