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Royal Club Resorts - Royal Club Intl - Andre Muran - Ana Gersenyi - Jade Gronemeyer - Richard Nesbitt ripoff Breach of contract, false representation, lies lies lies lies and more lies, conned me out of $4500 and refuse to provide services. Canmore Alberta
My husband and I attended an information session at the Banff Gate Lodge & Spa in November of 2002. Richard Nesbitt walked us through the contract agreement and explained the financing agreement. He made it very clear that it was critical that we make our payments on time. If we did not, we would be refused travel privleges. He assured us however, that as long as we made our payments on time and never missed- we could travel at any time.
Nesbitt reccomended to us however that we hold off traveling in the first year. He explained that if we saved our 9000 points from our first year in the club, we could use them along with the 9000 points from our second year. Further, we could borrow 9000 from a future year leaving us with the opportunity to take our family on a beautiful vacation worth 27,000 points in 2004. We were going to suprise our kids with a family trip to Disneyland this year.
When we called the office in February of this year to book travel, we were told by Stephanie Pelshea that we would not be allowed to use our membership until all of our financing was paid out in full!
I explained to Stephanie what Richard Nesbitt told us. She said she would have him call me to straighten things out. I still have not heard from Nesbitt. (I have called over and over and each time I am told "I don't know why he didn't call you...I will have him call you first thing in the morning."
I called the Lodge to learn who Richard Nesbitt's boss was. I was told that Andre Muran is the CEO/Director and that Nesbitt only answers to him. The girl on the phone said timidly "what are you going to do with that information?" I told her that I was going to write a letter of complaint to Andre Muran. Suddenly, she cheerfully volunteered "Oh, you can fax that to our office" (it seemed odd to me) I asked when Muran was in the office. Michelle said that he was in and out of the Canmore and Edmonton offices.
I said something about wanting to reach him and Michelle said "Well, Stephanie and Richard share a fax machine with Andre, so if you fax it to them, they will make sure he gets it" (I'm not sure if Michelle is stupid or if she thought I was). I asked Michelle "What is the fax number for the Edmonton office?". She stammered "Um, er...that number just changed so I don't know it".
I mailed my letter to Muran on March 4, 2004.
Having not heard back from him by mid March, I filed a complaint with the BBB. The BBB tried to reach Muran to have him respond to my complaint- he just ignored them...and me.
Next, the automatic payment to the club- which had NEVER failed to come out of my account before- mysteriously did not come out of my account on the authorized date. (odd)
March 23 I contacted a local media station...I won't get into the details of what is happening with that...but you can watch for the piece on CFCN.
I contacted RCI North American CEO David Pontius. At that point, I still thought that I had bought into an RCI membership (not the case- RCI is not Royal Club International) I suspect that it was a call from the RCI office that prompted Muran to call me on March 26th since on the 25th I received an email from the RCI office saying that they had been in touch with the Banff Gate Lodge & Spa and that they had assured the N.A. office that I had been contacted to resolve the issue. (it would seem that Muran told them I had already been contacted, then called me the next day)
Muran gave me the run around and then tried to convince me that I shouldn't worry about the legalities, what was important was that my family and I go out to the Banff Gate Lodge & Spa for a couple days and enjoy some quality time with Muran and his staff. I tried several times to get him to address the represetnation made by Nesbitt that we could travel at any time as long as our payments were made on time. I couldn't get the guy to respond to anything. He just kept insisting "those are legal issues, we can deal with them later. What is important right now is that you and your family come out to the lodge...you need to get away. Lets deal with those legal issues later" He claimed that I signed a promissory note which stated that I had to be paid in full prior to being permitted to travel. (he did fax me a promissory note- which is different than the one I have)
Then started the emails. I emailed Muran wanting to know why he and his staff were dealing with me in such a suspiscious manner and insisting that I was entitled to what Nesbitt represented to us. Muran would not respond to that. Instead, he emailed me and (using red bold letters to emphasize the correct words) said that someone in their accounting department brought it to his attention that my account was in arrears! (I don't know why out of 4000 clients, someone in the accounting dept. suddenly felt compelled to bring my file to his attention) He said that he would not deal with my complaint until the outstanding balance was paid. He told me to contact Ana Gersenyi right away to clear up the debt...so I did.
