Time Runs Out for Timeshare Resellers

Afederal district court has issued a temporary restraining order against a Florida-based telemarketing scheme that allegedly tricked timeshare owners who wanted to sell their timeshare properties.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) , since at least 2006, Vacation Property Services, Inc., two related companies, and their three principals have made tens of thousands of unsolicited telemarketing calls to timeshare owners claiming that they could quickly find buyers for the owners’ timeshares.

The defendants allegedly trick consumers into paying large up-front fees, typically using one of two deceptive sales pitches – claiming that they have buyers lined up and waiting to buy the timeshare properties or that they will find a buyer for the timeshare properties within a short period of time.

Regardless of the pitch used, the defendants demand that consumers pay an up-front fee, ranging from $200 to more than $8,000.

The FTC alleged that after making the hefty up-front payment, consumers ultimately learned the defendants had no buyers lined up to purchase their timeshare properties and no such buyers were in the offing. And, when consumers realized they had been duped, the defendants routinely dodged consumers’ phone calls and denied their refund requests.

Duped

That's what happened to Thomasia of Brooklyn, NY, who wrote to ConsumerAffairs.com about the problem way back in 2005.

"Gave this company $700 to sell timeshare within 90 days. Past 90 days, there has been no communication attempt from them. Numerous calls have been sent and emails and no response," Thomasia said.

Paul of Sharpsville, IN, said that he contracted with Vacation Property Services in 2003 to sell a timeshare Hyatt beach house in Key West. Seven years later, in January 2010, he said \: "It has been almost seven years that they have had the use of my money with no sale."

"There needs to be a law," Paul said.

Well, guess what? There is: The FTC’s complaint charges the defendants with violating the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule by misrepresenting their refund policies and the existence of potential buyers.

The complaint also charges the defendants with calling hundreds of thousands of consumers between November 2009 and November 2010 whose phone numbers are on the FTC’s Do Not Call Registry.

The FTC is seeking to permanently stop the defendants’ allegedly illegal conduct and to provide money back to consumers who were harmed by their violations of the FTC Act and Telemarketing Sales Rule.