Important - check your credit card statements - for "Travel Steps"

donna255 said:

I was on Amazon.co.uk yesterday buying some Emu boots in their sale.
They have a scheme just started and you get free super fast delivery free for one month after that they will take £47+ from your account to joint this club. I didn't even want to try it for a month incase of problems cancelling afterwards.

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If you had taken them up on it, you can go into your account and go to 'Manage your Amazon Prime Membership' and un-check something.

My free month has just run out, so I can't tell you what the exact terminology is and sure enough, mine has not been renewed as per my instructions.

Marion said:

If you had taken them up on it, you can go into your account and go to 'Manage your Amazon Prime Membership' and un-check something.

My free month has just run out, so I can't tell you what the exact terminology is and sure enough, mine has not been renewed as per my instructions.

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To be honest I don't order enough from Amazon.co.uk for this scheme. Some books usually. I do order boxsets of tv shows but from Amazon.com american side. But even then not that many.

Therefore I didn't renew it either, it's not worth it if you order as little as we do.


You get free postage over a certain amount anyway, and even if I buy only one CD or Game every two months or so,
I always qualify :lol1: .

Contact Watchdog

If you lovely people are worried about this don't take it lying down. It's blatently people from IW that are ringing you especially if they have your Credit Card Details.

Contact Watchdog The more of you that do the better for all of you. Give them the details of what has happened to each of you and see if this can't be stopped.

It seems a bad deal when you have to contact this Company to Cancel to stop your card being debited.

For the sake of other people that aren't members of this forum, I would definately do this to stop less aware people being conned.

From what I gather Ideal world are in with travel steps. like ideal world C&C ect are all connected so they can debit your account via ideal world they are not in fact giving you card details to travels steps. I think that Ideal world have used their own staff to do the cold calling thats how they know your purchases, I have spoke to trading standards and they say that the way its done is very clever, and that although they say calls are recorded they are probabaly not all recorded . and you can bet that the cold calls that have don't kept to a legal script have been deleated.I did say to ideal world that all these cold call offers from companies are all £99.00 or £99.99 and that was rarther convientant he had nothign to say.
I spoke to my BIL who was in time share buisness years ago and he said that yes it is a time share con, when you arrive you are all bunged into some hotel and then taken off to look at other hotels, you are under the impression that these hotels are ones you can choose to go to. but once you arrive it obvious its a time share.He said at the time he was not worrid about taking peoples money but when he looks back at it now he feel bad about the tricks of the trade that were used

Wanted to add a comment ..

I seem to have read ALOT of comments about the travelsteps club, as a member i thought it would be best for me to comment.
I had a call last week from someone calling on behalf of Ideal world, 'in assosiation with travel steps'. First of all they asked me a few customer service questions, then went on to say that as a thankyou for ordering with ideal world, i can have a 30 day free trial for a lifestyle and leisure brochure - the travel steps club. the girl then went on to saying what was in the brochure and that IF after the 30 day trial i wished to continue being a member, its £99 for a years membership and this would be debited from my account after the 30 day trial. if however i did not want to continue being a member, i could post back the brochure or call the number in the brochure. I accepted the offer, and received exactly what i thought i was receiving. I did check this with trading standards and apparently it is completely acceptable for companies to pass on your details to 3rd party companies. and only IF you agree to receive the 30 day trial, would you be charged. My advice to you all is to listen to your calls, it seems that all of you obviously didnt listen to what was said on the phone. The whole point of a 30 day TRIAL is that you are on a TRIAL. I have now kept my membership and will shortly be going on my holiday to the Costa del sol, free of charge thanks to the travel steps.

Sorry simplynocturnal but there is no such thing as a free lunch, I mean holiday, somewhere down the line you will be paying for this !

Are flights included ?

Travel steps club

I thought it would be best for me to start my own thread about this, as all of you seem to be extremely oblivious to the fact you are AGREEING TO RECEIVE A 30 DAY TRIAL!!! As a new member of the travelsteps club, i also received a telephone call from someone calling on BEHALF of Ideal world, 'in assosiation with travel steps'. First of all they asked me a few customer service questions, then went on to say that as a thankyou for ordering with ideal world, i can have a 30 day free trial for a lifestyle and leisure brochure - the travel steps club. the girl then went on to saying what was in the brochure and that IF after the 30 day trial i wished to continue being a member, its £99 for a years membership and this would be debited from my account after the 30 day trial. if however i did not want to continue being a member, i could post back the brochure or call the number in the brochure. I DID HAVE AN OPTION TO SAY NO TO THE 30 DAY TRIAL!! I accepted the offer, and received exactly what i thought i was receiving. I did check this with trading standards and apparently it is completely acceptable for companies to pass on your details to 3rd party companies. and only IF you agree to receive the 30 day trial, would your card details be passed onto travelsteps club and you would be charged. My advice to you all is to listen to your calls, it seems that all of you obviously didnt listen to what was said on the phone. The whole point of a 30 day TRIAL is that you are on a TRIAL. I have now kept my membership and will shortly be going on my holiday to the Costa del sol AND like many people have said this is a timeshare, I actually contacted the hotel to find out exactly what it was, the receptionist said it was NOT a timeshare and that during your holiday an invitation is posted through your door inviting you to a welcome bbq and to offer you a part in the hotels business. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GO IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO. I also read a forum about a customer who has also been on the holiday, stating that exact thing. SO my advice to you all is to LISTEN to the calls, and only accept it if you WANT it!! In the mean time I shall be sunbathing in Spain

Simplynocturnal you were lucky if the person on the phone told you they were from a sister company as during my phone call I was led to believe it was from Ideal World and only in the last closing seconds did they mumble something about money then hung up.
Also I strongly object to my credit card details being passed onto anyone else, sister company or not, without my permission.

