Mar 28, 2015 05:56 PM
25452 Views
Response Received
On 14-Mar-2015 during our trip to Goa, I along with my wife, were roaming in Calangute where an executive from Club Omega Holidays approached us and offered us one lucky draw coupon. On opening the coupon there was a mega price of Laptop/ Camera /LED TV / Holiday worth Rs 25, 000.
As a condition for claiming the prize, we were asked to visit one of their resorts namely, Hotel Nagoa Grand Resort(Address: No 18/1, Nagoa, Arpora, Bardez, Near Baga Beach, North Goa at NAGOA) .
When we went there to claim, we were then told that it is mandatory to first attend a presentation before claiming the prize. The so called holiday consultant then showed us various 5 star hotels and told us that they have a tie up with DAE(Dial An Exchange) and we can holiday in these hotels by paying some minimal charges for a period of 10 years if we take their membership for Rs. 70000.
But when we actually tried booking the hotel using their membership, no hotels were available for booking. We tried talking to Dial An Exchange on their customer care number which shows its address and phone number for Bangalore, but all in vain since that Bangalore number gets routed to Hotel Nagoa Grande Resort Receptionist’s mobile(the entire scam is running from that hotel). We emailed / called on customer care number several times within 3 days of Membership purchase to Cancel our membership and refund our Money as we were not satisfied with the membership because the claims which were made before selling us the membership turned out to be false.
But they simply denied cancelling the membership and refunding our money stating that membership is Non refundable in any circumstance and its written on the agreement but in reality nowhere in agreement its written that membership fees is non refundable. However, it is written that Vacation fees is non refundable and we have not booked any vacation with them. And on their Website also its clearly written that if cancellation request is made within 7 days then money will be refunded back. We called their Manager Ashutosh on his Mobile phone on 17-03-2015 and his Executive Sri Ram and told them that we want to cancel the membership and want refund of our membership fees as we are not satisfied with the membership.
They assured us a call back for checking the cancellation policy with their senior Shantanu, after which neither they called back nor picked our phone . We tried connecting with them on their mobile phones but no response from their side. We asked customer care to connect us with their Managers Ashutosh and Shantanu who sold us this membership but they never connected us with them and when we told them that we will lodge complaint in police then they disconnected the Call.
Club Omega Holidays are cheating the tourists in GOA by luring them with Lucky draw coupons and by selling them their Memberships by making false claims. They have a well scripted fraud plan where they filter their targets by gathering some of the basic information from the tourists by asking questions during the course of discussion like:
1) Are you husband-wife(lucky draw is only for husband –wife, since generally couples prefer more to go for such memberships)
2) Your age group is between 30-40(they target people who have capacity to pay and will to go on holidays with family).
3) Do you have a credit card with you(executive told this to be a pre – requisite for claiming the prize. Now we realize they asked for it so that they can swipe/ debit the entire amount in the name of authorization).
4) You should be tourist only with no connection in Goa(By the time tourists reach their hometown and realize that they have been cheated, they are in no position to file an FIR in police station or file a case in consumer court since the cause of action lies entirely in Goa and under no circumstance the tourist will come back to Goa to take legal action since that itself will double the expense of the tourist).
5) List down the last three trips and the total expense you made on those trips(by this they take idea about the paying capacity and how frequently the person holidays.
Also they show the same amount in the end to compare how much the tourist had spent on just 3 holidays in the past and how he can be benefitted in future by paying a much lesser amount that too for 5 star hotels by taking club omega’s membership). This fraud is going on a large scale as they have been targeting lot of tourists in Goa.
Guys beware and do not fall prey to such fraudsters.
- Thank You! We appreciate your effort.
