Our previous blog article which was published today (http://wp.me/p1kmoi-jI) was an appeal to the Gran Canaria authorities to act against dubious holiday companies on the island, which damage the image of this lovely holiday destination.
In order to understand better what really happens we want all our blog followers to read the story below, the “real” experience as described by a British holiday maker that went to Gran Canaria and ended up in a sales presentation of Voyager Travel.
Voyager and Lifestyle Vacation is linked to another company called Claims Direct (www.claimsdirective.com) This company was set up late last year in Gran Canaria to run a Class Action scheme, ReclaimGC – www.reclaimgc.com – which it is mainly an excuse to sell his bogus holiday club Voyager – www.lifestylevacation.net (https://mindtimeshare.me/?s=voyager)
For privacy reasons we have taken out the surname of the consumers.
Our story:
Myself (Mr XXXX) and my Fiancé (Mrs YYYY) took a holiday in Gran Canaria between Saturday 21 January until Saturday 28 January 2012.
We arrived Saturday night, went out had a few drinks and retired for the night (Playa del Ingles)
The next day (1st official day of holiday) we decided to get up early approx 10.00am and head to the beach. As we made our way, we were stopped by a street vendor who stated he was “Working on behalf of the Gran Canarian Tourist Office to promote Tourism on the island”.
We had no reason to doubt this. He gave us 2 scratch-cards, 1 which gave away free duty free items (cigarettes and a t-shirt) and the 2nd which told us we had won the STAR PRIZE either an Apple IPod 2, 600 euros or a free holiday. In order to ensure we received the STAR PRIZE we had to go direct to Arguineguin (Club Puerto Atlántico, CPA) in order to claim it. He told us that we would only need to stay 30 minutes, claim our prize, cigarettes and booze and we could leave. He told us he would get 100 euro because we won the STAR prize.
He shuttled us into a taxi to take us there (was a bit scary considering we have never been to Gran Canaria and we didn’t know where we would end up)
We were greeted at the door of Club Puerto Atlántico and taken upstairs where we had to wait around 20-30 minutes for an English speaking operator (called Charlie).
Charlie asked us quite a lot of personal questions around personal lives, work, holidays we take, obviously *profile building (to gauge what he could milk out of us, *only apparent now).
This rapport went on for approximately 2-3 hours where they had a product that would benefit us in the form of Voyager Travel. He explained that they could offer us 4-5 star accommodation for a fraction of the price, £199 for any holiday accommodation around the world. He gave us a quick demo of the voyager site we would be able to book our accommodation on.
After the 3 hour mark and showing us their pent-house suite within Club Puerto Atlántico, which was apparently at the £199 bracket (beggars belief now) he got his boss, Frank involved to talk about money, Charlie wouldn’t discuss money.
He started off by offering the package, documents enclosed for lifetime access to book through Voyager Travel at £12,000 sterling. I told him that I simply didn’t have that kind of money and was way above our means. He then upon hearing this offered us a reduced package which gave 12 years of Voyager usage at a cost of £6,000 sterling. I told him we simply couldn’t afford to pay this as I didn’t have that kind of money to hand over. He then asked me “what I could afford to pay” today and could I make a deposit today with the option of paying the rest over 10 months. Part of the deal would be 3 any location holidays where accommodation covered was free, 1 free week back in Club Puerto Atlántico (from the SCRATCH CARD win) and 2 cruises in Mexico and Caribbean (subject to terms and conditions which mean we would have to book the flights through the cruise company direct). These freebies would only be applicable on the full sum of £6,000 sterling (7,194 euro) being paid in full. He said I’m not a bank and suggested we take a loan.
He then suggested we pay a deposit of £2,000, then £1,500 and finally £1,200 which eventually we gave in and said we could pay £1,200 amount today. It all happened so fast and before we knew it, they had disappeared and got a girl from their office up to make us sign some documents (not all of which were signed, initialled by both parties (us and them) and took my debit card payment of £1,200. Is this document still legal because of the missing signatory and or initialling?
