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Re: point rental liquidators (by John M.):

It is happening in Illinois

On February 9, 2013, at 10:50am, I received a telephone call from an unknown number (1-770-439-0113) that had a caller ID of RCI PTS GLH. Upon answering the call I was told that the caller was associated with RCI and wanted us to attend a meeting in Rockford, Illinois so they could go over with me some new enhancement for RCI Weeks owners to make their RCI membership more valuable. Since I was busy at the moment I told the caller that I could not talk to them at that time. On February 11, 2013, at 1:53pm, I received a telephone call from an unknown number (1-770-439-7989) that had a caller ID of RCI PTS GLH. I was presented with the same pitch as on February 9th. We were invited to attend a lunch at TGI Friday’s in Rockford, Il. to go through the new RCI enhancements for members of the RCI Weeks programs. We accepted the invitation and attended the meeting on February 12, 2013 at TGI Fridays in Cherry Vaalley, IL, near the CherryVale Mall.

At the meeting, there was no group discussion. Each person there was dealt with by one of the 8 or 10 people that were the hosts. At this meeting they introduced themselves as people who worked for R&R Venture Group from Las Vegas, NV, a vacation enhancement organization. They presented their company as partnering with RCI to bring the RCI Weeks enhancement news to RCI Weeks members. Our “host” was William “Will” Thompson, Regional Director for R&R Venture Group stationed in Morris, IL. His main pitch dealt with the enhancements which would allow the Weeks members to convert their weeks to points. This would allow the “new” points members to use their points to trade for other vacations sites, use some of them for travel costs, and sell some of them to a sister company for cash which they could use to pay their annual maintenance fees at their home resorts. The companies involved in this enhancement were:

R&R Venture Group (The main processing agent) 6132 W. Sahara Ave. Las Vegas, NV, 89146 (877)572-9955 or (702) 431-7770 Regional Director, William Thompson (815)217-4534 (Located in Morris, IL, supposedly)

Vacation Services International (The company that would facilitate vacation exchanges) 602 Chillicothe Street, Suite 237 Portsmouth, OH, 45662 (855)874-8785

Excess Property Solutions (The company that would purchase points for cash – $.075 per point 1802 N. Division St. Suite 403 Morris, IL 60450 (815)217-4534

These people presented a program where they say they are dealing with RCI to get people's banked weeks transferred to these companies and converted to points (45,500 points for each week owned, and 2000 points for any individual days banked) and provide an enhanced number of resorts to use (through Vacation Services International) and the ability to sell some of the your points (to Excess Property Solutions) in order to cover the maintenance fees on your home Time Shares. They also included a bonus of 75,000 points. They quoted $9990.00 as the cost of this “Time Share Enhancement and Relief Project”. They also offered first year incentive that would allow you to sell 160,000 points to Excess Property Solutions for a total of $12,000.00 payable with a cashier’s check on August 15, 2013., which would cover the initial investment as well as provide the money needed to pay next years maintenance fees.

After receiving notification that I now had a membership in Vacation Services International, I started to try to contact people on the call list that was part of the contract and could get nothing but answering machines saying that all of their representatives were busy with other customers, to leave a voice mail, and they would call back. I did have some success with email to the person who notified me of my membership.

My first call was to William “Will Thompson since he told me that he was my prime contact for everything and he could get it done quickly. Needless to say it was over two weeks and 5 calls to his number and R&R Venture Groups number in Las Vegas before he called me back.

During that time I was waiting for Thompson to call me back, I found out the RCI has never dealt with any of the three companies involved in this “Time Share Enhancement and Relief Project”. Nor do any of these companies have capabilities to extract or transfer members banked weeks for any purpose at all. This little piece of information makes me realize that parts of this so called enhancement project are a scam.

When Thompson finally called me back, his answers to my questions about how they would get my banked weeks from RCI and where could I view my 75,000 bonus points, were that these were trade secrets of his company and could not be shared with customers. I am convinced I will never see the cashier’s check for $12,000.00 on August 15, 2013. I told Thompson that I had filed billing disputes with my credit card company. At that point he said he would send me a $3000.00 advance on the $12,000.00 in a month if I would drop the billing disputes. When I said I would not do that, I wanted all my money back, he said he would call me the next day. Needless to say he has not called back. The R&R Venture Group office in Las Vegas has someone answering the phone who says she will send an email to Thompson telling him to call me and that he has to do that within 48 business hours. Obviously, he has not called back.

I believe that Vacations Services International may be the only one of these three companies that is legitimate. I have exchanged emails with several people there and they have identified Thompson as an agent from R&R Venture Group. However, what Thompson defined as how they operate, is not how they operate. There is no online visibility to what I could trade into. I have to reserve my week with my resort and send VSI confirmation of that hold. Then I have to send VSI where I want to go and what dates I want to go. They will send me a list of the resorts they could get me into. When they find someone to take my place at my resort, they give me the name and I have to notify my resort as to who will be using my week at the resort. Not even close to what RCI does or how it operates. I do not believe that Vacation Services International fully comprehends what R&R Venture Group is doing to them when they send them someone’s information and membership fees.

As for Excess Property Solutions, the only contact I have had is with someone named Shayne Lowe. They too are located in Morris, IL (see address above) and hard as it may seem to believe, they have the same telephone number as Thompson. Lowe told me in an email that on August 1st EPS and I will get on the telephone with RCI and complete the transfer of my weeks to EPS so they can pay me my money. Since that time he has not responded to any other questions I have sent him.

To date Citibank has accepted my dispute and granted a credit on the fees paid to Vacation Services International and Excess Property Solutions. When the check does not arrive on August 15th, I will reopen the dispute on the remainder of the fees paid to R&R Venture Group which did all of the charges to my credit card and failed to respond to the first two credit card disputes. In the meantime, I continue to call Thompson and Lowe and get no responses.

All of this information has been sent to the Illinois Attorney General and reported to the Cherry Valley, Il police. I have also had discussions about this scam with RCI. I am trying to get the “business” information from The TGI Fridays about the company that ran the program in their Restaurant and how they paid the bill. I see that as another piece of the puzzle. And, in the very near future I will be driving over to Morris, IL to take a look at the office space leased to Excess Property Solutions and see if there are any bodies there.