At Lifehacker, we’re big fans of hunting down discount holidays, but it always pays to exercise a little caution. The festive season is also fertile ground for scammers to prey on your desire for a bargain, the ACCC warns.
Picture by johnas
The regulator yesterday issued a press release warning that telemarketing scams selling “discounted” holiday vouchers are rife at this time of year. As deputy commissioner Peter Kell pointed out:
This time each year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission receives complaints from holiday makers who find that the cheap accommodation vouchers they have paid for either don’t arrive, are fakes, or simply can’t be used as promised. Often the vouchers have been bought by credit card during an enticing but unsolicited call from a telemarketer or after receiving a fax offering accommodation at heavily discounted prices. These can include holidays at Phuket, Koh Samui or Bali or Australian locations. If the vouchers do arrive, consumers find that when they go to book their holidays, additional charges need to be paid in order to secure accommodation or the accommodation provider has no knowledge of the voucher or deal.
As ever, doing some online checking of prospective deals — and keeping a close eye on credit card statements — remain the best defence.
Suffered a holiday scam? Tell us how you coped in the comments.
Raj
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 8:02 PMI received a similar ‘Bargain Break’ call today. Although they were telling their names Kevin and Alex (manager), they sounded so Indian!!!!
Being Indian myself, it was very easy for me to recognise the Indian accent and smell something wrong with their details.
Although I did not give them my CC details, after reading all these comments, I thank myself. They are going to call me next Saturday to finalise the deal and I know what to reply………………. If they are really fraud, it is a shame and they are destroying the image of their country and people!!!!!!!!!!
george
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 12:00 AMBeen phoned by Bargain Breaks, soon found my way here, seems they have been pestering people for some time. Is there no way of nailing these?
emma moyle
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 3:32 PMstupid stupid me for purchasing a package from bargain breaks! 40 nights for $218. Purchased the package in april and still havent received our vouchers, called them today only to be told very rudely that we cannot have our money refunded? any one else out there know any suggestions on how to get our money back?
B Satchell
Monday, July 4, 2011 at 4:50 PMI was contacted by travel bug holidays today and the deal certainly sounded too good to be true so I did some checking. Their salesman, Mark told me that I didn’t have to give them the 3 digit number from the back of my card and that mede it impossible for them to take more than the amount I agreed to ($199.00) I asked him to ring me back in half an hour and checked with card services and they said that that is simply not true. So I rang the hotel in Perth that I was interested to stay at and they said that it was not all above board and that I would certainly have to pay for the accommodation. Mark rang back and said that the receptionist at the hotel wouldn’t know about their direct deals with the hotel management but that is how the managers fill their vacant rooms!
So I excued myself again and rang the Metro Hotel again and explained that to the receptionist, but her very clear answer was. “My information is from my management. The vouchers don’t even earn you a discount on the accommodation, let alone free accommodation!”
Final contact was with a woman who Mark put me on to when I asked for the direct number to the Hotel manager in Perth. She added to the offer by saying she’d throw in 7 nights for my granddaughter to go on her honeymoon to Bali, Kenya or somewhere else overseas. Preposterous!
My credit card stays safely in my wallet.
Sounds too good to be true because it is too good to be true. Judgement day is coming folks. Repentance sounds like a good move to me! Sure beats the promised alternative!
Phil S
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 7:16 PMHad several calls from Bargain Stays / Bargain Breaks, 14 nights for $150 sounded great. Lady calling asked for my credit card over the phone. I asked if I could phone the head office with my card details, she then offered “you can do internet banking now” I insisted I would rather pay by calling head office but I would ensure she got the commission for the sale. She agreed. Before I rang the head office I checked on this site and searched the ABN on the ASIC website (Australian Government site) – it said that the ABN did not belong to a company. While the lady I spoke to may well be doing an honest job her employer does not appear to be a legitimate business.
Won’t be giving them my credit card.
If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Thanks to everyone for your comments.
Dev
Friday, July 15, 2011 at 3:55 PMI received a call from ‘Bargain Breaks’ by this lady claiming she was from Queensland. She also told me that she was an international student from India working part-time in Southport.
Turns out, I’m Indian, I live on the Gold Coast and I speak Tamil. The call gets transferred to a supervisor who upon further questioning accidentally slips that they are actually in Chennai, India.
The product sounded pretty good so I was still willing to give them a chance…until I came across this website. Thank God…could have been an expensive mistake.
