Club Absolute review: False information provided 77

we signed up on 6/3/2009 $23, 373.00 which gives us 1 week per year until year 2049. We also pay 393 euro per year which can be $700 or so Australian dollars. We have been to our first holiday in 2009 which we did not pay for and they did the biggest sell and we upgraded to high season more money. We have stayed at Swiss Garden Kuala Lumpa twice. We were told they had suites everywhere gave us the big sales pitch, when we booked to go to Hong Kong they have none there, Singapore none. Last year we stayed in Bangkok suite and then at Bangla Suites in Phuket so we have not had value for money. While at Bangla Suites they booked us in for another session of trying to sell us their new way of selling, which was another 5000 dollars for 1 way or the other way was 30, 000 but no ongoing costs. We did not buy any as we feel like we have wasted enough money with Absolute and if anyone knows how to get out of it please let me know. Thanks Donna

We just purchased the holiday when on free accomodation in Noosa. Concerned my holiday doesn't exist now too... Has anyone taken a Thai holiday with these guys and it was all ok? I'm looking for more recent info

About 6 years ago we also got caught up in this scam. We paid $11k (AUS). We were told that we would get a free weeks holiday every year and they showed us a whole book of places that we could use - worldwide in fact. It turned out that we were sold a tri-annual holiday week - one free week every 3 years - and also we have to pay a maintenance fee every year. The destinations they said we could visit are owned by external partners - and it appears you have to belong to "Interval Club' to access these destinations which also costs an annual fee. All the places we like to visit, i.e. Vietnam are not covered by their destinations. We also have written and tried to sell our portion, but to no avail. I have also been told that we will have to forego our 'free' week if it is not used within a certain time, it will not roll over until we wish to use it.

My husband and I both joined Absolute after a holiday offer to go there from Brisbane at a very reasonable rate on the understanding we attended a presentation while there. It was a. It long but not too bad and we subsequently joined. This is over a year ago and we have had our free holiday... We have also booked another holiday and our son and his wife have also had a holiday. We found their Travel Service very helpful indeed and the savings were impressive. We are no novices to overseas travel having travelled at least once a year for the last 22 years and lived in Europe. I am sad to see some of the negatives and constant referrals to "scam" . My husband is a lawyer and checked everything thoroughly ...also friends of ours cancelled and got their deposit back no problems at all. I find no one posts good stuff only negatives and some of these comments are blatantly incorrect or at total odds with our experiences. I am not in the habit of commenting but felt the need to redress the balance here. Vanessa Cattley.

Absolutely Kaza08, my husband and I filled out a police report while still in country on Samui. The police are said to be paid off by Absolute, in order to be left alone to do business. The police know exactly what the score is and even knowing that, we felt it best to leave an official report on record. We took a copy of our report to police and submitted it to our credit card company for their advisement.

We were pulled up yesterday whilst walking to Jungceylon from our hotel.
A well spoken Indian man called us over and my husband kept walking. The Indian man persisted saying that he is absolutely not trying to sell us something. Me, being always polite, felt bad and listened to his spiel. He gave us each a card called a "passport" and told us to rip off the perforations around the outside to reveal our prize.

My husband opened his first and his revealed a voucher for 50% of dining in various restaurants. Mine revealed the "big prize" of either an iPad mini, an iphone 6, $1000 USD or 1 weeks luxury accommodation! The tout then began jumping around shaking my hand and told me that I am the big winner and that he will gat paid a whole days wages because he gave out the lucky card. He thanked us profusely for helping him. All we had to do was to go with the said tout and listen to a 90 minute presentation to get our prize.

Strangely, my husband had seen this man inside our hotel during breakfast (obviously looking for his next victims!) when questioned, the man said he was at our hotel " looking for his friend".

My husband seemed disinterested and aloof (and now I see, rightly so). We advised the man that we were on our way to see a movie that started in one hour so he said that he would give us a free cab to register at the hotel and they would organise a time for us later in the afternoon to return. He also offered a free cab ride back to Jungceylon. We agreed to go, knowing that we would leave quickly to make the movie time.

