This was my first complaint to VACATION VILLAGE. It continues down below with a rebuttal to the BBB after a letter from Vacation Village.
Just recently Nov 2013 the BBB revoked Vacation Village's rating with a warning note typed in RED.
This letter is intended for a demand in releasing me and my partner from this contract due to unfair and misleading sales practices, lies, and high-pressure sales from multiple sales people that scared my children, my partner and myself. My children were uneasy after approx 3 hours; the sales people brought snacks and drinks for them to calm them down. Below will explain the horror of feeling trapped behind closed doors.
July 19 2010, my girlfriend, 3 children, and myself visited Vacation Village on a vacation that a family member, whom is now deceased, had let us use. This was a timeshare that was paid for by the family member. We had no knowledge of a timeshare, but it was paid for and we wanted to visit Florida with our children.
One day we were approached about coming to some presentation to sit through for approx 1 ½ hours to explain what a timeshare was and we would receive a gift and breakfast for free just for coming, no obligation.
We figured on doing the 1-½ hr presentation to at least get the gift that was offered for the children. We didn’t have much money to spend on activities.
We were met by a salesperson, Estee Gonzalez. We met her for breakfast at a building down the road at a golf course facility where a buffet breakfast was given. After breakfast she said she was driving us to a newer condo facility to look around and see a new resort that had just opened. It was never mentioned we had to go somewhere with her to see this resort. We were told it was a sit down presentation. We didn’t bother saying anything. We were just trying to show we were good people. She was being really nice as any salesperson. We knew something was coming with all of the courtesy gestures. We started to get discouraged with the morning passing by and the plans we had made for the day were now being disrupted.
Estee drove us back to the sales office and that is where the drama started to unfold and the frightening sales pitches began.
The room had many tables with people in the seats who were getting the sales pitches. The room felt like a high-energy party atmosphere, happy sales people in suits and dresses, with all of these families with children. It was very uneasy and fake like sitting in a car dealership being bombarded. Estee talked with us explaining what a timeshare was. When she was complete with her pitch she asked if we were interested in buying a timeshare through Vacation Village at the resort she drove us to. I can’t remember the purchase cost. It was between I would say $15,000.00 to maybe $20,000.00. I told her there is no way that I could afford something like this due to the fact I am paying child support, supporting my children when they were with me, had a mortgage to pay with a higher interest rate, and recovering from a bankruptcy due to a divorce. She explained how easy it would be to afford this and the investment for the future of many vacations in our lifetime. She even got the kids involved asking them how great it could be if mom and dad would buy this timeshare and asking them questions to basically put more pressure on us to purchase. Both sales people asked our children if mom and dad should get this timeshare and go on many vacations. To me, that is an enticement sales tactic to underage children to help bolster the parents into buying with pressure from the kids.
After approx 1 hr or so after refusing, Estee left and sent over a male sales person, maybe a manager, who spoke with a Spanish accent and started to explain how easy it would be to afford this. He did the same thing and pushing a bit harder on the sale. He then brought out a timeshare at Vacation Village at Parkway. It was 1 picture and told us it had been foreclosed on and was approx $12,000.00. He said this wouldn’t last long and we should buy that day or he couldn’t guarantee it would be available if we waited. It was an every other year timeshare use with 74000 points. We were told this would increase in value and a good investment since it was a foreclosure. There was no proof of this given to show it was foreclosed on and still today Vacation Village told me they can’t give any proof of this timeshare being foreclosed on when I asked. We were also told that we could easily rent this out ourselves to help pay the mortgage down if we didn’t want to use it, which could help our financial situation and still have a timeshare to use when we wanted. We were NOT told about the timeshare after purchase would only be worth 10% to 30% of the purchase price. We were NOT told the market was flooded with timeshares that had price tags as low as $1500. This is down right dirty and we were taken advantage of our uneducated knowledge of timeshares, and I think they knew that. They are supposed to look out for their customers not set them up. This is misrepresentation because my sales persons were supposed to look out for the best interest of me. They knew we had no knowledge of how timeshares work, let alone the understanding of the stack of paper work, that we would need time to go over this.
