Royal Palm Travel review: Customer Service Issues 38

Hi, my email is fred.riegle@hotmail.com. I was scamed last weekend. The speel sure changed to the actual. Lies, switch and bait, "trust me", I fell for it all. If you were taken by these people I'd like your advice or let's do something that might get us results. They're slick but we can fight it together.

I am having problems with this Company. The prizes you receive are a rip off. You have to pay money to "reserve" within 21 days and send they when you want to go with multiple options. Where I work we have a signed 24 hr availablity so that is a joke. The grocery coupons also is a joke you send in $100 worth of receipts for a month and supposely after 12 weeks you get a coupon for $25 dollars. Guess what after 3 months when going on line to print out 3 certificate that company has filled bankrupcy1 Now can not even get an answer at the phone number! RIP OFF!

[protected] I beg everyone to sue this number! This is royal's no.!

I would NEVER do business with a company that uses falso information just to get me to their presentation. Every time they call, they say they got my name and number from some registration that I filled out. My wife and I NEVER, EVER, EVER fill out registrations because it only promotes calls from seedy operations (like this one). If they were credible AT ALL, they would be more HONEST about what they are doing, and make it easier to contact them.

I see that someone has listed a number on a complaint board, but try to get a real contact number while they have you on the phone. The telemarketing companies that they use claim they do not have any contact info for Royal Palm Travel...the company they work for.

I will NEVER do business that doesn't even have the courtesy to be honest with me up front. Plus, I am on the Texas and National Do-Not Call lists, but they obviously ignore that considering I have received SO many calls from them. I have also told the MULTIPLE calls to remove me, but they just ignore that request.

Hey guys, i wanna let you know that the travel experience that i got from Phoenix vacation is nothing to be compared to the other travel club..know why? Phoenix vacation offered me and my husband a fantastic and memorable vacation. I must admit, there are people who are irate on Phoenix vacation and keep on telling that it is a scam...guys, why don't you think of this...these people who are posting comments to vilify Phoenix vacation may be travel agents of different travel clubs and their intention is to put phoenix vacation down...guys, think it over.THINK IT OVER!

It's real NO COST, NO OBLIGATION.. NOT A SCAM.. JUST LISTENED UP FOR THE PRESENTATION FOR YOU TO KNOW AND TO FIND OUT

Hello!

I am so sorry to hear about your experience with Royal Palm Travel. Our customer service department would like to help you with this. The goal of our company is to ensure every clients happiness. Please call [protected], and someone will assist you with this and any questions or concerns you may have.

Thank you,
Rick King
Communications Director
Royal Palm Travel
rking@royalpalmvacationclub.com

The last two posts on this page are clearly from the conmen at Royal Palm Travel. You see, the problem is not that all these innocent people purchased something they will not use, the problem is that the conmen of royal palm travel will say anything to get you to purchase their product. They are all liars and truely can not save you any more money than you would save using a site like travelocity. Adrian Miller is a conman and has been his entire life. Stay far away from this company. If you have been scammed by this company start by filing complaints with the bbb and a complaint with the attorney generals office in texas. When you file the complaint with the attorney generals office be sure to write in the complaint that the owner of royal palms travel is the former director of sales for Horizon travel and Suncountry travel named Adrian Miller. Let the AG know you requested a refund because the salesmen lied to get you to purchase their product. If we all stand up to these conmen we can shut them down. Although they did not force you to give them your credit card, they lied to you, which is against the law! If you were scammed and you do nothing about it, you are just allowing these people to continue their fraud. Stand up for yourself and do whats right, file a complaint with the Attorney Generals office. Another good idea is to let all the local news stations know about the scam that these people are pulling. They will try to attend the presentation with hidden cameras so they can catch the lies on tape and really stick it to them. If you decide to attend the presentation it would be a good idea to take a tape recorder with you so you can hold them responsible for the lies they will surely tell you.

