newaddict

I have Ad-Block also. AlexB: I haven't read most of your rant, I'm extremely amused by how much time you must be putting into defending the dodgy tactics of The Holiday Club. Doth protest too much perhaps? They're borderline legal and the fact that they have to mislead and misinform tells me that their product is shite and their scratchie "competition" is completely fraudulent and NOT like normal scratchie competitions. Oh, I just read your last paragraph. Amusing that you're resorting to the same tactic that you're attacking me for - namely, that is assuming that your experience is proof that The Holiday Club would do something in a certain way. You have no idea what the hotel hosting the sessions puts on the information board. Neither do I. I do know that plenty of people have reported the session running 3-4 hours, and I'm more prone to believe them than your weird claim that a) lots of people are incapable of telling the time, or one hotel you supposedly worked in put times on their information boards. Though your dogged defence of the Holiday Club IS making me think that my joke that you worked for them might actually have some substance to it! Brad2912: I'm not the only one who's had a crap experience with The Holiday Club. There's plenty of others out there who've made the same mistake (or worse, actually handed over money after being pressured for hours). There's a handful for whom it works for. The fact is that the The Holiday Club's scratchie "competition" is not what Luke (in my experience) or their other employees (3rd hand experience) present it to be.

They state the presentation is 90 mins, when in actual fact it's 3-4 hours. How is that not a lie? I've offered up my experience, people can judge for themselves. In my opinion, based on my very real experience, the Holiday Club lies and misleads in order to scam people into attending their presentations, where they use high pressure sales techniques to force people into handing over a hell of a lot of money for a product they don't really want. That's pretty low behaviour in my book. The only way to combat this is to continue to spread the word so that people are more aware and can run at first sight of a scratchie. Companies with products that people DO actually want don't need to resort to such duplicitious behaviour. The Holiday Club's underhand tactics speak volumes. They're welcome to try and bring charges against me, I doubt they'd get far. I'm hardly the only person to be calling The Holiday Club out on their dodgy behaviour. Weirdly, you and your best chum (though he seems to have deserted you) are about the only people who defend them.

Wow, you two are bizarre. What's your beef with me wanting to warn people about Holiday Club? Clearly not "everyone" knows about them. Now a few more people who've read this thread do. That's all I wanted to achieve. Am I somehow hurting you or ruining your lives by pointing this out in a public forum? Do you guys work for this scam or another like it and hate seeing the truth out in the open? It's just surreal that you'd attack me so visciously, even resorting to personal insults, just because I want to warn others not to fall for the same tricks I did. There may be worse tricks out there but I don't see how that excuses this lot. I had a moment of stupidity, yes, I'm human. I'm not taking what happened to heart though. I just want to open people's eyes. Your eyes are already open to this stuff, I'm geniunely happy about that; two less people for Holiday Club to rip off. But that also means that this thread isn't for you. It's for people who are naive, like I was, and I know I'm not alone in that. Why you both are so defensive and find it so insulting that I'd want to do this is truly weird.

