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My father purchased an UNLIMITED Platinum VIP membership in Oct. 2006 for 46 YEARS membership. He traded in a timeshare at Lehigh Acres in Florida. Lifestyles gave him a $4000 "credit" so his purchase cost $16, 000 instead of $20, 000. My father had a hand-written clause added to the original contract that all his guests would receive VIP benefits whether he was there with them or not. That clause was initialed and signed by the Lifestyles Rep. Dad had only been there that one time in 2006 when he purchased the membership. My husband and I went to the resort in Jan 2007 and we had a nice time. 3 months later in Feb 2007 my Dad died of melanoma. He never got to use this membership after he bought it. When settling Dad's estate, we discovered that the Lehigh Acres timeshare was still billing him monthly maintenance, and had no information about being 'traded in" to Lifestyles. Somehow my brother-in-law (who is an attorney) managed to have the Lehigh Acres claim dismissed. After 5 years, in May 2012, I contacted Lifestyles to book a week reservation for myself and 2 guests. No one in my family has ever used the 46 year membership in all this time. I was given the run-around, and even yelled at by a customer service manager, who accused me of trying to make a fraudulent reservation under my father's name! I had to send them the death certificate and all the wills and trust documents which prove I was the heir to his estate, including all real estate properties. Then they become happy to make my reservation, but in order to put my name on the contract, they tell me I need my step-mother's permission to do so! Regardless of the fact that in Dad's will nothing was left to her, including the house they lived in on Long Island. So I go down in May and have a nice vacation, but I am kept waiting in the "VIP Tower" 30 mins to see a representative from their "Legal Dept". The only person I end up seeing is the same customer service rep who I had been dealing with all along. She comes out with a new contract with my name and my step-mother's name on it (which I had requested since I have no desire to take anything away from her). I was about to sign it and then I thought maybe I better wait and read the whole thing. She would not give me the entire document, only the signature page! Naturally I refused to sign it and left. Upon returning home, I handed the case over to my attorney. After months of my lawyer sending emails and letters (sent certified mail) and being completely ignored, he finally received a reply from an Yvette Almodovar in the Lifestyles Legal Dept. They had attached a copy of the new contract with my name and step-mother's name on it, and included a typed addendum which states that indeed there was a hand-written clause on the original contract that all my guests would receive VIP benefits whether I am with them or not. I signed both the contract and the addendum and have not heard anything since. I didn't send it to my step-mother for her signature and wrote them a letter telling them that if they want her signature they should send it to her themselves. I again made a reservation for myself and 4 guests to go to Lifestyles around Oct 30th 2012, which is the day Hurricane Sandy hit the NY/NJ area where I live. The flights were all cancelled for days so we couldn't go. The airline gave me a credit, and much to my surprise (although they said it was against their policy) Lifestyles also gave me a credit! I was still charged on my credit card, but they assured me that my Lifestyles account has an "accreditation" on it. So we re-schedule the reservation and the 5 of us go there in Dec 2012. They were actually running a Member's Only FREE WEEK if you booked before Thanksgiving, so we took advantage of that, and actually were not charged any service fee for the time we were there (only the all-inclusive $50/day meal fee). Plus I still had the "accreditation" on my account. So now I am making a reservation for my two nieces to go down there for a week in mid-April. They are deducting the service fee for their room from my "accreditation", which is great, but they are NOT providing them with GOLD wristbands. They are going to be given Blue wristbands, claiming that guests only receive Gold bands when the member is traveling with them. First of all, there is nothing in their original contract or the revised one that says anything about Blue wristbands, or the "level" of VIP membership being different for guests. Secondly, this seems to ignore the addendum I received and signed about my guests receiving ALL VIP benefits whether I am traveling with them or not. They have proven to be fraudulent and dishonorable and evidently make decisions willy-nilly which terms of the contract they will honor and which they won't arbitrarily. One would think that from my membership I have brought 7 additional people to their resort that they would like to keep me a satisfied customer, no? Evidently not. I have argued with the customer service rep for days and cannot get anywhere with her, and cannot get access to any manager or legal representative. So again, I will turn this case over to my attorney. I think we have to sue them for breach of contract for the full purchase price of $20, 000 plus legal fees plus damages. I will give this Complaint Board link to my attorney and if he advises pursuing this further, maybe we can all join a class-action suit against LHVC. Thank you for sharing all your experiences, as I had no idea this was such a widespread and routine problem with this company. Barry Nevins, Guttenberg, NJ
Unfortunately my lawyer said I could spend my entire life savings and retirement funds in legal fees trying to fight these people. I've been receiving all the benefits under the terms of the contract for myself and any guests who travel with me. The problem is that any guests NOT traveling with me are being given blue ID bands, instead of Gold, and are being told they don't have access to all the VIP areas. That's not what was in my contract. I suspect they are going to make it more and more difficult for both members and guests to enjoy what we signed up for. Greed, pure and simple.
