what a moron i am, i fell for a timeshare scam!
 

Ok they dont call it a timeshare, they call it a "Vacation Club"

See i never liked timeshares because you lose out on all the "all inclusive" features of a resort.

But 3 days ago when in mexico i was approached at the hotel about this vacation club, which is discounted all inclusive resorts! So i was all ears.

It was explained to me to be a site much like expedia, but with much lower prices because they get their "inventory" before expedia so its not marked up. Sometimes as low as 50% lower then expedia! he went on to explain how my trip that i just spent $2700 on would have only costed me $1100 if i was a member of this club.

Then as an added bonus, he gave us a free trip in 2007 for aruba for 7 nights all expenses paid.

So it took 3 days for my member id # to be processed and now i have access to the site, it is exactly like expedia ... even the prices!

So what can i do? I paid them $2000 on a credit card. If i dispute it wont it be an issue that they are in another country?

If i say it was an unauthorized charge the vendor can produce my signitures.

I was planning on calling CC company and stating that the services promised were not delivered, but when reading the contract it doesnt actually state the prices would be lower .. it just says i am paying a membership fee to join a club.

So how can i dispute this? Id appreciate any help.

Ha. Sounds like you overpaid for 7 nights in Aruba.

hmm you got what you paid for as far as i can tell didnt you.. you said it was explained to you as a site like expedia except "sometimes" things can be as much as %50 off , and you got a site just like expedia with "sometimes" prices lower than %50 off..

Ahahahahahahahahahaha. I also love how you used the word "costed." It just adds to the hilariousness.

i think you're pretty well pwned.

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no, there is no difference at all between this site and expedia, as far as prices.

and he said ALL trips would be discounted, but "sometimes lower as much as 50% lower". but this is nowhere in m contract so i cant really say services not delivered, can i?

Any hope in disputing this?

How's your dad doing?

wow some memory bro! Thanks for asking. Actually he is still in a wheelchair and its looking to be more permanant than we had hoped. He has movement and limited feeling in his legs, but nothing below the shin ... leaving walking impossible.

i spent a fortune remodeling the house to be wheelchair ready, so he is making it around ... but its something you just dont get used to, ya know?

So what can i tell my CC company to convince them to reverse these charges?

they are so damn smart, they hit you after a week of drinking, lol. im such a dope!!!

hahaha i went to one of those time share seminars with the hardsale pitch. I happened to be dating someone 60 miles away and the seminar was half way there so i left early and dropped by. Needless to say I bought nothing and didnt win the damn car. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

Poor guy..good to hear he's pluggin along and hopefully his spirit will stay strong

So what can i tell my CC company to convince them to reverse these charges?

help! lol. i dont even mind spending the money if the shit was legit, but its all BS and a total scam. now how can i get m money back?

spunky, thanks very much for the concern

One of the legit reasons for a chargeback is "not getting what you paid for" from the merchant.

Call the credit card issuer and tell them you didn't get what you thought you paid for !

Just tell them you were scammed. I've never charged anything back, but I've always been under the impression that it's not that hard.

Or tell them you were in another country and the language barrier made it hard to understand exactly what was being offered. Even if the guy was an American (most of them are), lie and say he spoke broken English and after you were charged you realized it was not what you thought you were getting.

Step one, you have to tell the company that they have not lived up to their end of the agreement, that is, the prices were not as advertised, and that you would like a refund.

If they don't refund, then contact the credit card company. Do not lie. Explain what was advertised and what was received. You can charge back based on this. Once you start saying "i didn't understand" or "language barrier" etc etc etc. you head into felonious fraud. Don't do that.

This is a clear cut example of a legitiment chargeback for failure to render advertised service.

all trips are discounted , from their inflated rates.. you gotta watch out for wording like that.. if i raise my prices by 25% the lower them by 20% they are still 5% higher but i can say " every price is discounted" and all they have to do is discount 2 or 3 strange routes by 50% to say "some as much as 50%"

the only way to dispute it is to lie , if they lied to you then do it back if you feel its warranted and say you have no idea who they are. dont worry about the signature

Don't lie.

shoot yourself in the dome....save yourself from another incident like this

That is illegal in the US. FTC, if I recall.

Just had our guys do some research on this for an e-commerce site we run. :winkwink:

thanks all, im gonna give it a shot. i sent the vendor an email asking for a refund after furthur consideration. hopefully they respond today adn i know where they stand

kill yourself now

fuck you idiot

being dumb has always a price...



:thumbsup

chargeback - I would

if he said 50% off and its expedia then that sucks balls big time. I never understood why ppl do timeshares, some are like 10-20k at least and its never gonna be your own.

hate fooking scammers like that. No such thing as a free lunch! Unless u got a coupon or something! lol

the guys who sell this shit and timeshares are soooo good. for every 1 argument you have, they have 10 for you. So many ppl fall for it, because they just win you over with their "logic". I don't blame you that you fell for it. I almost did. The best thing one can do to protect oneself from this sorta thing, is never start talking to them in the first place!

as for charging it back, should be easy. You didn't get what you paid for. The end.

I remember my timeshare fiasco. A cousin of mine invited me over to Italy to spend some time with her family. Their villa was in the northern tip of Liguria, Italy, a stone's throw away from the Aegean. We got to fish for own lunch and dinner. It was really a wonderful place to have a vacation.

One day while I was wading in the beach, this really hot chick in a Versace two-piece just happened to bump into me. Seeing that she had no male or even female companion, I chatted her up so we can have a glass of grappa and salumi by the villa.

