[Resolved]  Club Absolute — Club Absolute Scam

Avoid Club Absolute in Phuket, Thailand! They run a scam where they have people on the street with a fake competition where you scratch a card and win a great prize, which is always a week's holiday with their company (no flights or anything, just a week's accommodation in a low quality hotel which you will struggle to book in popular times). They promise that all you have to do to get your prize is to have a tour of their new motel, but they actually put you through hours of sales presentation (after promising that this is not a sales presentation). They offer cheap flights and great quality accommodation and great places all around the world, but it is a lie. They make the deal sound great and tell you that due to Thai law you must sign on the day which is another lie. All these people do is lie and after they have your money they no longer have all the things that were promised. Their contract itself does not even guarantee that you will get a single thing! This is timeshare scam the whole way through. Have a read of the following sites if you want more info, but if you go to Thailand, just walk on past the Club Absolute Scam people.

http://www.instablogs.com/outer_permalink.php?p=be-warned-holiday-scam-by-club-a...

http://www.absolutescam.webs.com/
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Aug 14, 2020
Complaint marked as Resolved 
May 14, 2015
Davs64's response
All the prizes are 1 weeks holidays of the scratch cards and i was the manager there and i got treated bad 2000 euro fine for going to the dentist but i let them know in advance. For the full inside story from local corruption so they can trade without hassle and all the other complaints out there which are 100 % contact [protected]@hotmail.com
 
32 Comments

Comments

We have been regular visitors to Phuket in Thailand for many years, and about 5 years ago bought into the Absolute timeshare, or company. We have never been disappointed with our purchase, and feel comfortable when we visit the Absolute Seapearl that the staff remain constant, we are well looked after, the facilities are upgraded regularly, and the location is great. We have a choice of other outstanding properties, but prefer being located so close to the beach. Of course there is salesmen competing in the market for the tourists - they all love Phuket and owning a timeshare is an opportunity to revisit there, with perks of facilities available all round the world. The salesmen/women have the right to capture the market and they are not the only ones offering scratchies - if they get one or two genuine buyers from that source, on a regular basis, why not?
As far as making claims to things that are not available - in our experience that is simply not true. They deliver what they claim to be able to offer.
I would recommend people have a look at this opportunity when they visit Phuket - for those we have referred to the property, they have been treated very well and sales have resulted in some cases. None o[censored]s are disappointed, and we personally make Phuket our preferred holiday spot each year - and we travel from New Zealand to do it.
I agree with Josh Walker. We bought a 3 year membership for $2, 900. We were given our free week in either Phuket, Pattaya or Koh Samui (our 'Just Go' week) We chose Phuket. Our membership is meant to work in such a way that we get a free week for each of our 3 years of membership and pay the rack rate for one night at a large range of accommodations around the world. The idea is to stay a week and pay for one night.

According to Stephan, the salesman, we can use our membership as often as we want and not pay anymore than the rack rate for one night and stay all week.

We had our free week( our 'just go' week) ( for sitting through the presentation, which by the way, lasted 5 hours) at the Absolute Sea Pearl and our free members week at Elegance Suites in Bangkok, which was far below the standard promised of all hotels offered through 'Absolute'. Free, my arse - as far as I'm concerned we paid for those accommodations.

I tried out the 'use it as often as you like' theory, and went to book a hotel for a week and we were given a rate of $99 US per night. Well there goes that theory.

We feel ripped off, and are glad that we did not buy any more than 3 years. I have filled in an online request to at least use up the money that we have paid as by our reckoning, they still owe us $500 in accommodation, and I'm still waiting to hear from someone.

My advice...Stay away from Club Absolute. They are an Absolute Rip Off.
we got scammed and cancelled within 7 days even though no cooling off period is mentioned and after a few emails and threats they have put in the hands of credit collection agents in australia, they can do their worst i will not be threatened by these parasites . We should message the Thai government to kick these people out of their country.
Great writing. We were recently in Koh Samui and went trough a similar experience.
All our compliments towards a group of very clever scamming professionals.

We declined all their great "opportunities".

Interesting that the intitial friendly people became rather hostile during the time they realised we were not interested. Mind boggling that Western people lower themselves to such a scamming standard. We are convinced that is their way...hey that is a guy from England or a guy from France or whatever. They speak our language and we can trust them. Please: DO NOT.

