Setting the record straight

James Concepcion, president and CEO of Vacation Club International, raised several points regarding a complaint we have received (and which the complainant has forwarded to the Securities and Exchange Commission after the Department of Trade and Industry said it was not the proper agency to entertain the complain) regarding VCI.

- The certificate of permit to offer securities for sale issued by the SEC to Real Development Company authorized VCI to sell Holiday Credit in the aggregate amount of P664.2 million. The clear implication is that VCI is not a scam but a legitimate business operator.

- Report prepared by VIC staff showed that instead of from 2-9 p.m., Felix Fernando (the complainant) only stayed from 2:25-6:45 p.m. This would show that Mr. Fernando lied and that should he liked to, he could have left early. In fact, of all the clients of VCI, it was Mr. Fernando who stayed the longest, showing that he is interested in the benefits derived from being a member of VCI. Please notice that some clients left after only 20 minutes of presentation. Also please note that among the clients on that particular day, it was only Mr. Fernando who made a downpayment.

- The membership purchase agreement would show that Mr. Fernando was interested in acquiring Holiday Credits being offered by VCI and paid P10,000 on Dec. 27, 2003. Mr. Fernando himself believed that VCI is not a scam.

- Based on the tenor letter of cancellation made by Mr. Fernando, it is clear that the reason for the cancellation is anything other than the fact that VCI is a scam.

- The booking order dated May 18, 2004 would prove the falsity of Mr. Fernando’s allegations. In his letter, he stated that he was never booked from Jan. until now. Based on this booking order, he was booked for May 21 to 22 in Days Inn Suites Subic. He cancelled his own booking on May 22, 2004.

- Mr. Fernando was booked for Bahia de Bais Hotel on April 7-8, 2004 and it was himself who cancelled his own booking.

For the sake of fairplay, I’ve decided to reprint the major points raised by Mr. Concepcion in his letter. But let me make one thing clear, I did not accuse VCI alone of engaging in a scam. I simply don’t believe that it is proper for companies like VCI to be selling club memberships this way. One time, I got a call from someone (not from VCI) who says I’m a sure winner of any of four packages (five days stay in Australia for two, the whole family for three days in Boracay, etc.) but I have to attend a three to four presentation at their office in West Avenue. He promised that I was under no obligation to buy anything from them. I was about to go. Fortunately, someone told me that the same person and group called him and it was all about selling time-sharing schemes.

Maybe Mr. Concepcion would also like to answer another letter sent in by Ma. Lourdes C. Roa of Alabang. Here it goes:

"I read your column of May 23 with much interest and my husband and I were also victims of the same company. Fortunately, we had not paid anything as we had already a similar experience with other time share companies who offer you "free" gifts as come ons only to find out that you have to sit through a 90 minute presentation, then subjected to intense pressure to buy a time share.

In our case, what induced me to pick up our "free" certificate to Days Hotel was the assurance of the telemarketer that this was absolutely free and she was staking the reputation of their CEO on this. Of course, as my husband who was skeptical about this offer from the very beginning said, there is nothing free in this world. He was correct!

Thank you for publishing the letter so that others may not fall into the same trap when VCI calls."

Attention: Cable Guys

"Hi! This is my first time to write to you although I’ve been a loyal reader of Philippine STAR for years now. I just want you to warn consumers, through your column, not to subscribe to Global Destiny/Destiny Cable, if they want their money’s worth.

You are aware that Destiny wasn’t able to get back Star channels and AXN though as subscribers, we have been promised that. We have been annual subscribers since 2002. We opted to pay annually for convenience, since we don’t have to worry monthly. When the bill arrives, we pay. What they promised through marketing blitz are all BS but we stuck with them since we have already started paying. What we have complaints about is their awful service and staff who promised you everything just so you would shut up but does nothing naman. We had an incidence once, a fire in the neighborhood. Though we were not affected by the fire, our cable service was interrupted, not just for a day, but nearly a week. That’s only because we kept calling their ‘infamous’ customer service. We weren’t even given any back-pay or discount for the days when we have no service.

Last Friday, there was no calamity of any sort to warrant another service failure but our service was again cut-off. Just that morning, we called them because Destiny sent us a monthly billing statement but ours is yearly and it’s not our fault if they don’t bill us on time. We agreed to have the proper billing statement sent so we can pay. Then suddenly our service was cut-off. We called their customer service, only to be told, "it’s week-end. Our service has gone home. Tomorrow na lang" until I got fed up and asked to be connected to their assistant manager, Maricel Banawa. She promised me it’s not billing that’s the problem but service crew back-log and will send somebody over as soon as. Today is already Thursday, almost a week to the day we started calling them for service. Still, no positive response except for last Tuesday when a crew came over, looked around, only to tell us it’s not their job. Then who, pray tell?

This is Destiny. Try calling their customer service, the front guys, you have to wait ages before your call gets answered, no matter the time of day you are calling. They don’t even mind when I told them this incident will reach the media. Wonder how it feels to wait for Mr. Philip Chen to answer your call. That’s why I beseech you not to try Destiny Cable. It’s not worth the hassle. Try other service provider." – Lily Ang

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