Realty Trade

I signed the contract in August 2008 with Realtytrade.com and paid close to $900. The first six months, I didn't get any offers and I forgot to contact them before my contract expired to get my refund. They re-listed my timeshare. I lowered my price a couple of times so that I can sell the timeshare quickly. I was notified by email that there was a potential buyer. I contacted the person by email several times, but no response. And there was another potential buyer and no response from that person.

I contacted Realtytrade.com and questioned their potential buyers and they gave me some excuses. I listed my timeshare in Cabo San Lucas for $3,900, which is really cheap compared to what the resort is selling for. But I didn't get any real buyer. Today, I called the 800 number for Realtytrade.com to lower the price even more so that I don't have to pay the maintenance fees since I never use my timeshare. The number was disconnected and no longer in service. What do I do now? Where can I get my refund?

This is much like the other complaints about Realty Trade. They string you along after taking your money, provide no real offers and false email contacts for supposedly interested parties, etc. Now their phone number is down so I can't even contact them & the website doesn't pull up my ad. I want my guaranteed refund on the fee!

Mr. ** assured me that he had a buyer for my timeshare and that all I needed to do was register with him. I even had a buyer whom I knew put in a bid for my timeshare and he has never contacted me. Realty Trade is a scam and I want my money back. I lost $700 and I am retired on a fixed income.

I can't believe you have an advertisement on your site for them. What are you trying to do? Help them scam more people into selling their timeshare with them? Telemarketed by them which I didn't know was illegal in Florida and now I do. I was also talked into giving them my credit card # over the phone which is also illegal in Florida. I was told that they could sell my timeshare within 6 months. If I got no offers by email in 6 months I would get a refund. So I signed a contract and paid them $1295.

So six months went by and I got no offers. So I read the fine print and it said I had to send a refund request letter within 10 days of contract expiration date. I did that and I even called to make sure they got it and they said they did and I will be receiving my refund within 5 to 10 days; that I was already in processing. My husband called and Jason told him they never received it after they told me they did, so that was a lie. My husband told them he had a copy and it had the transmission date on it and it said they received it. So my husband sent it to them as they requested and they told him, yes, we will be receiving a refund and it is now two months and no refund!

My husband keeps calling them but they don't pick up or they keep hanging up on him after they ask him what his name is. They know who we are so they don't talk to us. We have filed complaints about them to whoever we had but in the meantime I have to pay that money back. I am losing money every week because of this. I have researched them and they were already sued by the Attorney General's office and they were fined and had to pay up to the people they scammed but then they go and do it again under a different name. I am being deducted from my pay every week since Dec. 2009 to pay this back. I am having financial hardships and I am depressed all the time and crying because I can't afford to lose this money.

I paid Realty Trade $1890.00 to sell my timeshare. It was to be listed for 6 month, if not sold in this time, I would get my money back. I sent them a letter first, then I try calling to get my refund with no luck. My account # **. Processing date was on 04/30/2009.

I paid the fee and was promised to help to sell my timeshare. I didn't really talk to anyone. The emails do not have any names connected to them. They said that I would have offers but when I wrote to those who made the offer, I got no responses. But I was told they sent me the offers and then they wipe themselves clean of that. They seemed angry that I questioned their business practices. A course they are not open on weekends! I paid the fee of $895.00 for processing but when I ask them questions, they push me off. They are more than happy to take my money but then don't want to help me.

In May 2009, I signed a contract with Realty Trade represented by Anna P. After initially signing, I noticed Shipyard rather than Waterside by Spinnaker on the contract. Immediately, Anna P was e-mailed about the correction to which she replied it would be taken care of. After numerous unanswered phone calls and no responses to any voicemails, I filed a complaint with the BBB requesting my fee be refunded. Then and only then, did I receive any communication from Realty Properties, Mark S.

He said I signed the contract stating Shipyard. I then found my old communications with Anna P and forwarded them to Mark. He offered another six-month contract by phone. It took days and e-mails from me before I received the revised contract. To date, 4/17/2010, I have not had a response from Mark S about the e-mails between Anna P and me. I am out quite a lot of money. I still own the timeshare (at least it's a nice one). Economically, the lack of refund is difficult.

