Royal Palm Vacations review: Watch out for this company! 17

They just called me. Sounded very bogus. Wanted to verify my address, which they already had. Said they were offering $6000 credit of sorts. Then they asked me what my neighborhood was like and how long I lived there.

Creepy.

From a FORMER employee:

To everyone who is a member to any one of the below listed fraudulent companies:

... I wish to say that I am sorry... I had no Idea this company that I worked for was like this. Please take this information and do what you have to do with it.

Royal Palm Vacations, Travel Services USA, United Vacation Network, Suncoast Vacations, Suncoast LLC, World Vacations, Imperial Incentives... and many more names... all the same company... many different lawsuits with Atty generals and the state of FL... All ran out of Tampa Bay... (Largo, FL) actually.

For all of you Royal Palm members... there is NO office in Nevada... we were told to tell you that so you could not find where they were...

Google any of the above listed names, or look on ABC Action News of Tampa Bay... and search any of those above names... you will see big news reports of scams...

They never have any vacations available to you... if you place a request for vacation, they will respond "sorry, no avail" which means no availability... when they never even check. For airfare, we used the same websites that you at home do... travelocity, orbits, and expedia... then we would add a percentage to that price because we had to make some money too... So, all this company does is take your $3000.00 - $6000.00, and your ASC (Annual Service Charge). Then they sit there, and do nothing except to reply to you..."sorry no avail" and continue collecting your ASC every year...

http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local/story/Florida-Attorney-General-to-sue-Suncoast-Vacations/iPhVu3Hep0S1mjBKM_kLxA.cspx

http://www.abcactionnews.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=5136@wfts.dayport.com&navCatId=3

http://www.abcactionnews.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=5883@wfts.dayport.com&navCatId=3

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2008/oct/03/chattanooga-travel-agency-scam-victims-asked-call-/

To anyone who is a member of any one of those listed fraudulent companies, ... I highly suggest contacting the Florida Atty General, and the Nevada Atty General... good luck all...

FYI: Christy Daniels is the Office Manager (she was in prison for a few years because she was running a fraudulent business before working for these companies... funny huh?!), Amanda is the office supervisor... and the owner of all those false and fraudulent businesses is... Nick Congleton.

I notice the last entry was 201 days ago. Anybody get any satisfaction since? Has the Florida Attorney General been successful?

Check out the Florida Attorney General's website (www.myfloridalegal.com). There is an open case against World Vacation Destinations. I believe this includes Royal Palm Vacations. Perhaps if more people jump on this case against them, we can get our money back.

I keep getting these calls from Royal Palm Vacations in spite of the fact that my number is on the national do not call list and that I tell them to never call again. It's gotten to the point where I'm trying to get their name and location so that I can file a formal complaint. But after interrupting their canned speal several times they just hang up. I don't know what to do next.

Put us under the suckers list as well. We couldn't even recoup the gas money promised us because we filled up on our way to them. But purchase had to be a FUTURE one. We do not travel a great deal and so
were not in need of ten gallons or more of gas within the next fourteen days. We did not go for the cruise. Though that was our choice. Now I go on line eight months after we purchased and they can't find me a hotel in Aruba for $550 dollars a week. I went on expedia and can get same or better prices through them as Royal Palm vacations. Actually as I look at my keyboard they may have made in honest mistake
they began OK Royal Pa (but then their fingers slipped and they hit the l instead of the i and the m instead of the n. So it came out Royal Palm but they meant Royal Pain. As I read through some of these other complaints I feel somewhat lucky. We got off with only paying $3800 instead of five grand and they ate the first year annual service charge. (What a nice man NOT!). So I will tomorrow go to Mass ATTY GEN office to file a complaint. May not get anywhere but perhaps will save some one else the heart ache. What Pi##*# me off is my wife was suspicious (her nature) and so she demanded to go on line and check out this place and they had a website, it offered all the places they said and a few we were interested in as well swe fell for it. There were five other couples in our group but we were the only suckers. Although they did almost have another couple but towards the end of their meeting they asked the correct question and then left. Should have been suspicious why a group from Nevada was rooting for the Tampa Bay Rays to win the American league title and the world series. Needless to say they got us once but we will book our trips through some one legit.