Ana is not the sharpest crayon in the box. She told me that I had an outstanding balance of $400. for club dues. (up until this point, I had never received an invoice for any club dues nor had I received any phone calls for outstanding club dues) So I asked Ana "When club dues become payable, do you send an invoice?" She said that she did.
So I said "Ok, when you send an invoice, and the client does not respond by sending money, do you call them?"... as the call went on, Ana started blurthing out statements like "Well, I'm not lying, I don't make things up!" and "I only deal with club dues I don't deal with Promissory notes" (I had not suggested she was lying nor did I ask her to deal with something other than the club dues she claimed I owed) But my favorite blurt from Ana was "I don't want you to think that I am like the people in the other departments, I'm not like them!" (Yikes!)
Ana faxed me 2 invoices, and a statement of account. The statement of account had 3 separate dates listed for one invoice. The due date on the statement was March 29 (the same date Muran suddenly realized that my account was in arrears) There were other discrepancies- but I won't bore you. Sufice it to say that it seemed quite obvoius that they made up the debt and forged the documents thinking that I would refuse to give them any more money- which would get them off the hook. Muran could refuse to deal with my complaint if my account was in arrears...
So I gave Ana my credit card number and told her to process the full amount. Then I contacted Muran and insisted once again that he deal with my complaint. Muran pretended that he didn't know what I was talking about! I asked Muran why I was required to pay club dues if I am not permitted to use my membership...no response. I wanted to know why they suddenly didn't take my payment in March...no response but they did decide to put the payment through on April 1st (a date they are not authorized to take money from my account) They made my mortgate cheque bounce. I emailed Muran and demanded he reimburse the money and cover the NSF fees. He referred me to Jade Gronemeyer.
Jade is also not among the sharpest crayons in the box. She decided to explain to me why my payment was not taken from my account on March 15th. (ready?) she said "your lean payment was late just as all other loans on this date"...??
I emailed her back and asked "What happened that all loans were late?" she replied "The reason was simply, computers. I'm sure you can sympathize". I just couldn't help myself. I wrote back and asked "What happened to the computers? Was it at all the banks?" Her reply was "...these conversations are becoming very time consuming, please forward receipts for the ammount we owe"
So I responded "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you had a real legitimate reason you could provide me with" And now for the finale...Jade must have thought this reply was really good because she took time to carbon copy it to Muran: "I find it very funny that you want to disagree with everything this company does. We are more than willing to refund the payment you claim is not payable by yourselves. This should be all that you require. Due to privacy issues I cannot and will not discuss "other loans" with you as I would not discuss your loan with any other client.
I assure you our loans are completely private and confidential and therefore the "legitimate reason" you are looking for is private. I danced around this issue with you because you are so upsetable but I assure you that this company has done nothing wrong.
Please pass my name to your investigators, perhaps they will not be so quick to waste my time with regards to issues that are of a private nature.
Jade Gronemeyer
Accounts Receivable"
Impressive isn't it?
To this day, they have not refunded those monies.
Most recently, I emailed Ana and asked her to fax me copies of the invoices again. She did and although they share the same invoice numbers as the ones she faxed me in March- the due date on the invoice they claimed had to be paid right away (March 29) now has a due date of June 11...I also just received a copy of the same invoice in the mail- due date is the end of July!
I have asked repeatedly for a statement of my account. They just ignore me.
I filed a lawsuit against them. I am very much looking forward to hearing Ana and Jade testify...it should be very entertaining.
La velle
Calgary, Alberta
Canada
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