Please do not get involved with this crowd. Do not get involved with scratch cards to start with. They promise you instant prizes...that is only the start
me and my boyfriend were approachied by a scouser and a dub because we were from Ireland they thought they could "get" to us being form the same place and all...he got a scratch card sayong he won a t-shirt & low and behold i got a card saying 3 stars which guaranteed me one of 5 prizes shonw on the ticket...the lads said "oh come we'll give u free drink and even tho it says u only have to stay for 90 mins u really onlt have to stay for 60 mins...we got der and were der for 3.5 hours we felt good tho...we thought we were on to a good thing...until the MANAGER asked us for 7995 EUR we were FLABBERGASTED...this was a commitment for 39 YEARS with an annual fee of 117 eur p/y. he eventually dropped to 2000 eur for 3 years but we just held though. Boy are we glad we did they pitched us a great sell (I imagine they would sell their familes for a sale) we were ready to take it but were not in a financial posit6ion to give over 8000 eur...who is??? STAY AWAY WE GOT OUR "FREE HOLIDAY" LAUGHABLE TO SAY THE LEAST...
Has any one got serious about getting their money back from Absolute and if you did apart from reversing your credit card, what did you do to get your money back? I also got sucked in.!
Trying to get my money back as well! Please write me if you are also trying to do so.
I think a bunch of you are missing the point - you are glazing your thinking because it feels like you are being "tricked". That is the one part I really agree with, I wish they could be way more up front.
The staff we dealt with at the Sea Pearl were great and so have all the staff been since we took our 3 year membership. For the 3 years we have had a week in Italy, France and Ko Samui and about to have another week in Pattaya - all were great - our free week in Ko Samui was at an outstanding resort. On top of this we have had something like 5 "extra weeks" at under $AUS200/wk - this is where the real value is. If you just take the one week a year as your membership, value is average - the extra weeks make it worth while.
your in lalaland. You sound just like a Absolute Salesman!
The same thing happended to me and my partner. we got the same nonsene, i won a t-shirt and my partner won a five star price, from this asian midget in Chawang, you should have heard him when my partner had the five start prize, saying that she will win a holiday, Laptop or 100 dollas. all we needed to do was come to there hotel and spend 90 mins, and i dont have to buy anything just tell my mates about it, well one thing is for sure i will be tellling my mates and the world that i nearly got conned!!
If i see that little midjet againg im going to take of my shoe and spank him...and take his empty wallet for wasting a day of me and my partners holiday... they come to my hotel from 12.30am and we didnt leave until 6.00pm.. after my partner said she wanted a day to sleep on it after the quoted us 10k (pounds) for 38 years, and wanted a 1000 pound deposit. they all rushed us about fouor of them, offering us all sorts of deals, it was only then i could see how there rough sale tatics were i decided i wasnt going to be pressered into making a rash decision, which is when i done some research and found out what there really about. thank god for my partner.
stay away!!
My husband and I have been members since 2005, we have done Phuket, Koh Samui, Las Vegas, South Africa (twice) and several places in Europe and have had no problems, I find it's better to give the reservations 2 different dates to get better chance of availability. I'm currently booking some of the bonus weeks for my friends.
Absolutely Fine...
STAY AWAY FROM ABSOLUTE full o lies and deciet We ahave writen off our $3000 as there is no way they can book any week we ask. Great promises that never eventuated Huge presure and why it is allowed I do not fathom It leaves Thailand experience with a sour tastte in our mouth.
I have been a member with Club Absolute since 2003. I am Australian. I bought in Koh Samui. I absolutely love it. I have been to so many places I cannot list them all. I love the 'extra weeks' you can buy. They are currently $179 USD for one week for up to 5 BR anywhere in the world depending on availability and your family and friends can use this too! The staff are always helpful. If you don't think you are getting full benefit out of your membership perhaps you should contact club absolute and tell them asking for help so you can maximise your membership.

Someone was talking about staying for a whole week for the price of one night - that is the extra weeks and I dont know why that didn't work for you. Just go to www.clubabsolute.com, click 'extra weeks' and select the country. Lists of availability will come up. Pick one and email them and they will book it for you. Easy!

If you can't get the exchange week you want you can deposit your ownership week with another company like 'interval international' and there are others. If it was a scam I don't think these big exchange companies would touch it. You do pay a fee for their service but they may have more availability. I sometimes don't get what I want but I realise that the way the system works only allows me to exchange if someone has deposited their week, so you do need to be a little flexible. When booking a holiday, I get my accommodation sorted first then worry about transport, etc.

