Silverleaf Resorts review: scam 99

Last month we receive a phone call with the all to well known, "you have won a car, vacation, or money...yada yada yada...so we go to this "tour" and then my husband and I bought into Silverleaf, thinking it was not a bad buy since we have kids and we use our WorldMark for our vacations and we can use the additional week with RCI (that gets rolled up with our worldmark RCI). Last Thursday I started to call and proceeded to be on hold for 2 days...yes 2 days and now an email, ending with no room ever getting book. I then call the rep that sold the account to us and she explains how "that never happens" and she will fix it by booking the following weekend with a compt rate and would receive confirmation on this Wed. LMAO! Now we have tried several times to book 1 weekend of our bonus days based on the "reservations" we had this weekend and to no surprise they have NO record of our reservations at ANY resort! So now we have family and children ready with no condo. With what you pay a month you could easily stay in a hotel for 2 nights a month and have a great time still.

We understand this is a timeshare, but where they are selling a product we expect to be capable of utilizing that product! And to think this is just month 1 we can only imagine what is to come in the months to follow!

M&E Palubicki
Texas

I have never been to a Silverleaf property, but it sounds like some are unhappy with their vacation. If you are interested in a great golf vacation or please visit www.USGolfDesk.com

I bought it 2 years ago, had my kids added as users, until they tried to use the bonus time, which is what I bought it for, and to date have had one bonus weekend where they tried to "Upgrade" my plan, not going to happen.

I agree with all the comments above, we have two weeks which were bought for the bonus time more than the weeks because we have a boat and like to take long weekends with our kids rather than weeks.

They are getting so desparate to sell that they are allowing anyone with a checkbook in and now the resorts are unsafe. For those of you who visit the Piney Shores location there was a murder on Saturday April 25th. A man was shot to death near the pool at 5:20 in the morning, witnesses called the resort and reported gunshots and they didn't respond until 7am.

I have spent almost 20K on the two weeks I got and nothing has gone the way the sales people promised. Absolutely NOTHING! Yeah, I have gotten some accomodations from Admin but it still is not what I was promised in the sales pitch which is why I bought.

I would say to anyone purchasing any extras during this economic environment, buy solid ground, not a peice of paper full of empty promises. Buy you a stationary location on a lake somewhere. You can always rent it on your offtime and make some money of your own.

my husband and i own 2 deeds, and we are never able to get any bonus time. everytime we call we get the same answer no! this is sad.

Gloria, I would start by going to the silverleaf resorts site, silverleafresorts.com under contact us you will find the email address. I would write what you have put here with attention to : Sharon Brayfield who is the president. I would make it clear that you would like the matter resolved but if it becomes necessary you will contact an attorneyfor legal advice. The corporate office is easier to deal with then the sales department. Hopefully they would not want the negative publicity that could arise from taking advantage of a couple your Grandparents age. There is a 3 day or 5 day rescind period but that has obviously passed. There may be a problem in that if your Grandparents are considered of sound mind, which they no doubt are then it may be hard to prove they were (tricked) but I would certainly try dealing with the top as you will have no luck trying to call at the resort they bought from or from the sales department. I am sorry this happenned and would be curious to hear if you get a response. If you don't mind give me an update, jejones3329@aol.com . I own and like sillverleaf but I bought mine cheap off of ebay and use the bonus time freq as can travel during the week when they have vacancies. Judy

I very sick about this entire situation. My grandparents have been members for the past 28 years and the sales team (tricked) them into "upgrading" and that was not the case at all. My grandparents have been able to go every year and this so called "upgrade" changed everything to two years and they tricked them into direct deposit which my grandmother would never do -- my grandparents are both 80 years old and was I think forced to sign a 15 year promissory note which makes no sense. I am not sure what direction to even take with these low lifes. After all the years that my grandparents have been with this company and for them to treat them this way is just not right.

I am going through the same thing right now. This company sent me a card in the mail, stating that I had won a cruise and a chance to win a BMW, Jaguar, etc. Stupid me, I called and set up an appointment to meet with someone. I had no idea what I was in for. Had I known that this stupid time share was a scam I would've never wasted my time. They corner you and make you feel bad and use your kids and family against your decision. And then when you tell them that you cannot afford it, they will bargain down to the last dollar. They tried to get thousands of dollars from me. Long story short. I have had this stupid property since May last year and have only been able to use it 2x's which was the free stays. If you own one right now, BEWARE, this is their way of getting you to come and have some shady ### salesman try to upgrade you and trade your property in or purchase one that has "lapsed" with someone else. These people corner you into a small office. I have since lapsed and refused to pay because of all the things that I have read about this company.They hound you. They call every number they have and leave 20-30 messages on your voicemails. I have lost my job because they kept calling my work. And do not fall for the blocked called ID [protected]. This company is so desperate and stupid. I read that it is illegal for a company to block their ID using the 000's. The reason that I know it is this company is because when I had a a phone I saw they called me and then right after that all day that stupid 000 number would call me.