After saying no, the male and Estee both came to the table and they just kept explaining the benefits of buying today. The kids were uneasy and wanted to leave and we were ready to, but were scared of what these people were capable of for the rest of our stay since we were there for almost 4 hrs and kept saying no. We felt threatened by them at this point. The male sales person was getting frustrated at our constant Nos. That is when we caved and said we would buy feeling uneasy but we didn’t tell them. We just wanted them to let us go without confrontation or giving us bad service for the rest of our stay.
After understanding and researching for a couple years, people all over the Internet and websites speak of the same horror we went through and some confrontations were pointed out and the people were walked away to not cause a scene in the party sales room.
We then met up with Glauco Velez to sign the papers. I asked him specifically if he was going to check my credit, because I knew when he did he would see that I definitely would not qualify for another mortgage and we could walk away feeling better about this entire nightmare. I told him I wouldn’t qualify and the reasons why. He said they don’t need to check any ones credit because everyone qualifies. I told him again I didn’t feel we could afford this. He reassured us we could by going home and refinancing this 18% rate loan to something around 7% to 10%, not knowing later I couldn’t. It was also mentioned I could go through Lando Berkley who has the loan to. They have since told me this unit DOES NOT QUALIFY. What a joke for a deceptive business.
After coming home and settling back into our lives, I had to try and cancel this contract. Estee told the Vacation Village new vacation and us owner letter header says, that if we had any questions to please give a call. I tried to call Estee. She gave me her cell phone # and email address. I wanted to cancel this contract. I couldn’t get her or a sales person to call me back because they new I wanted to cancel and they didn’t want that to happen and lose a sale. I finally was able to get in contact with Estee a year later. Apparently she left Vacation Village and got really ill and was in the hospital for over 1 month. At the time of the sales presentation she said to call her if we needed anything. I told her I would be calling to drop the contract. The first time I called I wanted her to cancel the contract. When I called at a later time I wanted her to help sell it. She said she was no longer involved in Vacation Village sales. She explained I could try a realtor for selling assistance in Florida, but she never came through with any of the advice.
By this time I had to take on 2 part time jobs to support my family because I am paying 18% interest for something I wouldn’t use and to this day HAVE NOT USED and NEVER WILL. My payments are $202.00 per month with approx $170.00 going to interest giving Lando Berkley and vacation Village an extra $14000.00 in profit. I still work the 2 part time jobs to pay this timeshare.
Another complaint I blame Vacation Village for are the harassing phone calls to sell this timeshare. Not knowing very much about the timeshare business, there are many scams and I was taken for one, paying money upfront to sell within 90 to 120 days. It has been with International Timeshare Network for 2 years and not a word from them nor any proof they are trying to market this timeshare to sell.
I want this timeshare taken away WITHOUT Vacation Village trying to neither ruin my credit nor hold me responsible for any liability due to their false promises, deceptive trade practices and down right lying and not representing me for the best interest of my finances. They were just negligent where they used me for being naïve. When people say no it means no and they won’t stop.
I would really appreciate your help in this matter.
Thank You
REBUTTAL# 1
I am in receipt of the Developers rebuttal. Again they are not addressing the entire complaint and answering to the mistakes that their employees made. All they are saying is they take pride in their company and train their employees to be professional with no wrongdoing. How can they claim that when they weren’t there? They cannot take offense and because there are no inflammatory statements, these are true facts. They may have thousands of happy owners because some people like this type of business for vacations, but there are also thousands that don’t and say no and continue to get harassed.
The BBB has additional complaint information on their website stating, “ they have a pattern of complaints from consumers alleging high pressure sales and misleading tactics from Vacation Village Resorts. Consumers felt pressure to stay or not free to leave the presentation after several hours and sales reps created false sense of urgency to purchase etc” Vacation Village states what they have said in both of their rebuttals to me that they find no evidence of misrepresentation or wrong doing and not willing to cancel contracts. Please read carefully again what they did to me.
