Beware of Country Club Vacations. Review on Country Vacations, Bangalore

It all started like this. My wife went for a shopping mall and a guy approached her to fill a form for a lucky draw. She filled it happily and came home.

After a week we got a call quoting that our number got selected in a lucky draw and we have won prizes worth 30K. We have to attend one hour lecture and then collect it. Me and my wife went there half-heartedly, thinking that it could be scam. We tried to inquire about the company name through phone and as to why they are distributing the gifts, but they didn't reveal any useful information over the phone.

We reached there by 7.10P.M and they said that there is an one hour presentation till 8.10P.M. and at the end of it, I can collect the prizes. A guy took us over to a table in a hall and atleast 10 couples like us were being consulted(brain washed) at that time and the building had 3 floors filled with sales guys doing the same. The sales guy started with an offer saying that this is an exclusive one day offer for a selected 116 family out of 50, 000 families drawn.You can either accept the offer  or reject it today before leaving here and this offer is not valid tomorrow.

He casually asked all the details revolving about our financial status like having a car, own house/rented house, my profession, my wife's profession, dependents etc. He filled a form with all these details. Then he started asking have you ever went for a vacation, what are your recent vacations etc and where is your next vacation plannned and how long you usually go for vacations etc..Then slowly he pitched in the offer as follows

• 14 days vacation every year anywhere in the world all of which are either 5star or 7star accomodation.

  
  




• The 14 days can be either used the same year, or carried over to next year, or can be borrowed from next year etc

  
  




• The 14 days can also be rented through your personal contacts or through the company itself and you can earn approximately Rs.20k to 40k every year by renting it out.

  
  




• Life long Gold card membership to all the country club resorts

  
  




• Shopping discounts 10-25%

  
  




• 20-40% discounts on all major airlines except Kingfisher Red

  
  




• Use of party halls in any country club 7 times a year along with cook, vessels, kitchen free

  
  




• International holidays through RCI exchange program with a charge of Rs 3000-12500 for every week

  
  




• 30% discount on any hotel booking with country club for any official purpose(30% will be returned to you for making business with them during your official travels)

  
  




• The memebership itself can be transferred to some other person or the company itself will sell it through its TAG agents for the market price prevailing at that period for a charge of 5-10% of actual amount.

  
  




• The membership can be transferred only after 2 years and can be done so only once.(i.e, the member buying it from you cannot transfer to anyone else)

  
  




• Moksha Spa membership which includes 30 ayurvedic massages either for me or any family members.You have to pay only the tax portion each time which is Rs 350.

  
  




• HDFC Life insurance for 6 Lakh rupees. 3 lakhs for me and 3 lakhs for my wife plus medical insurance of 50k each in case of accidents.

  
  




• The most interesting part is that you can avail interest of 9.75% every year on your total amount paid  as long as  you are a member.

  
  

There are two schemes

1. Domestic Scheme - Rs 1, 48, 000 (Free Gift - Sony 32" LCD TV or Lenevo Laptop)

You can avail only local holiday membership. No International holidays and no RCI tie ups.

1. International Scheme - Rs 2, 56, 000(Free Gift - Sony 32" LCD TV and Lenevo Laptop)

You can avail both local and international holidays through RCI.

We said we have both LCD TV and Laptop. So we don't need it. He instead offered a cash voucher of Rs 60000 which can be used in any Next showrooms. After negotiation he agreed to offer 60k discount on initial price without any cash coupons and  on further negotiation we arrived at a deal of 1, 80, 000 for international deal with Microwave oven as free gift.

Here comes the drooling part..the payment options..

1. Can be paid by cash/debit card(It looked like he might agree for further discounts on price)

   
   




2. Through Credit cards with EMIs for 6/12/24/36 months options with zero interest and zero processing charge(WOW!!!!)

   
   




3. Through Credit cards with Non equal EMIs(never heard of this term.Its actually a contrapunto)which is say if your EMI is 7K per month you can either pay full amount or choose to pay minimum amount of 1k  for everymonth but before end of tenure you have to pay the entire amount without any additional charge.(Unbelievable!!!!)

   
   

Finally he asked us sign to the contract in Karnataka Government Bond Sheet, which doesn't have any of the offers above stated in it. I insisted that I need to see all the offers printed before signing. He said this is different and the offer document is different and you can read the offer document before you sign the document.

I persisted that I should the offers printed before signing any damn thing. Then he brought the printed documents and tried to rush me through it. On careful reading of each points I found that it did not mention any of the offers mentioned above. Moreover it clearly said this is NON-Refundable amount and the membership cannot be sold back to the company. It can be done so only through personal contacts if any.

And not a single word mentioning about the interest part every year. On asking the sales guy about this he was giving some blame excuses, saying that everything cannot be printed, since it is an exclusive offer. If  you want I can print another document tomorrow with all the offers listed out. Adding to that he said you can sign the deal today and I will send my person to your home to get your credit card image and he will give the printed document tomorrow.

Somehow I managed to leave the place without accepting the offer.(But managed to get free gifts :) though useless). Most of the guys present during my time there went for the deal(as they clap for each new customer joining..not sure if that is also fake..). After coming home did bit of googling and found so many scams about them.

However I lost my valuable 4-5hrs of time with them. Writing it spending another hour, so that you guys don't get cheated of your money and time.

Thank God, Google and Mouthshut, I saved my Rs 1, 80, 000.