Simple Timeshare Sales & Marketing is a resale company with postal address in Lowry Plaza, The Quays, Salford,Manchester, M50 3UB and telephone 0161 7132554. Although one consumer who received paperwork from them had included a self-addressed envelope with another address: Abbey Crest Consultancy Ltd” – Manor business Centre, Manor Street, St Helens WA10 2TZ.
Simple Timeshare Sales & Marketing is cold calling timeshare consumers with a guaranteed offer to sell their timeshare. The problem arises when consumers are being requested a deposit for this resale of £995, which as per the New European Timeshare Directive from 23rd of February 2011 is not legal and should not happen.
When the actual “Sales and Marketing” contract arrives, the consumer also finds out he has only 7 days to cancel this agreement and a 30% from the paid deposit will be retained as admin cost. The guaranteed offer can be any offer and come from Simple Timeshare Sales & Marketing or any associated company. Main complaint of the consumers that have contacted us is that once they paid the deposit, they couldn’t get hold of Simple Timeshare Sales & Marketing anymore.
The website www.simpletimesharesales.info created only 3 months ago, has indeed a lot of info but there is also a very long list of memberships for sale for DWVC, Incentive Leisure, Principle Travel, etc. Holiday clubs which are very unlikely to be sold on a second hand marketplace, but of course if every owner of these listed memberships has paid £995 as a deposit, an offer was made either far below the price or a supposed “sale that fell through”, it could be a very lucrative business.
To make it sound all more credible, there is a mention of a solicitor they use for the processing of the sale, Mr. Frank Howard from Frank Howard & Co Solicitors, Telephone 01925653481 but when contacting the solicitors office about Simple Timeshare Sales & Marketing being unreachable the only thing they offer to do is passing a message in order to call the consumer back. A call back that never happens.
Have you been called by Simple Timeshare Sales & Marketing? We would like to know!
Mindtimeshare 
This may be of interst to you all.
http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/solicitor-check/286141.article
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/melaniecosgrovepropertyexpert
Beware, UK Holiday Consultants are active again. In form me by telepnone, sold my timeshare for £6000 but I had to pay Spainish tax to complete transaction send money by Internation transfer to a company and bank in Malaga. Telephone number used 08719711154
Dear Sir,
I have been rung this evening by a David from Abbey Services who claims to be under the impression, as is always the opening pitch with these people, that I wish to sell my time share. When asked from whom he has gained this information he was unable to explain. He remained most determined to divine whether I was or was not still the owner and happy or not. His number showed up as ‘International’. I assume Abbey Services is a sobriquet for the ‘parent company’. I hope this contribution helps build the picture. K Barraclough
Abbyey Crest called me back a few minutes ago and the attitude changed once I mentioned I had seen their name possibly connected to scams regarding time share purchase and they just said “Well we will find other owners willing to sell” and if I wanted to believe all the rubbish I read on the internet that was up to me!. I spoke to Nat West and they tell me the account if referred to in my previous post is located in Liverpool and as to Tracking and transfer details – Nat West stated that tracking payment once they leave a customer account can be difficult!. So make of that what you will. I for one will not be paying out – now or in the future.
Hi – Just had a cold call from Abbey Crest in Cumbria, offering me £6000 for my time share membership. Customer waiting – Today -. However, I need to pay £995 up front in order to have my name taken off the deeds! My money is safe….. as they deal through Nat West, account no 21082790 sort code 60-05.25 backed up by transfer and tracking details??
Hi David,
Upfront fees for timeshare resale were banned when the New Timeshare Directive was approved last February, so if they would go by the rules…there would not be an upfront fee to pay.
Payments by Credit Card can be claimed back, but bank transfer the money is safe? Not sure about that one.
Kind regards
Customer Care
I have just received the same ‘cold call’ as many of these from UK Holiday Consultancy of Barrow-in-Furness (immediate suspicion), with regards to my DWVCmembership, asking for £1250 up front as a guarantee. Solicitors mentioned – Abbeycrest Consultancy with a Nat West account.
Iam assured that there is no danger to my money. I was under the impression that DWVC was in liquidtion following the ‘tragic’ death of its former owner.
Has anyone else heard of this ‘company’
Hi Robert,
Thanks for your message.
If you have a look around, we also placed a warning on the blog about UK Holiday Consultants, so yes we know about them.
We would say no to paying the upfront fee.