FYI
Lifestyles on Groupon!
http://www.groupon.com/deals/ga-bk-the-tropical-at-lifestyle-holidays-vacation-resort-1?p=6&utm_source=channel_getaways-deals&utm_medium=email&sid=079d0e0f53cf44ee9a991e833f31b9b8&user=773cef35fdafb20cb258916d9baa879faedf72412db0a6eb9a89ffd520b1b3c5&date=20130702&s=body&c=button&d=Getaways_deal
Wait a minute. if this deal is ALL-INCLUSIVE FOR 2 PEOPLE does that mean including the $50 per day meal fee also for 2 people? If so, for 7 days, the cost that we would pay (as Platinum VIP members) would be $650 for ONE PERSON, it would be $999 for 2. ($299 for the room, $50 per day per person).
So they are now offering on Groupon the same thing AT THE SAME COST that they offer to members who paid $20, 000+? That's interesting. They will screw around with the "VIP level" on the Groupon, not giving access to as many things as full members, but people taking advantage of this groupon offer won't know what they're NOT getting. So essentially, this tells me that anybody can go to this resort for the same (or close) to the members cost, not spend $20, 000 or more, and have close to the same benefits.
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Yes I'm in a similar situation and I'm tired of their lies. I'm very interested in getting a class action suit started, there are hundreds of people that are all pissed off. Lets get together on this.
Jim
If there is any lawsuit going forward can i please be contacted too- i am so pissed off... :(
Lstone903@yahoo.com
I agree I am so annoyed with this company. My husband and I vacationed in Dominican Republic in may 2012 . W e were taken also by these folks . After we purchased we realized we had to continue payments at out previously owned . time share . we were under the assumption that we will no longer have these payments. We now have 2 timeshare payments and spent money we shouldn't have to purchased at lifestyle . We tried to send dome friends to D.R for a vacation and we were given such a run around it is ridiculous .We can really use that money back now . I f any one figures out how we can recoup this money and off load this burden please contact me we will greatly appreciate it.
Most timeshare companies are taking advantage of people, often those who are more vulnerable and less able to resist hard sales tactics. I have heard of many cases where maintenance costs rise well above inflation. It would appear the timeshare companies lock people into contracts and then drive up their profits though increased maintenance charges. It would be good to see legislation whereby timeshare companies can only charge "reasonable" maintenance costs and not use this annual fee to fleece people's bank accounts. I recommend you this article on how to get out of timeshare:
http://www.timesharescam.com/blog/121-how-to-get-out-of-timeshare/
I'm in the same situation. If there's a lawsuit being filed, I'm interested in knowing more.
We are the same way. Just there and bought in July 2014. Already having issues with contract!
I have a meeting with the lawyers there who believes I have a breach of contract case against them. I have only started talking with them but they have looked at my contract and say I have a case. I am traveling back there in jan/feb 2015 and will meet them in person and discuss details. They are talking about percentage of recovery for costs so if they don't win there is no cost. I will post details after I talk in person. I will also discuss a class action suit with them as well.
A note to all...when you get your package from lifestyles you get a disk with rules and details. DON'T ever update that disk when prompted online. They've changed it from my original and I haven't updated it so that is helping my case. One clause says they can not change anything that takes away any benefit of the member...
We couldn't look at the CD at the resort, scammed last week, as they had no cd player. Has anyone been able to cancel their contract or had resolve of any kind?
same here ...bought in August and tried booking only to be told the room is not available and the all inclusive fee had DOUBLED...it took a week to get thru to them and each time I got a person on the phone i was givent the name of at least 3 people who are "in charge" of my account..anybody doing a class action please let me know
We just purchased one from them and found out the next day we had an unexpected financial obligation. When we got back home we tried to contact someone about canceling. No one wanted to talk to us when we mentioned canceling. We were transferred from person to person and were hung up on several times. We did cancel the 3rd day (the 4 day cancellation period.) We then contacted one of the managers to make sure we were going through the cancellation process the right way. He then informed us that we would not get back our down payment and we still owed other money even though we canceled. At the time of doing the paperwork when we purchased we were told we could cancel with no obligations, now they say the contract says we are obligated to pay all the Admin Fees to cancel totaling over $3, 000! This was never explained to us at all when we purchased. This does not make sense. What kind of company does this! It is so unethical. Cancel means cancel. They feed you drinks and wait til you're really liquored up to close the deal. Since they know you're buzzed, they don't fully explain everything. I feel that they are untrustworthy and wish there was something I can do about it. Has this happened to anybody else?
They don't give you copies of the full contract, that alone is a violation of the law. they did that to me and probably to every body else. they keep most of the contract they don't give you the original in DR they have to give you the original, we can all testify together about what they are doing to people we have to do this united or this people are going to get away with this. we have to fight them I wouldn't enjoy a vacation knowing what they are doing to people in that place if anybody needs my testimony my cell is [protected]. They are tricking people, I paid to be in what I thought it was a decent club, but for my surprise they are worse than street people.
They ripped me off for $27, 500.00 for a Gold Restricted VIP in July of 2014. I'm here RIGHT now and they refuse to give me a cart or to speak to a supervisor. I was told I can not even go to all the VIP restaurants. Again I paid $27, 500. WORST vacation ever. Never send your friends...just enemies.
