A new website has been spotted for a so called Fly Buy company that offers promotional holidays worldwide against competitive prices. The name of this company is Estrella Vacations or ES Vacations.
The website we refer to is http://es-vacations.com/
This website was registered at the beginning of May 2014.
We wouldn’t be placing any article on this blog about a random company if it wasn’t for certain details that caught our eyes and seems to be incorrect or misleading.
First of all there are no company details at all on the website. Maybe they are still working on this, but one would expect at least the information on the company registration and a full office address.
The fact that the contact number they provide on the web is a UK number 01793 384 021 does certainly not mean they are based in the UK at all.
Apart from this number there are two email addresses: info@es-vacations.com and sales@es-vacations.com
So no office or postal address, not even the mention of a location of the company, no Companies House registration, nothing.
On the bottom of the web there is though a mention of “…2006 Estrella Vacations” which would indicate this company has been around since 2006. Something very doubtful if this web was only registered a couple of weeks ago…
The same applies for the “testimonials” posted on the Estrella Vacations website which supposedly are dated from August 2013 onwards.
Research from the Mindtimeshare team has also brought to light that this company is connected to Gold Crown Tenerife, a company that has been very active on cold calls in the past months and has generated a lot of complaints so far.
Looking at the information or lack of information provided so far by Estrella Vacations, we would certainly insist to all consumers to be very cautious when dealing with this company.
If you have been contacted by Estrella Vacations from 01793384021 or maybe you contacted them, please do let us know your feedback.
You can email us at customercare@mindtimeshare.com or place a comment on the blog.
Mindtimeshare 
Did anybody actually go on a holiday or receive any money back from this company? I had a phone call last year from a different company who said if I booked a holiday with them then they would give me all the money back I had originally paid! They then showed me where I had to holiday – needless to say I didn’t go and didn’t hear from them again!
Somewhat foolishly we paid £470 to this company who sounded very plausible. They offered us ‘bonus weeks’ in a variety of resorts including Florida, Goa, and Majorca. We have tried numerous times to phone to make a booking and each time we get a recorded message ‘Can’t answer your call at the moment, leave a message and I will call you back.’ Of course they never do.
I hate being taken for a sucker.
We accepted the offer of a free week ( no money requested). All we were asked to do was book our flights there and home to prove we would be taking up the offer. Has anyone else had a similar offer and if so was everything all right?
just found this website–and feel I have already been taken in by this company sadly–paid them some money and may probably never receive a holiday from them–time will tell–be warned and please let others know about this
Has anyone heard of anyone actually successfully going on holiday with this company? We’ve been given a 2 week Estrella holiday voucher by my in-laws and I’m concerned that they’ve been stung! I don’t really want to contact Estrella on the details on the voucher and end up on the receiving end of the aggressive phone calls.
Think I maybe have been stung. Paid in June and have many calls from them since and eventually arranged for Gran Canaria in March 2015 but have not heard anything since. The e-mail address comes back with an error. Have not tried phoning.
Think they got me to,went to Tenerife with a travel zoo /groupon deal,when we return got a call from estrella say that we had just returned from Tenerife ,thinking about it had a women stop me at airport to ask about holiday, think this could be the start of it,
Same patter same aggressive attitude toward the end when you ask to be called back or ask for the website details, Luckily I had my computor on at the time and was able to google them and read the comments on your website so it was then easy to say no. It all sounded good up until they wanted an immediate decision !
Thank goodness for the Internet. I just received a call from these people and was tempted. But I wanted to check them out first. So I told them I couldn’t do anything without my husbands agreement and that he wouldn’t be home until this evening. They agreed to phone back then. I have since found this website and I’m so glad I stalled. We wont be going ahead with it when she phones tonight. Thanks everyone.
