[livealike]

Background:

For anyone considering buying a car, especially during this festive season, be on guard. Unsolicited calls and scams from companies like ClubResorto can quickly turn the excitement of owning a new car into a nightmare. My peace of mind has been shattered, and I hope this post serves as a warning. Scams like these aren't getting enough attention outside of a few forums, and I believe it's crucial to raise awareness to protect potential customers from falling victim to ClubResorto's schemes. Apologies for the lengthy post, but this issue truly warrants it.

In March 2024, I purchased an XL6 from a Nexa showroom. Initially, the experience was smooth—the dealership allowed outside insurance and didn’t push for an extended warranty, which is rare for many Nexa dealers. The delivery process was well-coordinated, and everything seemed perfect.

However, my problems started soon after. I began receiving numerous unsolicited calls from travel and vacation companies like ClubResorto, Club Mahindra, Holidayqueen, and others. I suspect that the dealership may have shared my customer details, including financing information (whether self-financed or through a loan), with third parties. In the months following my car delivery, I’ve been relentlessly harassed by these companies, each claiming I’m an "exclusive winner" and bombarding me with misleading offers.

Modus Operandi of the ClubResorto Scam:

ClubResorto’s back office targets potential customers by gathering details about their recent high-value purchases, such as cars. Typically, within a week of car delivery, you’ll receive a prompt call from ClubResorto (often one of the first holiday clubs to contact you, though it’s unclear whether they are favored by dealerships). In my case, the initial call came from Akhil Sharma, who set the tone by informing me I was a "lucky winner" (or their chosen target) and invited me to a high tea event at a star hotel. The catch? I could claim a “free” voucher for a PVR movie ticket and a 3D/2N stay at any resort in India.

I declined the offer twice due to my reluctance to accept "free" gifts and a busy schedule. However, Akhil called a third time, insisting, “Sir, there’s no harm in visiting and collecting your voucher—it will only take 30-40 minutes of your time.” With his persistence, I eventually agreed. They made it a condition that I must attend with my spouse or family, supposedly to promote their offering.

After confirming, I received a second call from Mr. Rahul Rajput , who introduced himself as another ClubResorto executive. He provided a welcome call and shared the location details. This multi-layered approach is designed to create an impression of professionalism and legitimacy, presenting themselves as a trustworthy, high-end company.

Beware of Scams by "Holiday Clubs" Like ClubResorto:

Upon visiting the designated star hotel for the so-called presentation, you’ll first be asked to fill out a form that captures personal and family details, your job title, and where you work (likely to assess your financial capacity). In my case, the ClubResorto team was represented by Shivam and his superior, Brijesh Jha. The actual sales discussion dragged on for nearly three hours. During this time, they bombarded us with flashy videos of luxury resorts and a list of 5-star and 7-star hotels, claiming exclusive partnerships. They promised "free vacations" as part of an irresistible deal aimed at manipulating potential customers—particularly your spouse or family members (remember, you're required to attend as a couple or family).

Their tactic is simple: lure you into making a large upfront payment by offering seemingly unbeatable discounts. These "limited-time offers" are designed to create urgency, leaving little room for second thoughts. In reality, however, the packages are highly overpriced and come with hidden fees, such as annual maintenance charges. The discounts they offer are grossly inflated, and the actual value of the package is far less than what they claim.

Do not fall for this. What they promise is vastly different from what you’ll actually receive. Their sales pitches are filled with misrepresentations and do not align with the terms and conditions. When I questioned these discrepancies, they assured me that the "extras" were exclusive to customers like me, available only for that moment, and would be confirmed in the welcome email. Unfortunately, I was persuaded by their tactics and made a small payment before realizing I had been deceived. Their high-pressure approach left me with little time to verify their claims. They work as a tag team, rotating between different sales reps to keep the pressure on, throwing in last-minute "special offers" to push you toward signing up.

Ongoing Struggles with ClubResorto Refunds:

After receiving their standard welcome email, which lacked the “special” offerings promised by the sales team, I contacted their customer support. I was assigned a relationship manager, Firdous, who provided nothing but generic and unhelpful responses. As I escalated my complaints, she looped in a member of their escalation team, Kabir. Despite my efforts, I was pressured to stay with the package, as they claimed that they had not denied any of their services.

The issue was eventually escalated to Mahender, who admitted that I was onboarded through misrepresentation and deceit by their sales team. He agreed to process a refund for the initial payment. After a difficult battle, my refund request was finally approved, and I waited the required three months per their policy—likely just a tactic to placate customers.





