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My Story.
I have never done this before but these guys from the Royal Resort Bali, pissed me off so much that I was compelled to take this action.
My family and I were on holidays in October 2008 in Bali for 2 weeks. We don't get to take lots of holidays so we really were looking forward to getting to Bali and have fun doing all the things you'd usually do.
We knew we'd have to put up with all the locals trying to sell us massages and suggest a taxi ride and we knew we'd be hassled at the markets to buy billabong T-Shirts and sarongs "very cheap for you!". We went knowing these things and we also knew that we'd be having the time of our lives and seeing some amazing things and meeting some of the friendliest people in the world.
We love Bali and have been there before and would go back again. I recommend all my friends visit Bali. It's such an incredible place but one group of people really ruined a day for us.
So I'm putting up this page to let people know about it.
We were staying in Sanur and having a relaxing time but we wanted to see the markets in Kuta for some shopping. We'd been to Ubud and a couple of other market areas and had had a great time. The kids were a bit tired due to the heat and all the things we'd done in the morning but at about lunch time we decided to head to Kuta and have a bite and do some more shopping.
We jumped into a taxi and headed off.
Within 30 seconds of getting out of the taxi we were approached by a local who said he was handing out "free lottery tickets". We're always a little suspicious of people giving out "free" anythings, but we couldn't see the harm and we were in a good mood.
I got a ticket and my partner and the oldest child got one too. We opened them and I seemed to have won the major prize and the other 2 tickets were consolation prizes of 2 t-shirts each.
Well the ticket I opened seemed to be telling me I'd won my choice of either
Well The local who'd given the ticket to me went nuts telling us how lucky we all were and how no-one ever gets that prize and how it's so lucky for us.
There was a Gold square over the letter "B" in the star shape on the ticket but he told me it was a serial number which if I removed the gold cover, would void the ticket.
He took the ticket off me and started writing on the ticket and pointed out that I'd be getting my cash today and was jabbering on about how he'd get a bonus for having given out the winning ticket too.
We were feeling a bit surprised and suspicious of our apparent good luck but this guy was really making a good show of it and so we thought that we'd see what it was about.
He told us that the prize would be presented to us at the "Royal Bali Hotel" and that all we'd have to do would be to come to the hotel where we'd be shown briefly around, we'd get the prize of our choice and then we'd be brought back to the shops.
I talked to my partner and she and I agreed that although it was a pity to miss out on lunch and the shopping we'd come for, we'd really be able to use the $500 US dollars and the local insisted we'd be back in under half an hour and that if we liked, the resort would provide a sea-food lunch and the kids could use the resort pool if they wanted too. He told us a taxi would take us there imediately and that we would definately not be "sold" anything. There was certainly no mention of time share accomodation.
Apparently it was "a promotion for a new resort and they wanted to find people who'd look at the resort and be able to recommend it to friends when they came back home".
The local was acting very excited about being a part of the deal as he was to recieve a bonus from being the one to give out the winning lottery ticket and he told us that this could mean he'd be able to get a job at the resort. We'd spoken to a few people that week who'd told us of how hard it was to find a job in Bali and so we wanted to help a local if we could.
Well we talked about it and decided to go.
We were ushered to a taxi and we did our best to try to explain to the kids that lunch would have to wait and that we'd be back in 30 minutes to continue the day. Kids are kids and weren't keen on the idea but we made them come.
After getting into the taxi we had some time to look at the lottery ticket again.
As we drove along, we looked very closely at the ticket for the first time and it seemed to us that in fact the small print indicated we didn't have a choice of prizes after all but that we were going to most likely be offered a weeks accomodation somewhere.
This pissed us off as we'd been specifically told that we'd have a choice of prizes but we put it down to being suckered in and we chided ourselves for not thinking things though but we figured that we'd see a resort, maybe take up the free lunch offer and be back at the shops soon. We asked the local about the holiday and he assured us that the holiday was transferrable and that we'd be able to sell it on ebay or to a friend for way more than the $500US we thought we were to recieve. We thought about turning the taxi around but didn't.
So after about 15 minutes, the car pulls into a back street where we are taken into a waiting room, where we found that lots of people had won the major prize that day.
We just felt so stupid! It just fucked our day to know we'd been conned so easily.
So there we are and the local then tells us that infact we'd need to stay for a presentation which would last at least 1 hour. If we didn't stay for the whole hour we'd not get our prize.
