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Classic Escape Holidays - beware of what they offer you and how they offer it to you.
My wife and I were approached by Classic Escapes Promoters in a major shopping center in Sydney in Jan 2013. We were handed 4 scratch cards to win a prize. We scratched the 4 cards and one of those cards was a winner. We had won either a holiday, an ipad or $1500.00 cash. All we had to do is pay $50.00 refundable deposit to attend a 90min presentation at Classic Escapes head office.
We booked a date to attend the presentation. However after viewing the 4 scratch cards it appeared that the winning card was different from the loosing cards. It is possible to tell which is a winning card or losing card prior to scratching the prize/loss. Therefore the promoters can force a winning card upon you mixed in with some loosing cards making it appear that "Your luck is in".
See attached photos of our 4 cards, 3 of which are loosing cards. On the winning card there are two images that have been swapped. The picture of the Money and the Beach Holiday. Notice all the loosing cards are the same but different from the winning card. So from the very onset of this "Winning" card you have been scammed. This was also verified by some friends of ours who were also given a "Winning" card mixed in with some losing cards. The differences were the same.
We attended the presentation, was refunded our $50.00 and then we witnessed a multitude of complicated algorithms to have us believe their product offered value. Over 5000 accommodation sites they promote that we can accommodate in provided we sign up to their lengthy and costly membership time share deals. After 2 hours of time wasting, hard selling and question avoiding by the sales team we declined the Classic Escapes offer and opted to claim our prize only.
The prize was a 7 night holiday in either Queensland, Bali or Thailand. We were given a plastic card to redeem online. We were informed there is a $200 cleaning and admin bill to pay for the holiday. As we have children in our family we went online to book our "Prize Holiday" for the four of us. To include our children on the holiday it would cost a minimum of $400 upwards. So this "Winning" holiday is now costing $600.00 minimum for accommodation.
My complaint is the sneaky methods used to promote a "Win" from their scratch cards, this is not a game of chance it is a game of scam. You are only a "Winner" if you walk away and have nothing more to do with it.
Overall my wife and I feel elated that we did not sign anything with Classic Escapes. We have put in the bin our winning holiday card from Classic Escapes and look forward to booking our holiday through the normal methods using the hundreds of thousands of destinations the world can offer..
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
![Krystal International Vacation Club [KIVC]](/images/business/48-48/110399/110399.jpg){kind=small}
Representative of My Family Escape ( A unit of amour hospitality) Mr. Damanpreet Singh ( +91-[protected])-Account manager approached me for selling My family Escape Classic plan. I purchased the plan (Enrollment no 7500357) after their confirmation of availability of below hotels from 22.12.14 to 31.12.14 vide their email dt 19.12.14 ( email copy attached for ready reference)
Jaipur hotels
Lemon Tree Premier, Jaipur
Ibis Jaipur Hotel Jaipur
Ginger Jaipur
Hotel Umaid Bhawan Jaipur
Royal Orchid Central Jaipur
Delhi
Country INN by Carlson Saket – Delhi
Based upon above confirmation I paid Rs 12000/- through debit card for the above plan ( payment acknowledgement receipt attached for reference). On 21st of December I called customer care department [protected]) of My family escape and requested for below booking against Enrollment no 7500357
1. Country INN by Carlson Saket – Delhi for 25th of Dec’14
2. Hotel Umaid Bhavan-Jaipur for 30th and 31st of Dec’14.
They replied to give the confirmation of above booking against Sr no 1 by 23rd and for Sr no 2 by 26th of Dec’14.
On 24th of December’14 representative of My family Escape called me and told me that we cannot book Country INN by Carlson Saket – Delhi for 25th of December’14 and can give you Hotel Tulip Inn West– Harinagar-Delhi. I had to take this option without my interest as I already planned my trip and do not want to waste my holiday.
Again on 27th of December’14, representative of My family Escape called me and told me that we cannot book Hotel Umaid Bhavan for 30th and 31st of Dec’14 and can give you only Hotel Jaipur Palace. To my more surprised they asked me to pay Rs 5000 extra for dinner and said that it is compulsory to take dinner in the hotel for 31st of Dec’14. In view of this I had to cancel my Jaipur visit.
I hereby held ‘’My family Escape’’ totally responsible for spoiling my vacation and spoiling the memorable event of 31st December’14.
