Complaint Review: Crown Point Time Sharing III Inc.

My husband and I were told by RCI representatives that there was a plan to help us pay for taxes and maintenance fees by cashing in unused RCI points. We were assured that, with this new plan and the extra RCI points we would receive (10,000 additional RCI points), we could convert our points to dollars to pay for our RCI taxes and maintenance fees. To clarify, David asked the agent who sold us the plan, Lisa Roderick, three times if we could cash in our unused RCI points to pay for these fees. Three times we were assured that we could. In fact, David used the number of RCI points that we currently had (plus 10,000 additional points) as a figure, asking whether they would convert to dollars to pay off these fees. We were assured that we had enough RCI points to convert for full payment of our fees.

We first had serious doubts about the veracity of this contract when we could not get answers about selling RCI points for fees. Donna called the RCI points number — 1-877-968-7476 — but the representative could not help us. Then Donna was told to call Barclay rewards & redemptions at 1-877-587-8742. Again, the representative could not help and directed Donna to an RCI agent via their phone system. After waiting, Donna spoke with another representative who could not help, but transferred her to a different department, which connected her to 1-877-587-8742, the same number she called before. After another wait, an agent finally came on the phone and explained our options.

We were told that RCI points could only be cashed in for membership fees, exchange fees, purchasing vacation-protection fees, combining deposits and points-saving fees. We can, however, exchange our RCI MasterCard points in exchange for paying taxes and maintenance fees. But we were informed that, to do so, we must spend $31,000 on the credit card to pay a mere $250 off our taxes and maintenance fees! To transfer points for fees of about $1,000 a year would require us to spend $124,000 a year on the RCI MasterCard, and that is far more than we earn in an entire year! If this program had been explained to us frankly and honestly, we would never have consented to be a part of it.

Lisa Roderick also assured us that we would receive a big catalog that would list all of the large houses and several-bedroom abodes that we could now take advantage of with a free upgrade. (This would be a different publication than the one we receive with RCI.) And we never received any information about unlimited upgrades that were supposed to be made available to us through this program.

After several weeks, when we did not receive what we were promised and we could not get any information about these assurances, we called the Crown Point Resort to talk to Lisa. We left messages on Lisa’s voicemail and talked to Lisa’s co-workers, asking that she give us a call at our home phone number. She did not respond at all, nor did any representative from Crown Point Resort. We were assured by a co-worker that she would call us back, but she never did.

RCI allows five days to rescind the contract, but we were not aware of any of these discrepancies and deceptions after only five days. This program is sold as a way to pay fees and get free upgrades, but neither of those claims has proved to be forthright.

RCI did not fulfill its contractual obligation, because we cannot take advantage of the benefits that we were assured we had purchased (converting RCI points to dollars), and we did not receive the merchandise we were promised. Signatures on a contract are reliant on the agent’s explanations, honesty and candor.

We believe that we were greatly misinformed and misled and, therefore, we want to completely rescind the contract. We understand that by canceling this contract, we revoke all rights to property at Crown Point Resort in Horseshoe Bend, Ark. We also understand that we give up the RCI MasterCard. There are no expenses on it, and we will gladly return it or cut it up.

Donna

August 18, 2014