Kind regards
Customer Care
Yes I got caught out with DWVC they have gone into liquidation not sure its because of the death of one of their people but certainly because they were defrauding people left right and centre. We are receiving calls daily from people telling us they can get our money back but who knows what to believe any more. some want money up front which we have been warned against and some say they will have a % or final payment still waiting
Chantelle G, Hi all after my previous blog, my sale with these people fell through. They still seemed polite and confident on the phone, but I proceeded with the steps to claim my money back through my credit card company. It seems positive but I have been warned Frank Howard & Co could put up a fight and I would lose my money again. Since I have not had anymore calls from them. At the moment I have my money back and feel silly for falling for this! On the other hand I still want to sell my Diamond Points, who do you trust?!!
Hi Chantelle,
Thanks for the message.
I am sorry to hear that things haven’t moved yet and no developments on the refund request.
We are sending you an email with information as we do think we can help you further.
Keep us posted please.
Kind regards
Customer Care
Having just come across your “site”, l am unfortunately in the same boat as many of your bloggers. We were also contacted by Simple Timeshare in early June with regards to the sale of our timeshare in Crete and RCI points. We were told a couple were willing to purchase the forementioned for £8,800.00, and to secure the sale a payment of £1,595.00 would needed to be paid, which was duly done via my debit card. Can you please advise what my next move should be?
l am going to my bank tomorrow to discuss how l can retreive my £1,595.00. Just out of interest have you heard of a Company called Holiday Rentals Direct who have also made tentative enquiries about our timeshare. l await your reply with interest.
Regards
Mike
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the message. We are sorry to hear you paid these people, but yes going to the bank and speak to them would be a good decision. Let us know how that went and we will email you anyway the further information you need.
Holiday Rentals Direct is also in one of our alerts on this blog. Same dodgy pitch, and an upfront fee request of around 1500€ so not good news.
Thanks for participating and we are in contact!
Regards
Customer Care
Hi.
Thanks for your reply. Contacted the Dispute Dept of my bank last week, who in turn sent me forms to fill which have now been returned along with photo copies of all neccessary information about SimpleTimeshare/Frank Howard. l have contacted both the forementioned via e-mail recently, basically requesting the return of my money. l have yet to receive a reply from Simple Timeshare-and don’t expect one, but have from Frank Howard who “in a nutshell” have stated they do represent Simple Timeshare or hold funds and that refunds are dealt with by Simple Timeshare. They finished the letter by stating they will not be entering into any further correspondence regarding Simple Timeshare. As l mentioned earlier l have made contacted with S/Timeshare with no joy. If you have any further advise or additional forms to complete l would be grateful.
Regards
Mike
More on Frank Howard & Co; Solicitors.
At the beginning of August I complained to the SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority) about Frank Howard. SRA have now got back to me and whilst they can’t do anything regarding compensation they have acknowledge my complaint and have taken it on board. They will, should any more complaints be received, instigate further investigation of Frank Howard. Therefore, all or anyone of the people who are in dispute with them and Simple Time Share please complain to SRA.
Good Luck
Malcolm Rodwell
Hi Malcolm,
Thanks for the tip!
Regards
Customer Care
Hi Malcolm
I have received a letter with the exact same wording from my Credit Card company, which is Halifax MasterCard.
Jim Thornton
Hi Jim.
I am with the Halifax too. Let’s hope they can sort it out.
Malcolm Rodwell
Latest info from my bank regarding the amount of £1395 to Frank Howard:- I quote……” I have returned the charge to FRANK HOWARD’S bank for further investigation and temporarily credited your account with the amount involved.
The merchant’s bank has 45 days to review the matter and provide information to substantiate the charge. Any further information received you will be contacted at that time” end quote.
I will inform this blog of any further progress.
Malcolm Rodwell
A good site, thanks, do you know of ANY legitimate sites where timeshare can be sold, all three I have approached this week have turned out to be less than honest
Hi Chris, look on the RDO website for a list of affiliated resale companies. http://www.rdo.org
Regards
Customer Care
I have been contacted by a woman called Sarah Weeks claiming to be from “UK Holiday Consultants” Chapel st, Egremont, Cumbria, phone 01229 346002…I could not find these people on the web…she claimed they were having ‘problems’ with their site
Again wanted £1400 up front for insurance..iand wanted my credit card…it sounds like it would be unwise …
Hi Chris,
Yes it really sounds unwise to get the credit card out for this one.