I also given my complain in writing for the above episode to My Family Escape vide email dt 27.12.14 and 01.01.2015 and asked to give fair compensation for giving false commitment for selling it’s product and spoiling my compensation.
Further many times i tried availing my nights but every time they denied and finally i put this plan in dust bin
We too were scammed by these people. We were on our honeymoon, and they nabbed us. Their 7 day clause to get out of it is a have since we didn't get back home to New Zealand till AFTER the 7 days. Its not as though anyone on their honeymoon would sit down and read all their pamphlets and brochures. We paid them off in full, and then decided to cancel as we felt we were ripped off in the first place and didn't feel that we should pay their "annual" fee for the next 20 years for nothing, since we had paid them in full. We were told you cannot cancel and that we had to on-sell to someone else. Gee, they forgot to tell us THAT part in the first place. Whats going on here. Hard selling is not on, especially when you are on holiday and don't even get back home before the 7 day cancellation clause to cancel.
That is totally unreasonable you should make a complaint to the fair work ombudsmen, the more people that do this will put these people on the radar, everyone needs to complain
We signed up then got out with it. Not easy to get out from them. We never usedvtge service. When we tried of course nothing available. We complaint first and requested to cancel the member. Of course they refused our request. So we dispute with ombudsman. Not easy tho you have to have a really strong documents to prove that they misled at sell pitch. took us almost 3 months to solved the problems. End up they pay us back all paid monies and cancellation membership.
Im complaining about thick people on here who call a marketing strategy for timeshare a scam. You receive the prize as promised provided you are qualified and do your 90 minutes. Its how they get bums on seats. OBVIOUSLY they are looking for a certain demographic.
Its all passed by Vic Permits and Fair Trading.
Has it occurred to you that you just dont get it? And thats fine just get on with your life but stop calling reputable long established businesses a scam just because you are a dumb bunny.
I agree that they must know which one is a winning ticket and which is not. We had a similar experience recently, where my wife scratched 4 tickets before hitting a winner. The sales person was 'shacking with excitement' as she put it when we scratched those three lucky stars. The catch was we had to attend a 90 minute presentation. Additionally we couldn't find out which of the three prizes on offer (Accommodation package, travel voucher, Ipad), was ours until after the presentation when they would scratch a small panel on the bottom of the ticket.
We were then asked all the normal questions and requested to pay a $50 deposit. All the time we were convinced that this seemed dodgy, but figured we had nothing to lose apart form 90 minutes. Realistically the only prize that interested us was the Ipad, and the sales person indicated this was the most likely outcome.
We attended the Parramatta office, and were immediately handed back our deposit. There were around 8 or 9 other "Lucky" couples there who had won the prize.
My wife and I sat, and waited, and sat and waited until almost 40 minutes had gone by. We were ensured that the time we spent waiting would come off the presentation and that the total stay, including wait time, would not go longer than 90 minutes. Just as a side note, almost half of the couples that came in that day collected their deposit, sat for 5 minutes, and walked out.
We eventually got up and left. An absolute waste of time. Especially as we had organised a baby sitter.
If this is an example of what their service is to offer, than thank god we weren't coerced into signing up to anything.
Curiosity got the better of me and I scratched off the winning slot on the way home. Surprise, surprise it was the least appealing prize option.
I would recommend for people to not waste your time going. I also don't agree with the $50 deposits. I wouldn't say it's a scam, but it's definitely a very tricky way to get people to attend.
Spend that 90 minutes having a nice lunch out instead of going to this presentation. That's my recommendation.
I signed up in Bali {don't no why } Michael our representative was a real jerk we were in some ### shabby apartments that were im sure not safe and ever since I got back home to Sydney and have tried to book our annual holidays, I get cheaper quotes from our local travel agent ? and half the time there location is miles away . So from a members point I have not been happy or satisfied at all with Classic ... Save your money and stay away .
Hi, we too joined in January 2013 after being sucked in and not everything fully explained to us. We have tried many times to book through them and it is always way dearer than what we can get it for ourself or they tell us we can’t go at that time. It is frustrating that we have never booked through them and yet we have to pay there stupid yearly charge & when we don’t are threatened with debt collectors. It is the biggest scam ever and all the negative comments I have read is disgusting. Classic is a massive scam