Spas at Resort World Florida & RCI Points
In January I was at my time share in Kissimmee Fla. It is called Spas at resort world.
While at my time share for the week I was asked to attend a meeting on the RCI Points system for exchanging your week with points. I was told if I joined now they would pay my yearly maintenance fee for that year. I joined then and gave my charge card to them to bill my card for $999.00. Then 18 monthly payments of 243.68 for a total of $4386.24. Every week I get mail from my resort asking for my maintenance fee. I call them and tell them that RCI was going to pay it. To this date they have not paid it. I call the place at the resort who sold me the RCI program and they said don’t worry about the payment that it will be paid. I told them I keep getting these letters asking for the fee or they will pursue further collection action.
Sunset Lagoon Cancun Timeshare Fraud
I purchased a timeshare a few months ago at Sunset Lagoon in Cancun, Mexico. I was given a written “guarantee” that I would receive rental income for two years and that Sunset Lagoon’s US subsidiary would sell my existing timeshare for $10,000 within 90 days. As it turns out, the US subsidiary is not a part of Sunset Lagoon at all, they are just a marketing company and have no record of any guarantee made by Sunset Lagoon. Sunset Lagoon now tells me that the document I received is not a part of the contract and refuses to cancel the contract and give me my money back.
Sunset Lagoon lied to me and scammed me out of nearly $10,000, and has stuck me with a timeshare that I certainly do not want. I have filed formal complaints with my credit card company, the FTC, Profeco, econsumer.gov, RCI and the Attorney Generals in NC and FL (where Sunset Lagoon maintains an address for purposes of collecting money). At this point, I’m just waiting to see what comes of this and looking for any advice anyone can give me. If anyone has been in this type of situation, I would appreciate any help you can offer.
Needless to say, I advise everyone to stay away from Sunset Lagoon, Sunset Beach, Royal Sunset, Fisherman’s Village or Sunset Clubs while in Mexico. These resorts are all owned by the same lying thieves!
Timeshare Collectors Inc. – Timeshare Repurchase
Here’s another angle in the timeshare repurchase business–a company called Timeshare Collectors, Inc. My husband and I got an unsolicited mailer (postcard) offering to buy our timeshare; this morning, we went to a meeting at a local Raddison hotel & they gave their pitch–the deal is, the timeshare owner pays Timeshare Collectors, Inc. the equivalent of 7 times the maintenance fee (or $3495, whichever is less), to cover closing costs, deed transfer, etc. They, in turn, sell in bulk to Hotels.com and other travel clubs. What do you get? You get out of your timeshare, and you get to deduct the loss as a capital loss on Schedule D on income tax.
We didn’t “sell” to them; we already got ripped off buying the timeshare in the first place, so I’m not willing to shell out more money to get rid of the damned thing!
Consolidated Resorts Tahiti Village – Las Vegas
My wife and I went to Vegas, and visited the Consolidated Resorts Tahiti Village. Not only did the sales people use common sleazy high pressure sales tactics; they became rude and insulting towards me personally when I stood my ground. Beware; they will attempt to turn a couple against each other in order to get their sale -and believe me, getting that sale is all they care about.
I don’t know if all timeshare salespeople are like those at the Consolidated Resorts facility -but their behavior showed me that at least this organization is very unprofessional and has a very low level of integrity.
Something to think about; if timeshares are such a great deal -why do the salespeople push so hard? If it’s such a great deal there should be plenty of people willing to buy, and high pressure sales tactics would not be needed…
Los Abrigados, Arizona
I am only starting to look into this, I hope I can get some direction. I purchased a timeshare at Los Abrigados, in Sedona, Arizona about 3 years ago, on an every other year deal. Had no problem with payments, or timeshare. One issue I brought up was that they state that income level must be $50,000. When I stated that at the time I was making approx. $35000, rep. said it didn’t matter (using selling techniques much like a car dealer), also that I was not married and couldn’t be suitable, per their rules-again it didn’t matter. About a year later, I was offered an upgrade, to every year, at only a slightly increased price. My father was ill at the time (has since passed away) and I thought that it would be nice to use while he could. I expressed this to them that although I could make payments, how hard would it be to sell should his health deteriorate? Stupid me, I was assured that reselling it back to them would be no problem as money would be needed to help my ailing father. About 3 months later, I tried to deal with them, and as you can imagine, I got nowhere, and with other things going on this was put on backburner. Although I am aware that I made a commitment there must be some way to deal with them amicably. Due to financial burden with my father, have not paid them since Oct. 2004, as I could not afford it, I would be broke!! I do feel there was an element of misleading, and am willing to share some of the burden…
Scammed In Vegas
I was in Vegas when we got scammed by the high pressure sale tactics – was promised 2 free cruises with purchase of time share – was promised we could rent out the property and make enough profit to pay for years costs – was told property would increase in value ever year and if we wanted to sell would be no problem as there are hundreds of buyers out there…
REALITY. The cruise was free if you paid for all fees associated with the cruise – these fees are higher than if you just booked the cruise yourself. No one wants to buy our timeshare. It’s been listed for 12 months not and not even a buyer offer has been made. It takes a lot of advertising and months of planning (general two years if you want to rent it out). I will never invest in a time share again.