If they have trained their staff to act professionally and deny wrong doing from some of the sales staff then maybe a higher representative should stand by and watch presentations they give so this doesn’t happen. It happens, and not just by Vacation Village. It’s all over the Internet. I have multiple complaints printed out. There is so many its impossible to count what timeshare companies will do to take the money from people that say no.
Again, I did say no, 3 times. I told both sales people I was in a bankruptcy, paying child support and I asked them to check my credit and they said they didn’t have to, everyone qualifies because its not a house note, but realistically it sounds as though it is. I was told to refinance the loan, because they offered 18% interest. How could I with my bad credit? I tried after I couldn’t get a return phone call to cancel. The banks said my debt to income and bankruptcy disqualified me. The bank checked my credit. Vacation Village wouldn’t. They told me this would be an investment for my family years down the road. IT IS NOT. They know this.
It is all in my initial complaint. They had no right to attempt to harass us when we said no the first time. Why didn’t they stop? That is not smart business on their part and reckless. This is not trained employees that Vacation Village states.
Again the presentation was a 90 min presentation, it lasted 4 hours. My children were restless and the sales people brought them snacks to settle them down. The sales people used my children to get us to buy asking them “ wouldn’t you like to go on vacation every year”.
Again the sales staff did not represent us because this timeshare can be purchased for less than $1000.00 even under $500.00. The market has always been flooded, and we had no idea. Even if we were ever interested in any timeshare they were not going to tell us how cheap they actually are. They should have looked out for us.
I can’t believe I have to repeat all of this that is not being addressed.
Again I was told this was a foreclosed unit and had to buy right then, and I have called in to ask for proof and they cannot and could never show me. I was told they don’t have that information.
Again I did say no, and declined, and declined. I excessively take great offense to the Developer asking why we purchased when we couldn’t afford it. The staff wouldn’t listen as mentioned above. So we went through the purchase just to get out and enjoy our vacation with out the possibility of Vacation Village making our stay unwelcome. It’s hard to have trust when you are in different surroundings especially when it comes to financial situations. When we were leaving I told my sales person I would be calling to cancel. I had 10 days. She gave me her phone # and email address. I called her, emailed her and called the sales office when she never returned my call. I had to leave a message on the sales office voicemail/ answering service with no return phone call. The 10 days went by. They had me. Not knowing what to do I tried to except it. I had enough and had to take action for me, the consumer.
The Developer needs to take responsibility of their employees when mistakes are made. It happens in every business. The business has to take the hit for the employees. Its just that way. They know this.
I have a story of a friend just recently this summer in June, who rented a timeshare with her friend. She was asked to sit in a 90 presentation and get some gift. She sat 90 min and asked for her gift. They were going over the 90 min. When she started to complain they asked her to leave. She asked why. They said she didn’t purchase a timeshare and she gets nothing. She had to get a manager of the resort and she got her gift. Seriously?
Its what the industry tries to get away with. It’s a common business tactic every day they use.
I am in contact with other agencies to protect myself as the consumer and to make sure the Developer doesn’t try to harm me in a negative way. They need to take responsibility and do the right thing here.
Just recently I called Lando mortgage to stop auto withdrawal from my account. Spoke to the same individual twice. I was told it would stop. They took it out on a different day the following month anyway without my permission.
I also regret the entire ordeal. I have been consistently getting harassing phone calls on selling, renting, and buying this timeshare, but I have done my homework to not do any of it. It’s a scam. I blame Lando Resorts for this happening. It doesn’t stop. My phone # has been given out to these sharks from across the country.
I can negotiate. I will not ask for any funds returned even though I had asked. I am asking to please cancel the contract and not let this go further to any other agencies. I will withdrawal all complaints.
Daily Management, Inc. Reviews
Can anyone help?
