Royal Holiday

I am writing to complain about this company, because it uses false, unfair, fraudulent, and misleading high-pressure sales tactics to consumers to induce them into a contract by false and fraudulent representations. In the week of September 1, my wife and I visited Paradise Island Bahamas. A very friendly woman approached us in the hotel lobby and said she was a Royal Holiday representative and that we won a prize for a free lunch and free activities. She called a taxi and took us to Whyndam Resort.

We found ourselves in a orientation that took more than 4 hours. The free lunch and activities turn out to be high-pressure sales-pitch. We were told that we could go anywhere in the world wherever we wanted. We were told that membership was an investment that would increase in value. We were told that you could sell your membership and we can make money. We were told that you can rent your membership and make money without any effort. We were told that we had today and today only for this prize. We were told that we write the membership off on your taxes.

They offered discount on air tickets 50% or more. What they did not say was a contract for 30 years. They did not say about maintenance fees. They did not informed of the time period in which we can cancel our membership. When I had some doubts, they offered us coupons of airfare for 30 nights in Mexico (I found it hidden in $99 service fee if used).

I called many times, e-mail, and letter enclosed to cancel my membership. Yazmin **, Claudia **, and Jose **--all of them has the same answer that I cannot cancel my membership. Now, they are calling everyday, threatening us to report us to a collections agency and to Credit Bureau. We called, e-mailed, and enclosed a letter; they do not rescind our contract.

Regarding Royal Holiday

I owned a time share that was purchased in the late 1990's or early 2000 years. It was at a resort in Ixtapa, Mexico and I paid for the time share at the time in cash.

Fast forward 6 years and while I was on vacation in Mexico at the same hotel, I listened to a presentation by Royal Holiday. They had purchased the hotel that I had been using and were offering an "upgrade" package. For an additional $13,000 or so, I could upgrade to their plan which included the area where the presentation was held. They were 1 and 2 bedroom "apartment" style condos that could house a family as opposed to simply 2 people.

In addition to taking my current timeshare in trade, the person I was dealing with offered to buy my girlfriends timeshare in Cabo for $10,000. This made sense in that we could effectively get rid of 2 maintenance payments and have something that we could share and utilize not only together but with family. It also took the price from $13,000 plus to around $3,000 which would only take about 5 to 6 years to pay off with the now lessened maintenance fee. They gave me a letter in writing stating that they would purchase.

When I returned to Idaho and started planning to use the new apartment style units, not only could I not get a time to use them but they had been leasing the units from another hotel and they had dropped the apartments and I was back to the same hotel that I had been using in the first place. Only now, the hotel had become all-inclusive and I was going to be charged an additional $60 per day per person to stay there.

AND they refused to buy the timeshare in Cabo. It turned out that the person selling the timeshare had no authority to buy one. He gave me a letter in the packet with the documents that did not have a logo and simply made it up. I tried to call and work my way up through the chain of command to someone that may be able to help. Unfortunately, there is no way that I found to ever find anyone with any authority in the company in the US. I ended up going back to Ixtapa to talk to someone that I had bought the timeshare from in the first place. AND I had to stay at another hotel because they didn't have room for me at the one where I had the timeshare. UNBELIEVABLE!

They informed me that they had fired the person responsible but that they would forgive the $10,000 on the debt. This meant that I evidently still owed them $13,000 and they ended up reducing that by $10,000 but it left us with the two maintenance fees (still) and now I had paid additional money to stay in the same place that I had been staying before only now I had to pay $120 a day for the "all inclusive" addition.

So, I paid more for something I already had, and now have to pay more to stay there. There is no one to talk to and no one with any authority to make amends. In addition, now they are starting to ruin my credit as I refuse to pay the maintenance fee to them. They don't treat it as one debt; they treat it as a new debt each year. The collection agency that they use is a vertically integrated part of the company and so I am being absolutely railed on a transaction that in the US would constitute fraud.

How can I repair my credit and get rid of these people. They are crooks, liars and cheaters and they have figured out a way to blackmail me legally if you talk to them.

This is my most recent message to the Better Business Bureau on 9/13/2010. As of 9/16/2010, I have contacted the department of state and a news organization to see if they will run a story. Below you will see a mix of my comment to their comments (Royal Holiday). I have been trying to get a refund and out of this scam/contract for 6 years. They initially were going to let us out, but without a refund and no apology. And we had to sign a form that would not allow us to discuss this issue in public. Then, we rejected their offer; and this is the communication between us as of 9/13/2010.

Dear customer advocates for the Better Business Bureau. My responses will be in brackets. Again, it is the same pattern of deception and failure to do the right thing by its customers. They still have not addressed the many key issues that clearly show a breach of contract in any country. They continue to threaten. I will attach the recent e-mail I received. Also, I will attach the exact sales process my wife and I was exposed to. If they shared their phone logs and records, it would show the facts and the conversations from the very beginning. It will also show how their deceptive sales practices are standard operating procedures, because they continually take us through the same process over and over again; attempting to keep us paying and in a relationship with their club, by offering points to use at various locations.

