Impact Promotions - Exmouth

[webeenhad]

sorry fred2 it just sounded very much like SFM, hope i haven't caused any problems

[Fred 2]

Webeenhad - you are right - it was St Frances. The poster (and several above) should have been on the BV thread.

[surfer8]

Just a note on the bright side.. We've been to quite a few of these timeshare/points presentations and have had some great inexpensive holidays for a family of 4 for just a couple of hundred quid.

this bunch seem to be more than a bit dodgy though. we went down last weekend to 'collect' out awards only to find that they were apparenetly 'over booked' and there were no sales reps left to see us.

so we gladly accepted the £10 (even though we'd been promised £20 on the phone) and had a nice afternoon out in Dawlish in the last of the summer/autumn sunshine.

Glad we didn't have to sit though their sales pitch though. I work as a salesman in the industrial electronics industry and usually have grerat fun spotting their clumsy sales tactics and even worse closing skills.
Having sat though several presentations now, it's pretty simple to blow their sales pitch out of the water once you know their tactics.

If you can be bothered to sit through their bullying session, you can get a nice week away with the kids for less than the cost of one return flight -as long as you're not too fussy on dates.

If you do go to one of these sessions, go with the intention of enjoying it. The kids are only doing their job and they have no malice really. It's the bosses I get irritated with. Don't get aggressive, agree with everything ..then leave without signing anything and you've earned yourself a cheap break.

Mind you, this bunch can still be expensive if you've got a family to take, plus their 'admin' fee of £49 (+ taxes) soon adds up and you'll still have to avoid the sales pitch when you get their as well.
We'll not be taking this one ourselves as the current state of the travel industry looks dodgy enough and with no ATOL protection, they could quite easily dissapear again with your hard earned cash.

Stick to the more reputable timeshare comapanies and enjoy the freebies

[Vix1976]

[b]The Sugar Reef Travel Club[/b] DO NOT DO IT!!! This company does exist. It is a couple of people who have set up an office/call centre in exeter and lure people in with the promise of free holidays. They start by telling you its free then ask you for lots of fees for different items such as registration fees, then flights etc and further down the line when you've already booked your time off work and the children out of school they give you less than 10days notice telling you your departure date is in the middle of the week you have booked off and not at the start of your chosen dates. You are then given a destination of their choice (not one of your three chosen destinations) told you have to fly from the airport furthest away from where you live and if you dont take this offer you are not entitled to a refund. Please save yourself the cost of fuel, phone calls (chasing answers), postage (letters which on get passed from pillar to post) and of course the lump sums taken from Your Bank balance to ensure your Free Holiday...

[bifforedwingnut]

We attended a presentation originally through Oasis Maketing only to find when we got there it was St Frances Marketing and on pulling up in the carpark to find a bunch of shifty timeshare sales people like vultures.
Very dodgy. During the presentation there were quite a few people signing albeit slightly fake looking as they did not seem to get the same pitch as us.
Anyway.....If anyone did sign the paperwork and was told that they could not cancel there are two laws that protect you which you might want to quote back to them. Firstly, The timeshare act of 1992 which allows 14 days cooling off period also the doorstep sales act which also allows you a 14 day cooling off period for any signatures made that is not on the premises of the company for which you are doing business with ie This bunch. The deal they wanted us to sign was with GE Money for £15K @ 19.2%over 10 years for a weeks "Time share" with Classic Cruisers, A Riverboat Cruising company who deal in river boat trips on the Thames River.
We later received the holiday voucher with Sugar Reef Travel Club but after reading some of the notes posted I think we will give it a wide birth, (no pun).

[LCE]

I am one of the latest to be taken in by this very plausible scheme! The person who phoned me told me she was from Amazon Marketing (I buy from Amazon and trust them, so did not put down the phone as I usually do to telephone marketers)and told me that I had won a holiday for 4. To collect it my husband and I had to attend a travel presentaion in Marsh Barton, Exeter. There were about thirty couples at the presentation we went to on Saturday January 3rd 2009, each alloted a table with their own salesman. It was clear from the start that it was a high pressure sale for time share in a leisure cruiser business. They did not tell us the name of the company and only revealed the details of what we would have to pay at the end of the presentation when we insisted, after trying to hook us in with promises of membership of a holiday club that would give access to cheap flights and 5 star hotel rooms for the nest 10 years. They began by being polite but quickly became rude and abrasive when they realised we were sceptical and not interested in buying. The bottom line is that they pressure you to sign up on the day for a 14 thousand pound commitment (first two years interest free). I found it a very unpleasant experience. I wish I had found this forum before we went! It was only when searching for 'The Sugar Reef Travel Club' (from the 'free holiday' brochure) that I realised just what a lucky escape we had. We will not waste our time any further. It might be legal, but it is certainly not an ethical way to do business.

[Leonie]

Another one operating from the same address is End Vacations!

[CET]

I just had a telephone call tonight from Amazon Marketing who are conducting a quick holiday survey.They're obviously not very good at record keeping!

Fancy cold calling the same customers they attempted to rip off with the Buena Viva experience less than 10 months ago? Unfortunately I'd be barred if I told you what I told them to do! I'll let Trading Standards know!

[FullMonty]

Next time get a stopwatch, start it and say "What is your business with "Mr. Smith" followed by "Sergeant - trace this call......."

Time how long it takes them to put the telephone down.....

[tat]

I am yet another victim! Really it is quite astounding. St Francis Marketing call (I think) promising it is an experimental direct marketing thing. Promise a free holiday with flights at a time of your choosing. Only catch, you must sit through a two-hour marketing session. Quite sophisticated business psychology. It is very confusing. It is designed to confused and to make you feel bad, guilty. In the end you are tricked into believing you will spend GBP800 per year to join a club where you can stay in 5* resorts around the world and you will be given guaranteed cheapest flights. But actually you will be signing an agreement to pay GBP800 per year for 32 years plus GBP15,000 with payments starting in two years (plus interest) for your two week a year share in a 4 berth boat that goes up and down the thames!! It is a terrible scam and all those involve ought be ashamed. Sorry for all those who have been tricked. People are tricked every weekend in Exeter and Somerset (I went to Somerset Bridgewater, Auction Centre). Someone mentioned how on the invite they send you they use the logos of brands you can trust: B&Q, Tesco, M&S. Someone should keep this invite! It is illegal use of these logos. They are careful to take away your invite. When you tell them you are not interested after there tireless two hour charade you are frogmarched out and given your two GBP5 vouchers and a 'The Sugar Reef Travel Club' voucher. As all the posts suggest, if you pay for your 'free holiday' with this 'club' you will NEVER GET TO ENJOY IT. This website provides the basics of the scam and how to report it: http://www.oft.gov.uk/oft_at_work/consumer_initiatives/scams/bogus-holiday