Crooked sales tactics-Beechwood Resort

[Fernie]

My nightmare with the people at Beachwood Resort in Blaine started at Camping World of Burlington. During the months of February, March and April I was constantly called by this lady to have the chance to enrol or obtain a membership buying a 2000 dollars package and with it to have access to more than 200 Cost to Coast Good Sam resorts for only a 10 bucks a night. Which after all was a false, tricky and misleading information. (That was the first deceit…)

That lady at Camping World wanted to meet my wife and I on her office of Burlington and there we’ll have from her a total and non-compromised selling of the plan offered by Camping World, or was not?. (Here was the second lie or pretence)

When I accepted her invitation she suddenly changed her approach and now she is no going to meet us, instead she set a meeting with a coordinator in situ (at the Beachwood Resort in Blaine, Wed. July 9th 2014). I must say that was third sham.

We find out later, to our big regret, that all of the talking and confusion created by them initiated by the lady at Camping World who called me in numerous occasions to sell a bogus membership to the pushing coordinators, to my regret as I said, all was indeed a repulsive and devilish catch to sell memberships at the Beachwood Resort.

And the tricks or bad practices have to continue; they have to sell you a membership at all costs.

Once in the meeting, there was NOT a 2,000 dollars package on the table of negotiations, but instead the coordinators (not one but three of them) offered a 6,995 dollars rip-off and because they were so ‘generous’ the package was reduced (the guy who made that offer was salivating, I think his name is Brent) to a bargain price of 4,895.15 US dollars, and they were so pushy. They don’t give you time to think.
We felt very much pressured from these salespeople (mainly two of them, Judy and Brent) to sell us the package and unfortunately with our deep regrets we fell for it. At one moment, the guy named Brent told us that Judy has no experience as a salesperson, in other moment Judy told us that she has 20 years of experience, go figure it.
In sums, all of that was the fourth scheme from those people.

The next morning and more relaxed at home, we reviewed all documents enclosed in the package and after reading very carefully the big and especially the small letters we decided to cancel the deal, which according to their own rules we were allowed to do so within the three business days frame time since we signed the documents of sale.
So, that day (July 10th 2014) very early we started to call the principal salesperson in order to communicate our final decision. We tried calling Judy many times, we left a message, we sent an e-mail with cc to the woman at Camping World.
On the afternoon of that day, the salesperson, Judy, finally phoned back and we told her of our final decision, although she already knew since she had read my e-mail.

She did not take it very well on the phone, so during our conversation and without any further explanation, she demanded us to travel back again to their site only because we have to return the whole documentation enclosed in the package and then and only then should they proceed to complete the cancellation.
There was no information on how we have to proceed to finalize the cancellation, she obviously and by training kept secret some crucial information, and that my friends was the fifth plot coming right up.

Judy was not happy at all, but since we did not change our decision to cancel the deal, she as well changed her niceties, those niceties that she showed the day before and now it was a different person. She was someone more difficult to deal with, now she began to use another strategy borrowed perhaps from their never end crate of obscurantisms, this last one was to delay the process in order for you to give up or for the three business days to pass or expire without any resolution and then you have no chance to get your money back. That was the fifth plot in progress at this point.

That day, July 11th ,when we drove back to Beachwood Resort, a very tense Judy welcomed us in a tiny room, she wanted the whole package including all documents an brochures back to her at once.
After she received back the package, we politely asked her what we should do now and that is when she dropped the bomb and told us that according to regulations and policies imposed by the organization, she could do nothing, absolutely nothing to proceed with the cancellation.

Now she was telling us something that she failed to inform us the day before when we called her to notify them about our decision.
Now just now, we learned that the protocol to follow in order to have my money back was for us to write a letter of cancellation at home and then, she told us, send it by certified mail to the administration office located in the same site.
She warned us; You can’t do this action in person, no e-mails are accepted, no phone calls are allowed, no salespeople will intervene…, it has to be a letter and has to be certified by mail and properly dated within the three business days.
The fifth plot has not stopped yet and the untruthful selling practices are still at work. At that point we were absolutely certain that we were dealing with a very crooked people.

