Bare with me on the length of the post but the whole experience was so intricate there is no way I can miss out anything. This past week my boyfriend and I had an evening worth not forgetting. A group of people purporting to be marketers/sales people tried to not only put the wool over our eyes but put the WHOLE SHEEP over any sensory organ that was available at that time!

It all began with my regular visit to one of our local super markets over the weekend, where a young man with a bunch of papers and a pen happened upon me, asking me to fill in a questionnaire regarding my travel/vacation habits. I told him that I was tired and wasn’t in the mood for whatever he was selling, but he was so persistent even insisting on filling the key parts of the form for me to save me any stress. He proceeded to ask me for my name, number, if I travel frequently, my & my partner’s profession. At that point I was thinking this is all a little suspicious but I was tired and answering his questions seemed to be the only way out. I answered and moved on with my life with very little thought.

Then on Wednesday while I was within the quagmire of sorting out stuff at work, I get a call from one Mr. Wekesa, telling me that I had won a 2-night for 2 deal with Company X. That they had gone through the forms filled by their agents and they deemed me and my spouse worthy of winning this trip! Unless you get such calls regularly, you’ll totally understand how confused I was because for the life of me the young man at the supermarket was totally erased from my conscious and unconscious mind. Anyway Mr. Wekesa proceeded to tell me of this 6pm presentation that Company X was making that evening and that my attendance would be most imperative. I tried to ask Mr. Wekesa a number of questions regarding what he was talking about but he insisted that all my questions would be answered at the 6pm presentation. I was thinking it did no harm to say OK to a 2-day trip, it was something worth finding out about and I had nothing to lose but time. So I contacted my boyfriend and we planned to attend this mysterious event.

At 6pm we drove into a pretty new building in the Westlands area, oh and I forgot that we’d been previously been allocated Parking No. 7 & Table No. 7. So we drove in and parked but after being told by another gentleman at the parking to wait in our cars till we were instructed to enter the building. After a short 10 min wait, we were told to go to the 1st floor of the building, which we proceeded to do. We were then greeted by a young lady who gave us a form to fill, indicating our names (remember at this point I was a married woman), joint monthly income and whether or not we were willing to sit through a 90min presentation. After yet another short wait we were approached by another young lady and asked to follow her into the presentation room and have a sit. We were offered tea/coffee/water which we gladly accepted.

The presentation room was dotted with lovely and well printed images of various vacation/travel destinations. We tried to enquire as to who did the marketing paraphernalia, but we were told that it wasn’t information that she had at the top of her mind. We spent a few minutes answering our hosts questions about what we do, where we’ve traveled to recently and where our dream vacation spots are. Occasionally a ‘Manager’ would drop in on us, greeting, introducing and laughing at our pretty lame jokes. Our chat with Njoki ended earlier compared to the other couples, who seemed to have endless stories to talk about. Eventually we were asked to switch off our cell phones and listen to the much awaited presentation.

The presentation was quite dramatic, with one person speaking in English and another translating it into Swahili sentence for sentence ;much like those preachers on the streets “Ladies and gentlemen,” “Mabibi na mabwana…” sort of thing. It went on for 15 mins, they described for us the benefits of joining their vacation club, and how much we would all benefit from having a timeshare deal going on over the next 10/20 years. They also claimed affiliation to RCI and The Vacation Group, SA (tried to goggle them but it seems they don’t exist).

Then we had a short break where we were to ask questions and have a small tour of the images on the way depicting timeshare destinations available to us once we joined this exclusive club. After that we were asked to sit through another 15mins through yet another the english/swahili presentation describing to us the cost benefit of joining this timeshare club. We were given the option of 1) Finding out the amount it would cost us (which they had managed to dangle over us through the whole session) 2) Find out the amount and either join or not join 3) After saying yes or no walk out and get our 2-day complimentary stay at one of their cottages either in Mbs or Zanzibar.

The deal basically involved paying Amount X which was determined by a minimum of 7days + the number of years (either 10 or 20) + the number of family members (either 2/4/6) + the number of bedrooms (either 1bdrm for a max of 4 members or 2 bdrm for a max of 6 members) + the season (there were 3 options of Platinum/Gold/ Silver that guarantees one accommodation during hi & lo travel seasons depending on what package you chose). On top of which you are expected to pay 35,000 per annum for the next 10/20years. They claimed a 35% success rate in every group presented to.

