Contact on the phone by a female telemarketer who had my name and number. Was offer 2 vacations for $299 as long as we attended a time share proposal. Refused offer. Then a male "manager" came on the phone and said we didn't have to attend a time share seminar and he would give us 3 vacations. 3 days, 2 nights in Pigeon Forge, 4 day cruise of the Caribbean, and a 3, 4, or 5 day stay at any of their other properties. We were told we had 30 days to get a full refund if we weren't happy. We told him would we be interested in that for $299, he recommended "Sidney James Mountain Lodge" and he connected us to Jasmine to schedule. Jasmine said that the two nights we wanted, only one night was available so far, and that she would go to cancellations (the ticket desk) to get the second night. My wife told her to call us back to confirm. We never heard anything back.
Two days later, I am in the doctors office when they call me on my cell phone. I get the message when I get out that "Tara" had an urgent message for me from Gold Crown, and gave me a new number to call 888-204-4114. I call the number only to be told that Tara would be out of the office for the next three days (over the days we were to be accomodated by gold crown). I was told to call back the next day at 9 AM central time. I called back the next day as I was told, and no one answered the phone. I left several voicemails and no one called. I called the other customer service number only to find we had already been booked into some other low rated hotel. We decided that we had been ripped off and asked for our money back as promised, only to find that there will be a late cancellation fee deducted from our refund.
How can you be penalized for a booking you didn't ask for or want? I was told that they had the right to do what they did, it was in their "terms and conditions" that they said they emailed me, which I never received.
These people are rip-off artists. Avoid this company and dealing with these people at all costs. They will say anything to get your money, then blame you for their lies and incompetance. Jasmine - liar, Jeanie Baker - liar, Male manager who sold us the package is a liar. AVOID!!!
Gold Crown Resort (GCR), Lifetime World Adventures (LWA) and Metropolitan Clubs International (MCI) are three entities cooperating in a cunningly crafted venture designed to extract excessive fees for travel services and vacation opportunities from travelers.
GCR at first glance appears to be a legitimate travel service firm. LWA and MCI are the salesmen for the services provided by GCR. The membership agreement is signed by LWA as an affiliate of GCR. Payment for membership is received by MCI.
The pitch made to prospective members of the GCR club at a local (near the prospective member) hotel touts GCR's business plan which was designed to take advantage of excess condominium resources in popular vacation spots around the world. We prospective members were told that GCR has agreements with operators of these overbuilt condominium complexes for week long stays by its members at greatly reduced rates. We were also told that GCR could arrange hotel accommodations and airline tickets at "preferential" rates.
After joining and paying for membership we were given access to the list of hotel accomodations, resorts and airline resources. After spending some time researching these lists for a trip we are planning next year we found that the pricing offered was no better, and sometimes worse, than what we could do on our own. In effect, GCR turns out to be nothing more than a portal to the hotels and airlines which is available for free from such places as TripAdvisor.
When we contacted GCR and told them this and asked for refund of our membership fee (over $5,000) we were told that they did not have our money and that we should call LWA. They also said that the pricing on their hotel and airline resources is "retail" not "preferential" in spite of the contract's use of the phrase "preferential pricing" in regard to hotel accomodations.
Phone calls to LWA have not been returned.
My advice to anyone approached to listen to a pitch on travel savings be very careful. The invitation we received was a post card with a picture of an airliner with the word "Southwest" suggesting affiliation with the major airline. It offered a free 7 day trip (travel and accomodations) for coming to hear the pitch. The names GCR, LWA and MCI did not appear on the card so one could not do any research in advance of attending the sales pitch.
Gold Crown Resort Reviews
Contact on the phone by a female telemarketer who had my name and number. Was offer 2 vacations for $299 as long as we attended a time share proposal. Refused offer. Then a male "manager" came on the phone and said we didn't have to attend a time share seminar and he would give us 3 vacations. 3 days, 2 nights in Pigeon Forge, 4 day cruise of the Caribbean, and a 3, 4, or 5 day stay at any of their other properties. We were told we had 30 days to get a full refund if we weren't happy. We told him would we be interested in that for $299, he recommended "Sidney James Mountain Lodge" and he connected us to Jasmine to schedule. Jasmine said that the two nights we wanted, only one night was available so far, and that she would go to cancellations (the ticket desk) to get the second night. My wife told her to call us back to confirm. We never heard anything back.
Two days later, I am in the doctors office when they call me on my cell phone. I get the message when I get out that "Tara" had an urgent message for me from Gold Crown, and gave me a new number to call 888-204-4114. I call the number only to be told that Tara would be out of the office for the next three days (over the days we were to be accomodated by gold crown). I was told to call back the next day at 9 AM central time. I called back the next day as I was told, and no one answered the phone. I left several voicemails and no one called. I called the other customer service number only to find we had already been booked into some other low rated hotel. We decided that we had been ripped off and asked for our money back as promised, only to find that there will be a late cancellation fee deducted from our refund.
How can you be penalized for a booking you didn't ask for or want? I was told that they had the right to do what they did, it was in their "terms and conditions" that they said they emailed me, which I never received.
These people are rip-off artists. Avoid this company and dealing with these people at all costs. They will say anything to get your money, then blame you for their lies and incompetance. Jasmine - liar, Jeanie Baker - liar, Male manager who sold us the package is a liar. AVOID!!!
Gold Crown Resort (GCR), Lifetime World Adventures (LWA) and Metropolitan Clubs International (MCI) are three entities cooperating in a cunningly crafted venture designed to extract excessive fees for travel services and vacation opportunities from travelers.
GCR at first glance appears to be a legitimate travel service firm. LWA and MCI are the salesmen for the services provided by GCR. The membership agreement is signed by LWA as an affiliate of GCR. Payment for membership is received by MCI.
The pitch made to prospective members of the GCR club at a local (near the prospective member) hotel touts GCR's business plan which was designed to take advantage of excess condominium resources in popular vacation spots around the world. We prospective members were told that GCR has agreements with operators of these overbuilt condominium complexes for week long stays by its members at greatly reduced rates. We were also told that GCR could arrange hotel accommodations and airline tickets at "preferential" rates.
After joining and paying for membership we were given access to the list of hotel accomodations, resorts and airline resources. After spending some time researching these lists for a trip we are planning next year we found that the pricing offered was no better, and sometimes worse, than what we could do on our own. In effect, GCR turns out to be nothing more than a portal to the hotels and airlines which is available for free from such places as TripAdvisor.
When we contacted GCR and told them this and asked for refund of our membership fee (over $5,000) we were told that they did not have our money and that we should call LWA. They also said that the pricing on their hotel and airline resources is "retail" not "preferential" in spite of the contract's use of the phrase "preferential pricing" in regard to hotel accomodations.
Phone calls to LWA have not been returned.
My advice to anyone approached to listen to a pitch on travel savings be very careful. The invitation we received was a post card with a picture of an airliner with the word "Southwest" suggesting affiliation with the major airline. It offered a free 7 day trip (travel and accomodations) for coming to hear the pitch. The names GCR, LWA and MCI did not appear on the card so one could not do any research in advance of attending the sales pitch.