We attended a sales presentation for Beachcombers Vacations which turned out to be Castaways Vacation Club. During the presentation someone asked what would happen if they went out of business. The salesman, Jerry—a Baptist Minister, said that they belonged to the ASTA which was like the FDIC for travel companies. He said they had to put up millions of dollars with ASTA to insure people would get their money back if they ever went out of business.
We bought into the vacation club and were told Jerry would be calling us personally the next day to see if we had any questions.
When I got home, I looked up the ASTA online. They have a place where you can search for members. I looked for both Castaways Vacation Club and Beachcombers. There was no record of either company. I started to get a little worried and started doing more research online and found some negative comments about the company.
I tried going to the comany website, but you have to wait 10 days to get your password, which is conviently past the three - day cancellation period.
Suprisingly, Jerry never called on Sunday, so I had to wait until Monday to get any information. I called the company and spoke with a secretary. She told me there was no one available who could answer my questions but someone would call me back. I never received a return call.
I tried calling again on Wednesday where again there was no to answer my questions. She suggested I call the Dallas office. I did. They suggested I call the Austin office. I did. They told me Jerry would call me. I never heard from him. I decided we had better ask for a refund because it was the last day of the cancellation policy. I sent a letter asking for a refund, but I have never heard back from the company.
In the contract it says that processing fees and a restocking fee of 15% of the purchase price are non-refindable. This comes close to $1000. I don't think the company is too worried about losing customers because they can still keep $1000 from each customer. I don't think I should have to pay the $1000 because they were deceptive in their sales presentation.
My husband and I just wanted to be able to take our kids on nice family vacations. Some of my favorite memories from childhood our from our vacations. It looks like this summer we won't be going anywhere—we will be paying Castaways for absolutly nothing.
0 comments