Anyways, at this point we were in angst so the very same day, July 11th on the afternoon, we prepared the cancellation letter with all details and justifications, then we run to the local Canada Post office to place the letter in a ‘Xpressport’ envelope which is the certified mail used by Canada to deal with USA new rules.
The enveloped was date stamped that day and addressed to ‘SPRI 5001 Bay Road, Blaine WA. 98230’.
It cost me another $25.10 Canadian dollars, but we complied with one of their tricky rules.
They knew and expected that we have to find multiple obstacles to get our money back, but that is not all, they are vindictive people and they want to humiliate you to extreme, they want you to pay the price.
See what follows….

The next days we kept checking the mail delivering process by following the reference number assigned to our certified letter by Canada Post and we found that ‘SPRI’ received our mail as follows:
- 2014/07/15 15:10 98230,USA Item successfully delivered -

On my decent world, honourable people reply with a note of acknowledgment or perhaps the considerate fellows give a quick phone call or if the time is too tight a brief e-mail note will suffice.
But these people of ‘SPRI’ are not part of my world and in their supreme arrogance they never made any attempts to communicate with us. They never did, they never do.

Then after being ignored for three days already, let me tell you: they have my telephone number, my home address, my e-mail address…, one of my first two questions which came to mind were:
- To whom this ‘SPRI’ group is associated with?
- Do these associates know what SPRI is misleading many people and trying to keep money in their coffers that doesn’t belong to them?

I know for fact that the person who lured me into this botched adventure (her name is Linda) was or still is part of the Camping World organization, so my approach was in the direction to have a chat with a big cheese who may control these organizations such as Camping World or Good Sam and this individual it was revealed to me during my broad search, was no other person than Mr. Marcus Limonis.

But, after many hours spending in the Internet looking and trying to get the required information my task was a complete failure.
I could not to find Mr. Marcus Limonis e-mail address. By now, I was feeling the stress and I was not alone, so was my wife. An unacceptable situation, causing so much apprehension on us.

Then by no means I thought, somewhere to somebody, I have to report my complains in writing and by using those means I will share to as many people as I could, the bad faith and sickening tactics proved by the Beachwood Resort or SPRI’s individuals.

On Friday, July 18, I found a page that I believed it was associated with Camping World, where it was possible to make comments and complaints are permited. Oh gosh, what a relive (for a brief moment).
There I placed a short note with my disgraceful experience having with SPRI. Although, I knew the impossible of intent but the note was addressed to Marcus Limonis.
I don’t really remember which Internet page was the one I found that day but I though that I found the right one. My guesses were right, my note did concern some people there and later that day (Friday), somehow Bruce Hoster, the President of Coast to Coast, was reading my note.
He immediately replied to my e-mail address expressing his concerns, his unhappiness and promised me that he will contact the owner of Beachwood Resort (I have no idea who he/she is) to intervene in order to find a prompt solution to my struggle. That e-mail has a cc addressed, Eileen McKee at Good Sam. He will come back to me next week with some answers, he told me.

On Monday, July 21st Bruce Hoster e-mailed me back again to communicate that the owner of Beachwood Resort has assured himthat they will refund the money within the next two weeks (!).
What? I replied to Bruce and Eileen, that is simple obscene.
They took a couple minutes to charge 4,895.15 US dollars to my MC credit card and they are permitted to drag their feet for another two weeks to do the right thing and return the moneys that don’t belong to them?.
There was no response from Bruce, neither from Eileen, there are no comments from Linda at Camping World, and there is no communications from the mysterious owner of Beachwood Resort.
I guess Marcus Limonis is still in the dark with what his ‘children’ are doing to honest people.
In sum, what a pile of crap: Camping World, Good Sam, Coast to Coast and Beachwood Resort all together. "Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell who you are" (Mexican Proverb)

Today is July 31st 2014 this is the day number 22 since we decided to cancel the membership with Beachwood Resort. They don’t want to return money that is not theirs showing their true colours and screwing honest people. Their associates turning the eye to another direction while they are perfecting their dirty tricks. Nice to go Good Sam and Camping World.

And now to add insult to injury, I just received the MC credit card statement where they are asking to pay 5,357.71 Canadian dollars due to the dishonest acts performed by the people or even the owner of Beachwood Resort.

