RCI Holiday Club scam

by **arrian** on Wed Jul 29, 2009 09:00 am

some years ago my husband and i were gullible enough to buy from RCI "holiday club"! we were told the usual about exchanges etc, different resorts we could go to on exchanges. i could go on but it is too much of a bad memory to list everything. we were never able to do any of the things they said, no availability, wrong dates, not enough points etc etc. we finally decided we had to get out of this as my husband had become disabled and we couldn't afford the maintenance fees, let alone a return trip. we had a visit from one of their agents who then tried to sell us another! it finally cost us around £9000.00 for something we only managed to use twice! having contacted the credit card company we found out that timeshares are for three years and over, RCI sell leases for just under three years! a very costly lesson learnt. arrian

by **tsuser** on Sat Aug 01, 2009 20:29 pm

[quote="feebee"]Now we are having doubt coz everyone semms so worried about lion resorts and rci!! We can't understand what everyone is worried about? Are you not getting what you thought, we are expecting to be able to go anywhere in the world with rci for as many times for 52 weeks of the year for cheap selfcatering hoildays plus friends and family, for a period of three years! Is this correct? Has anyone booked rci holidays.What are you worried about why do i feel like i have been ripped off! Is anyone else in the same boat as us?[/quote]

I've a nasty feeling that this is a troll post, but I'll respond to it anyway!

If you really thought you could go on holiday 52 weeks of the year for 3 years you must have a very loose grip on reality. If you purchased one week what you were probably told is that you could use that week as exchange any week of the year. As to the 3 years, I can only guess that the resort threw in 3 weeks RCI membership as part of the ownership package. I don't doubt that you were given the "Martini" line - any time, any place, any where, as that is a standard timeshare sales pitch i.e. lie!!
Where, when and if you can successfully exchange depends on many factors and has been explained before many times both on this site and others so I won't repeat it.
If you live in the UK I suggest looking at www.timesharetalk.co.uk. If you live elsewhere try www.tug2.net for masses of information.

by **verygullible** on Mon Aug 10, 2009 17:19 pm

Hi there

Had exactly the same experience - same patter, same hard hard sell - quite aggressive this bunch. Anyway we won the week's holiday. I phoned Gophar and checked. Was told that the only catch was being subjected to 90mins sales talk when there. Well being obviously very gullible, I sent of a cheque for £195. I was told that we would be offered an opportunity to choose 3 locations and 3 dates, and then we would be offered a hols within these parameters.

The cheque has been cashed - so may well have lost a load of money. But will post an update IF anything turns up. Am kicking myself for being stupid, but there you go. Was originally accosted on the sea front at Hersonnissos crete and taken to Village Heights. Very aggressive guy in charge. Tried to intitimidate me, being the woman - don't you just hate that.

Anyway, will keep you all posted.....

by **Miss Folkes** on Tue Oct 13, 2009 14:40 pm

Hi

RCI TIMESHARE IS A BIG SCAM! My PArtner and I were stopped by the beach in Rhodes 'old town' in Greece 3rd OCTOBER 2009. A guy around 46, named Mark stopped us and said 'YOUR JUST THE PEOPLE WERE LOOOKING FOR'. Basically gave us 2 cards, my one was a T.shirt and my partners was a free holiday! Then he asked our age and how long we been together as they are only looking fgor a certain crowd, i.e. people that are married or at least settled! What he really meant was settled financially!!!!!!! He then siad all we had to do was look at this hotel to review it and made it out to be like we may be offered the chance to do some marketing for them but we are not oblidged to take it! A free taxi was already waiting then on the way the taxi driver laughed and said 'this is con!' when we got there, a guy brang us upsatirs and I requested champagne!in which we got bubbly, to cut a LONG story short, he tried to sell us 5 weeks away over the next 3 years for £4500.00 WITHOUT FLIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!! ALL THROUGH THE CONVERSATION HE WOULD NOT GIVE THE PRICE TIL THE END WHICH TOOK 2 HOURS AND WE DIDNT EVEN SEE THE HOTEL AS WE HAD TO GET BACK! THEN WHEN i SIAD I HADN'T EATEN, HE OFFERED ME CHIPS PROVIDED I TAKE UP THE OFFER! WHAT A CHEEK! They wanted £700 deposit, then I said I couldn't so they were going to take £200 deposit and they rest on bankers draft which apparently takes a week or so to come through. When I siad no, his face was so red and hot I could fry an egg on it! All through the convo he was stating prices that other companies such as 'Thompson'would charge for th same hotel. i.e. He said 'THE GRAND HOTEL' in Jamaica would cost around 3k with 'Thompson' which is a BIG LIE. AS I WAS ALREADY BOOKED TO GO THERE NEXT YEAR FOR A WEEK WITH FLIGHT AND ACCOMODATION FOR LESS THEN 1K! MY ADVICE, STAY WELL CLEAR OF THEM AND DONT EVEN TAKE THE FREE PRIZE AS YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY!

by **Full Monty** on Tue Oct 13, 2009 19:29 pm

You did well. Excellent post. Let others take note.

Don't go - no matter what the excuse.

by **lostalot** on Tue Oct 13, 2009 21:34 pm

If you are offered scratch cards on holiday, keep walking just tell them to P*** Off.

by **Sukhster** on Sat Oct 31, 2009 09:38 am

Hi my wife and I signed for this in the Costa Del Sol last week.

The deal seemed to good to be true (yeah, I know):

It would cost £8000 (spread out over x years). However, they have guaranteed income (for our "week" we've bought) for the first three years and should get a cheque for £2608 in a few weeks. We have bonus weeks etc we can actually use for our holiday. Had to pay an initial £1000. Oh yeah, a free week and flights to one of the resorts (it is a nice one) within the next year. Don't need to start paying till six months time.

I think the difficulty will be when we look to book but unfortunately can't be provided with login details till after the cooling off period. One of the staff has kindly offered screenshots via email. This won't actually be of any use as it's very simple to mock up a html page these days.

Does anyone know if I can get my £1000 back if I cancel within the cooling off period and what needs to be done in order to cancel within the cooling off period?

Many thanks.

by **Marriotty** on Sat Oct 31, 2009 09:49 am

What do the terms and conditions state?? 1 think you can achieve all the kind of things you were promised, simply by..buying on the Re-Sale Market..
But i would certainly Get-A-Move on!! and complete that cancellation..

by **Sukhster** on Sat Oct 31, 2009 14:00 pm

The terms state that the "membership" fee is non refundable. However, we were only made aware of this AFTER making the payment. My argument is what is the membership fee for if we're deciding not to become members...

Is it possible to cancel an RCI contract in person at their Kettering office?

Also, if I've been guaranteed an income from the plan (3 years worth of cheques and paperwork confirming this), it's paying for itself at least for this period and if I can get a cheap suite once/twice a year, surely I've nothing to lose? Or am i seriously missing something here?

by **Marriotty** on Sat Oct 31, 2009 14:42 pm

While you state that you signed up last week on the Costa-del-Sol. you never said with whom?
My maths, say you will pay £5,492.in total..regardless of how its stacked..
Making it very very expensive..
Now you never said if this includes on going maintenance fees??

In terms of availability the whole industry runs on that basis, whether you wish to go camping, use a B&B or a 5star hotel...even flights!!

1 trust you have Cancelled! other wise you are just going round in circles!