On July 19th my husband, children, and I went to the Dominican Republic in a RCI exchange hotel, Villa Jazmin. We paid the dues as RCI members and the all inclusive fees for meals.
Upon arrival, the hotel staff arranged for some free activities. On the 20th of July we were scheduled to have a breakfast at the Lifestyle Holidays compound in Cofresi Beach, Puerto Plata.
After an intense marketing pursue, we were offered to stay for free at the Hacienda, a golf cart to move around, a limousine or helicopter ride to the airport on our way back to the US, free sea world tickets, a free week at a villa, and all meals and drinks during our present stay. All in exchange for an upgrade in our RCI membership to the VIP status. As a side note, we ended up staying in a junior suite on a third floor without elevator, the golf cart was defective and many times we had to walk long distances because of failure, the limousine ride to the airport was an old van with a cracked windshield, no functioning air conditioning, filthy seats, and poorly closing doors.
According to the salesperson, Vance Paul, if we were not satisfied with the program over the following twelve months, we would be reimbursed 100 percent of the money invested in the payment plan.
Considering that we had serious power surges in Villa Jazmin thus the air conditioning was not working most of the time and we had a little baby to protect from dehydration and sunlight, and the Lifestyle Hacienda did not have problems with electrical energy, we decided reluctantly to accept the offer for the remainder of the week. We figured: if we can cancel within 12 months, Why not try it?
When we returned to the United States, we agreed that $35,000 was an excessive amount to pay just for membership to a timeshare.
We sent a letter to Customer Service requesting a cancellation of our membership on August 13th and a fax on August 30th.
We talked to Customer Service representatives and they asked us to wait first seven business days, then five business days. They did not contact us unless we called or e-mailed them.
On September 9th worried about my credit score, I made the first payment to your institution by phone just one day short of the due date. I was hoping the Lifestyle Holidays would have credited my account, but they had not. I expressed my concerns to the Bank of America card service representative, and she suggested I contact Lifestyle Holidays and asked them to credit my account.
On September 25th Beth Zadrozny (Customer Service for Lifestyle Holidays) informed us that if the membership was cancelled we owed $6,286.60 for pending invoices for the week of stay, meals, golf cart, etc..
On October 1st, Beth Zadrozny informed us that the Escrow Agency notified her that the membership could not be cancelled.
The information we were given at the time of the purchase was not accurate and we have no interest in this property. The sales approach was aggressive, misleading, and untruthful.
The purpose of a vacation club is to make people happy not to burden them with excessive fees and contracts that cannot be cancelled within a reasonable amount of time.
The monthly payments I am making are for a product that I will never use or want.
We are a family with strong ethical and religious values and we do not want to take advantage of anyone. We just expect the same honesty and transparency from the people we deal with.
We sent letters to the Escrow Agency, the President of the company. The only response we got was from a minor employee, Beth Zadrozny, from Customer Service. Nobody else replied to the letters.
Lifestyle Holidays, knowingly delayed a response so we could not get a refund from the Bank of America.
This is very frustrating in these times of recession. We are decent people and we always pay our bills.
We want justice.
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