We can't sue Lifestyles but we can sue Groupon (an American Company) for sending us there!
Call me if you want to go after Groupon. My number is [protected] ask for Dan
we are very interested in recouping our loss however possible. is this a valid option? to sue groupon? Please let me know. We have the same story as everyone else about lifestyles, with the added lie that we could rent out as many weeks as we wanted...therefore 'we could make money" from our investment. HA! Also, we were "given"gift certificates for 3 weeks anywhere in the world. it's cheaper to go on orbitz or expedia and book than it is to get the "free" week. Geeeesh..I have never felt so stupid! Please help if there's any way to recoup our loss
i am also in the same situation i purchased a membership for $10, 000.00 last year in may and i have not yet used their services at all i would like to terminate membership and would like to recuoperate my losses my email is stevencevallos@gmail.com if anyone can recommend a lawyer that is willing to take my case i would like to be a part of this united we can stop this scam.
I would like to join a class action suit. please let me know if you know of one. cloudjmper@msn.com
Hey guys! I'm in the same boat.. got ripped off almost 30k for Gold Vip membership.
Let me know of any legal action -- rphvill@yahoo.com
I would like to join a class action suit. please let me know if you know of one. evah1056@yahoo.com
I'm in the same situation, paid over 60K for this Villa we've only used 2x, it was a bait and switch, agree with all the comments above, how do we get a class action suit filed against them and so they can't scam other people! kbeetlestone@att.net.
Im really hoping that someone out there can all help us recuperate what we've lost from this dishonest company. I may have paid little less than others but the $10, 000 is a hard earned sweat I put on my savings for emergency...but it all went down the gutter when I fell into the hand of this scammers! Please we really need to have someone help us put an end to this company and I know that there are lots of victims like us out there who are looking for the same answers so please help us! let me know if anyone have any information...I don't have money to go to lawyers to pay for legal fees but if anyone have any information pls let me know l0vely_24@yahoo.com.Big Thanks!
Scammed last week. So upset that I was that Naïve and feel so taken advantage of. I should of cancelled the week I was on vacation but they kept convincing me it was the right decision, good choice, lie, lie, lie. The are such viscous vultures, hard sell, manipulative scammers. They tour you to all these great facilities ( that are for show only, didn't think of that at the time), feed you alcohol and lies then get you to sign a dam contract! UGH. Now I cant reach anyone in the DR for Lifestyles and I have sent numerous emails. Finally got a response from a representative who answered many of my questions emailed yesterday, but no response from the contract person Guillermo or the financial people at Lifestyles. I have called my time share and stopped the takeover, I called and discussed fraud with my bank, credit card, and interval international - bank of America card they gave me with a hefty charge - they will process a claim. I emailed Lifestyles that as of immediately I consider my contract null and void but I have not heard back. I'm so upset. NOW I look them up and so how many people have been taken advantage of, I'm really freaking out! it is ruining my Life!
Has anyone gotten out of their contract or any resolve?
I am all in for Class Action Law Suit.
Please let me know:kleiny101@hotmail.com
Regards, Maria
We are all in for a class action law suit as well. Feel ridiculous.
rdh157810@yahoo.com
I have contacted a attorney let me know if you want information.
I just sent you a message from a different email. I am totally interested.
please use email from the message as it is my current one. THanks
I have been scam also with VIP 9,000 dollars i please include me m.rojas.1615@hotmail.com For any information
Hi any feed back on what has happened I was also scammed they said that they were affiliated with all these resorts which I tried to book an the resort told that they weren’t affiliated with them
I'm more than happy also. I would like to joint to the class action . Nereida.Carrasquillo @gmail.com
I will look forward to hearing from you.
Also here I was scammed what they promises all lies they are not affiliated with all those places they said that they were affiliated if you have any information please include me
Hello - I would also appreciate any info on how we can cancel and recoup. Htang47@hotmail.com
I’m new to this vacation club and joined underneath Unlimited Vacation and it was definitely a pitch that was not true. If any class action suits develop please count me in and I have two more people that would join. They stated I will have flight included with accommodations and that I can travel to all the Caribbean but left out the addition fees I would need to pay outside of that membership fee. I’m fine with chucking up the list for the $699 as a lessons learned but they can’t keep getting away with these lies and the customer service giving me and the two other people the run around..this SUCKS and a money scheme…
I’m interested in joying the lawsuit against Lifestyle resorts.
I was scammed with $4K.
I need information
Thanks
Interested in joining the class action law suit Yessenia.landro@gmail.com my contact thank you
Count me in ..Interested in joining the class action law suit dsantiagosoy@hotmail.com , thank you.
Yes I am, I paid for their vacation club and as soon as I paid it off I became inactive and can’t even get on the site. I too was supposed to have exchanged a time share w/Global to pay for a portion of my contract . I have been on the phone numerous times to resolve this Issue and others but am never able to get ahold of someone and they don’t answer my emails either.
I am interested. I visited in 2017. Offered to take our timeshare. Never did told them to cancel. Dididnt. Nothing but headaches
Bruce.kube14@gmail.com
I am interested in the lawsuit I have been scammed 55k. Argentina Liranzo