Festiva Resorts - Ellington - Erik Less stole $477.00 Murrells Inlet South Carollina

On Feb 12th, 2009, my wife and I went to stay at Murrell's Inlet, South Carolina. We accepted to stay at the Ellington (a resort owned by Festiva Resorts) and were delighted with the property. Our cost for 3 days was suppose to be $75.00 and we were asked to participate in a timeshare presentation for 90 minutes.

I should have know from the beginning that something was wrong. After I paid the $75.00 in October of 2008, it took 2 months to get my reservations approved. We were told that the condo would comfortably hold 8 people. When we arrived, we were asked to accept a 2 bedroom instead of the 3 bedroom we were promised. We were told that we would have a view of the water.....turns out the view of the water was a small pond on a golf course.

On Feb 13th, we attended the timeshare presentation and made a decision to purchase. We did not have the required $1500 down payment so Rob, our salesman, asked his boss, Erik Less, to make an exception. Erik agreed to accept 3 payments of $477 starting on March 17th and we agreed to have him draft the amount from our bank.

On Monday, Feb 16th, I called Rob and he asked me to speak with Erik. I informed Erik that due to circumstances out of our control, we would have to rescind our offer to purchase the time share. He told me very sarcastically that he just sells them...I would have to talk to finance. He then tried to talk me into keeping it saying he could give me more time on the down payment. I explained that we could not financially afford it now due to loss of job in our family over the weekend and that I needed him to stop all of the bank drafts including the down payment beginning on March 17th. He stated that he had no control over that....talk to Finance.

I called Finance dept in Asheboro, NC. They accepted my recission, stopped the bank drafts for the monthly payments to begin in July, and sent me a letter explaining that the contract had been rescinded. That was on Wednesday, Feb 18th.

Today, I check my bank account and Festiva Resorts at the Ellington debited my account $477. I called Finance immediately. They stated that their records show the contract voided and they see no debits. Then, she checks where Erik Less works at and says that his dept in SC did the debit to collect the down payment. She stated that he was responsible for stopping that draft and she couldnt do anything about it. She asked me to call him to have it reversed. I told her that Ive talked with him 30 days ago, he stated he had nothing to do with stopping the drafts. She took his name and number and told me should would call and discuss it with him and let me know.

In the meantime, I have lost $477 today and that amount will cause numerous returns on my account.

Kirk
roseboro, North Carolina
U.S.A.