On arriving at the office of Absolute, we were ushered in and given a cool bottle of water. We were asked to fill out a form. The form asks for name, age, hotel you are staying at, how much you earn and how long you have been together. They also ask you if you have a credit card here with you in Phuket ( my alarm bells should have rang loud and clear at this point!).

I gave the lady the form and she told me to add our surnames - my husband then kept talking and I gave the form back without filling in the surnames. Thankfully, the office lady didn't check as she was chatting profusely about how wonderful the hotel is blah, blah, blah...

After trying to get us to cancel our movie (to no avail) she said we could come back on Tuesday for a free breakfast and for the 90 minute presentation. The Indian man who initially found us was not impressed that we didn't stay for the presentation right there and then ( even though we told him right up front that we didn't have the time today). He must have thought that the office staff would surely con us into staying! We then were given the free cab ride to Jungceylon (thanks!).

Later last night I thought I would google "absolute" and found a myriad of "scam" websites!

Needless to say, we are not going to our appointment and hate to think what we might have got suckered into.

I am so thankful for everyone who has posted online about this scam - it has probably saved us being scammed.

Good luck to all those who are trying to get their money back. Has anyone reported these guys to the Thai police?

Got pulled up this week in Patong, Phuket (Sept 2014). The Indian and Austrian guy on the street were so good at what they do... sucked me in to going back to the office despite the BS radar beeping loud and clear. Gave some personal details and was taken to a cafe inside the building by a Hungarian chick... Played theyre game until I got bored, so I just asked for the 90 minute presentation... A manager was called over and again I just asked for the 90 minute presentation so I could get the "free" accommodation (as that would no doubt be the "prize"). The arrogant young Brit very frankly told me it would take more like 3 hours, but could take 30 minutes if I liked them and they liked me... At that moment something snapped inside... "If they like me"... well *uck off... I plainly told them both "there was a word for what you do, let me think of it... ###". Got up and walked out, the chick tried calling me into another office all to no avail... I walked across the street and sat down at a bar for a few coldies. About an hour or so later the chick sat down beside me and started asking me questions like why I came in and why I just walked out, all the while still trying to be my friend... reckons I'm the first person who just walked out on her spin... I told her plainly that the prostitute's working around the bar had more integrity than the people who worked in that office and she walked off with the last words of "Have a nice life"... well, I will my dear, I will have a nice life... all the better with ### like you and the Absolute group out of it... Sincere condolences to those scammed by these criminals.

Don't throw good money after bad Rich. We paid deposit on cc and were given a chargeback after a few months of back and forth nonsense with Absolute. They didn't even try to get the balance from us, but, when they did offer us a full refund (mere days before Visa applied the chargeback I must add, and after stating repeatedly to not offer refunds of any kind), they emailed us a "silence agreement" to sign (with another members name and contract number and dated months prior to our trip on it!) that ensured we could not disclose terms of the refund, or disparage the company. They also provided us with a Hong Kong bank branch account number to transfer payment for the FREE iPad we were given upon joining! Fool me once, shame on you...These slick ### are surprisingly poor with figures and contract details, which indicate just how binding these "legal contracts" truly are.

Joined up last month on Koh Samui. Paid deposit of $1000 AUD and was just about to pay the balance of $5000.
Email from Justinn Haith saying the balance is 3, 316 EURO, or by his calculations, $7489 AUD.
I replied that according to my exchange rates, that should only amount to $4741 AUD
His reply? "No worries, use yours"
Was it a stab in the dark, hoping that dumb old me, would just pay that amount down?
Rang my alarm bells, and very belatedly, i finally researched them. (I blame sleepy holiday brain for my lack of due diligence)
Very, very underwhelmed by what I've since read.
Ive now indicated that i am cancelling my membership, I hold no hope in getting my deposit back, but will absolutely not be paying anything more to Absolute Group.
Can i cancel and not pay the balance to this mob? They can keep my deposit, i'll just chalk it down to experience, but I am definitely not going to pay the rest of it.
Has anybody out there had a similar experience? Ie: paid a deposit, realised what a mistake it was, and then not paid the balance?
can they, do they, pursue etc?
Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.