Bunch of liars.
Darren
Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 1:29 PMi just recieved a call from bargainstays.com.au, i got the same pitch as everyone that has written before but with 14 days accomodation with meals for 2 people at any min 3 star hotel in Australia for $209,, while i was talking to him i checked the site as well as checked here after a search,, the site packages were the same as barginstayz.com.au when i clicked as instructed the packages, but if i clicked any other package on the screen it said no url found…beware of these people who have simular names as other sites ,, the indian guy i talked to got very upset whn i asked him a few questions about the deals and the conditions (there are always conditions),, when i quderied the site and how the urls went know where .. he propmptly hung up…
Britney Young
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 1:21 PMThe comments here are kinda funny. i don’t understand why do you need to make some stories just ruin a company. Hello, travelbug holidays is just doing there jobs. They help people to get some vacation. if you want to get REAL information with this company you can ask for their acn and abn so that you would know that they are legit company and they are also registered with ASIC. another funny thing here is that most of the negative feedback came from just one address (Technical address, okay!) so if you know what i mean you’ll understand. the company started since 1999 i guess so what are you talking about that this is just a scam. We should be scared of whoever made this thread and who’s giving out wrong information and negative feedback. Most probably who made this came from a company like travelbug holidays and probably they dont have customers that’s why youre giving out negative comments to have members. God knows that Travelbug is an honest company.
Angus Kidman
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 1:43 PMThe idea that the mere fact of a company having an ABN (a requirement for ANYONE running a business in Australia) making it automatically “legitimate” is laughable. The fact it’s constantly suggested makes the operation look more suspicious, frankly.
Britney Young
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 1:27 PMwhy is it that positive comments are not really shown here? who’s a cheater now?
Angus Kidman
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 1:43 PMComments here are moderated. I approved your previous comment, though to be honest it comes across as self-serving rubbish.
britney
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 5:10 PMmost likely you approve most of negative comments.. well they are legit just admit it. negative feed backs are part of a business.
Angus Kidman
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 5:15 PMAnd the appropriate way to deal with negative feedback is to respond to the criticisms and offer customer service, not say “we have an ABN so your criticisms are invalid”. There’s not been much evidence of that in the comments from customers we’ve seen so far.
Cherie
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 10:19 PMI had a call from travel bug holidays today, the telemarketer jumped straight in, even when I told him my dad wasnt home and I was just housesitting he kept going with his speel, i listened and answered every question he asked me, I politely declined his offer by saying no thank you. And he hung up on me.. Like I was wasting his time!!
Its companies like this that give telemarketers a bad name.
vidya
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 5:24 PMI too received a call from Travelbug, and unfortunately we made a payment of $199.The sales representative Joshua did not disclose about the meals, which was like spending much more per day of what you spend for a whole month.There has to be certain obligations put on such phone calls and fooling people.I am not sure whether i will receive my amount back, but a good lesson …’trust no strangers’. one day will be there when all these fooling people will be fooled by life and but sure will suffer a lot, then they will remember of what they did??????/
kartom
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 6:33 PMfor people who think it is Indians doing this to rip people off..they dont. they are simply doing the job. The people who give them work are doing so only to save their backs and be out of reach for local police even if it is uk, us or aus. most callers dont even know if they are working for a scam company, they are given targets and they work towards it. they are made to beleive in their products and will swear by it. they dont know of any scams going on abroad like in news, papers to know that what they are doing is scam.
I got a call from hotel bargains with website looking exactly like bargain break. the girl who called me gave abn of bb and threfore i am here. all info that she gave me is not her making but what was passed to her thru the client. The client is the person who sets up the scam viz in aus for aus, uk for uk. and then passes it off to call centres abroad primarily with the objective to be faraway from the law. so the people ripping australians may be infact an australian, brithshers may be british, but only using indian callcentres as also it is cheap labourwise. Such clients are treated with great respect as CLIENTS but even the boss would not know they are fake.
I know a company that offered vouchers for cash back for contract phones in UK and then after a year around the time to honour most cashbacks they close, but trade again as different name offering vouchers again. and this guy was british selling phones in uk thru CCs in India.