Oh, sorry my post came up as a new member and a picture of a male, I used cmh (small letters in my other posts), I signed in with CMH and it became a new profile and because I didn't give them my address, sex, etc for the new profile I guess I became a male, LOL! I'm just not tech savvy, I guess.

Anyway, I just had a thought to post because it kind of makes me mad that just because someone has had a positive experience with this Club they are immediately branded a liar and accused of working for the sales company.

Did anyone ever have the thought that maybe the people posting such negative accusations might work in the travel business themselves? I mean if this type of Club catches on and becomes popular, well then travel agents would have a harder time keeping all that money for themselves now wouldn't they?

My reason for posting back is the same as for originally posting some months ago. I just want to let people know that if they bought into this Club then they should use it. And for people unsure about the Club, then don't go to the presentation. Don't EVER buy something you are unsure of purchasing, especially if there is a penalty to do so.

Oh, and another thought, if you think these travel clubs and time share deals are a ripoff, why did you go to the presentation? For the free trip? For the gas card? You can go online and purchase those trips and gas cards. They are cheap to purchase. That is what a lot of businesses do. A lot of businesses give these types of prizes or gifts to promote their business. They are legitimate, you just usually have to jump through hoops to get your money out of it.

This was the first type of travel presentation we had ever been to. We did not go for the "free" stuff, we went because we were genuinely interested in saving money on travel since in the last 5 years we started to travel a LOT and we were spending a LOT! Prior to this we had gone out of our way to avoid this type of thing and always said "NO" to invitations for time share presentations. Now of course, we wish we had found this type of travel club years ago.

We do not go to the free dinners for the financial presentations offered either. We went to one at a top steak house because some friends invited us to go with them. Turns out the financial investment products they are selling are usually "insurance investments", not a great investment in my point of view. Anyway, once we went, we did not continue to go again and again for the free dinners. Why would we when we had no intention of purchasing anything? That would be like scamming them.

Why would someone go to a travel presentation if they were not genuinely interested in possibly buying into something? Just don't go and your problem will be solved. Otherwise if you go to these things for free stuff, then aren't YOU scamming the business involved?

Hey, if I had taken the same amount I spent for this travel club last summer and put it in the stock market in a mutual fund how much do you think would be left? 60% maybe? Do you think I would have received a dividend of $2, 200? Yeah right.

Look, I am not going to tell people to buy into this type of travel club or not. It is a great thing for us and others. It probably is not a great thing for most people because they don't travel enough and spend enough on travel.

But is it really fair to go to these things for the "free stuff"? Unless you travel/spend enough and really are looking for a discount/rebate club, don't go.

Just my two cents.

Hi, I told (Mike) that I would report back about how things went with the Club. Well I got my first rebate check today for the amount promised, this was 52 days after we returned from our cruise (they promised the check within 45-60 after your travel).

The reason I googled this club after we purchased a membership was because I wanted to make sure it was legitimate as well. I was disappointed to find out that apparently others were able to get the Club membership offered to them for less then what we paid, but in our case, with the amount of travel we and our family do, we will get our initial money returned in a short time period and then we can continue to use it over the years, for just the $199 per year maintenance fee.

Is this a high pressure deal, probably so, again I didn't experience that because once the Club was explained to us, we realized this was going to be great for our circumstance.

Look, we took this cruise, had three cabins (nine people) and spent a lot of money. Our cruise rebate check just arrived and was for @$2, 200, just as promised.

If we had booked with a travel agent do you think they would have sent us a check for that amount? In your dreams.

If we had booked with Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, or any other online agency, do you think we would have received a rebate check in that amount. Again, never would have happened. Never.

Do you all call those types of companies scams? They receive the same amount of commission from the cruise lines, only they keep it. In this Club, we get it rebated back to us.

The cruise price we paid was as low as any offered anywhere and we were able to use our loyalty discounts and credit card points and still received the rebate based on the original cruise fare.

We have another cruise coming up in June and then in July with two other families (6 cabins, 16 people) and then a couple cruises booked later in the year. We will give the rebate potion earned by our friends to them, because that is who we are. If we kept all the rebates we would have all the money back we paid for the membership in just a little over one year.

