Is it not odd? When anyone queries these companies, there is always ONE person who posts with a positive spin on things! And this person has usually only one or two posts ... But nobody would suggest that they were an employee of the company being criticised, no of course not. But I would still use the longest barge pole imaginable!

Ryanair are like any other business in most respects, except they police their rules tightly. If you rent a phone line from BT, you can either have an inclusive tariff at extra cost, or a basic tariff and pay call charges. If you go by train, you can go 1st or standard class (but try taking a bike - oh my!). If you book Ryanair, READ the rules. If you must take hold luggage, pay up front and pack to the limits. If you can get away with cabin baggage only, you save cash. Print your boarding pass, turn up on time, and avoid buying stuff on board. A lot of use Ryanair at times, usually with no worse experience than going with other airlines, and often a bit better. And for the difference in prices, I will continue to view them as an option on my flights!

Hi We always book online - whether flights, apartments, hotels, villas, car hire or even transfers. I see no reason to pay more money for the same service, but help some middle-man to make extra money at my expense. You DO have to be a little careful - check that the company you are interested in is legitimate (putting the company name and "review" or "complaint" into Google as search terms is useful). And you can, as yourbank advises, use a credit card though some flight operators load an extra charge on your bill if you do this (we rarely do). Have we ever had a problem - yes, once, when our debit card was reissued at renewal date and somehow the hotel authorisation went wrong. But that was once in dozens and dozens of bookings. I would say online bookings are SAFER than shop bookings, as you get confirmations immediately and do not rely on travel agents to remember to pay monies over.

OOPS! Sorry wrong party! I never meant to do that. Of course I meant Newbe and bigman1234 (or whatever) Many apologies to Wales from Sunny Scotland.

I have been helping victims of timeshare scams for several years. One very common ploy is the "We have a buyer" phone call. Then for some bizarre reason you have to send them cash after which the buyer evaporates. Very very common, and all that changes is the name of the company involved. A variation is, after someone has been ripped off, they get called by someone purporting to be lawyers investigating the fraud, and will you pay money to contribute to a court case ..... I am sure the Moderators here have checked the IP addresses of Newbe and bigkenny, and will bet a fair bit that they are based in Mallorca. Maybe not, but the pattern of rapid defence of these crooked companies by employees / [problematic] posting about "how good" the company is in exactly this manner is well proven. The Golden Rule is - NEVER EVER part with money to sell your timeshare. A reputable company will not take cash this way.

Hi Thanks - that is exactly what I needed to know. I already tried the Pru's 'Complaints Procedure' (a right, royal waste of time). So now I have sent the SAR request. I have decided to take this as far as I need to, even court action if I have to.

Martin Yes I realise that the investment value could fall - but the background is that the cash was being invested with minimum risk for my father (to cover his care). As such investing in unit-linked investments was not the best as it has worked out. However that is not my question - I want to know what legal rights I have to request and require the IFA and Prudential to release all internal correspondence relating to the unbelievable mess they have caused here. In 15 months I have only had ONE communication that was correct, and am fighting to get basic documents correctly sent to me. I want to know if I can get hold of all of it - then decide if I want to go to the Ombudsman for mis-selling and maladministration.

How we ended up "investing" with the Prudential is too long a story, but it is a joint investment with my brother and we ended up "investing" with Prudential. From the initial contact by the IFA this was a disaster, wrong advice, confusing information, repeated forms to complete while the sum to be invested sat uncashed - just unbelievable. Over a year after the "investment" the value of the funds has collapsed, but we still get wrong information every time we ask anything. Our questions are ignored or "accidentally" answered with the wrong details or documents. So now enough is enough - I will now make a formal complaint, and take it as far as I have to. What rights have I to request or require Prudential to provide copies of all paperwork and emails relating to the "investment"? If I need a court order I will get one, they just pushed me one stage too far. But I need to know my rights at this stage. And any advice on wording appreciated. Oh - one tip for others - had we left the cash in a Building Society it would have grown 7% since "invested" - the Wise Men at the Pru have reduced it to 70% of its initial value!

Interesting posts there from rranjan and allisonp They are the only two posts that support the company under discussion, are the only posts these two new members have made, have similar grammar and even appear to have been created on the same PC! Perhaps the poster(s) have some connection to the company itself?

While I understand the anger these guys cause by their mis-selling and lies, banning the product because there are crooks in the industry is hardly the answer. If we follow this logic, we will ban pensions, electricity, gas, mobile phones and landline phones. Hardly a solution to anything. The real solution is for Holiday Clubs (which are almost wholly crooked - not all, but almost all) to be brought within the Timeshare Legislation. Timeshare is a very good product if sold by honest companies and run well. Since the legislation came into force, there have been very few real problems with it - except that the people who used to run less-than-honest timeshare companies moved to these Holiday Clubs. If we put pressure on our MEPs to get the legislation driven through to regulate these sharks, things would improve.

rosiecotton has it exactly right! Many of these companies are selling HOLIDAYS - cheap flights / cheap rooms or some combination. These are NOT covered by the Timeshare Directive and therefore there is no cooling off period. Holiday Clubs are a colossal ripoff by and large (there are a very few genuine exceptions), where you buy membership of a club that often seem to evaporate before it has to deliver anything. With timeshare you actually buy something, and are protected by the Directive. It is that protection that Holiday Clubs were designed to circumvent! Please check which you have bought! And remember that if you paid by CREDIT CARD you may manage to get your card issuer to refund the monies you have paid.

There are various threads on Sunterra on the timesharetalk website (Timesharetalk Forum ) you are definitely not alone in having reported problems with them. The RCI Points scheme works well for many people, but is not appropriate for others. Sadly, the companies that sell the scheme are not all as scrupulous as they should be. However it is always worth separating the product from the people that have latched onto selling it. I am webmaster of a website for people interested in, or who own, RCI Points - MORPS - Members of RCI Points Systems - Introduction , run by a committee of owners in the scheme. Happy to help anyone with issues here!

John You will probably find that the company have the right to repossess your weeks if you have not paid your maintenance. It typically states this in the Deed you agreed to when you joined. Normally, if you settle the outstanding maintenance fees, you will be restored to full membership. From their point of view, the committee of members (or whoever) calculate the charges as being the total planned expenditure in any year apportioned across all members. If a member does not pay, the resort builds up a deficit - or the members who do pay are all surcharged to resolve this. Neither is popular with paying members! I would suggest that you immediately offer to pay all maintenance fees in full - or alternatively try to terminate your ownership and lose your week.