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Nov 20

Why I think the Quality Vacation Club is a Dubious Organisation

Politics 14 Comments »
Politics Donn is being bullied by QVC for their Carlswald based marketing. He is being sued for defamation. Now I'm no lawyer, but I'm sure truth is a defence to defamation, as is it being in the public interest. If someone asked me whether to buy services from QVC, I would strongly recommend against it for the below reasons based on my experiences (and reiterated by a wealth of negative complaints on hellopeter, even with them diluted through their user of different company names, and several blogs).
  1. They misrepresent themselves. They tell you that you have won a car. When I specifically asked Anna if this had anything to do with time-shares, she said "no". I was lied to.
  2. It is so unlikely that you will win the car that the claim that, you have already won it, is misleading. Your chances are likely worse than the 1 in 15 Devine informed me of. Their business model could not survive if they had to give away a car to every 15 people. (According to their own calculations, they make an average of R54k per 59 people. Giving away a R68k car per 15 would put them at a loss of R213k before other prizes and operating costs are taking into account.)
  3. They outright lied as to how they got my details. Devine told me it was a competition I entered 'sometime'. I don't enter these sorts of competitions, and given he didn't have my surname, it is likely I didn't complete an entry. I also never give competitions in general nor QVC in particular permission to phone me.
  4. They keep changing their front company name (see the list below), nearly every company in the world tries to add value to their brand, identified by their name. Constantly changing your name, on the surface, makes it look as though you are avoiding the negative value attached, and it certainly helps to dilute their hellopeter scores.
  5. They ask you to bring a partner for what appear to be mischievous reasons. A close personal friend (who shall not be named due to fear of intimidatory litigation) who attended one of QVC's presentations said he and an older man and his wife were belittled in front of their wives for not being able to afford a break for the family. They will likely counter that they ask you to bring your partner to help drive the other car if you win. However, when I asked to bring a male friend of mine, Devine got insistent that it be my wife.
  6. Devine asked me how my surname was pronounced as he was unsure of how to pronounce it. The implication was that he had my surname. Given my surname is very pronounceable, it was clear he was trying to elicit this information by false pretences.

That's all I have, as I didn't go to their presentation thanks to the information provided to me by people such as Donn and numerous other sources (including the press). Their information allowed me to make an informed decision, and have QVC's untruths shown up as such. Disseminating this is in the public interest. At the very least it will save some people a potential waste of their time (as many of the hellopeter comments are thankful for), and at best it will force QVC to engage in honest and transparent marketing.

As an aside, and to help Donn's case, here are their hello peter stats per 'front' company:

Total 184 Complaints and 26 Resolutions in the last 12 months! That's an average of 15 complaints a month (there's that number 15 again) for the company names I've manager to track down.

P.S. This is like tracking a botnet :)

Posted by Dominic White

Last modified on 2008-11-21 12:31

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14 Comments

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  1. Shady says:
    06/10/2009 06:16:07 PM

    From what i heard they get your details of applications on Facebook etc.i also got the call yesterday from world connect

  2. uerith says:
    06/14/2009 11:58:37 PM

    i think quality vacation club is a scam. we went to a presentation with mark keyser on 9 june 2009 in stellenbosch. we informed him we need notification from our accountant before we can proceed. he informed us that we must just sign and we can come back to him the nexts day. the nexts day a staffmember contacted us that they are trying to put a payment through. we informed her just to cancel as they never waited for confirmation from us. mark called us and we said he should cancel as he lied to us. this morning R37000 was debited from our business account. mark informed us that we have to pay. this is fraud and we want this to be sorted out. dont deal with this people liars

