And you thought timeshare was bad....
My folks bought a timeshare years ago in Tenerife. Surprisingly, it was actually very good. Very high quality resort, beautiful location, facilities etc.

However, following the death of my father (who looked after all of their finances) my mum went on holiday with my sister the following year. They came back to announce that they had traded in my mum's timeshare - admittedly the annual maintenance costs were become quite high - for some god awful points system, courtesy of a company called IVC, and some high pressure sales bullshit. I was not happy at all.

What a frigging rip off this is. You initially 'buy' an allocation of points. My mother's timeshare was taken as payment. For an additional annual membership fee, you get an annual allocation of additional points. You can then use your points to purchase a holiday "almost anywhere in the world".

Well, when they say "almost anywhere in the world" they actually mean, "almost anywhere in the world, as long as it's the Sands Beach Villas Resort in Lanzarote". Now I've been there, and it's very nice, but who wants to go to the same place every year? That's hardly the point of a holiday club now is it?

We tried to use my mother's points to obtain another holiday the following year. The company didn't even bother to answer the phones, or respond to emails.

However, they did still manage to get in touch with my mother to ask for her annual membership fee. She told them where to shove it.

Periodically she gets a call from some company or other claiming to be traders of holiday company points, who may have someone interested in buying my mother's points from her. They could be worth almost £20,000. Wow. Or indeed not. This is in fact a further scam, where the company ask for a deposit of maybe £750 in lieu of a sales fee.

Thankfully I investigated this shower of sheisters via the internet, and discovered that (surprise surprise) it was a scam, before we got too excited about it.

I told my mum that when they call back, just ask them why they can't take their sales fee out of the sale price. They don't really have an answer to that one. They'd also said that they would need my mother to pay the outstanding membership fee for the sale to go ahead.

Hmmm. Smells about as fishy as a rotting haddock wedged up Bella Emberg's long-expired flange.

So there you go. Trying to screw money out of an elderly widow. How fecking low can you get?

I hope they rot in hell.
(Reverend Fister "a disciplined fuckwit", Thu 25 Oct 2007, 10:43, Reply)