BTW look up http://www.hotelbargains.com.au VS http://www.bargainbreaks.com.au they both are the same except for one has ABN and email, diff address and phone number. One thing that combines them is, this caller said calling from HotelBargains and then gives me ABN of BargainBreaks
Bellcon
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 1:18 PMHey guys! I am with the indians! As with any business, employees are given a job to do, they are not told all the facts either! I am aussie and work in retail. We have sales sometimes and I replace tags with new sale prices that are only a few dollars off the normal retail price but because the tag says save hundreds, the consumer thinks they are saving! We all have to eat and work to do so, whether your Aussie, Indian or African, we have to do what our bosses require or we can’t afford a holiday! Stop being racist! I have recently bought tickets from hotel bargains and it is up to me to use them all. I scammed myself thinking I can get a weekend off to use even one of these vouchers! Stupid me!
Kevin
Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 2:31 AMhi guys very good day,you people must understand one thing, Google is a free world any one can type any comments on any company…..and i am sure that 90% of the comments are not true…..you people could thing that i am one of the member of the company,but the truth is, even i am one of the customer of this holiday company..for an example, go to Google scam and type coles super market scam. you can find thousand of scam. just tell me now if the super market is scam will you stop purchasing things from one of the biggest super market in Australia….???come on guys very day is not Sunday…please stop commenting bad things about the company’s … if your not happy just forget it….
Rob
Saturday, August 20, 2011 at 9:03 PMThank you Kartom for your information about the websites for BargainBreaks (www.bargainbreaks.com.au) and HotelBargains (www.hotelbargains.com.au). The websites are actually 100% IDENTICAL in appearance and function, except for the different 1300 numbers and the different business numbers given in small print at the bottom of the page. This gives a strong impression that one and the same entity is operating both sites.
I just got a call from Hotel Bargains offering me vouchers for a $120 seven night package anywhere in Australia. The only condition the telemarketer mentioned was that I would have to buy 2 meals per day at the hotel I choose to stay in; and she reassured me that the meals were “normal” meals and not exorbitantly priced (not true, read below). She wanted CC payment upfront before she sent me any information. I declined and told her to call me back mid next week after I had a chance to check out their business credentials.
I just had a browse through the two identical websites for BargainBreaks and HotelBargains. Funnily enough, only pictures of hotel buildings are given with no hotel names or contact numbers given anywhere, so it’s impossible to call up the hotel and check. However, I copied-and-pasted the picture of the hotel in Melbourne into Word and magnified it until it was large enough to see that it is the Batman’s Hill on Collins. I then called the hotel to see if they knew anything about this group. They informed me that they do know about the vouchers; the conditions are that you buy a breakfast and dinner at one of the restaurants at the hotel and stay the night for free, WITH A MINIMUM FEE FOR THE MEALS OF ABOUT $230.
It looks like my telemarketer either didn’t know how much the “normal” meals at supported hotels actually cost, or she was trying to scam me. Either way, I’ll certainly be telling her “thank-you-but-no-thank-you” when she calls back.
Thank you for the website.
jess
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 5:28 PM:( say NO & do NOT hold the phone a moment loneger! thankful at least for the ex banky’s advice on disputing payments .. these guys will hit your account at lightning speed.. by the time this had happened.. i had only just realised that the accomodation.. that was being sold to me usable australia & wordwide.. even including my own state, victoria is only valid in THAILAND, BALI & AFRICA !
travel bug holidays you SUCK!
joe
Friday, August 26, 2011 at 7:12 AMjust received a call from bargain breaks saying free holidays…. nothing in this world is free just wake up guys
John
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 5:13 PMI wish I could see this discussion one year ago…
Similarly, I purchased a voucher package from Travelbugs Holidays on 28/09/2010 through a telemarketer. The vouchers are valid for 1 year and the guy told me if the voucher is not used, with the promotion I can extend it every year for free. Today I called them to extend the voucher and a lady named Christina (highest manager, claimed by herself) ask me to pay $15 per voucher to have the extension, which would be totally more than the original price I paid (for family reasons, I have not used any of the vouchers).
I have made an official report on scamwatch.gov.au even though I suppose they can hardly help me practically. However I need to write my story down so there will be less victims in the future.
