To think that PAL promotions have bullied me

[DutchOma]

On holiday in Mallorca we fell for the sales patter and bought a wool system from PAL Promotions on the understanding that it would be "Ideal" to help my husband with temperature control at night. It states on their literature that these blankets will be cool in summer and comfortably warm in winter and that you will not get too hot in them. They give a fortnight's cooling off period, but don't deliver them till 3 weeks later. We did not pay for them.
When they came they were much too hot for both of us, so we asked if we could return them.
We have been trying, with the help of the European Consumer Council to get them to change their mind, but they will not budge and threaten to take us to court.
Since the thought of that was making us both feel ill I have now paid up. AIBU to feel annoyed?

Not at all unreasonable. could you not argue that they were not as described?

Is it 2 weeks from order or 2 weeks from delivery? How can you assess them if you haven't had them yet?

TBH, I would have said it would have been better to let them take you to court! You could have argued your case to a judge and would possibly have won.

Yes we might have, but I simply couldn't do with the stress. The consumer council wasn't at all sure that I would have won, they said it was all subjective, and the fact that PAL had broken the contract was no reason for me to do the same. I wondered whose side they were on.
I just couldn't deal with it, feeling literally sick after the phone call this morning.
It was two weeks from the placing of the order and no, that was no good at all.
It is all the more galling since we could have had the same stuff from a firm in the UK with six weeks approval.
I wish I knew how to name and shame them.

OMG - My mother and father in law have had EXACTLY the same experience. They have made a £300 pound payment but want to stop and don't really know where they stand. Who exactly did you speak to at the Consumer Council. Perhaps we could put our story to them and they can see that this is not an isolated incident.

How much are these blankets? Are they just blankets?

Sympathising with you here OP, i don't know about teh laws with this stuff though

My mother is having similiar problem trying to get out of contract with pal that she was duped into while on holiday. She left her common sense in bottom drawer before going! she has now received letter from pal threatening court action if she didn't pay £1099 by today! She involved local CAB rep on receipt of goods, but they have ignored all correspondence from him and she has lost faith in his ability & interest to handle situation (he suggested she should just pay it!). she is having sleepless nights and BP sky high. I was thinking of contacting consumerline on her behalf, but it doesn't or sound promising from what you've said. There does seem to be issue with heavy sales tech and misleading customers into signing on one pretence or another. It's not right and shame on them! I can't think of anything else i can try! Any ideas?

I worked for PAL in Cyprus doing PR and guiding the coaches. They are currently facing financial problems and before I left last June I was 4 months without pay. To date, although they have taken quite a substantial amount from my wages during 2009 and 2010,for social insurance they have yet to pay it to the goverment. Hence when I was on holiday in 2010 and laid off from my current job over xmas last year I could not claim any money ( the system over here is different to UK as the gov. pay holiday pay and do not give income support benefits unless you have previously paid into the system).

Technically I am sure that as they have failed to pay their bills on the island, I am sure would mean that they are operating illegally and it would be illegal for them to enforce contracts, but you should seek legal advice about that.

Up to today they have not paid the social insurance!!

Cypgirl pls can u contact me as I am thinking of going to work for Pal promotions as a rep, don't want to get into something dodgy!!

Sorry, new on here - cypgirl 99025587

why would you want to work for a compnay who are having financial difficulties yero

are you nuts? she's just said they didn't pay her four months worth of wages or hand over deductions taken from her wages!! why would you want to work for a company that probably won't pay you!

£1099 for a blanket are they threaded with gold?

I tried to put a warning on anglo info for all those people who might apply for a job. They removed it as they said it was derogatory- they want to try getting their social insurance paid so they can claim what is rightfully theirs -then maybe they wouldn't be so quick to act.
I contacted the authorities the other day and they are still waiting for the payment to come in, meanwhile PAL are still taking money off customers and keeping it for themselves. Don't say you weren't warned.

Hello Ladies and Gents,

I am new to the forum so be gentle lol. I have been reading a few posts about Pal Promotions, I would like to tell you of my experence in dealing with them.

