Thanks for conning me $8k, now please accept my $2k!

Few years back, a colleague received one of those "Congratulations! You've won yourself a trip to Bali!" call and after listening to hours of coaxing, signed up a ten years package with the resort agency and paid $8k+. That Oriental Travel company claimed that they represented Gold Crown Resort and promised to offer super duper good unbeatable hotel deals for most five stars hotels around the world for their members. Yah, I know. Sounded just like those typical Time Share Scams. But, my colleague had paid, so, oh well...

Eventually, I've been listening to my colleague grumbling that he has got so much problem trying to talk to anyone on the hotline (too hot for the agency to handle?) and even when he emailed them, nobody bothered to reply. And one fine day when a living human being eventually did answer the call (must be his lucky day, wonder did he go buy 4D), my colleague requested quotation for a five stars hotel in Hong Kong. Guess what? The room rate that they quoted him (that special membership rate as promised!) was higher than any random quotes on any online hotel booking sites! Heck! Even any random tour agency at the basement of Peoples' Park can give my colleague a better quote!

Fast forward to a few years later today, my colleague came into office furiously, ranting that a manager from the Oriental Travel had setup a meeting with their members and told them that due to the overwhelming number of members they have got, they could not provide efficient service to all members (Har? Cannot employ more employee meh? If can't afford expensive Singaporeans, still got the cheaper ones from China and India what!) and thus the members have 3 alternatives to solve the issue now:

• Pay another $16k+ to upgrade to the oh-so prestigious 95yrs membership package
  WTF?! Because they screwed up on their $8k 10yrs membership package, you should pay another $16k to join their 95yrs membership package?! And 95 years? I wonder where will my colleauge, who is 40yrs old now, be travelling to on his 94th year! Will he even be around?


• Terminate the current membership. Will be able to retrieve back $16k+ or a minimum of 75%, but have to pay $5k+ of admin and legal charges upfront
  Wait a minute... pay $5k to get $16k? It sounds just like those "Pay just a little admin and legal fee of a few thousands to receive a few millions of lottery prize" old school email scam!
  


• Terminate the current membership. All the $8k+ previously paid are down the drain, but have to pay $2k+ of admin and legal charges upfront
  Is it just me, or is their admin and legal charges abit too flexible? How can it be $5k and $2k at the same time? And WTH? After paying $8k for nothing, now you have to pay another $2k to terminate the con? I reckon their accountants can start applying for jobs at Temasek.

So I asked my colleague, so now what? And his reply?

"Just pretend all these are just a bad dream and forget about the whole damn 8k!"