Classic Escape Holidays - beware of what they offer you and how they offer it to you.
My wife and I were approached by Classic Escapes Promoters in a major shopping center in Sydney in Jan. We were handed 4 scratch cards to win a prize. We scratched the 4 cards and one of those cards was a winner. We had won either a holiday, an ipad or $1500.00 cash. All we had to do is pay $50.00 refundable deposit to attend a 90min presentation at Classic Escapes head office.
We booked a date to attend the presentation. However after viewing the 4 scratch cards it appeared that the winning card was different from the loosing cards. It is possible to tell which is a winning card or losing card prior to scratching the prize/loss. Therefore the promoters can force a winning card upon you mixed in with some loosing cards making it appear that "Your luck is in".
See attached photos of our 4 cards, 3 of which are loosing cards. On the winning card there are two images that have been swapped. The picture of the Money and the Beach Holiday. Notice all the loosing cards are the same but different from the winning card. So from the very onset of this "Winning" card you have been scammed. This was also verified by some friends of ours who were also given a "Winning" card mixed in with some losing cards. The differences were the same.
We attended the presentation, was refunded our $50.00 and then we witnessed a multitude of complicated algorithms to have us believe their product offered value. Over 5000 accommodation sites they promote that we can accommodate in provided we sign up to their lengthy and costly membership time share deals. After 2 hours of time wasting, hard selling and question avoiding by the sales team we declined the Classic Escapes offer and opted to claim our prize only.
The prize was a 7 night holiday in either Queensland, Bali or Thailand. We were given a plastic card to redeem online. We were informed there is a $200 cleaning and admin bill to pay for the holiday. As we have children in our family we went online to book our "Prize Holiday" for the four of us. To include our children on the holiday it would cost a minimum of $400 upwards. So this "Winning" holiday is now costing $600.00 minimum for accommodation.
My complaint is the sneaky methods used to promote a "Win" from their scratch cards, this is not a game of chance it is a game of scam. You are only a "Winner" if you walk away and have nothing more to do with it.
Overall my wife and I feel elated that we did not sign anything with Classic Escapes. We have put in the bin our winning holiday card from Classic Escapes and look forward to booking our holiday through the normal methods using the hundreds of thousands of destinations the world can offer..
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