I have provided feedback to Wet'n'Wild, Harvey Norman, and Scamwatch. Harvey Norman have passed it onto the "Advertising and Compliance" dept but that's the only response so far. To be honest I'm not expecting much, except perhaps from Harvey Norman who won't like their name being dragged through the mud, as Wet'n'Wild must make a chunk off this fraud, and Scamwatch state clearly that they get too many complaints to have time to respond personally to each one. Regardless, I also feel it's important to provide info for everyday people who are going to find this thread (and others like it). There is luck and "free" things in our world, usually at the cost of giving away an email address so they can spam you for eternity, and I have won legitimate prizes before so while in hindsight I can see where I was stupid, the basic idea of entering a competition and winning something isn't actually that bizarre. But this isn't a straight-forward competition like that and that's where I should have stepped away, and I would have if I'd known beforehand that these people existed or spent longer thinking about it. Once we'd agreed to listen I mostly wanted my time spent on this Holiday Club thing to be over so we could actually enjoy the day but Luke kept rabbiting on - again another tactic to wear you down (same reason their sales sessions are 3-4 hours in length; you'll do anything to get out). Just because some sales bloke "overstepped" doesn't mean he should get away with it. I couldn't care less if the $20 went on food or whatever (actually, better food than their own pockets!). Luke did say it was to ensure people turned up and I get the thinking behind that (it's tried and tested psychology - invest even a little and you're far more likely to do what you've promised. In hindsight I can see that everything he did fit one psychological trick or another, eg writing and circling various things while talking to distract us from actually reading any of the print). He never mentioned timeshare, never disclosed what was being sold, never mentioned that all sessions take much longer than 90 mins (someone responded on the trip advisor forum that they went this week to the same session, they left after 3 hours 20 minutes and it was still going), and frankly outright lied about Harvey Norman so why on earth would I believe anything else he says or does including the legitimacy of his scratchies? Do some searching and NO-ONE has won anything but the holiday vouchers. That man is a liar and thus a scammer, and he represents The Holiday Club so frankly, I have no other evidence to believe otherwise. Seriously, even the junk mail you get in your letterbox has an ABN for legit companies. So I'm from NSW and am used to seeing permit numbers, got that wrong. But I work in sales. My dad works in sales. But there's sales and then there's being misleading - legal but not my kind of sales. Then there's being outright fraudulent, say, ooh, I don't know, claiming some large respected national company is sponsoring your prizes, hypothetically that could be a company like Harvey Norman, and using that fact to give your sale legitimacy. That's outright wrong. I repeat, he took me off guard as I trusted that the theme park would only have its own sales people or clearly marked outsiders who are legit (eg the Dominoes hut). More fool me to trust Wet'n'Wild, I get that. But I'm not alone in that trust and I want other people to be warned.

I know some people have a tough job, but the fact is that Luke from The Holiday Club outright lies. Yes, on paper everything is legit. Although if you look closely at the paper you'll see there's no competition permit listed. In NSW and VIC another company (or the same under a different name?) have registered competitions (http://www.classicescapes.com.au/full-terms-and-conditions-of-nsw-scratch-and-win-promotion and http://www.classicescapes.com.au/full-terms-and-conditions-of-vic-scratch-and-win-promotion) but nothing exists for The Holiday Club in Queensland. Luke also claimed to be sponsored by Harvey Norman. On the ticket there's no ABN, official website, or official address for The Holiday Club, and no Harvey Norman logos or mentions, so I doubt this is true. Basically, this is the start of a sales pitch couched in terms of a competition. The ONLY prize are these holiday vouchers, which come with caveats that are glossed over or not mentioned. The 90 minute sales pitch is always longer, plus you need to listen to another one while on the holiday you've won. Some may enjoy the free stuff and don't care if they have spend hours of their lives being pressured by sales people, but I think it's only fair that people know what they're in for, and Luke from The Holiday Club does not give that information. I've even noticed that although he's circled the caveat about the sales pitch at the Gold Coast, he didn't actually talk about that (using the words "information session). What he did talk about was how many $450 Harvey Norman vouchers and $2000 cash prizes are given away. In truth, since these scratchies aren't regulated by anyone, The Holiday Club doesn't have to give away a thing. Sales people doing their job is one thing, but this guy is a fast talker and a liar. I simply wasn't expecting any sales people (beyond the theme park's own) inside the park so I was completely off my guard and got sucked in. Cost me $20 "deposit". I would never have looked twice if he was in a shopping mall. So please don't belittle people trying to warn others - not everyone is equally savvy but that doesn't mean that dodgy companies like The Holiday Club should get away with their lies, and it's a real shame that Warner Village (in this case, it was at Wet'n'Wild) let's them in. Puts a sour taste in my mouth, and when I tell people about Wet'n'Wild, they hear more about Luke from The Holiday Club than they do the actual theme park. Is that the publicity Wet'n'Wild want?