I bought a Peppertree timeshare in 1997 for $10,000.00. It has been paid for in full for several years. I never ever had a problem with getting a reservation even though it changed back and forth from Peppertree to Fairfield to Equivest. My points were always calculated correctly and service was great. But, in late 2007 a representative from Festiva called and requested a visit to my home. He informed me that they were buying out most of the Peppertree timeshares. He also said that they were upgrading by giving more points and adding more resorts with less maintenance fees. I informed him that I was going on 68 years old, and did not really care about the timeshare that much anymore, since I was single and taking acre of my elderly parents, and could not travel very often. He informed me that if I wanted to sell the timeshare in the near future that I should sign up with Festiva Resorts, because Peppertree would not be willing to let go of the Timeshares that stayed with them. He said that they would try to keep it from selling.
This man told me that in order for this to happen, it would cost me $3185.00
To get Peppertree to release me to Festiva. Being retired, I really could not afford to do this. But, since he said that they would later on help me sell it, I gave him the money.
Well, needless to say, that was the end of me ever getting to reserve my timeshare again. They took away my 2490 rollover points to begin with. Then they assigned me 4100 points from Festiva.
A couple of months later, they billed me for yearly dues of $617.00, which I paid. Right after that, I called to reserve the timeshare for a week-end at Myrtle Beach. They informed me that I called too early, and it would use all my yearly points (this never happened with Peppertree/Equivest). So, I waited until the date they said, and guess what, it was no longer available. On top of that, both times I called, it took at least 2 weeks to get thru on their reservation line. I tried also to make reservations on line and it would not accept my password.
Then, I got another bill for maintenance fees. This time it was for $816.00.
It also had a very rude letter with it, threatening to turn me over to collections and termination of my membership. It had at first been sent to a former address (I had lived there 3 years earlier).
I wrote the corporate office a letter about this and they wrote back a nice letter that said that it was straightened out. And, then someone called on the phone and asked if I could come to Banner Elk (Blue Ridge Village) to discuss the timeshare situation and spend the week-end as soon as possible. They said that I would attend a meeting. They called several times, because I had to find out what week-end I could get away (I take care of my aging parents who are in their late eighties, and have to find someone to care for them while I am gone).
I finally agreed on the last week-end in August (this week-end). When she called me (weeks ago) to make arrangements, she said that I could bring my son, his wife, and my 2 grandchildren, since they usually go with me on vacation, and we had not been able to get the timeshare at all this summer. We were to have a 2 bedroom suite reserved. The kids were thrilled to finally get a vacation of any kind and we could take the babies to Tweetsie Rairoad for one of the days. But we had to pay $59.00 and they would give us back a $50.00 food voucher. I agreed, just so I might get this mess worked out.
Well, I decided this morning (Thursday), due to my experiences with Festiva, to call and verify my reservations. Well, lo and behold, no surprise. I was informed that I had no reservation. I asked "why not", and was answered with, "you just don't". I then asked "who do I need to talk to about this?" and she replyed "me, but I can't help you". She would give me no explanation except to say "You do not have a reservation and I cannot do anything about it". VERY RUDE and non-caring.
I called the corporate office and got the voice mail. It has been several hours and noone has bothered to return my call. Needless to say, I am very upset and my grandbabies are very disappointed. I do not know what to do. I just wish that I could get my $3185.00 back and go back to how it was. I would really love to sell it, but who would want to deal with these shysters?
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