Quality Vacation Club
by Stii
An Apple Mac is a wonderful piece of hardware. See, its got this little application called a Dictionary. When I first heard that Donn Edwards is being sued for R461, 500 because he believes he was scammed by QVC (a.k.a. Quality Vacation Club) I did what I’d normally do and consulted my trusty Apple Mac Dictionary.
The Dictionary app not only gives you the Dictionary definition of the word, but it also has a Thesaurus section giving you related words. Here is what it returned for SCAM:
the scam involved a series of bogus investment deals fraud, swindle, fraudulent scheme, racket, trick; informal con, hustle, flimflam, bunco, grift, gyp, shakedown.
Aha! Trick! Lets see what the Dictionary app has to say about Trick:
a cunning or skillful act or scheme intended to deceive or outwit someone : he’s a double-dealer capable of any mean trick.
Hmmmmmmmmm…. Isn’t this exactly what happened? I mean, didn’t they “trick” Mr. Edwards in coming to their presentation by telling him he’s won a car, just to find out later that he’s been tricked and in fact didn’t win anything, but in fact lost precious time?
Bloggers being sued is not new. Hell, bloggers have been jailed for the things they’ve said! Still, they just won’t shut up. Viva La Revolucion!
Suing Donn Edwards might not have the most clever move. I mean, if one single blog post lost them about R300 000 of income, what is all this talk not going to do?! They should be losing millions by now. Here is some links to other sources:
Quality Vacation Club on Afrigator
Here is some posts and articles not on Afrigator:
Timeshares, annoying phone calls & lawsuits by Roxilla
Holiday Club is a SCAM by Make a good house a GREAT home
Is calling people and telling them they have won a prize a scam? by Guy McLaren
Timeshare ‘sales scam’ on IOL
Why I think the Quality Vacation Club is a Dubious Organisation by Dominic White
Quality Vacation Club Bullies Blogger also by Dominic White
…and I didn’t even spend a lot of time digging!
So here is my advice to Quality Vacation Club:
Instead of spending a bunch of money suing bloggers, rather invest in buying some Macbooks for you and your staff. Then next time you get accused of something, consult with the wonderful Dictionary application and see if maybe, just maybe, there isn’t validity in the claims. Could save you millions…
Or, invest your money in something really good; get a toshiba, WITH Windows Vista ;-)
Surely you’re jesting?! lol
hehe.
You can add my one to the list as well:
http://www.roxilla.co.za/2008/12/01/timeshares-annoying-phone-calls-lawsuits/
Doh, already there. :-P
Hehehe, love it! Maybe all of this bad PR they’re receiving will help them see the light and they’ll drop the charges. Maybe someone will turn the tables and sue them. Mmm, a man can dream can’t he ;)
Has anyone mentioned it on Digg or Muti?
@Donn, its been all over Muti. Dunno about Digg, but I’ll add the Afrigator page and send some shoutouts.
@Norio Now you’re talking!
if you post it to digg, please send the link to me as well, or tweet it, or whatever.
Okay, I’ve dugg it. Please go digg it now!
http://digg.com/tech_news/QVC_Scam_Blogger_is_being_sued_for_complaining
On my way!!
good to see so many people getting behind this!
Hmm nice post man, keep up the good work :)
In 2003 I was conned into buying QVC points, first things first you get the call from them where they state that you have won a choice of prizes and that you must come through to receive your prize, so off you go…
Upon arriving you sit through a presentation for their sales pitch and they then go on to tell you how fantastic their packages are and that you will be buying into something as safe as houses. You then have to sit through the paper work of explaining how you will be benefiting for future holidays and then only can you go and try out their draw to see what prize you have won, although in my opinion you only get a holiday and never any of the other prizes that were mentioned in the telephone call.
At the time I was still very young and was very interested in the idea, so I made the decision to sign up for what I believed at the time to be very lucrative only to learn later on how binding the contract would be, never the less you aren’t given the opportunity to think it out as it’s a “once in a lifetime” opportunity. So you then proceed signing a contract, which is done in an environment that no sane person would be able think it out since you are continually bombarded to hurry up. That said and done the contract was signed and sealed and they managed to talk me into management fees and levies because I was unable to pay a deposit and at the time you do not realize the implications due to the rushed environment.
