Complaint Review: TheCoralResorts.com

March 16. 2015

We are owners at a Timeshare Resort Company known as The Coral Resorts (CR).  One year ago  (March 6, 2014) we decided to "upgrade" our timeshare by converting to a different number of RCI Points, but only on a every-other-year basis, which reduced our maintenence fees almost in half.

As part of that conversion, we traded in three Hawaii timeshares, to a timeshare transfer company called Elite Equity Transfers (EET).  For a fee for each timeshare, we had a signed agreement that these three timeshares would be taken out of our names, and we would no longer be owners.  These were excellent timeshares, at resorts we have visited and enjoyed for over 20 years.  We are on the east coast, and the all-day trip was getting to be much, since we are getting up in years, plus we had a number of other timeshares on the East Coast that we used and enjoyed.

We paid $645 to effect the transfer of each of those timeshares out of our names.  We have recently learned that the owners of Elite Equity Transfers were arrested by the FBI for fraud, in not doing exactly what they promised to do with our timeshares.  This apparently has been going on all over the country, with many thousands of timeshare owners, for a number of years.

Now, I am trying to contact The Coral Resorts to find out the status of two of our timeshares.  One of the original three has successfully been transferred back to the resort in Kauai (I believe as a direct result of me not following the EET directions and sending a signed deed transfer paperwork directly to the resort rather than back to EET).

The Coral Resorts Property Transfer Director was said to be a person with the name of Kate Swisher Didato.  I talked to her one time, about 6 months ago, after EET refused to answer my phone calls and messages and emails, and she told me that EET had been removed as a transfer agent for Coral Resorts and Duncan Realty was now the new transfer agent. (Note: Today I called Duncan Reality and was told that they had the same problem with EET, and severed their relationship with them, and had sent back or shredded all information received from them.  Apparently Duncan Realty is a responsible and reputable organization.)

After 6 more months had passed and nothing received, I again tried to contact CR and Kate Swisher, but she did not return my calls and my emails.  Coral Resorts always answers the phone (since they have 4 active resorts on Hilton Head Island, they have to!), but insists that Kate Swisher in the only one that can help me with my questions, and when tranferred to her line she never answers and never returns calls.  Today when I called her once again, a man named "Bradley" was on the message machine, so I again left a message to him asking him to PLEASE return my call and let me know the status of the two timeshares still in question.

All I want to do is to find out the status of the two remaining timeshares.  If necessary, we are willing to take them back and continue to hold and use them, until we can sell them ourselves or decide to keep using them!  However, since we signed paperwork with EET I feel we have to determine the status of those documents, before I will be willing to pay the overdue maintenance fees or otherwise dispose of them.

I also understand that Coral Resorts is currently defending themselves from quite a few lawsuits, apparently from new owners who feel that what they were told is not what they signed, and are upset about that.  My problem has nothing to do with those lawsuits, and all of our interactions with Coral Resorts and staying at our timeshare  there or using our RCI points to exchange for other timeshare locations has been very pleasant and without any problems at all. We purchased at Coral Resorts in 2004, and up to now have been happy with our arrangements. These other legal actions may be making them shy away from responding to us, however, that is no justification for their actions with us.

I feel that Coral Resorts is being deceptive and unresponsive in refusing to communicate with me about the status of these two properties.  I understand that they may have been deceived by EET as was I; however, their refusal to communicate with me to try and resolve this problem appears to implicate them in the deception.  I think that ours is a relatively simple problem to resolve, which will cost them nothing, and I do not understand why they are refusing to communicate.

There is a significant time urgency to this problem, because the Hawaii resort is about to put the maintenance fees out to a collection agency and add a 25% recovery fee to the maintenance bill.  This would I am sure affect our credit rating, but that is not a real concern to me, since I only use credit as a convenience not a necessity.  If the additional fee is added, I may end up abandoning the properties rather than pay the increased fees.

I am creating this Ripoff Report in the hope that someone responsible in The Coral Resorts will see or learn of it, and contact me with a possible solution to the problem.

Donb