RCI Reviews

On June 16th 2010, I was contacted by Greg ** who identified himself as an employee of RCI and informed me that he had a buyer for my timeshare at ** He said that he would forward to me $19,000 for the time share sale if I agreed to wire $150 to his associate, who I assumed also worked for RCI, named Jason ** at ** I felt that the gentleman was acting in good faith and knowing that RCI is a reputable company, I wired the money. The next day, Mr. Greg called and told me that the money had been received and I would be receiving necessary paperwork and a cashier's check for $19000 within two days.

After several days, I called Mr. Greg for a status report on the sale and he told me that he was working on it, but would send a check the following day. Of course, I'm still waiting and have made several attempts to contact Mr. Greg since then but all to no avail, as he refuses to return my calls. I even tried to call his associate, Mr. ** and got no reply from him either.

I know that I may have been quite naïve and gullible on this matter, but I wanted you to know that if these individuals are indeed employees of RCI, they should be taken to task for their unscrupulous actions. If they are not employees of RCI, someone may want to take action against them for tainting the reputation of RCI. I hope something can be done about this matter and I appreciate cooperation in dealing with these scam artists.

We used to be able to use all those points towards 4 airline tickets and a car rental or two! Now, I am only able get half of a car out of it. I spoke to the supervisor and he told me, "According to the terms and conditions you sign with RCI, we could change whatever we want." He also told me that there are some with millions of points and are now limited and also ** off! I feel these "high pressured" timeshares are about a lot of empty promises. Buyers beware, because you are being ripped off! They promise you thousands of points, but then when try to "search" for a resort, you will never get it. Once, I had a search going for 18 months, and didn't get it. They ask you to deposit your week (this is my other complaint about RCI), then they are able to turn around and give that week to another customer (who also pays them a $200 fee, and they pocket the money, while you are sitting there waiting for no resort to "come up" during your searches. Does anyone have a class action lawsuit going against RCI, because if so, I will be happy to join you. I have all my documentation. We are out of thousands of dollars of worthless timeshares. The points are worthless because they expire after a certain time period.

In mid March, I again called SSA 800# and was informed it was being processed. I explained premiums were scheduled to be withheld from my Apr 1st check. 800# advised me to call OPM. OPM informed me that until they receive notification from Medicare they cannot stop withholding and advised me to call Medicare.

Medicare informed me that until they receive notification from SSA, there is nothing that they can do. I have since contacted SSA via their website and was informed the process take from 90 to 120 days. Meanwhile, I had medical services performed and I told providers to bill my FEHBP. Since everything indicates that I am still covered by Medicare Part B, they will not pay bills. One last thing, Medicare Part B premiums are scheduled to be withheld from my May 1st check. Aggravation! The Economics should work out when this is finalized.

I called the finance company for Nantucket Bay and they said, yes I do own. RCI won't let me reserve a condo anywhere in them at all. There is nothing available, none of the time. The vacation guides are the most hateful and rude bunch I have ever dealt with. One lady told me I would never get anything and she is right. What they have done is stole from me along with thousands of others and there is not one thing we can do to recoup our money.I gave 6500.00 for that time share plus three years membership fees and three years maintenance fees for the condo and now I find out there is no such condo in Ozark mo.

I suffered great financial hardship because of this and I cannot tell you how much I have been humiliated and degraded by these people. I am having a hard time making these payments to keep my credit clean and for what? All I wanted was to take my Grandbabies on a nice trip before I die which isn't looking good.

So a supervisor came on the phone. I asked about the exchange fee of $194.00, which she agreed was the only fee. Then I asked her about using 3 certificates to get a better exchange and she said absolutely not. They would only take one certificate per week and it would give me a studio or motel room size unit that is what Mexican properties certificates trade for. If a larger unit is available, they would give it to me. So that you understand, I have been trying to get an exchange for 2 years with no matches to what I want. Florida on either coast, or Cape Cod for anytime in the summer of 2009, but nothing, not even a phone call.

What they are doing is selling points to people who do not even have a property and give them the exchanges, which leaves someone like me out in the cold. I tried to sell my timeshare back to the Mexico property owners, but I cannot get past one person to the right people to get a reasonable answer. They do not want the property back, they want to rent out my unit and still receive my $1,140 a year, or give me certificates to go away. My problem is I'm still stuck with RCI. I have to pay them a membership fee plus exchange fees on top of my maintenance fee. I need some help here. That is my complaint that RCI does not deliver what has been promised and neither does the Mexico property deliver either. I need help. Any suggestions?

I called budget and they said they couldn't modify the reservation because it was booked by a third part (RCI). I am going to make a long story short. I had to talk to seven (7) different people (with 3 call-backs by me) in order to get to the right department to help. I was on hold much of the time and their automated menu had no choice for my situation. I finally had to pretend that I wanted to book new travel arrangements and that person finally transferred me to the correct department. Hitting 0 does you no good at RCI. Pleading with a human when you finally get one does no good, getting upset does no good. The humans are automatons just like their phone system.

I have wasted so much time (usually late at night or in the wee hours of the morning) searching and searching for an exchange. It is not worth it. In the future, I will use a different exchange company. Some exchange companies do not even charge a fee to join and very low fees for booking your choice of resorts. I have not actually lost money, but I have become very frustrated over never finding what I am looking for a week's timeshare exchange. I have settled for a place or a week that was not what I was looking for. I have lost all confidence in RCI. After reading some of the other complaints, I feel more than justified in discontinuing doing business with RCI once I have used my remaining 3 weeks now on deposit.

So after I deposited my week with RCI, they informed me that my desired destination is not available. Nor was my second or third choice! Then they "banked" my deposited week and fail to inform me when the deadline to use it was about to expire. So when I called them to actually use the week that I had already paid for, they told me I was two weeks too late. I recently discovered that there was a class action lawsuit against RCI that was settled in November of 2009, but although I was an RCI member, I received no information whatsoever regarding this lawsuit until I found it on the internet.

My annual RCI membership dues were $89.00, which I have paid but got absolutely none of the promised services, i.e. vacation exchanges. The resort maintenance fee I paid was $615.00. But now if I wish to use a week's vacation time, I must pay that amount again because someone else was sold my week by RCI. Thus I am out over $700.00 for a vacation that I never had, not to mention the emotional distress and mental frustration of trying to deal with the rude people at RCI.

My yearly maintenance fee is $716 for my resort. RCI exchange fee costs amount to a additional 25% of that maintenance fee. What is RCI doing for me that is worth that much money? If you have to cancel your reservation/exchange fee after 24 hours, you lose the fee you paid and must pay another $179 to make a new reservation. Wow! That's really a great reservation service were getting from RCI.

On top of this outrageously high exchange fee and cancellation penalty, members must also pay a yearly membership fee of about $80 per year just to belong to RCI. We pay and pay again so RCI can turn around and rent the weeks we deposited out to non-members for less than we paid in yearly maintenance fees for our weeks.

There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that RCI is exploiting members and the weeks they deposit. We have the power to stop giving RCI our weeks and our money. As soon as my deposited weeks are used, RCI will not receive another penny of my money or any of my weeks.

Bottom line, when you go to a sales pitch opportunity, do not agree right a way to anything! Be sure that you make them show you step by step on the PC how to book several different vacations that you want to take. Space them 6 months apart or so. Don't forget to allow for flying and a rental car.

Upon arrival at the RCI "extra vacation" facility (an RCI member resort), I received a telephone call from the local or on-site RCI representative welcoming me and noting that I had exchanged my unit in order to stay there. I advised her that I had attempted that for many months but had been unsuccessful and had in fact purchased my week because I had been told there were no available units for exchange. She stated that there were many available units. I made an appointment to meet with her the next day and then went to the car to continue unpacking. While I was out of the room, she called again. My daughter answered and the representative canceled my appointment with her. Since I was exhausted (been up for over 20 hours) and wanted to start my vacation, I decided to take it up with RCI upon my return.