At no point, either verbally or written in to these documents was our right to change our mind (cool-off period in British Law, possibly EU Law), cancel or that what we paid on the day (initial deposit, £1,200) would be kept by them indefinitely if changed our mind.
On coming back to the UK both I and my fiancé had to work which distracted us about the dealings of this venture. We received an email from Voyager (attached) asking us how we intended on making payments (576 euro a month).
We decided to look into Voyager and couldn’t find anything positive about them and mostly if not all sites were severely negative.
We later find that the man behind the venture, Mr Eugene Kaiser was charged with fraud in 2003 and that most people reporting this as a Scam.
We then asked questions around what the likely costs would be for the cruises. They didn’t know and that we would find out when we paid the remaining balance (hardly reassuring)
From what we have read, others who paid the full amount found that the apparent £199 per accommodation was usually £399. The cruise flights alone would cost us in the region of £2,500,
At this point alarm bells started to ring and we decided that we had been duped and asked for our money back given that we couldn’t afford it anymore and the product wasn’t for us. There was no benefit in us paying £6,000 for something which the product was apparently saying we would save money on. (Accommodation at £199 for a week’s accommodation, it works out £449 based on the £6,000 we would have to pay upfront).
Given that we felt duped, we tried to get our money back; Voyager refused stating that we would lose our deposit. They never mentioned to us that they could do so, either in writing or verbally. They then offered us a lesser deal so that we wouldn’t lost out deposit which was if we paid another 3,600 euro they would offer the Voyager package for 6 years. But we would only get 2 free accommodations. (See attached email)
Please help us to get our money back as we really felt we have been duped and now our image of Gran Canaria is that we would never go back to the island based on this experience.
I look forward into you being able to help us reclaim our £1,200 back hopefully they have a case to answer on their contracts and dealings.
I may lose my job at the end of this month, which is typical of the UK economy today and this is a nightmare for us.
Regards
XXXXX & YYYYY
Mindtimeshare 
I would try going down the route of contacting your card issuer and asking them to cancel,suspend or reverse the payment on the basis of a bogus scam, fraud or deception. Maybe your card issuer will want to keep you happy using there legal expertise, consumer protection laws etc.
Is this the same company: http://www.voyagertraveldirect.co.uk ?
I was caught out by sapphire leisure/voyager travel over 12 years ago in Benalmadena. Same MO. same Frank. same loss of money. I hope the authorities can throw the book at them now.
Met these people on our last holidays, guy calling himself Chris near Maspalomas beach handing out scratchcards and asking questions which we always got right “are you married?” “Do you live in the UK”. Winning scratchcard, he kept talking about an iPad as a prize but a holiday was also an option (he didnt say much about this).
Free taxi to hotel in the next town (we went along half expecting the taxi driver to demand a load of money at the end). At the hotel they took our details and said we would be there for 90 minutes. I gave a false date of birth and they asked if I had any ID with it, so I said no. Immediately they went away and came back to tell us there was nobody available to see us today and could we come back another day. I said no and they put us in another free taxi back to our hotel with a bottle of sparkling wine, 2 t shirts (something about free WiFi) and a bit of paper saying we could call them about a “free” holiday in Fuerteventura.
