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Beginning in 1997 we purchased a 20 floating week vacation plan with Med Resorts International. Med Resorts International made many claims to property holdings that turned out to be fraudulent. The lack of property holding by this company led to dramatic shortcomings in what their claims could support. Med Resorts went into bankrupt court. In 2005 their assets, (amounting to only four resort properties with 12, 000 members) and membership base were purchased by American Vacation Resorts (AVR). AVR, another company with inadequate properties to support their membership which with the addition of Med Resorts now totaled more than 60, 000 members and 17 properties. During the 2005 acquisition of Med Resorts by AVR we were given the option of transferring our membership to AVR or walking away and sacrificing all the money we had invested into our program. We chose at that time to make the transition to AVR to conserve our investment. In 2007 we were charged a "special assessment” fee equal to our annual maintenance fee of $421.oo making or cash outlay for 2007 $842.00. Again we were told we had no choice but pay the special assessment or "walk away". In 2008 we were again contacted by Celebrity Resorts where they attempted to switch us into a deeded property arrangement because Celebrity Resorts was dissolving their association with AVR and again by taking up Celebrity Resorts on their offer was the only way we could end up "better off" than remaining with AVR. We declined. By opting to decline we were informed we would be restricted to the four properties held by AVR and would loose our RCI affiliation were we had established a points exchange program to more efficiently utilize our vacation plan. I contacted RCI during 2008 after our meeting with Celebrity Resorts and was informed they had received no such directive from AVR or Celebrity Resorts. This year (2009) we have again been hit with a "special assessment fee" equal to our annual maintenance fee for the short fall of income at AVR. However, we are being billed the fee by Celebrity Resorts. We are again being given the option of opting for a piece of deeded property or walking away. The difference this time is if we opt not to walk away this time we are being told that we are locked into the balance of our 30-year contract. Supposedly if we send in the special assessment fee we are committing to being locked into the balance of our contract. Part of the going forward arrangement is to sign a hold harmless agreement that would protect Celebrity Resorts and AVR from litigation. I think at this time enough is enough and I doubt if we will continue chasing this nonsense. I would entertain the idea of a class action suit instead of accepting Celebrity Resorts request that at this time we sign an agreement to hold them and AVR harmless against all past actions or future actions.
Hello interested readers, I am the same person that posted the above complaint. I have researched Celebrity and American Vacation Resorts with the Attorney General of the State of Illinois. My findings are as follows:
Celebrity Resorts...6 complaints on file
American Vacation Resorts...2 complaints on file
Don't forget that Celebrity Resorts is now the parent company of American Vacation Resorts. They have a great record going, don't they!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I too joined Med Resorts and paid my fees in full. Was informed of switch to American Vacation Resorts which resulted in a loss of a lot of benefits and increased fees but felt I had no choice or lose the whole investment. I called American Vacation Resorts many times complaining of the changes and getting what I was contracted to receive. I was never notified of change to Celebrity or received any correspondences since I called the membership number on back of my American vacation resorts card today I got Legacy Resorts. I don't even come up in their computer as a member or previous member. Couldn't even tell me if they where once American vacations resorts or Med resorts just theat they use to be Celebrity Resorts which until I read these post I didn't even know took over American vacation Resorts. I learned a lot from the posts above. Can anyone direct me to where to go from here?
We also belonged to AVR and could never obtain anyplace but Winter Park, Co. and that was rare. When we were sent a letter claiming they were being sold to RCI, but that we would have to front more money, we declined and lost our 4, 300 investment. I had heard too many bad things about RCI to switch over to them. Now I am being told by a company called Advantage Travel that they are picking up the AVR memberships and will not have to put any money down. I find this implausible but will listen to their presentation tonight via a webcast. I hope that a class action lawsuit against AVR goes forward since I felt like we were lied to about the properties they offered. We were never able to get anything except the one mentioned above.
I to have had the same senerio since 1997.. now I have recvd a letter stating avr is being taken over by celebrity resorts of hawley llc.. advising i could keep my membership with them and could use their properties. a whopping ten destination, 4 in florida 2 in colorado, 2 in nevada, 1 in new jersey, and 1 in hawaii, further states that rci points would no loger be accepted, , if a class action suit would be pursued i would like to participate... their professinalism is absurd, they have no people skills. investment gone bad, they have stated that rci points no longer would apply...i am financially unable to pursue further.. looks like i have to bite the bullet.
I too am one of the Med Resorts victims. Here is the next phase of their operation. I received my bill for the maintenance fee that is supposed to be used to pay for the RCI Points for 2010 dated 02/05/10 with a due date of 03/08/10. It had a handy apology at the top of the page for being late. There was a new friendly reminder that not only was the bill due by the due date but that “failure to pay will result in PERMANENT CANCELLATION of membership”. As normal, I paid the bill right after I received my tax refund on 04/11/10. I got my check back with a notice that my account has been cancelled for non-payment.
I called RCI Points but they insist that they can’t help and I can’t pay for points directly with them. With all the extra fees and the letters implying that I’m not paying enough to cover the cost of the points they pay to RCI, I was reluctant to contact Celebrity Resorts. However, I did and was told by a pleasant lady that they had been trying for a long time to get rid of the accounts they got from American Vacation Resorts. They thought the big extra assessment last year would run me off but it didn’t and now that I was late with my payment they were finally rid of me. Thanks for calling Celebrity resorts and have a pleasant day.
Totally agree.
BBB in Florida has only 1 complain against American Vacation Resorts in the last 12 months and Celebrity Resorts has 20 complaints.
We bought through Med Resorts as well.
The strong arms tatics taken by Celebrity Resorts in 2008 to sell deeded property was appalling. They would not let us take any papers out of the room and tore them up when we said No.
I have a contract with American Vacation Resorts and RCI for points. If AVR/Celebrity try to stop my RCI points, then they are in breach of contract.