ABSOLUTE SCAMMERS LISTED BELOW

Bryan Lunt –
Chairman and CEO Absolute World Group
Brian M Makai -
Absolute IH Sales Manager
Justinn Haith -
Fractional Ownership Manager
Geraint Lewis -
Head of Absolute Owners Relation Division Thailand

As per Clause 14 of the Apartment Lease Agreement Absolute
Beach Resort @ Tong Krut, this email serves as written notification of
serious breaches and non-performances of contract

(No.####### by the Lessor Tong Krut Fractional
Ownership Company Ltd (here after known as TKFOC Ltd).

Until this point we have been exceedingly patient with
repeated and significant delays to the completion date of the construction of
the property known as The Beach Samui as well as delayed and ignored responses
to our communications about the latter. Our patience has now expired and we are
serving this written notification of the breaches and non-performances as well
as intention to terminate the contract.

In summary:

It is claimed that TKFOC Ltd is in serious
breach of the contract and has completely and exactly failed to discharge by
performance its contractual obligations due to:

A
failure to provide appropriate and timely written notification of the change to
the location of the Unit and Common Property.
A
failure to meet the original completion date (30 July 2011) for the Unit and
Common Property as specified in the contract and failure to provide appropriate
and timely written notification of the extension of the completion date.
Subsequent
repeated failures to meet or provide appropriate and timely written
notification of the extension of the completion date for the Unit and Common
Property.

In line with Clause 14, Absolute has 30 days to
remedy this default, most significantly the completion of the Unit and Common
Property.

Given that the date of completion is now
forecast to be October 2014, it is clear that TKFOC Ltd will be unable to
remedy the default and we therefore wish to terminate the Agreement. At
minimum we require in line with Clause 14 that TKFOCL return to us in full:
Total purchase
price under this Agreement: THB #####
Interest at the rate equal to the rate of the
saving deposit of a Thailand commercial bank calculated from the date monies
were received to the date of repayment in full.

OR

Buy back our Unit
at the current market price at no expense to us.

Detail of our contract history and incidences of breaches
and non-performance of contract in support of our claim is provided below:

Contract History:

ontract No. ######## Purchased 6 November
2006 – Absolute Private Residence Club Thailand Apt T0; No. Weeks: 1
bi-annual (valid until 2031)
Absolute
signatory: Justinn Haith, Owner Relations
Absolute
Sales Rep: Terry
Paid
in full and on time full purchase price EUR
####
Absolute
paid the 2007 annual management fee
Included
entitlement to 5 years in Absolute Vacation Club
Included
entitlement to membership with Interval International until November 2016.
Misleading
& incorrect information provided at time of contract purchase:
We
were informed by Terry that membership also included upgrades to business class
flights at economy prices. We were subsequently told by Justinn when we
upgraded our membership (see below) that this was never an entitlement of any
membership and he apologised that we were given this incorrect information.
We
were informed by Terry that Absolute acted as a travel agent for all our travel
requirements. It was only after many emails instigated by us that we determined
that this was not in fact correct and we were referred to Ice Vacations in
Queensland for such.

Contract No. ####### Purchased 29 October
2007 – Membership upgrade Apt T0; No. Weeks: 1 per year (valid until 16
April 2031) Purchase price EUR #######
Absolute
signatory Justinn Haith: Owner Relations/Contract Officer
Absolute
Sales Rep: Depak
Paid
in full and on time the balance owing on the
contract
Paid
all annual management fees in full and on time (2008, 2009, 2010)
Misleading
& incorrect information provided at time of contract purchase:
At
the time of purchase of the upgrade Depak said the Trustee Hutchinson’s would
send us an annual document stating the current value of the membership. He said
this would equate to an average increase of 12% per annum. When we later
queried this with Justinn he said that while Absolute receives documentation
stating prices of memberships that these are not given to members and Absolute
can only give us a price at the time of sale.

