RCI Innovations Inc.

Regarding RCI Innovations and other companies...it is very important to file complaints when warranted as Judi has mentioned in addition to speaking out to your resort and other owners. I'm going to be starting a database of resorts and when their annual meetings are in order to get this and other pertinent messages out to resorts. The ONLY way to stop this and other horrible things from happening is to band together, educate each other and take actions. If you are not already a member of a timeshare owners group, you should be.

Yes that is exactly right anyone can say a name

To anyone who has paid a timeshare resale company in the last 540 days (1 1/2 Years) with a credit card (not a debit Card):

The best way to get your money back is to dispute the charges with your credit card company. The following card issuers will work with you under the right circumstances: Chase, Bank of America, Capital One, First National, CitiBank(sometimes), HSBC. (USAA Savings bank or any credit union will most likely not.......but its still worth a try.)

The easiest way to get your money back is to find something the company did wrong (from a disputing standpoint) for example: when you sign a contract with these companies, they are marketing agreements 99.99% of the time. If the company failed to advertise the unit (RCI Innovations never advertised anything witch makes them very very very easy to dispute) then they are in breach of contract, services were never rendered, and boom.......money (if you paid within the last 120 days, if over 120 days you can still get it but its just a more dificult proccess). If you do not fall in that category, wright it off on your taxes as a bad investment. If you do not pay your taxes then you have learned a very expensive lesson(hopefully). Good luck I hope all of you who have paid do get your hard earned money back, feel free to email me if you have questions. I will also post sample letters to send to your bank soon.

-Rich

My transaction was in April 2009, can I still dispute this with my credit card? I have letters that I faxed to American Marketing Group (another scam), I did not pay RCI Innovations. Sample leters would be great to send to the bank. Thanks.

nataliem38 wrote:

My transaction was in April 2009, can I still dispute this with my credit card?

Some credit card issuers allow as few as 30 days after a charge first appears on bill to file a dispute. Some allow as long as 90 days. I have NO idea what the above referenced "1 1/2 years (540 days)" is all about. That's certainly news to me and I harbor some doubts about its' accuracy.

Might Rich 77 be in another country with regulations different than those of most US card companies? MD

Exactly. This is one regulation that you or YOUR BANK does not know about. However this is not your banks policy. This is VISA and MasterCard's policy and if the card that your bank issued you bears the VISA or MasterCard logo then they MUST abide by VISA and MasterCard's policy ultamatly. This "loophole" can be found in VISA (MC) Global Dispute Resolution under VISA chargeback reason code 30: Services not Rendered (same applies for MC under RC: 4859 SNR) although I have been succesful using RC 53: Services not as Described as well. These are the basics of the rule: If you (the consumer) pays for a service (sale of TS) the the previous time limit for dispute is 120 (I dont care what you bank says, 120 days not 30 days. end of story) calendar days. If goods or services were to be delivered after the transaction date you can place your US Domestic dispute any time within 120 days of the most recent date that you expected to recieve the service from the merchant wich may not exeed 540 days. Foe example RCI contacts you on 1/10/2010 and garuntees the sale of your unit on 4/23/2010. 4/23 comes around and the buyer fell through.......this keeps on happening until 12/3/2010. So 12/3 was the last expected date of service. you HAVE chargeback rights and yes the bank will try to prevent this. That is what thier reps get paid to do but unfortunatly for them the signed a contract with VISA/MC agreeing to play by thier rules and they are responsible for the charge. and yes eventually the TS resale company will be responsible for it. If your bank does not play ball then ask for a supervisor and threaten them with the OCC. GO GET 'EM

-Rich

P.S. on one occasion i won a dispute from 2008 just a couple of months ago with Capital One so it is worth a try.

Oh and by the way.....if you loose a dispute, then dispute it again. If you loose it again, take it to pre arbitration and on rare occasion arbitration.

RCI Innovations - Gregory Fusca arrested for fraud and larceny

http://www.timeshareforums.com/forums/horror-stories-bad-experiences-timeshares/116213-rci-innovations-inc-gregory-fusca-arrested-fraud-larceny.html

Anyone who calls you on the phone telling you they have a buyer for your timeshare is a scammer. They get all their information from county records where anyone can get them. Never give anyone any up front money for any reason or any personal information. They are all thieves. The other day there was a big raid in Orlando arresting timeshare scammers. It was on yesterday's newscast.

