Universal Marketing Solutions review: Scam

Florida seems to have a monopoly on the "timeshare marketing" scam artists (and they are truly artists). We have been called many times with offers to "market" our timeshare for a set price, always with a "guarantee" that, upon close examination, was no guarantee at all.

All these scam artists have the same strategy. They tell you they have one or more buyers waiting. They then tell you they can sell the timeshare for a price far in excess of what you'd hoped. They guarantee it will be sold in 90 or 120 days "or your money back." What they don't tell you is the "money back" only happens when the timeshare actually sells, which will NEVER HAPPEN due to their listing it a three times the actual market value.

After many phone calls, in a weak moment we too were taken by these crooks. To their credit, the crooks at Universal Marketing are better than average in selling their product, which is a lie. Reality hit me about a week after sending in my credit card number when I checked to see what my timeshare normally sells for (should have done that before committing).

The good news--I contacted our credit card company, sent them all the documents, including the incriminating false "guarantee", as well as the phony "marketing" website, and they managed to get our $1498 back. Incredibly, while all this was going on, we got several more calls from Universal offering to sell the same timeshare for which they already had a contract.

There are honest people in the world. Universal Marketing and its employees are not among them.