Not a bad deal for us at all. But if you or your family doesn't take a lot of commission able trips, well then obviously this Club is not for you. Why is it a scam to sell a membership to a Club that benefits people who spend a LOT of money on travel? If you don't spend a lot of money on travel then I would advise you NOT to buy a membership.

And again, I am a housewife, mother/grandmother and I don't work for anyone and haven't worked for anyone in over 22 years.

Be careful what you sign and understand contracts you sign and all this trouble could be avoided.

If Royal Palm Travel were not really a scam, they wouldn't need their company email address to be from a gmail account. And why does their communication director not even put his name? Company is a total scam!

If you really wanted your customers to be happy you would give them a refund. I called the number above and told them that I got a better deal on expedia and they just told me sorry. Do Not Do Business with these conmen. Royal Palm Travel is a Scam. Will Not Save You Any Money on Travel.

I attended one of these presentations in the Galeria Towers and I have to say I was treated so horribly when I told these jerks that I had to think about it before I just handed over my credit card for $7, 000.00. When I walked in to the presentation I was told that I was under NO OBLIGATION to purchase anything but as soon as the presentation was over I realized that this was one of those HIGH PRESSURE SALES PRESENTATIONS. It took me over 2 hours of saying NO before they would give me the gifts I was promised. Over the 2 hour beating I did manage to get the price from $7, 000.00 down to $2, 000.00 for the exact same package! HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE? I guess if you purchase at the full price the high pressure salesmen gets a big bonus of your hard earned money! I however was even more upset when I got home and realized that the gifts I received were not worth the paper they were printed on! This company is a scam and I advise anybody who is thinking of going to one of these things to steer clear unless you like the high pressure sales environment.

Great presentation and amazing vacation packages!loved it!

So let me ask you a question Wendell Davis, IF YOU WERE SATISFIED WITH THE PRESENTATION AND YOUR GIFTS WHY ARE YOU ON THIS COMPLAINT FORUM? Wendell Davis is Adrian Miller, the owner of Royal Palms and is just trying to trick consumers into going to his presentations so he can scam them into buying his travel club membership for anywhere between $2, 000 an $7, 000 depending on how big a sucker you are. Although you may leave with the gift you were promised there is no doubt in my mind you will not be satisfied with it. You will end up spending between $600 and $800 just to use the gift. ( remember that the gift is not FREE it is only Complimentary, This is how they screw you ). Anybody that has been ripped off by these conmen should Call your credit card company and tell them you did not recieve the product you were promised. (this way you get back 100% of the purchase price and dont have to pay that criminal 15% restocking fee) WHAT IS IT THAT YOU HAVE TO RE-STOCK ANYWAY? I also reccommend that anybody that has been scammed file a complaint with the attorney generals office (you can do this online). The attorney general in Texas has taken a tough stance against these travel scams and the more complaints they get from pissed consumers the more likely they are to take legal action against Adrian Miller and his criminal associates. One more thing to anyone who wants to try your luck at a royal palms presentation just remember the old saying, IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT PROBABLY IS!

i was once called by these people and informed me that i am entitled to receive a travel gift from the company...i attended the presentation and i was able to get the vacation package with my wife...i really did enjoy the presentation and learned how different royal palm travel is from others...i'm looking forward for my second honeymoon with my wife...thanks rpt...

Most unprofessional group of people I've ever dealt with. I did the whole presentation nonsense. I had the required paperwork and they ignored it. I left without the promised$50 gift card, $200 gas card and 2 airline tickets. I have since gone back, received a lame "I'll mail it tomorrow". It got postmarked a week later, and it was not for any of the promised items.

I am going to call them tomorrow and make the proper threats about their bait and switch.

I hope the people that do their cold calls actually get paid for their time. I wouldn't be so sure.
Give me a legit timeshare presentation ANY day. Those are at least trustworthy. Royal Palm is a scam. Glad I didn't waste my money on them. Time, no big deal. Won't do it again!