The time came for my first payment to be made and I realized about the levies and management fees that were to be included into the payments, there is not much emphasis paid to these while signing the contract, and the biggest problem is that it can escalate at QVC’s discretion. More emphasis is paid to the amount payable for the points. I have now been a member of QVC for 6 years and the annual increase are not pretty.
So what is QVC’s solution to getting “out”? You need to go to one of the resale agents that will market your points after paying a marketing fee. The fee is reasonable; although the only guarantee is that the resale agent is one of the best in the market at reselling the points, although I would imagine that many people like me are in the situation that they are willing to give their points away at a loss. There are many laying around on systems globally that no one is will to take over, so the final outcome is that you will still be stuck with your points.
I have done the whole Google thing to discover more people like myself who are sitting with Vacation points regardless of whether it be QVC or one of the others, although I have not discovered many as yet that can offer a solution to getting “out” of their contracts, so I appeal to any person/s that have fallen into the same “trap” that I have and even lawyers/advocates that are willing to make their comments.
I am sure there are many people out there that would wish to get out of their “soul damning” contract as I do. So let your voices be heard and let us together find the solution, life is never without hope.
hi all i find that not even my children want my points because of the escalating
annual fees.
really need to get rid of this financial burden
any info out their
I have also fallen into this trap & have tried to contact the club several times with no luck. I have now sent an email to Speakout (program on SABC 2 for consumer rights asking them to assist.
Maybe if the lot of us will put through our complains to the program, it can be investigated & the company could be approached.
The other thing is to stop payment & see if really they can take us to court if we form a big group and even sue them.
Come on guys & ladies, nothing is impossible, let’s form a group, meet & involve the media. These people can be stopped since more & more people get in this trap every weekend.
Hey Thuli,
I have followed your advise and also sent a message to Speakout now on SABC 2 regarding this matter.
Please those who do the same please let it be noted here so that we can atleast see if we have any numbers behind us.
HI
I am also going to send a message to speakout – this seems to be the only available platform. I am getting no response from QVC -
Hi Thuli
I have followed your advise and also sent a message to Speakout now on SABC 2 regarding this matter.
I really feel we can do more.They hate bad publicity.I think we need to write a letter to them asking for our contracts to be cancel if not we will start a pertition and even toyi toyi with media to the offices.
I’m in the same boat – I cannot believe these guys are getting away with this! I paid a deposit and still had to pay management fees and levies. And I was told I’d get a title deed for the investment I was making. And when you query, either the number’s unlisted, the consultant is in hospital with a heart attack, they’ll get back to you or the manager is rude and refuses to see you!
I’ll get onto Speakout too because VOASA is not interested in helping us because the contract is binding and there’s no evidence because it’s so long ago (I signed up in 2005) and the agents won’t sell the points until it’s paid up and then they keep telling you it was terribly expensive to start off with! I think I paid R1000 per point and I’ll maybe get R350 per point back if they can sell them.
i want to sue quality vaction club. they are liars. please contact me 0726380718
I was a employee of QVC and also own many units. I retired last year, and find that the units were the best investment my husband and I have ever made. We use our units extensively and enjoy the resorts that we have gone to. The management fees may be a bit high, but then the fees are very wisely utilised in keeping the resorts that they own up to date and clean.
We will never be sorry that we bought units.
Then are we not allowed to cancel?
I tell you what. How about another investment. I bought 30 points a few years ago for R30K. Been paying all my fees loyally with some expiring every year. R25K and they are yours. Cannot see how you want to miss that deal…
I purchased 30 points in May 2006. To date I have paid in R20,262.00 towards the cost of the points, (total being R34,500.00) and R10,903.00 in management fees. The balance remaining is R24600.00. I havn’t calculated the intrest but it seems pretty high to me! With having to fork out close to R12,000.00 PA on management fees & payment towards the 30 points, we have not had the money to to go on holiday. We gave 120 points to World Travel to sell 12 months ago and they have not yet managed to sell anything. 30 “free” points expire in December 2009. Now it seems there is no way out of the contract without losing 90% of what we have paid in. If I had had all this information before being nailed by QVC I would never have bought into QVC, and we would have been able to afford a few weeks holidy every year as we have always done in the past.
All this about QVC is so familiar, and I find myself in a similar situation, with 60 points and huge yearly increases in management fees. After investigating selling the points, and being confronted by a slew of advertisers with the same idea, we have decided to cut our losses and give up the points.