My flight returned to the US on 8/31/09 and due to the time difference, sometime thereafter I contacted RCI and informed them of their representative's statement and offered to use one of my available units in exchange for my week and to pay the exchange rate. The RCI representative on the phone refused. I then contacted American Express and advised them of this case and asked them to dispute the difference between the extra vacation rate ($700) and the unit exchange rate ($189). RCI never responded to American Express's dispute and in fact, refunded the full $700 and advised American Express that they would simply put me into collections. Since then, the one week I wanted to use to exchange for this week has expired (unused) and I cannot use the other 2 weeks I have banked because RCI has my account flagged as owing $700.

RCI is still depriving the consumer from using their timeshares and instead, redirecting them to purchase extra vacations. Please assist me in directing RCI to treat the consumer fairly and to require RCI to release the other two weeks I have banked before they too expire. So far, RCI has profited from my annual fee, the fee charged for the extension of the week that has since "expired" since I could not use it and has my two banked weeks which for all I know may be sold to some other poor RCI member as an extra vacation.

Our salesperson stood up and applauded, as did all the other sales people. What a joke. It was like Amway convention. I felt sorry for the poor couple. They obviously were made numb by the loud music and duped by the sales staff. When we told our salesperson that our 90 minutes were up, she kept talking! We asked to see her supervisor, and told him the same thing. He went through his spiel, so we said that we are finished. Just give us our Hawaiian trip. By the time we walked out of that hell hole, we had been there more than two hours! I have become so mistrustful of RCI that I am afraid to use our Hawaii and Las Vegas tickets for fear that some RCI salesperson is going to appear out of nowhere and start harassing us again! I will never go to another timeshare presentation! I felt physically beat up. My head ached and my stomach burned from acid reflux.

The last person claimed that he worked for the developer and not in sales, but for some reason he spoke the same language as the other two **. I get so upset when I hear what these people have knowingly done to naive, gullible, innocent people out there. I hope one day it happens to them, too. Don't go to Georgian Manor Resort, it's crappy. We ended up leaving right after the sales pitch, and the hotel sucked really bad, too. More importantly, if you agreed to the free stay to attend the thing, be aware and say no right away. Keep in mind that they will hit you harder each time. It's never worth the ** they're saying. A bunch of idiots, the scammers are!

We said that the only money we had was our life savings so we could buy a house next year, and we couldn't risk that money. The only reason for the purchase was that we were duped into thinking that we could make some money on that, and maybe have a nice holiday a year too, by using one or two of the floating weeks. They did a very good job of wearing us down and convincing us that it would be impossible not to make a profit. The 5 day opt-out was ridiculous. The reps continually said that it would take a few weeks for all the information to arrive in the post and then we could start looking at renting out the weeks. It was only weeks later that we realized that it was near impossible to make any money on it, and that we have been well and truly scammed.

In the end, we got the timeshare because we were told that we could pay the yearly HOA fees whenever we wanted as long as it was before we took a vacation. We were also told that we get 49,000 points every other year and one free week throughout each year. No extra fees were discussed other than the $196 when we stayed in an exchanged resort for a week.

When I got home, my husband and I looked over the book and extra papers that were added. Come to find out that the yearly charges come out of my credit card automatically every year and I have to have it done this way. There are fees for keeping my points over a year later and fees for using my points. We can only use 33% of our points per year on the resorts and the rest has to go towards airfare and car rentals. We also have to use additional points with the "free" week each year. Luckily I found where we have 5 days (6 days in Texas) to cancel by certified mail with no penalties. I already gave the information to my attorney so that he has a copy in case we run into problems.

These people are very misleading. They make this program sound like such a great deal and they almost make you feel like a horrible person if you do not buy into it. I said no so many times! I only said yes when they got to a low number I was comfortable with. They do not care if they are financially burdening you (although they say they do) because I explained getting married, a child on the way, and student loans starting in 5 months. These things made me leery to go into a deal that would cost me money for the next 10 years. It's a load of crap from my experience with them and from what others have said. I am very lucky I found that "cooling off period" in time! Consequences: a lot of stress and a possibility of economic distress!

This is just another classic case of RCI's games. You could call it false advertising, or a bait-and-switch. Either way, how they were advertising the special (with no footnote to indicate how pricing worked) made it appear that they were offering you 3 years at the 2 year price of $159; and then when you call to renew, you would find out it was $178. Don't get me wrong, $178 for 3 years is still less than the normal 3 year rate of $229. But if you are going to make an offer to people, don't try to intentionally deceive them. These are the kinds of actions that get RCI into trouble and if they don't change their ways, I believe they will go out of business - once people finally wake up and quit renewing their memberships.

This is a lie. If I approve a payment, it is not refundable. I made this point to him and he continued to talk. That is when I got on the internet and discovered this site. I told him I wasn't interested in his high pressure sale. He tried to explain more. I told him I wasn't interested. He kept talking. I asked him why he was still talking when I already said no. He kept talking. I told him again, "Why are you still talking when I already said no? That doesn't make any sense to me." He finally gave up and hurried off the phone.

What a crock these people are. I worked for a resort that dealt with them and it was crazy what they would tell people to make the deal. So many people did not get what they were expecting. They would invite them out to the resort from wherever and let them stay in the newer, nicer rooms and then when they booked, they would get the 35-year old dirty, crappy rooms.

RCI's customer service is non-existent. Just this morning, I was literally threatened by an RCI representative that if I didn't stop calling about my concerns, they would reverse my renewal and I would lose my points. Long and short, we lost thousands of dollars in points. It will be impossible for us to use. We are very interested in a class action lawsuit! Can anyone help?

Last year, I traded in my Red Week at a prime Florida resort (two bedrooms, two baths, easily sleeps eight), and was given an absolute dump of a place (Island Resort) on Block Island, RI. It had all of the looks, feel and smell of a 1950's motel. If a Super 8 or a Motel 6 opened across the way from it, it would go out of business. This year, I was unable to get anything other than a one-bedroom in Hancock, MA (Vacation Village). This place was listed as having a partial kitchen. How many of you realize that this means not only no oven, but no range as well. What it had was a two-burner portable unit; just a wee step up from a Bunsen burner, mind you. The place had little, if any, insulation; carets were just plain out dirty. No cell service and they wanted about $7 bucks a day to hook you up to the Internet.

One guest observed, in his complaint, that he's received free internet service in hotels that charged him something like $48 a night, and this resort wanted $7 a day? I think that those who claim that RCI is taking the weeks that we bank and tries to sell them rather than making them available to other members as trades has hit the nail on the head. There just cannot be so many people claiming that they're unable to get desirable weeks at desirable places as a trade, but seem to have little or no problem buying these same weeks from RCI. This has to come to an end. The question is how do we, the members of RCI (and those who are suffering as a consequence of their actions), go about compelling them to change?

Last week, after many attempts and no email replies, we got a hold of someone at the resort. They gave us a number in Las Vegas. They told us our account was in foreclosure due to unpaid maintenance fees. We paid upfront for that time share the amount of $10,000. They told us it hadn't been resold; it had been put back into inventory and we would have to get a lawyer if we wanted to do anything about it.

The next year, I wanted to go to New England. I chose Newport, RI again, well in advance and was able to get a unit. At the end of November, New England in November - yay. Not to offend New Englanders, but I am from Colorado and will be going from the cold to the cold. The next year, I thought I would try Myrtle Beach. Nothing available during the summer months and this is with starting well in advance. And each time I tried to search, the website would go down or I would get a message that my week wasn't available or some random message that would kick me out, "We cannot release your vacation on hold." I have no vacations on hold.

When I would call, I would be told it was just a glitch. Apparently, the entire website is a glitch because I have been trying for two days to exchange for next year and the web is experiencing a slow response time. What that actually means is no response whatsoever. What a scam. Don't tell me that this isn't all planned especially after I received notice of the class action lawsuit. It seems like they are still engaging in the same practice. But they have me over a barrel. I'll just keep going to shoddy resorts in the off season because I don't have much of a choice. If I don't use it, I'll lose it.