This is sooo funny. First of all, the owner of Royal Palm Travel is a man named Adrian Miller. Adrian has been a con man his entire life, if you dont believe me just do a background check on him and you shall see. Adrian has spent the last 8 years or so scamming people into buying travel club packages for various different companies such as, Sun country travel, Horizon travel, beachcombers vacations, Castaways vacation club and many more. Do some research on these companies and you shall see that all he has done is created a new corporation to sell the same old crap. All of these companies have had troubles not only with customer complaints but also with various Attorney Generals in Several States. Why would anybody believe that the new product he is selling is any different? He has found a legal way to scam people out of lots of money. TRAVEL CLUBS DO NOT WORK! They are all the same. You really can get much better deals on the internet with companies like expedia and orbitz. By the way, ANY AND ALL POSSITIVE REMARKS ON THIS PAGE ABOUT ROYAL PALM TRAVEL ARE THE WORK OF ADRIAN OR ONE OF HIS HENCHMEN. Oh By the way, The man with the Mullet who said his name was Ron, is really named Bill Cate and He is just as big a con artist as adrian if not bigger. Bill however is a traveling gypsy and is on the run from the irs, so his days are limited. If you want to try to get your money back from Adrian, he lives in Grapevine. The best way to get your money back from any travel club scam is to call your credit card company and tell them you did not recieve the product you were promised. Sorry to all that have been scammed by this rat ###.

royal palm travel is legitimate! i heard alot of positive comments with this company. find out with yourself before you jump into conclusions. NO COST VACATION PACKAGE IS FOR REAL! it's not a scam! and absolutely you'll get your vacation package gift aftter the presentation...no obligation to buy or sign anything...sure.

Personally I found too many red flags and things that didn't add up for my comfort so this club is not right for me. I truly hope they continue to meet your expectations. Please keep us posted on how things work out. Best of luck to you!

Hi Mike,
Yes, I am a real customer. No the travel specialists do not work for or answer as SeaLand Travel . They are a completely separate entity who service travel for different companies. They do not know how much each individual customer paid for their membership or from which company they purchased such membership. Nor do they care. They are servicing you as their customer now. They do not work on Commission but on salary. Good customer service seems to be their objective.

Royal Palm Travel in Dallas sold us the membership in the SeaLand Travel Company. SeaLand than contracts with the Travel Services Company to service your travel. I have found the people that I have dealt with at Travel Services to be knowledgeable, thorough, friendly and responsive. I get to keep all of my cruise bookings in my possession until just before final payment, then I transfer the booking to Travel Services. They then go through a travel agency to take over the booking with the cruise line. I receive most (if not all) of the commission and any bonus involved. On my next cruise during the Holidays this December, the cash back is around 10% of the actual cruise fare and this particular sailing included a large bonus, which is being rebated to me. The total for me will be a check mailed to me for $2, 243.00 between 30-90 days after my cruise. I have this in writing. I also have, in writing, the minimum rebate amounts that I will be receiving on my next three cruises I already have booked. Yet, I still retain ownership of these bookings and do not have to turn them over to an agency yet.

I like the idea that I can keep my own booking until just before final payment, giving me the freedom to make changes, etc. on my own. I guess the thing that shocked me the most, was how much commission the cruise lines are paying to travel agencies and how very little, if anything, the customer of these travel agencies ever sees. That is the rip-off in my opinion!

As far as prices, the cruise lines generally do not discount anymore and the only incentive for customers to use a travel agent is for what the travel agent can give them in the way of on board credits or gifts. Believe me, 5-12% back is a lot of money when you spend as much as we do on cruising! But like I said, it can often be more than that due to incentives and bonuses the cruise lines pay to get agencies to book customers on certain sailings and in certain level cabins. As I said the rebate I will get on my upcoming cruise will be @ 18% because of the added bonus. We are paying for 8 people, so we are spending a lot, but we are now getting money back which we never did before.

