Menu
Login
My elderly parents were talked into buying a weeks timeshare at Orange Lake Resort, Orlando, Florida. They attend a yearly conference during the same time every January 2nd or 3rd week. When considering the purchase, they asked repeatably if it would ever be a problem to change weeks because the conference tends to vary by one week year to year. They were assured that this would never be a problem. They had some difficulty last year switching the date by one week. They informed Orange Lake Management one year before what the date would be this coming January. They were given specific directions on who and when to call for confirmation of dates. When calling October 2, 2008, they were told that the rules had changed and they would not be able to switch dates anymore! If they wanted to switch the date, they would have to "upgrade to a new unit & time" and pay $12, 000.000 additional for the same 3 bedroom condo. They already fully paid for the original in the amount of $16, 000.00. If this is not the old "Bait and Switch", I don't know what is. What can they do
![Lifestyle Holidays Vacation Club [LHVC] Reviews](/images/business/48-48/117322/lifestyle-holidays-vacation-club.jpg)
I got my timeshare at Orange Lake in 1999 I have been paying on time till it was paid off so every year maintenance fee goes high this year I never received any maintenance statement which they said it was mailed in November I got the statement Jan 29 2010 I paid $719.04 On Febuary 26 I got a bill for Maintenance late charge $25.00 & finance charge of $ 10.71 orange lake has been so greedy I lost my job they dont even care and the supervisor and the customer rep wont listen ."You have to pay this amount because capital management wont waive any fee" I used the property only 2 times in 11 years what a waste
One reason there are issues with Orange Lake is because most of the senior management are all new as they got rid of good people like Charley Swan previous CEO. The new management is only interested in profit because their bonus is tied to it, without regard to quality customer care. Most of these bozos have come from companies that have failed like Fairfield Resort. 5 years from now either this management will be replaced or Orange Lake will be no more!
Fairfield Resorts is still Fairfield...they just changed their name to Wyndham. Still the same company
Paper money has been declared by law to be "Legal Tender for All Debts, Public and Private." So how come businesses and govermental agencies get to refuse to take cash in payment?
Here is what the law says: You have a hotel. The charge is $89 per night plus tax. That is your "offer", the first part of any contract. You offer your room at that price. Now I stay there. That is my "acceptance, " the second part of any contract. In the morning, I offer you cash to pay for my debt - which is "legal tender for ANY debt." That is my offer to pay. You refuse. That is you refusing payment. Once you refuse payment, I can argue I owe you no money, since I offered to pay and you refused. Now if I offered to pay with chickens, or peanuts, or anything that is not "legal tender" you have every right to refuse. But since checks and credit cards are only substitutes for cash, and are not money in and of themselves, can they be required?
http://bestcasinogamingonline.com
Stephen feel free to send me an email and I will send you the contact information for the law firm.
Their maintenance fee covers a vacation in itself.
Next time there, I'll be happy just to punch one of those smiley faces.
That sounds great! Thank you for offering your help. If anyoneone would like to join in on the class action acgainst orange lake resorts please feel free to email me at slnyc11@yahoo.com. I will send you my lawyers information along with the contact information to for the other owners I have been in touch with. One again my email address is SLNYC11@YAHOO.COM
I am living in florida not to close to orlando but if I have to go there to meet the lawyer to help us to breach the contract with Orange Lake I be more than happy to do, I will do that because I am involved in a miss presentation and been loosing my money to pay for something that I can not enjoyed, but together we can do alot, so I be more than happy to provide my email milegon@yahoo.com if anybody want to contact me just call me for set things up. Thank you.
sorry my email address is SLNYC11@YAHOO.COM
Hi everyone
My name is vicky. Ii have been in touch with a group of people that have been lied to and misled by Orange Lake resorts. We have spoken to a lawyer and starting a class action lawsuit against them. If youre interested in joining us, please email me at SLNYC11!yahoo.com
What became of this class action suit? We were scammed as well?
Can I moan as well?
Having paid $74, 000 for a 2 week slot in River Island in Feb (which is actually no good to us), I feel like chucking it in even after 4 years. Being a UK resident, just the cost now of getting to the US is becoming inflationary. The $2, 000 maintenance fee seems cheap when considering flight costs. Even having all these thousands of points is becoming a pain in the butt.
The place in Orlando is great but, I am not the type to have MEGA vacations every year. Mabe it is best to lose now and save on the maintenance fees for the rest of my life and the families.
ok.. so how do we all unite and get high level athourities and maybe even the better business bureau, and credit reporting agencies to recognize the scam in all this and help out ?
My husband and I have owned at Orange Lake since 2006. We were also told when we bought the time share that it was an investment and if we ever wanted to sell the unit, Orange Lake would sell it for us. Well we just returned from our fixed week at Orange Lake and found out that there have been many changes. First of all, it is NOT an investment, you can go on any resale time share web site (one in particular called TUG) and find Orange Lake property for as low as $100.00. When we asked about selling our unit, we were told that Orange Lake is not in the resale business. We were also told by an Orange Lake representative that we would be lucky to get a couple thousand dollars for a $12, 000 unit. Many changes have taken place that don't seem to be in the best interest of the owner as well. There is now a points system where we would have to pay an additional $6000.00 in order for our week to be flexible and earn points which we learned about from a presentatiion that we were told would last 60 minutes. After 3 1/2 hours and the reprentative trying to convince us to convert to the point system we were able to leave the presentation. We were surpised and upset that we could no longer use cash on the resort, only your credit card, so we went off the resort to eat meals. When asked why we could not use cash, we were told that it was a safety issue and people would feel safer not carrying cash on them. But yet when we gave our credit card for a $250.00 deposit in case we did charge something during our stay, our credit card was handled by at least 4 different staff members and taken to another room; now how safe was that and isn't identity theft a concern? It appears that they want to take away the few rights the owners have; Orange Lake is nothing more than a glorified hotel now (and a very costly one at that.)