If you are considering getting an agent to sell your points on your behalf, take care with those folks who ask you a fee in advance – there is little to motivate them to sell your points. The other option – paying an agent a percentage following a sale – is just not available.
My impression is that this business is just full of scam-artists. The decend thing for QVC to do, would be to offer to take back one’s points, even if it is at a reduced price. However, they are a bunch of scum-bags who balance on the sharp edge of decency vs rip-off.
If you really want affordable holidays at reasonable prices without being tied into unreasonable and escalating contracts, you might as well become a member of organisations like WTI or DAE; the membership is either very small or free and choices of resorts and times extremely wide.
I too am in this freaking hell boat and want out. The whole thing was sold to me under very false pretences and the guy that sold (sorry scammed me) into signing up no longer works at QVC so no luck getting back to him.
Now I have been handed over, and the Law firm involved tried to make a deal where I can get my whole thing going again…. HELL don’t they understand I DONT WANT THIS!!
The Sales (SCAM) person told me not to be worried as there is no serious obligation as i can forfeit the whole thing or sell it at any time in the future. LYIER!!
Is there anyone out there that has managed to have this whole thing just go away? I don’t mind forfeiting the 10000 I have paid already. I just do not want to continue with this bogus establishment
francois
qvc points are so bad , qvc dont want it back for free.I asked qvc to put everythig I bouht from them in a box and send it to me,and I received exactly that NOTHIG besides a contract that can never be canseld .
I have already replied before, but QVC units are the best thing we ever bought. We have just had a weekend at Castleburn. Well that was like being in heaven. The place was very clean, the units well furnished, and the restaurants very well presented. We know the management fees are a bit high, but was does it cost today to replace articles, furniture, upkeep of the gardens and the recreational activities. Any body want to give some of their units for nothing we would be prepared to take them from you. If you wanted to go on holiday you would pay a lot more than your units for the short stay. Here once you management fees are paid you may book anywhere in the RSA. Maybe some of you do not have sufficient units to obtain decent accommodation. Maybe some of you have not paid your fees, and that is why you think that you have a raw deal. Believe me the prizes offered by the telemarketers are real, as I have seen them in the offices
I have bought 50 points, with an additional 10 bonus points, which are supposed to expire some time soon. Currently there are 116 points available for use. These points have been paid in full. You can have these points if you want them, provided you take over the contract and the levies to be paid annually. Currently there is an amount of R2 251.69 outstanding, which would be payable by you should you decide to take over the contract.
How much are they paying you to say this? QVC are sharks with no concience and no morals or ethics. And no one wins any prizes except the trip to Mauritius you still have to pay the airfare for!!
Ha, Ha
tony & colette,
What a scam, we were also called went to the presentation, the after SPEED talk we were asked “how many times a year do we go away – 3-4 times at a R1000 per week -end. They showed us a few places on the net available for R500 for the weekend . Impressed Yes! -so we asked the question are there levys -ans NO. We bought 30 point at a special!!!! great untill you see a bill with a mangement fese of R3500 before you have even started getting your access to the net. – QVC what goes around comes around. SHIT HAPPENS.
FOR degville: I will pull your bluff: you can have my 70 points with my blessing, for: FREE, MAHALLA, NOTHING, ZILCH, ZIP, NICHT, NADA, NULLA, ETC MY EMAIL ADDRESS: tspavlovic@gmail.com
Sure I will take them over, but I will not pay the transfer fees or any outstanding fees.
degville contact me i can offer a you deal how much are the transfer fees ?
unique64@webmail.co.za
I will take the units, but it seems as if I have called your bluff, as I have not heard from you. I will pay the transfer fees.
Lets see if that is what you want
For Degville: NO BLUFF AT ALL. Did not expect to hear from you. Anyway, The way I understand the deal is as follows:
1. Our 70 units are paid up, and will be given to you, FREE OF CHARGE.
2. 76 units are still available for use this year, and will be given to you FOR YOUR USE.
3. You pay transfer fees.
4. Management fees of above 70 units are upto date.
5. Transfer occurs before 1st December 2010, and you take over MONTHLY management fees once transfer occurs.
If that is the case then it is a DONE DEAL.
Let me know ASAP so I may arrange the necessary documentation. You can contact me on 0844680222 any time.
Sasha
This whole shit is trash. BEWARE you get absolutely nothing. Ive approached the Office of the Consumber Protector – hopefully some light. Signed contract or nto its a scam. You get calls from all over and never gets a response. We have been offered a contract without having to pay the R3000 admin fee next thing its being taken from my credit card. The clause that apparently you have to resell is shit – no one can force you into such thing. I will not give up the fight.