At 10:06 am on May 29th, 2009, RCI.com and RCICruiser.com sent an e-mail to members saying that night the offices would be unavailable from May 30th to 9:30 am, May 31, 2009 for regularly scheduled maintenance. Daily telephone hours for representatives were incorrect by print and by telephone and extended outages were announced in arrears. Additionally, the delays were at May month end. The telephone sales do not produce what they guarantee, easy to use low-cost upgraded prepaid vacations. Coordination of benefits is very time consuming. The resorts and cruises available apply to only a fraction of the resorts and cruises generally available through RCI. Many vacations require significant fees and additional costs for the lowest of cruise cabins and/or for cabin upgrades.

RCI now says we had to fill out a paper to cancel with them. Funny, they never mentioned it before. They sure haven't been billing us for any fees. Maybe, that's because they know we do not belong to RCI. Anyway, I've spoken with the resort and informed them that if we don't get our week reinstated which begins Saturday, May 30th, I will be at the resort tomorrow and the next Saturday with a protest sign against RCI. I plan to be in the lobby where the attendees for the sales pitches wait for their appointments.

I deposited my 2008 and 2009 weeks and they are now gone. Apparently, I lost them because RCI says I did not deposit them when I know in fact I did. I guess it is my word against theirs but even at the end of 2008, when I called to use my 2007 because it was to expire on Jan. 31, 2009, I asked if my 2008 unit had been rented out and was told yes it had been. This was a phone call that I had all while looking at my computer screen and seeing the deposited weeks right in front of me. So with this, I started my search for somewhere else to go and ended up in Florida with my daughter.

Needless to say, apparently I no longer have those weeks and I have no way of finding out if RCI rented them unless I fly to Mazatlan and double check to see if my unit was in fact rented. But first I will start my internet consumer complaint venture in which I will be sure to tell everyone on sites as I have found over 50,000 consumer complaint websites associated with poor service from RCI.

I’m having my corporate IT folks come to my home and search my computer for any sort of verification of my deposits going through my three backup 8GB hard drives. This is a sad day for a single mother, entrepreneur who in this economy could use a week away. Two weeks of vacation lost that I will never get back.

I was so aggravated today, 4/22/09. When speaking with this lady representing RCI from another country, we had an argument over the phone. She told me I really need to deposit at least one year ahead, possibly two years ahead, which means I have to pay upfront 2 years of maintenance fees, an exchange fee of $189.00, then two years of RCI Club membership fees or get their special. She goes on to state that I will have a better chance for an exchange!

Now I get the picture of what is going on. From what I can gather on the web and complaints of others, RCI has developed a "point" system. You pay in advance, therefore, if you are a club member, you basically get priority over members that don't pay in advance. Then the lady (I don't remember her name or if she gave it to me; needless to say, she would not identify what country she worked in for RCI) said, "I am only trying to help you." She said, "Your week is in April. So the search is counted from April on, regardless if you deposited and started your search in Dec./Jan. 2009 - so you still are searching too late." This is what I see. RCI is greedy. They have increased their pricing system to the extent that I ask myself between maintenance fees and them, "Is this really a good deal and enjoyable," when the places don't even come up to par with quality, upgraded vacation places.

She even admitted they have 10,000 customers and only 500 vacation spots. Come on, folks. This is not the way to do business - what I see is discrimination on some who don't have the money to pay 1-2 years in advance, so the poor working man can't even get a holiday/vacation. My biggest suspicion and the question I would like answered is: Is RCI buying up properties and renting them out to make the big bucks ($1,500-$2,000 week) to some International Vacationers, not to mention also giving the RCI Members who pay in advance priorities on not only timing but the better places to stay through RCI?

The last two places I stayed at were old, not the greatest with furnishings. It surely was not the "Hilton" or Disney World.

I finally said I made $65K per year and he could divide that any way he wanted to. He was extremely rude and aggressive. I finally said I had given him 90 minutes of my time (it was actually an hour and 45 minutes), that I wasn't interested, and "Let's not waste any more of your time or mine." He threw down his pen and grabbed my paperwork and led me to the exit. I did receive the gifts as promised. How do these guys sleep at night? I went into this knowing the extremely high-pressure tactics and still, my heart was racing and I felt as if I had done something wrong. Why do these guys get away with this?

Now we've learned that RCI has restricted our points to 60,000 per year for every kind of use but resorts. This amount will only buy a round trip ticket from L.A. to San Francisco! We can't spend the amount of points we've purchased on resorts only even if we vacationed now at a rate of 365 days per year, for the rest of our lives! We could have saved 1/2 the cost of our timeshare because we can't use the other half (the points part) that's restricted. Every time we turn around, we're dinged with fees particular to RCI or Club members only. For example, we'll be going to Tahiti in August and only RCI/club members are charged a weekly electrify fee of $200 at this hotel. Anyone else booking there is not charged this fee, but it’s included in their cost according to RCI. We are also charged a $189 per week reservation fee, besides our resort booking fee.

We are going with another couple, making our vacation a total of five weeks. This charges a total of $2,070 just for our hotel fees/stay! What was our $35,000 purchase for? That $2,070 doesn't include airfare, all the fees we constantly are getting dinged for throughout the year, and the fees from our club. These fees keep rising. So far this year, we've spent $700 in dues without even using anything yet! Pretty soon we'll be charged a clean towel in your room fee and a water fee each time the toilet's used! We've contacted a lawyer and because of the vagueness of the contract RCI and the Club seem to have all the advantage. I feel like I'll soon be saying, “But I didn't see in the contract that I signed. RCI's right to stick their hands in my bank account and take out any money they want.” And their answer will be “Well, the contract never said that we couldn't.”

How can these companies take advantage of so many hardworking people and get away with it? These companies have been able to deceive through much of what they don't have to disclose. Sure they stated in the contract that they have the right to restrict points. Boy, hind sight is 20/20 now! Wish we knew exactly what that meant when we'd read it and heard it explained. At the time this sounded less restrictive, and to our advantage in how things were explained. The value of the points will never change we were assured. But they've found other ways to increase costs and follow through on their contracts weasely ways, while keeping their silly promises. Instead of a vacation being a relaxing and enjoyable experience, it's a hassle and a headache every time we try even to make the simplest phone call.

If anyone takes serious action against these companies, we are interested in being involved. Not only have we lost much of the $35,000 that we've put in, but at this rate we'll be spending another $17,500 in dues alone over the life of our contract. This is before even making a reservation, more fees!

We went to Vacation Village. We're told it was a no pressure timeshare opportunity. We sat through an hour of video, took a 1 hour tour of the resort, then sat for 2.5 hours while Matt explained how a timeshare worked... I guess we look stupid. When we told him we would have to think about it, he said the prices were only good if we signed now. We told him we don't work like that. We need to think about it and if we want it, we will come back and pay the full price... not a big deal. He said people who say that never come back. He then got up and walked away from the table. My husband and I were frustrated and bored at this point.

Matt is something else... He drove us crazy with all his talking, so we got up and left. We didn't get our coupon for the free vacation or the gift card that was promised. We called Vacation Village to complain about them misleading us. They said they would send the gift card and coupon. Haven't received it. I called again and the girl was very rude. She said we should have gotten it if we took the tour. I said we did take the tour and explained Matt would not let us leave until we signed, so we had no choice but to walk out.

Don't know if we will ever get what we were promised, but be forewarned... If you get a call for a free vacation from them, it's a scam... Don't even go for the tour. They hold you hostage, apparently, until you agree to sign.

If you're looking in high demand time like when kids are out of school, then you really want to put your search in asap. Now when you're dealing with weeks, you also have what we call trading power. If you own a red week in Branson, MO, don't expect to get Hawaii for it. The system will only offer you things that are compatible to what you own. Depositing your weeks a year in advance will maximize your trading power. Also when you're searching for something in advance and what you're looking for does not pull up, put yourself on an ongoing search. The system will keep searching and if something pulls up, we will call you.