Julie said:

Sorry simplynocturnal but there is no such thing as a free lunch, I mean holiday, somewhere down the line you will be paying for this !

Are flights included ?

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The saying is 'if something looks too good to be true then it usually is':r11:

simplynocturnal said:

I thought it would be best for me to start my own thread about this, as all of you seem to be extremely oblivious to the fact you are AGREEING TO RECEIVE A 30 DAY TRIAL!!! As a new member of the travelsteps club, i also received a telephone call from someone calling on BEHALF of Ideal world, 'in assosiation with travel steps'. First of all they asked me a few customer service questions, then went on to say that as a thankyou for ordering with ideal world, i can have a 30 day free trial for a lifestyle and leisure brochure - the travel steps club. the girl then went on to saying what was in the brochure and that IF after the 30 day trial i wished to continue being a member, its £99 for a years membership and this would be debited from my account after the 30 day trial. if however i did not want to continue being a member, i could post back the brochure or call the number in the brochure. I DID HAVE AN OPTION TO SAY NO TO THE 30 DAY TRIAL!! I accepted the offer, and received exactly what i thought i was receiving. I did check this with trading standards and apparently it is completely acceptable for companies to pass on your details to 3rd party companies. and only IF you agree to receive the 30 day trial, would your card details be passed onto travelsteps club and you would be charged. My advice to you all is to listen to your calls, it seems that all of you obviously didnt listen to what was said on the phone. The whole point of a 30 day TRIAL is that you are on a TRIAL. I have now kept my membership and will shortly be going on my holiday to the Costa del sol AND like many people have said this is a timeshare, I actually contacted the hotel to find out exactly what it was, the receptionist said it was NOT a timeshare and that during your holiday an invitation is posted through your door inviting you to a welcome bbq and to offer you a part in the hotels business. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GO IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO. I also read a forum about a customer who has also been on the holiday, stating that exact thing. SO my advice to you all is to LISTEN to the calls, and only accept it if you WANT it!! In the mean time I shall be sunbathing in Spain

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Enjoy ! just watch out for time share sharks I would hate you to be mislead by a "sales" patter or someone misrepresenting what is actually on offer .Bx

I really hope you have a lovely holiday, but as another poster stated in an earlier thread..."did you have to pay for your flights?"...and what about your meals when you're over there...have you had to agree to have your meals in the hotel at your own expense..as I know from a lot of these "fantastic promotions" you see advertised in various places that the only thing you get free, is the roof over your head, and the the price of the food is so expensive that you may as well have made your own holiday arrangements and saved a lot of money! Sorry to ask all this, but again, as another poster said..."If it sounds too good to be true...then it probably is!". You say it's not timeshare, but the "invitation" to the bbq offering you a chance to invest in the business, sounds "timeshare-ish" to me, however they wish to dress it up...Ok, so you don't have to go, but I'd be very surprised if that's where it ended. It sounds as though you're fairly astute, as you say that you've listened carefully to what has been said to you, and I urge you to keep your level head, and to be just as careful when you're there, and don't sign anything that you're not entirely happy with, and watch out for ambiguous clauses and small print!
I have to say that I found your post a little bit rude in suggesting that posters who have, or are worried about having money taken out of their bank accounts are just "not listening". Perhaps if IW world sent out the literature to customers with their orders anyway, instead of giving the blurb over the phone, thus allowing the customer to read the brochure, then sign up to the trial if they want to, by return of post, then I'm sure there would be a lot more people who haven't just agreed to have the brochure sent, be on the system, forget about it, then find a few months later when it'd had all been forgotten that £99 has been taken out of their account.
Don't get me wrong, I really hope that you have a relaxing holiday, and that you don't end up paying through the nose for your experience. Ok, I understand that once the trial is over, you can cancel, but here's hoping that it hasn't cost you the fee and more anyway!

I 'listened', in fact I couldn't get a word in edgeways and at no time did I have an option to receive the brochure or not, it was on its way.

All well and good if you're happy enough with the arrangement, I just found it a nuisance.

Mine wasn't through IW though.

But to be fair Momma...you do find it hard to say 'no' :tassles:

oh my, i'm just soooooooo darn cynical!

a new poster with their only 2 posts about a certain company/offer - if you're so happy with what you're getting, why would you even do a search & find this forum/threads??

IF you are connected to them, just flippin' say so!


edit: to add, (sorry if this has already been mentioned), being nosey i put "travel steps" in google - a large number of complaints pop up, all pretty much saying the same thing, 'singed up without consent, check your credit card statements'. i couldn't see any glowing recommendations...

