Complaint Review: Fairfield Resorts

I was employed for all of one day for Fairfield Resorts in San Diego, CA. After that one day of training, which included being instructed to inaccurately describe what prospective time share buyers would get for their buck, i.e., they were to be shown only the most luxurious, high-end accommadations, when, in actual fact, most, if not all, who would eventually buy would be lodged in rooms that in no way resembled the wonderful suites they saw in the marketing photos.

This made me very suspicious. I decided to check out "complaints" against Fairfield Resorts online, and with the click of a mouse, up popped dozens and dozens of very unhappy Fairfield owners, many who had lost a lot of money by being suckered into this reprehensible firm.

This being the case, I did not feel I could work for such a company, who big as it is, needs to resort to ugly high pressure tactics, trickery, and downright lies.

So, instead of reporting in to work today, I sent the following email to Maria Berilla, Marketing Manager of Fairfield Resorts, Inc. in San Diego, who was also my boss.

Now, it was bad enough that this company is so unsavory, but to top it all off, and GET THIS....when I awoke this morning, I had an email from Cendant (the parent company of Fairfield, and owner of a multitude of national and international companies that we are all familiar with...it almost seems Cendant controls half the companies in the country!), saying the following email I sent to Marie Berilla had been BLOCKED!!!, and that Ms Berilla has never even seen this email! Cendant said the reasons for the BLOCK were that it had "inappropriate material" and/or language content. Now, IMAGINE, Cendant and Fairfield Resorts actually CENSORS and READS all mail that is sent to its employees. THEY decide what gets through and what does not get through!!! Is this just the beginning of a world, more specifically, is this the beginning of what will be the norm in the United States of America; where EVERYONE's mail will be read and censored by some "Big Brother," and the people of this country will be restricted in what they are able to say. I have read that all email in China IS censored and read before it ever gets to the intended recipient, but, my god, this is the USA...supposedly we still have freedom of speech. I wonder how long it is before this is no longer the case.

This sends chills up and down my spine, and scares the h**l out of me; that the world is coming to this, and that the powers that be, in this case, Cendant and Fairfield Resorts, is actually CONTROLLING what their employees are allowed to read. Spooky...spooky...

Read the letter I wrote early this morning to Ms Berilla, and you be the judge if it should have been blocked, as if anyone has the write to block anyone's email but the person who happens to have that email address:

Dear Marie,

In all good conscience, I am afraid I cannot work for a company that has so many awful complaints as I have discovered Fairfield Resorts has. Much of what is written here makes it very clear that Fairfield Resorts resorts to just about any underhanded tactic they choose in order to make a sale; practices that I thought had ceased years ago in the early, SLEEZY years of the time-share business. I was quite disturbed by what these people wrote, and have no reason whatsoever to disbelieve their experiences with Fairfield. One of these posts is as recent as a couple days ago, so this seems to still be your "modus operendi."