This name has come up a couple of times over the past week but not a lot of info yet.
We will investigate.
Customer Care
Norman Robertson .Reguarding my letter on June 22 ,here is an update.On the 23 of June I phoned up Simple Timeshare Sales ,they told me that they would send me a rejection form ,which I have not received .On the 19 of July ,I sent them a letter by specialdelivery which has been returned.On the 22 of July I sent a letter by specialdelivery to Frank Howard and Co, asking for the return of my ,£1,395,it was received on July 25 still no reply .On the 2 of July I wrote to Loyds TSB Card Services giving details of all transactions ,on the 28 of July I have reeived the following reply.I am pleased to confirm that we have referred your query,regarding the dept applied to the above card to the Visa/Mastrcard processing centre for their investigation .In the meantime, a credit adjustment for £1,395 has been applied to your account.We may ,however need to contact you further as the merchant may raise an objection I will inform you all when i get any further news .I would like to thank all of you for the moral support and help i have had from reading your letters yours sincerely Norman Robertson
Dear Norman,
Many thanks for this message and sharing the good news with us.
I am very pleased to see you got the refund! This will give hope to so many others who are in the process of the refund request.
Kind regards
Customer Care
Here is part of an email I sent to frank Howard Solicitors:
Trading Standards have requested that you forward to me a copy of the contract that gave authority from me to you to pay my money to Simpletimesharesales.
Please note that I don’t have any contract information with regard to Simpletimesharesales and after numerous calls to their contact number I still havn’t received any documents from them.
I find it unbelievable that as a firm of solicitors, you find yourself in this situation where you have effectively assisted in the theft, through fraud of monies from me.
I should be grateful if you could confirm that you have alerted your professional indemnity insurers and that you have reported the matter to the Police and have given them my contact details.
As I am sure you are aware I take this matter extremely seriously and I trust that you will now take a more proactive approach, than you have done to date, in getting to the bottom of this sad affair which I believe could damage the name of your firm.
Kevin Hamm
I was then contacted and told that I would recieve a full refund, however to date I have not recieved any refund, and when I contact Frank Howard Solicitors, Melanie is unavailable and does not return my calls. When I asked to speak to another partner (Carol Swanky) I was told that she would not take my call. How professional is that!!!
I have reported Frank Howard to: The Law Society (who will investigate) 02072421222 and recommend that if you have had problems to do so.
Another useful number: Warrington Gardian (New editor) Garath Dunning 01925426813
I will keep you updated.
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Many thanks for the update and for the useful information.
Incredible indeed that this solicitors firm got involved with Simple Timeshare Sales.
Regards
Customer Care
Regarding other companies, I was approached today by Half Moon Holdings of Malaga who have the same sales pitch as Simple Time Share Sales. They said they had a buyer and could offer me £8,400. Yeh right!! They wanted 800 EUROS as a deposit refundable on comna pletion of contract etc., etc., Obviously I didn’t fall for this again. SO BEWARE OF HALF MOON HOLDINGS.
My bank are still investigating Simple Time Share Sales with a view to getting my £1395 back.
Can these people not be stopped???
Dear Malcolm,
Many thanks for this message. We know Half Moon is not to be trusted and like the others the best way to deal with them is by hanging up the phone when they call.
Cold callers can be reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) – http://www.ico.gov.uk – which is now the watchdog responsible for guarding British nationals personal information.
Regards
Customer Care
I wish i had found your website earlier.I am one of those desperate people being harrassed for annual maintenance fees.I was delighted to be cold called by Simpl;e time share marketing and like a fool allowed their “solicitor” to take a holding fee of £1395 pending their client completing the purchase of my holiday pack for£7400.Their slicitor was Frank Howard & co.,senior partner Melanie Cosgrove.All these names are now impossible to contact.I am proceeding now along legal lines,starting with Mastercard who paid the £1395.
A tip for other timeshare owners,go to www,timeshare.org.uk /debt if you havent already.
Dear John,
Thanks for your comment. I am really sorry to hear you paid these people 1395€. But we can help you with a refund claim so an email is on it’s way to you.
Keep checking the blog, once you have been called, other companies might follow!
