TLC Resorts Harrassing me for money I don’t owe them after I paid off my three year agreement contract with them. Las Vegas Nevada

My consumer complaint is in regards to a company called TLC Resorts which is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. My husband and I were on a vacation in Las Vegas back in 2015 while we were engaged. While walking along Fremont Street outside of our hotel, we were approached by representatives from TLC Resorts.

They started talking to us and talked us into coming to one of their presentations and said they would give us free tickets for a Las Vegas show just for going to their short presentation. The presentation turned out to be about a vacation program that is supposed to help you save money on vacations. It is called a TLC Resorts Membership- in which you receive points each year for which you can go online on RCI.com and select a resort in exchange for a certain amount of points (and you need to pay money of a couple hundred dollars to RCI whenever you exchange your points for a resort stay).

They made it very clear that it WAS NOT a timeshare that we would be stuck with if we changed our minds in the future. They called it a membership and said I could cancel at any time once I paid off the loan/contract for the points with them. If I canceled it in the future after paying off the contract, I would no longer receive points from them and thus would basically be out my initial investment, but I wouldn’t have to pay the yearly membership of $749 to them or the yearly membership of $179 to RCI anymore.

They ended up talking me into the membership because they acted like it would be a savings for our upcoming honeymoon (turns out we could have gotten our honeymoon suite a lot cheaper just going directly through the resort we stayed at!) The presentation was no short presentation either like they said it would be.

They kept us there for hours - after I initially told them no, they sent another rep over to try and break me down (which unfortunately for me, worked). Worst. Decision. Ever! Membership with them has been a nightmare ever since! From not being able to find any resorts in areas we actually wanted to travel (even though they said it would be easy!), to having to book half of a vacation through them and pay additional out of pocket for other hotel stays since they didn’t have dates for all of our stay.

Our final straw was the last resort we stayed at in Galveston, TX. The place had filthy carpet, filthy appliances, cockroaches as well as mouse droppings in the silverware and bedroom drawers!! It was also way outdated! When I became pregnant, I knew we wouldn’t be traveling much for the next few years (our daughter does not travel well in the car - she screams most of the time we are driving!) However, I still owed on my contract with TLC.

I had heard from multiple people at TLC, just as others I have spoken to in the RCI Facebook Group, that it was a membership that we could cancel at any time once our initial contract was paid off. Even the "director of operations” - Mark Gutzwa - told me so when I called to see what I could do. He later turned out to be a total liar about lots of things.

Here is my story (it’s a long one!) Mark told me I could cancel my membership once the contract was paid off (which by at that point I would have paid them over $15,000 since 2015 based on interest and the yearly TLC and RCI member dues). However, he tried to talk me out of canceling and said then I lose out on my benefits and all the equity I paid in.

He recommended that I keep my membership throughout the years we are unable to travel and "convert my points to cash” using their Advantage Services option to do so (of course they charged a fee for that - which wound up being double of what he initially told me!) They said it would take about 60 Days to receive my check for my converted points.

6 Months went by. Still nothing. So I call Mark to see what the heck is going on (I had contacted several others at TLC and their partner, Advantage Services with no luck). I tell him at this point, I am just going to pay off the rest of my contract and cancel further membership. I just want out and didn’t want to have to deal with them anymore!

He tells me, no - when I agreed to convert my points to cash, I committed myself to 5 more years with them! I most certainly did not (he was lying and making me so angry I was cussing him out at that point which is very unusual for me!) I had everything in writing from him and also recorded our call and nowhere did it say I was committed for more years by using their points conversion service.

He kept just saying "I have it in writing, you don’t!” Well, if that was the case, he forged my signature on something, because I kept every single piece of paper from that company - even emails, scratch paper and voicemails - since day 1!!! He also said in another sentence if I wanted to cancel, it had to be done by September 21st (which was only a couple weeks prior to the date we spoke). So which one was it, Mark - I was committed for another 5 years and you have it in writing - or I could have canceled had I told him so just a little sooner!

None of his lies were making sense. Furthermore, after our conversation I received a call from a woman at TLC on my cell and at home (she left messages on both), saying the Advantage Services points to cash conversion option is a free program for all TLC Members and I don’t owe any membership dues for it!

Also, I spoke to someone else at TLC named Arylia when I was done talking to him to see what my final payoff amount was and how I go about canceling membership and she confirmed I needed to send them a notice of cancellation of my membership in writing (which it says on some paperwork I have from them on the page with my auto payments info.)

TLC Resorts is crooked as they come! I sent them the final amount I owed on the contract for the membership with final payment written on the check, and a certified letter stating I wanted to cancel my membership. I did all of this a month prior to the 2019 year’s member dues being due so I wouldn’t owe them. I also stated in that letter that they were not authorized to take any more auto payments from my account.

I even called my bank to put a stop payment for all future attempts at charges from them since I don’t trust them. So I thought that was it. But wait - there’s more!! The day for membership dues rolled around and I saw that they charged my account for $749 anyways! The stop payment with Chase Bank had failed! So I had to open a dispute case with Chase.

It took two months, and I sent them tons of proof, but they agreed to my dispute claim and gave me back my $749 (which by the way -TLC had forced the payment through and kept that $749 themselves!) Chase said TLC Resorts did successfully receive the money from my account, but Chase paid me back since their stop payment process failed.

When I opened the dispute claim, I also closed my bank account with Chase and opened a new one so TLC would definitely no longer have access to my bank account. So, then awhile later I received the confirmation of loan payoff from TLC Resorts. However, I also received a phone message and a letter saying my account is delinquent for not paying the next years member dues! I replied stating I sent them a certified letter of membership cancellation along with my final check which paid off the loan I had with them.

I also told them that Chase Bank confirmed that TLC took $749 from my account, so they were lying about my account being delinquent in the first place (which at this point, they should have closed it so I wouldn’t have owed any further member dues anyways, but they are ignoring my request to do so - I believe because Mark Gutzwa who I spoke to that blatantly lied to me multiple times is being stubborn about it since I cussed him out after he lied to me and refused to cancel my membership.)

I contacted RCI and they said that they can’t help me to cancel the membership- TLC needs to cancel it for me. So obviously it can be cancelled - they just lie about it and threaten you and your credit once you try to actually do so! In the meantime, my credit score was up to 837 once I paid my contract off with TLC Resorts. Now I got a voicemail the other day from TLC bothering me yet again, saying it is urgent that I call them back about my account.

I just ignored it as I know that I have no further obligation to them. I have been scammed out of enough money by them. I just checked my credit score yesterday via my Discover Card app and it is down to 817 now - but it is normal to have fluctuations month to month. I always pay everything early. I am hoping this horrible company can’t affect my credit.

They have already terrorized me enough and taken so much from me financially as it is. I have lost so much sleep over this situation over the years seeing how much money I wasted with them. I sooooo wish I had not attended their presentation that day! I am in a Facebook Group to do with RCI and there are so many people in there that complain about how horrible TLC Resorts is and that it is just a sham.

They said I basically just paid for a piece of paper that amounts to nothing. Others in the group confirmed that TLC Resorts used the fact that you can cancel your membership at any time after you pay off the loan/contract for the points buy-in as a major selling point for their vacation membership, so it is totally bogus that they are refusing to cancel my membership and keep pestering me now that I have paid it off!

I received a letter from them yesterday threatening me for more money, saying my account is delinquent for not paying this year’s member dues - even though I should not owe these dues since I paid off my 3 year agreement contract with them and sent them a certified letter saying to cancel my membership! Now they are saying they are sending me to collections, so they can try to scam more money out of me.