Who would have thought that a walk in Surfer’s Paradise to find a place to eat lunch would lead into the murkiness of timeshare uberpromotion?
April 1 2015 seemed a pleasant Wednesday afternoon. My wife and I were spending a few days on the Gold Coast, a strip of beaches and high rise accomodation in southern Queensland. We were there for a conference. By Wednesday midday it had finished, so we decided to take a stroll around Surfer’s Paradise. There was a nice little open air arcade which took our fancy. Not soon after we have turned into it, a man cajoled my wife into taking a scratchy card, alluring her with the possibility of wondrous prizes . He then bounded towards me with another card. The temptation to simply tell the man to “fuck off” was only just overwhelmed by my curiosity about what may lay ahead.
As soon as he had handed me the card he was there with his 20 cent coin, more eager to scratch the boxes than ourselves, and it was no great surprise that one of the cards uncovered the potential for a magnificent prize…$2000 in cash, an iPad, or a “free” holiday. The only barrier to collecting one of these baubles was attending a 90 minute promotion later in the day. And of course the final bauble would only be revealed through another scratch box once you have sat through the promotion.
I knew it was only going to get worse, but felt a need to experience a hyped up sales promo for something that I didn’t need! More to follow!
ultiqa 
Omg, we just sat through a 3hour session after they conned my son with a scratchy. We said no after listening to the pitch, they were nice enough BUT they appear to coax quite a few people which is very concerning… I feel like something really needs to be done about them. And tbh, if it really is sooo great like a few people have said then why can’t you think about it and come back later and why the bloody hell can you not cancel. It upsets me that people take advantage of other people like this. It is not right and should be illegal.
LikeLike
Holy Dooley just wasted 2 hrs at Caloundra was thoroughly drained wanted us to sign up immediately as we could not take anything away to study the fine detail agree with your comments 100% the shopping centre should move these people on.
LikeLike
We got approached at Sea World Gold Coast. My partner scratched 3stars, the lady said wow you have won the top prize and asked for us to come to the desk to fill in some details. We listened and werent very excited as we knew there was going to be some catch, nothing is free! 90minute presentation and you win either 3 prizes, we thought we can sit there and listen to someone try to force us into something for 90minutes and say no and get our prize. Just a $40 deposit, why not! Googled it and found this page. No real surprise that it’s a scam, scratched are card and of course it was B. Was going to go and get our $40 deposit out of principle and not go to the presentation but ended up not worrying about it. lesson learnt.
LikeLike
My family and I have also come across the scratch-&-win experience with Ultiqa in Seaworld GC. On Monday, the 2nd of April 2018 (just 4days ago), a very lovely lady named T**** approached us as we walked passed the front eating area of the park. Same strategy, my husband and I was given a card each to scratch. My husband’s card was a non-winner, but mine was with 3-stars. My kids got excited as the lady said ‘wow! You just won the best one!’ The 3-star winning card is very rare! How lucky is that?! Are you always this lucky? This is just awesome! Congratulations!’ Then went on explaining the rest of the info… prize is determined by the small box on the card at the presentation, must attend the 90min presentation (to claim the prize) at The Oasis, Broadbeach at Charles Ave, showed us the map & gave directions how to get there without going via GC highway (since it’ll be closed for the Commonwealth games), booked us to attend the Weds (4th April 2018) session and made us pay the $40. While she was explaining, my husband was very quiet – I could see he’s not convinced about the whole thing. The lady T**** asked, ‘all good and excited about it so far? How about dad here? How come he’s going so quiet?’ My husband just said, ‘hmmm, there would be a catch on promotional things like this.’ T**** answered with a reassuring smile, ‘yes the 90 min presentation, which is not compulsory.’
My stomach felt funny and I didn’t really feel right about it, particularly that we had to pay an admin fee of $40. Business strategy like this is very fishy and is usually a scam. I mean why give money to some stranger you just met? I got sucked in coz I thought I’d win something and get to collect the prize then and there. But when it was not the case and she went on and on about it, yes RED FLAG alert. But we continued to listen out of curiousity and T**** was very lovely. When I noticed the doubt on my husband’s face, I was gonna turn it down & don’t worry about booking, but I felt bad and felt sorry for T***** who’s working really hard to make a living considering she’s [identifying information removed]. We went back to our apartment and thought about the appointment whether we ever have spare time to sit for 90mins. We’ve discussed that was going to be a big ‘No’ for us no matter what, so my husband said, ‘why attend and waste time then when we don’t want anything anyway? We don’t even want any of the freebies.’ So we thought, okay we should just leave it and won’t worry about the $40. It’s only $40, at least will serve as pay to the poor lady T**** who’s working hard to make a living.
