Original Message:
Re: Upfront fee resale companies are against the law in Florida .... report them ASAP (by Jodi M.):
OMG ... I can't believe what I am reading! This company scammed me. They called me saying they could get my fees back, when they called me they were called Timeshare Recovery Task Force ... after about 3 months of waiting for my refund ... I called the company and they answered the phone as Telemarketing Recovery Task Force!
My lawyer actually suggested that I contact a debt collector, because it would be more cost effective, and that is how I found Timeshare Financial Recovery. I called them, they did not solicit me. (Actually, they also helped me get my money back from this other BS company and didn't charge me commission for that one.)
I guess there are several laws in the state of Florida regarding Timeshare Resale. There is something called Florida Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. and something else regarding the listing agent to post how many sales they have versus how many listings they have. Timeshare Financial Recovery told me that under these laws, I am entitled to a full refund, and they suggested that I try to get the refund back on my own first, before I hired them. I did try ... but got NOTHING. I don't think that sounds too much like someone trying to scam me, if they are telling me to try it on my own first, do you? My attorney was going to charge me a retainer of $1,000 to start a court case, and then if he was able to recover the funds, he was going to take 50%. I would have been upside down! He told me to find a debt collector in the phone book or to google it. He just said to make sure that they were LICENSED and BONDED, and to check if they had any complaints with Florida's Office of Financial Regulation, Division of consumer Services, as well as FTC. He also told me to get refferrals because if they violated the Fair Debt Collections Act, that the company they are collecting the debt from could sue me.