Believe me, if it turned out I was being scammed, they would be in big trouble as my husband has been an attorney for over 28 years and the Cates knew this when we signed the contract. Jodi called travel services the night we signed the contract and had a travel specialist working on our cruise booking the next day.

As far as the website, yes, it works, but you need your Travel Club ID # and password. I prefer to call and/or use e-mail to work with Travel Services, but the website offers ideas.

If I have any problems with anything, I will let you all know. Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in this this Club Member ship is not for everyone but for some of us it is great!

Yes, the cancellation terms are there but I like you believed their lies and did the math and figured it would pay itself back in no time so we had no intention of ever cancelling. In Bill's presentation, he claimed that you get 12-15% rebates with their program but after you get the literature packet, you see that it is really 0 to no more than 12% plus who is to say that they will even send it to you? The companies on the contract have no physical addresses other than boxes at UPS Stores so what recourse do you have if you don't get your commission? Also when researching into their business, I learned that they really did not have affiliations with those agencies that they said they did. They also claimed to have been in business for over 20 years but SeaLand Travel has no history to be found. It is a newly contrived fictitious business name. I am convinced SeaLand is a Bill Bailey business but it is not registered as a business anywhere to prove it. The business that has been around over 20 years is Bill Bailey's Castaways Vacation Club (also unregistered but there is history that can be found that he is behind it). Check out the history of Bill Bailey of Illinois. You will see his history of fraud and having been shut down by the BBB. He now uses other people to register and carry out his schemes. If they are so legitimate, why are they so secretive as to their location and ownership? The phone numbers you call will never answer as "SeaLand Travel". They will not tell you where they are located except "in the midwest". Royal Palm Travel will not accept certified mail at their Galleria Office but I know mail can be delivered there. The owner of the company, Adrian Miller, keeps changing office locations and business names. He used to run Beachcombers Vacations which came to Texas from Florida. Then he changed the name to Phoenix Vacations. Now it is Royal Palm(s) Travel. Why is he so shifty? I called Jody asking for a temporary login so I could check out their website before the three days was up. Jody strung me along saying she would get it for me the next day but she did not call me back with it. I then cancelled immediately to make sure I was in the three day window to at least get something back. I didn't want to take that chance because there is no way that I would get any refund if I waited the 7 to 10 days for my membership login to arrive. Also a reputable company would not charge such high cancellation fees that vary depending on how much they get out of you up front. Why are they justified to keep $1300 if you pay $6693 but if they got $3000 from you then you pay $850 for cancelling the same membership? I could understand something like a fixed $39 processing and handling fee but they are clearly about taking as much money from you as they can. I called them on the lies they made to get me to sign the contract. That should have been enough to get them to waive the cancellation fees in the interest of customer satisfaction especially that their product was based on misrepresentations. But they still kept $1300. Good luck with your membership! I hope it turns out to be all that you expected. Besides what choice do you have if it is past 3 days? You are stuck with it for better or worse. I have heard that the prices you get from them are no better than Travelocity or other online travel agencies. I believe you are a real customer instead of the fake ones that post their rebuttals on here so I look forward to you posting here later letting us know if the deals turn out to be as good as they claim and if you really do get the rebates that they promise.

I find it interesting that the problems seem to stem from people who signed up for this Travel Club and then changed their mind and wanted a refund. When you signed your contract (as we did) it was very clearly stated that "Processing fees paid today and a restocking fee of 15% of the purchase is non-refundable." When we read our contract over, Jodi Cates underlined that part and made sure we understood. I remember commenting that that amount was a little "steep" for changing your mind but we were convinced this was for us.

After the presentation we started asking our rep lots of questions, he seemed very inexperienced and new and didn't seem to know the answers so Bill Cates came over and answered our questions and we looked at him and said, well this is a no brainer for us. You see we have 4 cruises booked between now and June, 2010. Each with two cabins and each traveling with two other sets of friends who each also have two cabins booked. We quickly did the math in our head of the minimum we would receive in Commission rebates based on all these cruise bookings we already had and realized it would not take us very long to recoup our investment with the Club and after that it would be gravy.