The most important thing is don't get too picky. It's vacation! How much time do you really spend in the room?? You have to remember, when you call RCI, we would love to send you on vacation. Actually the guides you speak with get paid on commission for sending you on vacation. The inventory that we have is what others deposit. We can give you space if it has been booked by other members and if they have not deposited their weeks...

When we asked specific questions, our presenter called in someone else to explain. The explanation was always written down on a legal pad, and the men doing the explaining seemed to only want to write the explanation out with a green pen. My friend and I thought it sounded good, too good. We too were served drinks that we did not ask for or order, and then were advised that the drinks were non-alcoholic. We refused to touch the drinks. After two hours, we were finally told that the total cost would be $50,000-ish, with a 10% down payment and the balance due in 60 days. Our original sales person, Patti, seemed shocked when we said no. She immediately got one of the managers to end the presentation.

When asked why we didn't sign, I advised the gentlemen that the presentation was deceptive. He asked me what deceptive meant and said his English wasn't good. When it become clear that we were not going to give in, he became very angry and would not give us a copy of the form that we signed stating that we had attended the mandatory presentation. He threw our paperwork around and stomped away from the table. When we asked for written material to review, Patti advised us that such material was considered marketing material and that RCI cut the middleman out in order to save clients money. And while we asked for business cards, none were forthcoming. We were also told on our arrival at the resort that when we attended the presentation, it was a requirement that we bring our passports and a credit card. After reading all of the complaints, I feel that my friend and I were very fortunate indeed. Luckily, there were no adverse consequences other than a waste of 3 hours of our time.

I called Bank of America to cancel the credit card they (RCI?) had issued to me. Long story short, Bank of America said that the only thing that they could do was cancel the card. To call them back in 3-5 days to contest the charge once it was posted; otherwise, the merchant would have to issue the credit. Did discover in the process that the merchant info used with BOA is a non-existent address and the phone number answers as some sort of text messaging service. After notifying BOA, they didn't seem to care. The merchant name is Great Escapes at 4259 Southern Florida Ave. Centennial, CO 80112 per BOA rep #**.

Interestingly enough, RCI made a CYA tape in which they/he specified that they were not affiliated with Great Escapes. Hmm! Fortunately, Colorado has a 3-day right of rescission law. I will be there on Tuesday morning to hand it to them in person with a witness. Oh, the cancellation clause says that Great Escapes must be notified in writing within 3 business days, but there is no address on any of the papers they gave me. The papers do, however, have a letterhead that says, "Great Escapes GE authorized dealer #126 - Lifetime Vacations LLC Denver, Colorado." Can't believe these people are allowed to continue anywhere, under any name.

I am 27 now - that was the worst mistake that I have ever made it destroyed my credit and my life. I used it one time and it was the worst vacation in my life. I spent over $4 grand on the lowest package; I had a family emergency and needed to get to my mother's. I called up RCI to exchange my points into a flight. At that time, they said I could, so they set it up. A month later, I tried to set up travel again and the RCI rep said, "We don't do that." After I told them they did it the month before, she said that must have been the special for that month. I stopped paying after that.

I tried to cancel my contract. The RCI rep said I couldn't until I caught up with payments and then I would have to pay a $496.71 cancel fee. They preyed on a kid and won. I have had to overcome a lot in life and this taught me a valuable lesson! Always go with your gut!

At the time my husband made these reservations the representative from RCI told him that it was a Jr suite, so he booked one suite for us with the timeshare week and paid a deposit to get an adjoining suite for my daughter and her friend. Turns out that my daughter's friend can't go with us that week so not wanting my daughter to be on vacation in a suite by herself, I paid a fee to RCI to cancel one of them. Get the cancellation and decide to look at the fine print and realize we don't have a suite we have basically a hotel room as a trade for a two bedroom. I call RCI to see if I can get an upgrade to larger accommodations and RCI tells me finally after a dozen phone calls that the Moon Palace only gives them rooms and not the larger accommodations. So the best that they could do so my (second husband) and my sixteen year old daughter aren't in the same one room for a week, is to rent another room for more money now and pay the all inclusive price for four people instead of the three people in our party.

I tried to call the Moon Palace directly to see if I could get an upgrade from them and they said they are not allowed to give upgrades to people that contract through RCI. The morale of the story is, I gave them my beautiful 2 bedroom to be crammed into a one room with three people and more money than if I booked it straight through the hotel at least I would have been able to get a one bedroom suite for less than I'm paying to keep my family in separate rooms on vacation. RCI is a modern day swindlers that never deliver what they tell you before they have your money. PS The RCI representative knew all along that he was just giving us a room and passing it off as a suite.

We called RCI to book with our points and were told that we had no points to use for airfare because I used them for the Phoenix vacation. I was told in October 2008 after I pay my membership fee of $124.00 I could only use 60,000 points. I of course argued with RCI and that's when they told us about the restrictions. I was also told that they put these restrictions on us because Blue Bay members were using too many points.

I was not about to pay the RCI membership fee after what they told me. We have paid our yearly membership for 3 years now. We have called Blue Bay. We were told the same as everyone else that they are working on it. That has been over 2 months now. We talk to RCI and they say that they put these restrictions on Blue Bay members as of June 11, '08. Also they said that they can change the way things are done if they wish because it is stated in their contract in small writing that they can change the way things are done if they wish without any notice to the members. Blue Bay contends that this is not a breach of my contract and I beg to differ since they failed to disclose that RCI had the right to restrict the points usage. RCI contends that the contract that they have with Blue Bay states that they can restrict the points at their leisure.

I have told both Blue Bay and RCI that they have breached their end of the contract and that if they don't fix this very shortly that I was going to find an Attorney and they would have to speak to either him or her. We now have 10.4 million points and we will never use them in our lifetime. I feel that RCI and Blue Bay has taken advantage of not just us but many, many other people. I have been told to file a complaint with the U.S. Attorney consumers affairs office and hopefully if other people do the same, maybe we can get some kind of justice for this.

I am more than willing to give them all my points back in exchange for the money I have paid them less the one trip I took to the Blue Bay Club. I paid $40,460.00 for the 10.4 million points we bought hoping to take family members on vacation and pay the $49.00 fee and 35,000 to 45,000 points for airfare, also points for theme parks, rental car and more. This is the main reason why we purchased these points so we can enjoy vacations and take our family with us.

I feel like I was preyed upon and have felt sick to my stomach every since. I told RCI I wanted to sell my timeshare and they said they could do it for $300. If it wasn't sold within so many days (I think 6 months) or if I sold it first then I would get my money refunded. I have called many times about that and get nothing but a run-around about it. I guess I didn't learn my lesson the first time.

After you add up all the fees and then the exchange rate it is rather absurd. I would be better off just paying for a regular vacation going where I wanted in a quality hotel. The facilities I seem to end up with are mostly dumps. Spent a week recently in Ormond Beach FL. There were roaches in the room. The young lady at the desk handed me a can of spray and said I could borrow it. I just wish I could get my money back and put it to better use. None of my children want anything to do with the timeshare so it isn't going to be handed down to them.

After using our points twice, though, we have discovered it has been a huge waste of our money. Not only are we paying more than we would on a regular vacation, but we are not getting what we were promised. There are so many hidden fees and limitations on what you can do. If anyone can help me seek legal action against them, I would greatly appreciate it!

Well as all of you my points are now practically useless with the 60000 point maximum that has been imposed on us. A complete change from the service that I signed up for when I purchased my weeks/points from Blue Bay. Please let me know how I can assist in any type of class action lawsuit as I like all you others would just like to stop wasting my time and recoup my money now.

