Shell Vacations - Carriage Hills, Carriage Ridge Resorts scam, sales manager lied, very dishonest Barrie Ontario
My Fiancee and I went to the Carriage Ridge Resorts just north of Barrie for a presentation on Time Shares. We got this information from a wedding show and they offered us a free weekend stay plus 2 green fees for the golf course up there. All we needed to do was go up and sit in on a presentation...so we went.
I wasn't expecting to buy into anything they said, but they are pretty good sales people up there. They offered me a lot of free stuff and me begin stupid I went ahead and bought a time share. My fiancee wasn't 100% convinced but she left it up to me since I would be the one paying for it. We went through the buying process and all that jazz. Now the province of Ontario has a law that allows a person a 10-day "cooling" off period if you buy into real estate. They had it written in their contract and so had to uphold it. Then the sales manager comes in with her cell phone and asks if we want to open escrow...it was part of the process so we agreed. She dials a number and talks in her lingo and after says congrats...you are now a part owner.
We got home...slept on it and decided it was a mistake and that we should cancel within the 10 days. I gave them a call the next day saying that it's what we wish to do...the person I talked to said that they had to have the sales manager give us a confirmation number and that she would call me back. Fine...she calls back and tells me that since we opened escrow on it, we can't cancel. There's no where in the contract that says that and there was absolutely no paper work to back up her claim. I told her to prove it and she said that she had another person standing in the door listening when we opened escrow. I didn't see this so called person because the door was behind where we were sitting so that proves nothing.
I said fine...and hung up on her. I then called up my lawyer, told him what was going on and he said that I should have told her to f*** off and to give me back my money. He drafted up a letter basically telling them that they were in clear violation of their own contract and to retrain their staff and make sure that they are not lying to their customers.
We got our money back pretty quickly...
TLam
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Do Not Buy Shell Vacations
Shell Vacations,Alabama,
U.S.A.
Do not Buy Shell Vacations Club Time SHare. Please lets unite and let people know of this SCAM!
#5Consumer Suggestion
Sat, September 27, 2008
Lets get together and let all people through the Internet about Shell Vacations SCAM!! THE INTERNET IS POWER SO IS KNOWLEDGE!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=35918530819
This is a group for all people that have purchased Shell Vacations Club Time Share and now feel sorry after finding out that it is a total rip off!!
Lets get together and spread the word about Shell Vacations Time Share.
Shell Vacations sales staff used questionable tactics and pressure tactics to try and sell an owner/time share. They talk of 5250 "points" as if they were dollars by subtracting the $679 management fee when in fact (their words) the points were convertible to $ at a 5 to 1 ratio that is 20 cents. Now my annual 5250 pts. $1050. Minus $679 management fee is worth $371 a year.
This for $23, 000 works out to 1.6%. If the value of the points stays at 20 cents and the maintenance does not rise. Who decides the value of the points? At 13 cents /point you earn 0%.
Put your money in a G.I.C. and go where you want when you want.
J Johnson
Vancouver,British Columbia,
Canada
yes, this company has behaved dishonestly
#5Consumer Comment
Thu, June 26, 2008
I'm not quite sure what point the supposed lawyer--mispelled in his rebuttal as "lawer"--is trying to make. The original complaint was that Carriage Hills attempted to get around the right of recession--buyers have a legal right to change their minds in the first 10 days after purchase. This questionable behaviour seems to be fairly typical of the management and sales staff at Carriage Hills. We own a week at Carriage Hills and have experienced similarly unethical, dishonest behaviour. Most of the information that we were given by the salesperson was inaccurate--it is very difficult to exchange with RCI for weeks at other resorts. Yes, you can exchange, but what we learned after we attempted several times unsuccessfully to do so, is that you need to plan your vacations about two years in advance. AFter I complained to ownership services at Carriage Hills, the person who I spoke with conceded that trying to exchange even a year in advance of your planned trip is "last minute planning". The salespitch that we got when we foolishly purchased at CH was that it is just like booking a hotel...oh, yeah, except that it's always booked...Maintenance fees have gone up almost 50% since we bought in 2000. If you miss a maintenance payment they will threaten to ruin your credit rating and "foreclose" on your property. It's really a sleazy business with high pressure sales and a questionable product. Look at the literally hundreds--maybe thousands of ads on resale websites for weeks at Carriage Hills. We certainly didn't get what we thought we paid for and now we're bullied into paying ever increasing maintenance fees for something that we don't even use.
TLam
Cobourg,Ontario,
Canada
i beg to differ
#5Author of original report
Mon, March 17, 2008
Hey I admit I went into this wrong and did buy into their sales pitch. They offered me a free honeymoon and other incentives to buy into the Vacation Plan.
They didn't force me to sign...I signed on the dotted line myself. The point is that they said I had 10 days to pull out. I called within 3 days and they said I couldn't anymore. There was nowhere in the contract that it said if I opened escrow I'd be stuck. I didn't sign anything with the word escrow in it anywhere. I read the contract over and over, got my lawyer to do the same. He didn't see anything either.
I love that you're saying that I'm trying to make myself look good...and another thing...I'm the man...I was paying for it.
Russward
Barrie,Ontario,
Canada
Buyer Becareful
#5Consumer Comment
Mon, March 17, 2008
Hi guys. We all know there are two sides to every coin. Sounds like someone was very upset and is looking to point the blame on everyone else but themselves. You said you recieved all your money back.. Being a lawer I do not believe that you would have been told to say that. One short phone call and all would be corrected.
Couple of questions:
1. How did they trick you into buying?
2. Or are you easly tricked?
3. Tided up?
4. Forced to sign?
5. Bullied and locked in so you can't leave?
I believe things are far from what you claim. Just looking too make you self look good. Didn't you say I didn't care since she was paying for it. Then why are you complaining? Honey if you can read this, find a new man.