This was my first complaint to VACATION VILLAGE. It continues down below with a rebuttal to the BBB after a letter from Vacation Village.
Just recently Nov 2013 the BBB revoked Vacation Village's rating with a warning note typed in RED.
This letter is intended for a demand in releasing me and my partner from this contract due to unfair and misleading sales practices, lies, and high-pressure sales from multiple sales people that scared my children, my partner and myself. My children were uneasy after approx 3 hours; the sales people brought snacks and drinks for them to calm them down. Below will explain the horror of feeling trapped behind closed doors.
July 19 2010, my girlfriend, 3 children, and myself visited Vacation Village on a vacation that a family member, whom is now deceased, had let us use. This was a timeshare that was paid for by the family member. We had no knowledge of a timeshare, but it was paid for and we wanted to visit Florida with our children.
One day we were approached about coming to some presentation to sit through for approx 1 ½ hours to explain what a timeshare was and we would receive a gift and breakfast for free just for coming, no obligation.
We figured on doing the 1-½ hr presentation to at least get the gift that was offered for the children. We didn’t have much money to spend on activities.
We were met by a salesperson, Estee Gonzalez. We met her for breakfast at a building down the road at a golf course facility where a buffet breakfast was given. After breakfast she said she was driving us to a newer condo facility to look around and see a new resort that had just opened. It was never mentioned we had to go somewhere with her to see this resort. We were told it was a sit down presentation. We didn’t bother saying anything. We were just trying to show we were good people. She was being really nice as any salesperson. We knew something was coming with all of the courtesy gestures. We started to get discouraged with the morning passing by and the plans we had made for the day were now being disrupted.
Estee drove us back to the sales office and that is where the drama started to unfold and the frightening sales pitches began.
The room had many tables with people in the seats who were getting the sales pitches. The room felt like a high-energy party atmosphere, happy sales people in suits and dresses, with all of these families with children. It was very uneasy and fake like sitting in a car dealership being bombarded. Estee talked with us explaining what a timeshare was. When she was complete with her pitch she asked if we were interested in buying a timeshare through Vacation Village at the resort she drove us to. I can’t remember the purchase cost. It was between I would say $15,000.00 to maybe $20,000.00. I told her there is no way that I could afford something like this due to the fact I am paying child support, supporting my children when they were with me, had a mortgage to pay with a higher interest rate, and recovering from a bankruptcy due to a divorce. She explained how easy it would be to afford this and the investment for the future of many vacations in our lifetime. She even got the kids involved asking them how great it could be if mom and dad would buy this timeshare and asking them questions to basically put more pressure on us to purchase. Both sales people asked our children if mom and dad should get this timeshare and go on many vacations. To me, that is an enticement sales tactic to underage children to help bolster the parents into buying with pressure from the kids.
After approx 1 hr or so after refusing, Estee left and sent over a male sales person, maybe a manager, who spoke with a Spanish accent and started to explain how easy it would be to afford this. He did the same thing and pushing a bit harder on the sale. He then brought out a timeshare at Vacation Village at Parkway. It was 1 picture and told us it had been foreclosed on and was approx $12,000.00. He said this wouldn’t last long and we should buy that day or he couldn’t guarantee it would be available if we waited. It was an every other year timeshare use with 74000 points. We were told this would increase in value and a good investment since it was a foreclosure. There was no proof of this given to show it was foreclosed on and still today Vacation Village told me they can’t give any proof of this timeshare being foreclosed on when I asked. We were also told that we could easily rent this out ourselves to help pay the mortgage down if we didn’t want to use it, which could help our financial situation and still have a timeshare to use when we wanted. We were NOT told about the timeshare after purchase would only be worth 10% to 30% of the purchase price. We were NOT told the market was flooded with timeshares that had price tags as low as $1500. This is down right dirty and we were taken advantage of our uneducated knowledge of timeshares, and I think they knew that. They are supposed to look out for their customers not set them up. This is misrepresentation because my sales persons were supposed to look out for the best interest of me. They knew we had no knowledge of how timeshares work, let alone the understanding of the stack of paper work, that we would need time to go over this.
