Diana W Aim

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This scam, I want to warn people. LEARN FROM OUR LOSS.

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We agreed to sign up for a timeshare because we were told we would be getting a vacation every year. If we wanted to go to another resort one year they sold us on getting a membership to an exchange program. BOTH OF THESE ARE SCAMS. We have only " fortunate" to get in 1 time in 3 years. Not that is 1 out of 3 years to vacation. Would you pay every year to vacation only 1/3 of the time you pay for it? I would never have agreed to this if they had told me how difficult it would be. And actually I think it should be illegal to charge people if they can not get into to use it. I should not have to pay my mortgage OR the maintenance fees. NOW THE ICING ON THE CAKE: We did not want to miss our family vacations, so we called in and got in and had to pay $2800 for the week to stay at our resort WITHOUT USING OUR MEMBERSHIP. TO SAY WE ARE NOT IN THE LEAST BIT HAPPY WITH THIS COMPANY IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT. This was for 2 years. THE CHERRY ON TOP: another year they told us at the desk we would have to pay another 2800 when we confirmed JUST OVER $508. We showed our confirmation and had to fight and speak to the manager to get them to honor this price.
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Loss:
$12809
Cons:
  • Horrible customer service
  • I want full transparency and no hidden fees
  • Over priced and worth nothing if you can not use it

Preferred solution: Full refund

User's recommendation: I would tell you to do not invest with these crooks.

Priscillia Oqe

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| map-marker Surfside Beach, South Carolina

Suckered me in to buying a timeshare

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We have never used this timeshare because we were never able to book a vacation with this timeshare. We attempted to book a vacation in Orlando in July 2017 and in Pittsburgh in December 2016. Besides not finding anything available when and where we wanted to go, the Customer Service Rep was unable to help us book a vacation because nothing we suggested had any openings. How is this possible? None of the options in the destinations we chose was available. The salesmen wrote things down as we were talking. Pricing information, booking information, all on the same sheet of paper, very confusing. We didnโ€™t get to take these notes with us to remind us later what they had said. Our paperwork says we have weeks 24E1/7 odd. It also says that we have 41,500 points. It also says that we purchased a bronze season which is six weeks. What does this all mean? It is useless information because as noted above we canโ€™t get a vacation booked anywhere at any time. You would think that with these three seemingly different options the customer service reps would have been able to plug us in somewhere we wanted to go and when! The salesmen told us that we could use the resort grounds even if we donโ€™t stay there. Again, there was no explanation how to do this. Is this a benefit? We have to stay another place and pay for it, so that we can use the facilities at the resort, which we are also paying for. Does this make sense? It is paying twice for using the grounds when we canโ€™t even get a vacation there. The program is very difficult to use and looking back it is very confusing to figure out. The salesmen sold us on traveling the world easily and cheaply with this timeshare. Cheaper than staying in hotels. And we would stay in luxurious places. We canโ€™t even get to stay in the villas in South Carolina. They told us that we could easily sell the timeshare and get rid of it at any time. Unfortunately, these resellers want money out-of-pocket and we arenโ€™t willing to do that. We have called and emailed the timeshare to take this back. We found that they donโ€™t do โ€œbuy-backsโ€, which is contrary to what the salesmen told us. When we were in the process of buying the timeshare, everyone we met was very helpful and nice. Since then it has been very difficult to get hold of anyone to help booking the vacations we wanted or to listen to the complaints we have. The same with Monterey Financial; they are unreachable. The salesmen lied to us about the benefits and advantages of the timeshare purchase and used high-pressure sales tactics to get us to buy right at that time, creating a false sense of urgency. This timeshare is far from the great financial find that they told us about; it is a drain on us and worthless because we canโ€™t use it as they promised. On top of all that, they ignore our complaint letters most of the time and the one time they did answer the rep told us they would not cancel this contract AND they would not be responding to any more letters. They sure wanted our money but now that we have called them on the lies and deceptions of the salesmen they want nothing to do with us.
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1 comment
Guest

That post is a bit longer than I like to read, but your title line says it all ; you have the courage to confess that you got suckered - many people would never admit to that - even though it's happened to most of us at one time or another. You're probably just an accommodating person who has a tough time saying "NO".

The sales people prey upon non-confrontational individuals and tailor their pitch to their perception of the potential customer.

I hope you can clean it up. Wish I'd been there to say "no" in 18 different languages for you ...

Anonymous
map-marker Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Purchasing a part of a dream is always a bad IDEA

received a call from a sales person from Plantation resorts in Myrtle Beach S.C. She informed me that we needed to have a combined income of 50 thousand dollars to get a free vacation with plantation resorts. I informed the lady representing plantation resorts that we were not interested. That my wife and I didn't meet the qualifications of making over 50 thousand dollars a year to get the free vacation they were offering. Which she said was a requirement in order to attend the presentation or get a free vacation. However she persisted until she got me to agree to attend. The salesman and his supervisor of plantation resorts used high pressure tactics to get my wife and I to purchase a vacation week. We I attended the presentation in Sept 2013. We told then we didn't want to purchase at least 20 times. The appointment was scheduled for two hours for listening to their presentation and taking a tour of the facility. However they kept us there for over five hours pressuring us to buy. They misrepresented the value of what we were getting for our money, by using a point system that was supposed to save us money when we went on vacation this year. But in fact it was going to cost us money by paying over 18,000 dollars over ten years at a 20% interest rate. They also promised to show us the unit we would be getting and never took us to see the building. Soon after we returned home we realized they had misled us and called to cancel the transaction. We were told no loan had been filed in our name and they bad no record of it. Soon after calling the finance department, Plantation resorts attacked my bank account making unauthorized withdrawals of $ 525 dollars. These people are dishonest crooks and made many promises and didnโ€™t live up to any of them. I guess once you leave itโ€™s your word against plantation resorts and they have the upper hand for they have tricked you into letting them have access your bank account, Buyer beware. I explicitly told the salesman, his supervisor and finance department at plantation resorts not to keep my bank card on file or use it to access my account. They assured me the information would be destroyed after they used it for a deposit. . I informed them that I had a problem with another company doing this and that is why I didnโ€™t want the card on file. They then went against my wishes and used it to charge 325 dollars to my account causing numerous checks to bounce, costing over $100 dollars. They do not live up to their agreements and have cost me much heart ache and money. When I called in to find out why they had gone against what we had agreed to, the lady in the finance department argued with me. She tried to tell me that I agreed to this, when my wife and I told them to destroy the information and not to use the card. It seems they make their own documents and do whatever they want at plantation resorts. They also informed me that they donโ€™t return peopleโ€™s money. This company needs to be investigated by the federal trade commission for stealing, false advertising, and lying to customers. USA TODAYAre Timeshares a good Idea The sales person will imply that a timeshare is a good investment, but that's not really the case, according to Timeshare Users Group (TUG) founder Bill Rogers.WarningRogers warns some real estate agents or firms will offer to sell your timeshare if you pay an upfront fee. Do not deal with them because they will take your money and do little or nothing to market the property.Some owners get so desperate they actually try to give away their timeshares, according to Rogers. This is because it costs a lot to keep an unused unit if it has high maintenance fees. The investment actually becomes a financial liability. You may be able to rent it out, but this is difficult to do on your own and there are scam companies that offer to find a renter if you pay an advance search fee. They likely will not do anything once you give them the money.
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Loss:
$525
1 comment
John N Mzy

Sounds like you wanted something for free and got snookered.

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