Regards
Customer Care
On 17th May 2011 Simple Timeshare took £1,200 via Frank Howard & Company, you would think that your money would be safe being with a solicitor. I have sent letter quoting supply of goods & services via recorded delivery, they have refuse to accept. been in tough with my bank sent them a copy of the contract with proof of money debited from my account and a letter explaining what had happen, to a reply cannot help.
I took legal advice and was told I had no chance because the EU Directive won’t apply to certain countries – including Spain – until late 2012. As I have signed the contract my bank say I have consented to payment
No question you will Get your money back Chantelle. Find a copy of Consumer Protection/The Timeshare, Holiday Products, Resale and Exchange Regulations 2010. It became law in UK on 23 Feb this year. If you check it you will see that Simple Timeshare broke the law on several counts, the solicitors office too, because they are an agent of Simple timeshare and therefore included in this legislation, (and being a legal company should know about this). This legislation should reassure you that you are a victim of crime, ie fraud, and that if you p aid by credit card you are entitled to your money back. You must persist with them though because they will try to evade responsibility. They will also attempt to get the companies involved to refund you first which will take time. There is always an ombudsman as well if all else fails with Santander. Good luck.
Jim
Dear Jim,
Many thanks for your advice and indeed you are right, the money will be recovered as it was taken unlawfully and there is a proof of that.
I am very grateful for your comment and your help as this will certainly help so many other consumers.
Kind regards
Customer Care
Hi, I have reported the taken money (25th May) to my credit card company (which were not to confident i would get my money back), also spoke to Frank Howard & Co, telling me I have to ring back each time because the correct person (Melanie Cosgrove) is on holiday. On the same day (4th July) I thought I would try ring Simple Timeshare again and shocking but Gail Doodey answered after 5 weeks of left messages and no replies! She said i was passed to the completions department and would recieve a call anytime (baring in mind i have not received anything to sign at all). What a surprise today (11th July) I had a call from Carol Clarkson, unfortunately the sale has fallen through!! Another surprise (not) after reading previous blogs was that a Tony Johnson of Find Me Travel would be in touch, as he has sale to offer. As I recognised this name etc i questioned it, asking if I was going to have to pay more money as i had read this is what happens? The reply was not as far as she knew because it was an ongoing sale, so then i asked could they not just offer it to one of their own perspective buyers, not sure again, only been there for two weeks! I know i was wasting my breath but wanted to see what the response was. Watch this space as i will post if this ‘Tony Johnson’ rings, and I will ask for his ABTA number etc. In the meantime has anyone had any luck with the refund of money, as i said previous Santander has stated because i consented for the money to be taken it is not a ‘fraud’ case, it will be opened as a dispute of sale not materialising, which was a grey area, arghhh!
We had a call from Simple time shares couple of weeks ago saying they had a buyer for our tenerife club of 10000 points we gave card details but was on our debit card a few days later a friend who also wished to sell his club points called us we were confident we had done the right thing but contacted the solicitors who were very helpful and reassured us that our money was safe and if we wanted a refund before we agreed to the contents of our contract it would not be an issue we said we werenot happy and when simpletimeshares confirm to them that we want to cancel they will refund this as simple timeshares havent got it yet, lucky escape for us we think
I was contacted by Christine biggs from Simple timeshare sales at the end of May. Telling me that they do presentations to people who are looking to buy timeshare.
9th June message left on answer phone telling me that the presentation was today
10th June message left telling me that they had received an offer of £3200.00
11th June contacted me and said that the offer had been confirmed and that they would take a £995.00 from my credit card which would be held by a solicitor and would be returned to me, unless I back out of the sale. Then they would take it to cover their costs. I said I would not give details until I had done some check, which I did and couldn’t find anything regarding fraud or scams. So gave them the detail (how stupid am I?) I was then told I would receive all the exchange paperwork within the next 3 days.
13th Money Taken from my credit card.
14th They called me, apologising for the delay. (delay tactic)
18th Called Simpletimesharesales left message (no return call)
20th Called Simpletimesharesales and left a message. (no return call)
24th Managed to speak to someone who said they would resent the forms and send it in email form.
29th received email (which my virus protect told me not to open corrupt file.
29th Contacted Frank Howard Solicitors, and told that checks would have been done on this client and they were holding my money.
3rd July Still nothing from simpletimesharesales, email frank Howard solicitors to stop any transfer.