My Husband and I attended a presentation Saturday - 11/22 - in South Carolina. We live in NC, but SC has more lenient laws when it comes to these types of scams, so they always set up business just over the state line. Anyway, I have already been down the vacation club rip-off route once before so we went in knowing we weren't buying but hoping that maybe the free cruise was legit. What was I thinking - of course not! The postcard they send you has absolutely no info on the company, you have to make a decision "right then" or you will loose out on some of the "perks" of the club, and as soon as we said we weren't interested the sales guy went from very friendly to down-right rude.

If you did get suckered into this and are wise and went home immediately to look up the company info and are now feeling ripped off PLEASE check with your state's consumer affairs departments - most states give you at least 2 or 3 days to "return" or "refuse" any purchase such as this and they know that they have to abide by that or the state will shut them down. Also cancel the check you wrote ASAP! It will be well worth the $25 charge...

We just signed up for this. After perusing the web site's prices, I suddenly felt ripped off. I wasn't expecting to be hit like this. Do we have any legal recourse at all?

I agree with you all. This is a scam, I used to work for this company in Baton Rouge, Peroia, Il, and in Chattanooga, TN. My mom used to work for this company too. We were told to lie to the couples to get as much money as possiable fromthem at the time they sogn uip. They can never get you a resort week nor do they get you discounts on travel.

They put us in crappy hotels to seel you guys this product in luxury hotles to create a image that this is the accomidations you would get.

We had to buy our own travel to and from our different cities withno discounts. Funny how we worked for a discount travel company but they couldnt even get there own employees discounts..

Complain directly to the owner and the convicted felon he has running his operation. Christy Lynn Dainels who is on probation for the next 20 years for the same scam..

Nicholas Congelton Cell Number . [protected]

Christy Dainles [protected]

I'm sorry for all the money I've taken for innocent people while I worked for such a scam artist.

OK, you can add us to the list of suckers. Here's the story.Received a post card that said I had won a $1400 cruise for two. Paid $3199 for the vacations for a lifetime for $550 from Royal Palms. Got a wooden box, a candle, a small picture frame and some certificates.The certificates are certifying all the fabulous $550 world wide resort vacations you get in addition to discounts for airline fares and cruises. You can only communicate with the Imperial INcentives people via snail mail.No phone number. No email. Just mail via the US post office. It said due to the infratstructure of this promotion we cannot accept incoming phone calls. Finally got a "thing" to mail in to send in $199 each for the taxes, fees and ports of call. Of course we weren't even told where we are suppose to cruise to. If you have any info call Mary at [protected].

Well I can tell you I signed up for RPV also and wrote my check to World Vacations which was deposited in an account for Imperial Incentives, Bank of America Clearwater, FL. So tell me they are not one in the same. If they can't get you to fall for there Travel Club the least they're hoping is get $199/per person for the cruise. Which is bogus to if you read their terms as Mr. Peaden stated. So which state are they in now and how many US citizens will be taken of their hard earned $$ before someone takes them out. Oh yea Mr. Peaden is CEO of Certs, Inc dba-Imperial Incentives, dba-World Vacations Destination, dba-Capital Financial Marketing, dba-Suncoast Vacations, dba-Suncoast Incentives LLC, dba-World Vacation Network, dba-travelservices USA, need I go on. Or is Nick Congleton & Donald W. Griffin CEO. Hmmm maybe the Attoney General Bill McCollum will find out.

We didn't have to sit thru the presentation because they overbooked it. We did, however receive the free cruise info. After over a month of not hearing back after mailing it in, I went round and round via email until we received our travel request form. It says to send 199.oo per peson to Imperial Incentives (certified check or postal money order of course), and gives their Fl. seller of travel #. When I check with the state of Fl., they said that the st# given to me belonged to some other company, World Vacations Destination. The phone # the state gave me turned out to be a personal phone number. After another couple of wrong numbers, we could never get anyone who represented Imperial Incentives but somebody did say that that was the DBA name for World Vacations Dest. It just seems strange that there is nobody to contact via phone or website, your money must be received in the form that is difficult to track, and the state of Fl. doesn't recognize the company name and doesn't even have a good phone number for the one whose seller of travel number they are using. Long story short: too risky.

Oh my god . . . I am so glad my husband refused to sign on last night with Royal Palms. He insisted that we wait and do some research before taking the plunge. It is exactly as everyone has said. We went to an upscale hotel, had after-dinner coffee, were wooed by an extremely charming and erudite young man and, bottom line, were offered the chance of a lifetime to FREEZE our vacation accommodation price at $550.00 A WEEK for the rest of our lives and, through their promise that we could will the membership to our daughter, for the rest of her life! That would mean that in 2050, she could vacation at a top line resort for $550.00 a week. Yeah, sure. I am so gullible that I would have taken the bait. We have yet to find out if we ever receive our free round trip airline tickets for two that we were promised for attending the presentation. Keep you posted . . .

