I purchased my share regretfully around 9 years ago using my family inheritance, being assured the share could easily sell upon completion...for a good profit...with the internal sales department.

6 years now, trying to sell the share on the belief as given by Justinn Haith that it would easily sell is still not happening.

I have been offered a 'substantial reduction' in my purchase price to sell it internally...and that was nearly 2 years ago and still not a cent.

Nearing retirement and these bastards have stolen my money under false pretences of a sale. I have no money left to my name, my family is suffering as result of their bullshit.

I urge ISIS to rein down upon these scum and teach them a lesson for once and for all.

I was in Thailand recently using my week for the year and was talked into extending my Absolute membership. I was told I could cancel the contract within three days for any reason, even buyer's remorse. That important information is false because in Thailand one has at least 7 or as much as 10 days (depending on source) to cancel a contract. After getting very little for my expensive Absolute membership and reading the many complaints on the web I decided to cancel the extension. After I couldn't reach anyone by phone I went to their office the following day. I was asked to sign a letter stating I would receive a refund in 14 business days or more and promising not to say or do anything negative regarding Absolute. After 14 days I checked my balance and the refund was not made. I called Absolute and they said it was in process but may take several more days. I am now back in my own country and still no refund. I contacted my credit card company and the representative offered to call Absolute to see if the refund could processed solving the problem. The representative came back saying that Absolute did not have an international phone number so the call was impossible. I went ahead and contested the charge from Absolute.
It's disturbing that Absolute does not have an international phone number. How convenient for them. It's also disturbing that Absolute doesn't make refunds in a timely manner. Such behaviour would make any company suspect.They should make refunds as quickly as they take a customer's money.

Just sharing a way to possible get out of the Absolute nightmare

I to share many of the complaints listed on this site. I was referred by a friend who used a company based in Phuket to sell his Absolute membership. I was a little leary but tried them as they had a good record and were in Phuket near resort.
Well long story short. They sold my membership in 4 months and we are happy camper to have moved on. Not sure if this works for everyone but it did for me and my fiend.

I had a Absolute Vacation Club and lost my job and had to sell, they would not do it 1for me so i turned to a company out of Thailand called iVacAsia.com, they were great and found a new buyer in 45 days. Thank you

Timeshares are never a good purchase and timeshare owners need to be cautious about this. There are lots of timeshare scams. I recommend you to read a good article with good information about timeshare issues: http://www.timesharescam.com/blog/206-how-to-get-out-of-a-timeshare/

Hi,

To start with, this is not a complaint but a feedback about the stay we had with Absolute Twin Sands in Phuket, I came across this deal via deal.sg and they had a 7-Day stay in a service appartment for 99SGD. After buying the deal I requested for hotel booking confirmation and subsequntly bought air tickets. The confirmation voucher from Absolute also added Airport transfer and BF and Dinner for all 7 days which was a pleasent surprise. Upon reaching Phuket, the car was waiting for us and when we got to the hotel, the service appartment was pretty nice. Though the location was not great but it had a partial sea view so cant complait.

Now coming to the obligatory presentation, the guy was a Brit and he upfront asked wheather we are even interested or not and depending on our responce he was determine the duration of the presentation. We said Non Interested straight away and the presentation was done on 45 mins.

Overall expereice was good, stay was comfortable and food was in Blue Mango restaurant which was pretty good, thats the most value you can get from a 99SGD voucher :)

Happy to share other details if any specifics are needed on the forum. Travel Dates were 5th, Dec, 2015 - 12th, Dec 2015

I was sucked in too to the Absolute Vacation Club nightmare. Not only have I received absolutely nothing for my $16K Australian investment that I can actually use, I have paid a manitenance fee of around $500 per year because of a contract my late husband and I signed in 2011. I have contacted them numerous times to cancel. I don't even want the initial fee back, I just want it cancelled but they will not. 38 year contract.... Does that event exist??????!!!!! No refunds but you can "resell" you membership. I have tried that but who the hell would even pay $1 for an Absolute Joke of a Club Membership. I hope that no one ever gets sucked in to this absolute horse shit company. If anyone out there has had the ability to cancel or resell their membership after the initial credit card transaction and period of weeks, please contact me on [email protected]. I could not be more disappointed in their service and scamming ability. I HAVE NEVER BEEN SUCH AN IDIOT!!!! Do not, I repeat, DO NOT sign up with Absolute VCation Club!!!!