Contract No. #####: Purchased 22
January 2010 – Fractional Ownership Program Share Purchase Agreement for
Absolute Beach Resort at Tong Krut, Koh Samui
Purchase price THB ########
Absolute
signatory: Justinn Haith, Fractional Ownership Manager
Absolute
Sales Rep: Richie
Paid
in full and on time in 4 instalments all monies owing
on new contract

Breaches and
Non-Performances of Contract No. ###########:

Repeatedly failing to inform us in a timely
manner of extensions to the Construction Period as required per Clause 9
(between 14 and 30 days in advance of the Practical Completion Date) and in the
appropriate written form as specified by Clause 19 (registered mail, fax or
acknowledged email):
As
per Clause 9, the Unit and Common Property were to be completed on or before 30
July 2011. As per the contract this completion date can only be extended in
writing in the forms specified in Clause 19 and for no longer than 12 months
beyond the originally specified completion date. Moreover, such extensions are
required to be notified between 14 and 30 days in advance of the completion date.
This
construction completion date has been repeatedly extended but not with the
appropriate written notifications as per Clause 19. A number of emails we have
sent to various Absolute representatives since the contract came into effect
seeking clarification on the completion date have also been ignored, the latest
email being to Geraint Lewis (Head of Absolute Owners Relation Division
Thailand) on 1 April 2014. The most recent date for completion
as stated on an Absolute email newsletter is October 2014. This will make the completion more than 3 years
overdue from that originally specified which constitutes a serious breach and
non-performance of contract.
30 Aug 2012 - We Informed Justinn Haith by email of our change
of address as required by clause 18. Therefore any written notifications by
Absolute of extensions to the completion date via registered mail should have
been received by us. Our email address has not changed but no “acknowledged
emails” regarding extension of completion dates have been received on this
email address.
Taking
into account the 3 points above, verbal notifications when we were in Koh
Samui, emails responding to our enquiries and information posted on websites
are not sufficient notification of completion date extensions and are serious
breaches and non-performances of contract.

Contract No. #### was specified for the
purchase of a ground floor one bedroom unit of 75 metres for 2 weeks every year
March 9-23 (high season).
The
location of the Unit and Common Property was stated in the section titled
“Whereas A”. When we visited Koh Samui in May 2012 for a site visit we were
told that the geographical location of the property had been moved. No written
notification had been given prior to this in the form required by Clause 19.
As
circled on the ground floor plan included with Contract No. ##########, our Unit
was located furtherest from the restaurant (right hand side as viewed from the
beach). However, when we were taken to view the construction site in July 2013
we were told our Unit was on the ground floor closest to the restaurant. When
we stated that this was not correct as per the original documentation, Brian M
Makai (Absolute IH Sales Manager) stated that he
would send documentation to us correcting this at no cost to us. To date we
have received no such documentation.

At the time of our last construction site
viewing in July 2013 Absolute IH Sales Manager Brian M Makai informed us that
the Unit and Common Property would definitely be completed by January 2014 as
an agreement had been entered into with Design Hotels. He informed us that
Design Hotels would be offering their members all apartments not taken up by
Absolute fractional owners in 2014 at a rent of $AUD 3, 500.00 per week (our
portion as per Clause 5). We informed Brian that we would not be
utilising our 2 weeks in 2014 and wanted our Unit rented out in 2014 for the
full 2 weeks. Brian said that this was a guaranteed agreement between Design
Hotels and Absolute but we were not given anything in writing to this effect
nor have we received the agreed rent for our apartment of $ AUD 7, 000.00 for
2014 because the Unit and Common Property are not completed.

Still waiting for a reply from Absolute

Want to lose your investment then join Absolute
Want broken promises...Absolutely

we joined about four years ago and the on going maintenence fees are in Euros and the cost is probably what you would pay
for a week in a resort anyway.
As attached E-mail just received the other day,
Do other people have these massive fees per year.

Hope you are both keeping well.

Our record shows that Absolute haven’t receive any
payments in regards to your Management Fees for your Absolute Private Residence
Club Membership.

You have an outstanding fee which is 584.00 Euro’s,
kindly note that these fees were due to be paid last October the 1st
2013.

At this time Absolute has not implemented the 1%
interest fee as outlined in the Club Rules which is chargeable to nonpayment.

