Timeshare Savings Network sold us on being able to market our timeshare in Florida within 30 days. They gave us the website of the Florida Better Business Bureau to testify to their legitimacy and we saw them listed there. They assured us their parent company, First Freedom Mortgage Group, was a reputable company doing business nationwide. We failed to check that out, to our regret, but assumed that, too, was legitimate. It has since gone out of business.
We signed a contract in September and paid a $984 up-front, one time only marketing fee. More than 30 days passed when we called their customer representative, one Denise McRea, who assured us they were working on the sale. We repeated the inquiry early this year after a 3 month hiatus with no word and Ms. McRea was still there making soothing utterances about the state of the market and the fact that they intended to continue marketing diligently, with no further charge, until our time share was sold.
We remained patient, but called today only to find the toll free phone number and the company's fax number had been disconnected. When I Googled their website, instead of the site they had given us, The consumer complaints came up recounting a similar story by another Timshare Savings Network victim.
I am reporting our experience to the Florida Better Business Bureau, the Florida Secretary of State's Office and Federal Trade Commission. We have no illusions about getting our money back. We were gullible and should have "turned and run" when they asked for the up-front fee since no real estate business we know of ever works without a commission. We are filing this report in hopes that others can avoid this version of these timeshare re-sale scams.
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