Originally posted by mindeye:Castle
did you try going to their office? They have 2 offices on the 4th floor of the building. Both seems to be closed and no one have been accessing for a few days according to a lady working in a nearby unit on the same floor. Not sure if this means they have closed for good. Will be verifying this and maybe planning some actions. If you interested to join, email me.
Does any one know since the company is registered as a LIMITED EXEMPT PRIVATE COMPANY, if the directors of this company is liable for anything ?
Hi mindeye,
Do you have any news on GMC?
Vendetah - I think you should go and file a Magistrate's Complaint against whoever threatened you - the part of how they have your information. It is pure intimidation!
HI, CH and Castle,
Any news from your end? I've been trying to call GMC and Henry since last week, can could not get him. Initially, the person in-charge Bryan still answer my call, by since this week no one answer any call at all!!
Same here, Henry Lee promised to refund me 100% since Feb, but have dragging and now, I can't get him at all. What a bustard!! I should have go to the office and made noise everyday!!! So stupid of me to trust this Henry Lee bustard!!
I've paid $3800 as well, and I want my money back. Does anyone of you know what can we do to claim back our money?
I have file a complaint to CASE, but they have yet to replied me on this.
In case you have anything at all, pls call/sms me at 96495782.
Thanks a lot.
Hi All,
I am also one of the victims of S&B. I have signed that contract last december. I have paid the full amount of the contract for 9 years. Initially they have offered me free some holidays (hotel room) and i have utilized some days of them. Now comes the problem, i want to book flight tickets. They are giving arbitary values every now & then. During presentation, they said flight tickets will be of nearly 50% discount. Now the price they have quoted is almost close to other travel agent (may be 5 or 10% lesser). I am totally unhappy. On-seeing various threads here, i am really scarred, whether i will be able to get back any money. As i understand from these threads, i have to go to SCT for mis-representation. Kindly some one tell me a good suggestion to get back my money (atleast some amount).
Hi fellow consumers, I singed up also but only paid a few hundred SGD - with the agreement that I will swipe the credit card once I got one approved. But now, Im hesitant to continue, due to possibility that Smiths and Baron may not be able to fulfill within the period signed-up. Many things can happen to a company within the agreement period - 7 yrs in my case. Anyone who might be on same scenario with me?
DONT bother buying any of these vacation club memberships. You get no actual savings at all. Remember you have to pay a huge membership fee upfront - anything from $2,000 up. Calculate that with the "assumed" savings - you are lucky if you even even out!
You are not going to get the 40% or 60% that they tell you at the presentation. You are not going to get the $2,000 savings from a $4,000 trip. The margins for travel agents are not that big - so where is the discount going to come from? Seriously?!
They tell you they buy in volume - even then can the savings be that much? Yes - if you are one who pay the "published" price. It used to be that if you want to buy a SQ ticket for example and you went to SQ direct, their published price could be $10,000 and if you go through a travel agent - the price for the same ticket - $3,000 - so it looks as if you saved $7,000 but in reality no one buys at the $10,000 price. So this is what you are being told - the published price vs the real out there price - it would look like a good discount wont it?!
The reality is if you bother searching around - you are probably going to find the same discount without having to sign up with a huge upfront payment from any travel agency outside.
SO DONT BOTHER BUYING - save yourself the hassle and your money!
Hi:
I am the one who bought is package. How do i get help on this? Appreciate if anyone can give me advice Thx
Hi Vendetah,
you need the acra document. What you can do is to get quotations from internet or other tour agencies to state that what they promised during the presentation and what they now offer is not consistant.
I don't think case mediation can help much as Smiths & Baron can always back out. Go to SCT. It will bring closure.
Documents you need can include written testimonials from other "victims".
When I went to SCT, I had testimonial from 2 other victims, ACRA documents, website printout of NATAS (it did not show their company, but they claim that CTS is NATAS affiliated), my statement.
When you go to SCT the only documents that Smiths & Baron will produce will be the contract and your e-mail between both of you.