ANGELA.AUSTIN
Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 5:32 PMBEWARE OF BARGAIN BREAKS!!!! I PAID OVER $300 AND FEEL LIKE A FOOL!. AFTER A HARD SELL WE THOUGHT IT SOUNDED GREAT. EACH TIME TRIED TO BOOK ACCOMADATION LOW AND BEHOLD THEY WERE BOOKED OUT. ( WHEN WE RANG HOTELS DIRECTLY THEY WERENT) HOWEVER A HOTEL CAN CHANGE ITS MIND ON BEING INVOLVED WITH THE COMPANY AT ANY TIME. ALSO IF YOU GET ACCOMADATION YOU PAY FOR THE MEAL DEAL. THE MEALS ARE SO EXPENSIVE YOU MAY AS WELL HAVE PAID FOR THE ACCOMADATION. I JUST RANG BARGIN BREAKS AND THEY WERE EXTREAMLY RUDE TO ME AND MY HUSBAND, IN THEIR OWN WORDS THEY SAID TOO BAD FOR YOU IF THE HOTELS DOESNT WANT TO PARTICIPATE AND THAT YOU DONT HAVE A LEG TO STAND ON WHEN WE SAID WE WERE GOING TO GO TO DEPT OF FAIR TRADING.aGAIN IN THEIR OWN WORDS. NOT OUR PROBLEM.!!! PEOPLE STAY AWAY FROM THESE CON ARTISTS, I DONT KNOW HOW THEY SLEEP AT NIGHT
Lisa
Monday, December 5, 2011 at 8:43 PMWell, I wish I had read this sooner. We were given a TravelBug voucher for christmas last year, and just used it this weekend, as we didn’t want it to expire…well, we were charged $440 for 2 nights at Shoal bay Resort as part of the pay for 1 night, get one free deal. We thought that for $440 per night we would be staying in a pretty nice place…but were downgraded on arrival from a waterview to no-view room – and still charged the same price. Our room was big, but had almost no furniture, no balcony, no view – not much better than a $50/night road side motel. Asked the hotel what the room rate was and were told it was $245 including breakfast (which wasn’t included in our so called deal). Couldn’t contact TravelBug because they are only open 9-5 monday to friday, and we checked in at 7pm friday nite. We ended up having an ok weekend, but it was pricey, and we wouldn’t have even gone if it wasn’t for this voucher.
Contacted TravelBug on our return, they said we were charged by the hotel, the hotel blamed the whole thing on Travel Bug, I think they are in cahoots on the scam. I guess we have no leg to stand on in the complaints department, because we stayed at the (so called) resort, but were left feeling cheated.
Alex Cooper
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 9:49 PM01. Hotel Bargains or Hotel Bargains Pty Ltd is not listed in ABN or ACN Search
02. BN22096735 or 22096735 is not a valid ABN ACN or any other business or registered institutional number in Australia
03. Anyone can have a 07 (QLD) number. Just buy a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) number from any VOIP provider take it to any part of the world or use a VOIP software on your PC / MAC or even on your Smart Phone and call from that 07 number you bought.
04. Their website ( http://www.hotelbargains.com.au/ ) transactions are not legit. Doesn’t use a https:// ( s ) protocol. As soon as you enter the details and press “Process” , you will see a “Processing” display. But it’s fake. The website simply collects your details and port to their database and someone will call within the next hour saying ” We have a special offer for you madam”
My question is, if they are genuine and offering real offers why the above 04 points make them look like not legit?
Alex Cooper
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 10:07 PMFew more facts:
hotelbargains.com.au website is owned by Sales Paradigm Pty Ltd ( ABN: 50 125 728 627 )
registered by a person called Lance Martin who is the CEO of Hotels2go
WHOIS Records:
http://website.informer.com/hotelbargains.com.au
ABN:
http://www.abr.business.gov.au/SearchByAbn.aspx?abn=50125728627
Linkedin Profile:
http://au.linkedin.com/pub/lance-martin/3a/b50/245
Bellcon
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 1:28 PMShit well, they are all the same company! Lance Martin owns them all! Bargain breaks hotels2 go and hotel bargains, I have been scammed! Why doesn’t the government intervien? They must be getting nice taxes off his scams! Well it’s not like real families have time to even use a hotel anyway!
Empty
Friday, March 9, 2012 at 4:55 PMPaid $209 for 20 vouchers. . I used my member name/user name and password online but didn’t get through. It is useless using the vouchers because it is still expensive, no bargains. I don’t believe in them. It is a scam. Beware.
Ineke
Saturday, March 24, 2012 at 12:50 PMI’m just about to phone Bargain Breaks to enquire about my vouchers. Wish me luck!