We think that we are quite paranoid about scams. Thus we can’t believe that this time, we nearly got “sucked-in” by the polite, friendly and plausible Natalie and Ann at Estrella. We confirmed our names, date of birth and address and have never been previously so close to giving our card details.We then looked at this site and were relieved. Without going into detail, we can confirm that we experienced all the things mentioned by those who have made comments previously.
Just received a call now from this company with a very plausible tale about free bonus weeks. They appeared to know a lot about how Diamond Resorts and II operate but I was suspicious and refused to give out any card details on the phone. I await to see what happens in terms of a follow up call and confirmation. I shall not be proceeding since finding this website and believing it to be a scam.
I had a similar experience to annak53. I had a call from Diamond Resorts International on this number, and the English woman asked if I was the account holder. As I don’t have any sort of account with the company or any of its associates, I said I wasn’t interested and hung up. She immediately called back and said what a cheek it was to hang up on her, and started to get quite nasty, so I hung up again. This is the only cold call I’ve ever experienced where I’ve hung up (as I usually do), and they’ve called straight back to rant at me!
July 18th 2014 Helen
We just had a phone call from Natalie who appeared to convey she had something to do with Interval International offering us a free bonus week as according to their rmy records we hadn’t been offered one previously. Being members of Diamond Resorts International and exchanging on occasion through Interval so we listened to her offer thinking she was phoning from II. It did seem a really good offer and decided to take it. She asked for a credit card number which I gave. I then had to switch on my computer and the confirmation e mails came through although she did make clear that she couldn’t take the money from my credit card as she was in Tenerife. I was then phoned by my dedicated adviser Anna who said I now had to pay from a debit card. I asked the company name again to discover they had nothing to do with II. When I tried to pay the bank wouldn’t accept the security details and Anna said to phone them on the number on the back of the card and she would phone back in 30mins. In the meantime, I googled the company and came on this site. Reading the comments I decided not to go ahead. She phoned back and accepted quite easily that I wasn’t going to pay. I must say that they were very polite and plausible and perhaps are legitimate, but feel I made the right decision.
Had a call, didn’t realise who they were, and thought they were Diamond or II, so went ahead. Was still on call when received email with Estrella Vacations on it, so queried them. Said would phone me back tomorrow to answer queries I had about how they could do it. Said they would not take payment till I was happy. Phoned CC company who said could only wait before any action. Googled this afterwards…. Bugger. Any positives from people, who did get holiday ?
We had 3 phone calls in the space of 3 hours (well 5 really – more of which later!)! My husband answered the first call and let the woman waffle on before he told her we are not interested. She said if that was the case then we would lose future opportunities with them as we’d be taken off the mailing list. He said “Perfect” before he terminated the call.
An hour or so later I answered and stopped the man in his tracks before he managed to get into full flow. I asked to be taken off the mailing list as we were not interested. He said this was not possible as there are different departments with different promotions. He started his sales patter again, I interrupted and told him not to ring us again, said bye and ended the call.
Within an hour a woman rang saying she was from Estrella and I stopped her in her tracks saying this was the third call and told her not to ring us again otherwise I would rfeport them to the relevant authorities (!) and hung up. With seconds the phone rang again and she said “Hello, it’s Estrella, you’ve just hung up on us” I said “Yes, and I’m going to do it again” and hung up.
She had the audacity to immediately again, I never picked up but dialed 1471 so I know it was her.
Can any action be taken against them as I feel this was a case of harassment?
Just received a call similar to the ones above, I have had many of these in the past so I told her that we no longer owned a timeshare but that did not stop her. I requested that our number be taken off the list as we were not interested, she said that was not possible & carried on with her speel until I asked her to give me the number of the company & I would ring her back. She said no problem, then put the phone down on me. I immediately rang 1471 and got the number 01793384021. I was also contacted by Gold Crown a few weeks ago & reported that one as well.
