Menu
Login
I sent the below email, to classis escapes complaints on 20/9/13
To Whom it may concern,
We wish to cancel our membership with Classic Holidays.
We have tried to use this on a few occasions and have been very disappointed with the service.
We tried to book some accommodation for family members who were coming to visit us when we got married, I emailed 3 times to [protected]@classic.com.au and also to the consultant at the Townsville branch who advised the message was forwarded and no one bothered to get back to me!
I had to call them and enquire only to find out that the rooms I required were no longer available! Yet they were when I originally sent the email as I checked with the hotel first!
On another occasion, we were trying to book accommodation for our honeymoon in Cairns and it was cheaper and we got more value by booking online direct with the hotel we were staying at. I was advised by the consultant on the phone that I should go online to look at the accommodation when I asked how much it was going to be and she couldn't give me an answer! I understand that looking at the website once she had given me the login details that it would be better to see which hotel was how much, but we got a better rate by booking it through the hotel directly
We wish to cancel this membership and all moneys paid be refunded!
We will not be continuing with this as we were promised things that you just cant seem to deliver! We were advised that we would get membership cards in the mail, however I was recently advised that that no longer happens, we were not given any membership account details to log in to the website as well.
We also tried to use some of the 16, 500 points we have on the account and it turns out this is only for week long stays and not individual nights you are required to pay, this information was not provided to us upon signing up with this service
We have paid about half of the 10 years that you pushed for and would like all money returned!
On Behalf on myself and my husband David, we would like our money returned and our membership cancelled as we DO NOT wish to continue with this service!
*****IN RETURN EMAIL WE GOT THE BELOW AFTER NO BEING CONTACTED BY THE PERSON HANDLING THE COMPLAINT*****
From: Leonie Vanderkley (Leonie.[protected]@ClassicHolidays.com.au) Your junk email filter is set to exclusive.
Sent: Friday, 11 October 2013 5:18:54 PM
To: [protected]@hotmail.com ([protected]@hotmail.com)
Ms E Beeton and Mr D Smith
Email: [protected]@hotmail.com
REF: CCL-700
Dear Ms Beeton and Mr Smith
RE: CLASSIC ESCAPES MEMBERSHIP
We refer to your email dated 20 September 2013 in relation to your Classic Escapes membership. Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. It is only with good communication that we can resolve any issues.
We do regret that you have not been completely satisfied with your decision to purchase a Classic Escapes Membership and that you feel that our product has been misrepresented to you. Please be assured that we strive to set up our sales presentations in such a way as to ensure all applicants receive full disclosure of the risks and benefits of joining the Club and to ensure the least possible risk of misleading information being provided. Guests are provided with a general overview of what is available to them as a member of the Classic Holiday Club and are given an idea of what could be achieved by using the Escapes membership. We do regret if you feel that you have been misinformed.
In relation to your comments that you tried to book accommodation for family members who were coming to visit you and you emailed three times to [protected]@classic.com.au we advise that this email address is an invalid email address and this is why we never received it and were unable to reply to your email. We note your advice that you sent the email to the Consultant at our Townsville Office who advised that it was forwarded to our office; unfortunately we did not receive any email from our Townsville Office in relation to a request for accommodation from you. We do apologise for any inconvenience caused in relation to this issue.
Regarding your comments that you the rooms you required were originally available as you had checked with the hotel first, we would like to clarify that whilst the hotel may have had availability, there is no guarantee that our suppliers would have had the same availability as the hotels only provide suppliers with a certain amount of stock of available accommodation.
We note you advise that when ringing our office to book accommodation for your honeymoon our Consultant advised you to look online, our Consultant advised you to look for accommodation options through our member’s exclusive website the World Online and we advise that as this is our member’s exclusive website not all our Consultants have access to this website and accordingly this is why she could not provide you with a cost for your required accommodation.
Page 2
We also note your advice that you received a better rate by booking your accommodation through the hotel directly however we note you have not provided us with quotes from the hotel or our website to enable us to compare any difference in the prices of each quote.
In relation to the use of your points for accommodation bookings, we do advise that the only accommodation you are unable to utilise your points for are bookings made for bonus or bonus plus week accommodation and accommodation booked through the World online site.
We do not believe that our Authorised Representatives intentionally misrepresented the product to you at point of sale nor do we believe there are grounds for cancellation of your membership. The Product Disclosure Statement (‘PDS’) was provided to you during the sales presentation to ensure all of the product information was clearly disclosed to you. This document explains how the product works, discloses details of Club properties and exchange affiliations, and provides information on our company and the risks & benefits of joining the Club. The PDS is issued to all applicants so that they can make an informed decision. You also signed the ‘Members Declaration of Acknowledgement’ which highlights key information – including details on the Points & Play membership - thus confirming that you felt that everything was adequately explained to you at the point of purchase. If you are not satisfied with the handling of this complaint please refer to the PDS for more information on your rights.
