Complaint Review: Total Resort Solutions - Longwood Florida

 I was called by a guy named Joseph who initially told me I had 4 weeks of timeshare time through my Hilton Grand Vacation property at the Tuscany in Orlando available to use and he had renters prepared to pay $1800/week. I was immediately concerned, because I have not owned this property for over two years, and I told him that as far as I know, I did not have any time available. He said it was the bonus time I was given when I signed up. I had some memory of some sort of bonus transaction, so was curious. He stated that this bonus time had been transferred to RCI, so that's probably why Hilton had not made me aware of it. Later, when I thought about it more, the bonus was actually Hilton Honor points that I had deposited into my hotel loyalty account, not actual additional property time. I definitely used those points. He then went on with his sales pitch, telling me all I needed to do was pay a $299 registration fee, which was required by RCI, and would take care of the contracts and commisions between Total Resort Solutions, RCI and myself. I would pay $299 for each week they rented. This is when I got very suspicious. I started asking more questions, and he really dug himself a deeper ditch. I told him I wasn't naive, and don't hand over my credit card number to just anyone. He said after I paid the initial $299/week, then the $1800 rental fee would be sent directly to me by registered mail. I told him I'd like to call Hilton Grand Vacations to confirm this was legitimate. He said the points had been transferred to RCI so Hilton wouldn't know anything about it. So I asked for a contact # at RCI. He dodged that question. At that point, I told him I needed to do some research on his company to confirm they were legitimate, and asked for his name and phone number. He asked if he could email me a copy of the contract to review, which I agreed to. At this point, he was practically begging for me to give him my credit card number, so I hung up on him mid-sentence. Less than 10 minutes later, I got a call from the same area code, but different number. I let it go to voicemail. I had already started reading reports on Ripoff and knew my gut had served me well. I had also found a couple of complaints to the BBB. A guy named Mark, Inventory Manager, left a message. He said he had listened to the call between Joseph and I for quality purposes, and wanted to apologize for the conversation being inappropriate and that he had been reprimanded. He asked that I call him back. Are you kidding me?? I have a minor in psychology, and years of sales experience under my belt with a graduate degree in Marketing, on top of my scientific undergraduate and graduate degrees. It isn't difficult to see how they use these tactics to manipulate the consumers. This second call was a twisted attempt to earn my trust, that by in some way, if they reprimanded him and showed me they were willing to demoralize him in front of me, this makes them more creditable? When Joseph was trying to get me to give over my credit card, he stated they use an independent third party to verify the information, "which is very secure for you". This was another trigger sign that this is a scam. There is no situation where a stranger cold calls you- promising a huge return on a 6% investment up front if you hand over your credit card number, that is safe for any consumer. The key words are "stranger", "cold calls", and "credit card". Think about it.