  3. Annamarie says:
    06/18/2009 03:50:24 PM

    Well Well Well ! ! Me and my family were on our first holiday in 22 years when we were stopped by a lady, and said we must pick a number. Instantly that number was a winning number, and we had to follow her to claim our prize. Well, now we had to spin a well with hundreds of balls to see if we won ! We spin - sorry, no win, but follow me, not done yet, one more chance. We were sat down at a gentleman's desk, and we were asked a lot of questions about vacations and holidays. As this is our first holiday in 22 years, and enjoying it to the fullest, what could spoil it now!? Well, after we were told that we could go on holiday every so often, at a fraction of what we were paying then by paying a small affordable amount of R500 per month (we got to choose how much we are willing to pay each month). (Why wasen't I smelling a rat immediately !) We actually paid a deposit of R16 000 rand there and then, and we could choose when the first payment will be, so we chose a date 3 months down the line, as we had to recover from the big spending holiday. After 5 months paying our R500 plus (unexpected and uninformed) other costs, now totalling close to R700 per month, we decided on a small get-away of 3 days. Very confident we called to make the arrangements and bookings. WHAT A SHOCK WE GOT !! Now, for the very first time, we heard that we first had to pay a management fee before we could use our vacations !!!!!! This is where the trouble started. Big fights followed, but to no avail. We refused to pay another cent, and cancelled the debit order. But hey, no luck, they change the amount every month !!! There goes your money !! Eventually we had to switch banks to stop these debit orders (Yes, now it's 3 of them !!!!!) We challanged them to sue us, so we could go to court. We never heard of them again. Until we wanted to start our own business and needed to open a trust account. There we were in all our glory !! QVC blacklisted us seperately. Each of us for the full amount that we owe them (I still do not know how they got the amount, as this is a never ending vacation club!!!!!!!!) THESE PEOPLE ARE WORST FRAUDULANT PEOPLE I HAVE COME ACCROSS IN MY LIFE !! They even contacted our children telling them (each one on different occasion) that they have won this car, and must bring a partner to drive the car home. I warned them that this is QVC, but wouldn't believe me, because they used different names each time. So, I went with each one (each on seperate occasions), and what do you know !! The very same people that scammed us when we were on holiday, were there !! I walked towards the gentleman to confront him. I never knew an adult could disappear so quickly right in front of your eyes. Within 10 minutes the room was empty - every table and every consultant !!!!! PLEASE PEOPLE, WARN EVERY SOUL AGAINST THESE FRAUDS!!!!! SOMEHOW, WE MUST STOP THEM!! ANY SUGGESTIONS WITHOUT COSTING ME AN ARM AND A LEG???

  4. Alison says:
    06/19/2009 07:38:54 PM

    We very recently went to a presentation at Carlswald. I had a call to say I had entered a comp on my phone, highly unlikely, in about March this year. They were now ready to do the draw. Draw for what I asked? Big prize is the Chev Spark I was told but noone will go home empty handed. I was invited to bring a partner but not for any specific reason. I called the next day to get the address and asked what timeshare they were promoting. I won't mention names but was told that it wasn't timeshare. I asked what the presentation was to be on and again was told there was no presentation, merely the draw and to stay for a bite to eat if we wished to do so. We went along because we are vaguely interested in getting into a timshare setup but in all honesty you have to be an idiot if you don't realise it is a timeshare presentation when you get those kind of calls. Why go if you just wish to cause C*@p. There are a lot of people out there who have a lot of success with timeshare. I have no idea why they cannot just attempt honest marketing and attract those who are interested. We will decide after we have attempted to make a booking for the week holiday that we drew on the evening. Am expecting to not be able to get a booking when we would like it and to be asked for some sort of booking fee which they neglected to tell us about. Will advise later how it goes.

  5. Ellen says:
    06/20/2009 09:51:57 AM

    QVC after reading this i can relate, the same thing happend to me and my husband while on holiday PICK A NUMBER... in anycase when we had gooten home my husband imidiately canceled and we were reimbursed, now 7 years down the line we get a letter stating that we would be list...we don't even know our so called membership number, what do i do ??

  6. Andre Swanepoel says:
    07/25/2009 06:55:00 PM

    I have been a "member" for 10 years and still only have 40 UNITS! I have tried to speak to someone responsible, apart from the "parrot fashion" switchboard operator, no avail. I have emailed the chairman, no avail. How can i get someone to respond?????????????? PLEASE HELP!

  7. Jill says:
    07/31/2009 05:48:13 AM

    Thanks to everyone for writing about this scam. I was getting excited, as I was hoping this time it wasnt a scam, as it is in Fourways - it appears it's all the same scam - I had the same calls from a guy call Ben. Now I wont be wasting my time - thanks to you guys

  8. Henk K says:
    08/10/2009 08:23:04 AM

    How do I get out of this? I also got 30 units, but can't do anything with it, as you need more than 30 units for a good holiday. If someone have successfully got out of this, please inform us!!

