Timeshare News and Lawsuits

After receiving over a dozen complaints regarding failed cancellation services, the Arkansas Attorney General believes Real Travel duped their customers out of nearly $140K by using aggressive sales tactics and disturbing levels of deception. Her conclusion alleges they, “Preyed on consumers who were desperate to get rid of timeshares that they no longer wanted or could not afford.” Learn more..

Similar to other vacation destinations across America, timesharing has a stronghold in Southwest Missouri. But the general public is beginning notice the level of deception going on behind the scenes. As the timeshare sales market dwindles (due to improved travel options), the region has turned into a hotbed for timeshare relief agencies. It’s safe to assume a majority of these “cancellation firms” used to sell fractional ownership.

For nearly 20 years, Bass Pro Shops has allowed Bluegreen to sell fractional ownership in their stores. The agreement gave customers store discounts and other promotional items if they attended Bluegreen timeshare presentations. From 2016-2018, nearly 15% of Bluegreen’s revenue came from the retailer. It’s why they were so willing to pay Bass Pro $40 million to settle their differences.

When you think about it, a lot of time and effort goes into planning a vacation. Once travelers make a decision on a hotel, most don’t want to start over – even after seeing there are additional costs from the resort. “Discovering these charges only after a consumer has started to book a room makes it extremely difficult to compare prices and make informed choices,” said DC’s Attorney General.

After recently investigating 10 midwestern businesses claiming to be timeshare relief companies, the BBB came to the conclusion Vacation Consulting has been “promising something they can’t guarantee they can deliver on.” Spokeswoman Laura Blankenship went on to say the Bureau has received hundreds of similar complaints regarding the company. 

Beginning in 2011, Deborah M. Wagner and her staff began working with a number of co-conspirators, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars through 3rd party transfer services. Her law firm, Wagner & Hyman, executed the transfers by using “straw purchasers.” They made a pretty penny transferring timeshare contracts into the names of stolen identities.

Although Groupwise found it relatively easy to sign up desperate timeshare owners, they quickly realized they weren’t able to keep up with their promises. Since the resale market just doesn’t exist for timeshares, they couldn’t locate qualified buyers in order to cover client’s costs – so they simply bailed on all of their guarantees.

Major hospitality developers continue to pursue timeshare cancellation companies in court. Whether the services rendered are legitimate or not, it’s obvious that timeshare companies feel threatened. Diamond Resorts International, for example, has pursued over a dozen actions against cancellation companies and timeshare relief lawyers across the country.

After processing 93 federal lawsuits and consumer fraud complaints against the so-called timeshare exit lawyer, the Supreme Court of Tennessee found that Phillips was actually fueling a handful of cancellation scams. He compiled user data by making financial arrangements with other companies that failed to persuade timeshare owners with their schemes.

Buyers now have a better chance to get out of something that can be perpetually difficult to deal with. Aside from post-purchase advantages, this law applies to anyone planning on attending a timeshare presentation as well as any Arizona resident. While consumers definitely won here, timeshare representatives were able to strip some of the original provisions.

Nearly 10 years ago, Mark Gardner and Tammie Lynn Cline got together in a Florida boiler room to develop a fraudulent resale operation that targeted disgruntled timeshare owners. Universal Timeshare Sales Associates (UTSA) was launched quickly thereafter and a call center full of Orlando telemarketers were ready to execute the scam. In an attempt to cover their tracks, the duo claimed the headquarters of their timeshare resale company was in Beaverton, Oregon.

In 2015, St Petersburg residents, David Bell (55) and Troy Cater (30) were recruited to target people looking to sell their timeshare. Through 2018, both men played a key role in telemarketing to people who believed they’d been victimized by their timeshare company. Posing as real estate professionals, they claimed they had a pool of buyers looking for a property just like theirs.

Despite support from the ARDA-ROC, who represents over 1.5 million timeshare owners, HB 435 is being challenged by at least 3 cancellation operations and their legal teams. They’ve proceeded to hire a handful of powerful lobbyists to fight the legislature’s house bill with common sense tactics to timesharing.