They were running a competition, apparently. All the couple had to do was scratch a free ticket to win a prize.
Before they were given the scratchcards though, they were asked if they had credit cards. It probably should have rung alarm bells, but the reason seemed legitimate.
“They didn’t need to see the cards,” Dr Prasad recalls. “They just wanted to know if we had them. We asked them why, and they said the competition was sponsored by the major credit card companies, and the prizes were only available to people who had credit cards with those companies.”
He knows now this was not the case. MasterCard’s New Zealand office had no knowledge of such a competition.
“We were told that MasterCard was sponsoring the competition, so it seemed legitimate,” he said. The couple were told the scratch card had two panels. The first would tell them whether they had won a prize. The second would tell them what they had won.
It was free, apart from one small catch – in order to claim their prize they would have to sit through a presentation on the glories of timeshare.
The couple scratched the first panel and discovered that they had won something. That was the end of the good part.
What followed was subjection to a high-pressure sales pitch during which Dr Prasad feels he was misled.
Timeshare is a scheme where one pays money for the right to stay in resorts or villas all over the world at discounted rates. It usually requires a sizeable upfront investment, and there are additional maintenance fees.
Dr Prasad knew a bit about timeshare before he came to Phuket. He has friends in New Zealand who have been involved in a timeshare agreement for some 20 years, without any problems.
“I knew what timeshare was … and some of the things they were talking about were familiar, which reassured us a little bit.”
The couple were told they had to go to a 90-minute “seminar” in order to claim their prize. When they arrived at the office of Premier Property and Leisure (PPL), one of the larger timeshare operators in Phuket, they were greeted by a “middle-aged British man named Colin”, who chatted with the couple and attempted to gather information about their background.
The conversation quickly turned to timeshare, and then to price, at which point Dr Prasad and his wife began to feel pressured.
“There definitely seemed to be pressure. At times when we tried to talk it over, just the two of us, Colin was still sitting there … and we thought that our talk process was getting interrupted by people there trying to say something.
“At one stage when I was thinking “yes” and my wife was thinking “no”, when she would try and bring up an objection, there were a couple of guys there interrupting.
“They said we had to make the decision there, that we couldn’t go back to New Zealand and talk to other people before we made the decision. It had to be made in Phuket.
“It just so happened that we were flying out that day as well, so there was that little bit of extra pressure on us.”
James (not his real name) is a former timeshare salesman who worked in the industry for more than a decade on both sides of the moral spectrum. He says such tactics are common.
“It’s called ‘pitching heat’, which is basically lying. It’s just playing on people’s greed, which at the end of the day is what marketing is all about.
“No one ever actually walks into the office wanting to buy timeshare. You have to get them in there somehow.”
Feeling uncomfortable about the price of a full 25-year membership, Dr Prasad agreed to a three-year trial for what he says was a cost of around NZ$5,000 (B130,000). He paid NZ$1,500 (B40,000) as a deposit, and was told he could pay off the rest later.
It should be noted that there is no evidence that the package offered by PPL is not legitimate. There is no suggestion the company cannot deliver on its promises as set out in the contract.
Dr Prasad’s main concern is that he feels he was pressured into signing the contact through a series of lies and high-pressure sales tactics.
James believes Dr Prasad has no reason to be worried.
“The good thing for him is that he’s on a three-year trial. What they [PPL] want is for him to buy a full membership [of 25 years]. Do you really think they’re not going to take care of him and try to convince him to buy the full package?”
Despite his revelations about “pitching heat”, James maintains that timeshare can have genuine advantages.
“Timeshare makes sense for resorts and it makes sense for customers – if you know how to use it properly.”
However, for the Prasads, when they had time to think it over, it simply didn’t make sense.
“On our flight [back home] we realised we probably hadn’t done the usual due diligence that you do when you make a decision involving such a large amount of money,” Dr Prasad says.
“We thought we needed to do a bit of research and read up on this … and that’s when we saw that these sorts of things were happening a lot in Thailand, where people were being scammed out of money, and the whole thing just seemed to line up with how we were approached and what we experienced.”
He said when he and his wife sat down and did the sums properly, they found it would not work out significantly cheaper to be locked into the three-year contract than it would be to simply book their own holiday in the conventional way.
“Part of their paperwork was saying we had the opportunity to come back to New Zealand, and if we were convinced that we weren’t getting what we were singing up for, they would refund us the money.
“But that statement wasn’t in the actual contract, it was in some of the extra paperwork they gave us. The actual contract itself doesn’t have a cooling-off period.”
They raised their concerns with PPL, but Dr Prasad said the company has been less than forthcoming in addressing them.
