Orange Lakes Resorts Kissimmee reviews and complaints

My husband and I purchased a Week for a timeshare in Orange Lake in 2003 and because the industry was going to Points we contacted Orange Lake to convert our Weeks to Points. We were told we had to purchase a timeshare in Lake Geneva which was already using Points.

On 7/13/2010 we purchased 30, 000 Points for an additional $6, 473.00 which we paid in cash giving us 133, 000 Points for Orange Lake property. Our total money invested is $20, 373.00 for 163, 000 Points. We are now in our 70's and due to health issues we want to donate the timeshares to a charity to be auctioned since selling or even giving it away is near impossible. I contacted Orange Lake to get instructions and the paperwork to transfer ownership and was told the Points will convert back to Weeks but the 30, 000 Points at Lake Geneva remains the same, I can't imagine how that combination will work. If we had been told this we would not have spent an additional $6, 473.

Yesterday I had my last conversation with a young man named Christian who said my husband and I knew and agreed to the terms of exchanging our points back to weeks by signing their OWNER CLARIFICATION FORM: The paragraph he referred to states,
"In the event of a default under the purchase agreement for the Timeshare Interest, we understand that membership in the Holiday Inn Club shall terminate as to each Timeshare Interest assigned hereunder". I've never seen or been told what offenses would result in default, with the exception of financial. Christian said we will default our contract if we sell, because Orange Lake's intention is for all members to keep timeshares in families to be passed down, but our kids don't want them.

A couple years ago we decided to transfer points to IHG Rewards Club with a transfer fee of $104. And when it was completed they had deducted 32, 000 of our points. Their response was they use a 5 to 4 ratio to transfer into IHG like I was suppose to know that. I'm guessing this is their business practice by not disclosing information that might affect our decisions.

It was high pressure and fast talking that got us to buy and now we are stuck!

We purchased timeshare in Galveston, TX, when it was under a different company. Orange Lakes took over several years ago. The bad practices started after that. Below is the letter I wrote to Orange Lakes in November, 2014, and I quote:
I have written numerous times, talked to you numerous times, and this will be my last communication if you cannot acknowledge this letter and complete this business. To recap, on December 27, 2013, this property was legally deeded to Blue Chip Premier Rentals, Cabins, & Condos LLC, 1220 North Market Street, Suite 808, Wilmington, DE 19801. In January, 2014, I sent you a copy of this legal deed change. You have continued to send bills with no acknowledgement of my letter to you. I sent the information again at the end of January, in March, and in June of 2014. You have called numerous times and I have tried talking to you with no success. I spoke to a young man once who told me that the paperwork had been received and this matter would be taken care of. This has not happened. On November 5, 2014, I spoke to a woman who told me that you had finally decided what needed to be done and that you had mailed me a letter on October 24, 2014. She said that there would be some information and a $100 fee was needed for the transfer to be completed. Obviously this was not a true statement as I have received no letter from you.

Since I know that you have received a copy of the deed transfer to Blue Chip, I am not including another copy of this deed. If you will send me the information you say is needed to complete this transfer, I will pay the $100 transfer fee. I will not, however, pay any maintenance fees for 2014 nor 2015. I cannot understand why you did not deal with this in January when I sent the transfer deed to you.

I expect to receive a written answer to this letter very soon. If you cannot resolve this quickly, you will be dealing with my attorney. I feel I have done all of the things I can to complete this business. It is now up to you. I expect you to send me the necessary information to complete the transfer and I expect you to eliminate all maintenance fees from my account.

End of Letter. I never received an acknowledgement of this letter. Today (a year later), someone in deeding whom I called, finally said I owe $100 transfer fee AND $1000 for maintenance fees. These maintenance fees must be paid before they will transfer deed. I tried talking to a supervisor to get some resolution for the $1000 fees. Ross was unhelpful and not very nice. I do not know what to do now. I do have documentation of all I have done to resolve this issue.