Impact Promotions - Exmouth

[stewartjrl]

Has anyone any knowledge of this company, please ? They sound very pleasant ( and plausible, naturally ) on the telephone and are amazingly patient when it comes to rearranging failed appointments but ... the gist is a free luxury holiday for 4 and a pile of |High Street vouchers for attending ( "young children most welcome" unusually and "you are free to leave the presentation anytime" for the sake of the children ). Are they too good to be true ?

Thanks.

[HW Bex]

Hello,

Right, I have Yahoo'd,Googled and even Asked Jeeves!

I can't find anything so far!...where's that Techie when you need him?

Did they use another name in the phonecall?

If you are having to ask, then it's probably best steering clear of them untill further info is available....::roll: ...not much help so far but will look a bit more for you.

[HW Chris]

I have had a good look too. Nothing came. Do you have any other info Stewart?

...welcome to Holiday Watchdog.

Chris

[stewartjrl]

*Bex* and Chris,

Thank you very much for the welcome and efforts so far.

I decided this morning to try to "google" the address of this group and, lo and behold, the first "strike" for "Brendon House Matford Park Exeter" threw up holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=24195 where a firm called Cathedral Marketing is linked to Marina Marketing via Leisuretime Promotions. Isn't it amazing how so many companies can all be related to one address: the lessors must be making a fortune !? ::roll:

No doubt the set up looks fantastic, of course. We were caught out some years back by another holiday outfit who had leased a very expensive looking suite in Farnham. One cannot fault the technique as it takes in so many people ( including, sadly, us for a lost deposit on that occasion - although I wouldn't dream of blaming the member of my family who nearly created a scene at the thought of us missing out on such a "wonderful opportunity" ! ).

I note that one comment on the thread gives self-criticism about being "stupid". I disagree with that. The entire manner in which these offers are made are usually very believable and no different from any push for telecoms, mobile phones, broadband, utilities and the like - apart from the presentations. What I do always wonder about is how many of the staff are "genuine" and how many are "in the know". A couple of years ago I asked one gentleman trying to sell me wine by telephone whether he knew about his company's existence on a financial watchdog site and gave him details of the problems: the combination of his spontaneously horrified reaction and his whispered comment to me that he would be leaving immediately seemed so genuine that I felt sincerely that he had been totally taken in by those above him. I can only assume that this is the same for many ordinary holiday promoters.

There are several pieces of advice on this thread to stay clear, as was so rightly suggested by your replies, so I think the children will not be having a day out in the West Country after all !:thumbdow:

Best wishes

Jeremy

[Fred 2]

This sounds very like a Holiday Club marketing effort. They are very bad news and not good for your financial health.

[vaughanmaria]

Hi all,

I have had the same people on the phone to me! A guy called Tim who insists that its not a time share and there are no catchs, all we have to do is go along to the promotion in Exmouth this saturday and they will give us 4 free flights and accomodation for anytime in the next 2 years! We do have to pay an admin fee of �50 a head.

They told me the name of the holiday company was "World Of Holidays" and I looked them up on the net and the website was so amateurish that if they were ever going to compete with the likes of Thomas Cook, they have no chance! I would like to believe he is telling me the truth but I cant find anything on the web about Impact Promotions which is worrying.

I would be interested to know if anyone has gone along and what the end result was? I am thinking I might give it a miss this Sat, even though I have the all important invite!