Since then I have contacted Frank Howard 11 times (who have been helpful) who have just told me that my money was transferred on the 27th. They now tell me that any other money being held regarding this company is frozen and will not be transferred until more enquires are made.
I wish I had seen this web page before but the earliest entry is after my payment.
I have Contacted Trading Standards, my credit card company and the Law society (Although they have been helpful to me, the Scam money has passed through them)
Last time I felt like this I tried to hang myself, didn’t have any rope but lots of elastic band, all I ended up with was 23 bumps to the top of my head! (old ones are the best)
Keep smiling according to trading standards if you paid by credit card they are joint liable for your money.
Kevin (stupid) Hamm
I sent a cancellation letter ,registered, to Simple Time share sales. It has been returned today dated 4/7/11, as addressee unknown /refused. I have now, today, sent said letter to Abbey Crest Consultancey Ltd of St Helens. Wiil it also be returned??? All my documents are now held by my bank for investigatioon. My amount of £1395 is being kept as disputed by the bank until further inv estigatioons are carried. I just may get it back!!!
Malcolm Rodwell
Dear Mr. Rodwell,
Thanks for participating in our blog.
We are glad to hear that you have been in contact with your bank and they are now seriously on the case.
You will get your money back, not worries there.
Should you need any help regarding the refund request, please contact us and we will guide you further.
Kind regards,
Customer care
Hi, I was phoned, and talked into giveing my details on the phone. Afterwards I called myself a dozey sod. I called my viza company, and discovered that they had not taken the money. So my viza was cancelled, I am old and do not need it anymore, as I have not any money anyway. Today I have received a contract but my demand is for £1395-00. am I right in thinking that I can just throw it in the bin?
Dear Geoff,
Thanks for your comment on our blog.
We are very pleased to see that you were able to cancel the payment before they got their hands on your money!
The agreement? Yes bin it, destroy it…worthless!
Kind regards,
Customer Care
Hi Shona,
My bank are dealing with the payment, on my credit card, I foolishley paid to Simple Time Share. I have now received a contract from them albeit a week after the ‘phone call and after the so called cancellation period. No cancellation notice was in with the contract as requested. I DID HOWEVER SEND A REGISTERED LETTER CANCELLING AFTER THE PHONE CALL. The contract has been sent to my bank for further eview.
I was contacted last wk by simpletimesharesales and asked if I was still trying to sell my club la costa points when I said yes she hung up and then a few days later I was phoned by someone called Darren saying that they had a buyer from Watford interested and they were willing to pay £10 per point…I have 8002 points so you can imagine I was more than willing to sell. He then phoned us 4hrs later saying the buyer had been to the bank and deposited 30% into their bank account. The “company” now required a deposit of £1,250 from me for “indemity insurance”. Stupidly I gave my card details over. When I had time to think about it I realised how foolish I had been, contacted the bank, cancelled the card and later removed all money from the account so the payment would “bounce”. Darren has been in touch since and we have told him that we are not interested and needed to do further checks into the “company ” first, he said that he would give us the wkend and ring us today..so far no calls!
Afterwards I found this site and wished I had read the previous from Jim Thornton beforehand. I have since been in touch with trading standards north west and today have recieved a call from my local trading standards who will be in touch with north west, hopefully something can be done before more people get scammed and lose their hard earned cash, I am still on tenterhooks, waiting to see if the payment is presented.
Dear Karen,
Many thanks for your message on the blog.
I am glad you were on time to stop the payment going through and avoid you being scammed.
Unsolicited calls to your home can be reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Maybe that would help to stop companies like this from cold calling timeshare consumers and offering fake resale services with the sole purpose of taking their money “and run”.
Customer Care
I received a call from Simple Timeshare on 12th May. A lady called Cristine Biggs asked me if I still wanted to sell my timeshare. I do because I would like to use the money to buy some land. My timeshare is in Thailand and is actually quite a good one, but I am not using it too much as my wife is Thai, and we tend to spend most of our holidays at her mums or with friends in Thailand. Anyway having said I would sell for the right price, I received a call next day to say that after a timeshare presentation they had managed to sell mine. they stated it was a guaranteed sale because the potential buyer had already paid a non returnable deposit of 30% of the £7950 purchase price. They informed me I needed to pay £1200 as a guarantee that when they sent me the money, I would sign and send my timeshare owners certificate. They also said I would get the money back on successful conclusion of the sale. I was very suspicious, and did some checks but all seemed ok, and I thought that as I was paying by credit card my money was safe.
