Western Horizons contracts sold to Ocean Canyon Properties

[Nedra]

We bought a membership at Western Horizons many years ago. Our contract was one that once we paid off the membership we could cancel or transfer it at any time. We paid our dues on time and received a letter 2 years ago notifying us that our contract had been sold to Ocean Canyons properties with no notice of any change in our membership, let alone changes to a contract that we signed with Western Horizons...never signed with Ocean Canyons.

I contacted them in March after thinking for the last year that I had cancelled our membership but started getting threatening calls from Equint who processes all the dues. I was told I had to cancel the membership in writing which I did by email (my lawyer said this was adequate). I received an email saying the contract was cancelled and Equiant was notified. Well, just before leaving for a 6 week trip it starts all over again.

Today I received a letter stating we can't cancel our membership
becauses their memberships are lifetime memberships and can only be transferred or sold. Well, how can you change a contract arbitrarily? My niece, a laywer says you can't.

I can't do anything now because we're out of town but I am going to turn it over to an attorney since my niece tells me that I have a good case.

So, I am interested if anyone else has had a Western Horizons membership which got sold.

Nedra

[bdpreece]

Not sure I understand what happened to you. In every other occasion I have heard of if WH sells your park you retain your WH membership and are given another park as your home park. When we were in Abita Springs last fall they had purchased it from WH and the people next to us who were WH members but wanted to keep the park had to purchase a membership from Ocean Canyons. Are you sure they sold the contract or did they sell your home park. You need to talk to WH corporate about this.

[Nedra]

Originally Posted by bdpreece

Not sure I understand what happened to you. In every other occasion I have heard of if WH sells your park you retain your WH membership and are given another park as your home park. When we were in Abita Springs last fall they had purchased it from WH and the people next to us who were WH members but wanted to keep the park had to purchase a membership from Ocean Canyons. Are you sure they sold the contract or did they sell your home park. You need to talk to WH corporate about this.

Our home park was Ocean Shores. WHR changed our home park to Albita Springs and sold it (and our membership contract) to Ocean Canyons. So, while we retain a "no dues" membership at WHR, Ocean Canyons now owns our contract and they are trying to tell us it's a lifetime contract. Since we NEVER signed a contract with them they cannot change the rules just because they bought our contract from WHR. I also think that WHR is culpable in this because our contract with them was not a lifetime one and as a result of them changing our home park I have had ongoing battles trying to cancel our membership with Ocean Canyons when all I had to do is send a written letter cancelling our contract with WHR if they had never sold our contract.

So, our situation is different. We never had AS as our home park and we don't want AS or OC membership.

Nedra

[Nedra]

I sent an email to Ocean Canyons and reminded them of the class action suit against TT and that I was working with an organization who was helping me file complaints with the Texas Attorney General and BBB. They are also referring me to an attorney to sue Ocean Canyons.
I gave Ocean Canyons until the 25th to cancel my membership. If I didn't have a letter waiting for me I would proceed.
Today I got a letter saying they were instructed to cancel my contract and release me from any and all obligations.
So, if you have a membership to Ocean Canyon Property and they tell you that you have a lifetime membership you tell them to see you in court
Nedra

[ICEE]

Originally Posted by Nedra

We bought a membership at Western Horizons many years ago. Our contract was one that once we paid off the membership we could cancel or transfer it at any time. We paid our dues on time and received a letter 2 years ago notifying us that our contract had been sold to Ocean Canyons properties with no notice of any change in our membership, let alone changes to a contract that we signed with Western Horizons...never signed with Ocean Canyons.

I contacted them in March after thinking for the last year that I had cancelled our membership but started getting threatening calls from Equint who processes all the dues. I was told I had to cancel the membership in writing which I did by email (my lawyer said this was adequate). I received an email saying the contract was cancelled and Equiant was notified. Well, just before leaving for a 6 week trip it starts all over again.

Today I received a letter stating we can't cancel our membership
becauses their memberships are lifetime memberships and can only be transferred or sold. Well, how can you change a contract arbitrarily? My niece, a laywer says you can't.

I can't do anything now because we're out of town but I am going to turn it over to an attorney since my niece tells me that I have a good case.

So, I am interested if anyone else has had a Western Horizons membership which got sold.

Nedra

We have had the same problem! Our membership was also taken over by Ocean Canyon Properties. I would like to know if you succeeded in canceling your membership. The representative that we talked to told us that they had a "resale" program where they would sell our membership to someone else. When we called a few months later to see if they had any potential buyers, the person on the phone told us that they had no such program. So here we are with a paper that clearly reads "resale program".
We would like to know how your situation turned out. Thanks.
ICEE

[Nedra]

Originally Posted by ICEE

We have had the same problem! Our membership was also taken over by Ocean Canyon Properties. I would like to know if you succeeded in canceling your membership. The representative that we talked to told us that they had a "resale" program where they would sell our membership to someone else. When we called a few months later to see if they had any potential buyers, the person on the phone told us that they had no such program. So here we are with a paper that clearly reads "resale program".
We would like to know how your situation turned out. Thanks.
ICEE

After 3 years of fighting with them and going around in circles with Karen Hewitt my contract has finally been cancelled.

