This is a complaint against Spinnaker at Waterside in Hilton Head in order to help others know how deceptive they are in using fraudulent practices in making a sale.
They have cheated us out of using and ownership of a paid for timeshare ($8900) odd year that the maintenance fees have always been paid since purchasing it in 2001. Our salesperson was Clarke Tefft; but from reading other reports, apparently the salesman are trained in these unscrupulous practices.
Having to attend a meeting when we were staying on a special package deal, my husband and I told Clarke we were owners of a one-bedroom odd year unit and we were not interested in purchasing another unit. As we continued to talk, we said it would be nice to have a two-bedroom unit every other year instead of the one-bedroom unit, but we would never buy it upfront because we were knowledgeable enough to know that a resale unit could be bought much cheaper. We had previously sold a timeshare somewhere else, only getting about half of what we paid for it.
Clarke then told us he could get us a resale two-bedroom unit for $11,342 use every other year, about half the cost of buying it upfront from them (we learned later that this is a lie). He went on to promise us that the one-bedroom unit could be listed with Resort Brokerage and promised us it would sell within a couple months, thereby getting the money to pay off the two-bedroom unit. We were hesitate to do this, but since Clarke said he had attended Promise Keepers and what it meant to him, since he said again, "I promise you it will happen, " we finally agreed and took him at his word.
Making 3 monthly payments and having heard nothing from anyone and not able to contact Clarke with the number he gave us, my husband and I decided we would not waste any more money by paying for something we did not want or be able to use every year and did not want over $1000 in maintenance fees on these two units, I wrote a letter to Spinnaker informing them that what we were promised was not happening and we were returning the payment book and would just have to suffer the consequences of trusting the salesman which turned out to be a bad decision. We have been receiving numerous calls from their collection agency.
In April we received a letter canceling our reservations we had for the one-bedroom unit that we owned.in communicating several times with reservations, Bill Young, and John W., the Director, this is when we learned how fraudulent and deceptive this salesman and the resort had really been.
We had not been given all the papers that they had when we were given the copy of the small-print contract when we made the deal. We were told that we had signed a Quit Release Deed signing over the one-bedroom unit to them as equity on this two-bedroom unit. The only reason we signed this deed is that we were told that since it was a fixed week, all the units were going to floating weeks, and we would have to sign to exchange the fixed week for the floating week. Another lie we were told. We did not have a copy of this deed. At first, Bill Young was unable to come up with the copy but later after I talked with the director, John Wojtulewiez, it was sent to us along with the Sales Proposal Sheet of which we had not been given a copy and which clearly showed that the one-bedroom unit was used for equity. Why were we not given a copy of these two important papers?
This two-bedroom unit every-other-year unit was written up as costing around $20,000 which I would have never paid or signed a contract if I knew that was what was written up. Why would we knowingly pay $20,000 for this upfront cost when we know we could buy a resale for no more than half of that? We may be gullible, but we are not dumb. Now, people are giving timeshares away in order to get out from paying these esculating maintenance fees.
My husband and I have always paid for everything on time and usually pay cash for everything, having excellent credit rating, as well as being good for our word. We will not pay any more to a company that lies in order to make a buck. We have paid the maintenance fees for 5 years on this unit that we paid $8900 for, have paid the maintenance fees this year, but now denied usage and through their lies telling us that we had to change to a floating week, they now have the deed signed over to them.
Looking at the law definition of FRAUD, a material false statement made with an intent to deceive, a victim's reliance on the statement and damages, this transaction with Spinnaker constitutes fraud. It is material if prior knowledge would have changed the outcome of the decision. What we were told and promised by Clarke Tefft that represents Spinnaker was deceptive, false statements, and was not what was written in the contract.
1. Telling us that the unit was a resale and that we were getting it for about half the price, not writing it up this way and then putting our equity on it
2. Telling us that we had to trade in our fixed week on a floating week; thereby, getting us to sign the deed that did not state this but gave the unit back to them
3. Not giving us all the paperwork at the time we made the deal
4. Promising us a sale would occur on the paid unit that would then pay off this two-bedroom unit
5. Causing additional stress and damage by the calls from the collection agency, of being taken advantage of, causing our credit rating to be hurt, having to deal with this matter, causing huge financial loss
Because of these fraudulent conditions, the contract that we signed in September. needs to be deemed void and we return to our original ownership of the one-bedroom unit with necessary paperwork done. The report against our credit needs to be retracted.
This is what should be done if this resort is a reputable resort.
After much time has been spent researching, Spinnaker already has 19 consumer complaints written about the same practices with three of them directly against Spinnaker at Hilton Head stating that "everything they promise you in presentation is fraudulent." In addition, they have quite a number of complaints from the BBB and are rated unsatisfactory. There are other reports on other forums, also.
Don't believe what they tell you and don't buy from them. They will cheat you out of what you have paid for with your hard-earned money. They will get their reward eventually.
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