Coral Resorts Hilton Head Island Misleading and Deceptive practices Hilton Head South Carolina

I hope by writing this complaint it will help others as did the ones we read that helped us see the fine print that was misleading and conveniently left out of the conversations with the sales rep.  Mike was his name, however I feel that most of them are all trained by the same staff members and use basically the same sales techniques.  As with most of us we went into this timeshare pitch for the free tickets and island cash with no intentions of buying at all and we told ourselves that over and over.  

Well, the salesman was good and after he explained all the opportunities we would have, it seemed too good to be true and we believed we were in the position that this would work well for our family.  Too Good to Be True, first red flag.  However we asked many questions and his answers left us feeling positive with the 5 day back out possibility.  So let’s get to the point.  Here are the reasons after Googling, reading website complaints and looking at the fine print on the actual contract that made us rescind our offer and get a full refund.  These are our reasons and opinions and they might even be disputed by the company, but a few red flags was enough for us not to continue any further.  

Just to give you a comparable - this is the deal we got.  We were offered a triennial 3 bedroom at Hilton Head that gave us 21,333 points each year.  Maintenance fees were $300 each year and paid every 3 years.  One bonus week each year at the price of $250 to be used anywhere.  All this for the total cost of $8,170 plus $395 closing cost.  Maybe this number seems high or low to you.  We were offered to sell back our first year bonus week (because it was in high demand) for $3,000 off our purchase, which is how we got the number down to $8,170.  Initially he showed us starting prices of $19k.  That was until he brought forward a property that was supposedly reclaimed because the prior people stopped paying for it.  All the same benefits of the 19k property with lower maintenance fees.  Gee, sound too good to be true?

1. First off this is not an investment, it loses value as soon as you leave and even more so over time, which is the opposite of what the salesman stated.  After doing some research I have found that there are lots of people selling their timeshare for far less than what they paid.  Many websites state the devaluing of the timeshare.  There is even some stories of people offering their timeshare for $1 just to get rid of it so that they don't have to keep paying the maintenance fees. 
2. Now the whole “it’s just 9,000 points to stay anywhere for a week” thing we were told plus just $159 for the transfer fee.  Well it’s more like 30k – 118k points per 7 day stay.  Yes you can get one for 9k points, but that is last minute options for only a few choices.  Reality is that it would take you almost three years of points to stay at a nice location with proper and early reservation. After doing some searching here is a link right off of RCI’s website that is very helpful.  This is also one of the things confirmed by are refund manager at Coral Resorts.  http://www.rci.com/GPN/CDA/Common/pdf/RCI_ExGridsUpdate1.pdf
3. This triennial thing was another strange way to word things.  As we were told, we got to pick and use vacation spots each year.  So with the mindset the salesman put into our heads stating we would still be able to take 3 resort spots each year.  That’s two spots for 9,000 points each and the bonus week spot, with still 3,000 points left to carry over.  Well now we know it takes a lot more than 9k points.  The salesman states that the triennial is only to make the maintenance fees lower.  So you would pay in our case, $900 every 3 years, instead of a bill of $300 every year.  This appears to be true, no big deal here.  However looking into the contract a little more is may be that it looks like you can actually only pick a vacation spot once every three years.  Seems weird, but that’s just how I read it quickly as per the words stated in print.  This may not be true, but it was just another red flag.  Although the manager that refunded us, did state we could use the point we accrued each year, but now knowing it would take thousands of more points each year, this no longer seemed  like the great deal. 
4. Something that was NEVER mentioned, but was confirmed when we rescinded was a yearly membership fee for RCI.  On top of the maintenance fees RCI themselves has a fee to be part of the whole points trading timeshare thing that they run.  The first year fee is $124 and it goes does each year after by a little bit.  Here is the link to that information as well. http://pgs.rci.com/landing/ptr/fees/indexUS.html
5. We already made up our mind about rescinding the offer, so I didn’t look too much into this last one.  But when we bought, we were given a specific week and somewhere in the paperwork I saw something about it being seasonal.  It almost appeared that based on the time your week was/season is the time that you can only pick.  Like I said, not too sure on this one, but I really didn’t care to read into more of it, enough red flags for me.

REFUND PROCESS:  Believe it or not - the whole rescinding of the offer and refund process went smooth and fast.  We went back to the first office that we went to on day one, and after giving our paperwork to the front desk, a man from the back came forward to help us.  He just wanted to know are reasons for rescinding and at that time he confirmed some of the misleading information and stated a few statements confirming some as well.  As he stated he did go back and refund our credit card for a full refund.  It is important to bring the blue square box back, otherwise there is a $100 charge for it.  Luckily we read that part.  We signed some paperwork and he even stated on that paperwork that there was no need to send in the certified letter that is stated in the fine print for a refund offer to take place.  This part of the process was easy and made us glad it is all over.  Now we can enjoy the rest of our vacation without the headache and stress from this timeshare disaster.  I’m just glad we didn’t get past the 5 day window.