On September 9th, 2009, I signed a six month contract with RealtyTrade.Com to market one rental week (7 days) timeshare I own for the Mayan Palace in Senora Mexico. The contract specified that if I received no reasonable offers within a six month contractual time period, my $495.00 listing fee would be fully refunded. I contacted the RealtyTrade.Com customer service telephone representatives on average of about one per week to check the status of my rental during course of the six month time period. During this process, I lowered the rental fee several times starting at $3,375 and ending at $1,999. I received one formal offer. I followed the process and replied back two times via email accepting the offer. The person making the offer, a Mr. M never replied back to email. I notified RealtyTrade.Com both times and they advised they'd attempt to contact Mr. M. I was told that he never responded back.

My six month contract expired on March 9th, 2010. I attempted to contact the company customer service representative by phone several times on March 9th, 2010 but was never able to speak to customer service rep or company operator so I submitted an online customer service request ticket at 10:12AM. The confirmation email I received back stated that a qualified member of the professional staff would be reviewing my request reply accordingly within 24-48 business hours. On March 21st, 2010 I posted a concern on my online CS open ticket that I hadn't received any response back to my refund request. On March 21st, I contacted CS representative Amanda to inquire about the status of my refund request. She advised that my request is being reviewed by the Marketing Department and that these inquiries topically take up to 10 business days and that I should be receiving a response back soon. She claimed to not have any additional information and did not offer any assistance on whether there was a specific refund process that I must follow to secure my refund.

On March 24th, 2010, I received an email from RealtyTrade.Com stating that they were experiencing a higher number of inquires than usual. The email stated that my inquiry had been assigned to a customer service professional and that I'd be receiving a phone call within 24-48 business hours. The email also stated that they apologize for the delay and appreciated my patience and understanding. On March 25th, 2010, my online service ticket was closed. I was instructed to contact customer services. I contacted CS and spoke to a representative named Angela who advised that I failed to follow the proper procedure specified in my contract and that would not be receiving any refund. She stated that any refund request must be completed in writing, within 10 days of expiration which in her company's opinion I failed to do. I advised Angela that I had submitted my refund request in writing via the on line company customer service request web site (Ticket ID KDZ-45457). Angela stated that submitting my request on line was not considered to be "IN WRITING", therefore, in violation of the contract I signed. Angela stated that the words "IN WRITING" in contract means all refund requests must be hand written and mailed to the company to be considered "IN WRITING". I asked why this wasn't made clear to me during my telephone and service ticket inquires. She stated that it was my responsibility to read, understand and follow the instructions on the contract I signed.

I asked to speak to her supervisor several times which she refused to do. I asked her to provide me with the company appeal process. She replied that there was no appeal process. I voiced my concern, disappointment and advised that I would be reviewing my contract and would call back if I had any questions. I reviewed my contract and called Angela back to advise that the contract specifies that all refund requests must be submitted in writing which I clearly did and that nowhere in the contract does it specify that the refund must be hand written and mailed. She stated that the words "IN WRITING" meant hand written and mailed. I advised Angela that her or her company's interpretation was ridiculous and unacceptable. I asked her if this was the case why doesn't the contract provide a specific address in which to mail the hand written refund request to? Angela stated that it was my responsibility to understand the contract. I insisted on speaking to the manager. I was then given the opportunity to speak to a person named Jenna. I went the through the entire scenario with her. She advised that there was no other person I could talk to and she proceed to disrespect me and gave me another lecture about contract responsibility. She advised that the company had recently been sold and that my only option would be to sign a new contract under the new company's name RealtyProperties.Com and they would market my rental for an additional six months at no cost to me.