During our vacation on Koh Samui my wife and I were lured into the office of Absolute Vacations. An Austrian manager of Absolute Vacation by the Name of Helmut Ernst introduced himself to us by his false Name Helmut Bert. This criminal introduced the time share system of Absolute to us. Helmut Ernst showed us Hotels on the Computer which we were promised we could book free of Charge as part of the contract package which we signed.
We paid in full but received the log in code to the Website of Absolute (on which Hotels can be viewed an booked) only 2 weeks after the payment - this is when the normal Tourist is already back home.
Anyway the Hotels which we were shown my Helmut Ernst are not in their offer. Though Absolute cheated and commited fraud they refused to cancel the contract and to refund the Money. Many more promises were made which all were broken. This Company and its employees are all criminals and are specially trained to Close time-share-contracts by lying to customers and cheating them.
Since we could not get out of the contract and since we could not use the promises Hotel on Bora Bora we finally used one of their (what they call top Hotels) in Phuket. Every day these criminals brought interested People to our Hotel and we overheard their promises several times. By that time we knew that all these People also would be cheated. Some of the we warned when the Situation permitted.
This "top hotel" by the way also was not so top. The escalator was broken every second day, the breakfast was lousy and the apartement which was in the direct neighborhood of a night Club and a Disco was so loud that we could not sleep.
Absolute Vacations is a criminal Company run by criminals - from top to bottem!!!! Absolute Vacations should be renamed into Absolutely Bull-Shitting Vacation Criminals

Excellent advice absolute disaster...

Good to see that one of Absolute's own staff "liked" this thread on Facebook! :)

Unfortunately many of you will be reading this after you have signed a contract with Absolute and given them a payment as a deposit for the amount due. This will be because your 90 minute demo turned into a 5 hour marathon and you really just wanted to get on with your holiday. If you have paid a deposit on your credit card, contact your bank and cancel the transaction...and if you have agreed for Absolute to take out further funds then cancel your credit card. Despite what you hear there is a 7 day cooling off period in Thailand and a 10 day cooling off period given by both Visa and Mastercard. Absolute will deny this but deal with your bank. Send a registered letter to Absolute and their trustee that you are cancelling the agreement under the cooling off period. You will receive threats from Absolute advising you that you have stolen anything that you have been given from them and you will be arrested etc. These are just intimidation tactics that they use, and have used for anyone who has disputed their contract. If you are still in the country advise the local Police and get acknowledgement from them of your complaint. Give all the details to your bank and avoid dealing with Absolute, just deal with your bank who will handle the dispute for you. You are the banks customer and they do not want you to be an unhappy customer. It will take some time but it worked for us and we lost nothing other than time. Also, if you know anyone who is travelling to places where Absolute and any other similar organisations like them, make sure you advise them to walk away from anyone who is offering them a great deal.

The scam is that the hotels and brands they claim to be affiliated with don't exist.

Hi, I've read all the responses & no one actually explains how this scam works. All I can make out is that all the people had buyers remorse when they returned from there holiday, probably after reading one of these forums.

I do not see how it can be a scam when they approach you & you have to sit through an 90 min presentation for a prize & have the freedom of choice to decline anything they offer.

Has anyone here actually been through he entire process & booked a holiday? If so were you able to book your holiday, if yes then where's the scam? If you were not able to book a holiday, then yes I agree it's a scam, but at this point it seems that everyone who believes they were scammed has no proof they been scammed. They bought a product & then had buyers remorse when they got home.

Hope you are able to book your trip Katherine. There's no place I'd rather be than Thailand!

thanks for that info, will post if I have some success in actually booking some accommodation :)

Absolute's Contract Manager in Thailand, Justinn Haith, can be reached via email at [email protected]. He is supposed to handle member queries and responded to our emails in regards to cancellation, so, try rattling his cage and see if he can help solve your booking request!

An all too familiar tale Katherine777, seems the only time Absolute contacts it's highly-valued members is to threaten legal action for non-payment. If you Google Club Absolute, Absolute Destinations, Absolute Vacation Club or Absolute World SCAM, you'll find the cons have set up fake web pages with inoperable links to their "services", that serve no purpose other than to deflect their critics away from authentic sites that exposé their well-honed con operation. No legitimate company handles members complaints by hijacking Internet searches as to whether they are a scam, or, by silencing their former members via "silence agreements", in exchange for refunds.

Their site blames the chorus of complaints against them on the following reasons: that people are simply angry as a result of their poor understanding of how timeshare/vacation clubs work, buyers remorse, failure to perform proper due diligence, and/or, aspiring to a lifestyle beyond their means. The single valid statement in that transparent "attack your victim" ploy is the fact that NOBODY is allowed to perform any due diligence, by design of their sales tactics!