For our package of 10 year, 4 members, gold season & one bdrm the amount was coming to 444,428/- and if we decided to join there and then we would get a 20% discount which means we would only pay 355,542/- better still if we were willing to pay cash or credit we would get a 35% discount meaning all you’d have to pay was a mere 288,878/-. If we were to go with the 20% option, we were expected to put down a deposit of no less than 80,000/- to guarantee that we were serious. BUT if we decided to come tomorrow (a mere 6 hours away) non of the discounts would be available to us and we’d not get a benefit of free membership to RCI which comes to 400$ per annum, meaning on the basis of tomorrow we’d be expected to pay and extra 268,000/- on top of the 444,4428/- which comes to 712,428/- an amount that we said we are willing to go think about, plan and return with the cash. That idea was immediately brushed off as they now had a better deal for us.

A 2 year deal where we would pay 135,000/- for the same 1 bdrm, Gold package and if we could put down 30,000/- there and then (cash or credit) we would be able to enjoy the benefits and after the 2 years we could come and the 135,000/- would be deducted from the 355,542/- and we can join up for the 10/20 years. We said we didn’t have the 30,000 on us and he immediately gave us a deposit price of 13,500/- to join the 2 year plan. I asked if we could give a post dated cheque for Sept 3rd (next week) and suddenly they all became hostile and at that point we were released (after filling in an exit form). We were then escorted to the reception, handed a ‘branded’ letter (without envelope) written in Comic Sans font telling us about the 2 day accommodation deal we are getting for free, how we only need to call reservations 1mnth in advance to secure a place either in Mombasa or Zanzibar.

The magnitude of the con only began to hit us once we got out of the building and into the fresh air. First and foremost we hadn’t walked out of there with any marketing/sales material to ponder upon. Secondly in the room were 14 tables (meaning 14 couples) for them to have a 35% success rate would mean that 4-5 couples would join per presentation. According to our hostess the presentations are made once on weekdays and twice on Saturday (and sometimes on Sunday). That is almost roughly 20 people joining per week. If those 20 people were let’s say able to part with 80,000/- on the spot that would mean the company would  make an average of 1.6M in a week. Noting that they only opening in February (after taking over from a company -  that was doing the same business of timeshare selling – but mysteriously closed their sales department to focus on the clients they had) which is roughly 29 weeks it comes to 4.64M so far only this year.

We called yesterday to book the 2day holiday in 2 months (rather than 1 month in advance) and we were asked for the voucher number (which was to be found on the letter) and a membership number. The latter was supposed to be given to you once you registered on the spot. Since we didn’t  have this number, we were told that we would be contacted with by the company. I wouldn’t hold my breath on that.

Now I’m not saying with 100% certainty that this was an outright con. In my opinion for a con to work 25% of what one is saying has to be true. All they need to do is own or rent out a couple of beach cottages for the next 10/20 years and get an optimum number of people to register in the first 2 years (depending on how fast word spreads). Let’s be hypothetical and say that they would only be able to get 10 couples a week (and that’s being modest) @ 80,000/- per couple over a period of 52 weeks; that comes to 41,600,000M tax free money that will be split between the 5-8 people (those in the room who claimed to be management); a little rent here and a few cups of tea/coffee there… that to me is a killing plain and simple.

Luckily for us the only thing we were conned out of was our time (which by the way wasn’t 90mins but 3 hours).

THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR:

• You interact with different people at different stages with different level of knowledge,
• When you are arrive you are not allowed to meet clients leaving the previous presentation hence why we were told to wait in the car.
• You have to sit through a lengthy sales pitches before receiving promised prizes.
• They give oral promises with no documentation.
• They write on a white board but erase immediately after.
• They speak very fast and flamboyantly.
• You must close the deal today! They refuse more money tomorrow for a little today.
• They play relaxing/holiday music with subliminal messaging e.g Easy like a Sunday morning.
• They Read & write upside down very fast.
• They know the costs off head and only the managers come around with calculators, you  or your designated sales person don’t have access to it.
• They have bookmarked specific locations based on where it is you said you’d like to go.
• When someone signs up, they reduce volume of the music and insist that we all clap for them.
• You don’t leave with any brochures, papers with figures et al.