You see, the big draw for this Club to us was the rebate on travel agent commission and bonuses. We travel all the time and once my husband retires we will travel even more. Cruises and all-inclusive trips are our favorites and both are commission able. Since we also get rebates back for people traveling with us, we figured out that we were going to re-coup the cost of the travel club in just the cruises we have booked already, since we had not booked through a travel agent. (Although in our case we are going to give our friends their portion of the rebate.) Plus your benefits in the Club can be used by your kids, brothers and sisters and parents and they don't even have to travel with you to use it. You can also sell it at any time or freely transfer it to someone else (your kids for example).

They were very clear in the presentation that you shouldn't buy into the club for airline discount (not available) or even for hotel discounts (minimal, but as good as any other). The real money comes back to frequent travelers who spend a lot on commission able travel on a yearly basis, WE DO!

So if you can't afford to pay outright for this Club, don't do it. If you don't travel much on commission able trips and don't plan to travel much, don't do it. If you have family that travels a certain amount and you plan to as well, maybe buy one membership and split the cost within the family. Same if you always travel with friends.

As far as the "free" gifts. What did you really expect? The Freebeegas cards work, just sign up online and send in your receipts each month. You will receive your $300 over a period of months, but you will get it. The free trip? Yeah, it is limited in scope but you can still do it. What did you expect, really?

Personally for us, if we had known about this Club five years ago we would have already been in the gravy years for some time now. But we travel all the time and spend a lot when we do. The rebates are the thing for us.

If you really think about it, what about all those people who book a cruise or an all inclusive trip with a travel agent and if they are lucky receive a bottle or two of wine and $100 on board credit (instead of 5-15%, or more cash back!)? In my opinion, those are the people getting ripped off. One cruise we took with our kids for two weeks to Europe back in 2005 would have netted us over $3, 500 with this rebate for that cruise alone. Instead we made the mistake of going through a national, well known travel agency and received Nothing! Now, if one wanted to, one could easily call that a scam!

Oh, and I am a stay at home Mom for over 22 years now and I don't work for anyone. This travel club IS NOT for everyone But for some of us it is great!

As far as Royal Palm being scam artists, is that really the case? Do they use various sales tactics to get you to buy? Probably, I don't know, we WANTED to buy into this Club. But anyone who signed the contract would have had to initial many, many times on the contract and would have had to acknowledge the part where the company retained certain amounts if you did indeed cancel. The fact that you signed the contract and later changed your mind has no bearing on this. You owe them the money because you agreed to their terms. Not the greatest terms in the world mind you, but certainly legal.

I do feel bad for anyone who feels ripped-off or cheated. In the long run you should have kept the Travel Club membership and over time you would have gotten your money if you and your family and friends cruised or took commission able trips over time.

Sorry to make this so long, but I think all these posts do is make people feel bad about joining the Club or make them cancel and loose money in the short term. If you bought into this club, USE IT! Have your family and friends use it. Make it worth your while and investment!

For those of you feeling unhappy or cheated, next time be careful what you sign.

My family and I have only had wonderful experiences from Royal Palms. We totally recommend this product to all our friends and family. Our next trip is planned and we cant wait.

I have been with the club for over 5years and have had many memorable family vacations. It is a wonderful product if you know how to use it correctly. I have vacationed more than I have ever previously.

Just to let you folks know the "POSTIVE" comments being left about this company are all FALSE ! Those comments are posted by Royal Palms Employees to make their company look good and legit. FOX 4 NEWS has been informed and will be investigating also The Attorney general is building a case against ROYAL PALMS TRAVEL ! I ADVISE EVERYONE TO STAY AWAY ITS A SCAM and THEY ARE OUT TO GET YOUR MONEY . DONT BELIVE ANYONE that this is a LEGIT COMPANY ! THEY ARE FALSO AND TAKE YOUR MONEY AND RUN !

I wish we had done some homework too since not only were we stupid enough to waste the time in their presentation-we got carried away and signed up for a membership. Now, we are in the process of trying to get a full refund and have put the charge into dispute on our credit card.