  9. Arthur McDermott says:
    12/29/2009 09:32:06 AM

    All the above are true these guys are the worst in the industry ..what a bunch of blood sucking crooks ! You will never win the car at a competition you never entered for.You will never find a propper destination always "fully booked" even the following year ! I was promissed that this will not be the case by a Mr H Jackie Raad."you will always get a place even better than Holiday Club" he said.That's not the case i can assure you all ...Holiday Club is a lot better ,very good and very professional i can recommend them any time ! These promises maid by Qvc - Jackie Raad is misrepresentation and maybe we all should stand together and take them to court on that ! You will never get to a stage where your account is paid up Not in 20 years ! DO yourself a favour..Go on the internet ,deside where you want to go and you will find hundreds of very good guesthouses cheaper than QVC even breakfast included or self catering if you want too ! I will proof that to any QVC employee ! QVC was my biggest mistake in life. I dare them to proof me wrong.Do not get involved with them at all !!!!!!!

  10. Samantha Mampane says:
    01/12/2010 11:02:25 AM

    me and my husband were lied 2 by QVC about winning a car. We got there, no car, instead we were told about timeshares. We signed for 40 points. They started debiting R690 after 3 months the was a further R380 for management fees and R43 for something. Called these people several times to cancel but they wudnt hear of it, they refuse. Its been 4 years now and they stil after me threatening to take me to their lawyers. I refuse to live my life like this, please help, anyone

  11. jakes says:
    01/18/2010 05:28:56 PM

    Why don'y you just call Ian Leslie Wilcocks, who is behind all this on 082 809 1900 or John Wills Meyer, who is the chairman of most of the share block companies in the Quality Vacation Club stable on 082 558 6448. They should be able to solve your problems.

  12. Salo says:
    01/28/2010 04:20:32 PM

    Very Quickly, my story is exactly the same as many of you. We refused to give our bank details at the time of signing, which was the 19/01/09, sent a cancellation request on the 24/01/09. Feb 2009 QVC requested bank details, we said we sent a fax, they insisted they did not receive it, we have confirmation. Only to be notified Jan 2010, we have been Adverse listed. The Credit manager insistes the 24th Jan is the 6th day therefore outside the cooling off period. we was told the cooling off period starts on the 20th Jan, does not include the day you sign. Please read the Credit manager's email below: "The 5 day cancellation clause includes the date of signature irrelevant of the time of signature up until midnight. As the contract was cancelled on the 6th day we cannot accept this as being cancelled within the time frame allowed. The client had up until the Friday at midnight to cancel.The clients are well within their rights to seek legal counsel and any action will be defended. The contract as it stands is a legal and binding contract enforcable by a court of law. The ITC placement will stand until such time as the client is prepared to make payment in order to bring the arrears up to date. Should the clients wish to make payment we will then clear their record at ITC, but cannot do this until payment is received.I believe that the client should consider this as a cheaper option as the contract is legal and binding and lawyers are expensive for all.I trust we can resolve this matter, if we can be of any further assistance to the client we would be happy to help but according to our mandate unless the client is prepared to settle their debt with Easy Holidays I can see no other way forward and believe that we are wasting time debating the issue back and forth." Tried calling Mr Wilcocks, no joy, now back to square one, he has passed me over to his colleague in Durban. What do I do? Can anyone please help me????

  13. Dominic White says:
    01/29/2010 08:42:55 AM

    Hi Salo, they are playing scare tactics, you have the proof of fax, you can probably have the contract invalidated at a magistrates offices or small claims court (I am not a lawyer though). It would be cheap, but you'd spend at least half a day. Once you have that you use the court's determination to have ITC lift the poor rating, and officially complain about Easy Holidays.

  14. Salo says:
    02/01/2010 09:18:28 PM

    Hi guys for some good news. I received my cancellation letter, a letter my name will be removed from itc and an email stating my deposit will be refunded. The attorneys letter worked. I also contacted the shareholders and trustees of easyholidays. My advice to you all is just be persistant and don't give up pursuing qvc/ easyholidays.

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