I received a postcard inviting me to a presetation for which we would receive a free 5 day cruise. The presetation was the same old snake oil used by time share companys. At the end of the presetation we were teamed up with a representitive of Royal Palm and he quickly realized we were not interested and presented us with the form to mail in to receive our free cruise. He states several times that Royal palm was not the company issuing the gift and we had to sign a form stating we understood that. This is when I became concerned that I had been promised a cruise that I would never take. We mailed the form and it was only then that I started doing a little research on how this scam works. I'm in SC, but in order to claim my free 5 day cruise I have to go to Texas. I can't go between Feb.-August. Or within 7 days of a federal holiday. Plus the dates you request are never avaliable. They will offer another date but it is just a token offer because they know you can't go on such short notice. I do not have any doubt that I will never be able to take this cruise due to the restrictions and limitation that Certs puts on this gift. I wish I had known before I wasted an hour and a half of our time. Scams like this should not be allowed and the companies that set up the presentations should also be held accoutable as well.
If you get a card from Royal Vacations offering any gift, just understand that you will never receive anything but heartache and trouble. Don't waste your time.

WOW! Everyone has the same complaints about these scam artists as my wife and I do. I asked for a refund due to lack of service, and never getting any place near where we wanted to go! How can you plan a vacation when you have no idea if you'll even get APPROVED to stay in a place near where you and your family want to go? Its absolutely crazy! I filed a complaint with BBB and I suggest that all of you do too!
http://reno.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=100&bbb=1146&firm=90006579

I also contacted the attorney general and filed a complaint, and I am fighting the charge with my bank to get a refund, and that is pending now.

Royal Palm vacation is a scam

Mr. Peaden, do you honestly think that we believe that crap? Based on the overwhelming number complaints on this site concerning your company and tactics I wouldn't do business with you if offered to drive my to the cruise ship and carry my bags. Sure, hide behind your “terms”. Give me a break, have you read the complaints. No reputable company would find as many excuses to disqualify someone if they honestly meant to honor the cruise, airfare or hotel stay. You actually disqualified someone because they sent you a money order other than US Post Office with no chance to correct their obvious disregard of your "Terms". Obviously your scam is to charge the timeshare company to do the promotions and then beat the customer out of providing their vacation. Unfortunately honest people like us are gullible enough to believe someone when they make statements of what they offer and the terms only to find out later that it's lies lies lies. At some point, God willing, you all will get what you deserve - What goes around comes around. Go ahead, enjoy your ill-gotten money, for now, but someday you will be held accountable and you or your family will get what they deserve. When it happens, don't blame God, blame yourself.

First, we'd like to apologize for any inconveniences you may have experience redeeming your travel certificate from our company. Keeping that in mind, we'd like to point out a few important details regarding the travel certificate business.

Our business is no different than any other business transaction in which both parties must comply with their agreement and adhere to the terms of service.

We highly recommend in the future if you receive a call or postcard from a marketing company promising you a travel certificate if you attend a timeshare presentation that you ask for the name of the company responsible for providing the incentive.

We further recommend if it is a Certs, Inc. incentive, that you visit our web site (www.certsinc.biz) where you can read the entire terms of service for each incentive we offer, and then make an educated decision on whether of not to move forward with the presentation.

Certs, Inc. has no control over the presentation by the marketing company or the sales tactics used by the vacation club representative. However, we do police their activities and from time-to-time will discontinue the sales of our products to these companies if we feel there is misrepresentation.

Certs, Inc. has never, and will never, change the terms of service on our incentives "after" it has been presented to our clients customers.

If you have not received a booking confirmation from our company for the travel date(s) you provided, you are entitled to a full refund of all monies paid to Certs, Inc.

Due to the inconveniences of a large cancellation rate for booked travel, your travel dates will not be confirmed until 14 days in advance. This is to benefit you by allowing a full refund in case you an experience a life event that keeps you from traveling on the dates you provided us.

If you feel you have not received a fair chance at redeeming your travel certificate, please contact our customer service department [protected]) so we can research your situation and act accordingly based off your incentive's terms of service.

Sincerely,

Gregory A. Peaden, CEO
Certs, Inc.