Hi,
Firstly, this a bit long winded so sorry for that. Here’s my story. My partner and I lived in Gran Canaria (Maspalomas) between 2002-2004 and managed to get a job selling holiday club packages (Club Class holidays) to British Holiday makers. for the first couple of months we worked outside the office of a partly occupied shopping complex… then the whole operation was moved to a hotel in Puerto Rico (I don’t remember why) We had never sold anything like this before but we quickly picked it up and sold to nearly all of the couples we met…probably a 70% success rate! I was over the moon and thought I was selling a fantastic product, which was.. 4 weeks of 4-5 star holidays EVERY year from a thick brochure of thousands of resorts world wide..the only extra was the flights! Brilliant I thought…although It was pricey, it started at £ 5,500 for six years up to around £15,000 (but once it’s all broken down, it seemed good value for money) After 6 months I found out it was all a scam and the packages I was selling were worthless and the poor couples got nothing…I left and was so upset and felt physically sick :o( I genuinely had no idea it was all a set-up…how naïve. I feel so bad reading these stories knowing that I was selling this. The man in charge was a German…I’m sure his name was Christian And also an American guy called Frank. and the British “line manager” was Allan something…a little short guy from Yorkshire full of the patter. We were taught how to deal was all sorts of objections and how to play on peoples emotions and how to reel people in…it’s all very clever stuff. All they are after is your money!! And as it’s not a genuine product…it doesn’t matter how much they get from your card! As long as they get something. We would get roasted at the morning meetings if couples left before an hour…we had to keep you there for as long as possible…sometimes 4 hours :o( we are meant to use this time to build trust and rapport with you….nothing to do with the product. Some of the sales folk were in tears at morning meetings due to the public humiliation :o( The scratch cards all obviously rigged. The street girls and guys (OPC’s they are called) have a stack of *star prize* cards (all with the holiday as the prize!) and a stack of normal scratch cards. It’s their job to get you to us…if you qualify that is! You had to be a married couple, living together, home owner…certain age and so on. They get 50 euros for every couple who they send…and then a further 100 euros if they get sold a holiday package. The sales folk flogging you the holiday package get between 400-1000 euros per couple who buy a package….commission only. As well as the British sales team…we also had a Scandinavian team and a German team , so it wasn’t just Brits. All I can do now is apologize to all the people who I deceived…I didn’t know :o(
Thanks for these sharing, now I don’t feel alone anymore. We haven’t claimed before because we didn’t had the energy to do that. Now 3 years have gone and we have throw away 6000 euro!
I think we could send a claim anyway, just to let other know.
My wife and I were also duped for £4000 2 years ago, as we paid by debit card, I never tried to get a refund but I am still seething. We go to Gran Canaria 2 – 3 times a year and I feel like doing something about these sca*****. If enough of us victims got together and started hitting back in any way we can, maybe we could get rid of these parasites. How about a picket protest outside their offices in Arguinegan, or accost their ticket sellers when they gain another “mug” in the streets. I feel I need to get revenge. Anyone got any ideas.
Chris.
My wife and I were approached today,10 April 2013 on the seafront at Maspalomas.The guy ( German) put on all the friendly charm before handing us both a sealed ticket (not a scratch card),and we both had 5 gold stars, ( top prize), either Mp 4 player, holiday or 500 euros. Th scammer,sorry, street vendor was so surprised as it was very rare to get one winning ticket, no matter 2.Anyway being a little,Ok a lot suspicious, I asked him what the catch was & how much.Only catch he said was to attend some posh holiday complex in Arguiniguin to collect our prize.Also I would be asked to view DVD and tell all friends and family how great this areas of G C was.He said he was promoting GC for tourism industry as many Brits had stopped coming to GC.Also told us that he would get 100 euros and extra days holiday as we had won star prize.Offered to have us taken to Arguiniguin to collect.He appeared so surprised when I told him that there is a catch, there’s always a catch and we did,nt trust what was on offer.We handed him the 2 winning tickets and suggested he could reuse.I didn’t realise that these type of scams were still going on until today.Please don,t get caught out.
The same happened with us in 2010! 6 000 Euro 😦
We paid £4000 to Voyager a couple of years ago and received 2 x $2000 cruise vouchers.We have been offered a Mexican Cruise 5 days/ 4 nights and a stay in Florida. They are asking £1390 to cover our flights etc. The boat has no available balconies and we have priced the whole package ourselves on the internet for £1100.
Please can anyone tell us if they have actually been on any holidays offered and what their experience were.