If your fees are not bought up to date within the next
25 days, Absolute will be force to begin interest charges on your account.

Kindly bring your account up to date to avoid further
charges and inform us on how to proceed with your payments so that we can
update your details in the system.

Thank you.

For further inquiries
regarding Management Fees, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thanks All,
My husband and I are just about to leave for Koh Samui to stay at Q Signature Resort as a result of phone call from Absolute World. We are suppose to sit through a 90 min presentation as part of the deal.
We will now be able to call their bluff with the information you all have provided. We now know what it's about " scam scam scam"
Thanks Gail & Waz

Yes I signed up last year. Fine if you take holidays in Thailand they have about 4 resorts in Phuket as for the rest of the [censored] about them being affiliated world wide, I have tried booking accommodation in Sydney (where you think there would be loads) to do this I have had to register with Interval International - who has 1 hotel The Sebel in Darling Harbour (Booked out - surprise, surprise) they offered 5 other destinations for the time I wanted in no particular order, Coffs Harbour was the only one in the state only 5 hrs drive away. the others were in different states WA SA QLD Gold Coast & Sunshine Coast - Kinda pointless if I have to be in Sydney.
For those who have signed up, book well ahead for your trip as in 6 months or more that way you are more likely to get where you want to be

The only thing I can suggest to all of us suckers that got caught out take your holidays as soon as you can throughout the life of the contract - and get your moneys worth, I don't intend to pay the yearly upkeep fees but probably will.
I think the next person that approaches me about signing up for a holiday resort is going to dealt with severely,
Cheers Phuk it

I was given the scratch card in Phuket on my first day. I had a feeling it might be a scam from the beginning, one of the Thai taxi drivers who took us for a tour saw me with them and started waving for me to stay away from them.. I let them get about 5 mins into the presentation then told them I wasn't the sort of person who signs things without doing research. I said I would look them up on the Internet to which some guy asked "do you believe everything on the Internet?" I laughed at him and they cut the meeting short. I hope all you gays get your money back. Don't pay a cent more, they probably won't come for it.

Yeah we have been there too and now signed up for 38 years and paid Euro13000 plus yearly maintenance fee of Euro 135.
Yes our brains (more mine than missus') were swtiched off during the holidays and though we did try to look up for ways to get our money back when we returned from Koh Samui. Alas, at that time I didn't find these reviews else I would have contacted my credit card company and
cancelled the payment as I didn't know of the 14 days cooling off period.
In the first year we tried everything to get our 7 days free booking, but absolutely no luck there, everything is always full and the response was really bad. Then we decided that no point in throwing good money after bad and stopped paying the yearly maintenance fee, but they are chasing us alright. Has any one successfully tried to get them off their backs? Has anyone had any success in getting any/part of the payment they'd made? Would appreciate any guidance/pointers in this matter, thanks.

I also encountered the Absolute group in Noosa and went to their 90 minute presentation. We didn't buy an overseas holiday. As a thank-you for going to the presentation we received a 3 or 4 night holiday in a choice of 5 places. I have tried to book and now have been informed that we will have to attend another 90 minute presentation to stay at the Wyndham Surfers. I've been told that the only place we can stay without enduring a 90 minute presentation is the Noosa accommodation 10 Hastings, seeing we live in Noosa it's a bit of a waste I think. More trouble than worth in the end.

At concerned2014, I have just came from presentation about 30 mins ago in Koh Samui. We got our deal through an online deal in NZ, is was NZ199 for 7 nights accommodation at KC villas, breakfast daily and airport transfers, only deal is we had to sit through a 90min presentation. Luckily we did homework before hand and read sites such as this as they are very convincing, they said they would pick us up and take us to Q Signature for presentation but we declined and made our own way (so we could leave when we wanted to) the presentation went for 2 hours, we declined then left, there was no abuse or hard sell. For us accommodation promised has been awesome, and a big thanks to sites like this that have pre warned us, best of luck to everyone.