We were shown into a room with lots of other people and we were told we'd have to fill out a form and then we were taken through to a larger room where we got the real picture of what was happening.
There were a dozen tables where people were being pitched time share packages for "Royal Bali Resort".
Each table had a sales person and a couple who were being shown time share options and a charmingly slick Australian guy called Chris came to us and started the process.
He immediatley admitted that there was to be no cash given out and that infact to his knowledge only one person had ever been given that prize. He told us that although he'd seen the handy cam given out twice, it was a fake and said that it was unlikely to actually work at all. He said that over 99% of people were offered the holiday and actually wrote that figure on the ticket I'd been given.
We asked him about the holiday and he told us that it would not be transferrable but that we had 2 years to take it. (air fares not included)
We were looking at each other and felt so embarrased that we'd been sucked in, in this way. The kids were cranky and getting more tired all the time and the youngest was saying he just wanted to go home.
We just knew we'd be having to sit through a performance we had no interest in and didn't want the prize as we don't get to take holidays overseas very often and so we told Chris we were not his target market and said we were leaving.
We got out as quickly as we could and got a taxi back to our hotel. We wanted to continue shopping but the kids were in no mood to enjoy the markets in Kuta and so the rest of the afternoon was spoilt. I don't take holidays for years at a time sometimes and so a ruined portion of a holiday, is a really big deal to me.
We vowed that we'd do some small thing to tell the world how pissed off we were that we were kidnapped in Bali and what scumbags they are at "Royal Bali Resorts".
We did meet people later and mentioned our experience and they told us it was a common way people are marketed too around the Kuta area and in fact when we did go back we found other people handing out tickets that when we tried, we found we won every time. Time Share Accomodation must be a big rip off business if this is the only way to get people to buy it. If you have to lie to people and kidnapp them and promise them cash, in order to sell it, then perhaps they need to rethink things.
I haven't made up or exagerated anything. I just hope this spoils a few sales for them but people with morals such as they have, will just find other ways to lie to people and scam them.
I should say that I am not saying that time share is a bad thing. In some cases it may be a great deal and worth putting money into if it is suitable for you and you understand the costs and do your homework on it and can easily afford it. On the other hand, I get lots of emails from people asking for advice on how to get out of it and say they hate it. So obviously it works for some and it doens't work for other.
The thing that PISSES me off, is the way I was marketed to. They got me in by lying to me and making false promises and misrepresenting their product. That's wrong and that's why this site is here. If it's such a great deal, then why do they need to lie to people to get them to just look at it.
Don't listen just to me, read the experiences of others. I promise that I've not altered in any way, the emails I've recieved. They are real people. Contact them directly if you'd like to check for yourself.
This is them http://www.royalresorts.com.au/
Regards,
Site Updated 2012
Here are emails I've gotten from people who've written saying they are at least as pissed off as we were. I get a lot of emails telling me that because they've googled about these guys before going to the appointment, they've not wasted their time and they say that i've been able to foil sales that might have gone through so i'm pretty happy about that and love to know they picked on the wrong family that day. Some people have told me they've emailed the bali tourism board and other organisations to complain. I think that's great. If people make loud annoying noises, it will eventually get through to the Balinese that this is bad for business.
Click to read their stories below.
You may see that some of these posts have been deleted. These were posts by people who wanted some complaint corrected by royal resorts/karma. Apparently they reached a settlement with Royal Resorts (usually a full refund of monies and a cancelation of the contract) but one of the conditions was that any posts relating to them on this site, were to be removed. Of course I was happy to be helpful and to remove the post when requested. It seems that if you complain loudly enough, they will be open to having a talk to you.
If you have an experience you'd like to share or add here or maybe you're an ex-employee or a person with a story or names to name, email me and I'll post them here. If you don't want me to post names or email addresses, let me know and I'll leave them out. The more info we put up here the more it'll help others.
I'll keep adding to this site as a kind of hobby to be a thorn in the side of these guys for at least the next few years or so, but if Royal Resorts stop marketing this way, I may take it down after a while. I'm not holding my breath though. Anyway, it suits my self rightious, stubborn nature to stand on my soap box this way. I'm enjoying being annoying in my own way.
I've had people tell me it's all due to a guy named John Spence in Western Australia. Apparently they say he's got Karma Resorts too. It'd be sad to think that Australians are running a business that does this to other Australians while they are on holidays.