Complaint Review: Absolute Vacations

We were told we would get 4 free weeks a year to vacation anywhere in the world. In reality, nothing is free, you get so-called discounted rates.

In January, we had to sit through 2- 130 minute trip club and time share presentations. At one of them, we joined after a very friendly and trusting older woman convinced us that we would get 4 free weeks anywhere in the world. We paid a $549.00 deposit and financed $2,196.00 (we have been making monthly payments on that)This month, when we went to book our first trip (i.e., our first of four weeks of the year) we were eventually told that they do not do free weeks.

However, this is exactly what we were told originally (prior to signing a contract). We even asked to be clear on these 4 weeks at the presentation- since there is no way that we would have agreed otherwise.

Moreover, in our contract, it states: "We are acquiring one travel club week license that entitles us to the following condo vacation for our personal use on a yearly basis. Description: 4 weeks." It's really unfortunate that we were mislead. After a week of calling and sending several e-mails to try and get clarification, we were finally told that we don't get 4 free weeks at which point we stated that since we don't get 4 free weeks, as we were told when we signed up in December, we certainly wish to cancel our membership. We have no interest in paying thousands of dollars + monthly fees + yearly fees to have so-called discounted rates for 4 weeks; whereas we could match or beat such deals on our own via kijiji, groupon, Wagjag, and hotels.com which are all free to use. Since we have never used Absolute Vacations, we asked for them to please refund the payments we have made over the last 6 months. We added that if they wish to keep the $100 deposit we gave in cash in person than that would be acceptable. They just tell us to call Member Services and when you call Member Services, nobody answers or returns calls.