Johannesburg Star article on Flexi-club
Here is an article on Bullfrog Lamont's Club Leisure Group that appeared in the Johannesburg Star newspaper, and is taken from a reprint where it appeared on the Crimeshare site, which has a lot more interesting material on Lamont, Club Leisure Group, and its various tenacles like Flexi-Club and First Resorts.
From the Crimeshare posts, it appears that it was not Lamont but another shady group, the Beekmans, who also appear in the Crimeshare pages, that were involved in the last attempt at Dikhololo.
July 8 2006
SATURDAY STAR - SOUTH AFICA
Travel clubs rocked by claims of deceit
Clients accuse timeshare giants of swindlingmillions from them, writes Sheena Adams
Sheena Adams
Lies and misinformation are among the scandalous claims levelled against timeshare giants Flexi-Club and the Club Leisure Group, accused of swindling tens of millions of rands from clients.
The matter has been investigated by the Department of Trade and Industry, and CLG is currently the subject of a second investigation by the South African Revenue Service.
Unhappy clients from Flexi-Club and Club Resorts International (CRI), both of which are managed by a CLG subsidiary, have also amassed scores of written complaints and signed affidavits placing serious allegations at the feet of Flexi-Club managing director and CLG chairperson Stuart Lamont. Lamont has distanced himself and his companies from the allegations.
At the heart of the matter is the claim that Lamont helped to engineer a deal in 2000 whereby a management company, Club Leisure Management (CLM), was formed together with the Southern African arm of global timeshare leader RCI (Resorts Condominium International).
In the same year, RCI also purchased CRI Operations, the company with the management contract to administer CRI Club, a popular, points-based timeshare concept.
S'bu Mngadi, managing director of RCI's Global Vacation Network for Africa, told the Saturday Star this week that RCI soon afterwards sold CRI Operations to CLM. RCI and Flexi-Club continued to own CLM, with RCI as a minority shareholder, according to Mngadi. CLM then took over the management of the CRI club.
According to information received from several clients, former CRI consultants and a former director of the CRI Management Association (CRIMA), Lamont embarked on an aggressive marketing drive in 2002 aimed at converting CRI clients to Flexi-Club.
Clients allege, many of them in signed affidavits, that "arrogant and aggressive" Flexi-Club consultants began contacting them, spinning a yarn that CRI was in financial difficulty, that it had been bought over by Flexi Club and that clients had no option but to buy into Flexi-Club. In order to do this, clients had to purchase Flexi Club points, at an average cost of about R5 000.
Johannesburg businessman Bruce Phillips said he forfeited R30 000 in levies and many thousands more in legal fees after he was forced to hire an attorney to extricate himself from his timeshare contract.
A CRI client for many years, Phillips said he became disillusioned with constant problems trying to secure availability at his preferred resorts. The last straw came a few years ago when he was phoned "non-stop" by a Flexi-Club consultant, trying to convince him to convert his points.
"They never stopped phoning - at night, during the day and over weekends. They wanted me to convert my points to another scam and made all sorts of overtures about CRI going under and being taken over by Flexi-Club," an angry Phillips said.
According to figures announced at a CRIMA meeting last year, CRI had fewer than 10 000 members, a loss of more than 25 000 members. Members were told that 13 300 CRI members were converted to Flexi-Club during the past three years.
A former CRIMA director, who asked not to be named, said the CRIMA board of directors, along with the directors of CRI Operations, should be held accountable for "this in-house type of incestuous breeding".
"They are supposed to protect and promote the CRI points system and yet they have allowed consultants to actively convert people over to Flexi-Club. They knowingly permitted the conversions �
"You can't have different brand names under the same roof if you've got the one screwing the other," he said.
"It makes commercial sense if you can get R5 000 out of a whole list of people. If you convert 10 000 people, you've got R50-million," he added.
Responding to the allegations, Lamont denied that Flexi-Club consultants were behind the strong-arm tactics and instead blamed independent marketing firms. He said he would be very interested in investigating the claims. He said Flexi-Club was "very, very fussy" about conversions and that they were not entered into unless the person was made "fully aware of all the details".
He also claimed that several CRI members had complained about deteriorating rooms and resorts and had requested changing over to Flexi-Club.
"CRI is still strong and it's still operating. It is not insolvent and there is nothing wrong with it," Lamont said - but CRI clients canvassed by the Saturday Star slammed Lamont's comments.
Dorothy Higgins, of Johannesburg, was offered to convert at the "special price" of R3 300 and was contacted by consultants claiming to represent CRI.
"They tell you they are phoning from CRI, and then when you meet them, they say they are actually from Club Leisure Management and they are representing Flexi-Club.
"They'd say that CRI was definitely going under," Higgins said.
The comments coincide with a warning issued this week by credit information ombudsman Manie van Schalkwyk about "aggressive timeshare salespeople".
Van Schalkwyk said his office had seen an upswing in the number of consumers being blacklisted for timeshare purchases and warned people to "read the fine print" and not be bullied by aggressive sales tactics and "partial truths".
He added that although there was currently no legislative power over the timeshare industry, the Timeshare Institute of SA (TISA) was mandated to deal with complaints.
The acting executive director of TISA, Alex Bosch, who is also a director at CLM, said TISA was aware of the allegations and had referred the complaints to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in 2002. As far as TISA was concerned, there was "no merit in certain of the allegations".
Ebrahim Mohamed, chief director of the office of consumer protection at the department, said the department's investigation had revealed that the manner in which certain Flexi-Club agents were approaching CRI members was "indeed problematic".
"It was then agreed between the DTI and Flexi-Club that changes had to be effected with immediate effect.
"Flexi-Club agents had to explain to converting members that CRI was not in liquidation," Ebrahim said.
Sources have confirmed that an investigation into the Club Leisure Group has also been launched by the SA Revenue Service. The Competition Commission is also keen to look into the matter, according to its enforcement and exemptions manager, Thulani Kunene.
The operations manager at CLM, Peter Snyman, also responding on behalf of Lamont, said permission to market Flexi-Club to CRI members was obtained from the former CRI board because members were struggling to "receive holidays as a result of the exceedingly poor mixture and availability of timeshare properties in their property portfolio".
He said the conversion fees were necessary in order to enable CRI members to become Flexi-Club members.
"We do not condone any bullying behaviour with potential clients. Staff are trained to show potential members the benefits of joining Flexi-Club, and members are � required to make up their own minds."