After saying no, the male and Estee both came to the table and they just kept explaining the benefits of buying today. The kids were uneasy and wanted to leave and we were ready to, but were scared of what these people were capable of for the rest of our stay since we were there for almost 4 hrs and kept saying no. We felt threatened by them at this point. The male sales person was getting frustrated at our constant Nos. That is when we caved and said we would buy feeling uneasy but we didn’t tell them. We just wanted them to let us go without confrontation or giving us bad service for the rest of our stay.
After understanding and researching for a couple years, people all over the Internet and websites speak of the same horror we went through and some confrontations were pointed out and the people were walked away to not cause a scene in the party sales room.
We then met up with Glauco Velez to sign the papers. I asked him specifically if he was going to check my credit, because I knew when he did he would see that I definitely would not qualify for another mortgage and we could walk away feeling better about this entire nightmare. I told him I wouldn’t qualify and the reasons why. He said they don’t need to check any ones credit because everyone qualifies. I told him again I didn’t feel we could afford this. He reassured us we could by going home and refinancing this 18% rate loan to something around 7% to 10%, not knowing later I couldn’t. It was also mentioned I could go through Lando Berkley who has the loan to. They have since told me this unit DOES NOT QUALIFY. What a joke for a deceptive business.
After coming home and settling back into our lives, I had to try and cancel this contract. Estee told the Vacation Village new vacation and us owner letter header says, that if we had any questions to please give a call. I tried to call Estee. She gave me her cell phone # and email address. I wanted to cancel this contract. I couldn’t get her or a sales person to call me back because they new I wanted to cancel and they didn’t want that to happen and lose a sale. I finally was able to get in contact with Estee a year later. Apparently she left Vacation Village and got really ill and was in the hospital for over 1 month. At the time of the sales presentation she said to call her if we needed anything. I told her I would be calling to drop the contract. The first time I called I wanted her to cancel the contract. When I called at a later time I wanted her to help sell it. She said she was no longer involved in Vacation Village sales. She explained I could try a realtor for selling assistance in Florida, but she never came through with any of the advice.
By this time I had to take on 2 part time jobs to support my family because I am paying 18% interest for something I wouldn’t use and to this day HAVE NOT USED and NEVER WILL. My payments are $202.00 per month with approx $170.00 going to interest giving Lando Berkley and vacation Village an extra $14000.00 in profit. I still work the 2 part time jobs to pay this timeshare.
Another complaint I blame Vacation Village for are the harassing phone calls to sell this timeshare. Not knowing very much about the timeshare business, there are many scams and I was taken for one, paying money upfront to sell within 90 to 120 days. It has been with International Timeshare Network for 2 years and not a word from them nor any proof they are trying to market this timeshare to sell.
I want this timeshare taken away WITHOUT Vacation Village trying to neither ruin my credit nor hold me responsible for any liability due to their false promises, deceptive trade practices and down right lying and not representing me for the best interest of my finances. They were just negligent where they used me for being naïve. When people say no it means no and they won’t stop.
I would really appreciate your help in this matter.
Thank You
REBUTTAL# 1
I am in receipt of the Developers rebuttal. Again they are not addressing the entire complaint and answering to the mistakes that their employees made. All they are saying is they take pride in their company and train their employees to be professional with no wrongdoing. How can they claim that when they weren’t there? They cannot take offense and because there are no inflammatory statements, these are true facts. They may have thousands of happy owners because some people like this type of business for vacations, but there are also thousands that don’t and say no and continue to get harassed.
The BBB has additional complaint information on their website stating, “ they have a pattern of complaints from consumers alleging high pressure sales and misleading tactics from Vacation Village Resorts. Consumers felt pressure to stay or not free to leave the presentation after several hours and sales reps created false sense of urgency to purchase etc” Vacation Village states what they have said in both of their rebuttals to me that they find no evidence of misrepresentation or wrong doing and not willing to cancel contracts. Please read carefully again what they did to me.
