The bait and lure
Back in May of my family and I took a vacation at the Hilton Head. Coming out of a restaurant one night, I was asked by a very nice lady to sit through a Coral Resorts seminar and that it would take no more than 60 minutes. So I took my family of 6 to go sit at this place. After nearly 2 hours later, I was convinced to purchase one of their timeshares, after seeing the nice 3 bedroom condo and the Westin Hotel that we could use while vacationing at the Island Links.
What I was sold (told by the salesperson and confirmed by his manager)
The details of what was sold to me was misrepresented and I feel that I have been ripped off. At the time, I was told that if I booked 45 days or less in advance at the Island Links, a 1 week stay at a 3 bedroom condo would cost me no more than 9,000 RCI points. I received, 21,333 points, so I figured this gives me 2 good weeks of vacation for my family. For this, I paid quite a lot of money to own the timeshare, and now I also have a very large bill for the 3 year maintenance fee. To use the points elsewhere, I'd have to pay the exchange fee... But was GUARANTEED that a week stay would cost me no more than 9000 points. I even have a piece of paper where they scribbled this down... Though not official.
What I now realize I have
After over 1 month of waiting, I finally received the RCI code to be able to get into their system and make reservations. When I tried to reserve some vacation time, I noticed that the points needed to book at various resorts were well over 9,000 points. I then kept getting error messages when I tried to book the reservation. I thought this to be strange, but I assumed that I am under some special plan where I only have to pay 9000 points per week, despite what it says on the web. Note... How convenient that I could not see the points required for reservations until well after the 5 day grace period to get my money back. So I decided to call to book a reservation at the Island Links (the "home" spot for me). The RCI person then proceeded to confirm my worst fears (from what I saw on the internet). I cannot book a 3 bedroom for the points that I have... in fact, he told me that to book a 3 bedroom condo at the Island Links for 3 DAYS in October, I would need over 30,000 POINTS! That is when my heart sank. I have four young children and had really looked forward to vacationing with them... And it looks like the points that I have can't even get me a 3 day stay, at off peak periods.in another words, these points are USELESS.
I have tried to get a hold of Coral Resorts, but all I get are voicemails. I am sure that they screen all the calls, because I have not gotten a call back yet. Based on the other complaints that I have seen, I think we have enough for a class action lawsuit. If you have been scammed like me and are interested to file, please let me know.
0 comments