Not only did RCI confirm usage of accelerated points for airline tickets, resorts, etc., but confirmed an excellent history with Blue Bay and its affiliates for over 20 years. RCI has changed their program twice since we bought a couple of years ago. It was a fixed fee and fixed points to use the RCI points for hotels, cars, flights, etc. Then last March, they started charging larger fees and tabulating the cost of a flight and charging us the difference and MORE plus the fees to book as previously done. We also have to still pay an annual maintenance fee to RCI.

Like so many, we purchased these points to enable our family to take vacations we could not otherwise afford. With the current changes by RCI and paid for them in advance to ensure the locked rate, we feel we have no choice but to pursue RCI and (Premier) Blue Bay Resorts legally in hopes of reinstating the value of our membership as originally purchased or be prorated for what we have used and reimburse the rest of our money. The more support we can gather from others that have experienced the same injustice from RCI and Blue Bay Getaway (Premier), the more power we have. We have invested over $60,000 for our membership and would like to see them held responsible for our investment.

Because the representative liked me she included 4 nights in Napa Valley and 2 tickets on the wine train, purportedly at no additional charge. I stupidly said okay and got out my credit card. I should have known that if sounded too good to be true, it was. I was transferred to another representative who recorded the conversation of what I was supposed to receive. Suddenly there were taxes to be paid for each night of accommodation. I said that I didn't want the deal. The woman threw in 3 nights in Cancun and 3 more weekend getaways. I thought what the heck and paid the required amount. After all, even if the resorts were 3-star resorts instead of the 5-stars they described, it would still be worth it.

A few hours later I received the details of everything I had purchased and there were quite a few surprises. Hidden usage fees, reservations fees, no stays at the resorts mentioned. Furthermore, the company claimed the right to change the terms and conditions at will. I called the company and promptly cancelled. They have stated they will reverse the charges on my account, but I have to wait 3-7 business days to see if this occurs. Given what Robin of Milwaukie OR (03/28/07) wrote, I will be keeping a close eye on this. I find it incredible this company remains in business and am so thankful to all the people who have written on this site because your stories helped me realize how grossly unreliable and underhanded RCI is.

I called Premier, got the run around, but was getting emails until I asked for my money (21000.00) back. We have never used this program, but have paid our yearly fees. I just want this cancelled and to be refunded, but now have been put on ignore. Is there a lawyer working on this for and with others that we can contact?? This is a scam, and I want my money back. They have collected interest off of our money for 3 years. We want it back so that we can afford to take a vacation someday.

In Nov. 2007, we tried to use our points for air fair only to be told by RCI, there were no points for RCI memembers. We asked if there were seats on the plane and we were told yes but they were not available to RCI...all the RCI seats were sold. We filed a complaint with RCI, as it was a verbal guarentee by Blue Bay, and not RCI. We lodge a dispute with Amex in attempt to get our money back for an obvious fradulant misrepresentation by both RCI and Blue Bay.

So, folks, my wife and I are in support of sueing both Blue Bay and RCI; they are equally partners in this deception as one points their finger at the other as the problem and vice versa. Now we find that our point transfer is RESTRICTED to 60,000 points per year...taking us some 10 plus years to extract our value...Bottom line is both Blue Bay and RCI must be in this together. You can't change the terms of a contract...and this is exactly what they are doing.

We were ripped off by Blue Bay and RCI...See above complaint

I am being charged for overdraft fees.

We also addressed the Fortina Hotel in Malta, where the presentation had been made, but received no reply. So we wrote to the European office of RCI, and that email was returned as could not be delivered, and this an email sent through the site. We the addressed the USA office of RCI, and received an automated response that our query would be attended to within 24 hours.This has not been.

We, however, count ourselves fortunate that we did not fall for the presentation, and did not purchase. We also filled in a questionare with details of our previous vacations, with the presenter including our airfare in all the calculations for hotel stays. Fortunately we picked this up, and realised that it was not as good as made out to be. We will never ever attend another presentation, nor want to be involved at all with RCI

I contacted Blue Bay and they said that they would switch my Plan for an additional fee to also include food and drink but that they will not accept my points for payment. They sell the points but will not redeem them? I feel that this is a Bait and Switch Scam and I do not understand how RCI and or Blue Bay can do this.I feel all who have purchased these worthless points need to band together and file a class action Lawsuit against RCI and Blue Bay Resorts. We to are out a lot of money, points, airfare tickets. Who really is to blame here? Blue Bay or RCI? Where do we all go from here?

We paid $10,000 for a vacation plan that does not allow us to go on vacation.

Like so many, we purchased these points to enable our famioy to take vacations we could not otherwise afford. With the current changes by RCI, we feel we have no choice but to pursue RCI legally in hopes of reinstating the value of our membership as originally purchased. We have turned over our contract and relevant paperwork to the attornety who advised us at the time of purchase. The more support we can gather from others that have experienced the same injustice from RCI, the more power we have. We have invested over $30,000 for our membership and would gladly pay $500-$1,000 to try to pursue RCI and hold them responsible for our investment.

do not understand how RCI can do this.I feel all who have purchased these no good points need to band together and file a class action against RCI and Blue Bay Resorts. We to are out a lot of money,points,airfare tickets. Who really is to blame here? Blue Bay or RCI? Where do we all go from here?

considerable inconvenience in finding THE PROPERTY

When I came back to United States I found out that the credit I have available with a Credit card that I have been working for 20 years, with good outstanding, and use only when I really needed was gone. All the credit was reassigned to the new credit card. I will never put my family in this situation if I have not. Times required you to have not only savings but credit available, and I have been really careful to keep up. Now all the credit is gone. I asked the bank and they said they can do that without informing. I asked the bank to reverse the payment but they denied because I sign for it.

I requested the cancellation of the Contract with the Mayan Palace Resorts, but they do not want to refund the money because it is 5 days over the cancellation policy. I am out of credit, do not want the resort and the bank refuses to get the money back. I will place a formal complain and I will refuse to pay the bank. I will cancel all my accounts with Bank of America and go from here. Does anyone knows if it is legal for the bank to reassigned credit without letting you know?

No credit available for what is really needed. If the bank considered I was over my limit they should have informed me and ask me if I wanted to use my existing credit. Stress, trying to call the bank and being transferred and mistreated, make mock of, and hung up on, calls to mexico with the same results.

I have noticed that others have expressed an interest in a class action lawsuit. I would be interested in participating if this is to occur. Regardless of whether any of us get our money back, I think it would be a good thing to use a lawsuit to call attention to RCI's fraudulant practices. In the future, maybe, other people will be a little more cautious than we were. We wasted a great deal of money. Probably means that we will not be taking a vacation any time soon. May mean that I will have to alter my plans for retirement.

But Surprisingly after that whenever we wanted to take a travel to avail the facility offered by them we called up the phone number ( mentioned above) it was not into existance. There were no response even if we went on sending mails to the email address. Finally we went to the Lower Ground floor, East of Kailash, New Delhi - 65 address , which was SUPPOSEDLY their Registered Office , was totally empty. All the office settings were packed up from there as if it never existed there. And this happened within a month we first visited the place when we had to pay them Rs. 12500/-.

Accidentally we met Jatin T. there. When he was asked about the non existance of the phone number or the email id they have given, he said they had shifted to a new REGISTERED OFFICE in some mall in Noida. And he took our number and said that the number will be activated in a few days. He also said that the new address is not confirmed till then, as soon as they fix that up they will let us know, which even never happened. We called up the phone number within a week and the customer care executive said there is no availability of the free facility for the period we wanted, and asked us to contact later.

After a month when we again tried to contact Jatin T. on his mobile number it was an invalid number. The Registered Office phone number was not into existance either , nor the email id. And any of the contacts provided by them was never existant since then. We have tried visiting the same office and no sin of Flyhigh Vacations P Ltd. was there. We contacted Fort Chanwa Luni, RCI but nobody was able to give us any information about Flyhigh Vacations. I still have not received my money back though I have sent a mail to them quite a couple of times.