If they have trained their staff to act professionally and deny wrong doing from some of the sales staff then maybe a higher representative should stand by and watch presentations they give so this doesn’t happen. It happens, and not just by Vacation Village. It’s all over the Internet. I have multiple complaints printed out. There is so many its impossible to count what timeshare companies will do to take the money from people that say no.
Again, I did say no, 3 times. I told both sales people I was in a bankruptcy, paying child support and I asked them to check my credit and they said they didn’t have to, everyone qualifies because its not a house note, but realistically it sounds as though it is. I was told to refinance the loan, because they offered 18% interest. How could I with my bad credit? I tried after I couldn’t get a return phone call to cancel. The banks said my debt to income and bankruptcy disqualified me. The bank checked my credit. Vacation Village wouldn’t. They told me this would be an investment for my family years down the road. IT IS NOT. They know this.
It is all in my initial complaint. They had no right to attempt to harass us when we said no the first time. Why didn’t they stop? That is not smart business on their part and reckless. This is not trained employees that Vacation Village states.
Again the presentation was a 90 min presentation, it lasted 4 hours. My children were restless and the sales people brought them snacks to settle them down. The sales people used my children to get us to buy asking them “ wouldn’t you like to go on vacation every year”.
Again the sales staff did not represent us because this timeshare can be purchased for less than $1000.00 even under $500.00. The market has always been flooded, and we had no idea. Even if we were ever interested in any timeshare they were not going to tell us how cheap they actually are. They should have looked out for us.
I can’t believe I have to repeat all of this that is not being addressed.
Again I was told this was a foreclosed unit and had to buy right then, and I have called in to ask for proof and they cannot and could never show me. I was told they don’t have that information.
Again I did say no, and declined, and declined. I excessively take great offense to the Developer asking why we purchased when we couldn’t afford it. The staff wouldn’t listen as mentioned above. So we went through the purchase just to get out and enjoy our vacation with out the possibility of Vacation Village making our stay unwelcome. It’s hard to have trust when you are in different surroundings especially when it comes to financial situations. When we were leaving I told my sales person I would be calling to cancel. I had 10 days. She gave me her phone # and email address. I called her, emailed her and called the sales office when she never returned my call. I had to leave a message on the sales office voicemail/ answering service with no return phone call. The 10 days went by. They had me. Not knowing what to do I tried to except it. I had enough and had to take action for me, the consumer.
The Developer needs to take responsibility of their employees when mistakes are made. It happens in every business. The business has to take the hit for the employees. Its just that way. They know this.
I have a story of a friend just recently this summer in June, who rented a timeshare with her friend. She was asked to sit in a 90 presentation and get some gift. She sat 90 min and asked for her gift. They were going over the 90 min. When she started to complain they asked her to leave. She asked why. They said she didn’t purchase a timeshare and she gets nothing. She had to get a manager of the resort and she got her gift. Seriously?
Its what the industry tries to get away with. It’s a common business tactic every day they use.
I am in contact with other agencies to protect myself as the consumer and to make sure the Developer doesn’t try to harm me in a negative way. They need to take responsibility and do the right thing here.
Just recently I called Lando mortgage to stop auto withdrawal from my account. Spoke to the same individual twice. I was told it would stop. They took it out on a different day the following month anyway without my permission.
I also regret the entire ordeal. I have been consistently getting harassing phone calls on selling, renting, and buying this timeshare, but I have done my homework to not do any of it. It’s a scam. I blame Lando Resorts for this happening. It doesn’t stop. My phone # has been given out to these sharks from across the country.
I can negotiate. I will not ask for any funds returned even though I had asked. I am asking to please cancel the contract and not let this go further to any other agencies. I will withdrawal all complaints.
Thank You