Costa Del Wet & Rainy January 16th, 2006 6:06 pm

So you try and get away for a week of sun and what happens? It rains! It rains in Gibralter, Ronda, Malaga, and Granada - and if rain wasn’t bad enough it was also freezing cold in Granada just for good measure! Apparently the Alhambra is regarded as ‘The 8th Wonder of the World’ - it could well be but all I was left with was wondering how flipping cold it actually was!

Weather aside, it was nice to have a break and we did manage to cram in a fair few trips (well it was better than sitting by the pool!). The sun also did make a guest appearance on a couple of days too.

We also spent a couple of hours in the company of Club La Costa (CLC). We had no intention of buying anything from them we just wanted to get some freebies and see just how this company worked as they are active in online competitions and promotions (e.g. Vouch4Me). As is we ended up with a bottle of paint stripper masquerading as ‘champagne’ and a free holiday, which when you read the small print actually isn’t free.

The big question is - Is Club La Costa a scam? 

Well, if you’re approached on a street, given a winning scratchcard (”there’s only 7 of these available a day”), trundled round for a couple of hours without cost being mentioned once, and then told “you have to buy this today else you can’t have it” it doesn’t seem to be the type of company you’d be happy to give your cash too! The Guardian did research back in 2003 on CLC and the report is as valid today as it was then. Other information (both good and bad) can be found at Crimeshare. Make up your own mind… but you don’t buy a house or car or other major purchase in this way and imo if the product was good enough then this kind of sales tactic wouldn’t be necessary.

In fairness our guide wasn’t pushy, but it was plainly obvious from the numerous hints that were dropped that we’d rather be freezing in Granada than buying anything from CLC. The apartment they showed us was nice but not once was cost mentioned - this meant that after 90 minutes we’d have to stay longer or leave.

At this point a suited chap stepped in (probably to do the hard sell) but as we’d kept a close eye on the time (started from the minute we signed up to do see a presentation rather than the minute we arrived at the presentation) it was time to leave.

Our “1 in 7″ scratchcard entitled us to a “big” prize. 750 Euros, a camcorder or a free holiday! It was the holiday with Club La Costa - surprisingly enough. Except it wasn’t free - it involved an admin charge of £49 per person just to get the booking.

We left - leaving other couples (more than 7 of them) listening to sales talk or in one case ”celebrating” their new purchase - ironically with the same cheap paint stripper excuse for champagne that we took with us as our other “freebie”.

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