How we got duped....

Sitting in Office in my notice period, I dont have anything to do. So I thought I will write my experience of taking a Holiday Resort membership -> the tale of being conned which has a happy ending.

So One day, a few months before our marriage, she got a call from the holiday resort named "Highland Holiday Homes" claiming that she had won a very good gift. She won it in a lucky draw done by the resort for some of the chosen mobile numbers but the condition was that she had to come with her family/spouse. Excited on the prospect of getting a gift that can be utilized by us after our marriage and which can cut our expense of buying atleast one item, she called me and told about the call. I had already heard of these kinda calls from different resorts which call people telling that they have won some gifts and persuade them hard in buying the membership of their resort.

I was reluctant to go but she insisted and i thought "Am i so gullible?? I cant be so easily duped so why am i afraid to go??". Thinking this we decided to go there on the date we were invited. That day wasn't eventless. My bike was towed away in front of me, we walked atleast 3 kms in search of the traffic police station, shelled out 300 Rs as fine and towing charge and after all these hiccups we finally reached to the "Highland Holiday Homes" office.

There was a receptionist who directed us to a mezzannine floor where they had some counter like structure. Some 6 counters were there and there were executives impeccably dressed on each of them. One of them greeted us and pulled out chairs for us. And then he told us about the gift which was a voucher to visit one of their resort for some 5 days at a reduced cost. Before he started the next sentence I am sure that the Item which was deleted from her buying list was added again :).

After that he showed us the brochure which was full of beautiful pictures of some 5 star or 7 star resorts. At each "No" of mine for buying their membership that guy told me one more benefit of taking the membership.. and then there was a moment when the benefits told were so high in number that my firmness of not taking the membership diluted. At that moment I saw into her eyes and there was no firmness left, as like me, she also started seeing the dreams of going to such great resorts and enjoying. May be we could go to one of these resorts for our honeymoon. And the next moment they took my credit card and before i knew it was swiped for 25k.

Coming out of their office my heart felt that that was not the right decision and something is wrong. But i kept consoling myself thinking the benefits told by that guy. In a day or two, she searched on internet about this resort and the blogs full of complaints and bad experiences were returned first than the site of "Highland Holiday Homes". And then we certainly knew that we were duped of 25 k.

After thinking a lot we decided to go to consumer court through a lawyer. In the beginning thinking about going to court seemed to be full of complexities and hassles but then we thought that the case is gonna cost us some 2 to 3 k and where we have lost 25 k then let it be 28 k but lets give a try. And there is nothing much to write about the experience of this part as the lawyer was good and there wasnt much effort involved. Finally after a wait of 4 months the court ordered "Highland Holiday Homes" to return our money!!

I still keep reading about ppls blogs and comments about their experience but all of them ask what to do... or they use some dirty words to satisfy themselves but only a few try to take a next step. I think being duped was not our fault as there were professionals sitting to con us but if we hadnt gone to the court it would have been a big mistake.