I saw them at Noosa Civic too. We didn't do the next step (thankfully) but have tried to organise the stay that was promised locally and the emails organising it stopped cold 2 months ago. Doesn't look good. I will do a drive by the office in Eumundi Rd and see if they are still there? It is the very same organisation as mentioned in the complaints as far as I can tell.

We encountered Absolute group in Noosa Civic QLD where we were offered a 3 night free stay to attend a 90 minute presentation. When we went to the presentation we were met with a very nice lady. We were offered the next step which is a one week trip to Phuket flights, accommodation (in one of their resorts) etc. included for $2500. We have paid and received confirmation of our flights later in the year. The catch is we have to attend another 90 minute presentation whilst over there. Has anyone else come across this one yet? Is it the same scam? I am concerned now that this holiday may not even exist and if it does will we even be able to get back if we say no? Do they take your passports on arrival?

We just signed today 24/2/14 how long is the cooling off period. wat do we

Hi . We just joined. Today 24/2/14 ways the cooling off period how long do we have

Hi everyone from Australia...
Well I just got done last week in Phuket from Absolute Destinations. Just filthy on myself. I paid $1500.00 AUD via AMEX on the spot after 5 hours. Upon getting back to hotel 1/2 hour later, I hit google and started the research...well...the computer screen just lit up! I rang AMEX instantly and got the payment suspended until they can investigate. I also got them to cancel the card. I rang Absolute scams back and abused the $%#^ out of them once the card was cancelled. I am talking with a solicitor friend. Thanks for all the posts here and all the info. I`m not paying a cent. I `m waiting for the debt collector now also, so thanks for the post from `finally winners`. Won't be paying them anything either. I also have written to the Thai tourism authority (a post on here with details around aug/sept 2010)...letting them know they need to get it sorted because they really are ruining their precious tourism trade. Told them I love Thailand and the friendly Thais but won't be returning and will be telling as many as I can not to return until the Thai authorities run these guys out of town and stop looking the other way on something that has obviously been going on for years. I`m prepared to go to court and do whatever I need to on this one. Thinking of going to Australia embassy also. Good luck all

Hi readers Why don, t we document the amount we have lost, or the amount that was clawed back. This way it is documented on line. It may also be used as a record to calculate how much money is being scammed. There are so many people in Australia that have lost their money but never know how big the problem is and how much money we are talking about. I only lost about $3500 Aud but many have lost thousand of dollars. How many years are we going to allow them to get away with it. We need to start writing, emailing VIP, s in Thailand (Police/ Tourism Authorities) to get them to put pressure on Absolute to stop their workers in the street from harrasing tourists. My details July 2009 96500THB approx. $3, 500 Aud. Victoria Aus. Too old to claw back, have tried.

TarzMc - In regards to the website, it has been removed as the woman who ran the site and was the driving force behind the proposed class-action suit, entered into a settlement with Absolute and as part of the agreement had to withdraw her public complaints. Upon further research, I learned that this lady (Lisa Simpson) had become such an effective advocate that she received viable threats towards her children that indicated knowledge of where they attended school. You should contact a lawyer as to your legal options in recouping your huge financial loss. Best of luck to you.

My partner & I were also taken in by these parasites 2yrs ago, we were told that if we were not happy with their product that they would sell it on our behalf, after numerous issues finding availability we decided to sell only to be told that they dont sell these packages & that we must have mis-heard our sales person, so we asked for a full refund as they were not able to provide what they had sold us, we were then told they do not refund under any circumstances so we're currently out of pocket $20k (aud) & as we paid by bank transfer & not CC we are unable to have our bank follow up/ demand a refund.
I noticed in an earlier messsage that ppl were looking at a class action? I'm assuming that didnt happen?
I, also, noticed that there was a site; newbielink:http://www.absolutescam.webs.com that was offering assistance but this has been removed, did anyone see what this site recommended?
Any help would be greatly appreciated