I told Jenna that I wasn't interested but wanted my $495.00 refund. She emailed the new contract for me to review anyway. She then called me back to ask why I hadn't signed the new contract and emailed it back to her. She advised that she needed an answer or she would be forced to close my account. I told her I wasn't going to sign the new contract. I continued to reopen my on-line service ticket by posting my concerns and possible course of action if I didn't receive my refund. I submitted on- line postings March 30th, 31st, April 5, 6th and 7th 2010. Each posing advised RealtyTrade.Com that after COB April 7th, 2010 I would escalate my concerns to the Florida Attorney General's office and possibly a local television station in the Orlando area. I did receive three voice mail messages from Realtytrade.Com Marketing Director Mark Stevens asking me to call him so he could explain why I wasn't eligible for a refund. In one of my postings I advised Mr. Stevens that I no longer felt comfortable communicating with any of his company representatives including him on the phone but would only communicate via email or some other form of written communication. I truly believe that RealtyTrade.Com is engaged in operating in an illegal enterprise and should be considered a predator be consumers all over the world. They are scamming many honest consumers out of their hard earned money. Based on my research it appears that your office along with other consumer watchdog groups maybe familiar with the criminal activities and practices of this company and I'd like to assist in any way I can to get this company and its employees brought to justice.

We called Realty Trade in order to sell our time share in July 2009. Our first contact was with Adriana F., sales executive. She stated that there were many calls to the marketing department with interest in our specific time share, Tahiti Village in Las Vegas, owned by consolidated resorts. I asked if there had been any recent sales at that resort and she told me that there had been a few in the past week. She told us that many of the callers were interested in Tahiti Village.

After paying the fee of 950 dollars we were assured that the average time to sell a time share such as ours was 45 days. We received an agreement and signed it. We were not told by Adriana that this was an advertising company only or that the advertising would occur in bulk and would not address our specific property. I would call Adriana at extension 426 occasionally for an update, leave a message and never get a return call. I became concerned and called Realty Trade in October.

I spoke to someone else whose name I did not write down. She had answered the phone and told me that Adriana was unavailable and that she could help me. I told her I was concerned that I had not heard from them about our time share and stated that we wanted our money refunded; she convinced me to be patient because they were getting calls all the time and specifically said that I would hear from them within 2 weeks. This discussion occurred again with various people.

I called again in December, aware that my six-month agreement was about to end and I wanted a refund. When we agreed to the contract in July, Adriana told me I needed to call at least two weeks before the end of the contract in order to get a refund; she did not specify who to speak to and the story changed as follows. In December, the woman I spoke to told me that my contract was not up until the end of January. Of course there were many calls with interest in my time share. In mid January I called and was told that in order to get my money back I would need to write to the Marketing Department at least 2 weeks in advance. That was not stated by Adriana and is not noted in the agreement.

As with all previous calls, I was put on hold so the representative could call marketing and find out how many people were interested in our property. The representatives would tell me that marketing has 5-15 people with interest--the number varied each time I called. The woman I spoke to in January told me they were about to finalize an interested party. They sent an email for me to contact a potential buyer; she did not respond and when I called Realty Trade back perhaps three days later, it was too late to contact marketing and get my money back.

Needless to say, this was a very disappointing experience. They pushed us off when we wanted a refund with what I would call fictitious information until it was too late to get our money refunded.

Thank you for your interest in our interaction with Realty Trade. We hope we can get our refund. Interestingly, they have changed their website, deleting contact information.

In this economy, $995 is a lot of money. We wanted to sell our timeshare for two reasons. Our oldest daughter had been hospitalized from February to June; we felt that selling our timeshare would be helpful in meeting our financial responsibility. Secondly, we have another daughter who will start college in 2011 and felt financially insecure to meet her needs. We still need the money that we had hoped for with the sale of the time share. We are paying off our oldest daughter's medical bill but our money is stretched to the limit. There was no physical damage; only ongoing aggravation for me.

After inquiring on their website I was contacted by a salesperson who promised to sell my timeshare in 6months or less and said I would get my money back, it has been 1 year and 6months and I still have the property, I called them and kept leaving them voicemails to call back, but they never did. They emailed me like 3 offers which i accepted but I think it's a fake, they submit it themselves just so the client would be happy and never went through with the offers. And now I think they have caller id and they never even answer calls. Very frustrating and they took my money.