Cheers
Maria

[Paul Cockman]

In response to the person who has asked for someone who has been to one of these promotions to post a reply.
We did go to the �presentation�. To be honest we had no intention of buying any holiday package, but I was told on the phone we were just going to pick up the free holiday and we had to sit through a presentation to get it. I asked if we had to pay any money up front for the holiday and the person on the phone said no, we did have to pay an admin fee of �50 2 weeks before we went on the holiday, once it had all been booked up. I also asked this question to the person who phoned to make sure we were going to the presentation and to the sales guy who we spoke to on the day. They all gave the same response.
The presentation consisted of a young chap going through his sales pitch for a holiday club, he wouldn't tell us the name of the company for about an hour, and then he said it was VIP. I couldn't remember all I had read about this company on the net, so we sat there and listened. Filled out his little wish list sheet, he said they could fulfil all our desires.
All sounded quite plausible. You were getting a good value for money package; you weren't getting something for nothing (he said).
He would call one of his seniors over when he was bogged down and get them to explain in more detail. (One of these looked like Jeremy Beedle, who pissed me off with his attitude).
It all went well, but they wouldn't tell me the price of the membership until I had agreed to join and I had to join that day, I couldn't take the contract away and think about it.
After about an hour, both the wife and me were just trying to wind the sales guy up, we had no intention of buying into their offer. The point at which the Jeremy Beedle look-alike got really annoyed was when I was questioning why we should pay them money, when I didn't know anything about the company, they could be just about to go down the pan for all I knew. The sales guy kept showing me the brochures and saying they had loads of money invested in property and it was all held in a trust for the next 50 years for their customers etc, why shouldn't I trust them? I mentioned about the fact that I had been invited there by Impact Promotions, who then turned out to be masquerading as another company, who then turned out to be VIP. At the word masquerading, Jeremy Beedle look-alike got really wound up and said that we would not be allowed to join, even if we wanted to, took all of the stuff off the table and said we had to go. We then had to sit about for another 30 minutes before our Luxury Hamper, our Free Holiday and our Vouchers we ready.
The �Luxury hamper' contained a tin of sliced carrots, a tin of sardines, a tin of tomato soup and a tin of tuna.
The �Free Holiday' vouchers were for a company called The Sugar Reef Travel Club, (www.sugarreeftravelclub.co.uk) and you do get a holiday, but you have to pay �50 per person, within 2 weeks of being given the voucher. I phoned the company and asked a few questions, it turns out to book a holiday you have to give them 6 months notice of when you want to go and you must give them 3 travel dates, each separated by at least 8 weeks. So another total con.
The vouchers were the only bit they didn't lie to me about, as they never mentioned a value. I was given �10 of B&Q vouchers. However, another couple that we spoke to outside said they were told they would get �100 in vouchers, they only got the same as me.
To conclude, Impact Promotions = VIP holiday club = probable scam.
If you are told that you have won a holiday, ask them to post it to you, don't waste you time attending the presentation.

[allan_2006]

Many thanks to all you good souls for your info. on Impact Promotions, especially Mr Cockman.

You've saved my wife and I a wasteful and annoying trip.

Thanks again for sharing the info.

Regards,

Allan.

[debbiew]

I am so pleased that we checked this web site before making a 2 hour journey to Exeter to pick up our "free weeks holiday for four"! this Company are called Connect UK and their offices are in Paignton, Devon. We received directions to the venue a week before and we have just put the postcode in to check the company. This address and postcode comes up with Lesiuretime Promotions!! We were also offered a luxery hamper, and vouchers for our expenses of travelling for 2 hours. I asked the very pleasant lady on the telephone on at least three occasions if this was timeshare and she said that it was a new holiday company who were looking for people to try the holidays and report back to family and friends. I now know, from reading other peoples dealings with these people and it is a complete con. We will not be travelling to Exeter tomorrow.

Debbie & Kev

[tommyd]

Went to the presentation last Sunday - sat through a presentation from VIP with Jeremy beadle his boss came over to tell us the price. Much the same experience except this time we were contacted by Call Works - The price fro 100 units was �14000 which gave us two weeks for 40 years for 8 people. But if you borrow the money this equates to �30000 plus �300 per annum maintenance and membership Plus Your fight cost and insurance plus food etc. all sounds a bit if a scam.

My 16 old son questioned him on his presentation but he didn't seem to understand that no oone is going to hand over 14 grand without checking the company out or whether some of the other companies he mentioned were better value.