My wife and I had a holiday in Tenerefe (November 2011) and went on one of these free blanket trips, we ended up purchasing an overlay blanket for £599, as we really could not to afford to pay for it befor Christmas we agreed to have it delivered the second week of January, and start paying seven days later in 3 three monthly payments of £200 each month. This is where the problems started, the blanket was delivered on 28th December, (two weeks early) the day it was delivered we had around 10/12 phone calls asking if we had received the blanket and asking for payment to be made, after a few calls from them asking for payment I got a bit annoyed and told them it was not supposed to be delivered until the second week of January, and payment was supposed to be seven days later so we were not going to make a payment until the 21st January. Today we had the phone call from Pal, demanding the full payment of £599, I told the person on the phone that we had agreed to pay £200 a month over three months, he said not according to him and demanded the full payment, after an argument on the phone he put the phone down on me. After an hour I had cooled down and phoned them myself to make the payment, I paid the full amount of £599 just to get them off my back and out of my life forever, We will never go on a free blanket ever again and would advise others to do the same, these people (Pal Promotions) are a nasty bunch of people and should be avoided at all costs.

I read one of the above posts saying the holiday reps never warn people not to go on the free blanket trips the reason being they are on commision they get paid for sending their guests on these trips so they are not going to warn you are they.

If you do go on a free blanket trip and end up purchasing a Pal product expect hassle when you get home because thats what has happened to us, also as others have said these products are available from UK companys for a lot less money had we know this before we went we would not have purchased a Pal product.

Beware take care

Grayo

I hate to say this but did it not occur to anyone that there's not a blanket in the world that could possibly be worth over a thousand pounds? No matter how convincing the salesperson? Only I am honestly baffled at how people manage to leave their normally sound judgement behind when they go on holiday,

I'm with pandemoniaa.

Ywvu to buy such blankets.

I have an authentic Persian rug, with silk bits, that was way cheaper than that.

What is this PAL? Is it a posh version of being taken to a carpet factory in Tunisia?

Some people are idiots, it seems. Especially when on holiday.

How much? For a blanket???

Why in the name of God would you go on a trip about blankets if you are on holiday in a hot country? And why on earth would you buy one? What could possibly be so good about a blanket bought on holiday in Cyprus or wherever that you could not get in the UK?

I don't really get a lot of this but as for consumer council, surely if PAL have broken the contract, the contract no longer legally exists therefor the op can't break anything?

Ffs this is two years old! < glares >

We are just back from Cyprus where we went on a PALS promotion blanket trip. We ordered the full set underblanket, overblanket and pillows. We were told we could have 8 days after receipt on approval. We received them last friday and used them for 2 nights. I took very severe pains in my upper back because the mattress topper was so hard, also the blankets were very warm and we got so hot we couldnt sleep. At the promotion they tell you that the wool keeps you cool in summer and are so comfortable you will never want to go back to ordinary bedding. I have phoned the company and emailed them to say I wish to return the goods, but they say I cannot. I know other people have had trouble returning goods and just wondered has anyone been successful in doing this? I just want to warn people if they go abroad and decide to go on these trips not to buy anything as you cannot return them even though they are not as described in the promotion.

PAL Blanket trips:
Just got back from a trip to Tenerife and was told by the Thomas Cook rep that there were free trips to the market the following day and a guy was standing there waiting to book you on it. As it was recommended and stated free trip we signed up for it and were told the bus would pick us up at the hotel room at 9am and arrive back at two. We did note that it said Pal Blanket trips completely free. Didn?t realise that it was a glorified sales trip to a small dingy room up in the mountains that took two hours to get to picking up other people up from other hotels on the way. These also thought they were going on a free trip to the market. There was an English supposed guide, Kev he called himself, happy to discuss the fact he was an entertainer and did the job to stop the government sacking him, also seemed full of it!!! We eventually got up to this place and were asked to get off the bus where another English person called Cat short for Catherine went in to this spiel about how good these mattresses were and you would never get a better one, then in to these super dooper wool blankets and pillow cases and they were like over a grand and if you bought today could get the whole lot for £1199. This thing lasted something like an hour and used common sales techniques showing paper cut-outs of what?s in your mattress and how it absorbs like tons of water etc. A bit like the old Kirby Hoover selling techniques. Then just waited until someone made an order. Then Kev comes back in trying to sell some woolly slippers and insoles. Then about 12.30 you are taken to Adeje market which is like 10 minutes from our hotel and spent an hour there. Then on the way back to the hotel Kev tried selling this super dooper must have after sun and face cream. To me Thomas Cook should not be recommending these trips, noted after in their information booklet (Thomas Cooks they did say go sight seeing ???? and observe this PAL blanket presentation) that wasn?t mentioned at the welcome meeting. More than half a day of our trip was wasted!!!! But on the plus side we weren't daft enough to buy!!!!!

Zombie thread.

Interesting only post there misty....