When the money was taken I noticed it was taken by Frank Howard and co Solicitors. I did some checks with Trading Standards North West, and they assured me that neither of these companies were on any black list at that time. ( I urge anyone who has had problems with these companies to contact Trading Standards North West, because the more info they have on these people the better). I checked out Frank Howard and Co, and found that a Melanie Cosgrove was the solicitor in charge there. She had a good professional reputation on a web site I found, and her company appears to be legitimate. I spoke to her and she said she just takes and holds the money for Simple Timeshare, and knows nothing about their contracts or other business issues, but did confirm that they sometimes refund customers money. This further reassured me that all should be ok.
When the contract arrived it threw up a lot of questions so I called Simple Timeshare and got answers, and was also told by a lady called Gayle Doodey that I could amend the contract to say that I was only agreeing and signing on the basis of this one confirmed sale, and that should it not conclude for any reason I would get my money back. I took copies of the contract before sending it back. I was later told my completion date was 24th June. On that date I contacted Simple Timeshare to find out what was happening, and could not get any information. Eventually on 28th June I was informed the sale had fallen through. They then said there was a guy called Tony Johnson who wanted to speak to me because he had a corporate buyer that wanted my timeshare. This guy contacted me and said he worked for Abbey Crest Consultancy. He told me that his buyer was a multi million pound company called Find me Travel. He also told me they were ABTA registered. I was also told this by Simple Timeshare. I had some time before I spoke to this Tony again so I did some checking and found that Find me Travel have a website but it is practically useless and does not give any real information or links to anything of interest such as contact information. Not what you expect from a multi million pound company. I checked with ABTA and found that they were not registered, and they had never heard of them. When Tony called again he told me that the sale was agreed and all I had to do was pay a further £1350 which when added to my £1200 already paid and the £7950 for my timeshare would total £10,500. This is Find me Travel’s membership fee, they are a holiday club!! He said that since I didnt want to become a member all of this money would be refunded to me when the sale completed. I then told him what I ha me that it was clearly not for me and that he had another customer who would take the deal. I also discovered that if you click on a subscribe button for Find me Travel at http://www.findmetravel.net you get directed to a paypal page where you are paying 80 euros to a company called Euro Marketing Group, Spain. I know that this company is blacklisted and linked to timeshare scams, so this completes the circle of what Simple Timeshare are about. They are now suggesting that I have failed to sign up to a legitimate sale that they have provided so therefore will lose my £1200.
I have been in touch with the credit card company to try and get my money back, and am also going to approach the solicitors who took the money and see how much they know about this scam. They also need to be aware that they are breaking the law in the same way Simple Timeshare are regarding timeshare resales by asking for money up front.
I was contacted by a Diana Childs at Simple Timeshare and was promised £13,200 for my Club La Costa Points and because we are so desparate to sell due to my husbands ill-health we agreed to pay the £1,495 from my visa, i feel sick to my stomach that these people get away with this and steal money from vulnerable people, I am trying to get the money back through the visa, and trying to deal with this and my husbands recent stroke further to surgery just makes it even harder to deal with, I don’t know how these people sleep at night
I was also contacted by Simple Time Share Sales by Alison Wier who gave me her talephone number 0161 7132554. She informed me that she could legally have mine and my late husbands names removed from our Timeshare in Tenerife which we thought had been purchased by Holiday Opportunities based in Evesham but for which I am still being contacted by Hollywood Mirage for the maintainance fees. She would also get back 1395Euros from Blue Chip SL and had an offer from a couple in America of £6500 to purchase my membership of DVLA. For this she wanted a credit card payment of £1395 which would be placed in a secure account until the sale was completed when I would be reimbursed. Fortunately although I felt very stressed by the ‘phone call I was able to tell her I was not prepared to pay any money upfront.
Julie Lightfoot
YES. I was contacted today by Simple Time Share Sales by Allison Weir. Such a convincing sales pitch. I was stupid enough to give my details of my credit card for £1,395 to be taken. I was to get £10,450!!! I am trying to recover my £1,395 now after reading your web site.
they took £1,495 from me, have you had any luck getting money back?
Called today by this company.
They said they would phone me back when they had confirmed that their client was interested – they phoned back a few minutes later, saying their client wanted to offer me £7,000!