There are threads about this company throughout the forums on this site "Bid" is the one that springs to mind immediately, and they are all negative.

I'm fed up with "newbies" who come onto this site for spurious reasons and are abrasive or rude to forum members. I was bitten myself, and Simplynocturnal, I am no fool but was unable to get my "membership" cancelled until after some financial loss and a great deal of time and trouble.

Argey

Simplynocturnal - please stop filling our threads with your patronising advertsing.

Argey

Whilst i do agree that we should be aware especially regarding this type of call.

The call we had was not regarding a purchase from IW but a DVD company we had previously ordered from, and at no time was 'trial' of anything mentioned, merely a catalogue of offers.

A few days later a brochure and letter arrived from Travel Steps advising that after 30 days etc etc which was cancelled pronto!

Perhaps IW use a different script.
Or perhaps there is a deviation from the script, more calls, more accepts, more pay, perhaps?

I do regard myself savvy enough to avoid agreeing to something unsolicited, and especially where I am expected to make a payment!

I've been looking around the net about these various "holiday clubs" too, and whilst there some obvious scams..ie being given a scratchcard whilst on holiday saying you've won a major prize (always a free holiday) then being taken to a presentation that lasts for hours, then being persuaded up front to part with huge sums of money, but others, lets say Travel steps, for the sake of arguement are less obvious. With your £99 registration fee.....What are you actually getting? Nothing tangible, that's for sure. The chance to purchase cut price holidays...whoopee! Anyone can find a deal on a holiday, and I doubt if you'd even have to look very hard! ....and without any chance of being "persuaded to sign anything", or tie yourself into a scheme that may be difficult to get out of..unless of course you are daft enough to fall for a scratchcard scam whilst you're away. Ceri pointed out that the country hotels on the travel steps website ARE connected to timeshare, I also had a look, and it seems that is true, also with further investigation, it would appear that these "holiday clubs" give the consumer less protection than they'd get if they did sign a timeshare agreement.

So the newbie who has agreed to the free thirty day trial is looking forward to a free holiday on the Costas, please tell us were the flights free, do you HAVE to agree to eat meals in the hotel? You can tell us that information before you go on the holiday surely! They've invited you to a barbecue cum presentation...you say you don't have to go, obviously you can't answer this question yet, but if you don't go, will you just be allowed to come and go as you please without any pressure from anyone? I really cannot believe that any company can afford, or would be willing to offer someone a completely cost free holiday in the sun, just for accepting a glossy brochure through the post, with the chance of saying, I've had a lovely holiday, but I don't want anything to do with your company, please cancel my membership thank you very much. Also how many people is this "free" holiday for, one, two...family of four? So many questions, I know, but I feel they do need addressing!

Unfortunately, I haven't managed to find one single report from anyone who has signed up to a holiday club, like travel steps saying they have enjoyed a completely gratis holiday, as I said most of the reports have come from people who have fallen foul of the most obvious scams..ie the scratchcard. I really do think that Watchdog should be informed about this, not only to clarify the rights and wrongs of how people are persuaded to join this, but also about the promsises of "no strings attatched" free holidays.

simplynocturnal said:

I seem to have read ALOT of comments about the travelsteps club, as a member i thought it would be best for me to comment.
I had a call last week from someone calling on behalf of Ideal world, 'in assosiation with travel steps'. First of all they asked me a few customer service questions, then went on to say that as a thankyou for ordering with ideal world, i can have a 30 day free trial for a lifestyle and leisure brochure - the travel steps club. the girl then went on to saying what was in the brochure and that IF after the 30 day trial i wished to continue being a member, its £99 for a years membership and this would be debited from my account after the 30 day trial. if however i did not want to continue being a member, i could post back the brochure or call the number in the brochure. I accepted the offer, and received exactly what i thought i was receiving. I did check this with trading standards and apparently it is completely acceptable for companies to pass on your details to 3rd party companies. and only IF you agree to receive the 30 day trial, would you be charged. My advice to you all is to listen to your calls, it seems that all of you obviously didnt listen to what was said on the phone. The whole point of a 30 day TRIAL is that you are on a TRIAL. I have now kept my membership and will shortly be going on my holiday to the Costa del sol, free of charge thanks to the travel steps.

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Sorry simply nocturnal, but I've only just found this post from you. So you're saying the free trial for thirty days, gives you the brochure and nothing more than the brochure? If you read the brochure and decide you're not interested, you send it back and you are charged nothing, sounds good so far. Next step, you decide to join, they take £99 from you, and you get a free holiday in the costa del sol, right?...only you've just paid £99 for it! ....that's not "free" in my book, anyway! what next, another free holiday? or just a password allowing you to book further holidays at discount prices? let us know, we're itching to find out!

Here's my advice...why not pick up a few glossy travel brochures from your local travel agent, they're free,and if you don't find anything that takes your fancy, you can put it in the bin (recycling of course!). You don't have to make any phonecalls, or post it anywhere within a certain time, or go on line, there's loads of bargain breaks to be had!