Me and my wife visited our Timeshare, Grand Seas Resort located in Daytona Beach Florida, back in August. We normally visit in February, but a bad experience gave us another week for free to take on behalf of Grand Seas as an apology. However, something 10 times worse just happened to us. Let me explain...
Every year we visit the timeshare, we always have a brief meeting with a represensative to update any changes if any regarding to the timeshare itself. This time however, we were loaded onto a bus to visit Club Navigo, which is the new Timeshare company hosting The Grand Seas Resort, before it was Interval International. Anyway, we walked into a huge impressive building that showcased all the timeshare locations offered by Club Navigo in a scaled down model. Thats where we met with Jimmy Revolus or Reuolus, a sales Rep for Club Navigo. Jimmy had copies of our paperwork from day 1 of joining the Grand Seas Resort back in 2001. Everything from finance to sales reps to room #'s. Etc... And then the name Diane Crosby came up which was the sales rep that handled our upgrade to a 2 bedroom condo and an all together new mortgage contract and a huge headache. As I explained to Jimmy, Diane lied to us about which unit we were getting for the upgrade that overlooked the Atlantic Ocean, as it turned out, the upgrade unit we were newly deeded for overlooked the street and not the ocean. Anyway, his reaction, "Oh! She was convicted of Real Estate fraud last year and no longer works here! Plus, back then a real estate license wasnt required to sell timeshares at the Grand Seas." With that said, and me feeling good that she was caught, Jimmy promised to fix everything for us and make us happy walking out the door.
Me and my wife further explained that after the whole Diane lies and deception, we just wanted to sell our timeshare and be out of the timeshare thing completely. But Jimmy said he can make all of this work for us and pocket money in the process. He then started to brag about how he sells timeshares on the side, he makes 500k a year, drives a 90k mercedes, just bought a 5k diamond bracelet (which he was wearing), and claims he knows everything about timeshares and real estate so we can trust him and make money renting our timeshare. He also went further and explained that Club Navigo operates on a point system which the owners can benefit from regarding earning more vacation weeks. He also said, since we had so much equity in the old mortgage, it would knock down the purchase price of the new contract to $24,500 and give us 4000 points toward bonus vaction weeks we can take. I gave him a little kickback saying this all sounds good but my guard is up, that is too good to be true... Jimmy saw I was a little skeptical and so he got up to go get his manager to sit with us and explain the situation. His manager came over and we had a brief conversation, the manager then stated that he will talk with the General Manager of Club Navigo and try to add more to the deal. Manager left, Jimmy came back, sweet talked my kids for a minute, whipped out his credit card at me, bragged that he was booking a cruise for his friends and his "woman", made a call to his buddy telling him Club Navigo awarded him a bonus commision check for being the top seller for 2 months straight. Blah blah blah... A few minutes, the manager comes back, and says the general manager feels sorry for us and gave us 1000 more points to use. However, because there is a max in the point system you can hold on to, the extra points will require an additonal maintenence fee biannually for $125 but you can get that back if we rent. Jimmy then says, that he will push to rent out our unit for bike week in october and that will get us $3000 in cash to pocket or put that to our maintinence fees. I asked how that works because our week is in february, not october. Jimmy said the point system allows for that, but dont worry its in the booklet that comes with the "new owner materials" which we will get before we leave and it explains everything... So he pulls out his mobile phone and calls the rep responsible for owner rentals and confirms bike week is set for us to rent our unit... At this point, Jimmy continues to talk with my wife other than me because I am still trying to make sense of this point system... Next thing I know, Jimmy leaves and comes back with this guy dressed in bermuda shorts, tank top, sandels, and sunglasses saying hes an owner whos here for his annual meeting and wants to reassure me its all real. So after thinking everything through I agree to the deal. And now we are waiting for the paperwork. Its then we meet with Kim Ripper, shes the verification officer and a notary. So we sign the paperwork and tells us to go hang out by the food stand and she will double check the paperwork and sign her notary signature. She says she likes to check all of this alone in her office, so she can reassure everything is accurate because its too loud in the showroom. Anyway, we have our things, Club Navigo duffle bag, filled with booklets, our paperwork we signed. Etc..
Jimmy follows us out the door and walks us to the bus to go back and says "if we need anything just call and I will handle anything because thats why he is successfull because he takes care of his "people" he says. We see him get in his mercedes and drive off. It got me thinking again, why would he risk everything he has, this sounds like a good deal. It wasnt until I get back home from vacation where I then really got to think that something doesnt add up... After looking through the booklet and all the info provided to me in writing and print... There is nothing about the point system where I can rent out my unit anytime through the year and pocket money. I can only rent out my deeded week. He LIED to me! Now its past the 10 day grace period to cancel the contract... Now Im stuck...
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