I did not attend my mediation with CASE. I decided to file with SCT instead.
Pls note new scams similar to Glitterati has emerged.
Number - Ben 9047 34** (arranging for S & B Travel - Ngee Ann City)
Number - Lyn 9322 96** (arranging for Moly - hp 8288 18**, Gift Manager, LM Travel - People's Park Ctr).
Pls do not fall for these scams.
Under Ben, you need to pay S$80 per person as admin fees to utilise the "free" voucher.
Under Lyn (or Moly), you need to S$60 each for a trip to Phuket.
Do not go for their 65 to 90 mins sales talk. All bullshi*.
Pls see the blog entry by The Chrimsters regarding GM -
http://chrim.blogspot.com/2010/02/glitterati-marketing-and-consultancy.html
I reproduce the content here:
===============================================================
"I wish we'd never come across this name, never had any contact with the group, for then we wouldn't be in such a fix at the moment!
It is such a bane and thorn in my life at the moment.
We signed up with the Glitterati marketing group initially, believing in their promises of great service and cost savings to be had. And paid up $12000. What fools we were. So easily taken.
Anyway, call it ESP or bad vibes, I chickened out pretty much soon after. Fortunately we were within the 5 day cooling off period and they gave us the termination letter after we made a surprise visit to their office. More promises. We should not have believed them. They told us we'd get the money back in 6 to 8 weeks.
After 6 weeks I started to get nervous and began calling them. Half the time the phone went unanswered. The other half someone ( different each time ) would pick up and promise to call back but never did. Same thing with emails.
8 weeks went by and it was time to find out for sure what was happening. The Chinese New Year holidays were already over. It took another 2 days before someone even picked the phone up, then we made a trip down to see them. That was dramatic. A short punk called Brian met us ( he didn't even know the security pin to get into the room!) and called himself "team leader". Then he disappeared for a good 15 to20 minutes claiming to find out what was happening to our refund. Finally he reappeared ( thank goodness) and gave us this piece of paper saying to call the bank to find out what happened to the money!! I was furious. He could not even explain himself adequately and I could see it was a waste of time even talking to him.
I noticed that the staff seemed to come from another area on the same floor so I made my way there to see if there was anybody more senior to speak to.
The back room was a shocking mess. A few desks, 4 staff sitting there with a Chinese dude calling himself Henry Lee saying he was the " General Manager" . He claimed he'd been "away" during the period that our contract was made and terminated, hence the mess. Then he showed me a slip of paper stating that he'd actually been in Changi Prison! My heart sank. OMG. He's a gangster.
Anyhow, he was a great con man, managed to calm us down, and told us that the bank was freezing their credit card facilities due to large numbers of refunds that were occuring. We called the bank and that part was true, but the bank said that the money that was charged in December would have already been given to the company if the refund did not go through. Hence the onus was on the company to refund us directly!! So where does that leave us!!!
Promises later, we are still stuck in this conundrum and he has gone on to prove that he is a liar and an unreliable person. I guess we are now faced with having to go through the legal system to get our money back, or the possibility of "donating" $12k to their activities, whatever they may be.
Well... whatever the outcome, I really hope no one else would have this misfortune of meeting these people.... and it's a grim reminder to the 2 of us never to attend any more marketing talks! Expensive and painful lesson learned.. "
===============================================================
Yes, Henry Lee (hp - 8359 65**) and Brian are very real and I met them face to face before.
Hi Guys,
I am also the victim of S&B and my story is also the same as like others in this forum. recently I won over S&B and got back my full refund. I was misrepresented and after a round of talk with them I went directly to SCT.
for those who need any assistance, can contact us [email protected]
But whatever be the reason, note that S&B are not actually a scam, but they are actually giving a false promise to sell their products (membership). In my case I was misrepresented so I went to SCT and won the case.
anyway those who need help, together we some friends (who also won) are always here to guide, but remember we are not against anybody, we are just helping people.