If you politely request to leave for the purpose of performing said research, you are not so politely told that the deal is off the table once you depart their office. Let THAT fact speak for the quality of the membership services you believe you are buying. And oh, I suppose the lies about global affiliations with well-regarded chains like Marriott and Hilton and sponsors like Hertz rentals, Visa, Apple, MC, etc. are unintentional misrepresentation and surely not designed to falsely increase consumer confidence, which tends to be in short supply when disallowed any chance to look into the veracity of such easily verifiable claims. Caveat emptor indeed!

My partner and I signed up for Absolute over a year ago, so I guess it is too late to try to reclaim our money. We have decided to take our three weeks free holiday (paying the $3000 and something for the 3 yr trial period). I have found it difficult to access Absolute's websites, lots of my emails rebound, and I find it generally quite confusing how to book for this 'free' accommodation. During our stay in Phuket, we were shown two examples of Absolute's hotels/apartments - these were definitely 5 star establishments. They suck you into thinking that you will be staying at places like these. As with Mandylee, I think I recall them saying they were affiliated with Crown or Hilton Hotels also, but this is completely untrue. I have asked for a list of their hotels int he countries I would like to visit. The hotels are very average in comparison to the '5 star' hotels in Thailand that we looked at. It even says on one that they are for the 'budget conscious' traveller, and a few of them are hostels!!! So basically, we thought the worst that could happen is $3000 for 3 weeks holiday. Well, it looks like it will be 3 weeks holiday in very budget accommodation. Also, most of their hotels don't even seem to be in the major cities/centres of certain countries. Very dissappointed by their lack of communication, answering of emails, and the standard of hotels that you can choose from. Obviously we will not be spending the additional $6, 000 to permanently join.

You should contact Absolute about canceling your membership and request a refund, if you believe you were misled. Contact your bank about stopping any future payments and discuss what options you may have in seeking a refund of your initial deposit. Worst case scenario is that you won't be able to recoup those funds already paid, but, at least you can limit the amount of damage.

@ skeptical1234 what have you done since you have been paying this $2, 000 have you stopped it or got a refund as im in a similar boat and knew i should have never signed up but did, but doubt i will be able to get my money back

Can ANYONE out there please tell me if they have stayed at any of the Absolute Hotels / Resorts/ anywhere offered from Absolute, and are happy with the accomadation etc - can't seem to find this out.!
Wish now we never joined up with Absolute, as it's sounding like a SCAM, please let me know, as I was offered a free holiday (i won) but just not too sure about it all now.!

Can anyone please tell me if you have ever stayed at any of the holiday place that Absolute off to the memebers. As we joined up in Dec 2011, and we are now hearing some real horrow stories about the accomadation Absolute offer.We have now been sent details at KC Resorts over the water villas at Koh Samui- I just don't feel 100% sure of this resort, if anyone can let me know I would appreciate it. cheers.!

Well skeptical1234, we toured both of Absolute's accommodations on Samui in December 2011, the Q Signature and KC Overwater Villas and Resort and suffice it to say that neither property could be rated above 2- stars due to a clear lack of maintenance and scarce amenities, I wouldn't stay at either, even for free. Interesting to hear that the brand new uber-luxury Coconut Village resort in Phuket that we bought into is no better considering Absolute is indeed selling it as their premiere resort! The truth is actively being silenced by Absolute, who demand members sign a silence agreement in exchange for a refund, despite their oft-repeated "no-refund policy". There was a website concerning a class action suit being put together against Absolute that has since been shut down due to death threats against the children of the woman who had become an effectively vocal critic of this mob! You can find comments on Trip Advisor in regards to this whole shady enterprise, so use your own judgement when assessing the validity of the various comments and be your own advocate for the truth.

me and my wife are $2, 000 into paying off a $3, 500 contract. Deep down I know we should had never had done it from day 1, as I have extensively researched this 'Absolute Mob' and they appear to be 'Masters of Disguise'. Whilst in Phuket in Dec 11 we got hooked and signed up, and went through the whole 'Sheep Dip' process, and on the very last day we took the trouble to taxi to the 'Coconut Island Resort', which was a 'Jewel' according to the sales person who signed us up. All I can say this 'Jewel' turned out to be not even 'cut glass'. I would had called it a 'Barracks' with a swimming pool on an ' industry" surrounded strip of sand referred to as a beach. Please! is there anyone out there who has been to any of the 'Absolute' destinations in Phuket or Koh Samui, and agreed with the sales persons promises.? We don't seem to be able to find any actual comments about the venues which you will all agree is the first question asked by people looking for a good holiday.! ... Sceptical!

It is more than a slight error of fact to state that a payment offered in good faith constitutes fraud when the payor cancels upon learning they were sold accommodation that doesn't even exist! Their lies nullify the contract in any court of law in ANY country, including Thailand. If poor Absolute is being done wrong, let them sue the people demanding refunds to uphold these supposedly binding contracts.