I have cancer and have had to do alot of back and forth visits to the doctor UNinsured and even had my doctor write me a letter of hardship and sent it to them. I dealt with so many people on this matter. I even had someone tell me that they didn't think that I had cancer and that I was trying to make excuses out of my deed. I as a customer took that into OFFENSE. I CANNOT believe that someone would tell me this. AND yes they do play good guy bad guy. One day your "assigned account" person is a guy and then the next it is a girl. These people are scammers. They try to act like they are going to help you but then you have to deal with someone ignorant telling you that you have to go borrow money from your family or bank accounts. I even told these imbicials that I have had a change in my financial status and that my kids are more important than they are right now. Putting a roof over their heads and food on the table is more important. These people are scams and they do not care about anything but getting money from innocent people. Do not fall for it like I and others have. This company has threatend foreclosure on my credit. But what can I do if I do not have money to shell outta my butt for them. I tried to tell them my situation and yet they did not want to hear it. After so many fights with my husband and tears after hanging up with these people, I have decided to give up and ignore them. I am not going to let them ruin my life and put me out on the streets because they did not care about my medical situation. My story is a bit all over the place but all is true. I can state more of the story in detail but I do not want to waste any of your time like this company has of mine. DO NOT FALL FOR SILVERLEAF'S SCAM! They will put you out on the streets if they have to.

We too, my husband and I, got duped as well. We thought it was a good idea to have it since we have a lot of friends who would come to Atlanta from NY and this could accomodate us and another couple. Plus we were getting married on 08/08/08 and thought we could take advantage of the "free" cruise they offered just to attend the presentation. You don't know until you get there that unless you buy into it, you ain't getting s@#$! Once you do it, you still had to jump through too many hoops to get the cruise and you couldn't just pick a date, you had to submit 3 dates and hope we got one to coincide with the time we planned our honeymoon. Never happened! Never got to take the cruise and then to make matters worst we find out AFTER THE FACT that even though we signed up in June, 08 we were not eligible to use their facilities until an "odd" year; which meant we had to wait until NEXT year in 2009!

Because of the economy, my business closed and my husband's job said he would be laid off in November so of course this would be the last thing on our list of priorities. OMG they called non-stop even if you told them you would try to do something when you could. I told them surely they did not think that paying them mattered in lieu of paying for a roof over our heads and food to eat; especially when we have NEVER used thier facility and have nothing tangible we possess that we purchased. You can't eat a piece of paper!

Then they started a tag team, the "good" cop, "bad" cop routine! One day a woman would call as though she was a "friend" who "understood" and would "pray" for us that everything would work out alright. Then call every damn day after that and on alternate days some dude would call and act like the typical "collector" talking about foreclosure, yada, yada, yada... I told him do what you must, you can't get blood from a turnip, as the old saying goes...and hung up on his "stoopid" @#&! LOL!

Now I check EVERYTHING on line for scams...we learned our lesson the hard way! We haven't decided on what to do to try and get out of it. We certainly don't want a FC on our credit report.
All I can say is BUYER BEWARE!

Just a warning to all:

My credit card company must be on to their scam, because my credit card was closed and a new one reissued to me. I also looked at a new credit report and found that Silverleaf Resorts made an inquiry. I have never contacted this company, nor have I received anything from them. I'm not sure if these two events are related, but they both happened in the same month. Everyone BEWARE!

Quit signing up for all those sweepstakes you sign up for and the offers will stop.

Sounds to me as if you spent more time trying to find things wrong than making the best of what you have. Sounds like you made it a wonderful short vacation for you kids. And not to mention teaching them how to complain and whine. I have stayed in the older section of the Villages also and didn't have any problem. You want to have a great place to stay in, you want the newer places, then turn around and complain that they are building the newer buildings. I don't own Diamond, I own Presidential. I have never had the problems you have. What do you expect? As you said the buildings were OLDER. There are going to be some problems. Who are you to think that just because you wanted a lodge you should get it. Then get there earlier. Why should someone who got there early be put out because you want what you want and will whine and cry till you get it. Instead of being grateful they went to the trouble to get you a lodge unit you still complain. I was told from the start that it was on a "space availability" to get in if you are not using your week. Learn to ask questions. RCI only gets those rooms when people have given up their week. I don't think anything was going to make you happy except complaining.