However, ClubResorto failed to honor their commitment. Instead of returning my money, they continued to offer useless credit vouchers. The refund process has now dragged on for over six months, with the company giving weak excuses like, “system issues” and “festive delays.” Their responses were always vague, and it became clear that their customer service strategy is designed to frustrate customers into abandoning their refund claims.





Meanwhile, ClubResorto has cleverly flooded the internet with paid reviews, which overshadow genuine negative feedback, giving potential customers a false impression of the company. Even when I performed a quick Google search, I found an impressive article from a well-known daily, praising ClubResorto as a trustworthy brand. However, I later discovered that the article was sponsored, with comments disabled—a clear attempt to silence criticism. Despite writing to the daily to request the removal of the misleading article, I received no response. It's a sad reflection of how low these publications are willing to stoop for money, risking their reputation in the process.

This situation highlights a deeply unfortunate state of affairs.

Vehicle Buyers: Guard Your Privacy:

If you're purchasing a vehicle from any dealership, make sure you explicitly demand that they don’t share your personal details with third parties. These holiday club companies have turned what should have been an exciting car purchase into a never-ending headache. If you get any calls saying you’re a "lucky winner," block them immediately and raise the issue with the dealership.

Message to MSIL and Dealerships:

I urge MSIL to enforce a strict zero-tolerance policy across all dealerships in India to stop unethical practices that harm customers. Sharing customer data with third parties without consent is not only unethical but also poses serious legal risks. The management must investigate this malpractice and hold those responsible accountable to safeguard customer privacy. Ignoring this issue could lead to a damaged reputation and eroded trust.

Final Thoughts:

Scams like these are white-collar crimes—legal recourse is expensive, time-consuming, and emotionally draining, leaving many victims to simply give up. But awareness is key. Don’t fall into the same trap I did . Protect yourself, be vigilant, and ensure your dealership respects your privacy and does not pass on your data to unscrupulous third parties.

Stay safe, and please spread the word about the ClubResorto scam to help others avoid this trap.

[SilverSmoke]

Such scams are operating till now? I thought they were over decade ago. I was also scammed by Country Club in Noida using same tactics - I was naive back then in 2012. I hope none fall in such traps now & some legal action is taken against.

[hothatchaway]

You seemed to know that this was a con all along, yet you chose to attend and that too with your family. How difficult was it for you to just disconnect and block these phone calls? It's a different matter though if you were interested and later realized that it was a con.

It's futile to expect that your personal data will not be leaked in a country where even the government sells personal data. You have to be vigilant

[arnab.i@gmail.c]

I pity your stress and loss. It's a common practice these days to take personal details of customers everywhere. Not only for cars, I am asked about my phone number even for trying to eat a pizza at dominos, or buying clothes at max. After the phone number they would request you to fill up a form for their privilege programs and offer you something for a discount or free. Please protect yourselves from these traps.

I have a strict policy of not sharing any of my personal details. I put things on the face, that I won't share my phone number for buying anything. Sometimes I am denied (like dominoes sends me out, I dont see any reason why I should share my phone number for something simple as eating at a restaurant). At other places like decathlon or max they push you for a few times and then bill you without phone number. But you have to agree that there is a push to share many personal details at shops, especially during the festive season. I am pretty sure they are traded later for money.

For high ticket purchases like cars, it's a bit different. You have to share some of the personal details (due to government regulations). In this case I generally take a declaration signed by the showroom manager with a seal, that none of my contact or personal details will be shared for anything unless absolutely necessary for registering the vehicle. Not that they agree, but we generally have a leverage when buying something so expensive. Additionally also, refrain from entering into very attractive deals and offers over the phone/email. Remember the old saying, 'there is nothing called a free lunch'

[GTO]

Thanks for sharing, livealike! Your review will certainly prevent others from falling for this scam. That being said, I have removed "Nexa" from the title as it is a suspicion they have leaked your data. But the timing could also be a coincidence. Today, car owner databases are as cheap as a pack of wafers to buy and leaks come from dealers, insurance companies, financial institutions etc. Privacy is a myth today.

This thread is on our homepage today

[shyampsunder]

When in doubt, always use a credit card to make the payment preferably through American Express.

When the company has explicitly agreed that there was some misrepresentation and promised a refund, a simple chargeback request will let you claim your money back. American Express chargeback process is the easiest but pretty much every bank will support you.

Most of these shady entities don't support payment via credit card for this reason.

[Haldian]

Data (and personal data at that) is a big business today. From grocery store to decathlon- everyone asks for phone number and name at least. Most places can bill without sharing our numbers.

But white goods or high value purchases will eventually need OTP verifications. One has to give phone numbers one carries on person to enable installations or registrations etc.

The onus is on regulators to mandate a system of complete data protection for safeguard of end user personal data. As well as us to report grievances with relevant authorities whenever we face such digital harassment.