Thank you
Mrs H
After reading of all your troubles with this company has anyone been stung by another company called To Holiday+ .this company operated out of gran canaria about 6 years ago and since taking money of people have disappeared.No one knows where they have gone so if anyone has had dealings with this firm or who knows of thier whereabouts please let me know on this web page thank you.
We got stopped in Gran Canaria also by a guy with vouchers and i won the free holiday, we were whisked away in a tax as we were told we had to collect our prize immediately, we were also told we would two bottles of duty free. after listening to one of the Voyager reps babble on for 1.5hrs we asked him what this would cost, he told us he wasn’t insured to tell us, so we got up and walked out, all the guy with the vouchers told us was that we had to go to the hotel up the road to get our prize at no point did he mention time share scam.
These people should be stopped by the Gran Canarian tourist board, believe me i will be emailing them next.
Hello to all,
this is Lars in Berlin, Germany. We had a similar experience, but we got all our money back, mainly with the help of the Municipal Office of Consumer Information [Oficina Municipal de Informacion al Consumidor] in Arguineguín:
O.M.I.C.
C/ Tamarán nº 4
35120 Arguineguín, Mogán
Las Palmas de G.C.
Tf: 928.568.566
Fax: 928.152.051
E-mail: bsantiago@mogan.es
The only difficulty was that they just corresponded in Spanish, but with the help of Google Translator we managed to understand each other. We sent a cancellation letter via email and as a certified letter to Mrs Inge Hildebrandt and Mr Eugen Kaiser.
In addition we contacted the European Consumer Centres Network [ec.europa.eu/consumers/ecc/index_en.htm] where we got important advice.
Maybe we were ‘lucky’ because we acted almost immediately.
Anyway, it’s worth fighting.
So, good luck to all of you!
With kind regards,
Lars
Hi my self and my husband had the same experience,unfortunitly we paid a deposit of 920 euros.and then 380 pm, for 10 months. We did receive our password and vouchers when payment was paid.We have put this down as a bad experience.But on friday 12/10/12 I had a phone call from a guy wanting to buy our package. He phoned me back today 15/10/12 with an unbelievable offer of 11,000 euros He said he would email me a contract,asked me to print it off and have it available when he phones again on wednesday 17/10 which he said would be a recorded call and he would point out the options of the contract ,Just wondering did anyone else have this experience
Regards Rita
This has just happened to me also, the 11,000 euro etc , how did you get on? Les
Hi Rita and Lesley, I have just been offered the 11,000 too, they are ringing me on Sat, and was just wondering how you got on with receiving the 11,000 E or not?
Thanks Clare
Please, please, please do NOT get scammed again!! Just ask yourself the question – why on earth would someone contact you to ‘purchase’ your holiday club membership for 11,000 euros; when they are apparently freely available in Gran Canaria for a fraction of this amount? Let me tell you exactly what will happen. They will bait you with this offer of a ridiculous amount of money for your membership and if you get hooked they will send you all sorts of official looking paperwork to gain your confidence. Eventually, once you are really hooked, you will be told that to get your money you will need to pay a ‘release fee’ (or some other excuse as to why you need to send them money). You pay the money and then (shock!) …nothing. Nada. Zilch. Where do you think this mystery fellow got your details from to make you such a grand offer? Probably the same company you got your membership from in the first place. In fact, it probably IS the same company. I am so sorry to write so harshly, and I by no means mean to offend or patronize. I am just trying to open people’s eyes to this sub-scam as these scammer will stop at nothing to get hold of your cash.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some legitimate companies out there who can help you get rid of your membership (not many!) but they will NEVER charge you upfront, and don’t ask for a fee until the work is done.
Good luck to all who have been caught out, just be wary and remember-if it sounds too good to be true, then you are probably right.
They are still operating – how do they find out we have voyager membership ? I have spoken to Cordula at Puerto Atlantico and she has told us it is indeed a scam.
Do not panic, my wife and I were caught out in August 2012 but have just had our contract cancelled and a full refund back to my credit card.
