We are first time RVers having purchased a travel trailer in 4/12. While shopping at Camping World in Nashville we were approached & offered a chance at a $25,000 price and 3 nights/4 days of free camping. We signed up and were subsequently contacted and decided to go to Mountain Lake RV park in Langston Alabama as our 1st experience. We attended the required "90" minute presentation on 5/18 and were shown opportunities to have low cost cruise, condos and RV experiences. It was stressed that we would have to make a decision at that point - no time to think about it, do research etc. We stated multiple times that we were uncomfortable making any kind of important decision without careful consideration. That's when a sales group started to apply pressure - answering our every question with a vague but reassuring response. There was no typed hand out explaining the program - instead our sales person who had recently recovered from a stroke and had shaky handwritting elaborated on the various features of the offering on piece of scratch paper. The more questions we asked the more the experienced sales man reassured us - even stating that it was possible to make $ by selling some of our weeks on the internet. The program began to sound fishyier and fishyier however the sales pressure was so intense we caved and began the extensive paperwork signing process. We noted being hungry, tired, confused and were reassured that we were almost finished and that we would receive a free meal at the campground diner. When other couples taking the tour agreed to sign membership agreements, they would ring a bell and make an announcement that Mr.& Mrs. Blank were new members. I began to have warning bells and whistles start going off in my head and I started to show obvious signs of worry and distress. I was reassured that everything would be alright and that I would be very happy with all the services I was purchasing. I subsequently, got up and told my husband that I had to get out of there after the almost 5 hours of intensive sales pressure and I walked out. I was hoping that my husband would be able to get us out of the agreement since as far as I knew we had not completed the paperwork, had our pictures made for the membership cards, received copies of any of the materials we had signed and or received any membership materials. When I failed to return, he was pressured by 4 Sales people. He finally told them to stop the application as we did not want the product/services offered. Another man questionably from management then told my husband we had already been assigned a membership number and that he could not do anything until Monday May 21st. We had no further dealings with any of the campground sales staff. Needless to say our 1st RV experience was ruined and we were miserable the remainder of the week-end & did not sleep well. We held out hope that Ocean Canyon was a reputable company and would refund our $. On Monday, May 21st when we did not hear from anyone, I contacted the corporate office in Texas and spoke with Karen Hewitt who identied herself as Member services director. She looked at our information on the computer and reported that the paperwork had been processed, our credit card charged for $4020 and that we were members. She further reported having no notice of our cancellation request. We subsequently have contacted the Alabama Attorney General's Office, the Better Business Bureau, Bank of America etc.in hindsight, I realize that there were many similar examples on the internet of this company's aggressive & fraudulant sales tactics and I wish I had done better research and listened to my gut. I am interested in participating in any Class Action Law suits that may occur.
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