If you have a membership you are missing out if you don't try and get the great benefits of it. I love Club Absolute and can't understand all this sledging! My sister told me about it that is how I have happened upon this.
hmmmm... so im guessing your name is probably paul or jay?? and you want to try and defend yourself. Did anybody get shouted to dinner after they sined up? to place called dons bar for an aussie bbq.Don Was meant to be a pro thai boxing champ who is retired and runs a bar. we where probably told this so we wouldnt kick pauls when you found him lyeing!!! And he also gave away 10 free weeks for our friends but said we could use them for our self by putting our partners name on the form and booking at the beautiful Bangla suits. yep. tried that but suprise suprise we couldnt cause my name was on it. And we couldnt stay in the penthouse suite we where showm through.. oh no it had the be the most basic room they had. And also if you google good comments about club absolute it comes up Scam!! The people say it all.
My name is Naomi Burgess. I am a long time owner as I have said. Just go to www.clubabsolute.com and click on 'extra weeks', pick one and email [protected]@clubabsolute.com with your request. Within 24 hours you will receive a reply. Pay and it is booked for $179. This is real value. And your friends and family can use the extra weeks too. We do it all the time.

I am still baffled by all this stuff saying it is a scam as we have never experienced any of what people are saying. Although I could see how a few lying salesmen like danielb1516 is saying could ruin your experience. Club absolute obviously need to reign if the salesmen who are lying to get the sale. This is where the company needs to take responsibility for their staff.

We were lucky to have had an honest guy and a good experience. We did get shouted to dinner in Koh Samui at a seafood restaurant on the beach. It was excellent. We were the only Europeans there. Best seafood ever and so lovely sitting on tables on the beach.

If you do have a membership I would encourage you to explore how to get full benefits from it through the extra weeks as i have said already.

Good luck.
Absolute are Absolute rip offs and are blood sucking leeches thats my comment Naomi Burgess.
Is a absolute scam. Given prize etc in samui went upstairs, when I asked a few basic questions they became a angry and defensive, I asked about security of money etc as they wanted between 10 and 38 k usd for membership they tried to tell me apple now is there partner and underwrites them, I challenged this and they said it does by virtue of giving all new members iPads and if they went under Apple would be forced to back them. Never have I heard so much crap. Stay away! Don't be fooled, we werent, but others were signing up. When we left they were also rude. Hope Thai government decides to remove these scum. Matt and Megan
Club Absolute in Phuket are scammers. Plain and simple. Starting off with their scratch-it cards that make it appear that you are the winner of a prize, and only have to go along to a short 'presentation'. All those scratch-it cards are winners, it's their opening scene to the unfolding scam. The real part of the scam is to get the potential customers to sign a contract and hand over there personal and financial details. That's when they have you by the balls.

Now here's what will explain why there are several comments posted on this page that strangely seem to praise Club Absolute and contradict all the other peoples experiences... They are from Club Absolute! Yes, they simply search the internet and try to counteract the negative stories and comments about the company. This has been noticed on many sites that uncover this scam.

You might want to press this point. Do these touts have a valid Business Visa and Work Permit to do this work? They are employed and working in Thailand, therefore they are breaking the law if they do not have these. They can be imprisoned and/or expelled from the country. Maybe this needs to be pursued, especially taking (covertly) their photos and bringing it to the attention of the officials at City Hall or preferably in Bangkok.

Tell everybody you know about these scammers. They have no morals and often target older couples in to spending very large sums of money on their substandard and phoney products, and will find it nearly impossible to get their money back when they realise what has happened.

Remember: Club Absolute WILL post on this board to make it appear a legitimate business, usually under the guise of 'a happy customer from...'
Hey Naomi Burgess, I'm talking about you too!
Yep I have been sucked in big time with them. My worry now is that I have lost a large sum of money and don't want to loose any more as they want maintenance fees that I so fare haven’t paid. Now they are threatening to charge 1 % on top if not paid. How can I get out of this???
Same Same may 2011 Tommo_10 feb 2010. Yes Thommo Same Same. Your reviews are exactly what my partner and i just experienced. 22/11/11 - 1/12/11 My take is the cards given to you on the street will always say you are a winner, and u win a weeks free holiday, but this is only revealed after u sit through the sales pitch. Except we got out out after two hours of tripe. When we got fed up with the dribble from our salesman. we asked him the price of this great absolute package, he couldnt or wouldnt even tell us. I figure that what they want to do now is find out how much you can afford then take what ever they can from you. I also told our salesman that i would never buy into a company with out doing my home work etc on them first. That was when lets say he became a little annoyed. He then went and got his boss another class act who told us we could F off.if we wanted to. Those are the exact words he used We did exactly that. Funnily enough the days after this we were still getting approached by there street scammers, when i told them out very loud no thanks they had already wasted two hours of my holiday they always rode of on their motor bikes very quickly, i will admit i took great pleasure in seeing them ride off quickly. I felt like i had to write this after reading the posts on here. I will finally say i do not work for another hotel or any other tourism chain. I am a normal aussie just wanting to warn other aussies about this company and its rude sale persons.

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