I sent them this email,direct to their contracts department, and it worked within days, this I believe is because they are scammers and realise that if they are threatened with the law and government bodies they panic.
Email:
Still awaiting a reply from your supposed ‘legal department’.
I now demand a refund of the —— Euro paid in accordance with Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 which applies as the payment was made on a credit card.
I have also been informed that the taking of the —- Euro is illegal and that we should have been provided with a cooling off period and a clear explanation on cancellation rules,
which we were not!
This matter has been reported to the O.M.I.C. C/ Tamarán nº 4, 35120 Arguineguín, Mogán, Las Palmas de G.C, to the British Office of Fair Trading and also the European Consumer Centre.
As the —- Euro has not been returned, I have been advised to report this matter to the British Police who have in turn will forward the case to Spanish Police.
Please also note the following:
“We have been advised by the Office of Fair Trading in England that, under the European Doorstep Selling Directive 85/577, we were entitled to a minimum 7 days cooling off period because we were approached in an unsolicited manner and taken on an excursion arranged by yourselves for consumers. As the information regarding the cooling off period was not provided in a durable form, the contract is rendered unenforceable (null & void)”
I would now suggest that you ensure that the —-Euro paid is refunded and if we are pursued for any further payments this will be deemed as harassment and the necessary action will be undertaken by the relevant authorities under the Harassment Act.
Lifestyle Holidays / Voyager Travel now has 7 days in which to reply and instigate a refund.’
Also email the O.M.I.C in Gran Canaria, they will help and contact Voyager on your behalf.
I have sent them the response above (left out the police and Harrasment Act bit) demanding the deposit back (I have not made any further payments) which resulted in the Voyager membership contract cancellation. However, received a letter from the legal department regarding the vouchers (as it is a separate contract, however both sold as one package on the spot!) saying that our contract with Lifestyle Holidays Ltd. cannot be cancelled without legal reasons. He also advises that unfortunately the widely spread misbelief, that there always is a withdrawal – right of 7 – 14 days is not correct. This is applicable only in a few, concretely regulated cases as e.g. distant selling, doorstep sales or timeshare and long-term holiday product – sales (not purchase contracts over vouchers for lodgings and cruise which were here sold ). The EU Directive 2008/122/EC and the Spanish Law ( Real Decreto-ley 8/2012 de 16.03.2012 ) do not concern the present contract for the selling of prepaid vouchers over lodgings and cruises, which can be used only one time. Also advising to pay up the remaining monies to avoid a court case as we are obliged to do that. Advising to contact them regarding a payment of an instalment until 31 Oct 2012.
This is exactly what they do, read here:- https://mindtimeshare.me/2012/08/01/bogus-holiday-clubs-and-the-new-timeshare-directive/
I have not responded to the legal letter yet.
Anyway, I wrote to the O.M.I.C (1 person only) a month ago, have not received a response yet but sent the another update and the legal letter to them (included more people in OMIC this time with the full story). Also reported the case to the Citizens Advice Bureau and the European Consumer Centre.
I am waiting for responses from these organisations. Hopefully, the OMIC will pick up my case shortly.
Sparky: who should I write in the OMIC? I have found several email addresses of individuals and a couple for the organisation.
I have used the address for Mogan, San Bartolomé de Tirajana and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria from this site:- http://www.gobiernodecanarias.org/cicnt/temas/consumo/informa/gc.html
I hope I have emailed the right people.
Please respond here…
These are the contact details where every Voyager Travel or Lifestyle Holiday’s victim should report:
OMIC (local trading standards), Oficina Municipal de Atención al Consumidor de Mogán C/. Tamará nº 4. 35120 Arguineguin Mogán, SpainTel.: 928 15 88 00 – Extensión: 2157, E-mail: omic@mogan.es
The Director is Beatriz Santiago.
European Consumer Center – ECC Madrid – email: cec@consumo-inc.es
Director: Jose Maria Tamames.
