[Resolved]  Highland Holiday Homes — Cheated by Highland Holiday Homes

Address:

Maharashtra

Respected Sir/Madam,

Last week Neha called me on behalf of Highland Holiday Homes from number # [protected]. She asked me 3 simple questions and I was selected for a free gift voucher. To collect the gift, she called me with my wife to Highland Holidays office in Shan Hira Heights Building on MG Road, Pune at 5 PM on Feb 6th 2011.

There, we were given a presentation by a group of people taking turns (few names I can recall Apoorva, Divya, Siddhartha). They used papers and showed various photos and lists of affiliations etc. Overall, we were impelled to purchase a membership of Highland Holiday Homes. The membership is priced at INR 15000/- for three years. Some of the interesting features that we were offered during this presentation are:

1. Renting holidays: They told us that after first year o[censored]sing our allotted holidays we can rent out our holidays of next 2 years at INR 1000/- per day to Highland Holiday Homes. Means the equation for us became - we pay INR 15000/- now and go for 7 days vacation in first year and get back INR 14000/- in the third year. They many time repeated this information of returning INR 14000/- and with a lot of confidence. Not even once they told us that there are some conditions associated with it. Next day when I visited the office to clarify few points, I got to know that the process is not that straight. Also the document we received there is no mention of this INR 14000/- being returned.
2. Club Memberships: We were told that the membership card can be used in many clubs and we can use the facilities in these clubs just like their own members and many of the facilities will be free of cost due to Highland Holidays membership card. In Pune, 3 clubs were told. I called the clubs and The new Poona club denied any tie-ups with Highland Holidays. Pancard Club said that nothing is free, only some discounts of about 20% or so is offered for some of the facilities. This means they lied to us in order to sell.
3. Utility Charges: The way they told us the Utility Charges, it seemed like that we don't have to pay anything for the 7 days of stay in the year. We thought that the INR 15000/- covers the charges for these days allocated in the membership plan. If we have to pay for per day stay for these vacations as well then what is the use of the membership?
4. Pressure from Sales team: The sales team tried everything to convince us to purchase the membership, though we were very reluctant to do so. We wanted to think for some days but they said that the offer is only valid for now and you must decide now. And then they used various ways to convince. We denied and wanted to return without taking membership but then the manager reduced the amount to 15000 and like before, proposed that you pay 15000 now, enjoy 7 days vacation in 1st year, and take back 14000 by 3rd year and also enjoy club memberships for the three years (effectively in just INR 1000/-) . With all these assurances the manager took my Credit Card and made a transaction of 15000 even before we were shown the documents that were to be signed. After the Credit Card transaction was over they brought 2 forms and got them filled so hurriedly that they didn't even give us some time to read the terms and conditions that we were signing. All this was executed by this sales team very cleverly. Also we wanted to keep the papers of the presentation with us but the manager didn't allow to do so saying that these papers are needed for their marking and he'll send the papers with our membership documents. Later when we reached home and read the documents, I realized that there is no surety of getting my 14000 back after third year I wanted to know more that how it works. We visited the office next morning again to uncover that this depends on few things etc.

This is a case false sale. And as none of the detailed are the way they were told in the hour long presentation, I would like to cancel the membership. I also submitted an application for cancellation to Pune office manager (Ms. Preeti Gwalvansh) on Feb 7th 2011. As we have not used any of your services yet and you might also not have prepared our documents, kindly consider this request for cancellation. The membership is in name of Reema Singh.

We'll greatly appreciate an early cancellation of the membership and refund of INR 15000/-. Waiting for a quick and positive response.

Thanks and Regards,
Piyush
+[protected]
[protected]@yahoo.co.uk