They should acted in good faith and returned the 4,895.10 US dollars many days ago then I do not have to waste another 462 Canadian dollars on top of the fee I paid for the certified envelope detailed earlier in this letter.

Did I miss any adjective to call those people at Beachwood Resort? Please help me there, thanks.

Fernando Fierro
GS: #801897851

[scubastevee]

Hire a lawyer ... now!!

Sue them for non-repayment of the cancellation, punitive damages, legal fees and anything else the lawyer suggests.

If you don't, they will drag this out forever.

Just my opinion.

Good luck,

Steve

[dons2346]

I hear ya Fernie. The Beachwood place has been in financial and legal troubles for some time. We have a house near by and are amazed at what we hear about it. We stayed there once under C2C while we were drafting plans for our house and were treated like second class citizens by those that own there. About half the park is composed of run down park models.

One thing you should have done right away was call your credit card company and dispute the charge as soon as you decided to cancel the contract. Might even do it now, it wouldn't hurt anything.

[DieselTech39]

Glad you're aboard.

Sorry to read of your problems. IMO protest the charge on your MC, get a lawyer and proceed with all legal means to obtain your refund and any amounts that are involveed in that collection process.Best of luck in your resolution.

When resolved, put it behind you and enjoy your adventures and be safe.

[Tom N]

My experience has been............when someone is trying to sell you something......it usually benefits them more than you.

-Tom

[Rom]

Why don't you post this on RV.net (if you haven't already?). Since Camping World basically lead you into this fiasco - let the CEO M. Lemonis know about it.

[Francesca]

Thanks for the heads up about Beechwood- high pressure sales tactics have become so common in the resort membership and/or timeshare game that a whole industry has sprung up to help folks get OUT of the contracts they signed in those circumstances. You might try one of those outfits. Here's a link to one, but Googling "Timeshare Cancellation" will lead to a lot more. Not a free service, but cheaper than staying in a bad contract.

Per Camping World's role here:

I've been to Camping World several times when there's someone set up in the outside lobby with a card table and an "Enter to win!" sign. All kinds of folks rent that space for the purpose, and many, MANY are resort membership/timeshare type organizations. The relationship between them and Camping World is essentially that of tenant and landlord.

There's no other connection/affiliation between them, and as a matter of fact the last time I saw such an outfit in a CW lobby, there was a (small) sign announcing that fact.

You can try posting at RV.net in hopes that Camping World will blacklist such folks if they see fit, but I doubt that there's anything they can do to help you get out of a contract with a third party over whom they exercise no control.

[Fred1609]

Get a lawyer and write out your complaint on RV.net.....someone will get in touch with you...don't know if it will help....go see a lawyer though.

[ahicks]

You don't need a lawyer. Just call your credit card company. They'll send you a form to be filled out, and your card will be credited without any drama involved....

[adonh]

Originally Posted by ahicks

You don't need a lawyer. Just call your credit card company. They'll send you a form to be filled out, and your card will be credited without any drama involved....

This is the way to go.

[SAMGEORGE]

Thanks for the info. I am new to rv'ing and was about to sign on with Camping World - Good Sams. This has CERTAINTLY changed my mind. I have delt with SCUM in the past and this appears to be the story here. Someone gets a good product going and some (or many) jerks mess it up.
Sam

[datrbone8]

I don't think Camping World or Good Sam has anything to do with the problem here. They just rented space to a company in one of their stores. The original poster seems to have English as his second language so the message is rather hard to understand

[Dmorgan6375]

Thank You for posting this and letting others know how crooked these folks are. Never hurts to have the word spread around!

[bronk]

If you are contacted (approached) by a salesperson who represents timeshare sales, campground contracts, etc., and you think that you might me interested, ALWAYS ask for the information (written) beforehand to peruse at your leisure. If your request is denied, walk away. NEVER sign any agreement (contract) without thoroughly reading the entire document. Don't ever feel pressured - remain in control of the situation. I realize that it is easy to say after the fact, but maybe it will help others who find themselves in a similar situation down the road. Best of luck!

Bronk