Tourist Office of Gran Canaria – Patronato de Turismo de Gran Canaria – http://www.grancanaria.com/patronato_turismo/contact.346.0.html
Director: Mr Melchor Camon.
Tourist Counsellor of Mogan – email: turismo@mogan.es
Counsellor: Mr Tomas Lorenzo.
Hi,
The following email address invalid. It has come back with error advising this email address does not exist.
Tourist Office of Gran Canaria – Patronato de Turismo de Gran Canaria – email: dpromoc@grancanaria.com
Director: Mr Melchor Camon.
Hi Jack,
This is the email address that they quote on the web http://www.grancanaria.com
Please, try it here: http://www.grancanaria.com/patronato_turismo/contact.346.0.html
Alberto Garcia
Thank you Alberto. I have registered a complaint with all of them. Since then the O.M.I.C had put some pressure on the company who has refunded 2/3 of our deposit so far. They have deducted the remaining monies in the name of almighty administration fees, but the O.M.I.C. has been chasing them for the remaining monies as they cannot do that. They must refund the deposit in full as they have already agreed on the cancellation. I have given the company this friday as deadline to refund the remaining monies otherwise I will take the stories of some unsatisfied customers to all UK major newspapers as a first step. The first easiest option is a free newspaper which is available on public transport and read by millions of people across the UK.
GOOD NEWS ALERT!!!
After sending a couple of more emails where I was advising Day International Ltd. that if they do not refund the remaining monies I would go to the media (newspapers and TV) and with the help of O.M.I.C who had also been chasing them, I did get the deposit refunded in full just before Christmas. Shame that it has taken 5 months from when I first asked for the money back. I think my idea to take the stories of unsatisfied people to the media in order to expose these scammers to the world would be feasible. It would be a bit time consuming and require a lot of communications.
We were caugtht out buy Voyager travel in May of this year.We own timeshare in Anfi and this is a wonderful resort. We parted with £650 deposit and then stupid me parted with another £1000 by bank transfer as the bank details they gave us for some bank in Morroco wouldnt go through as our bank wouldnt deal with their bank.That was when alarm bells started ringing and I looked up not Voyager but Day international marketing where I was told to transfer the money to.But I had already sent the money.We still owe another £1000 which they wont be getting.The deal was 3 years membership to voyager a voucher for a free stay in Puerto Atlantico and 4 one week
Worldwide accommodation vouchers which you receive on return to Puerto Atlantico.
One Caribbeean cruise and stay voucher from lifestyle holiday.
We have contacted them and tried to get our money back but they say they do not give refunds but they will cancel they membership to Voyager but we still have the vouchers if reply in writing and they will send us our vouchers.
Please could help us get our money back
Have got email from ora vactions saying they have paid deposit back into my bank with proof of payment attached this was mainly because I got in touch with Spanish local trading standards even after they agreed to make refund they still messed about saying bank details supplied by my bank were wrong asked for cheque but no joy got back in touch with trading standards and with in 2 days got reply with proof of payment this was only sorted with advice from Alberto Garcia as visa company said there was much they could do yet trading standards sorted it straight away all the best to everyone and hope anyone else with same problem gets there money back like I said Alberto provided more information and help than anyone else I got in touch with
We have been called today by a company called ‘holiday lettings’ can anyone tell me if they are a legitimate time share resale company. We have not given them the requested 1500euro up front fee given the advice which directed us to this site.
Hi Sorry, another Gran Canaria tale. Myself, wife and 10 year old were sucked in by the promises of 24 weeks of 5 Star accomodation over a 12 year period for £6000. We waivered and then they threw in the 5 day Caribbean Cruise and one week stay in Florida voucher. To clinch the deal they said because they had the buyng power of 33,000 members they could sort discounts on flights of up to 30% even in the school holidays. They showed us examples of cheap flights on their headed note paper with ATOL logo on them.
