Yes, we too were suckered by the deceptive and fraudulent actions of Thousand Trails. It all began in 2006 when we purchased our first RV. Naturally, we were very anxious to go on our first trip as soon as possible, so were just looking for a quick weekend getaway. The organization from which we purchased our RV provided us with a Thousand Trails coupon for a free weekend. Of course, being timeshare owners in real property, we knew we would have to listen to a sales pitch, but weren't that concerned — we just wanted to go and try out our new RV!
Anyway, we bought into their sales pitch because of one reason only — we were told that at anytime during our "Lifetime Membership" we could "freeze" our annual dues for as long as we wanted, and/or we could sell our membership as it was "equitable." They provided us with an executed addendum to the Agreement which states we were legally liable for three years for annual dues. They said that the purpose of the addendum was for the "freeze" clause.
Of course, within a year or so of purchasing our membership, we noticed how run-down many of the preserves were becoming and stopped using them. We decided to stick out our three year period of obligation and would then freeze our dues in the hopes that in the next five years or so they would begin to make improvements. Of course though, now that we want to and need to freeze our dues, they tell us we cannot — we either cancel membership or will be in default. Moreover, now that I've read the entire contract, there do seem to be some loopholes and creative wording in other areas of the contract which I do not think we will be able to get around. So, word to the wise — RUN, RUN as far away from TT as you can because this instance is just the icing on the cake!
There is another post on this site from Jamul which discusses the conduct of the "rangers, " the management, etc., and, unfortunately, and sad to say, that when you have kids, for whatever reason, you seem to be discriminated against in that they are ridiculous with certain rules and seem to make them up as they go along. The seniors and senior workers seem to have full run of the facilities and decide what is, and is not, acceptable.in fact, one day we pulled into the Jamul preserve — immediately took the dog out (on his leash) to go potty. He couldn't hold it anymore and went right there on the pavement. As I went inside to get a bag to clean it up, an elderly couple were literally berating and intimidating my children with such things as "you better pick that up or we will have you removed..." Moreover, children are not permitted to enter a pool via stepping off the side of the pool (I guess they have to use the stairs) — WHAT??? One of my kids was literally kicked out of the pool at Lake of the Springs for stepping off the side of the pool — ridiculous — not to mention that I spent thousands of dollars for them to use the pool! Nevertheless, my list can go on and on, but at this point we cannot even GIVE this membership away if we wanted to. Therefore, we will simply cancel it as a lesson learned and lose all the money we paid for it, and I will continue to let anyone who wants to know just how poorly managed and how deceptive this organization is.
Finally, since we have stopped using the preserves of this organization, we have found some really nice rv resorts and camping areas in So. Cal which I would be happy to recommend to people if you care to reply with an e-mail address.
Sincerely
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