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Bad suggestions regarding "bad experience"...

[Q=glenk29] The best thing to do is get a certied letter off to the American Trade and Commerse commission. Then ; take them to small claims court. Then do the BBB thing; then get a letter off to HARPO productions (Oprah). That should put the kibosh on them.[/Q] No disrespect intended, but ALL of the above suggestions are lame, ineffective approaches and a complete waste of time and energy (...and money too, in one instance) for all of the following reasons: 1. The U.S. agency name is actually Federal Trade Commission. Historically, the FTC does NOT get involved in timeshare matters and will (if they even bother to respond at all) just tell any and all complainants to contact the state authorties where the parasites at issue actually operate (in the U.S., that has usually been Florida, but that geographic picture is changing). It would be great if there was any Federal legislation which collectively regulated ALL timeshare scammer operations, but that simply is NOT the case at this time. 2. BBB is a powerless "membership" organization with no legal authority of any kind whatsoever. When a scammer company develops a bad BBB rating, they just change their name and start all over again with a new name and a "clean slate". Accordingly, they really couldn't care less about a "low BBB rating". 3. "Oprah" is in the last season of television and most topics and shows are basically already lined up and /or already in production. Believe me, a handful of timeshare scammer complaints is NOT sufficiently newsworthy material for prime time national television. 4. Small claims court is not a realistic option either, unless you are close enough and personally willing to travel to the state and county where the scammers operate (probably several separate times). Your travel costs and lost work time cost alone would likely FAR exceed the amount of money you lost to the scammer --- and no court is ever going to order reimbursement for your personal travel expenses or lost work time. Also, even if you succeed in winning a judgement, that doesn't mean that you'll actually ever see a dime. The one and only EFFECTIVE avenue of redress is to file a formal complaint with the state Attorney General office of the state in which the parasites are located. The AG has the authority, jurisdiction, ability and willingness to act on a WELL DOCUMENTED case. Invest your time and energy into a useful approach --- unless merely "venting" to outlets that can't help at all is enough of a result for you.