When I got home I logged onto various sites to find hundreds of complaints (never any compliments) about Voyager and Life Style Holidays. I smelt a rat and wanted out. I asked Voyager if they could give me some encouragement in the form of testimonials from any of their ‘happy’ customers. They said this was not possible. Something to do with data protection.
How could we trust a company that could not even defend themselves and had over 200 people who complained about them on one website? I have since contacted the European Consumer Centre (UK) and they have informed that under European Directive 2008/122/EC which came into place on 16th March 2012, Voyager, Lifestyle Holiday and Days International should, on signing any agreement in volving a long tem holiday product should have provided me with Notes of Cancellation Rights and a Prescribed Cancellation Form. The ECC are currently fighting my case to get my deposit back and stop them taking legal action for the balance of almost £5000.
Typically, Lifestyle have retorted that they do not provide a ‘long term holiday product’ they merely sell the client a series of holiday vouchers. The European Consumer Centre (UK) have now contacted their Spanish counter parts and they have promised me more information by the middle of July 2012.
If any of you out there are in a similar position why not contact the European Consumer Centre. Website easy to find via google. I guess the more numbers that complain about these people the more likely they will be stopped from spoiling peoples holiday dreams and taking their hard earned cash.
Bob & Debbie
There’s another company called ora vacations doing same sc*** in costa adeje Tenerife keep well clear totall s*** artists paid 12000euros deposit on 7/5/12 went back next day and they would not cancell agreement or give deposit back have since sent international signed letter cancelling agreement and demanding deposit back as under eu law as of march this year they must give 14 day cancellation period and not take any deposit if this does not work get in touch with visa company and ask for section 75 cash back claim they will investigate and try and get your money back hope this helps
Hello…Just to keep it short, my fiance and i (now my wife) were duped also on a holiday to Gran Canaria in February 2012. Exactly the same scenario but we parted with £2500..we feel so stupid. I have since contacted them and the response was you will not get my money back and will be taken to court so they can recoup the balance from us. We need some advice on this matter and do you think it will be possible to get the money back or should we just call it a bad experience?
Mike and Alex
hello. seemingly if you conact http://www.rdo.org or e mail enforcement@rdo.org with a brief outline, with amounts, and copies of any letter and any cc payments, they will investigate this case and any others, they are there to help people with this problem, hope this helps,karen
Thanks Karen,
The enforcement emails will come to us indeed, and we always investigate and provide advise to all consumers.
Thanks for your help & comments
Kind regards
Customer Care
hi guess we’ve been caught, on holidays last yr , where roped into going in a taxi with a guy to Club Puerto grand Canarios. paid £4000. wen home tried investigating…no joy….did phone and tried to claim money bac….sent letter to 2 places and e mails …. now ready to take a holiday…. not a clue….and my names is also Karen,
hi karen have you managed to take a holiday with ur mamebership then??
well having lived on gran canaria since 1985 and been in business here, we have seen and heard these teribble stories time and time again, i cannot beleive that its still going on, we see these workers on the street corners with their scratch cards and often feel like stopping and telling folks not to get involved, im not saying that all are bad we do have some reputable timeshare complexes here where we know of many happy owners, but obvioulsy there are the others who are still out there and quite simply con people into deals they cannot afford or want, the local govt seem to turn a blind eye maybe for financial reasons i dont know but its so sad, as this is a lovely island with some lovely hotels beaches fantastic weather, great golf , fishing, etc and these few are giving the island a bad name and have done so for many years and will continue unless someone very clever can get to the bottom of it all.
Hi Karen,
Thank you so much for this comment on our blog.
You are so right, Gran Canaria is beautiful and there are so many good and decent companies to provide excellent holidays to the people visiting the island. But unfortunately there are these others who really damage this image and people will leave and never come back if this goes on.
We really hope that things will change in a near future, because the Canary Islands is one of the best destinations for holidays and has to remain that way.
Kind regards
Customer Care
So sorry to read your story. We also are still paying off a loan of £29,000 and we are struggling.
