Complaint Review: Hometown Property Management

On January 14, 2005 we entered into a rental agreement for a 3bedroom/2bath home in "The Villages" in Florida for January and February 2006. We made a deposit of $500. which was charged to our credit card on Jan. 17, 2005. This rental agreement was for $1500.00 for the month of January 2006 and $2500 for the month of February 2006. The salesman assured us that we were locked in at these prices even if they had a future increase. (These were the 2005 rates and by purchasing right away they would be honored in 2006.

We received our confirmation for the above which they sent out on January 18, 2005. On March 5th we received a letter telling us that the salesman had made an error and they could not honor this pricing. They were going to raise our January rate to $2500 also. I called and spoke with the salesman,and also the Customer Service Supervisor, Gary Brady and related all of the above to them. Gary Brady maintained that the $1500 was just a special promotional rate for January 2005. I stated that our salesman had said it was for 2005 but if we paid the deposit then we would still get this rate. We did have this rate for 2 months and then they wished to change it. We maintain that Roger Trafton is an employee and representative of Hometown Management so they must honor this confirmed rate. We are gettng no satisfaction from Hometown management and would like to know if you can help us. Does this qualify as a Bait & Switch? Please advise.

Robert
Lake City, Minnesota
U.S.A.