If anyone has any information about the legal names of the principals of this operation and/or contact information for them I would appreciate it if you could share it with me. We may find we have to file a claim in court and need that info in order to do that.

For anyone checking out this company, here is the information I have gleaned from several hours of Internet searching plus personal experience:
- A password is required to access the company’s travel website, which is supposed to show specifics of the travel savings available. However, the password is not provided to buyers until after the legally required 3 day cancellation period has expired
- The sales arm of the operation appears to have changed names and locations at least twice in the last three months in the Dallas area according to past buyers who say Royal Palm was previously operating as Phoenix Travel in a different Galleria Tower location
- Numerous complaints have been lodged on the Internet by previous buyers against both Royal Palm and Phoenix and some are pursuing filings with the State of Texas Attorney General’s office and the Better Business Bureau. Several are looking to join a class action law suit against one of the two enterprises.
- According to a quick Internet search, this firm or its affiliates appear to have operated under many names and in many locations over the past few years, including: Royal Palms Travel, Bon Voyage, Sea Land, Phoenix, Beachcombers, Via Vacations and Castaways. There does not seem to be any public record that Sealandtravelclub.com has actually existed as that entity for the number of years claimed in the sales presentation.
- While a 3 day “cooling off period” is required by law, Royal Palm Travel tries to assess cancellation penalties that can run higher than $1000 based on a $399 “processing fee” and 15% of the purchase price as a “restocking fee”

Lastly, if you really want to go ahead and buy, be aware they are completely negotiable - so don't pay even close to their asking price. I have seen postings where people have purchased for one tenth of the $8995 starting price!

I wish I would have spent 5 minutes on the internet researching the company before I waisted 90 minutes at their presentation. I knew it would be some-type of sales pitch, but I figured they would at least live up to their end of the deal and provide the free trip. I asked the guy on the phone if we had to pay any taxes or service fees for the trip or place any money up front, and was told "no." Of course after the presentation they hand me the package and it says we need to send in a $50.00 per person cashier's check or money order for a security deposit. It then states that after your vacation you can "request" a refund of your security deposit. Yeah right...I may have been dumb enough to attend their presentation, but I'm definetly not sending anyone a $100.00 cashier's check for a supposedly "free" vacation. Another aspect of the fine print that they don't tell you over the phone: If you want to go to any of the destinations outside the U.S. plan on paying a $169.00 per person surcharge.
This is a warning for all those who think they can get something free in exchange for spending a couple of hours at a sales presentation. Don't waste your valuable time, you're not getting anything for free.

I am so glad I came to check this out. my appointment is set for thes Saturday the 13 of sept, 08.
I ask why I had to bring a MAJOR credit card if it was free they said it was just for verification. So I ask why wouldnt my debit card work, or anything else for that matter. She gave no answer.
Thanks for sharing about them, sorry you had such a bad time of it.

You got lucky you didn't go. I bought in to it and now I am out over $900.00. They are scam artist. They promis you trips like $650.00 round trip including air and hotel to London and say they can book it that night for the price. I used to work for an Airline so I wanted the benfits of travel for cheap prices and thought it would be great. After we got the price down from 8000.00 to 4000.00 including processing and annual dues we bought it. They do give you 3 days to get your money back however they charge you a 15% restocking fee and 399.00 for processing. What are they restocking? On the way home I came to my sences and thought this is to good to be true. I found a trip on travelocity and had them quote me the same trip the next day. What I found was cheaper than what they could book it for. They do not save you any money. They also promis you a password to get on a website to see prices and book travel for less, however you don't get this for seven days. This would ensure that your three days to get your money (part of your money) back has passed. They are scam artist in my eyes. I have filed a complaint with the BBB. I have also found on other sites that there are other like us and are looking to file a class action lawsuite. I would like to get in on that if there is one going on. They are giving false information and you are not getting what you are promised

These people are a total scam and a-holes.

