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Received a phone call on 10 July 2012 from ACCESS TRAVEL NETWORK and he offered to sell my "free weeks" (due, according to them, to expire in August 2012) of my timeshare. He said they "required" me to pay upfront for the booking fee of $149 per week for 10 weeks. Said they would send me a contract to consider and sign and return via fax. When I got the electronic version of the contract (11 July), that clearly stated "7 day cancellation policy" on the form, I reviewed the document and saw no protection for me after the initial period so I wrote CANCEL in large letters and faxed it back to them with a request for "immediate refund" of the charge against my card. Then I received another call from a different person offering to cut the charge in half and to issue a credit for that amount ($745) and then to call back on 12 July to “review and finalize” all the details. He left a message later that day with a "tracking number" for the credit that was going back to my credit card. Same guy called back in the afternoon of 12 July (three hours later than he told me he would call) just as I was sending another fax demanding a refund for ALL charges because my credit card had no record of that tracking number or a credit pending. When I told him I was cancelling the whole thing without ever signing the contract and that I was within my seven day window to cancel, he hung up on me. I then filed a dispute complaint with my credit card and filed an online complaint with the Florida consumers' department. My credit card company has informed me that I have no obligation to pay until the complaint is resolved by them and the merchant.
On Saturday, 14 July, I received a message from my credit card informing me that I had received a credit of $745 from the merchant and that my card company “considered the matter resolved”. I immediately called the card company and explained that I was not satisfied with the amount (half) and that I wished to open another dispute for the remainder. They did that immediately. THIS IS STILL CLEARLY A SCAM DESIGNED TO GET AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE FROM PEOPLE WITHIN THE SEVEN DAY CANCELLATION PERIOD and thereafter nothing may be cancelled or claimed.
UPDATE TO THIS COMPLAINT
This whole story presents us with two possible conclusions. First, that Access Travel Network, Inc. is a legitimate corporation who would have cancelled the contract because I asked them to do it, but they were so surprised by my request that they were slow to resolve the issue to my satisfaction (17 days from my first request). Nah, I don’t believe that either. So we are left with the conclusion that my filing a dispute with my credit card company, the legal entities sited above, and all the websites that I could find, and then telling ATN about exactly what I had done must have created some doubt in their corporate minds that this was just going to go away by itself. They CHOOSE to refund as a credit the last half of my money in the hope that the credit card dispute would settle itself (it did) and they could proceed to do “what they do”, which is charge unsuspecting timeshare owners an upfront booking fee for “rental weeks” that are never expected to rent, but which the owner will not realize for at least 90 days and more than likely 180 days, which will mean too late for any cancellation OR refund and probably will just be ignored by most victims. This is almost the “perfect scam”… unless someone (everyone?) reports them, harasses them legally, and stays after them relentlessly until they fold and you get your money back (?). Now all I am out is the time it took me to accomplish my mission and get a full refund and the time it will take me to contact all the same sites and finalize my story with this saga. Time well spent, in my opinion.
30 July UPDATE - Received a call from PAUL ROBERTS asking if I had received the second half credit for $745 from CTC to my credit card. Told him that I had been notified on Sunday. He asked if I would contact the websites where I had filed complaints and correct or update the complaint. I stated that I would.
ScamVic in NM:
Make contact with the FL Attorney General's office, too. They will want a copy of all the paperwork AND a signed and witnessed (notarized) document with all the details. Much better than the BBB of Central Florida, who "investigated" my complaint by calling ATN and taking their word for the complaint being "closed". BBB has been known to "sell" their membership seals to be used in advertising on websites of less than reputable companies.
Keep pushing your CC company, too. AMEX was excellent and their withholding of the full amount in dispute caused ATN to move forward and settle my claim.
Best of luck,
GaryN_SC
We were called and told that the company would rent out our unused weeks to companies whom held seminars and needed places for their employees to stay during this time. We were told they would send us a contract via
e-mail, (which was never received) and that we could make up to $1200.00 per week for the weeks that they would rent out. This company got our credit card number, the money was charged to, and like a FOOL we paid
our bill and have not received anything up to this date. We have called numerous times with the response that
"I am away from my desk, please leave a message and phone # and they would get back to us." THIS HAS NOT
HAPPENED. We would just like to get our money back. Could anyone give us any information as to what to do at this time? Your assistance would be GREATLY APPRECIATED! Please send information to SR in Ashland, Ky.
