Complaint Review:
Timber Lodge RV Resort
Timber Lodge RV Resort Timber Lodge RV Resorts, Inc Lifetime Membership Reload Scam Apple Valley, Minnesota
RVers: This is a good story to tell. It is about a Timber Lodge RV, Inc which is in good standing in Minnesota and operates a RV campground in New Waverly Texas.
Timber Lodge GAVE me a Free Charter Membership and included a Retail Sales Contract, which I did not read carefully. Timber Lodge claimed the only obligation was dues.
Of course Timber Lodge claims full disclosure and the contract is clearly within industry standards.
Well, not a dollar amount is listed in the contract for the following fees: Initiation Fee, Transfer Fee, Life time membership Fee, Interest, Collection Fee, Annual Percentage Rate, Finance Charges, Advertising Costs, Commissions, or administrative costs. All are undisclosed fees. There are references to "charges and fees" in the contract, but nothing specific. Since these are unpublished, Timber Lodge can raise fees as they see fit.
Some call this the "Reload Scam" and this is how it works:
Member is required to keep the membership for 48 months.
Member is required to sell, will, or dispose of the membership with Timber Lodge getting a transfer fee(5% of initiation fee).
The same membership is RELOADED for the company from one member to the next, but it does expire on the death of the 4th holder. That's minimum of a 16 year contract with Timber Lodge collecting dues and transfer fees.
When trying to negotiate a resolution, in the case of illness or being disabled, Timber Lodge demands a fee.
If your try and negotiate thru Better Business Bureau of Minn., Timber Lodge takes you to the point of arbitration and then declines to arbitrate. BBB closes you case.
Timber Lodge claims the life time contract and reports non payment to credit bureaus and collection agencies.
All you can expect from this company is a strict interpretation of the contract, there way. Be advised they don't care if you can't sell your membership, you become disabled or can't use the membership, they insist you pay your dues for a life time and don't mind ruining your credit.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Administation
New Waverly,Texas,
USA
Basil Deem Response
#2UPDATE Employee
Mon, January 28, 2013
Our records indicate M/M Basil Deem purchased a membership to our resort in May 2005. That the membership agreement is an industry standard agreement. That no representations were made other than the membership agreement.
That the agreement provides for annual membership dues payments due on the first day of June each year. That monthly statements were sent requesting this payment in May June and July of 2012. That is our company policy accounts that become this delinquent are sent to Monterey Financial for enforced collections.
That on September 14, 2011 M/M Deem contacted our office requesting cancellation of the agreement. That on September 16, 2011 they were provided with several option in which to cancel. That the guaranteed resale and prepayment program options are not provisions of the agreement but were offered in good faith in order to accommodate their request to cancel the agreement.
That additional options were also provided including, but not limited to, advertising the membership on their own using a variety of recommended media methods such as Craigs List, Ebay, RV periodicals and local newspaper classified advertisements or including the membership when selling their recreational vehicle. We provided all the information and methods successfully used by other members in the past. That some of these advertising methods can be done with little or no cost to the member. We question of these options which ones, if any, did they pursue?
That in April 2012 we did cancel the membership pursuant to a Mutual Release.
That we believe M/M Deem are in violation now of the Mutual Release to the extent they continue to post negative and damaging information on the Internet through sites such as this one. That we take these matters very seriously. The owner of this site bears no responsibility for information posted on this site only the individual(s) posting the information. That the web site owners have no responsibility to verify the information posted whether legal binding agreements exist between the parties etc. The owner of the site will not delete or modify the information posted. That our legal team has concluded research confirming only the individual(s) posting the material are liable. That the owner of the web site has little to no interest in protecting consumers only is interested in attracting high traffic to the site to use to sell advertising and generate other sources of income. That the only way Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines will delete this information is through a court order. We caution anyone considering using this forum to be sure the information is accurate, not intended to damage and no legal binding agreement exists between the parties.