By JAMES GARDINER
A telemarketing company that has lured thousands of Aucklanders to timeshare sales seminars admitted in court this week that its tactics were misleading and in breach of the Fair Trading Act.
Holiday Marketing International (NZ) Ltd now faces a fine of up to $100,000 when it appears for sentencing next month in the Auckland District Court.
It was prosecuted by the Commerce Commission, which began investigating a complaint last year from a woman who said she was led to believe she was dealing with a travel agency offering discounts only to find she was being offered an opportunity to buy a share in a Queensland holiday resort.
As a result of that, HMI was warned but during the next seven months the commission received a dozen similar complaints.
Staff of the company say hundreds of Aucklanders are still being telephoned daily by the company, with offers of free gifts if they attend seminars where the shares in Queensland holiday resorts are promoted.
One employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared dismissal, said the telemarketers were, until this week, being paid less than the minimum hourly rate of $8 but got $5 bonuses for every person they persuaded to attend a presentation at the company's Queen St offices.
The employee said the success rate of getting people to seminars was about one in every three called, solely because of the free prizes that were offered. These included $50 Foodtown vouchers, tickets to Waiwera hot pools, ferry cruises and barbecue grills.
There were two teams of telemarketers, one Chinese and one English-speaking: the Chinese team was the most successful.
The company targets couples with an income of $50,000 or more who have at least 80 per cent equity in their homes. The company insists people attend with their spouse or partner.
Police officers and people involved in the news media were not welcome and were screened out once their occupation became known.
The employee said that every day people were coming in or ringing up with complaints about being unable to book their free accommodation or wanting to get out of time-share agreements they had signed.
"The policy is to give them another prize, promise them something else and get them out of there as quickly as possible.
"People think they will just come along and get the free gift and walk away but you've got no idea how good some of our sales people are," the employee said.
"Once you've got a signed contract, the attitude is 'tough'."
HMI operates on the seventh and eighth floors of the Hongkong Bank building on Queen St, Auckland City.
HMI also runs "spin and win" promotions at shopping centres and trade shows, where "winners" must fill out detailed information about themselves before they can collect a prize.
Last month HMI project director Bill Hedman told the Weekend Herald that "thousands and thousands" of people had been contacted and offered prizes if they attended presentations.
Since then no one from the company has been prepared to speak publicly about the business or the prosecution.
Baiting the time-share hook
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