We note that our Customer Service Specialist spoke to you on 29 September 2013 and offered to walk you through our website and explain the many benefits of your membership and we do suggest you contact one of our Customer Service Specialists and they will be able to assist you with your accommodation bookings and any information you may require concerning your membership.
We thank you for taking the time to put your comments in writing as your feedback is very important to us. Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Yours faithfully
Leonie Vanderkley
Complaints Resolution Specialist
On behalf of the Complaints Handling Officer
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As in this letter we did not provide evidence of quotes as they were no asked for
We do not have any documentation regarding the cooling off period apart from a list of items where it has listed in there that there is a cooling off period...and seriously, if we knew that the cooling off period was so short for a 10 year contract we would not have taken this up
Also they had a mountain of paperwork thrown at us to sign one after the other and we were told it was short and, , , , , , um No it was NOT
They also caught us on the street and threw these scratch things in our face saying "scratch these and we will give you a $200 Myer gift card", then we scratched a prize holiday to Fiji and this was on the terms that we signed an agreement and pay $50 on the street to confirm out booking with a consultant to attend their "workshop" to be shown how this scam works...In fact, we did not see either of these but given "POINTS" to use instead, and when we tried to redeem these, we were advised on the website this is for week long stays only
Also the complaints consultant did NOT call us directly! How can you get information or deal directly with a complaint if you don't contact the person!
Could you please help us? We would like all our money returned as we have paid $5500 for the $11, 5000 and I called to cancel this and they CAN NOT refuse to cancel this
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Clear
16 reviews
Good Sam Enterprises
12 reviews
OMGHotels.com
12 reviews
Vacation VIP
21 reviews
EF Go Ahead Tours
11 reviews
We are locked into one of these lousy contracts as well. Naively, we didn't read our contract correctly as we were overcome by the aggressive nature of the salesperson. We have paid our membership in full however we are stuck with this annual fee which we have advised them we won't pay. I retired early due to ill health and cannot afford to pay this rip off fee. We have used classic once in the 8 years we have been with them. That was for my daughter to use in NY and after a week she chose different accommodation as the standard was so low. HELP! How do we escape from these people.
have you emailed resolutions@classicholidays.com.au with your concerns, seems they have helped a people here?
Same here, we paid up front for 15 years, we were mis-sold the product and felt it was a hard sell and too good to be true but were convinced by them at the time that it was legit. We were blatantly lied to about not being penalised with higher rates during school holidays, as teachers this was what closed the deal, well it is absolute rubbish. Still have not had the welcome stay, cant get accommodation (admittedly Covid has closed borders). On top of that we have paid the annual membership for a service we can't use as they are never available outside of business hours.
Hi There, We are experiencing the exact same problem. Have contacted them numerous time with no result. Havnt used any of there services at all. And even tried stop paying them. No result.
Classic holidays has now resolved this complaint
Classic holidays have now resolved this complaint.
so all im reading is how everyone here has been duped. can we all not get together and do a class action against them and find out how to terminate our contracts. surely it cant be so annoying that no one cant do nothing to help us
Is anyone running a class action?
I'd like to get on it too. I stopped paying annual fees 5 years ago on an $18k membership. Useless service. I will not pay them a cent more and they can cancel my membership.
I'd like to join if possible. I was rail roaded into signing up and taking out a $16k debt through them. Believing I was getting at least a free holiday each year. Apparently all I get is discounts and and still owe $13k on a single income I'm struggling.
Can you pls. Let me know as well? I want to get out of the poorly serviced. Its just waste of time and money really.
What happened after you stopped paying the annual fees?
We were one week late and they followed up with an over due notice with next steps of debt collection agency. I don't want to affect our credit rating but can't afford to keep paying these annual fees for nothing but a reminder of how stupid we were to believe them, they did the' math' on the fees and said it would cover our guests accommodation for our wedding- turned out the 5% discount the wedding venue gave us was considerably cheaper and a much nicer accommodation than the crappy venues they have. This has been the biggest mistake of my life.
Did they take you to court we are getting threats of sending it to a dept collector.
I am absolutely down to join a class action. Biggest waste of time and money.
Terrible customer service and overselling
We attended the seminar of Classic Holiday/Classic Escape 2 weeks ago. The marketing staff oversold about a lot of things, from the discount rate of air tickets, number of resorts that they actually own, to the number of resorts/hotels that customers can enjoy fixed rate during 1 week stay and said that discount rate can be 50-70%. After we made the deposit, customer service center sent us a list of hotels/resorts where we can enjoy fixed rate, we tried booking with one of them but they found many reasons to reject our booking and after that told us that the list is outdated. We were very disappointed and asked them to refund our deposit but they refused, mentioning that their management are on holiday for 2 months!
We are connecting with newspapers and agencies to protect customers but it seems that they do not care. Anyway, we will tell all our stories and shared with local newspapers our email proofs, even if we can not get our deposit back, it will be an alert for thousands of other customers to avoid being fooled by the marketing staff of Classic Holiday.