Even the best of us get caught out by these scumbags. We have just been contacted by another company promising to help with recouping our expenses, the company is called Carmar International Advisory who “deal” with holiday clubs. Didn’t ask too many questions just told them we were dealing with the situation ourselves.
i THOUGHT THE CANARIAN GOVERMENT HAD TAKEN THESE PEOPLE WITH THEIR SCRATCH CARDS OFF THE STREETS, ALSO THE GUYS From GARNA Africa selling their sunglasses.A few years ago they did deport and cleaned up the street sellers. They obviously need to do it again. Good Luck in retrieving your money back.
This is such a familiar story & like other comments reflects this. We were caught out like this in the Canaries some 6 years ago. Why is it still happening? I thought these type of vacation clubs were shut down. Clearly not. I’m very sorry to read this. If you paid by credit card, you may be able to claim it back, however I’m sure someone at mindtimeshare could advice you on this. I hope you can get a refund. Like others we had to cut our losses.., the other problem is various companies cold calling saying they have a buyer for a substantial up front fee after buying the package. Another form of s******* victims of previous useless memberships. Plenty to read about this on this wonderful site. We are professional guys and consider ourselves not to be taken in. They are extremely clever and very skilled at presenting a good deal. So don’t be too hard on yourselves, many of us have been taken in. Only to discover that it is not quite the great deal that they sold us. We have been put off going to the Canaries, it seems to blight quite a few islands in this part of the world. Finally good luck to you both for the future and hope you get your money back
It is amazing that this sort of thing still goes on. We were taken in on a number of occassions. Some due to trying to better the situation we found oursleves in and this became a spiral. It will not happen to me again. I will now not trust anyone on the telephone, or at any form of presentation again. There are so many different ways in which you can be drawn in and then cheated on. We have probably lost around £15k to £20k through different routes, ( The major one being “Reclaim”). eg: go on a “bonus week”. Small print says “must attend presentation or you could end up paying full price”. Book our tours and inform company involved in presentation and request a time outside of these days. Message not received as it was their day off, so miss presentation and return home to a demand for full price for the holiday ..cough up a further £450 or lose your other “bonus weeks”. This was about seven years ago but still goes on. Book your tours after being alocated your presntation time. Do not wait for the note under the door or the room call.
XXXXX & YYYYY
So sad to read your story and I know just how you feel. Unfortunately you are not the first and I’m afraid you won’t be the last [but I sincerely hope the numbers will reduce over time as the message gets around] to suffer at the hands of these unscrupulous sc*****s – I could think of many “not so nice” things to call them, but not in print!!!!
A lot of us on this excellent site, have been duped by one of these companies or another so please don’t feel you are alone. Whether you get your money back is unfortunately a lottery – I hope everything turns out ok for you both and you get it sorted – unfortunately when you read the stories on this site you will see that there are usually more losers than winners 😦
Mindtimeshare – keep up the excellent work
Robert P
Hi, So sorry to hear of your experience at the hands of these awful people, you are in no way stupid, they are pressure sales people and need stringing up in my opinion, we too have been duped and the consequence is have also lost a lot of money on the promise of a cash back scheme. Hope you do get a good result.
What a nightmare! Hope you get at least some of your money back. Is this Voyager company linked in any way with a similar Voyager which is linked to Marina Leisure in Benalmadena, I wonder. They all talk a good tale, and it is so easy to get drawn in through their persistence.
Good Luck!
Al.
I read your story with a chocked up heart as it brought back the memories of my own experience.
We suffered exactly the same way as you have and lost everything and I mean everything.
To this very day I am paying off a debt of £30,000, yes, thirty thousand pounds as I took out a loan.
I have no way of getting my money back as I paid by bank transfer and not via any card.
Please don’t feel you were stupid in any way at all these people are good at what they do and would convince a blind man he could see if he paid the money.
I wish you luck dear people I really do and would you be so kind as to keep us informed of any progress.