I am being victimized by a company that uses misleading, high-pressure marketing techniques and refuses to operate ethically and in good faith.
I was contacted by a telemarketer on behalf of GreatEscapes Vacation Club, and invited to attend a sales meeting where I would receive a gas voucher and a free trip for two. My girlfriend and I attended a sales meeting on 11/16/05, during which, the GreatEscapes sales people (Will Duke, Jim Mathers, and Joel LeBlanc) used high pressure tactics and deceptively marketed their vacation club membership by insisting that we would see a typical savings of 50% on airfare, hotels and rental cars, and even greater savings on cruises and vacation packages that we could book on-line 24-7. GreatESCAPES offered us a discounted membership rate of $5,500 financed at 18% as opposed to the regular $7,000 membership rate, because we are from New Orleans and survivors of Hurricane Katrina, and foolishly we signed up for a membership.
The contract we signed required us to specifically deny (verbally and in writing) that high pressure sales tactics had been employed or that any savings percentage or discounts had been promised or implied. The sales meeting had in fact been extremely high pressure and average savings of 50% on airfare, etc had been very specifically implied. We foolishly signed the contract anyway because we believed we were receiving a good value.
We were required to attend another "orientation meeting" on 11/30/05 to activate our membership. At this meeting the sales staff was extremely pushy and tried to convince us to "upgrade" our membership. We refused on the grounds that we wanted to try out the membership that we had already purchased and see what sort of money we could actually save. Our membership was activated the morning of 12/01/05. I immediately began to compare the prices available through GreatESCAPES with those available through Orbitz, Travelocity, and Expedia. I was very upset when I found that GreatESCAPES was not able to offer me savings on any of my airfare or rental car inquiries. I also learned that I could only book the lowest fares by calling GreatESCAPES directly during their limited daytime business hours. Their lowest fares are not available online as they had promised.
On 12/02/05 I contacted GreatESCAPES and requested that my membership be cancelled on the grounds that: #1 the membership has no value and does not offer me substantial savings. #2 the membership and amount of savings was misrepresented in numerous ways by the sales people of GreatESCAPES, who utilized deception and high pressure sales techniques.
GreatESCAPES refuses to accommodate my request to cancel our membership, stating that our 3 day right of rescission passed on 11/19/05 because we had signed up for the membership on 11/16/05. This is extremely unfair and unethical on their behalf, because we were unable to use the membership in any way, shape or form until it was activated on 12/01/05. We immediately tried to cancel the membership on 12/02/05 when we realized that it was a rip-off, and GreatESCAPES refused.
I want to cancel my membership with GreatESCAPES Vacation Club. There is no reason that GreatESCAPES cannot accommodate this request. I have never used their services or booked anything through their club. GreatESCAPES does not lose one dime by releasing me from this membership contract. They are threatening to damage my credit and relentlessly hound my with debt collectors unless I pay them for this membership that I do not want and will never use.
I would also like my $775 initial membership deposit refunded. But, this is a secondary consideration and probably a long shot.
I have spoken with the management of GreatESCAPES (including Operations Manager: Lynda Mayhugh and Compliance Manager: Matthew Twitty) on several occasions with no resolution to this problem. We have had heated and angry e-mail sessions and there has been ugly talk of lawyers and credit reports. As far as I am concerned, these people are complete and utter scum. They are con-artists of the worst and most deliberate kind who operate in a gray area, just this side of legal. They sell lies.
My disputes with GreatESCAPES Vacation Club are:
1. They used high-pressure and misleading sales tactics to lock us into a useless membership.
2. The sales staff specifically implied that we would see 50% savings on airfare, and this is clearly not true. They deliberately lied to us and then covered their tracks with the wording in the contract.
3. GreatESCAPES stated that we could book the lowest airfares in the industry on their web-site, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is not true. GreatEscapes only provides their lowest fares over the phone during their normal business hours, not on their website.
4. GreatESCAPES states that our right of recinssion lasted for three days from the time we signed the contract. I am arguing that this is unreasonable because we were unable to test the value of the membership until it was activated on 12/01/05. I immediately tried to cancel the membership on 12/02/05.
5. GreatESCAPES has no legitimate reason for refusing to cancel my membership. A company that provides a good value does not depend on lock-down style contracts to retain customers, it depends on the value of its product. I have asked the GreatESCAPES main office in Lakeland, Florida to investigate the behavior of their sales staff in Englewood, Colorado (re: misrepresentation of the program), and they have flat out refused.
2/01 UPDATE: GreatEscapes has forwarded my account to a collection agency and claims to have put the delinquent information on my credit report. I will not give them any money, however. No way.
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