I constantly report Airtel DND for any calls such received and do get informed when action is taken. But a lot more needs be done by regulators to enforce a data protection system with appropriate penalties to defaulters and a feedback loop for consumers to report.

Having received repeated calls for such ‘mouth watering’ holiday plans - I do feel for OP as it is easy to be trapped with such marketeer’s constant ping to the explorer in us earthly humans.

[IshWish]

I reached out to the Kia Dealership in Delhi for the same issue. Shortly after the delivery of the car, I began receiving calls from Club Mahindra and other marketing firms inviting me to a special dinner at a certain 5-star hotel, where I was to be treated as a special guest.

I reported this violation of my privacy to the dealership's owner, but all I got was a generic response stating, "This isn't us. We haven't shared your information with anyone, it's the RTO folks who did it."

The best way is to block their calls or threaten them with a police complaint for the scams they are running.

[Scarlet_Rider]

I had got a similar call probably from the same folks within 2 weeks after purchasing the Baleno in June 2022. I did not proceed with any conversations. Called the Nexa manager to check whether they have any tie up with the folks. He said they don't and advised me not to encourage their calls. But something in the manager's voice indicated otherwise and he was playing safe in case I wanted to escalate.

[Asish_VK]

Originally Posted by SilverSmoke

Such scams are operating till now? I thought they were over decade ago. I was also scammed by Country Club in Noida using same tactics - I was naive back then in 2012. I hope none fall in such traps now & some legal action is taken against.

Yes, plenty of them

While I was at Goa early this month, I was approached by some sales executives of "Karma Group" o the street and handed over some scratch cards as part of their anniversary event. They invited us for a breakfast+Lunch+Dinner at their resort and also informed that we won an assured gift by the scratchcard (Macbook/iPAD/Resort Stay).

They convinced us to travel to travel to the event next day morning. After reaching back my hotel, I did some search on google where most of the reviews were 5* and looked paid. But in quora, it was clearly mentioned as scam. So to avoid wasting time and falling for their trap I chose to ignore their calls and didn't even use the same road itself to avoid contacting them (These guys are very good in convincing people and I am someone who gets convinced easily )

[amr77]

I purchased a car from MSIL last month and I have been getting at least 20 spam calls on a daily basis since the day of car booking. I have also received calls from this Club Resorto and similar sounding holiday packages and I must have blocked at least 50 numbers in the last one month.

I had to escalate to Kalyani Nexa management to get my number deleted from their databases to stop this nuisance. The calls from MSIL's affiliates have stopped now, but third party calls have continued.

Data privacy is a joke in today's world. People need to exercise caution against such spam callers and educate their family about the same.

[saket77]

I have received this call a few times. Not Club Resorto but Club Mahindra, a few insurance companies etc. They arrange for a high tea in a good hotel in the city and ask for you to come with spouse. They offer small free gifts like a cup set to lure their target. Thankfully I have managed to stay away from them every time following my policy that except for dandruff, nothing is free in life. Never fall for anything that seems too good to be true. It makes sense to keep a tab on the operating model of these companies to be aware. Names that you haven't heard promising big stuff is mostly a no-no.

Also, never got around my head that why I need to get a membership of a Club XXX chain to enjoy any vacation. For normal working class, it is max 1-2 vacation per year, which we can plan as per our convenience and budget, free from the caveats of these useless clubs. You pay what you avail and the biggest plus- no such unscrupulous corporate spoils your vacation.

[Arun_S]

Within couple of weeks of purchase of my Honda City in 2022, the Club Resorto Guys called saying the same thing. In the phone itself it was high pressure sales tactics, come today dinner is happening right now.

Told was in a meeting, searched for them and found some reviews saying what they do. Just blocked the number. They even tried calling from another number, Truecaller helped.

Please understand Privacy in today's world is a joke.

Happened to see a Tamil movie, where a Xerox shop guy says, whenever customer takes a copy of Aadhaar\PAN Card, he just notes the details and shares it to sale people.

[Ays7]

I do hope you get your refund. Their emails are pretty damning otherwise, they can be in a legal jam, but it will take years if you went down the legal route.

These scams are very common, I have received countless calls from Club Mahindra and I always manage to ignore them. I have experienced such pamphlets at Goa as well as Las Vegas where it was supposedly a Time-Share.

I like to think that I would never ever make a decision under threat of it being a limited time offer only or it being "too good to miss". But yes, that is where they lure you in, and this happens to the best of us.

[buzzy_boy]

I got a call from someone claiming to represent Club Mahindra, immediately after my XL6 purchase last year! The person was aware that I had bought an XL6 recently.

I don't believe in coincidences!