By Andre Yeo

IT took just two weeks for him to realise what he was doing for a timeshare company was not right.

Joe (not his real name) 24, joined the company in October as he said he was looking for a temporary job.

He said that at the job interview, he was shown the pay slips of three employees, indicating they were earning $3,000 to $4,000 a month.

But he said he did not know if they were actual people or if they had really worked there because he did not meet them.

'They said I could earn this much, too.'

He started work the day after the interview.

Joe said that during the first two days, he had to make random calls to 250 people a day to ask them two questions for a survey.

The questions were: Had they ever stayed in a five- or six-star hotel, and how they rated the level of service at Changi Airport.

He said the survey was a way to get potential clients' personal details like occupation, salaries and ages.

Two weeks later, colleagues would call these people up to get them to attend 'seminars' in the Orchard area.

Angry Net postings

The New Paper found several angry postings on the Internet regarding the company and the seminars, with some who had attended even setting up support groups to share their experiences.

Joe said they were told to focus on locals but to exclude certain types of people as they felt they would not be able to afford the membership fees.

Said Joe: 'I continued working because I had not learnt all about the company and I needed to work for two weeks to get paid.'

He said he was earning $5 an hour and worked 10 hours a day.

Joe said after the first two days, he moved from doing the surveys to calling people to attend the company's seminars, held from Tuesdays to Sundays, to promote the company's holiday resorts.

He said they would tell these people they were calling on behalf of a travel company, and they were helping to promote this company.

He would call around 300 people a day and tell them they were among 20 people chosen to claim four prizes which included accommodation in Thailand, a $1,000 shopping voucher, a cruise voucher, and $588 worth of gift vouchers for a photo-shoot in a studio.

Most would reject his invitation or just hang up. He only managed to get five couples to attend the 'seminar'.

Online postings reveal many complaints over such calls.

In March, one netizen wrote about how he had called Case to complain about the same company Joe used to work for. The netizen said they had advised him to send a registered letter to the company to terminate the contract and demand full refund for his deposit. After two weeks there, Joe said he had had enough.

He said consumers had to pay around 40 euros ($76) to log in to a website to claim the prizes and the $588 voucher was actually a car wash voucher worth $100.

He said: 'My conscience did not allow me to continue.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on November 25, 2008.