Helena Copeland told me that my timeshare at The Ridge Tahoe Resort was a goldmine and that she would have it sold quickly. Said it would be a piece of cake. She said that her company uses live sales people and their the only timeshare resale company who does this and they provide financing for clients who purchase timeshares through them.
Helena Copeland also told me that they have great marketing techniques like offering people vacation packages to get them to come to their showroom or they'll have them enter a contest to win a new car and all kinds of different ways such as this and they get hundreds of people each week comming to their showroom to purchase timeshare.
She also told me that my timeshare wouldn't be on the market for long and they can get top dollar for it. She said in the State of Florida it's against the law for them to advertise a property for me unless they have a deposit so she said the refundable deposit upon selling the timeshare would be $900.00.
I told her we don't have that much money and would have to wait.
A few days later she called back and said they have a promotion going on for a few days and are accepting $599.00 deposits to place timeshare for sale with them. She said she practically has it sold for us already and would just need us to pay the deposit over the phone using a credit card and fax the contract (which she had already sent me) to her and she would get on it right away and get my timeshare sold! She said that I would get my deposit back in full when the timeshare sold and they get 10% commission on the sale if it sells in the first 3 months and after that it drops to 7%.
My husband and I agreed and paid her the money thinking we could finally get rid of our timeshare which had become a huge financial burden to us we could barely able continue to pay for.
That was the last time I ever spoke to Helena Copeland again.
From there on since September of last year the only people I ever am able to get through to is an extremly rude man from Customer Service or other varoius people who all tell me the same thing. That they are doing their best and cannot make any promise of even being able to sell my timeshare. They say that they are not in contact with the sales associates and have no way of finding out why it isn't selling. They also said that they cannot make people buy so why are we acting like they can? Oh and now my completly refundable deposit has become completly non-refundable. The last time my husband called them and was told to basically F*k off. That they are not the only place who sells timeshare and if he doesn't like it he should try selling it someplace else. Also said to him that they do not provide financing and that is why most timeshares do not sell. To find a place that does and maybe he can sell it that way.
That's when I realized it was absolutely hopeless and that we had been ripped off again not only by Timeshares Only but by Copeland Marketing as well. I just knew that it would never sell with them and they aren't even a legitimate company. How can I get my money back? How can an organization get away with doing something like this? It's bad enough we're lied to to buy the stupid timeshares but it's even worse when it happens while trying to sell them.
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