@Melbournians - You don't need a lawyer to get a refund, as these contracts are not legally enforceable, in Thailand OR your home country. Stand up to these con artists and allow your credit card company to process your dispute claim with the merchant bank. Ignore any offer from Absolute, during the months we awaited our chargeback from Visa, we received upgrade offers and reminders that under no circumstance are there contracts cancellable OR refundable. And then magically, just prior to the chargeback being applied to our credit card, we get an email with an offer for a complete refund from Absolute! The kicker being that we were to sign the form letter they emailed us that stated we would never publicly discuss our interaction with them anywhere, online, in print publications, or any form of media, or we would be sued. Naturally, the refund could not be processed until they had received our signed letter and then they warned, it would take at least a month for them to complete the refund. They also provided a bank account number for a bank in Hong Kong which we were asked to transfer nearly a grand to, to pay for the iPad we had received as a FREE prize! The audacity just never ends and i would be remiss to omit one last detail as to the credibility of these sharks, the silence agreement form letter they expected us to sign, was erroneously dated 3 months PRIOR to our trip to Koh Samui, had the wrong contract number on it and was addressed to a different couple altogether! We brought those rather pertinent details to the their attention when explaining why we could not entertain their last minute refund offer. They offered no excuse at all, except to send us another form letter with corrected details. We only received two calls and hung up on them, so, based on our experience, I encourage anyone to play ball with these parasites, its all a big bluff and a game to them and you have no fear they'll ever take legal action.

absolute club also tried to make us sign a 3 or 10 years contract in seminyak, bali. we were on our way to the beach when a friendly local gave us 2 scrach cards. he was very excited about us winning a major prize and him getting 50$ comission if we'd join an hour's presentation at the absolute office. on the way there he told us that no matter what, we should NOT sign any contract. this was irritating us, but thanks. once at the office, mike a young, smart guy with a south german dialect (from bayern) asked us a lot of personal questions about our travelling/holiday habits and our job situations for 1 hour: aiming to get our trust. after going to one of their nice hotels and offering us free drinks he presented us his business model, which we declined because of the long term comittment and the fact that you have to pay everything in advance. this cannot be a serious business model and you cannot even know if the company next month still exists... luckily we got out of it without having suffered any loss or verbal assault (except for wasting our time). therefore our advice: don't waste your precious holiday time/money with such a scam company but go to the beach directly as we have should... :-)
Couple from Europe

I also was scammed by these 'lovely' people from Absolute. We paid A$1300 on our mastecard what we are still trying to get it back. The remaining A$10k we didn't pay and don't intend to. We made an attempt to get a refund from Absolute itself however expecting they would not agree and would say we signed a contract blablabla. But we are not sure of what expect next. Does anyone know a lawyer in Melbourne to refer to? Actually, you guys that got your money back, did you need a lawyer in the first place? Thanks for any help I can get it.
Melbournian.

All same as above but in Phuket . 3 hours wasted, finally we said we can not join because FIRST we have to check your company in the internet, another man came and said -what do you want to check ? - If he could he would killed us. We will never forget his angry eyes ! We said again we will not join and said thank you and bye bye. Went again to main office to pick up my free t-shirt and 1 free accom. week . they needed our home adress to give us the free accom week, we decided to not give our home adress (we didn't take t-shirt even) and left !
BEWARE !

October 2012
Absolute are now in Bali - in full force. Nothing has changed in their approach: t-shirt for hubby, 1st prize of accommodation or ipad for wife. 3 wasted hours (although I got an iced tea and my man had a ginger fizz gratis) for the lucky ones...

just back from Bali... How is this all possible?
How can these people get away with this time after time?
Has any1 actually used the free holiday?

@newsunrise - My how generous our friends at Absolute have become since we encountered them last only last December! After Visa had already secured a full refund for us from the participating merchant bank, these parasites had the audacity to demand a cash transfer be made to their bank account in Hong Kong to cover the cost of our FREE iPad...I guess to a true con, the game is never over and they figure if they could baffle you with their [censored] once, just maybe they can fool ya twice...LOL

We got pulled into the "90 min presentation" throughout the whole tour i kept saying id join if you add an extra ipad since part of the deal is giving one 'free ipad', the salesman managed to get his manager to agree with 2 new ipads, but of course we still declined, the salesman then asked why, and i said well i think it should be 3 ipads really, he declined so we all walked away... it was a funny experience but on a serious note its clear something is just not legit about this company, to me they just seemed overly desperate.

