Thursday 9th of July 2009

Hi Tony,

I wish I had seen your website prior to going to Bali.
We also fell for this...

Similar to yourself we were told with much excitement that we ha the only 'star' prize handed out that week, and that the chap handing it out would be entitled to USD50 if we just went for 1hour to this presentation. We thought it would be of no harm and it felt good that this chap would get something, well really quite a significant amount, for a little of our time.
He did say that any of the 3 prizes could come up.

We had the same Australian sales man as you - Chris. I must admit he did give us an idea of some of the places to see while in Bali...however the whole experience started to wear very thin after the first hour and a half when he had not even got to the point of what exactly he was selling us...let alone any mention of a price. We asked him to speed it up and he called over 'James' for 'permission to do so...I have no idea what that was all about..

He mentioned joining this club where you could have family holidays for a very cheap price. He asserted that these packages were available at thousands of resorts around the world..
He talked of buying real estate - 1 week - and that there were different bits of 'real estate' that one could buy - and that he had bought the cheapest bit as essentially this investment should be seen as a 'key' that 'unlocked' access to other great benefits.. He mentioned annual membership fees which varied depending on which investment you made.

I cannot be absolute about the figures however it was something like $500+ for Goa and $600+ for Bali, and he indicated that they were going to start a resort in Australia in Margaret River WA which would have an annual fee of $1800+. This apparently gets you access to cheap accommodation... and apparently you do not have to stay where you purchase your piece of real estate...Apparently you somehow get access to cheap flights and other bits to add to the 'savings'.

I guess it is all somewhat irrelevant if you do not fall for it. It would appear that one weeks holiday could be very pricey in the end.

However, if you do fall for it and sign something, and pay a deposit then I would suspect you would be committed. They talk of 21 days cooling off - however also make the statement that this is to allow time to research it all when you get home - they do not say you can get out of the contract.

I hope that others read your site and do not fall for this scam.

There were multitudes of hawkers handing these tickets out throughout the whole of Kuta and Seminyak areas.

We have certainly wised up a little...however it was a disappointing experience in an otherwise enjoyable time away.
I will be keeping an eye out for the WA resort, however suspect that they will be subject to normal Australian time share laws.

Regards
Kerry