I feel totally cheated. Rs.12500 is not a small amount . And this fraud company has cheated us taking our money with all false promise and identity. I wonder even if they have set up a new temporary Registered Office elsewhere how many innocent people they may be cheating and taking money from them. I would request the Honorable Consumer Court to take Immediate & Severe actions against this fraudulant company and arrange for our money repayment.

When we bought the timeshare we were not told of this possibility. In fact, we were told that we could use unlimiited points in any way we chose, which is why we bought into their scheme. If a move is afoot for a class action lawsuit against RCI, I would be interested in participating. We essentially wasted thousands of dollars.

We booked a short trip back in May of 2008 with my brother and his wife. They told me then that we could only buy down the cost of the tickets with our points. I told them that wasn't in our contract, they said they could change at anytime. I asked Temptations for help they said it was out of thier hands. It cost us 140,000 pts.plus some cash to fly to Cancun in May. We planned on going back in June for a week, since we new now that it was going to cost us points plus cash we postponed our trip till Sept.

I called Temptations in early July to transfer our remaining 100,000 points into our RCI account which went through w/out a glitch. I then called RCI to book our flights and they tell me that I can only use 60,000 pts. I tell them that my contract says I can use 240,000 pts.per year they said they changed that, I said that's a breach of contract, they said they can change the contract when they want, I hung up. I called Temptations and they said they were negotiating and there was nothing I could do, I said put my points back they said they couldn't.

If I don't use my points that have been transferred then we lose them. I wited weeks and still nothing we couldn't even get on the RCI website, we had been refused access because we were Blue Bay members. I called RCI they said because we were Original Resorts members we had been denied they said they didn't know if we would ever. I e-mailed Temptations and asked if we could possibly work something out where we didn't have to deal with RCI. Chris Oldroyd (p.r.for Temptations) e-mailed me back saying that he had forwarded my request to the V.P. and would hear from them shortly.

It's the middle of August now and we haven't heard a thing meanwhile we did book our flights through RCI. It did cost us 45,000 pts. for one ticket plus $82 (45,000 pts. buys $400 off ticket price) for that ticket oh plus $49 RCI fee.Our contract says that it is going to cost us $49 per ticket and nothing else. Our other ticket cost us $482 so now tickets that our contract says are going to cost us $98 now cost us $613.

When I called RCI I was told I would have to speak with a Blue Bay specialist. While I was on the phone with the RCI Blue Bay specialist I asked what was going on and he said that Blue Bay members were put on a restriction because they use to many points and said that we could join another club and not have the restriction. I told him the points were the only reason that we joined.

In June 2007 it cost us $2200 for everything for one week. This trip we're taking in Sept.2008 is costing us $1702 for everyting for one week. I checked on this through my travel agency and for the 1st week in Sept. $2000 so for using RCI we saved $298, but,we paid $499 maintenance fee $123 membership fee plus $204 per month for the past year so basically we've paid $3022 this past year to get a $298 discount

Many, manyphone calls later Blue Bay's response is still We are still in negotiations with RCI to lift this limitation. No solution seems to be forthcoming in nearly two months of negotiations. Does anyone have any idea where we can go from here?

As per RCI this was put in place because Blue Bay members use to many points! Of course this is because we purchased them to use! The 60,000 points limitation purchases almost nothing and with the amount of points sold to me by Premier it would take me 100 years to use my points! . So Basically we paid $20,000 for points that we will reap no benefit from. I don't understand how RCI can legally select one group of members to restrict and not others. We all pay same membership fees.

I have contacted Blue Bay and RCI. Blue Bay contends that this is not a breach of my contract and I beg to differ since they failed to disclose that RCI had the right to restrict the points usage. Especially considering it made the sale of the contract something useless. Blue Bay sold us a bag of nothing and they just blaim it on RCI and walk away! RCI contends that they can restrict the points at their leisure basically. I have filed a complaint with the Indiana Attorney General Dept. of Consumer Affairs and Profeco (Mexican Department of Conciliation Services for Foreign Residents). Where do I go from here?

I have paid Blue Bay almost $20,000 as of June when I stopped payments. I still owe them $5000 but now since I refuse to pay anymore I can not use my bonus weeks to visit the resort or any of my points (not even the 60,000 a year) as if that would help. I was planning to return in Oct. this year but now we can't. I also paid their rental agency $299 for a lifetime rental service of my bonus weeks. I understand that agency is defunct and was offered a refund but never received it either! I am out a lot of money and now can no longer afford the vacations I thought I would enjoy in my retirement.

One year ago I managed some how to echange points for 2 airfares to Israel for my husband and I for October 2008. My intentions were to go back in June and get the 3rd fare for my daughter and then explore hotels etc. When I went back to RCI.com in June I found that I was locked out of my account. The account I pay a membership fee for. I called and talked to several people over several days and kept being told that my home resort and RCI were having problems. Today there is still no resolve and I can't get a answer from either party. So now I have to airfares to Israel and can't use my points to get my daughter a flight or any hotel rooms. Yes, a ruined dream to see Israel.

They offered me a hotel directly behind the hotel I was in and one that was one block away and told me these were my only options. I repeatedly told them I could not stayb somewhere I did not feel safe with my children. They put me up in the red light district in a hotel with a security guard.

The lady at the reception told me she did not blame me for not wanting to stay in the Kuhio Banyan because teenagers had beaten a male turist to death in front of that hotel. The Kuhio Banyan club did not have a separate bed for my 16 year old son and he had to sleep on the couch. The only bed in the room was a bed that pulls out from the wall. The room smelled disgusting, it was dirty, there was no way to open a window to let in fresh air and there was a seedy bar and a tatoo parlor down stairs from me.

The hotel did not have a parking garage but offered to allow me to park my rental car in a garage nearby for 18.00 per night. I was forced to run from my car in the parking garage with my two children to try to get my kids to saftey that evening. RCI was no help, one of the customer service representatives I called for help tried to get me to bank more weeks for more money instead of helping me deal with my emergency. I was not given anything close to amenities of my timeshare week I gave up. The hotel was nasty, the area was bad.

After the second night, I stayed at the Sheraton in Wikiki. I was not prepared to stay at other hotels and could not afford to rent another one. It cost me 199.00 to deposit my week with my hotel, 164.00 to book with RCI, 300.00 to stay at the Sheraton and I was ultamitly left scared, in a seedy hotel in a bad part of town. I feel that the money I spent on airline tickets to stay at a resort shoul be refunded. The hotel I was given looked like some place a fugitive running from the law would stay at. My airline tickets were over 1500.00 for me and my children. We expected at minimum a nice hotel if RCI could not find a resort.

At first, the sales representative asked us to fill out a questionnaire about our travel and based on the information we added, Lydia admitted that we do not travel that much and possibly do not need timeshares. So why did she even proceed on to feed us the presentation garbage?

Like most of the other consumers, we were told that we could travel anywhere in the world and stay at 5 star hotels and all we had to pay was the exchange fee. We were also informed that if we book our reservations in 45 days or less, we could use significantly less points.

So how did we know this was a scam...1)they wanted you to make a decision on the spot, without even allowing you to do research before you make your decision, 2)When we asked for a business card, we were told they aren't provided with any, and do no business after the offer is declined, 3) At first the saleswoman knew timeshares weren't for us, even went as far as admitting it, and she still proceeded to find a package to fit our lifestyle. Thank God we didn't fall for the scam, and after reading this website reassures our decision. Good luck to all you RCI customers!

I was shocked to discover about the only thing available are run down delapitated resorts in the middle of no where. I also found that while it cost me points plus a $164 reservation fee, that the same resorts and rooms are offered for just a few dollars more and without points by RCI. The resorts themselves are dirt cheap because no one wants them. Nor do I see the need for a $164 reservation fee. I know of no hotel chain in the world that would make such an outlandish fee. It appears RCI is just into a big scam. Although I have noticed a few resorts available that I could travel to so I can actually make use of my RCI points now and then.

My niece booked two studio apartments at Ormond beach since they were going with another couple. When I made the arrangements I was told they would have beachfront views. RCI charged my niece and the other couple $529.00 each, no ocean front view and to make matters worse the couples were on different floors and one was without a balcony at all.

My niece called very upset after driving 10 hours, she talked to a supervisor named Jason who told her because they were using bonus weeks they were considered low on the totem pole!!!! He told her there was nothing he could do except offer her to move to Orland which of course is inland!!! What would the point be?? He then told her there was nothing else available and she would have to chalk it up, there would be no refund or a discount on their over priced exchange fee.

My niece then talked to a manager of the resort and she apologized explaining RCI had caused these problems in the past but she would see what she could do. The next day, Jason called my niece on her cell phone and again said there was nothing else available. While my niece was talking to him, the front desk of the resort had her paged at poolside, she walked to the front desk and the young lady behind the desk offered her a two bedroom unit with a balcony so the couples could at least enjoy their vacation.Jason from RCI had no explanation as to how she could arrange this since he was of no use at all. RCI owes my niece and her friends at least $300.00 each since the exchange fee was exagerated.

Almost ruined their vacation, the impact of being told they were considered low on the totem pole because they were using bonus weeks/gift certificates, and out of pocket expenses of $300.00 per couple for the breach of contract concerning the exchange fee that should have been $199.00 per couple.

We budgeted our trip based on information from RCI and the ability to use the points to purchase Disneyworld tickets. We were looking at saving 50% of the cost of the tickets for a family of 5. We are at the point that we will not be able to afford this trip, we will be out of the $169 booking fee RCI charges, and $2800 in airline fees, because of this scam.......... Not to mention dissappointing our children. They claim they stopped doing this as of June 17, 2008, but there was never a notice sent to members. I thought there is supposed to be a 30 day notification when a service is discontinued?

Today I still have 289,000 points sitting with RCI. I tried to get on the RCI website today and couldn't, I phoned for technical assistance and was told that I have no access rights to the website because the Temptation Resort has pulled their membership but that I can still phone RCI for bookings, I paid RCI $135 for my yearly membership and now I have no access rights.

Unfortunately that wasn't the worst, I phoned the rep at RCI Points Plus, to use my some of my points to book a hotel in Niagara Falls for my 25th wedding anniversary and was told that there was a newly introduced "Yearly" limit on the number of points available to be used on the Points Plus program, it is 60,000 point in a calendar year and by using approx 440,000 points back in February I have exceeded my total for the year. To put 60,000 points in perspective, that will get you one return flight to Las Vegas from Toronto, Canada.

Until I talk to The Temptation Resort & Spa, in Cancun, I don't hold them responcible for the 2nd part of this complaint. It is RCI that have caused this nightmare.

$199 exchange fee---my Miami time share, plus the renewal fee 229. I am out $430 dollars plus my $1400 2 week time share! I'm hiring an attorney.

If it weren't for your comments we might have considered doing business with them in the near future. I also wanted to mention that as they handed us our parting gift and then they practically shoved us out the back door This must be what they are like just as soon as they have your money! Good Luck to all of you that have had the bad experience of doing business with them.

Nothing, other than our time so far!

RCI are costing us a fortune and are providing no service. They are trying to sell off our timeshare weeks when they should be trading them. PLEASE PLEASE help, there are so many consumer complaint.

Lost value equal to $480.00. RCI bases its points at .01 per point.

This is an outrage; they misrepresent the program, making false promises, making everything seem so wonderful. But, the reality is nasty operators, required time share meetings that take up almost a whole day, and then they get mad if you don't buy, even though they were told up front that you aren't interested. They asked an old woman for her credit card number and wanted to sell her a short term time share since she was older. They are CROOKS and WE DEFINITELY NEED A CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT! PLEASE, CONSUMER AFFAIRS, DO SOMETHING. THERE ARE SO MANY UNHAPPY RCI CUSTOMERS.

We paid $15,000.00 for a time share that has not lived up to its promises. We were told that if we change our mind, it would be easy to sell, and that's not the case. The fact is that this company is nothing more than an organized scam. They misrepresent their company, their promises, and, the rooms that they show on line are NOT the rooms that you will get.

So far I owe $2300 to Bank of America. RCI got this money using my NAME! I wish I can have an attorney to help, but I cannot afford it now. I feel so bad!

We were told that transfers to and from the airport were included in the package, but when we went for our taxi vouchers for the return flight home we were told the vouchers were issued only if we had done a deal. We only paid 46 euros for the taxis to the airport, but the threat of "you will regret it" from the salesman has left its mark.We also paid 755.00 for flights, 99.00 for the apartment, 69.00 parking fee at airport and 120.00 euros for car hire.

We are unable to use all our weeks because of the difficulty in exchanging due to RCI renting up available exchange accomodations. So in addition to the $10,000 purchase price and the annual $700 maintenance fee and the $85 annual fee to RCI for the privilege of exchanging we are paying way too much money for a vacation we are not having!

In the past two years I've noticed RCI calling to push me to deposit my resort weeks so far out that my resort won't even make them available for deposit even if I was ready to deposit. I've also noticed RCI guides telling me right up front that my exchange is not going to work and that I need to look into an instant escape or something similar before all inventory is gone. Most recently I called in mid-October and requested a trade for either Kauai or Kona nine months in advance. This was for my honeymoon and I really wanted everything to be special. Right up front I was told that the trade would likely not happen and that I needed to look into an instant escape to ensure I'd have somewhere to stay on my honeymoon. Over the next month or so nothing happened, but at the end of December I got a call from RCI indicating there would we quite a few weeks getting deposited at the end of the year and that something would likely materialize for a trade.

Instead of getting calls for trades, I got calls trying to push instant escapes. One was in Kona and after I turned that one away, something suddenly came up for Kauai. I was just about to accept until I learned it was also an instant escape and the time it was to be booked for was four weeks prior to my honeymoon! Obviously that was canceled and today I had a message on my answering machine indicating RCI had found a match. I got excited and called only to find it was also a week for an instant escape. I then asked how my exchange was looking and the guide told me they had no record of my ever having placed an exchange request, despite the fact my credit card was charged with an exchange fee nearly five months earlier! I began to complain and the conversation rapidly became heated and she hung up. I called back and got a supervisor and after threatening legal action, I was suddenly accommodated with my desired exchange in Kauai during my requested time frame.

Bottom Line: RCI appears to be withholding our deposited weeks and instead is selling us Instant Escapes rather than accommodate our requests for trades. I think this is nothing more than fraud so RCI can line their pockets at their members' expense. I'm interested in getting a class action suit going.

We will have to spend over $3,000 for a hotel when we could have had an exchange.

This has been a waste of our money and time. We hardly have enough money to take a nice vacation and banked on using our timeshare. We now do not have the money we spent on our banked weeks, the vacation we had anticipated nor the option to use our paid weeks at the Cancun location we purchased at!

In 2007 we banked our time with our timeshare to double our points. In January 2008, we contacted Canida House that we will be coming down on our week there. We later receied a call from Canada House that since we were now on the Point System that we had to book our time with RCI. The supervisor at Canada House told me that a family who owns a time share there had traveled down there on their regular time to find out that RCI had already rented their time share out. They were turned away. I bet they had to spend a large amount of money to stay somewhere ealse. We contacted RCI and was told our regular time share time was rented already by them, RCI. I was a very upset and so was my wife. We were never notified that RCI rented out our time share and that they could do that without our permission. We also found out that if we were going to stay at our time share, we would have to notify them in advance by 13 months! I don't know about other people, but we never know if we could take off work 13 months in advance. My wife's place of work requires you to sumit the vaction week you want off. You do not know for sure if you will get it untill February 1st. 13 months advance notice?..Get Real!