At some point i was forced to take over my late husband points (40) of them that he happened to bought them for him & his girlfriend worse of them he and the girlfriend forged my signature and bought the points,
Today i am stuck with huge money instalment of rands to be paid to QVC and
the reallity is i cant afford,i dont need points ,not planning to go to any holiday by myself
Anyone willing to untie me by taking this points for free is welcome contract me at 073 386 1963
Any lawyer / attoney willing to assist me welcome as well.
I have 50 points that I am willing to give away for free(Paid in full) as I cannot afford to continue, please contact me on 07276223701
I have spent a while now reading through everything everyone has had to say, and as interesting as it may appear no one is offering any real assistance or advice on how to get out of this. My fiance and I are in the same situation, I was 7 months pregnant with my son when we received the same call that we won a car, extremely excited and never having heard of Timeshare before attended the presentation as well as the sit down afterwards.
Less than a week later once we had some time to read through their “fine print” we contacted QVC and requested to get out of our Contract, we even offered to continue paying off the bond account as long as we can get out of it, we were told it is a lifetime contract and there is no way of getting out of it not even AFTER DEATH!! – that if we have a WILL and anything is left to anyone the QVC Contract will be going to any Beneficiary stated in your will.
How can this be legally possible??? How can anyone be held accountable for someone elses debts??? How can we knowingly do this to our children???
We have never been in a financial position to truly afford QVC, we have been in arrears continuously and it is affecting our names all the time, they have threatened us on numorous occassions that we will be held accountable for all Legal Fees should we not pay, and we have had to have our Bond Account refinanced twice so far already.
We bought 60 points with QVC in 2001 and at the time the cost for the Contract was R 40000.00 and the Management Fee was R 2500 plus minus per year, it is now almost 10 YEARS LATER and the Management fees have gone up by 15% per Year and are standing at just over R 6200 per year now and we still owe over R 16000.00 on our Bond Account because they structure your payments so low that your interest is almost the same monthly and you hardly ever really get to pay the Bond Account off.
We have been so see people that sell timeshare, we have tried to sell it ourselves and we have not had any luck at all???
We have also never ever used QVC to go on holiday in the times we have tried to make a booking we were not allowed to do so either because we were in arrears or because we needed to book atleast 6 months to a year in advance who on earth in the real world can plan that far ahead????
Where are the Laws in our Country that is supposed to protect us from SCAMS and it is a SCAM Regardless of what some might say – they probably get paid by QVC to make false statements on Websites or they actually work for them!!!!!
And where are the laws that protect our Children so that they cannot be tied into our Debts!!!?????
I would love someone with the power to assist with this matter to do so, so many need it including us!!!! :’-( 0722369122
File a request with Hellopeter.com asking that they assist you in making a suitable booking.
If they cannot provide you with a booking to your satisfaction then tell them you no longer wish to pay the Management Fee, and cancel your membership. Send this in writing.
Legally, once you signed the contract you had a few days to change your mind. That’s all. I don’t think this applies to the Management Fee, only the “bond”.
If the HelloPeter contact person can’t or won’t help, ask to speak to Ian Wilcox. He’s a nice guy and I’m sure he’ll be reasonable if you are too.
We have started a group on Google Groups as points owners to collectively share ideas about what to do next about this issue.
Together we will have more options bandied around. In addition, we may be able to use our collective sense to approach influential bodies like industry ombudsman and Customer Protection.
Join us be registering http://groups.google.com/group/thc_action?hl=en_US
The group is a private group, meaning you must be registered to take part in discussion threads.
Hi Prad,
I am glad you have started a group that will be addressing this issue. Although I am NOT an owner of this scheme, I have helped a friend on this issue, as well as managed to offload her membership.
In so doing, I have established that there is a HUGE amounts of people in the legal que. As far as I am concerned, there is an easy way out.
Personnaly, I would challange QVC on their sale of points. Fact of the matter is, they are selling POINTS THEY DON’T have.
How is that possible. Easy. As soon as you fall behind with your payments, they “suspend” your account and these point are then recirculated back into the system and / or sold off. This is illigal. You can’t sell something that’s not yours!! When your account is suspended, so must be your points. These are your points you have bought, and NOT for anybody else’s use.
