No such thing as a free holiday (The Grand Vacation Club (GVC))

Member Name: markvm

Product:	The Grand Vacation Club (GVC)
Date:	23/04/03 (3101 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 'Free' Holiday

Disadvantages: Misleading Information, Bad reports from DooYoo

I was called twice to be told that I had won a holiday with a company called HDI. Both times, when I was suspicious, I asked the caller who this HDI was and they said that it was a travel company "as big as Thompson's or Thomas Cook" who had a surplus of holidays and were giving some away for free. They were also, according to this first salesperson, planning to open more shops on the High Street.

Since it was a freephone number, I called and was told that HDI were actually acting for GVC (the Grand Vacation Club), but that they were still giving away a 4* holiday for seven days. I was assured that this was nothing to do with timeshares and that there would be no selling. I asked why, in that case, the company was a member of the timeshare organisation OTE as shown on their website and was fobbed off with some excuse.

I was also told that there would be a booking fee of £34.50 per person and that I would have to give up a day's work, or a weekend, to attend a session in Stevenage to find out more about the company. The woman from HDI said she could not really tell me about the session as this was obviously a GVC thing and not an HDI thing. This was when the warning bells really started to ring and I looked here to find out what was really going on.

I am sure there are people who would benefit from this sort of 'club'. But I am not prepared to be misled in order to find out whether it is the right thing for me. I am pretty sure it would not suit my style of holiday.

Having read here about the sort of 'presentation' I am to expect I am not going to waste my time going to it - even for a free holiday. If they can't be upfront about the company, how can you expect to get good service from them later.

Summary: