Shell Vacations Club Reviews

The documentation online on Shell Vacations website reads "If you have more than one membership, then you may borrow points only once in any use year for each membership you own". I understand the borrow once a year - that's pretty simple but nowhere does this say anything about "sharing" my own points with myself or "renting" my other points at a cost to me. Just a big money grab by Shell Vacations in my book.

Today, I'm told that my points are only good for a studio?!? Also, Wyndham has SVC ownership but the owners do not have any benefits with Wyndham. Now, I'm paying $780 for annual maintenance fees. Seriously, I can do better without a timeshare; they never have any rooms anywhere that I vacation. I am able to book a room anytime in Arizona, which is where I live, but that is because no one in their right minds wants to come to Arizona much less vacation here in hell. 2 weeks ago I booked a room at the Hampton Inn (membership into Hilton Honors is free btw) and it was better than any place that I have ever stayed with my timeshare.

Also, it was only $80 per night and this isn't a unique deal. I've stayed in many highly upscale hotels and even some resorts for the same or less by booking on my own. I really only vacation maybe at most 14 nights per year. So let’s see: 14 x 80 = 1120, 1120 - 780 = 340; I'm really only saving $340 but then not really because it's hassle free and stress free to book without my timeshare and I can always get a room without any notice (not even 1 day), and I only pay for what I use so if I subtract 4 days and stay only 10 nights per year then I really only save $20. Of course, usually when I book on my own I also get discount offers such as stay 3 nights and get 1 night free.

I hate this company! Now that Wyndham has acquired Shell Vacations Resort, good luck getting a week anywhere! 90 days ago I had to put another $189 down for a search (banking costs!) through Interval International and am searching three different states for a week...anywhere! Just let me go! My vacation is next week and still, even in the middle of nowhere, do they have a room for my husband and I? I want my money back! Worst part is, if you are even a little late on maintenance fees, they will send you to collections! Can you say "rip-off" AND NO WAY OUT!?

What happened next was that the two salespersons got on the phone to Bank of America (I learned later) and a loan for $5000 was taken out in my name, by making up information. When I got home I canceled that loan as a fraud/scam and have never heard from BofA about it again. I was NOT told how high AOA fees would be, and I kept getting letters from them to pay exorbitant amounts that made no sense at all. The two sales persons kept calling me and in pseudo fake worried tones told me how much financial trouble I would be in.

On the advice of a lawyer I didn't respond; at all. I didn't use them; I didn't get anything but harassment from them and attempts to seduce me into contacting them. I understand that you have to go for four years with NO contact to get some kind of legal standing. My four years of dodging calls and saving all their letters ends September of 2015. I have no idea what kind of trouble I may be in legally but I was so incensed that I refuse to pay them a penny. My "membership" is definitely in dispute!

5 days later I have checked out with no report. The Manager does not have access, just the housekeeping guy ** who no one can find. To make matters worse on our last day we went to breakfast and returned at 9:30am (check out time is 10:00 am) the maids were in our room and had take the food out of the fridge and put it in their ice chests. We had not checked out yet. My husband deep sea fishes and we had 80 pounds of packed tuna in the fridge. That we had to take out of the housekeepers ice chests.

We asked them and they said they thought we left. My question is how many times had they been in our room. This is a week long condominium and you only get one maid service for the week. Good thing it was not daily service or we would have went home naked. The manager in the end gave us a loss report they sent to Wyndham. They never apologies or offered any compensation.

Several weeks ago I went to another sales pitch because we were told that many changes had been made. ** conducted the group session and then a young sales guy took us aside to try to get us to upgrade. He offered us several plans at $10,000 plus that would allow us to enjoy the Wyndham properties (or so I thought). We made it clear we did not need more points. He then came up with a 500 point upgrade for $4100. These are points from some magical inventory made up of forfeitures.

My thinking at that point was it would be worth it for the kids to be able to use Wyndham properties. Our young sales guy agreed. I bought the 500 points and left thinking we would now have access to Wyndham properties WRONG! Even though I was led to believe that my choices would be expanded I was duped. After some homework which I should have done upfront I realized that all I bought were 500 expensive points to go to the same places with some possible discounts. Beware of this sales pitch--do not go! I am truly disappointed with Shell/Wyndham and especially disappointed in the nice young man that sold me the points. There is no way this nice kid would allow me to make this mistake---WRONG.

Why am I pi--ed at Shell - first, they belonged to RCI. We went and bought a timeshare because it included Interval. Now nowhere in the contract does it state it CAN DROP or CANCEL RCI or my membership or contract part of RCI. It may be ALLOWED to ALSO JOIN I.I. but nothing about canceling RCI. Wyndham has an interest in ALL 3. I can usually count on Shell and Shell I.I. telling me, "NO nothings available", then I hang up, call the other timeshares I.I. and they are great. I would take Shell up on their "special offers" but don't because I feel "Sorry there's nothing available".

The other thing is after we got home and a year later (next vacation time off), we weren't sold enough points to EVEN go back to the place where we bought the points - however we could go to a RCI property in the area. We found out it's the way they do business. Show you a property - you like it, but not sell you enough to come back to it. Hoping you'll buy more points. We also now have 2 I.I. memberships. One Membership, I am a Platinum member and to me it's worth it. With Shell we are "gold members" but in order to become a I.I. platinum, a person has to UPGRADE their points each year and even I would be glad to do that except again - Once I gave them the money - "Sorry ** you don't have enough pts", or "There's NOTHING available in the 6 state area of New England and in Arizona in July. You don't have enough points."

This year I even tried to go to "door county" (Wisconsin) in March - it's still completely outside the tourist season but I didn't call soon enough and it was supposedly "full". To me, what Shell did by dropping RCI breaches our contract - I kept my end and therefore should buy back my contract at what I paid for it in full plus pay any fees related to buying it back. I also think there is a conflict of interest - Why would Wyndham buy Shell and make its members belong to I.I. when R.C.I. Is also a part of Wyndham?

If I were Wyndham, I would offer a buy back program. A place in NYC does that and the reasoning is simple - They want a good name and happy clients and if you are not happy, they don't want you as a member. Matter of fact, several companies do that. I don't have the money for a lawyer so I keep mine. Again. I like timeshare, and the concept - It's not a money type of investment but to me a travel type of investment. I should say I always call Shell first because I bought them first and so they can't say "Well, he never calls us."

Service is nowhere as near as good as it used to, we used to get free nights at the Shell resorts for updates (and upsells) which we figured sort of made up for the maintenance fees, the website was supposedly updated but was really just a color-scheme change, and they stopped even printing and sending out their member magazine. They made it digital.... I'm pretty sure they can afford to send us a quarterly magazine. I truly wish we weren't owners.

This summer we will be staying at two resorts on the Big Island for a total of 13 nights as well as reserving 8 nights in Kona for son and family. We did add 3500 points at no cost a couple of years ago. Some of our stays have been cash, most have been points, including Tahoe which was an exchange thru II. I am considering adding more points if they are free, and there are many free points out there.

Not much had changed. Same old furniture. Painfully hard mattress! No air conditioning unless you paid extra, but feather duvets. How ridicilous.... because that's the "in thing." We remade our whole bed and used the duvet to pad the mattress instead. The pools didn't have enough umbrellas for all the people that needed them so we went to Holua to use a shady pool there. The pools were very in need of refinishing. They looked awful and the furniture and pool decks were dirty. It has been 2-3 years that we have noticed a huge turn over in guests each day. Some staying only 2 days or less. It seemed like a motel. Some groups had more people than there were beds in the unit.

I would rate these 2 SVC resorts as 2.5 stars now. Maybe Wyndham wants it that way. We are considering donating our resort before it gets any worse. How sad. I know not every one can afford a 5 star resort, but we used to own one. Now we don't. I suspect they buy their own points or weeks back from these timeshare resales that charge you a fee.

It was represented that we would have access to 30% discounted travel. The "discounted" travel is another ripoff! Travel booking is available, but NOT at a discount. Cheaper travel is available online at such sites as Expedia. The premium hotel affiliate, Extended Stay America, does not offer basic amenities, such as pool or restaurant service. It was represented that we would participate in RCI's elite points exchange program. SVC is NO LONGER AFFILIATED with RCI! There is no elite RCI Exchange program available as promised.

The SVC contracts do not have a termination date. Participation in a worthless program is indefinite. In the past 5 years the annual maintenance fee had almost doubled from $800 to $1500 without explanation as to the large increase.

SVC personnel has threatened to "ruin your credit" if the payment is not made. The bottom line is that we are paying $1500 a year for points to participate in premium resorts, discounted travel and RCI Exchanges which are not available. We would like our $8500 back and, more importantly, rescind our participation in this fraudulent points program. The State should shut down such a fraudulent scheme.

I have been attempting to contact Shell in the hope of resolving this situation by e-mail and leaving several voices messages. If you are considering Shell Vacation Club packages, be very careful.. We are about to lose $1700.00 unless Shell works with us which doesn't seem likely. One of their reps, Ashley called once and left a message. I called her back and got her voice mail and have gotten her voice mail every time I have called since then.

I somehow managed to get my "no" across, and get taken seriously, but then, there was the exit interview. During the Exit interview, a woman named Stephanie ** (I'll spare her here even though I still remember her full name) told me all about the Explorer option, where I could buy 6,000 points, just to try the system, with no further commitment. I would have 2 years to use the points. What could possibly go wrong? The points were reasonably priced (only, I'm sure because I knew I could pay them off before interest kicked in, which I know would have been my doom...) I asked Ms. ** many questions, but the most important question I asked her REPEATEDLY was "Is there Any difference between these points and Full member points?" I especially stressed that I would buy the points if I could use them to exchange in New York.

She looked me in the eye, smiled, and assured me there was NO DIFFERENCE in the points, that I could use Explorer points EXACTLY the way full member points could be used. THAT WAS A LIE. As it turns out, I found out soon enough when I needed to go to New York that she had simply and fully lied to my face. So I had to find way to expend the points lest I forfeit close to $1,700. So I called to see if they could help me with a trip I was taking to Colorado Springs. They told me that they have contracted with certain chains around the nation and that one of those chains was available where I was going. They subtracted approximately 1100 points for me to stay for two nights in this place which was far from pretty.

The first night I was there my five year old daughter and I were stepping out of our room to go to the dinner party arranged by my friend, only to find the entire hallway lined with fully outfitted S.W.A.T. members and a lady on the ground in front of our room. I realize this is not Shell's fault, but it gives you an understanding of what kind of place I was in. We checked out and ended up spending money to stay at the hotel that the majority of the out of town guest in town for this even were staying out. The gal at the desk took pity on us and gave us an outrageously reduced rate, for which I am very grateful, because the place was beautiful. I knew I could not ask Shell to refund the points for the second night of the hotel that I did not use.

With my two year window quickly closing in on me, and no time to go to Hawaii, I still had close to 5000 points to redeem in my Explorer account. I live in Tucson so I thought I would do something nice for my mom. When I had bought the points, Ms. Stephanie ** had made a big fuss about the fact that one of the Shell resorts in Az is at the famed Starr Pass area. Yes, there is a gorgeous Starr Pass Marriott, world famous and amazing, and yes, she led me to believe that that was where the resort was, but as my mother Googled directions before I booked the hotel, it was quickly revealed that the Shell Vacations site is approximately 2 miles from that lush Marriott and is called The Starr Pass Golf Suites, a rather nondescript place that is more like an apartment. Another bait and switch. The only nice thing they did do, is that, since a week at the Golf Suites did not use up all of my points, they converted the remaining points to gift cards, for dining, so I got approximately 400$ worth of gift cards back.

My main point is that I will never do business with Shell again. Their sales people are bold faced liars. The phone people were the only pleasant part of interacting with the company, they were all super nice, I will give them that, but, I suppose they would have to be to counteract all of the mischief the others caused!

The customer service has gone from average to horrible since Wyndum purchased Shell. I am splitting my points into 2 separate accounts. It has been 5 weeks and still no resolution. Even the staff who are doing the work can't give me a correct straight answer. Times have changed. Once the good investment is now just ok. You are unable to sell a timeshare for anywhere near the purchase price. Since I bought long enough ago, my purchase price was far below what the current rates. I would never buy directly from the timeshare companies. There are too many good deals on the secondary market.

The kicker came when we started to talk about money. A "finance" guy was then brought to the table. The first shocker was that there is a monthly maintenance fee for upkeep of the property. One question they could not adequately answer was why do we pay to maintain a property that we do not own. The second shocker was the interest rate. They were willing to lend us the money to buy the points package at 16.99%! (We refused to give them our social security numbers up front for a credit check. The rate you can get with a great credit score is 16.4%.) Then, the biggest lie we were told is that we can go to our bank and refinance the package for a rate much less than 16%. They would not give us any paperwork or information to take with and discuss. There was a hard sell to sign on the spot with the understanding that we could cancel within 7 days. We did not buy the package but did speak to our banker about it. She said there is no way the package can be refinanced because there is no collateral. Lastly, we did get a coupon for 2 nights in Sedona. However it is not at the SVC resort. The form says "Holiday Inn or Ramada Inn or other comparable property".

We could purchase this property for $15,784.00 which we paid for in cash within the 12 months. We were told that we would receive 3500 points as a method of exchange each year so that we would know if a property is less exclusive than ours and we would then have greater exchange power. This made sense to us even though we believed we were buying a part of the property in Napa as well. Neither one of us ever heard of the point system which was developed by some demented genius as a way to sell air for a lot of money. I called after my purchase to ask what the difference was if I wanted to stay in Napa rather than elsewhere and I was told I had a built-in head start on my reservation over others and I repeat in Napa only.

Fast forward ten years. Just last week, I finally had the opportunity to book Napa. I therefore asked to be put on the list and was told I did not have enough points since it cost over 5000 points. I could not believe what I was being told when the young man on the phone related to me that we were actually based in Oregon in Whispering Woods, not in Napa. This feels fraudulent, dishonest, and like downright theft. Our certificate reads that the association assigned to our membership 3500-ca premier permanent membership.

This has made me furious because the program has not been all that useful. The purchase of Shell by Wyndham is very suspect since Wyndham has a dreadful reputation. I am asking my attorney general for act on our behalf. I want to be made whole by an increase in points to correspond to the increase in points for Napa. If this cannot happen for any reason, I will be more than happy to participate in a class action suit. Please keep me informed. Thank you everyone...

We were given a payment that fit our budget and we were good (or so we thought)! We have had small problems here and there with availability of rooms and stuff like that but nothing major until now! We have followed up on our loan throughout the years to check on our payoff amount and such... nothing seemed amiss until we got to our last payment. I log into our account a month before our last payment is scheduled. I check the payment amount and it's the same as it has been for the last 10 years... then I see the pay off amount... What do you mean I still owe $2600? Me... I think... hmmm mistake with the automated system, so I send an email asking about it. Here is the email I sent:

"I am so confused.... Our loan matures on 5-15-14.... next month. We have made all our payments on time... never missed a single payment... How is it that our pay off amount is still $2695.o6? Are you trying to tell me there is a balloon payment due next month?" I get a response instantly that I will get a reply in 2-3 days. So I wait... and get busy with life and forget about it. The next month what I think is my final payment is taken out of my account. I go back to check the payoff amount...huh??? I still owe $2400??? What the heck? That day I get a response to me from email that was sent... yes over a month ago.... and it states this: "Thank you for contacting Equiant. We apologize for the delay. You have a simple interest loan with Shell Vacations, where the interest accrues daily. Also, you have a variable interest rate. Please see Truth and Lending Documents of your contract to clarify loan terms."

Yep that was it. Uhh really?? Are you joking??? Here was my heated response: "Seriously... a month later you respond and this is the response I get??? Simple interest loan... whatever... variable interest rate... whatever. EXPLAIN to me why I have a balance of over $2400 when my loan should be paid off? The keyword in this sentence is EXPLAIN! I am not a loan expert... If I was I sure as hell wouldn't have picked this stupid loan. It makes no sense to me what the heck you are saying. We bought a timeshare... the price was X we paid every month the payment reflected in our loan (calculated by you... not me).... Loan matured meaning we are done.... Why does it still say we owe another 2 years worth of payments? When the payment was figured out it should have reflected the "simple interest". You've already made more than 3x what this timeshare is even worth. Someone needs to explain why my loan has a balance in simple terms a normal person would understand! 'Truth and Lending Documents'...where's the truth here?"

Yes I was pissed! Their response... same day... now mind you it took them a month to respond to the first email: "Thank you for contacting Equiant. As advised in the previous email, for further assistance with the loan terms, please contact Shell Vacations directly at 888-947-4355." Of course every time I call they are closed and they never tell you what their open hours are. I dig up my original loan documents and sure enough I find this little box checked that says variable rate... even though the page right before that has a fixed rate with number of payments and the total we would pay when our loan matures. Uhhhh... what??? I read and re-read that little paragraph a million times trying to decipher it. Truth in lending.... hahaha, what a joke! So then I go to my payment history... all payments made on time... It lists how much of each payment went to the principal and to the interest. I do some calculations and here's what I found:

I paid over 16% interest some months of my loan so very little of what I was paying went to the principal... and even now when interest rates are at their lowest I'm still paying over 11% because... oh yeah also in fine print... they have a rate stop at 11.5% as that is the lowest the "loan" will allow it to go. I had a variable rate but my payments stayed the same... huh??? Wait... why am I paying an impound account??? Well that $$ should come back to me, right?? Oh no... Also in small print there is a $4 monthly service fee for automatic payments... HUH? I thought automatic payments were saving me??? So $500 that I have paid went into the toilet.... thanks because of course I am independently wealthy and could afford to lose that. Basically I have paid 2X what the loan amount was for in the first place and still owe another $2400. I can continue to pay for the next 5 years or so but will continue to pay interest which is based off the original loan amount not the actual amount we now owe on the principal.

From what I can figure out, this loan is like a credit card where you pay the minimum balance every month and if you continue to pay that minimum amount, you will pay for the next 33 years. OR you can pay a higher amount and pay it off in the allotted time. What a bunch of crooks! Talk about reading the fine print! It's amazing what a tiny check box can do for your financial future! Like someone else said... this was the worst financial mistake I could have ever made. They rush you through the paperwork so you miss the tiny check boxes and think you are getting something you are not! DO NOT EVER BUY FROM THESE PEOPLE! RUN, RUN, RUN!

I say this as an eleven-year club member (who signed a ten-year loan agreement but ended up being forced to pay for eleven years after not missing or being late on one single payment thanks to automatic withdrawals). And that was just one of many issues...

I am a very highly educated person who thinks very carefully about every decision I make, and I spent hours and hours of my vacation (and days and days since then) poring over the details of this contract I signed. They twist (read: seriously distort) the facts and figures to coerce and pressure you into buying every time your gut tells you something might not be quite right. I have had MANY of the experiences expressed here and I agree with what someone else said here: this was the biggest financial mistake of my life. I was a fool, no way around it. I think Shell's mission statement probably reads: "Let's see how many fools we can part from their money." Unless you really have a need to prove to yourself how stupid you can be, don't buy a timeshare from these people. This system is rigged against you, top to bottom.

We had been there for several hours and decided to buy and were presented with massive piles of paperwork which we wanted to read in full but of course they needed to close. I advised our sales representative (a tall blonde haired guy with a European accent - Austrian or German) that I was going to record the conversation at that point which he agreed to. We asked many questions that would help alleviate the main concerns such as would annual fees increase, would our banked points always be available as they stated, was the booking system they showed us the real time site that we would use etc.

We have been members for 4 years, have never been able to book one single property or cruise as there is never availability (up to 9 months out!!). Our annual fees are close to double what they started at. I called the attorney Robert ** from the San Francisco law firm and he advised that his clients achieved an out of court settlement, but obviously could not be specific. He did however say that their firm was not interested in ever representing any other clients in the future with claims against SVC, and alluded to the notion that the result was more work than any benefit received. He gave me the name of another attorney, I called him and he also advised that his firm was not interested in representing clients against SVC.

I believe that SVC are scumbags and that their contracts are iron clad, which is why I'm glad I have a voice recording as just saying that a sales person said something won't hold up, but having it recorded with his consent will. I think that the only way to hit this company hard and for people like us to get at least some of our money back is to come together in large numbers and then take this to a law firm for a true class action - or stories will pretty much be consistent as we were all sold the same deceptive and untruthful sales pitch (which they are all trained to say).

Feel free to email me if you are in the same boat and maybe we can make enough noise to do something - even if it's simply to raise national awareness of SVC's business practices. No defamation, no lies, just the truthful experiences of consumers like us who were suckered in to purchasing something that turned out to be inaccurate. I'm also creating a website for people to register their interest in being part of a large class action. I can't imagine it will take long to have a few hundred people, then that becomes of interest to a law firm as they get a cut from hundreds of plaintiffs instead of doing a lot of work just for a small fee on one plaintiff. Also this will naturally create press on SVC that is unlikely to help.

We use the auto payment option when we purchased our timeshare, so we could get a bit of a discount and make sure that it was paid on time each month. We often used the website to check on the latest offerings and even to check on our payment history. We were really excited to know that we were going to make our last payment in November of 2013. When got close to the date, we called to get the payoff amount and instead of what we usually paid each month, we were told that we had a balloon payment of over $2700 that was now due! We had never missed a payment, and our payments never changed, they took out the same amount each month, so my husband and I were quite confused.

When my husband called for clarification, he was told that we had a variable rate on our mortgage and we owed the balloon payment. He asked for a copy of our paperwork (as we wanted to see what they were referring to) and the person suggested that we call the disputes department. We received the loan papers and read thru them line by line. The verbiage in the loan paperwork specifically speaks to our loan being a fixed rate. Even to show the payments throughout the term of the loan and the final payment date and amount (which was not $2700). We also found that there was a box on the last page of the paper work the addressed two things: (1) the auto pay option and (2) variable rate. As EVERY OTHER page of the loan spoke to the loan being a fixed rate, we just assumed that was just on the paperwork. Why would every other page of the loan speak to the loan being a fixed rate loan and then in 1 paragraph on the last page, it mentions that the loan was at a variable rate?

In speaking with the disputes department, we were told that Shell Vacation Club sold the loan to Wyndham and they were all sold as variable rate loans. So when we inquired about the fact that throughout the our entire payment history, they TOOK out the same amount each month although the Prime Interest Rate had changed over the past 10+ years, we were told (coldly), that our loan was a variable and needed to pay the balloon amount.

Imagine our disappointment, dismay and frustration. We have paid diligently for over 10 years to get to what SVC's website showed as our last payment and find out that we had a balloon payment due. It actually feels like a "bait and switch" scam! We know people who have bought homes with balloon payments. They were well aware that they will owe a large payment at the end of their loan. It was pointed out to them through disclosures during the closing. My husband and I are not emotional spenders. We would not have purchased the timeshare if it was at a variable rate. When we bought it, the monthly payment fit our budget. We if a variable rate was our only choice, we would have said "no" and walked out.

When I inquired with my mother about her experience when making her last payment on her timeshare, she had not problems at all. All payments were at a fixed rate, and there was no balloon payment at the end. The only noticeable difference, is that my mom's loan was paid off PRIOR to SVC being sold to Wyndham. I am digging up our original loan papers to see if there is anything different that what they sent to us. We know that fighting it may take years and getting to that point is not appealing to us.

We are just very disappointed in their lack of integrity and fairness. Call it predatory lending or non disclosure .. but, my husband and I a very frustrated and will never refer another friend to Shell Vacations Club or Wyndham. Is there anyone else who has experienced this situation with Shell or Wyndham?

Some facts for those who don't understand: Each unit that is part of the club is assigned a point value for every night of the year. The resort adds up all the units and their points and that is the amount of points available to be sold for that club. So if the members of that Home club all reserve at that club the chances of reserving there when it isn't your home club is less. Honolulu Resort- yes it is only a portion of the bigger Iliaki project that includes residences, hotel and timeshare. The rooms are scattered throughout the property, and we had a great unit on the 13th floor. There was a demand for a property in Honolulu and Shell answered that by investing in this property; land is scarce in the area and they found a viable option.

Your best value is usually going to be staying at a Shell property, but occasionally an exchange maybe a better option. The system that SVC and II use for exchange is much better than your typical system. SVC and II allow a standard exchange rate so you know that a 2 bedroom exchange will never be more than 4500 points for a week. While in the more traditional exchange you must bank your time with the exchange company and depending on when you bank and what you bank the exchange rate will vary. Again, you are entering into a contract, read it.

One week in a one-bedroom hotel room, during the high season, would cost 2500 points. If you wanted, or needed to buy additional points, it would cost you $6.84, each point. So, now we are getting to the real cost. I was more interested in the $16,000+ cost of joining the club and that came with only 2500 points. If you want to buy another 2500 points, during the year, at $6.84 x 2500, your cost would be an additional $17,100!!! That is for one week's vacation and that per point price can go up at any time, without restriction. Amazing. Also, the annual fee of $741 can go up each year, without restriction. Before I could get any of this info, they insisted on running a credit report on me.

I was shocked at the whole program and its cost. When I said definitely not, the closer got up and walked away without a word to me. When I was about to leave, the presenter said goodbye, and then I asked about the "gift". She said my 2-hour presentation did not include a gift, that I would have had to pay $20 before the presentation, to be able to receive a gift (of course, that was never mentioned, before and why would I have to pay anything, for a "gift"?). She then, with a very condescending tone of voice, said "You can leave now, by taking either the elevator, or the stairs!"

My lifetime of making loans, looking at financial programs and listening to people tell me lies, just to get money, tells me to stay far away from this vacation club. This is not legitimate. Whatever you think you are going to get, is not what you will get. I told the presenter that her boss should change his appearance, because both his way of speaking to prospects and the way he presents himself with his appearance, just reminds me of a crooked car salesman. She said that was funny, because the boss used to be a car salesman! Wow!! I know I wrote a lot, here, but you need to know. They can't even be trusted to give the "free gift" they promise.

They make a big deal that you can go "anywhere" - but just because Interval International has a property somewhere - does not mean it will be available. In fact it usually is not. Bottom line is that your options are extremely limited. They talk about how great of a deal the price is - but if you were to just book a resort in the same location and with the same amenities - you will always, always, always find availability, tons of options, and a great deal. Usually better even than what you would pay in yearly fees alone.

The resorts don't offer what you might expect in in the most basic hotel. You can't just go to the front desk, you usually have to go to a special little office to check in. You don't have the option for room service. No additional costs are covered - like parking for instance. Just forget about any sort of all-inclusive options. There are very few of those available, and you have to pay huge per person fees that (in and of themselves) are more expensive than just booking another full all inclusive resort.

The rooms are not that nice. They generally don't own the full property (hence having to check in at some random room) and in my experience, they buy some of the worst rooms possible. In one case, there is a 30-story building in Waikiki, Hawaii, but they only have rooms available on the lowest couple of floors. My "ocean view" rooms couldn't see over the parking structure. They only provide room service every 3 or 4 days. This is a full Shell property by the way - not Interval International.

The final proof - and this will tell you everything you need to know. You cannot get rid of it. It is completely worthless. Worse than that, it is more of a liability than it is worth. Literally if they gave you a plan with 2,500 points for free, it would be a terrible deal. I am not exaggerating. I spent $16,000 on a Hawaii plan with 2,500 points. After an incredibly frustrating experience in the timeshare re-sale world, I just decided to donate it to a charity for maybe a little tax credit. They said, Shell is a very risky property and the best deal they could offer was to take ownership from me with no tax credit at all, plus it would cost me $1700. You did not misread that. Even if this "property" is completely paid off, it will cost you almost $1700 to give it away for nothing but the satisfaction of no longer being tied to this organization.

Please, for the love of God, run away from that shamefully deceitful sales pitch. If you are so inclined to buy a timeshare - at least buy one from a reseller. Believe me - whatever they are offering you, there are people like me willing to sell for pennies on the dollar.

Even if you spend $1600 on maintenance fees, where can you stay at 5 star hotels for a week in Hawaii for that amount???? Most 5 star hotels charge $2100-$4200 per week. So do yourselves a favor to log in and use the tutorial. And if you stay in a fabulous place write a great review. By the way I've used my timeshare for 8 weeks this year and have less than 3000 points per year. Good luck.

We are at the point of joining in with a group legally, secondary to all the issues we have had; not enough time in the day to write them. Yes, they have assisted us at times, but only after pressing to the top.

With the Elite program, they do just that. The Elite program has a number of resort level benefits with operational costs to the resort paid for by all owners even those ineligible to join because they purchased resale. The Associations, managed by SVC, allow these costs to be borne by the owners rather than recharge SVC. SVC is fully aware of this and feels that the costs are not substantial enough to track. Funny, but allowing my points to be Elite eligible would not substantially harm them either but they are very firm on that line. The Shell Owners Associations are in breach of their fiduciary responsibility for allowing SVC to sell a marketing program with resort level costs borne by the owners without fair compensation. If that were a part of the SVC membership available to all members, it would be totally fair but it is selective and has a direct benefit to the developer, SVC, not all owners. I would love to see this challenged in court with damages awarded in the form of rebates from the developer to all owners. Shell needs to step up and make this a core benefit for all owners or pay the costs, all the costs, regardless of how insignificant!

Out of fear, we paid off the entire mortgage amount so as to not incur more costs from interest. However, the tricky thing is the membership portion. I simply want out of this membership. SVC is less than helpful as getting rid of this membership as it is far too convoluted. This is not like a gym membership where you can just cancel out of it. Searching for solutions, I find yet other scams out there from organizations that claim to take your membership off of your hand so long as you pay them upfront for listing costs. With so many complaints out there, it seems that there are people out there who wasted even more money and yet without even getting rid of it. In other words, I don't feel safe dealing with these organizations.

I've already filed a complaint with our state Attorney General's office. They have acknowledged receipt of my complaint and are adding it to the growing list of other complaints regarding Shell. However, I filed this complaint 6 months ago. I don't see the state interceding on our behalf anytime soon. I've searched far and wide on the internet regarding this issue. So far, I have found no shortage of complaints from people over how bad Shell Vacation is, as they really provide little to no value to its members. We get it: Shell is bad. What I was really hoping for is a solution in how to get rid of this valueless membership. Strangely, I have found no real solutions. The only thing close to this is to stop paying their ridiculous membership fees.

What this has resulted in is a torrent of robocalls from them along with additional harassment from Equiant (their collection agency). How much is this going to ruin my credit? Look, I know Shell Vacation is bad. My real question is, has anyone successfully gotten rid of this membership? How do these people call this a business when it provides no consumer value? If this is a membership and we're not even using it, why is it so difficult to get rid of it? Please advise with some real ideas. We don't have a shortage of complaints against SVC. What we need are solutions in getting rid of this membership and holding them accountable for their predatory business practices.

Their personal situation is also important to note. The reason they were unable to leave for vacation during the two-year time period was because my father is a self employed contractor who provides 100% of their income. As the economy continued to slow, it was simply not an option to take any time off. They have paid $1600 to Shell Vacations for something they received absolutely no services or benefit for in return. To not even allow for a fee to transfer the time or extend the expiration date is clearly a predatory business practice. If Shell Vacation would even extend the date by 12 months, it would sure seem like a reasonable request even if they charged some kind of compensatory fee for the change. My parents would welcome an offer to fix this situation. If there is no resolve, they do feel it important to lodge a complaint with the BBB and Attorney General's Office as well.

If we were to book the exact same resort on the exact same dates directly through their website, we would have paid $160/night for a total of $320. What a rip-off!! We are getting way less than we're paying for and that doesn't even include the $8000 we paid up front, which is the most ridiculous part. I can't believe we wasted that much money on something that, even when paid off, doesn't provide the value you pay for just in annual maintenance fees. And don't be fooled by thinking it would be better worth it if you had more points. No. The maintenance fees go up the more points you have. So, it's still a *** ripoff. There's no way to justify otherwise.

If you are victims of Shell Vacations Club's misrepresentation, unethical and illegal business practices, please contact **@aol.com immediately to join a class-action lawsuit against SVC. There will be no fee to join. Together we can help fight these abusive corporations. If you find yourself a victim of Shell Vacations Club, the first thing you should do is write to the Attorney General Consumer Complaint Division for your state. They usually have a specific section for complaints against companies. Fill it out, asking that they not share information that would identify you to SVC, and send it in immediately. The reason for doing this is that, even in the event that you have to sign a complaint disclosure agreement in order to settle, the Attorney General can continue its investigation to stop these criminals.

On August 24, 2009, Shell Vacations through one of its employee by name Nicole ** mailed us another 10,000 bonus points certificate which was good for one year. We decided to call it in on June 6 2010 but was met with strong opposition by SVC. We were given the run around by Shell. One of their employees I spoke to could not assist and were very rude on the phone. One of them even insinuated that I got the certificate through a dubious means. Because we were using our points to travel to London we had to borrow points from next year, which means that we are left with no points.

We currently have the certificates from Shell. We paid them a visit on the October 1, 2010 to give them another chance to remedy the situation but we were met with great resistance and refusal to honor their own certificate they mailed to us for redemption, but are refusing to redeem because they claim it was sent in error.

With that said, we completely understand your frustration, which is why we strongly encourage our Explorer members to try out the Club at Shell Vacations owned and operated properties, thereby giving them a great value at a great resort. Given that you had a negative experience at our affiliate property, we now understand that you have been compensated one full night's stay from your bill. We hope this helps and gives you an opportunity to make a reservation at one of our properties to truly experience what Shell Vacations Club has to offer. Again, our sincerest apologies that this past stay was not to your liking and we look forward to assisting you with a more positive and rewarding vacation stay with the remainder of your membership. Sincerely, Shell Vacations Club Customer Care.

The hotel looked decent on the web pages, and the Shell associate I spoke to while booking the hotel indicated it was a nice property. Well, we arrived at this hotel and it was a total dump. Our so called "deluxe room with kitchenette" was a tiny motel room (that's right, not a hotel, but a motel) with half of a bathroom because the other half was a half size ghetto kitchen. It was the equivalent, or probably worse, than a Super 8 Motel. We arrived at this motel and it was an instant damper on our entire trip knowing that we would have to come back to this crap hole every night. We tried to find ways to avoid going back to the hotel at all costs, but had to at some point. And, why am I upset with Shell? Because Shell had me pay $283 per night on this room. That's right, a whopping $283 for a Super 8 (essentially).

I could have stayed in a 5 star hotel in downtown San Diego near everything instead of this nasty motel on Hotel Circle. And we looked up the real value of the motel, which is $70 a night. It's really disturbing to me that they could rip people off so badly and ruin a family's vacation in doing so. It's just unbelievable. I am beyond upset about this situation and so mad that my vacation had to suffer on their account. They were so insistent on us buying their crap and ensuring us it was worth the money. They are just flat out liars and out to ruin people's lives and take their money. Not only would I never buy anything from Shell again, but I will certainly discourage anyone and everyone from even considering to do so as well.

Of course, we want our members to be able to acquire availability at any resort they would like at any time. However, try as anybody might, that is simply not possible to guarantee. Without knowing the details of your vacation requests, it is impossible to say what further could have been done to assist you, but we offer several options for our members to bank or save their points from one year to another if they are unable to travel in a certain year. Often times, our members will do this to save up for an even bigger or better vacation and things work out beautifully.

In other instances, our members will broaden their vacation search to find suitable alternatives among the thousands of affiliated properties we can offer through exchange services and other benefits. We wish we would have had the opportunity to do this for you as well, but as you know we cannot book reservations for our members if fees are not paid. This is clearly stated in our contracts and foreclosure is a normal recourse when fees remain unpaid. We never take any pleasure in a foreclosure, but it is a certain reality of purchases that are delinquent on payments after a certain period of time.

We certainly are not pleased that your membership turned out this way as we see it work for our many members on a daily basis. Without question, we are not happy to hear about the issues you are currently facing as we hate to see any person going through this, let alone one of our members. However, we must take the time to clear up any discrepancies written in this account on consumeraffairs.com. Thank you very much for your time.

I finally got letters from Shell saying they were taking back my points for payment in full. My credit is ruined; I can't get a car loan. I can't get a home loan. I can't even change apartments because of them ruining my credit. I just want it off my credit report. I have lost thousands of dollars for one vacation to Hawaii in 2005 and one to Disneyland in 2006. I was paying $400 a month for two years for the loans and maintenance fees. I would like to sue Shell and Equient Financial.

Well we were in vacation and when we came back from vacation we decided to Cancel because it is a burden for us and not a benefit. I fax, e-mail and send a letter to the address given to me by Kim of where she wanted me to send a voided check. Kim never mention to me about 7 days, when she was explaining the paper work we sign, she said if you want to cancel just send in a letter and the only thing that would happen is that you have to pay $200 on your credit card. Now I never received a call to confirm they received the letter and never a call to explain that we couldn't cancel. I called, left several messages and no luck. Now am receiving bills from the company saying I didn't cancel on time. I spoke to Ana from verification center today 9-20-08 saying that I only had seven days and that if I can prove that is within the seven days it should be no problem.

The problem is that I never new about the seven days they kept asking me to stay 15min and we should be done and I was so desperate to get out of there that I sign. Because she said I could cancel anytime and never stated that I needed seven days to cancel. When they want you to buy they call you 24/7. When I called to cancel no one returned my call and now they have lied saying they have left messages I have never received a called until today that I called because I received the bills.I feel they force me into buying this knowing I didn't want to. They never told me about the seven days, until now that I want to cancel.

I think they just took my timeshare. I was told that I would be able to get a one or two bedroom every other year in Hawaii for my points but can't see anything in the book for under 7,000 points. I went to try to exchange it in CA and was told that there was nothing available for a year and half at least. I talked to a broker about selling it and was told that my 2500 points were worth about $6,000.00. Imagine my surprise. I have sent several emails to them about the situation which have all gone unanswered.

They were certainly much more accommodating when it came to trying to sell the thing. My husband and I also have another timshare with Interval International which we have used several times and have been very satisfied with them. We booked a unit in two months in a five star resort. I wish I had not traded in my other one. I think I got taken big time. I am so upset with myself.

I attempted to make an online payment I was blocked from making the payment. I called the company and was told that they had submitted the account for collection. I had previously contacted the Lender and told them that I would be going into the hospital.

$2500.00 dollars when we only owed two payments at theat time. The reason we owed two payments was because I was not allowed to make them. They only wanted the full amount that they were asking for and was told the it would keep getting higher.

My daughter and I went to California to complain about what had happen to us by the collection agency and the Lender and was told that we should have come to them from the beginning and that they would take care of the whole matter. That they would take the collection off our credit reports and that they would restore the membership. They had us to sit in on another presentation because they told us it would be to our benefit to add on more points. Since we were assured that the Shell Representative would take care of the problem we sat in the presentation and was told that all the points that we had up till that day would be restored and we would be able to have them double since we had the membership one year. Since we purchased more points that very day, that my daughter could have her vacation in Las Vagas and I could enjoy the new Vacation Resort in Napa, California. Convinced that they were going to clear the whole unfortunate situation up, I gave them two Post Dated Checks one for $500. I was told that in case we had missed a payment or two this would be a replacement and/or any payments that had been lost or misplaced by the Lender. I also gave a check for $203.00 which was for the merging of the two contracts and the additional points we had just purchased.

We left their offices believing what they told us about correcting the problem and getting our membership started again. But after we returned to Colorado we called the Company trying to contact the representative, Nealey Wheatly, the one that made all the promises about our credit report and membership, We faxed proof of payments we made sent bank statements and copies of checks and electronic payments. I spoke with Nealey once about using the $500. check to replace any payments the lender have no records for. The did not need to use the check because all payments we made up till the time I attempted to make the Online payment in May 2006. After that time I was not allowed to speak with this representative and was assigned to another person representing the company, Mindy McGowan. Apparently this Lady Representative for Shell had taken over and the first representative that made all the promises was not working at that location anymore. The new lady didn't know anything about what we were told and what it all boiled down to was that she could not help us there was nothing she could do. They cashed the check for $203. and she didn't know anything about the $500.00 check. I've written letters to the Collection Agency and to the Lender as well as Shell regarding the whole situation and I had an attorney send a letter about our membership.