So, what I am saying, assuming ALL MEMBERS paid up and were upto date, QVC actually DON’T have enough points to accomodate all their clients.
Good Luck
Hey Sasha,
Thanks for the advise, however, we have tried to request assistance from Lawyers, Even giving our whole Point System away for free and nothing … absolutely nothing.
I get what you are saying that they are selling points they do not have, however, they will fight that by making up false figures should they ever be challenged with it in court and how to get it there would be another question.
QVC has a whole Legal Department larger than some of our medium sized businesses within SA, and there is no proof substantiating that anyone has ever managed to get out of it or won a court battle against them yet.
Sorry for being so negative, I just fear that there is no light at the end of the tunnel as we have been tied into this for 10 years now and never used it once yet.
Also, Prad I did send a request to join your group.
Don’t waste your money on lawyers when there are plenty of other methods.
a) Stop all payments to QVC until such time as they can actually provide you with a holiday booking they advertised. It’s your money after all.
b) Complain on Hellopeter. See Don’s post above.
c) Phone their call centre and ask for a meeting with Ian Wilcox. Accept no substitutes and if you don’t live in Pretoria then insist that the meeting venue be your nearest QVC “resort”.
d) Threaten to take the matter to Noseweek. They have published articles about QVC before.
e) Waste their lawyers’ time. There are plenty of creative ways of doing this: phone calls, faxes, emails, emails following up on previous emails, etc. The reason they have so many lawyers is because they know they can only scare people into paying. Their scare tactics are bogus and they don’t want the public to find out, so they will avoid high publicity cases.
Hi, even though it might seem a long time since you have posted this, I think it will help cos I had stopped the payment but restarted again after Sharon had contacted me.
it does not help me at all to continue paying for services not delivered.
Hey again Thuli,
Regarding stopping payment, many suggest it however I don’t recommend it at all, you will have a better fighting chance should this ever go to court if you uphold all aspects of the contract from your side.
Several years back we did not make payments to QVC not because we didn’t want to but because we really could not afford to, they blacklisted us and then they finally made us refinance our Bond account and then added an additional R 10000.00 to it for back payments and Legal Fees due … so ultimately by not paying them they will just charge you for every phone call and every letter they send to you … but they will demand the money from you.
Unfortunately for us as much as we all hate QVC the contract we entered with them is Legal and Binding and the new consumer act only protects those that enter into these contracts from 1 April 2011 not those prior to that … all we can do is hope that either someone takes our points, buys our points or that somewhere in the future consumer acts are changed again in a way to assist those of us who are completely stuck atm.
Speak again soon and best of luck
I have points to give away. Just want to get out of this mess. Phone me on 0824117491
Why don’t you contact a company by the name of Cape Escape to advertise your points. I managed to sell my points for a small amount, but at least I managed to get rid of those vultures
I have 30 points tp give away – 0824117491
NCA rules,i dont remember QVC doing affordability check.Do you think NCA can help.
I managed to sell my points for R2700.00 and I am not liable for any further contributions towards the salaries of the personel at QVC by paying a rediculous admin fee of R6000.00 plus per year. I am going to get real drunk to selebrate ,and then I will start doing my own kind of marketing to inform the people out there, what this company is all about.
Please send your name and surname with your QVC club refnumber to AffordCelebHair@gmail.com.I spoke to someone about this and how lawyers cant help because they have the best and we cant afford.The plan is to get ANC involved because this is definately not freedom.I will keep those who send their name update.
I think you have a briliant idea to get the ANC involved , not only for the people already caught in the QVC nett, but to prevent other people to become victims in the future. I will follow your progress on the matter.
Please join the THC action group, at the following address :-
http://groups.google.com/group/thc_action?hl=en_US
The group was set up to establish a central point from where we could take joint action against the Holiday Club, QVC and other such organisations providing these “services”.
hi there,
is there currently any legal action under way? i am going to join your group but i have to now create an email address to do so.
we are going to try the NCA because i called them they said that a few people are able to get out of the contract but most are airtight and those people are stuck..but i think if everyone that wants to be rid of their contract got 1 lawyer and made a case, (the more people the stronger the case) then we have a fighting chance.
We would still like to hear from you. at the email thc_action+owner@googlegroups.com.
Check out another Noseweek expose of QVC and another crowd.
http://www.noseweek.co.za/article/2638/Holidays-nobody-wants
Its in the December 2011 issue