Please have them address the issues that they keep avoiding. The answer they gave me and will give you is that they were not at the sales presentation, and they cannot be held responsible for what was said and did by sales people who are no longer with the company. This is one of the reasons why they attempt to keep the customers in the program. They think they can wear them down with threats, threatening e-mails, threatening phone calls, and providing them free points to add value/validity to a corrupt sales transaction.

Ask them about their sales presentation and how customers are deceived and tricked into buying and keeping their membership. All they will refer you to, like they have done us, is the contract. But the sales presentation and sales contract are connected, just like the sales people who sold us the membership are connected to Royal Holiday. They cannot separate themselves because we are challenging the validity of the transaction. I will not go away and I will not settle.

Dear Better Business Bureau they are setting us up again. Because if you record and evaluate their responses, they are not addressing the issues I have presented. However, they are responding because of this process and they will keep responding like they are helping. So eventually, they will say we did everything we can for this customer and end the process without addressing my issues one by one. It is still with the same pre-intended outcome: we stay members, we pay.

Again, this is not an option for us! I gave the company my settlement options. They are non-negotiable at this point. I will not give Royal Holiday another penny of my hard earned money. And we are furious that they continue to treat us like this and take us through all of this turmoil to get out of the contract and to refund our money because of lack of service, a clear breach of contract, and clear deceptive practices. 60/ 20-20Minutes, and other investigative news outlets did a story on their deceptive practices and we experienced exactly the same process. I shared a copy with them two times. It is in their file, but they refuse to discuss or address this fact. I am sure the Better Business Bureau has seen these reports. If not, please view them, so you can see my point of view. Google: Royal Holiday Scams see the list of reports.

I will provide a response to their redundant, staged, and insincere response. Let the dance continue! Please help to reach a resolution! We have analyzed Mr. and Ms. **'s complaint against our club, and our findings are the following: Mr. and Ms. ** claim that Royal Holiday was supposed to sell their timeshare.

1. As we mentioned in our first response, Royal Holiday is based on the law and provide its members with a contract and operating rules. 1) My comments are in (Brackets) They (Royal Holiday) changed the initial contract and have deleted the initial promises during the sales presentation. They reprinted the middle of the contract twice, when they mailed it back to us after the three day clause to cancel had lapsed. And they promised over the phone and offered more free points to keep us paying. When they did not follow through on their promises, they started referring us to other reps and other outside companies to appease us and keep us paying. We ended up paying more money to have Century 21 to sell their timeshare and the other one we were promised they would sell. Year after year I have contacted them and complained about this issue. Then, the final straw was there was not one contact about our annuity. That is the main reason why I bought in the first place. This year we are not entitled to this annuity (breach of the original contract).

Mr. and Ms. ** claim that they have been having several problems with Granthix Capital. 2. We would like to inform you that Granthix Capital is a financial services provider which can be contacted at the number 33-144-2303. The Granthix coupon given to Mr. and Ms. ** is an additional incentive and not a part of the core of the Royal Holiday Membership. It is important to mention that the terms and conditions of the certificate are stipulated in the back.

2. (They have not returned on call in 6 years, nor responded to us in writing - we did receive our annuity certificate. That was it. This is a lie! I call them and write them. They may respond to a government entity. I can believe this is happening on American soil. The big breach is they convinced me to finally purchase the membership because I would get the planned annuity.

This year a sales representative/customer service representative told me that we are not entitled to an annuity, which invalidates the contract bait and switch tactic). You can do this in any country. Have them respond to this and they should settle our case with this fact alone. This is the real issue! See the reports from others. Get us out please)}}. Mr. and Ms. ** claim that we have ignored their complaints for years. {{{This is true. They continue to do the same thing to string us along and still get no resolution.}}} Mr. and Ms. ** claim that we have been unprofessional and rude.

3) We would like to inform you that we never used rude or unprofessional language with Mr. and Ms. **. Royal Holiday Club will never accept this type of treatments to our members. {{{This is a lie and they were very rude and unprofessional. This is the worst company to do business with in the world and the entire world should know this fact.}}}} Mr. and Ms. ** claim that they have been called several times by a collection agency.

4. It is important to mention that Mr. and Ms. ** are delinquent since January 15th, 2010. {{4) They called me over 50 times. I will not answer and I will not pay them another penny. Help us get out of this relationship! We want our money back and an apology for this terrible service and treatment!}}} Mr. and Ms. ** claim we are ignoring the facts and not being responsible for what they were promised.

5. As we mentioned in the first paragraph, Royal Holiday is based on the law and in the agreement that Mr. and Ms. ** signed, accepting all the terms, conditions, and benefits of the membership. The contract is invalid and has been severely breached by the company. The promise is for services that were promised that we would receive. As soon as this fact or this changes, the contract becomes null and void. No annuity - this is a breach of contract. Failure to sell my other time share as promised is breach of contract.