My boyfriend was charged by this company too. Same Lady Tina Moore contacted him and somehow convinced him to sign an electronic contract. The hard copy never arrived. Now we are trying to get the money back but the bank is on their side. We just got a letter saying that the agency did provide the service, etc...so they charged the credit card again.
Has someone got their money back? How?...Please give us advice!
Thank you
I agree that if it sounds too good to be true don't fall for it, but we did on this one. Same story, 1788.00 charged to credit card, have tried everything I can think of so far, and no results. But I will not give up. What I really can't understand is "Why Wyndham or these other resorts are not warning their people of this?" I am beginning to think maybe they are in on it since there is so much and its still going on. Why wouldn't the Attorney Generals Office already have taken care of them? there is just too many questions for me anyway. All I know is someone is really getting their pockets padded along the way, and it was a very expensive lesson learned for us. The lady that called me was Tina Moore, her supervisor that I finally talked to was Kenny Taylor, then the last time I talked to a Nicole that said she was a Consumer Relations Supervisor. Sounded like the Tina Moore to me exactly. We need to get this Scam stopped somehow, so that no one else gets taken!
Dispute it right now with your Credit Card company. I have the same story. I was called in Jan and I am still fighting for the money back. Although they had 30 days before I got suspicious and started looking up the company and found out the is all a SCAM. By the time I called the Credit Card company it was too late to dispute on mine. So I have filed complaints with BBB with Florida and my state. Attorney Generals, FTC, Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Do Not Call Registry cause I am on that list and they were the ones that called me, [redacted].com, hotcomplaints.com, this site, everywhere I can find to file a report on them. I also call from time to time and ask to speak with a supervisor. I don't know if there is such a thing there. What I can't understand if why is Wyndham not instructing their Sales Dept. to tell people about this? Or it would be Wyndham in my case, maybe some others are different. But please fight for your money back, give them a fight for all its worth, I am working on it a little every single day and will continue to do so.
I was wondering if people that have been scammed by Access Travel Network can institute a class action lawsuit against them.
Thank God for this website! The scenario is played over & over...
Why does Access Travel Network continue to scam people? Follow the rule: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably (make that DEFINITELY) is!
Change $149 into $1500 in 60-90 days? Better odds than winning the lottery! EXCEPT you never receive the winnings and they expect you to give up the struggle with the credit card legal / security department in frustration.
Consider this person INFORMED-----thanks ----no MANY THANKS---to all of you who have gone thru this before me...
I was also called up by this company with the same story. unfortanutely for me I was dumb enough to sign up and pay $1788 for 12 weeks. But due to my busy life I didn't notice in time that I ONLY had 7 days to cancel. I made a dispute with my credit company and finally I got an answer from the CC (after me calling them after 5 weeks)saying that I have to wait out the 90 days and then file another dispute. Obviously my CC denied my first one based on a fact that ATN has 90 days to fulfill their obligation of renting out within 90 days, which will only happen by 01/23/13.
I was contacted by ATN today. I was working and returned the call after their business hours. The message I left them was unless they are a Wyndham Vacation Ownership employee there is nothing I needed to discuss with them and to take me off their contact list. It will be interesting to see if they call me tomorrow and the story I hear from them. The message they left me was it was very important I contact them about my Wyndham Vacation Ownership. The persons name was Lewis Mitchell @ [protected] ex 2031.
I was fooled too by this company. They said that I had 12 Free Getaway weeks with RCI that they could rent out for $1500 to corporations for special events. I just recently purchased this timeshare, and I was not sure what I had. All that was required was $149/week from me to get it started and then they would rent it within 60 to 90 days. I checked with my timeshare and RCI, and neither could verify these weeks, so I cancelled within the 7 day window. They tried to talk me out of it, but I faxed over my cancellation and requested my money back. I also opened a dispute with my credit card company. Now when I try to call ATN or CTC (who charged my credit card $1788), neither one answers. I hope that I will be able to get my money back, as this will really hurt me financially. It is a shame that companies like these are out there scamming people. These are hard enough times as it is. I plan on now filing complaints against them with the BBB and the FTC.
I heard from a friend that Access Travel Network is a SCAM! Now to see it in writing means that there must be more complaints out there but they have just not realized it yet. They will when they see that NO RENTAL come through and there is no promise of rental. WHAT A SCAM!