Just to let you know what precipitated my researching this information, I shall share that with you: Your mumbled reference to the $20 to be taken from each prospective buyer bothered me. It bothered me for two reasons: first, you never mentioned it when we had our initial meeting, and when you mentioned it this past Saturday, you brought it up so very, very briefly, almost as if you did not really want to talk about it, and you did not talk about it. I thought to myself...what in h**l is this $20 buck thing?...I mean it was obvious what it was all about...when a prospect agrees to appear for a presentation, they are REQUIRED to leave a deposit of $20, which, of course, is the Fairfield way of assuring that the individual will show up as they promised to do. Well, I thought, HOW TACKY IS THAT!!! TWENTY LOUSY BUCKS RANSOMED SO THEY SHOW UP!!! I meditated on the whole idea of asking for that "deposit," and for the life of me I could not come up with anything other than it was a total insult to the prospect. I thought of everything I could say to them, and NOTHING sounded right. I began to feel empathy for the potential customer, and I thought to myself that if I had made up my mind to attend the seminar, the minute that I was asked for a $20 deposit, that would have spelled THE END; I would have been so turned off by such a cheap, tasteless, classless way of insuring me to show up. I thought to myself that it wouldn't matter if I were a multi-millionare or just marginally reaching your required yearly income, that you REQUIRE someone to leave MONEY, any amount of money, when it is Fairfield that is doing the selling, and the customer is doing the buying, and by attempting to CONTROL these people by taking their money was just ludicrous...and something I would NEVER do, for any reason, as it is so DEVOID, from the very beginning of the sale, of any sense of TRUST or HONESTY. You ASSUME that those people won't show unless you take their money. Let me tell you something...if I were one of those people who was obedient, and did give the twenty bucks, by about half an hour after i had handed over the 20 bucks, i would be beginning to have a very bad taste in my mouth, I would be telling my husband that that was a crazy practice, and i didnt like it. It may surprise you but $20 bucks is not that much money to lose, and I bet you a month's pay that many, many people who have paid that 20 buck "deposit" have never shown up for the presentation, and have never bothered to call, and ask for their money back either. Hell, they are staying out in Mission Valley, or La Jolla, and Horton Plaza is a nightmare of a mall for parking, and for just getting from level to level, as we both know well. And, I am sure that once many of those people have returned to the security of their hotel room, and are far from the madding crowd of downtown San Diego, the last thing they want to do is return to that traffic snarl; they simply decide they really don't want to be put through the torture of a time share presentation, and they chalk up the loss of the 20 bucks as simply part of their vacation expenses, and soon forget all about it (except I bet they tell their friends that Fairfield ripped 'em off for $20! Not quite true...but nontheless, bad, bad PR for Fairfield....you REALLY shouldn't be so cheap, hell, if they don't show they don't show..don't trip over it...after all, you're a big, big monster of a company, and you can afford to be less cheezy, and greedy and untrusting...I repeat, it is a VERY BAD policy, and the money you THINK you save in the short run, you LOSE in the long run...I would drop this in your company "suggestion box," Maire...but do it anonymously, you wouldn't want to get canned now would you!).

I decided that the only way I would book people for presentations was by ME paying out of my own personal pocket book the 20 buck deposit. But, then i realized that at the end of the presentation "Mr Jones," or whatever the prospect's name was, would be presented with their "refund" of that $20, and this would have been most confusing to the prospect, and, therefore, I would eventually be found out. All I knew is that it was too TACKY for me to ask for such a deposit, I wouldn't and I won't. So this is what got me wondering if Fairfield had this scummy policy, what else might I find on them that would be of a derogatory nature. So, I went to Google and typed in "Fairfield Resorts" COMPLAINTS, and whatcha know but up pop hundreds of complaints, and lawsuits, and people who want to file class action lawsuits against Fairfield Resorts for lying, cheating, stealing, and just being total sons of bitches to a lot of different unrelated people who have no reason to write such letters unless they had such unpleasant experiences with your company.

I am sure you have many happy campers as well, but you have too many unhappy people for my taste. There are just too many reports of lack of ethics, lack of integrity, trickery, insulting, and demeaning sales pitches, for me to ever represent your company. Being in the "frontline" as you call employees who do what I would be doing, I would feel responsible for initiating business deals that would often make people unhappy, and sometimes make them lose money they did not have to lose/ So I find it absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to assist anyone, or any entity, that is on record for STEALING (even if it has been done LEGALLY) funds from anyone, and your company is GUILTY of doing that to some of its customers.

A few, much less important reasons I cannot work for Fairfield have to do with YOU, Marie. First of all, you shake hands with me on a Saturday, saying that I am hired. Then the following Tuesday I believe, you have me come in and give me the stuff to go over and take the drug test. You tell me on that Tuesday that the person who handles the background check will be back that Friday, and that I will start working the following Tuesday. That Tuesday passes, and no word from you, so now it has been TEN FULL DAYS since I have been told I have been hired. So that same Tuesday I email you simply saying that I had not heard from you, and I was just wondering since I had not heard from you, and I was supposed to start working that day, if you had changed your mind about hiring me. Then i get back a rather curt email telling me to be patient, it will take "a couple more days." So a "couple more days" pass, and it is now Thursday, and not a word from you. It is now almost TWO FULL WEEKS since I have been supposedly hired, and not a word. Then, Fruday, I get a REALLY rude and poorly written email from you saying something like "training starts tomorrow...I hope you show up...". WHAT LACK OF RESPECT IS THAT!!! I mean, I am given less than 12 hours notice to show up for work, after not one word from you for TWO WEEKS!!! How tacky is that!!!