Recently we got a letter from Shell stating that they were going to retain the membership, if we didn't pay $1,650.00 and that our membership would not be a full membership. If we didn't respond within 20 days we would lose all they money we put into the account. They sent a refund for the $203.00 they cashed but never sent me the $500.00 check. I am pursuing every avenue that I know to get help with this problem. I want all my money back. I believe that this whole Vacations Timeshare is a SCAM. We just gave them our money for services never rendered by Shell Vacations.

this, is whole situation is illegal, fraudulent and in violation of our Consumers Rights. As a Senior I feel violated because of my age. The club took advantage of us.

Strangers have been to Hawaii and on a cruise, using points from my account, and the Shell employees performed these transactions 10 times in 14 months. After each time I complained, a supervisor was to call back. I got a total of 2 call-backs, both saying it was fixed. It is not. I have NEVER missed a payment or fee due, and this is a total scam that the points magically disappear from my account repeatedly. What in the world am I paying $3,000 a year for? I have never been offered a reason, apology, or any form of compensation. All I get is " a supervisor will call you back, they are all in a meeting" They must have an awful lot of meetings since that has been the answer I get every single time I call. My husband is a US Marine, and we purchased this in 1999 to enjoy the little family time we do get. Due to frequent deployments and separations, I need to plan our trips in advance, and can rarely even use these points now since it always takes months to get the error corrected and points back into my account.

I have given Shell 15 months to get to the bottom of this, but I am really at my wit's end. I just can't fathom how they can tap into my account, and give my points to another member, on a monthly basis. I call and call and call and they could care less. Please help!!!!! Barbara/Francisco Castillo

They called me in May 2005 to see if I was ready and I said no. They called again in July 2005 and I said no. These are on my cell phone bill. I received the 2006 maintenance bill for my original unit which I paid in December. From July 05 to Feb 06 I did not hear from them and reasoned they had given up. I had a fire at my new residence in November 2005 and it really wasnt a priority anymore. In February 2006 I received a series of phone calls from Equiant financial that I owed them sales and maintenance fees. I received at least a dozen calls. In addition to asking they not disrupt me at work, I asked several associates for a direct phone number the person who executed this contract. The numbers they gave me to the resort did not work to locate the sales person.

I have been harassed with demands for money, threats on my credit report, threats that they are going to take my current time share. I cannot even make a reservation for the unit I own. This is ridiculous.

The customer service said there is nothing available for New York or any other state near NY. I ask the customer service if they can offer their AFFILIATES. And there was nothing. On my third or fourth call i ask about the homestead. There was available room that is 750 points per night but only one bed so i told them to call back. I went to the website of HOMESTEAD.com and found out that they are giving better offer than the SHELL VACATION CLUB. I also told the SVC customer service that they should be giving me a better rate because my package is a prepaid and was fully paid. Since i was not satisfied with the rate and available room i considered converting my points to a reward points to pay for the airfare.

Again i called SVC to inquire about the using my points to payoff the airfare. I was quoted of 1950 points from California to New York. I was thinking that since i had 6000 points available, I will just buy 3 round trip tickets instead. So in the evening of that same day March 2, i called the SVC customer service to convert my points. After 3 working days, March 7 i made a follow-up and found out that i can only buy 2 tickets out of the 6000 points available. I talked to a supervisor about my complaints. We had argument because she was saying that she cannot do anything about it. She said i was given a wrong qoute and she can not convert again points to its original. The only option she gave me is to issue me a Master Card amounting to $1100 for the package i paid for $1511. This is unfair!!!!

During my inquiries with the SVC customer service i found out that we,timeshare members, are not really getting a better rate. One good example is the airfare. As of today Mar 08 Southwest offered $389 (Includes taxes) Round Trip ticket from San Jose to La Guardia while SVC needs 2350 points.

We purchased a Shell Timeshare on 8/2/04 and then, again on 10/04. Since then, we found out that we were falsely mislead as to how we could use our Harbor Vacation points that were sold to us with untrue promises. We have asked to have our contracts cancelled and the money refunded. We are simply claiming that with all of the problems we have encountered, that we have lost faith in Shell Vacations Club and their ability to offer quality customer support and service.

My wife and I have placed numerous calls to the Shell Corporate Office in Northbrook, Illinois and as of this date we have not had our phone calls returned properly. We feel Shell has mislead us as Shell owners and failed in addressing our concerns. Please take this as a warning if you are considering buying from Shell Vacation Club.

In Nov of 2003 We received the gift card and tried to redeem it through Holiday Travel as we were instructed. We picked several dates 2 to 3 months out. None of the dates were available.

I have tried on numerous occasions to redeem the certificate #101101VIPHA to no avail. No matter how far out or how many times I call nothing is ever available.

I have been trying to redeem this certificate since Nov 2003 and to no avail.

I just do know what options are left.

I don't recal the exact address of the Shell office. The seminar was held on Cannery at Fishermans's wharf in San Francisco.

Our first inkling that something was wrong was in January when the monthly fees tacked onto our payments increased by over 250%. After inquiring, we found out that there was a poorly explained detail about a club fee on top of the association fee that came into effect at the beginning of the year following the purchase.

Next, we found out that the salesman's pitch about points rolling over from year to year was only partially true; that it could only banked for one year and that there is a fee to bank it.

Additionally, we are finding out that booking a vacation through Shell Vacations, when taking into account the purchase price, the monthy fees and club costs make the vacation much more expensive that if we had simply booked the same vacation through a travel agent.

We felt that we had been skillfully misled by the sales people, and even now they continue to pressure us to sink more money into ever depreciating club points.

In our frustration, we wished to cancel our membership, realizing that the ugly details of the purchase were omitted. We were willing to cut our losses and just cancel, but Shell Vacations refused. We didn't even care if we got our money back; we just wanted out of the contract. We told them they could keep the money we already sunk into the program. Still they refused.

I have to admit. Buying into Shell Vacations was one of the dumbest financial blunders I have ever made.