It turns out she was a "timeshare" consultant from France. She was here on vacation to see for herself if the vacation homes of her clients were worth their salt in the brochures. She even offerred a tour of the place the next day. Seeing that I'd rather score, I said I'd love to meet up with her. I gave her my address and she told me she would pick me up from the villa.

The next day, she arrived promptly and picked me up not with a car, but with this really sleek looking Vespa -- those scooters Italians use to go around the countryside. Impressed but looking forward to have my way with her, I was docile every step of the way.

We travelled around twenty five minutes off the coast and had stopped by this really decrepit old place. But the view was amazing! We parked the Vespa into a nearby olive tree and walked towards an old house that looked it had seen better years. But if it was properly fixed, it would be one good-looking piece of real estate. She had a key with her and told me to follow her inside. By this time, she had this conspiratorial look on her face. I read it as friskiness.

She led me to the old rusted gate and towards the main entrance which was a huge oak door that had been sculpted with the letters "H" and "V". I was already sweating in anticipation. My throat is getting dry and my boner had started to assert itself beneath my trousers.

When we got in, I noticed that the foyer was still in good condition. A bit shabby but still liveable. The girl quietly looked at me from head to toe and licked her lips. She was standing against the door. She told me to take off my clothes, which I did in record time. When I thought she was to take off hers, she pointed a small pistol at me, took my pants with my wallet and locked me inside the villa.

I spent the entire evening at that house. Good thing, some townspeople heard my cries for help. One farmer -- bless his soul -- lent me his trousers and offerred to take me to where my cousins were. I was just glad I wasn't hurt. But I didn't tell her what happened to me that day.

So lesson learned: STAY AWAY FROM TIME SHARE!

haha funny story.. i'll tell you your first mistake.. if a girl tells you to get naked and your suspicious, start by undressing her..:2 cents:

If a hot girl tells a guy to undress, 99 out of 100 do it without thinking. Unless they're gay or something. :1orglaugh

Man that sucks.... paid that much to join a club?

sorry i have to bump this!!! this story is toooooo funny! :)

You call the company that shammed you. You write down name's, times, dates. You tell them you were misled, and want a refund.

If they refuse, then you explain that you will either get a refund from them or through your bank. At this point, some fold, some don't.

If they refuse, you call your bank. They do a chargeback, and send you a form. You take time to write out your complaint, and story with times, and dates. Send it back to them w/i the 10 or 14 days they specify.

End of problem.

However, the company could come after you on your credit report. Claiming that you agreed to this. I've heard of some companies doing it to get you to fold if your credit's important to you.

That's typically not the case in a true sham, as that involves the "law". But it is an option they have all the same.

I belong to the Hyatt Vacation Club ....... i went for the 5 year payoff so my monthly rates are a little higher than the normal 10 year payoff but it is pretty sweet

i have used in atleast 4 times in the last year and have yet to pay for a single hotel and they all have been amazing hotels :)

it's paid for its self

here is the link : http://www.hyatt.com/hvc/index.jhtml

What's WORSE is, you admitted it here...

UPDATE

I sent the company an email saying after furthur consideration i would like to not proceed, and would like info regarding a full refund of my money ... no response since thursday.

I called m CC company and they said they cannot begin a dispute until the charge was cleared, BUT the charge had not yet been cleared so they suggested that if i change my CC number it might prevent it from going through .. so i did, and they cancelled the old number.

So monday im going to call back and either the charge would have been declined, or cleared. if it went through i will begin dispute.

thats where i stand.

a good tip with timeshare tours is to request to take the contract home to review it......and guess what: they won't let you....which means they are the ones in effect saying 'no' and you get to leave with cash and a bunch of goodies!

wow, you serious dude?

It's not quite the same, but I had a run-in with a really shady domain registrar (Instra Corp out of Australia) during the .eu landrush. They claimed to be registering couple dozen names I'd requested, charged me, said they were "confirmed"... but just to be safe, I registered them with EuroDNS at the same time, and nearly all came back available... and ultimately, they all registered with EuroDNS.

Instra refused to refund my money, claiming that their fine print said "no refunds, only credit on other domain names." They said if I charged it back, they'd show my approval of their TOS, etc.

I wrote a very detailed letter to my card issuer, explaining how landrush worked, why they misrepresented the situation and didn't make clear what the deal was... and won the chargeback.

The impression I got is that if it's a foreign charge, your US card issuer is more likely to be able to sustain the chargeback.

What you'll want to do is read Visa regs (available at visa.com) and find out exactly what Visa rules they violated (basically, they did not provide you what they promised, but there are probably other violations too), quote those rules by section number and verbiage, and submit that in writing.

Remember that the person reviewing the chargeback is LaQueesha who makes 10 bucks an hour working in some cubicle with a rule book that she reads and applies to your situation. If you give them a well-thought-out explanation, complete with exact info on how it violates Visa regulations, then it's easier for LaQueesha to just approve your chargeback than to try to argue that the charge is justified. That's what I've found, anyway.

Well maybe not,it was the same here in Norway ,with some scammers who bought "appartments" but here is a good point :

If you paid with your creditcard ,then check with your bank ,cos here we have a low that says , that if you can have some evidence ,that this is a financial fraud ,and you payed with your credit card ,then you will get a refund on this one....

This law is the law the banks will not tell you or talk about,but have to find it out yourself.

So check your creditcard and your bank, it may not be lost at all ...