As soon as I asked whether they were at some point going to ask me for £995 deposit, they agreed that they were going to ask me for money – and as soon as I said I would not be paying a deposit – they hung up! (Thinks: seven grand – that’s really not a believable price, is it, for a DWVC membership???)
How I wish I’d been able to access this page a couple of weeks ago. I was cold called by someone telling me DWVC is in administration and I was the last person on their list need to complete the known people who are owed money. They wanted £1,500 so-called refundable deposit. Normally I turn this kind of thing down – by putting down the phone but as other cold callers were telling me DWVC is in administration I listened and paid. Paper work has arrived without their signatures on it and the phone number doesn’t work.
Norman robertson I was approached by Simple Timeshare .The sales lady informed me that a Mr &Mrs Fellows were willing to by my D W V C TIMESHARE for £8,000 I paid the £1395 by visa to FRANK HOWARD AND CO SO WARRINGTON .Iwas told on 20 of JUNE that the sale had fallen through,and that aCHRISTOPHER HAMILTON OF FIND ME TRAVEL woud give me a ring He informed me that his company had been based in SOUTHAMPTON for 14 years and was an ABTA BONDED TRAVEL CLUB He offered me £12,000,for my membership and said that he would give me a legally binding noterised contract ,but he wanted money up front.I told him that I had no spare money,and he told me that I was wasting his time .I asked him how much money he wanted ,but he declined to tell me.
Did you get a refund from the visa payment collectef by Frank Howard from your account or was it lost, as I am in a similar situation but haven’t yet signed the contract.
J Wilson
I have
not asked for a repayment yet as I am still in contract with simple timeshare sales .Norman Robertson
Norman,
Thanks for the update! We are watching this space!
Regards,
Customer Services
Hi, I unfortunately paid these crooks!! Fell for it as we are desperate to sell the points, the payment went out on the 25th May and I have not heard since, and as it says above the number has nobody returning calls! The mastercard payment showed the same Frank Howard…, I have been in touch with the credit card company and am waiting for a response, did any of you have any luck?? How foolish do I feel, and so wish we had read this before, wishful thinking! I would just like my money back as we all do and these people should be stopped!!
Hello Joan Wilson
I am in contact with my bank in trying to get back my credit card payment. Contract, unsigned, sent to bank for further rev iew. Good luck with yours
MALCOLM RODWELL
A tale similar to Mrs Ellis I have just got home from work, when I received a cold call from Simple Timeshare. The sales Lady informed me that DWVC had ceased trading, something that I was unaware of. She then told me that a Mr & Mrs Brookes were willing to buy my DWVC timeshare for a very attractive price of £9800. All I had to do was to pay £1395 to change the names on the Deeds. This £1395 was ‘of course’ fully refundable’ once Mr & Mrs Brookes bought and paid for the Deeds. I would agree with Mrs Ellis ‘If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.’.
Hi John,
Many thanks for your comment on this blog.
This company seems very active at present and we are glad you also found our blog and are aware of the risk you take by paying them this money.
Kind regards,
I have just recieved a call from Simple timeshare sales offering a very attractive figure for resale of my timeshare which I did not know was up for sale! They are asking for £1395 to change the names on the ‘Deeds’. They are getting the buyers into the office tomorrow so they can proceed immediately they say. Think the old saying ‘If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.’ applies here.
Dear Jane,
Many thanks for your comment on the blog.
You are right, offers sounding too good to be true, usually are too good to be true.
On top of it these people request an upfront payment from you which goes straight against the European Directive where the banning of taking deposits was implemented.
Next time they call, I suppose you know what to say.
Kind regards,
Customer Services
Dear Mindshare,
I have today been called by a woman named Sarah Watts from Simple Timeshare claiming she can retrieve £12600.00 from Incentive Leisure Group on my behalf, but I have to give her my card details so she can take a £1495.00 holding fee. I may be blonde, but stupid i am not!. I have made some enquiries of my own, as this is not the first time I have been approached by these companies, this company is defo a dodgy, and I advise anyone NOT to send or give out their card details. I ambeing called back at 7pm, and I am going to tell her no thank you…..
Regards,
Jayne R
Dear Jayne,
Many thanks for your message on the blog.
You are spot on with stating this company is not to be trusted. Good for you! I am pleased you are not falling for this trap and have taken the time to also warn other consumers out there looking for information.
Many thanks
Customer Services