Then that night, I decided to look up and do a research about the company and came across this blog. How helpful is this!! It just confirmed our negative feeling about the encounter!
So Weds came, we were just gonna forget about it. But my husband said, they’re scammers so it’s just fair to get our money back amd run. We went to the venue in The Oasis, Broadbeach 15 mins earlier. Signed our attendance and were given the $40 back. We excused to check our kids at the foodcourt and advised them that we will back, BUT never did.
So glad for this blog.
Heartfelt thanks.
Businesses like Ultiqa should not be allowed to operate in places like theme parks or the Ekka where they can easily fool people. My family and I were very disappointed about all the GC theme parks. I am mow starting to wonder that the theme parks are perhaps associated with timeshare businesses such as Ultiqa and use people’s membership money to fund their overall buiness. Why are these GC theme parks allowing them? Surely a significant number people have already contacted the parks and put in complaints or reported the experience, but the operations still continue to this day. Doesn’t that make you wonder?
A positive thing form this experience is that, I’ve leanrt that it’s important to always remember that nothing in life is free and that one must work hard to earn what one deserves and not all very nice people tell the truth.
Very sorry to all the victims. I hope some resolution will come your way soon.
Cheers 🙂
Some information about an Ultiqa employee has been edited..(first name and a physical characteristic)
tskeptic
LikeLike
T***** is not [edited to remove description] to begin with, you are asked to pay $40 to commit to coming to the presentation and you do receive this on arrival. All the people on here are not opened minded its marketing, we give you a gift for coming and having a look at the product, its not free because 90 minutes of your time on holidays is not free. I have had many members join this club over 10 years because they feel the value in spending quality time with there families. Some people join and some don’t, but to say thank you we reward you with a gift. Feeling sorry for someone you have no idea about is clearly wrong. I moved to the Gold Coast 10 years ago and did the exact presentation and went on a family holiday to Thailand our accommodation was free, the best holiday I ever had. When I came home I contacted the company for a position. I have had so many happy families that have thanked me so much for joining the club, or just the holiday that they received. I think the admin from this site should remove your comments due to T***** seeing this.
Hello Danielle,
I have edited the preceding post and your post to remove identifying information. I hope that addresses your concerns.
Regards
tskeptic
LikeLike
Hi all,
My wife and I attended a 4×4 and camping show in Melbourne and were offered scratch and win cards .
We won a holiday! we we’re excited but thought it was too good to be true, we paid the 40$ and attended the first presentation knowing it was timeshare and we we’re saying no , no matter what .
My wife gave me a license to give the guy heaps , I pretended I was interested but asked lots of questions that made him very uncomfortable it was fun , then came the end when they offered huge discounts, we said no thanks to the manager who was super pissed with us !
We took the holiday to GoldCoast for 99$ got cheap flights too.
We stayed at Freshwater Point , was ok nothing flash , wanted to charge us 1$ for toilet paper lol .
Anyway went to a couple theme parks , was offered more scratchies by them !, we laughed no thanks.
Then went to the 2nd presentation, the rep asked why we we’re there and we told him straight off that it was to avoid the $900 fee for not attending and we’re not interested in what you have to say , he understood and I think he tried to get us out of it with his manager but was obviously told to go through with the presentation, so again I played along for 90mins and that was it , he was nice to us telling us places to check out while we were there .
So yes we paid $99 for a cheap holiday , and yes it’s a huge scam so be careful people.
I can’t wait play with the poor bugger that offers me one of those scratchies again…….
LikeLike
Is the 900 fee if you don’t book or if you book and don’t attend the seminar? Attended the first presentation and got the ‘free’ holiday booking form. Can I just throw my brochure in the bin and not worry any more about it? Or will they chase me for 900
LikeLike
I don’t know anything about a $900 fee. Is this for the presentation at the holiday destination? If so, I presume that you would be charged if you didn’t attend it after booking the holiday dates. If you haven’t booked and you haven’t signed anything and they don’t have your credit card details you are probably safe to bin the brochure. If you have booked, then that’s another matter. You would have to cancel the booking, but check the small print for cancellation fees.
LikeLike
read others experiences, you will find one that says they took a $99 holiday to gold coast, then attended 2nd seminar only to avoid $900 fee
LikeLike
My partner and I encountered the Ultiqua “experience “ in Port Douglas in August 2019. We went to the seminar (now $50!!), and listened to a very unprofessional salesman who was only interested in his own (unfunny) jokes and telling us his life story. We knew it was a scam, so our answer was always going to be NO. Of course we “won” a free trip to Fiji. I’m wondering if anyone has actually taken up theirs free holiday and if there are any catches to accepting the prize. I suspect there will be, but would like to know what to expect. I have read one other post about attending another seminar to avoid a $900 fee. Any other experiences?
LikeLike