After calling RCI several times about wanting to be at our time share, they said that they didn't have anything in April open and that we would have go to Canada House in June but for additional cost plus our point of a few hundred dollars. I was on the phone with the supervisior and was able to get them to waive the fee, but we may still have to pay a house keeping fee which we had already did for April. This fee would be a new fee. I did contact the Florida Attourney General about the RCI practice and the misrepution of the Point System. We will be getting off the Point System, It's just another Florida rip off. I am a retired person over 60 with a wife who still works. This is a total rup off. Don't be fooled about the Point System. It is switch an bait and you are not told up front your rights with the point system. I did not recieve the paper work for our records when we sign up for the point system.

Secondly, I have a hard time getting reservations when I want them. We rarely get to Summer Bay, and that's because I cant seem to get reservations. I was lucky to get the December-January time. But what a rip off and disappointment it was. We weren't even able to enjoy ourselves because of these problems with having to pay extra money to stay at my home resort. How do I get out of this point system and get my $6,000 back? This has been a continuous loss of money.

Two weeks later I have received the confirmation letter with all the details and start looking to find more information about the Dominican Republic and the place we were going to.I found one for me scary fact that July,Augudt and September are the seasons that hurricanes may occur and due to the fact that the last we wanted is to get there in that time I have again contacted RCI Europe to request different time for our holliday. First I have been told that in the Dominican Republic never have ocurre horricanes.

I have sent the website specialy prepared to guide turists and the climat info there and when they have seen it told me it was my foulth I haven't checked about the weather before agree on the exchange. They also have told me that if I want to rebook for different time I have to pay again 300 fee. I do agree that yes it was a bad idea to not choose and check in advance most of the details but also refusing to change our holliday and rebook it in different time even I have asked ( 8 months in advance) If you are looking for safety do not deal with RCI. I will never do it again.

We will obviously loose 300 liras and will end up with no holliday arrangements.Safety for customers is not looked properly + no flexibility in exchanging weeks is not a rule with RCI Europe

We had promised our children that we would take a family vacation and we did but we had to pay at the regular rates for a hotel room on the beach. We never did get to use our promised week and it is not looking promising for next year. What a waste of money every month. Also the customer service representatives are so rude and unwilling to help. Are they trained to just say nothing is available

Every month that we have to make our payment it feels like the biggest waste of money and we certainly could be putting that money to better use than a timeshare we will obviously never be able to use. I have looked into how to sell a timeshare and that is depressing also, it is apparently not an easy thing to unload. My husband and I feel as if we have been taken advantage of and lied to. Maybe we should have been smarter than to do this but it all seems so legitimate and easy to use. We thought it would be so easy and convenient, they do make it sound that way in the office under all that pressure. We are much smarter now and we would not recommend this to ANYONE!!!!!

I am now stuck in limbo. I have no vacation week and they will not release my week from this so called bank. This is really a holding cell for a hostage, your vcation week. Stay away from these people. You can call any time share to work out an exchange. You dont need them and you dont have to pay a fee. Signed vacationless in 08'.

There is much frustration and now heart ache for the children. As of now we have no vacation in 08' and they not only took our fee for exchange we are out the initiation fee to join. It is a lose-lose situation. Signed taken for a ride.

Rumor has it that RCI makes more money renting property that people deposit than the $169 they get for an exchange fee so they rent their prime properties. We were considering selling our time share at Whistler and then realized it's RCI that we had problems with.

From now on we will trade through someone like Platnum Interchange, Interval International, Trading Places International, Maui Time Share Exchange, or San Fransisco Exchange.

It cost us $1300 for 2 rooms near Disneyland for a week stay.

In April of this year, we received notice through a telephone inquiry we made, (no one ever sent we owners anything in writing that anything was wrong), that the company and hotel we knew as Brigatine Beach Resort Club has gone bankrupt, another company bought it, and they are renovating the place. We only found out about all of this because we recently recieved a bill for over 1000.00 and it said that if we didn't pay this outragous assessment fee by July 1, they were just taking our property back without any compensation to us! We will lose everything we have paid for, all of our deeded and rightfully ours timeshares will just be gone and taken from us!

We feel this is outright extortion and since we are not the only ones involved in this, there are hundreds of people involved, see partial article below, this may be criminal activity that needs to be investigated! Meanwhile, there should be a cease and decist all requests for funding from owners in the form of bills sent with threatening notices so this can be sorted out by you kind and knowledgable people. WE are on fixed income and cannot afford to pay what they ask of us! We don't want to lose all of the over 40.000 dollars we have invested over the years in these timeshares. Please help us! Time is running out and if we don't get resolution of this or at least an extension of deadline somehow, we will lose all of it! This company has told us they will just take it from us!

We have been searching for a summer holiday (July 2007) since last year and as usual nothing appears. You end up having to pay for package holidays, which is not the reason why we bought timeshares.

I seriously think something should be done about this Company, they need to be brought to task by a consumer expert as their service is appaling.

This is a serious problem for many thousands of people. They take your money but do not come up with the goods.

The bottom line is you can never never never get the holiday of your choice as there are never available.

She was asked for her debit card information because they needed it to verify that she was over 18. She asked them if they were going to charge it and was told no. but at the end of the call, she kind of realized that something else was going on, and asked again if they were charging her card, and was told she would be making payments. She didn't quite understand how all this happened, so asked to talk to a supervisor. She was told if she didn't want the package, she could have a refund, so she said this was what she wanted.

Two days later I noticed the charges against her account - pretty much wiping out all the money she has in her account. Money for paying her medical bills. I called the number listed on her bank account and talked to three different people. the last one, Mark, a supervisor, said he would credit back the $298 payment and keep further payments from posting against her account. But that they were keeping the $50. I asked what the $50 was for, and he said for the package that we could sell it on ebay, etc. But he couldn't explain to me what anyone would be buying. He told me that the only way he would stop payment of the $298 was to accept this deal.

This is so bogus. I can't believe this company is still around. There must be a lot of complaints against them. I will add mine to the rest. And I will take further action. First, I took my daughters debit card away from her so this can't happen again.

I have not worked for three months while taking care of my daughter. My daughter has not worked. We are surviving on a little disability that she gets and the kindness of friends at church. This is financially devestating to us. They don't care what our family is going through, that there is no chance my daughter will even be able to travel that far for some time to even use the package - the small amount of money this is means nothing to them yet they want it. It is 5 copays for us for therapy. It means we have to go short on food or something else.

Today I tried to book flights to visit my timeshare over Christmas next year. Already, there are no RCI Seats available to my home resort. I remind you that I am trying to book 11 months in advance. When I attempted to book the flights and rental car on line, it appeared as though the flights were available, and the rental car was not. I then called customer service for assistance as the screen options did not allow me to remove the rental car option and just book the flights.

When I finally got passed through to the person to book the flights, I was informed that there were none available. The supervisor I spoke with explained that there are many places smaller places where they don't service with airfare. And, I am trying to fly to my home resort.

The following text is cut directly from the RCI website.

RCI Points Partners Program

With RCI Points Partners Program, you can use your RCI Points for many other great travel-related products and services from airline tickets to car rentals and so much more. With so many choices, you can never have enough RCI Points!

Nowhere is there a discussion of limited availability. In my experience, nearly every attempt that I have made to use my points has resulted in lack of availibity, high surcharges when I readjust my plans to fit availability, and ultimately great frustration. RCI- the juice is not worth the squeeze. I believe that they falsely advertise the scope of their services.

I have spent over $3,000 a year on my time share, not including the $600 a year maintenance fees. What sold me in deciding to buy the timeshare was the flexibility that the RCI points offered. I am a military officer, and therefor move frequently. The very flexibility that was a sales point turns out to be false, and I an stuck with a timeshare in Montana that I cannot afford to visit now that I am assigned to Washington, DC.

While I have the points necessary to exchange for flight tickets, I cannot use them. The sales pitch and advertising provided regarding RCI is flatly false. I can only guess the financial loss that I will have when I attempt to sell this package. I'm guessing that I will see at about a $15,000 loss. And there is no compensation for the hours and hours of lost time on line and waiting on the phone trying to work through the process to use my points.