Hi I'm sorry to hear that you were also duped by this scheme. I would like to be included in any legal action. We were approached by their rep at a mall and we regret stopping and being sold this scheme on the basis that I "won" a free holiday but had to pay a refundable deposit $40.00 to attend their meeting. This scheme has put us on the website as having "won" the holiday. However when I called into book, they said I couldn't book as it was during the holidays. Whats the point of having a holiday program if you cant actually use it during the holiday period? Given that we have yet to claim this 'free holiday', they have falsely displayed us amongst the 'winners'. The 'winners' not only do had to pay $200.00 to go on the 'free holiday' but there is a penalty fee of $200.00 if you do not attend a meeting at this "free holiday". How is this free? The selling point for me was when they said that that they always do group tours to Israel when we signed up. When I called them a few years ago they told me to go and look elsewhere then come back to them and they'll look into it. The guy had no idea what they could offer me. So they basically asked me to go and find another agency (which I'm glad that I did and we were well looked after).
We then used the buy one get one free promotion they offered us, where two go for the price of one, we then used it to book into a cruise. However our friends on the same cruise were able to get the same price without their help. People need to be warned about this company.
I would like to be included in a class action. Biggest waste of money. Within the first week of Covid- considering the cases on the cruise, I was called and asked if I'd like to book a cruise...
I can feel your pain as we to have the same problem, well really it seems everyone has been duped by this scam! Sign me up for any class action against these fraudsters! I mean seriously with all that's going on with this plandemic with know one even allowed to ccross their own state borders in Australia let alone allowed to leave the country, we should be allowed to cancel any existing fees and or contract! we have paid in full and only used once in 7 years, never received the promised free holiday have had our accrued points taken from us as not used by their required time ( even thought we paid extra for them) and have been stung with a yearly membership fee for nothing but the run around and extremely crap service. Oh and nearly forgot to mention we were also called and asked if we wanted a cheep deal on a cruise 🤦♀️ my husband thought it would be a nice supprise for me and handed over another $900, only to find out 1 week later this was never going to happen also, where is Our indemnity clause? Oh that's right I forgot their is none... Piss poor effort Classic you'll go down with the rest of them 🤬
Hello Everyone! I already filed a complaint against Classic Holiday! Please do too.
https://www.accc.gov.au/contact-us/contact-the-accc/report-a-consumer-issue
I would like to be included in a class action.
As I sit here about to pay our annual fee, I started reading your comments and realized that we have only used our membership once to get a discounted hotel room in New York. We have been members for over nearly 10 ears. and always found cheaper accommodation prices. I find this unbelievable that in 2021 a company that obviously has scammed so many people is allowed to continue in Queensland. This really sounds like and looks like a pxxxxx scheme. Has anyone taken this to the media... 4 corners, a current affair ... or to Shine lawyers or some other legal firm to seek a no win no fee class action? If ever there was a time to seek legal action, it would be now in the COVID times! The other option could be for there to be a sudden influx in individual complaints to the The Australian Financial Ombudsman .
Has anyone approached a law firm or taken their complaint to the afore mentioned Ombudsman lpwinch@hotmail.com
@Lyn Winch Hi there, I’ve got a timeshare floating week and am now starting to get quite worried about how to get out of it as we’re getting older now and not holiday much. Have you had any success yet?
Hi, we are also stuck with this same problem since 2009. We desperately want to get out! How do we do it? Does anyone know?
Same here - complete waste of money. Never lived up to the hype of the sales people... and IMHO a scam. Very keen to get out of it entirely!
We were enticed into this scam with a cruise which we tried to use but it was only for two people. To include our kids made it cheaper to book with a travel agent. It was extended twice to keep us happy but still didn't work for us.
We've also been enticed with money but it was always through phone calls. No written record of it and surprisingly nothing received.
I would be happy to just walk away from this if it meant my kids wouldn't be left with an annual debt.
I did approach classic about the fees, this past two years has restricted travel to within 10klms of our homes or state borders were locked down. Why should we be paying for something we could never use? I'm paying this bill because I don't want our credit rating to be damaged.
Covid has disrupted everything and now we want to support the tourism industry in the small country towns. It's better to speak directly to providers not someone in Queensland about Victoria.
I also want to be included. We were also roped in by the promise of a cruise and we have not been able to use the membership as nothing is ever available during school holidays, they knew we had 3 kids or the rates are higher that you could pay for something better in the same area.
We would like to cancel our membership ,as my partner has cancer and wont be able to travel. I hope we can sell our classic package.IT cost $8,000 we would sell it for $4.000 Regards Terena Herron
I've written to Classic Holidays and asked them to cancel our membership. Its a 40 year membership and we are in since 2016. We've fully paid it out but get no use from it. Were not looking for a refund just asked to be released from the annual fee but to no avail! We're semi retired and want out!