CLC 'free' holidays

[silverdaler]

Yes I know there's no such thing as a 'free' holiday. I have just had a phone call from this company to say I have won a week in the Canaries, self catering, It will only cost me �25 admin fee (?). Anyone heard of these or even been on one ?

[Supernick]

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Always sound advice. See if you can find out about the company online.

[redcrx]

they are usually connected to some sales company and the short break will involve trapsing around looking at holiday homes.
They will usually ask you to confirm that youre the right winner by asking if youre between 20 and 60 in age and that your household income is above a certain figure.
Do you recall actually entering a competition to win a holiday?

[silverdaler]

Yes redcrx, you are right, they did ask that. Trouble is, running a business, I often take part in surveys (bit of a sucker) as long as they dont take long, so I cant remember if I did. I'll try googling them.
Thanks

[enigma]

Avoid like the plague Silverdaler ! My hubby and I attended a 'presentation' last June with the promise of a 'free' holiday , regardless of our decision. I asked right from the start if it was timeshare and was assured that it was not but that as they are in the business of promoting holidays , we were only obligated to sit through a small presentation and if we didn't want to buy anything , we were free to leave with our free holiday and they would just be happy to get feedback from us and they expected us to tell our friends about our great holiday. Here's what actually happened :


Upon arrival , they asked us to confirm our joint earnings , that we were homeowners etc and checked our ID which we were asked to bring. We were then led into a room full of others like us at tables and introduced to a man who chatted like he was our best mate then went in for the hard sell. When he saw that we weren't convinced , he gave us a tour of the 'luxury accomodation' at the lodge and facilities. He gave us a lot of bull about how he could see us as the kind of people he would go on holiday with and we looked like we were the kind of people who appreciated luxury - especially as we have kids and after all , who wouldn't want the best for their kids. When we backed him into a corner about laying the cards on the table , he brought in another guy to try to throw facts and figures at us and press us to sign. It was something like a 60 year contract and I laughed saying that we would be 91 when the contract ended and did they really expect us to commit for 60 years. Again , a lot of twaddle in reply.

[enigma]

We declined their offer because they were too keen to get us to sign without showing us anything concrete , only quick scribbles on paper. We asked then to put it in writing for us to sit and have a think about and they got really uppity telling us that the deal was on the table for today only. I asked why we couldn't go home and think about it and the second guy snapped at me that I should be grateful for the opportunity I was being given as thousands would be biting his hand off to get this deal but we had been carefully selected but they had obviously got us all wrong. They then tried to force our hand by basically saying that they knew it was about costs and we weren't the kind of people who could afford them. (Obviously for us to jump up and say , yes we can and here's our money) We saw right through them and refused to be played so instead we said no and asked for them to honour our 'free' holiday. It was as we suspected - full of clauses with hidden costs , the holiday could only be taken when they dictated you could go and not during school holidays and you were agreeing by accepting it to participate in more 'presentations' and have one of their reps talk to you during the duration of your holiday.

I was approached by a woman doing a survey outside my local Sainsbury's and was told that it was market research and that I could win a free holiday. About a week later , I got the phonecall. Oh and although we didn't take the holiday , we did get �60 Argos vouchers which we put towards our daughter's birthday. A reward for all the crap we had to sit through !!! Be it on your own head if you get mixed up with these shady characters as they have had a lot of bad press. They usually ask you "Have you heard about us before ?" and apparently if you say yes , they close the call. We hadn't heard about them prior to this.

[enigma]

I forgot to say , there used to be a webpage called crimeshare which was dedicated to Club La Costa cons and seemed to have posts from members and reps claiming loss of money , no response to emails , tel calls etc. The reps' posts alleged cases of drug taking (reps snorting coke in the toilets whilst their 'ups' or clients to you and I were waiting in another room) and blatant cons. It seems to have disappeared but if you type crimeshare club la costa into your search engine , you can read similar experiences from others. Loss of initial investment seems to be the main complaint and having to pump in more in the hope of some return.

[winny]

Yes we had this offer a few years ago and we had to go for a free day out to see the accomodation we would be staying in etc. As red says it was a massive sales pitch and even when you went on the holiday it involved more looking at holiday homes etc. but you must understand "this is not time share" lol We said thanks for the day out. We knew there would be a catch somewhere and we found it. Oh yes and you had to go on the holiday of their choice on the date they chose and they might only give you 2 weeks notice. The amazing thing was there were people on the "day out" that took it all in!!!!!!!!

[silverdaler]

Thanks for all the information folks - very informative !
Think I'll go to Wales !

[knobbynonuts]

Dont go to wales its full of sheep trying to con you.......

[scaryfran]

I keep getting these phone calls at work, then I entered a draw to win a holiday in Cornwall and I got a call at home offering yet again a 7 day holiday in 'Europe'. I asked the person on the stand if it was Timeshare and she denied it. Are they allowed to lie about the competition? Thanks for your input everyone. I only wanted to re visit Cornwall!