GMC is closed and no longer working from MAXWELL HOUSE
They are absconding with our money
Hi friends i m one of the victims of GMC .In my case i hav coutrt order from sct but still they failed to pay .To my shock when i visited their office on 23rd march 2010 i was informed by building seecurity that they have vacated 1 week ago.
They are absconding with our money. I have knocked all doors Police , SCT (court) , CASE, commercial affairs department.But everyone is saying they cannot do anything.The only suggested action is to approach a lawer since this is a registered company tied to a person and since the company is still active in ACRA records we still have this last chance. I chcked the company website will expire on 27 April 2010.
Any actions against the company or the founder needs to be taken by us now else we will lose our chance of getting money back forever. I was able to get in touch with one other victim like me.If any one else is interested do write in to my email [email protected] .
If we are more in numbers we can approach commercial affairs dpartment for action or a legal action collectivly.
Hi Kena Scam,
Thank you for answering my questions. I will do this and prepare the documents you stated. Would anyone also send me testimonials (victims of S&B) so that I can also include them in the documents that I will present to SCT. Please email me at: [email protected]. Thank you very much.
So far, they have not responded to the letter that CASE has sent them and I'm very worried because they say they will forward this issue to their lawyer.
@Tomorrownevercomes2009 - thanks also for your advise.
Hi All - What everyone can do is this to complain to CAD. CAD is aware of the problems but as long as no one files a complaint, they dont care. So if you kena scam, then find all other fellow victims and file a complaint. The more complaints filed, they less they can ignore. The mantra is always the same - they "can't do anything" if you dont file. Then when you do, you look like just one case. So the more people complain, they will eventually have to look at it. Unfortunately by the time they do, the con men will all have run away! =(
Hi, All victims of GMC, shall we gather our force and make a complain to CAD and possible get a lawyer to help us? Anyone know any lawyer?
Hi Guys,
recently i came to know that S&B is sending mails or calling to members those approach to CASE or SCT. They are threatening by telling that if the full payment has not been in place then they will approach their lawyer.
I guess they are doing this only to stop members to go to the SCT and forgot about the money they already paid. Since even in the contract they mentioned that if the member failed to make the rest of the payment then the already paid amount would be forfeited and membership would be cancel. I hope it was mention for others as well. Since you have not used their service so there is no point that they approach lawyer and one of my frd yesterday mention me that someone can't sent the mail like this, it should be come directly from lawyer only.
In case if S&B is doing this with many people then this should be highlighted to the judge as well because we are completelty protected by Singapore law.
Do feel free to ask if any question.
Hi Kavekon,
GMC is on the RUN!!OMG..i have a mediation session at SCT this coming thurs..SO i guess its in vain!! I have an agreement of $4800 and managed to cancel within the 5 day cooling period. During one of the email exchanges, the Bryan fellow from GMC customer service mentioned that they were shifting premises. I tried asking for their new office address and numbers but no responses. That email was dated to Feb 5th.
To Zming26, has the men in blue managed to track down the GMC guys?
RE: GMC Victims
Hi all,
Can we meet up one of these days to discuss things on how to resolved the problem? I believe we are in the same boat searching high and low to find the mastermind and above all to get our money back. Pls feel free to contact me @ 81154973. tks
Hi ornamos,
Henry Lee's mobile - 8359 6584.
Hopefully he has not changed his number.
o RE: GMC Victims
Hi all,
Can we meet up one of these days to discuss things on how to resolved the problem? I believe we are in the same boat searching high and low to find the mastermind and above all to get our money back. Pls feel free to SMS me @ 81154973. tks
Hi, All GMC victim,
Shall we group together and approach CAD. I think CAD will only respond to us if we have more people complaining.
Thx.
Can anyone advice on my case i did not pay anything to my banks as i had cancelled my membership and had received termination letter from GMC knowing that they will be contacting my banks in 6-8 weeks as per their promises. Now the banks are chasing for payment and even told me that they can't help and even added interest on it. My schedule with SCT is this coming tuesday. Can anyone advise if i need to pay the banks?