Let me tell you that dealing with them is worse than dealing with the government. I kept copies of every documentation with them including all the letters saying they cancelled my contract and every letter from Equiant demanding money.

After publicly posting this to the forum and the threatened lawsuit with emails to the owner of Ocean Canyons it was finally resolved. However I did get one last mailing from them about dues so I turned the entire file over to my lawyer who now has it.

I warned them if they didn't resolve this problem I was filing a formal complaint against them with the Texas State attorney general.

They kept claiming their contracts were lifetime contracts and my response was I never signed a contract with them and the contract we did sign was with Western Horizons AND it was NOT a lifetime contract. My lawyer said you cannot change the terms of a signed contract arbitrarily and I warned them I would take action against them. Three years of dealing with them was way more than anyone should have to endure.

They harassed me and sent collections letters for the last 3 years trying to collect on a contract that they cancelled in writing. Go figure.

I would not talk to them, I would put EVERYTHING in writing. Phone calls are not any means to document should you need to follow through legally.

I didn't want to be bothered selling it since Western Horizons sent us a letter telling us we still had full use of their resorts so why bother selling it. I just wanted out of the Ocean Canyons membership. We wanted nothing to do with them or their resorts which are only a few.

Good luck but remember, everything must be in writing and you can even do it via email if you maintain copies of everything and print it out so you have a file.

I don't know what your contract with WH reads but that is the binding contract since that's the contract you signed.

[case]

Do not have anything to do with Ocean Canyon Properties!! They have a "F" rating with the BBB.
They misrepresented their company to us and under severe time pressure, we declined their offer in writing. Afterwards, the salesman continued his high pressure sale and offered to complete the paperwork in 9 minutes to get us out and to another appt. We finally relented and signed up. He told us what we signed since we obviously had no time to read it (We have NEVER in our life signed anything without fully reading it and I know this was ill advised-unfortunately we trusted the man to not lie to us). Well, we got home and read the contract to find that the salesman lied constantly to us. We have been around and around with these people and have had nothing but hang ups from the "customer service" and lies then written by the salesmanager himself about how WE rushed HIM in doing the paperwork. That we signed a declining form first should show that not to be the case but the company acts as though that form does not exist. We are doing our best to cancel the contract and are going through many of the same hoops.
This is not a company we want to be a part of. They are shady and will not talk to you once a contract is signed.
There is no three day right of rescission that all above board companies honor. We started this process with a certified letter within that timeframe and have met with nothing but hostility from the company.

[cb5300]

Originally Posted by Nedra

After 3 years of fighting with them and going around in circles with Karen Hewitt my contract has finally been cancelled.

Let me tell you that dealing with them is worse than dealing with the government. I kept copies of every documentation with them including all the letters saying they cancelled my contract and every letter from Equiant demanding money.

After publicly posting this to the forum and the threatened lawsuit with emails to the owner of Ocean Canyons it was finally resolved. However I did get one last mailing from them about dues so I turned the entire file over to my lawyer who now has it.

I warned them if they didn't resolve this problem I was filing a formal complaint against them with the Texas State attorney general.

They kept claiming their contracts were lifetime contracts and my response was I never signed a contract with them and the contract we did sign was with Western Horizons AND it was NOT a lifetime contract. My lawyer said you cannot change the terms of a signed contract arbitrarily and I warned them I would take action against them. Three years of dealing with them was way more than anyone should have to endure.

They harassed me and sent collections letters for the last 3 years trying to collect on a contract that they cancelled in writing. Go figure.

I would not talk to them, I would put EVERYTHING in writing. Phone calls are not any means to document should you need to follow through legally.

I didn't want to be bothered selling it since Western Horizons sent us a letter telling us we still had full use of their resorts so why bother selling it. I just wanted out of the Ocean Canyons membership. We wanted nothing to do with them or their resorts which are only a few.

Good luck but remember, everything must be in writing and you can even do it via email if you maintain copies of everything and print it out so you have a file.

I don't know what your contract with WH reads but that is the binding contract since that's the contract you signed.

I don't understand why you put up with it for 3 years. After the 2nd letter I would have turned everything over to my attorney and let them contribute to my retirement.

[Sara.Riddle]

If anyone has any suggestions on how to cancel this contract or how you did it I would love to hear. My husband and I became members in March, with the once again high pressure salesman and MANY lies. They told us during our sales pitch that you can sell it, but then when you find someone and try to sell it, it is impossible....... I wish I knew a little more about the company before hand, but now I know to do some more research. We are only on a "trial" membership, so if nothing else we only have to deal with their stuff for 5 years.

[VSPA]

Unfortunately no advice other than a lawyer. Reading all the posts above make me even more glad that I turned down their high pressured saleman's pitch. The sales man and his "closer" cohart even got rude and borderline offensive after we rejected their final offer. Livinging here in Vegas, we went to their "Resort" in Pahrump, NV. The club house/pool area were ok at best, but the winery and the resturant were great, but the RV park it self was a real let down as it was only a crushed Type 2 construction grade rock with one small bush per slot.

[cowbelljlg]

Originally Posted by ICEE

We have had the same problem! Our membership was also taken over by Ocean Canyon Properties. I would like to know if you succeeded in canceling your membership. The representative that we talked to told us that they had a "resale" program where they would sell our membership to someone else. When we called a few months later to see if they had any potential buyers, the person on the phone told us that they had no such program. So here we are with a paper that clearly reads "resale program".
We would like to know how your situation turned out. Thanks.
ICEE

I understand what you are saying we are having a problem with them also about them lying to us. I feel they should be held accountable for their lies. To me that would some kind of false advertising and that is illegal. We were told that they are not responsible for what their sales people say to us to try and get us to sign a contract. Which in my way of think they should be responsible.

[cowbelljlg]

Originally Posted by case

Do not have anything to do with Ocean Canyon Properties!! They have a "F" rating with the BBB.
They misrepresented their company to us and under severe time pressure, we declined their offer in writing. Afterwards, the salesman continued his high pressure sale and offered to complete the paperwork in 9 minutes to get us out and to another appt. We finally relented and signed up. He told us what we signed since we obviously had no time to read it (We have NEVER in our life signed anything without fully reading it and I know this was ill advised-unfortunately we trusted the man to not lie to us). Well, we got home and read the contract to find that the salesman lied constantly to us. We have been around and around with these people and have had nothing but hang ups from the "customer service" and lies then written by the salesmanager himself about how WE rushed HIM in doing the paperwork. That we signed a declining form first should show that not to be the case but the company acts as though that form does not exist. We are doing our best to cancel the contract and are going through many of the same hoops.
This is not a company we want to be a part of. They are shady and will not talk to you once a contract is signed.
There is no three day right of rescission that all above board companies honor. We started this process with a certified letter within that timeframe and have met with nothing but hostility from the company.

We are going through the same problem with their lies. I feel that it is false advertising and they should be held legally accountable for their actions.

[lynneberry]

I am a long time employee of Western Horizon Resorts and have been through thick and thin with the company. I have been with them while the company was growing and now, at a time when we have had to tighten our belts. Western Horizon Resorts (WHR) has been operating since 1984 when we started with one resort in Gunnison, Colorado. We grew to 24 resorts at one time and now 27 years later we can still offer members access to 17 resorts. Even McDonald’s has closed some of its store for no productivity. We may have become a little smaller but it is likely the decision to slow down now that will carry us farther into the future.

I understand members can become frustrated, but I also understand WHR’s current situation. The economy, if you aren’t aware and I can’t imagine anyone who isn’t, has had its affects on the membership camping industry. WHR is not alone in its struggles, but I assure you, membership camping is not going away. Membership camping is a practical, inexpensive method of enjoying the RV lifestyle.

WHR has chosen to sell off a few properties. Why? There isn’t enough business, after making every effort to improve the bottom line, to sustain the costs of operating specific resorts. Continuing to operate resorts that have negative cash flow is irresponsible and only serves to put the whole company in peril. WHR has made every effort to keep sites available at the properties we have sold. This may not be the same as owning the property and there may, on occasion, be more limited availability but it buys us time until we get past the economic downturn to try and turn the corner and start to grow again.

What would a lawsuit do for members and the company? Honestly, members wouldn’t recoup their money. The attorneys would be the only people who gain. Your membership would vanish and over a hundred people would lose their jobs. Nothing positive about this.

Here’s the problem we are dealing with right now. New member sales have slowed because the same people who would have been our customers in the past cannot afford to purchase a vacation camping membership now. These are people who have lost their jobs or, possibly their life savings. A few years ago these same people would have been excited to get into the RV lifestyle. Now they are more worried about paying their rent and not about enjoying the RV life. This not to say that there are not people out there that want to get on board, but it just means that we need to work harder to get these new members. Without new members, we cannot continue to operate.

WHR, like many companies, has felt the real world (the economy) affects on our business. I can assure you every move we make is our best effort to keep the company viable so we can continue to service the members in the best possible way far into the future.

Negative blogs make me crazy. Instead of the negative, which only serves to scare new members away, give us some positive feedback—something we can work with to move things in the right direction. WHR is not perfect and we may have made some mistakes along the way. [Moderator edit].

Lynne Berry
Long time employee
Western Horizon Resorts

[Mr_D]

Originally Posted by case

There is no three day right of rescission that all above board companies honor.

Please cite the law that says there are 3 days to rescind a contract.

There is no "3 day right of rescission" on any contracts except where they come to you door, like selling encyclopedias or vacuums. If you go to them, then you're bound from the time you sign the contract on.