Report Abuse

Re: New Owners

We have been a timeshare owner with Roark Resort for over 25 years and been a regular visitor to Branson. We have been very happy with Roark but not happy with RCI when trying to exchange our week because availability. We were vacationing at Roark in August of 2010 with our twin seven year old grandsons. They wanted to go to Silver Dollar City so in shopping for tickets in order to get half price tickets we would have to go to a short presentation and tour. Since we had the boys, we ask if they would be able to stay with us during the presentation and the answer was yes - LIE #1 soon as we got to the salesroom the boys were taken to a play room and out of our site. LIE #2 was the presentation would not be over two hours. We were there over 5 hours. We met sales rep Heith S. and listened to his pitch and he took us on the tour. The items that he told us to make us want to purchase was as follows: 1. We were not buying a Timeshare but a “Vacation Ownership” 2. Our week could be used at any time of the year 3. A 3 bedroom unit would always be available (we asked Heith at least 5 times) 4. Heith told us that he could get us out of our existing timeshare at Roark by selling it for $12,900 5. Heith then called RSI and the RSI representative spoke with us taking down our information and confirming that our unit with Roark would be sold within 6 months to a year at the most and Heith said that Summerwinds would pay for the listing. When we listed with RSI he stated we needed to pay the listing fee and they were very unhappy and rude when we refused. 6. Heith also stated that we could have pontoon rental for $150 a day whenever we were down on vacation. 7. Heith said that we would not have to pay our Maintenance Fee if we were not planning to use our week by letting them know to rent it out with a simple phone call, no time specifications given. 8. Heith also said that we could use “Bonus Time” which would be cheaper than the Maintenance Fee for the year. 9. Heith also told us that we could book hotel rooms, condos, etc. at a great discount anytime anywhere using our unlimited additional "Family Weeks". Last year, 2011, when we went to use “Bonus Time” and get a 3 bedroom unit for the last part of July we were told there was none available but a 2 bedroom unit was. However, we would have to call back a month in advance of vacation and hopefully a 2 bedroom unit would still be available. At that time, no one said that we should use our “Vacation Ownership” since it had not be placed in the Reimbursement Program (which we were under the impression that it had been) so we paid $75.00 a night from July 27 to July 30, 2011 which equaled $239.57 with taxes. While we were at Stormy Point during the above mention time, we went to rent a pontoon boat and were told none were available. Our losses for 2011 included our Maintenance Fee $469.00 and loss of our “Vacation” for a whole week. This year, 2012, we attempted to “book” our week online for our 3 bedroom unit for the Week of July 8-15 and none was available. We were under the impression it would be available at any time. So we then called Floyd Elliott, to check on availability and this is when he stated we would have to “book” a year in advance. Also when we tried to put our week in the Reimbursement Program we were told it could not be done since we had not done it soon enough. So this year, 2012, we lost everything – our Maintenance Fee $469.00 and our week of “Vacation”. Also, this year we took a trip to the east coast and tried to "book" a 3 bedroom condo using our "Family Weeks" through Summerwinds and said nothing was available and ask if there was a discounted price on hotels and they said they would check and get back with us. Never did. So the 2 main factors for the reason of buying into this “Vacation Ownership” was the selling of our existing Timeshare at Roark and being able to have the flexibility to use our week anytime at any notice. So there is NO way that we would have agreed to this… since we cannot plan our lives a year in advance as well as own 2 TIMESHARES. We sent this information to Floyd Elliott and he did not respond to one of our concerns. Now we are out $25,384.00 and have nothing. So we are taking your advice and send our complaints to the BBB and to the Missouri Attorney General and to whatever else it takes to get our money back.