Complaint Review: Flagship FantaSea Resorts & Timeshare - New Jersey

Most people are too ashamed to talk about this because they feel stupid for falling for the scam. Most people are so ashamed that they continue to shell out money they don't have to pay for 2nd mortgages and vacations that they will never take. They endure the harassment of the rude and unprofessional bullies who represent this company because they are too embarrassed to admit that they made a mistake. This is me...I made the mistake of falling into the trap that cost me almost $4,000 in one year with ZERO luxury vacations taken and a whole headache. But I'm sharing this information in hopes of saving someone else time, money and the risk of damaging your credit. 

It all started a little over a year ago when I received a phone call notifying me that I had won roundtrip airline tickets and some other too-good-to-be-true gifts from a raffle entry I entered at the mall - Lesson No.1... DO NOT enter mall raffles! Marketers use this tactic to get people to voluntarily give up their personal contact information in hopes of winning a prize that doesn't exist - that's a whole other topic...but let's move on.

After several phone conversations with NICE people, I found myself driving to FantaSea Resort in Atlantic City to pick up my so-called airline prize and to enjoy a complimentary overnight stay at the FantaSea Resort. The room was nice...nothing to write home about but we were comfortable and people were treating us like royalty - these people were full of surprises, but there would be more. 

We were told up front that in order to receive our "gifts" we had to participate in a timeshare presentation - even though we knew better, we were so excited about those free airline tickets that we decided that we could handle those timeshare salesmen. We would sit long enough to listen to to the pitch, nicely say NO, grab our gifts and be on our way - Lesson No.2...Never agree to a timeshare sales pitch in exchange for gifts or prizes; it's extremely hard to win! I won't get into the details here but for those of you who have ever sat through a timeshare presentation, you know what kind of pressure that you're dealing with. If you are one of the Strong, the "prizes" will still not be worth your time. Needless to say, we lost. And we are paying for it big time.

Over the past year, several unsuccessful attempts have been made to even contact the 3rd party travel agency let alone redeem our free airfare and travel gifts. It's virtually impossible. It was set up that way. Over the past year, we were able to stay at FantaSea using our owner rate ONCE. Every other time we tried, rooms were not available. Basically, we spent close to 4k for a one night stay in AC-epic fail. Am I embarrassed? YES. I really don't want to tell anyone that I fell for this timeshare scheme let alone explain to my kids that we wasted our family vacation money on a timeshare. (way to go, mom.) t By March 2017 I was completely done. I made up my mind that I was going to get out but it wouldn't be as easy as I thought. Actually, it feels impossible. I'm so frustrated.

By March 2017 I realized that this wasn't going anywhere and was completely done. I made up my mind that I was going to get out but it wouldn't be as easy as I thought. Actually, it feels impossible. I'm so frustrated. Sure, I could accept my fault, chalk this up as a loss and move on but what I can't accept is the level of harassment and disrespect from the representatives and staff of this company. It's really bad. A woman called me this evening and when I told her I was looking into getting out of this mortgage she turned into a monkey & started yelling and called me out of my name - a real ratchet experience! Honestly, I would not be surprised if they showed up at my house and for the record...I feel threatened.

I'm here to seek help and legal advice on getting out of this mortgage - and I want to let other families know NOT to believe the hype. It really is too good to be true. Go to a travel agent, plan your vacation and set up payment arrangements for your family travel. Don't risk your credit by taking out a mortgage for a timeshare that you can't afford. This is a serious business that could screw up your finances for a really long time - it could even roll over to your children after you are gone.

Sometimes smart people do stupid things - learn from my timeshare disaster.