I also was a victim of silverleaf, I bought it in march 2008, almost everything that they told me was a lie, I couldn't sleep after I found out that other people were also a victim. I read all their complaints and I got mad. I also threatened to go to silverleaf resort in Illinois and tell every person that walked in the door what had happened to me. I also told them that I was going to talk to the news channel about them, I got my money back months later, I lost about $2000 in deposit and monthly payments, everytime that they call me to go and stay for free, they tryed to talked me into upgrading. all they want is money, they told us that we couldnt go to florida because it was all a red season, and we owned a blue even if we payed extra. we we looked into it and we could just buy it from rci. but we would probably wouldnt get in if we just deposited our week to them. because our season was not really a good season in florida. they also told us that they have plans in building a water park in illinois, they even showed us the land. Then we wanted to go and stay for bonus time, they told us that they were full, but that they will call us 2 days before we actually went there. 2 days. I wasnt going to wait till that day to make plans, I wrote an email to texas telling them my situation and told them that I was going there for the day, since it was free, and see for my self if there were actually full. cus everytime we were there it was always empty, they called me back the next day to tell me that there was room for me if I still wanted it. That time that we were there, we got this Vin Diesel looking clown with a suit trying to sell us an upgrade, that silverleaf was going to leases instead of deeds, that was a lie. They wanted us to upgrade before they started to go in to leases. We didnt buy, I was so pissed at that time. My wife told me to just go ahead and buy it, since they already tricked us, I said no. good thing I did. They also told us that The Wilderness Resort was part of rci. that resort is famous in the midwest. Its in wisconsin dell. that was a lie too. They also told us that we could make money selling our week on ebay to the highest bidder, liers. I called rci to make sure that was true, not. we can only let our family use it, if we get any money, well rci will never know, this was the number one reason why we bought it, to sell it to friends and other people we knew. Everyday that I loged in online and found more lies, I got more pissed. The fees every year were around $700. I keep thinking to my self, well we can take a vacation with that time of money, atleast it would pay for half the vacation. Not to mention their interest rate were 21%. wow. I bought it and I was going to pay it off in less then a year. Even though I got out of it and loss a couple thousand dollars, I am writing because I dont want anybody else to go to the same problem we did. We didnt get that blue card in the mail like some other people, we went to a childrens expo in illinois, and there was a man who told us if we want a free vacation to orlando, all we had to do was to go to a resort and attend a meeting. I will never forget that day, One of the worse decisions of my life. I have to warn others about silverleaf resorts, they need to control their employees and make them not to rip off innocent people. I am not saying all silverleaf resorts are scammers, just some people in Illinois location, My first clue of the problem should have been when they told us not to sue, that we can negotiate it inside the club house. What can we do to stop this, I would want to gather people around to go to silverleaf and tell people who were there what had happened to us. But I dont know about the legal issues, will we get arrested for protesting? I forgot to mention what had happened when we went in our bonus time, we got put in to another building, different from the once we went to stay for free, when they try to sell us an upgrade, We were in a building dirtier than the others, no shower head, and I the middle of the night, there were screams of a girl fighting with other boys. she was screaming so loud that I thought someone was going to get killed or something. I tryed to called someone, but no one was at the office, or security. bonus times sucks.

It is a big rip-off...I didn't buy into it...I went to get the free gift, I already knew that they were going to try to get me to sign, but I wasn't having it. Once they figured out I wasn't going to sign, there whole attitude changed. This was the location in Irving TX...the guy that was dressed in a suit, that looked like a clown suit was very rude. I just laughed at him, besides I thing he was a little confused one what he wanted to be...I think he and his boyfriend might have had a fight.

Just an FYI ~ I just purchased a Silverleaf timeshare and I did get the bonus time transfer with it. I used it a couple of weeks ago, so I know its there.

Kim

I hear the same complaints everyday that you have on your site regarding Silverleaf Timeshares. The maintenance fees keep going up, the bonus times keeps changing for the worse and due to the oversaturation of the resale market you can’t even seem to give them away and people keep paying companies more and more to only end up disappointed again and again.

What I have to offer is definitely not for everyone but I wanted to let you know that I work on behalf of a Charity that is looking for Silverleaf Timeshares and unlike other charities we are approving all Silverleaf Timeshares, no matter where, season, size etc…. the only stipulation is that it is mortgage free and current on maintenance fees.

The donor will receive a tax deduction of up to 5000.00 and it cost nothing, we pay for everything including closing cost and the transfer fees.

Again, this is not for everyone but for those that just want out from underneath their ownership this might be a solution and it is definitely a win win for the owner and the charity.

If this is something you might consider advising the owners on your site, please have them go to www.trejesto.com for more information. On the website it states that your timeshare will have to go through a market analysis but I wanted to let you know that ANY Silverleaf Resort is automatically “APPROVED” right now.

Good Luck
Andria

P.S. Just for your information, Silverleaf’s Bonus time has changed AGAIN….. If you sale it, the new owner gets limited bonus time and if they sale or transfer it the Bonus Time DOES NOT transfer. This means that they will have 1 week a year period ! This is going to make the sale of Silverleaf timeshares even harder to sale, and this is why the market is saturated with these timeshare now for resale.

I read your complaint and Yes it is a big rip off! But I got out of it. All you have to do is tell them that you want to deed it back to them they will give you trouble but just give them a sad story about a death or loosing your home and your wife being pregnent or just something bad and tell them that you will give them 400.00 dollors for them to deed it back. It might work for you. You have to talk to a guy named Eric if you can and have your money ready to pay. He will send you a paper to sign and send back then it is off of you.