So happy that you were able to avoid being played for fools by heeding the warnings so many are posting Mitzie! Thank you for informing tourists that Absolute is also scamming people in Bali as well. We must continue to inform people of the truth, every person forewarned will also share fair warning with others...

My husband and I are in Bali, Indonesia and the Absolute World Group is here now! We were approached to open these two scratchies (exactly like Thailand), we're told that we won a t-shirt and possible any one of the 4 of the gifts on the other card (exactly like Thailand), and we're told to follow this Absolute staff to their office where we will be given a presentation if their promotion etc etc (exactly like Thailand).

Cutting the whole SAME STORY short, they did exactly what they did in Thailand, and because we had googled it on the way to their office, we were apprehensive and skeptical. We read many reviews, including those here, and we were so amused by their scripted speeches, which we had already known because of our prior googling (thanks everyone!).

So seriously, WHY in the world does someone who wants us to swipe USD25000 off OUR credit card, refuse to give us a name card when requested for it? We wanted a name card, to which we said that we would think about the whole programme that would last for a mightly long 37 years, and this lady by the name of Rachel, refused. Another thing is, she lost her cool when we said we would like to think about it. Wo in their right mind would swipe USD25k without doing any research, and she became pissed off because we said we wanted a few days to think about it. If you want someone to have their business with you for 37 years, can that someone not have 1 day to think about it?

I have not said its a scam, but their offer is really beyond words in that they insist on getting your BIG money NOW. Ridiculous.

First step is to directly contact Absolute and seek to cancel your membership and request a refund, Justinn Haith is the Contract Manager and he does respond to emails, his contact info is in the scant materials Absolute provides members, so, if you do not have it, I can provide it via pm. Absolute will insist they do not provide refunds, at which point you contact MasterCard and ask to lodge a dispute, as you have made an honest attempt to resolve the matter with the vendor directly to no avail. Due to a standard 14-day cooling off period allowed on international transactions by most major credit card companies, they should be able to claw back your deposit through the merchant bank. It took nearly 3 months for our deposit to be returned via dispute process but we were not contacted by any debt collection agencies during the interim. Best of luck to you.

I am interested to know how you went "Ozgothic" when you contacted the Mastercard fraud dept?

We have just returned from our honeymoon in Phuket where I am ashamed to say that we were also scammed by Absolute. After a 6 hour presentation we paid a deposit by credit card. Our first monthly installment is due to be deducted from our credit card in 2 days, so I will be cancelling our credit card tomorrow. I would love for "finally winners" to contact me if possible to give me some tips as to how I can go about recovering my deposit through Mastercard Fraud dept, and also ideas on what to put in my letter to the debt collection agency that I'm sure will be contacting me soon.

I'm sorry to say Dave simms has completely missed the point of this blog. No one here has got something for nothing. I have personally forked out $US15, 000 for a basic membership to this club, and that's not to mention an annual maintenance fee of EU149 indexed to (presumably) the European CPI. Those who couldn't afford to pay the full membership fee upfront had to get a bank loan and make monthly repayments. Yes, this is indeed business - one that borders on unethical behaviour and I suspect would not hold up to consumer legislation if it was a registered entity in countries like Australia or New Zealand. By the way, even your airline upgrade analogy missed the mark. If an airline offered to upgrade you to first class from economy for a slight discount off the full first class fare and persuaded you to get a bank loan to do it and you accepted, only to find that no first class seats are available when you want it, what would you do? I suggest you should be the one who should think a minute.

well, well, well! have have read all the comments above. The problem is we are all greedy aren't we; we all want something for nothing. At the end of day you buy because you feel your getting a bargain! Sorry people, it is called business. Are you telling me someone is holding a gun to your head? tell me this. if a airline offered to upgrade you to first class from economy class for no nominal fee, would you accept? of course you would. why? Because you are getting something for nothing; it is the greed in all of us. Greed takes forms in all of life's dealings, wether buying a car, purchasing a house; in fact, greed comes into play in all social aspects in life. so, next time you are offered something for nothing...THINK A MINUTE!