The data that you are sharing is just that you data share the other side of the equation. You have bad service, deceptive sales people and sales practices. And you are an unethical and not a trustworthy company. This is why you receive the grade of in the United States. It is too late now. But if I had checked the Better Business Bureau site and websites about traveling to Mexico and which scams to watch out for, we would not be spending countless time and money to fight to get our money back and justice! You guys are crooks and we want our money back and want to end this unhealthy relationship!

The number is small because your tactics do work with many: 1) Keep them in the contract no matter what. 2) Give them free points, so they believe they are getting value for their money. 3) Threaten them and harass the customers into submission. 4) Don't let them out the contract. 5) If the customer complains, keep harassing them until they stop complaining.

We will not be held hostage by your company, and will not at anytime accept your unreasonable and inconsiderate offer. How disrespectful to keep this scam going! Again, we want our money back and an apology from the company. We want out of this contract. And we want to end all communications with this company and its affiliates. Better Business Bureau, please help us get out and get a refund for services not rendered as promised.}}}} Please help!

I got my wife a plane ticket to go to Ireland on the 2nd of August 2010 (Cyprus Airline) and from London to Ireland. I also got a ticket for my daughter from Cyprus to London and London to Ireland. When they went to the airport, they where sent home and told they need a visa to transfer plane in London to go to Ireland. The travel agent Elsi should have told us that we needed a visa for the transfer in London. My wife was going to baptize my brother's child there; they could not travel at a later stage. So we would like our money back. And my mother had to change her ticket and was given a 106 euro penalty. The total lost is about 1500 euro.

They scammed me. When you buy a time share and after 4 days try to return it to them, they accept the devolucion and sign my contract copier and said the money will be back to credit card in 5 days and never happened. Now, they said that I have to pay like I'm in contract. What I can do?

We were vacationing in the Bahamas, when we were approached and bribed by Royal Holiday salesmen. They took us for $20,000-our life savings for vacations. Right now as i check into booking a vacation thru them, it actually costs me more and we don't get one of those fabulous suites we were promised. There is still hidden charges which we were told there would not be. We were also told airfares would be half price and they are not!!

The royal holiday deducted my final payment to them with out my knowledge. In checking and booking vacations which i have done before, and had been satisfied. It actually costs me more thru Royal Holiday by time we pay all the costs and our annual fees.

We are in our 50's and just started vationing a few years ago. Now we can not go enjoy ourselves because of this scam. For example, for 2 people thru Royal holiday it would cost me $2,012.00 with a full size bed-lol.. Thru a private booking it would cost us $1,238.00 with a Queen bed and ocean view. Both at the same resort. Now you tell me which you would choose?

June 2002 we vacationed in Nassau, Bahamas & were pressured daily to sign up for a Royal Holiday Resort tour. Against our best judgement we agreed.They took us in a conference room wined & dined us then the lies started. Our tour showed ocean front suites with room for four to six people....complementary champagne & flowers. During the meeting if someone in the room joins its a big deal..out comes more champagne & food..clapping, yelling the energy in the room is very exciting! When I asked if we could think it over I was told No!

During this time they have more then one person at the table working you. How could this be so bad we could travel anywhere, anytime with our points...the Sheraton Hotel was involved..this has to be ok. When we first used our points we went back to Nassau Bahamas with Dee and Eugene (father-n-law). After all we had a suite & plenty of room! Well our suite consisted of two double beds & a pull-out sofa. this is not what we were shown on the tour. When I approached the lady at the front desk you should have seen her face when I insisted we were given the wrong room. It seems that the suites shown to us were not even avaliable to Royal Holiday. I then went after the guy who sold it to us and he said he would take care of it. he dissappeared the rest of our trip.

We returned home upset with Royal Holiday and Nassau Bahamas for allowing this to go on. So many times we have picked our vacation destination and were told we needed to book one yr.in advance..something we were told we would not have to do. We have made phone calls and written letters only to find out that we were locked into a 30 yr. contract!

Thats when I approached some computer savy friends to help me out and found out we are NOT ALONE! I also found out that we had 5 days to back out of the contract and were never told that. After all that I'm sent a letter telling me my maintance fee is being increased again for the 3rd time in 6 yrs. The fee is now $1290.00 a yr! Our membership was paid in full $20,000.00 other people are making payments...we just want out! They can keep the money! We have refused to pay the $1290.00 maintance fee which as due Jan. 15th. Now Concord Debt Collectors have started to call. Please help us!

Unfortunately , the only thing we can remember from our vacation is how we got scammed by Royal Holiday. We too were suckered in by their high pressured tactics. We were presented with false promises and given faulty deals by this company and their representatives. By the end of our vacation we made one of the biggest mistakes of our lives, we purchased a vacation package through Royal Holiday.