Hi,

I am new to the forum although I have been reading it for a while now.

For my first post, anyone heard of or had any dealings with the above?

I did a survey outside Coles last week and they have called today to say I have won a 7 day luxury European Holiday for 2 with flights and transfers to one of their resorts. They are not time share (but do seem to be some sort of holiday "points" Club).

There are no meetings/seminars/selling, holiday can be used in the next 18 months and the only charge is a £34 per person admin charge.

The only catch thus far is that I have got to go somewhere to collect the stuff and provide ID to confirm I am the person who filled in the survey, but even then you get £50 of Argos vouchers for doing that.

The company is ATOL/ABTA bonded and since I would have absolutely no intention in joining any sort of holiday "club" there doesn't seem to be anything to lose.

Of course it may turn out that you can only get the Costa Del Sol in mid-November and being naturally suspicious I wondered if anyone else had either come across this or indeed
"won" a similar holiday.

Cheers

What happened on your way there? Did you sell your mothers cow for some Magic Beans?

OF COURSE its a con! No-one offers you anything for free! On second thoughts, if you give me £100 I will give you a zillion argos vouchers and a pony? How's that sound?

These clubs have their pros and cons - mainly cons, it has to be said. You have to be exceptionally flexible to get a "deal" on your holiday, and there is a lot of pressure to buy in.

Have a look on Google, or at this link : http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/travel-agents/the-grand-vacation-club-gvc/440027/

One website I saw recently mentioned a similar "holiday club" where there were "bouncers" at the offices, making visitors feel pressured to sign up, so your £50 Argos vouchers might not be worth the hassle.

Hope this helps

I to won something similar, after trawling the large and small print to check for cons we found a small paragraph that describes the conditions of travel.

After reading it a few times we realised it meant that they would decide the holiday date for us and give us between 7 - 180 days notice, and if we couldn't make it we had to forfit it.

So we figured that we would probably get 7 days notice which isn't really practical to get time off work, sort out any pets and if it was the wrong side of payday totally impracticable.

They may get some people that can go off at the drop of a hat but for the majority it is near impossible especially when it could be any time over the next 6 months. So I would think they get away with a lot of forfitted holidays.

We could have been totally wrong and maybe missed out onthe holiday of a lifetime, but somehow I don't think so.

Sunterra are a timeshare company, although they now call it something slightly different. You will get your "free" holiday, but you will be asked for a booking fee of around £49, also you will have to attend a sales meeting which may take up to four hours.

They are one of the largest timeshare companies in the world, and have resorts in the UK (the nearest being at Wychnor Park in Staffordshire) and in Spain, Portugal, France and several in the Balearics & Canary Islands.

Should you want further information try asking on the Timeshare talk web site where there is a forum dedicated to Sunterra.

http://www.timesharetalk.co.uk/

Should you ned any further information just ask.

Thanks all for your messages. I did some internet research after putting up my post found the sites that peole have referred me to here and suffice it say I will not be trekking down to Burton on Trent next week. Glad I was suitably suspicious.

The thing they really tripped up on was in the first call to say I had "won" in a draw but in the second to say that they "chose" people most likley to enjoy the holiday. That problay makes the whole thing an illegal lottery aswell on top of any dodgy sales tactics afterwards.

Cheers and a good weekend to all!