P.S. RCI Innovations, Inc has nothing to do with RCI.

If you lost a dispute already then you are not able to dispute it again. If you lost that means that the credit card company was presented with the contract authorizing the charge. Your first dispute must be on the grounds of services not rendered. Then a contract allowing the charge will not be enough to win a dispute, but rather they must provide proof that they did what they said they would.

adahiscout wrote:

I had a call today from Midwest Timeshare out of Green Bay, WI. "Kim" said they had moved there to get away from the bad reputation of Florida sellers. They "don't ask for any upfront fees to list a property" but there is a charge of $650 once they find a prospect. I've had a couple more calls today from her saying she has found a buyer interested in paying $20,000 for a White Time floating week in Branson. Sadly, I fear that is too good to be true!

She indicated they get names of prospects from salesmen who failed to sell at developer prices at the resorts. The "no sale" folks are sometimes interested in buying into the same location on the Resale market for a lower price. Well, that may be true as far as it goes. Still...........! MD

I got a call today from Jessic of Midwest Timeshares. I was told that they are a reputable company that has been in business for 31 years. She wanted me to give her my checking account info for $699. I challenged the need to give her money if she already had a buyer since buyer pays all the closing costs. She then came up with the line that she needed the money for other fees and that she couldn't give me the name of the individual due to privacy act laws.

Did you find out that this was another scam?

thomasm529 wrote:

I got a call today from Jessic of Midwest Timeshares. I was told that they are a reputable company that has been in business for 31 years. She wanted me to give her my checking account info for $699. I challenged the need to give her money if she already had a buyer since buyer pays all the closing costs. She then came up with the line that she needed the money for other fees and that she couldn't give me the name of the individual due to privacy act laws.

Did you find out that this was another scam?

Please re-read what you have just posted. Also, compare the sales pitch you received with what other people have posted on these boards.

Then tell us whether you think this offer is legitimate or not.

I would really appreciate a copy/format of the letter to send to the bank to help get my money back. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated, my mom has gotten herself into a bad situation that we have just recently become aware of.

You can use this Just change the words to match the problem We will be reporting you to the following people if you do not return our money. What you have done is fraud. The Attorney Generals Office in (the State you live in), (the State the timeshare is in) and the( State the Scamme)r is in. We are also calling the police in NAME OF CITY, Name of State. We are going to the http://www.nacaa.net/consumerinfo.htm and report you to every agency mentioned on this site. We are going to report you to our (VISA) and have them report your fraud to your merchant account. We are going to http://www.arda.org We are going to www.LTRBA.com We are going to http://www.consumeraffairsusa.org/ We are going to https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/ We are going to http://www.ripoffreport.com/ You may want to look at the ripoffreport. They will put you on there and every search engine in the world will pull up your websiste. This ripoff site is owned by someone who has no scruples. Once the information goes on you will have to pay him big bucks to do anything to the information. Scroll to the bottom and read how you will be extorted to get the information off the site. We do not want any phone calls from you. All we want is our money returned. You have lied, misled and committed fraud. You are messing with the wrong person. So put a credit on our credit card immediately.

Thank you judikoz! We wrote a similar letter to the fraudulent companies but they irgnored us. I was hoping that richc77 might be able to share a version of the letter he sent to the credit card issuing bank that states the 'services not rendered' in it. I understand the jist of it, but I was hoping to see the format. Does anybody have a copy/version of that?

You say the person who runs the ripoffreport site has no scruples, judikoz? You are comfortable with this? Doesn't it also mean he could post accusations he knows are false in order to cheerfully bilk the innocent who try to clear their names? Ladies and gentlemen, let's not fight crap with crap. MD

Read his information and arrest record and then tell me what kind of scruples he has. Ask him if he has any scruples. Not fighting crap with crap. Just stating the facts. I was one of his victims so I know what I am saying. He has no scruples. He does not verify what is put on his site. He can't be sued because it is third party. But for $2,000 he will look at the situation. Show me the scruples.

If you want to call me I will see if I can help. I am out of town until Tuesday. Email me the details. judi@judikoz.com and I will see what I can do. I have been pretty successful with this stuff.