So, Saturday I get paid 8 lousy bucks an hour for 5 hours, then Sunday and Monday pass, and I do not work, and I am not paid. Then, I am supposed to show up this morning for another few hours at 8 bucks an hour, and have to pay close to one hour's pay, just for parking! Then you made no mention of work on Wednesday, so I had other things planned, as I am not "at your service" at your whim; sorry, but that just ain't my style. Then Thursday, no work either other than the hour or so "mock" presentation, which I seriously doubt would in any way be anything like what the real customers have to suffer through.

So what do i make on Thursday, maybe two hours "work"...$16 buck GROSS, with five bucks going to Horton Plaza. So ALMOST THREE FULL WEEKS HAVE PASSED SINCE I HAVE BEEN TOLD I HAVE THE JOB, and I have made all of less than $100 bucks GROSS pay. OK so MAYBE Friday, Saturday and Sunday I OBSERVE "your way" of selling, so i am STILL making the totally "non-living" wage of $8 bucks an hour, and that is all, and if you look at it from the date I was offered the job till I would be getting my first paycheck, it would be FIVE FULL WEEKS!!! I dont know about you, but I require paychecks more often than every five weeks, as I must buy food, gas, rent and cigarettes.

The final two things that actually ARE very important reasons why I cannot for the world continue with this job are that first, you say you have been in the hotel/resort/timeshare business for what is it, 14 or 16 years, or something like that. Why is it then that after all these years you DO NOT KNOW HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE WORD "CONCIERGE"? Sorry, but maybe it is just the scholar in me, but I am a real stickler for proper pronunciation, and you must have repeated mispronouncing "concierge" a half dozen times last Saturday. I mean, I was truly SHOCKED that no one has ever tried to correct your mispronunciation, especially since it is a word that you must use every day. Frankly, it just doesn't look too impressive when someone in your position cannot prounouce this simple word. If i were you and I really wanted to rise in your company, it would be smart of you to humble yourself a little, or just go over to another five star hotel, without your Fairfield uniform on of course, and just ask a friendly-looking concierge there the proper pronunciation; I guarantee they will be delighted to enlighten you, and you won't sound like....welll. Why not try the W, they are pretty hip over there, and then you will pronounce it correctly, and your colleagues, and especially your bosses, might be impressed, and eventually give you a raise. I guarantee if you continue to mispronounce "concierge," especially the WAY you mispronounce the word (it is like fingernails running down a chalkboard...THAT is how irritating it is, so irritating and a real indication that you are not a professional, and that you have gotten away with such an absurd way of pronouncing this common resort term, makes it one of the REAL reasons besides all the ugly complaints I read, as why I cannot continue working for Fairfield Resorts).

The other important reason I could really never work for your company has to do with the "uniform" you provide. The jacket I was given is unflattering, as it is too small and makes a horrible impression in the area of dress and customer service, and my ability to sell. I excel at sales, but not if I am wearing an outfit that makes a very poor impression not only to me but to potential buyers.

I have attempted to be as clear and honest as I possibly can be regarding this matter. I hope you can appreciate my position.

I shall drop by all the stuff you handed out to me during last Saturday's training sessions, as well as the two PINK polo shirts, and the ill-fitting jacket your provided me with, I shall do this...JUST AS SOON AS I RECEIVE AN EMAIL FROM YOU INFORMING ME THAT MY PAYCHECK OF $8/HOUR X 5 HOURS IS READY AT YOUR FIFTH STREET LOCATION FOR PICK UP. PLEASE DON'T DEDUCT ANY INSURANCE, OR 401K, OR ANY OTHER, BUT THE MOST BASIC DEDUCTIONS, AS I HAVE NOT, AND OBVIOUSLY SHALL NOT, BE SIGNING UP FOR ANY OF THE BENEFITS THAT FAIRFIELD RESORTS PROVIDE.

AND, BEFORE I RETURN ANYTHING, I WANT THE OPPORTUNITY TO SEE MY PAYCHECK, AND MAKE SURE THAT NOTHING BUT THE BASICS HAVE BEEN DEDUCTED, AND CERTAINLY NO SORT OF FAIRFIELD DEDUCTIONS, OR YOU WILL NOT BE GETTING ANY OF THE MATERIAL, OR CLOTHING RETURNED.

I look forward to hearing from you at your convenience, or whenever my piddly little paycheck is ready for me to pick up.

Thanks for the chance to see how you operate, although it was drawn out for way too long, it was a new experience, and I happen to believe ALL experiences, no matter how bizarre, are if nothing else, meant to be.

Sincerely,

Joyce
San Diego, California
U.S.A.