I was contacted by this company and although I should have known better I agreed to pay for 4 weeks plus a free week in Tenerife. While they had been ‘persuading’ me on the phone I had been quickly trying to scour the net to find out anything about them and of course there was nothing except for the web site they gave you a link too. I then found the comments on mindtimeshare and my heart sank as I realised how stupid I have been. I contacted my credit card company and explained what had happened and had my card cancelled as I believed It had been compromised . I had not received the online contract at this stage and thought I was due a cooling off period and that I would be ok. They didn’t call the next day as promised but phoned twice outwith the agreed time I said I would be available. The next day I told them I had cancelled the agreement as I thought they were a *** company and after being told I couldn’t as it was legally binding they hung up. I wasn’t too bothered as I had cancelled my card so they didn’t have any of my money however I got another call today from another number 02035152118 asking me what was going on and when I said that I had used my cooling off period to cancel they said that as I had received the e-mail within 24 hours I had no cooling off time. I again told her that I thought it was a sc** and that they would not be getting any money and to take me to court if they wanted. She hung up. Watch this space…………
Thank god the Mrs was around, got to concede to her she was right to tell me it was too good as you have shown. I do love her. Probably saved me getting “stung”. A waste of nearly an hour of my life! And an argument to boot. Thank you for this website.
Had the call yesterday, told me they were offering bonus weeks for RCI and Interval International customers, of which i am neither directly. Only 100 weeks to give away and they were down to their last 8 weeks. They normally have this promotion once per year in January, but have had a surprise boost today as “Jamie” walked into the office and was told they were running this again as a one off. I did find out they are based in tenerife though. I was told that they can offer over 300 destinations worldwide, but when asked i was given a list of 12 countries that were available. I then asked if i could get a list of all the hotels – i had initially assumed that as they mentioned Interval that there would be some link with the interval directory. They cant give you a full list until youve paid up, but they did send me an email with a link to their website showing approx 40-50 hotels in total. Apparently all accomodation will be the highest standard, and when you book for more than two people you are automatically upgraded to a premium suite – with only 6 weeks notice needed too. (I feel sorry for those who booked the premium suites 12 months ago who will get kicked out!). 2 weeks for £325, 3 weeks for £425 or 4 weeks for £495 – to be used before 2018. One thing they didnt tell me on the phone was that if you go for the 4 weeks, one of them has to be taken in tenerife (this was on the email). To be honest i was tempted, but as the wife wasnt around to discuss, and to give myself time to research, i asked if they could call me back today. Jamie then spoke to his supervisor, and said they will be gone by then. When i said i was happy to take that risk, the conversation quickly died.
Thats how they started with me. said i had been on a privaliged list and it had taken 6 months for my name to com to the top and i would not get another chance
I then gave my standard answer.
“THIS IS A COLD CALL, I WILL NOT BE PAYING ANY MONEY UP FRONT TO PROTECT MYSELF FROM BEING SCAMMED” After taking me up the supervisors (persuaders) tree they said sorry to lose you and ended the conversation with you will not get another chance. They rang me again The next week as they had some cancellations to dispose of. when I challenged them that I would not get another chance How come you are ringing me? they said the lady you spoke to before did not put in a report tag to say you refused as she liked you and thought you could really enjoy being a customer.
That got me and i said I would like to give it a try but I do not have the funds available as i have to pay a big bill on extensive repairs to my house. They Said I could Activate a holiday and Pay £100 in three days and then pay the rest within the next 6 weeks I later discover that their meaning of Activation is legally binding to complete the deal Which I won’t be doing.
So be on your guard!
5 minutes ago I received a call from an Englishman who said he was calling from Estrella Vacations. I said that I had never heard of the Company and he said that that was likely but then started to come out with rubbish about Diamond Resorts bonus weeks. Since I had a similar call from Gold Crown which I did not fall for I told him not to waste my time on a scam call and rang off with him denying that it was a s***.
Have just received a similar phone call from “pushy” Mark who was determined to “activate ” bonus weeks for me immediately ie. I pay up front for something I have no information about. No way.