I just want my money back for the fraud that was committed against me and my wife! I have been searching various State business registries with their Secretary of State or Department of State websites. I have learned a lot about how this company moves around and keeps changing company names to make it harder to pin them down Nevertheless, I have finally found evidence that William Bailey is actually working behind the scenes. In 2003, the BBB fined Bailey and some of his employees for committing fraud. He filed bankrupcy during the BBB trial and since then he has been using other people's names to register businesses to still carry out his fraudulent activities because his own name has absolutely no credibility in the travel industry.

Here is a link to Bailey's fraudulent activity against the BBB and consumers:

http://www.bbb.org/alerts/article.asp?ID=445

mike, i am just expressing my experience with the club, is it wrong to have a positive comment about it? i bet all of us are entitled to our opinions and i am not a sicko to give out false informations.

if i were to asked you, where did you get all those informations you have? perhaps you are just trying to pull their business down, aren't you?

anyways, tata for now, havta sleep.. (-.-)zzZzZZz

This company technically is not Royal Palm Vacations of Florida, they go by Royal Palm Travel in Dallas. They may be related to the Florida company but I have no proof of that. I can prove though that this company is run by the same group that also run/ran Phoenix Vacations and Beachcomber Vacations. All of these companies were registered under the management of Adrian Miller. I suspect but have no proof yet that William (Bill) Bailey could be behind the scenes. Check out all the complaints on these other businesses. Royal Palm is their latest front to pull their scam.

The membership club used to be Castaways Vacation Club but now they use a relatively newly created membership club called SeaLand Travel.

I am sure that the positive testimonials on this board are falsified by company reps. They lie here just like they do with their high pressure and misleading sales tactics performed at their presentation to get you to buy into their inferior travel membership. Beware of these guys!

hahaha.. I am so sorry for my previous comment, wasn't able to check it before clicking submit. I was in a hurry. The bottom line there is that they will not pressure you guys. I'm pretty sure you will enjoy the presentation as well as the vacation trip just like we did.

Don, i am sorry but i totally disagree with you, even if i will pay something for it that would not be a problem. It's just a matter of enjoying the moment together with your partner. Money and the likes are just superficial. As for me, I enjoyed everything and I have no regrets.

^__^ -- jesse

Shauna, They did you a huge favor. You should be reading all the posts on this company. You would probably have never gotten your airline tickets anyway. The company that usually handles their promotions is Certs. Check them out on this complaint board. Or check with the attorney general in FL who is investigating RPV .
Also, one of the other people that got screwed by this company has a web site,

www.royalpalmvacations.net

take a look at what he has uncovered and gone thru.
I have been getting emails for the past few months from people all over the country and not one of them is happy and all have either gotten their money back or are working with an attorney or their credit card company to get out of the contract and from under the monthly payments.
It's your money, do with it what you please, but I wouldn't go near them.
Jesica, good luck, wait until you have to jump thru the hoops to try and get your "free" trip. You would be better of on one of the internet sites like priceline or hotels.com
If you bought into this package you should have 3 days to cancel the contract - check with the Attorney General in your state.
Mike is 110% right on. The whole thing is a big scam.
Don

ME AND MY HUSBAND WERE VERY DELIGHTED OF A NO COST VACATION PACKAGE THAT THEY HAVE GIVEN TO US. IT'S LIKE A SECOND HONEYMOON IN THE BEAUTIFUL BEACH OF CANCUN, MEXICO.

ON THE OTHER HAND, THERE'S NO PRESSURE DURING THE PRESSURE IT'S UP TO YOU IF YOU WILL BUY OR NOT. BESIDES, IT IS NOT A ONE-ON-ONE PRESENTATION. DEFINITELY NO PRESSURES AND NO STRING'S ATTACHED.

I WOULD LOVE TO DO IT AGAIN!

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. Be glad though that you didn't waste 3 more hours listening to their speal and even worse buying into their membership scam. These snakes are bad news and must be stopped but the bad part is when the heat is on them they just fold up shop and pop up under a different rock. By the way, their free gifts are worthless scams too.