Complaint Review: Grand Crowne Resorts

Made untrue claims- they claimed to be able to elimate the middle man thus getting a substancial lower price for hotels, codos, airline, etc. However every time we tried to use them, their price was always higher than we could get by ourselves on-line!

After a telephone solicitaiton call from Grand Crowne Resorts (where we were promised that we would not get a high pressured sales pitch for a time share and that we would get a free trip to Hawaii for just listening to them), my husband and I drove to their office in Gulfport, MS. We were taken to a small room and a young man made a (yes, it was high pressured) presentation.

He stressed that Grand Crowne wasn't just a travel company - that they had eliminated the middle man and could offer drastically reduced travel costs. He showed (he said that these were actual prices that they offered) very affordable condo and cruise prices - the condo prices were all for 1 week and there wasn't one for more than $300/wk - the cruise prices were also unreal.

We told them about wanting to travel to New Zealand soon and they said that they could save us over $4,000 on that trip alone. We ended up purchasing a membership for $4,000.

For the last 2 years, I've tried to use the services of Grand Crowne many times, but I can always find a better price by myself on-line. The condo and cruise prices that the young man quoted were never to be found again! The New Zealand trip that I booked was about $3,000 less than the best that Grand Crowne could do!

The only time that I got a better price through Grand Crowne was for 2 car rentals, but only after I told them the least expensive price on-line. When I first talked to Grand Crowne about the car rentals, the agent offered a price that was way more than what I had already found on-line. I said that I had a better price. The agent asked the address of the web site. She then found the price and beat it by a couple of dollars. When I actually got the car, they charged more than Grand Crowne quoted. I showed them my e-mail from Grand Crowne and they said they did not know the organization.

We renewed our contract last year($189) to give it one more chance since we had already thrown away $4k. Last year I found a cruise advertised in their magazine that sounded fairly good until I went on the cruise line's web site and found that I could get the cruise for less by buying directly from them.

So, we are not renewing this year. We are so mad at ourselves for falling for this scam. I called Grand Crowne today and told them that we did not wish to renew and they said that they would send us a termination contract that we had had to pay to have noterized. Please help me help other people avoid this sleazy company!

Sue
Perkinston, Mississippi
U.S.A.