“All of the emails [they sent back to us] were about trying to convince us that this was a good deal still, and we should carry on with it. But it’s looking less and less like that to us, and more and more like a scam.”
James is more optimistic: “I think for [Dr Prasad], the best thing to do is to pay the money and enjoy the holidays.
“After all, the timeshare company is not going to invest all that money in setting up an office, in buying computers, in getting staff and printing brochures and setting up a website, just to scam someone out of B130,000.”
But when The Phuket News spoke to Dr Prasad on Monday, he had not heard back from PPL in more than two weeks, and at this stage, he is “not at all [convinced that a resolution could be reached] because [PPL] have not been replying to our concerns.”
In the interests of fairness, The Phuket News contacted Andy Jackson, General Manager of PPL, via email earlier this week, asking him for a comment. He replied that he preferred not to comment on the case publicly until the matter was resolved.
Ex-timeshare salesman James is hardly sympathetic to Dr Prasad’s plight.
“He should have read the contract [to check] about the cooling-off period.”
“It was very naughty [of PPL] to say they were sponsored by MasterCard [but] at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what got you through the door, it’s the service offered. That’s just marketing.”
James concedes that there are a lot of dubious practices employed by some members of the industry, but says this is changing as people become more aware of the negative reputation that timeshare carries.
“At the end of the day the dodgy ones are not going to survive, but that won’t necessarily affect the good ones. It’s a bit like the Catholic Church – it doesn’t matter how many priests are arrested, people will still believe in God. There are bad people in every industry.”
Unfortunately in Phuket, the bad people in the industry are tarnishing the reputation of the ones who are offering legitimate services.
Kit Whalley is the Business Development Director at Laguna Holiday Club, one of Phuket’s longest-established legitimate timeshare operators.
Mr Whalley said keeping a clear head is the key to timeshare negotiations.
“The best way to determine whether a timeshare operator is legitimate or not is mainly to do some research on the company and their background (ie years of operation, number of members, how many units they actually have to service these members and so on). And don’t feel forced into [doing anything by] any pressure selling tactics that may be employed.
“Furthermore, make sure to read the contract along with any fine print, especially as regards to refunds of deposit payments.”
That was obviously little consolation to Dr Prasad, who says he was left feeling cheated, and with help available to him aside from advice from the Phuket Tourist Police Volunteers.
“I thought the Tourist Police were very helpful. They went beyond the call of duty to try and help me out so I’m very grateful for their input.”
But with PPL also failing to respond to emails from the Tourist Police for more than two weeks, Dr Prasad can only offer advice to tourists or expats on Phuket who are thinking about signing up to timeshare.
“I would almost just blanket say, ‘Avoid timeshare in a foreign country.’ Look at it in your own country where you have access to lawyers that you can discuss things with and other people you can look to for advice,” he said.
“Especially if you are put under any time pressure or [there is] any suggestion that you have to pay for it right there, and especially if there is no refund and no cooling-off clause, you’re better off just walking away from it … instead of getting into something you might regret later.”
Dr Prasad said hotels could play a big part in raising awareness about the dangers of dubious timeshare operators, by warning guests about the scratchcard ploy.
“As a foreigner, I was relying on the hotel for information about where to go and I certainly trust the hotels. If they had told me to steer clear of these guys I certainly would have listened to them,” he said.
He also said a national register should also be developed to help tourists distinguish between genuine timeshare companies and less scrupulous operators.
“If they are legitimate organisations, it would be helpful if there was some form of government accreditation or something like that, it could help guide people towards something legitimate and make companies more accountable.”
This is an idea supported by Mr Whalley.
“In principle Laguna Holiday Club certainly supports the setting up of any formal body that would encourage regulation of businesses selling timeshare so that customers can feel confident in purchasing membership.
“LHC are working with other parties to try to realise the goal of setting up an industry body, but the process takes time and is a work in progress.”
As for Dr Prasad, the idea of timeshare is not something he would completely shun in the future, despite his experience in Phuket.
“I think if it were a legitimate organisation, that could be something we would look at because we have friends who have been in timeshare for more than 20 years and they have been enjoying it... It is something we would definitely consider.”
But as to whether he would sign up to it in Phuket again: “Definitely not.”
When The Phuket News contacted PPL, we explained that this story would be going to press on the afternoon of Wednesday (July 20). On Wednesday morning Dr Prasad emailed to say that PPL had offered him a full refund.
Dr Prasad’s story ends on a happier note than some; high-pressure timeshare sales pitches are common, as is “pitching heat”. There are also supposed timeshare companies that are not even involved in the business. They simply take as many deposits as possible and then disappear.
The solution, it seems, is to refuse to be rushed into signing anything or handing over any money.
– Dane Halpin