Orange Lake maintenance fees' are over the top. My husband and I feel caught in a net that just gets tighter. When they put on another hundred or so for possible roof repairs on a 3 year old building. This is suppose to be placed in a separate maintenance account to gain interest for who? For how long are the preparing to collect from everyone?
what are our rights to have a maintenance fee that is reasonable? This if after spending thousands and fees increasing every year...
My wife and I are also owners of Orange Lake Resort, and we purchased 5 years ago. Our maintenance fee has increased from $592.00 to $837.00, and they tell us over the phone that they have no control of it. At this rate it could easily go over $1000.00 in a few years. Last "adjustment" was over $120.00. It does not make sense anymore. Bottom line is, If you want to go on vacation every year, set aside $200 to $300 every month and pay for it outright. A week at Orange Lake now will cost around $2000.00 on peek season at river island.
IT GETS WORSE FOLKS. If the timeshare owner would happen to ever need nursing home care these become USELESS assets.
We purchased a week in Orange lake for April in 2005. We purchased a 3-bedroom unit on the top floor in hopes of using Orange Lake every 5 years or so with our kids going to Disney. We joined RCI so we could trade out of Orange Lake on the years we did not plan to go to FL. To date we have only been able to successfully trade our week via RCI twice. Last year we had an ongoing search for all of the East Coast and Nothing Nada. We lost a space banked week as a result. We received a call last week from Orange Lake trying to sell us on their newest and greatest scheme. We were point blank told our RCI membership was a waste as RCI is antiquated blah blah blah... My personal opinion is that RCI now views Orange Lake as competition for revenue streams since they have purchased several resorts and now offer their own time sharing network. As a result Orange Lake has made my RCI membership useless as I am sure our RED week since it is tied to a competing entity, is considered crap by RCI. If I knew this was going to be their business model moving forward, I would never have purchased my week at Orange Lake. The only reason I purchased a week in FL as I plan to go there every 5 years with the kids and it was at the time a PRIME resort for RCI providing a good trade value in the off years. Now my options are limited to going to FL every year or one of Orange Lakes other resorts that are in places I do not want to go! Time to sue them!
My husband and I went to a mispresentacion at Orange lake resort, we were very exited about but we never were informed that we have a grace perior to change our minds and now we are trap in this situacion that just bring alot stress in our lives, I did my down payment in july 2009, went I called I have a nasty men on the phone to told me that my account was pending, I did make several phone call no answer, I am very dissapointed, finally I went to a lawyer because I want to breach the contract with them, and he told me "because we sing we had nothing to do, " plus, he told me better call them again and try to see if you can work with them to cancell, but went I call I got on the phone people that say the represent from the office that I can is in a meeting and they call me but, they never did. I did call yesterday oct.31 no body return my phone I don't know wthat I have to do, any advice, please tell me. Thank you and sorry if I had
Never told about a 10 day cancellation period. My income also falsely reported. These people that pressure us for hours are total sleaze. All we can do is give bad press. I don't ever want to go back to Florida again let alone Orange Lake. They appear to pick on seniors.
I am also a timeshare owner of Orange Lake Resort. I bought the timeshare in December 2008. I found later many facts were left out at the sales presentation. The sales rep even provided faulse information, such as buying a timeshare was an investiment. loan interest could be tax deductable, etc. This company simply tries to rip off people to try to get into the trap.
Should we stand out and expose their tricks to the public and bring an attention to the agency http://www.myflorida.com/dbpr/ ?
Thanks.
Yes. I am refusing to pay 29, 900 for a timeshare I already paid 13, 000 for in 2009. They seem to have a scam of remarketing the same units. My new one is next door to the old unit. Exact same thing. State of FL said I shouldn't pay and let them foreclose after umpteen years. They stated we all would have to stick together on the various issues. Not much help from the state.
I may be able to help. Call [protected]
My husband and I are also holders of a timeshare in Orange Lake at Orlando and we have been paying $235 a month since 2006 for 10 years. We have never used our time because it does not fall on the week where there is no school. We have a child who is a student. We were told to bank with RCI for an exchange but we are just paying the RCI fees and they could not even give us time either.
And unfortunately because we belong to a fixed week we have to take what we have and the solution is go global points and collect more money for a lousy stay at the facility. I have no intention of spending a penny for the new offer. Why in the first place would they give fixed week instead of allowing flexibility for the timeshare owner. It is a lie that there is no vacancy for someone who would want to exchange their week esp thru RCI who is just a useless company. They cannot even give us time and the employee just simply say "I'm sorry". Because there is always room if the customer will be paying for the stay. And the excuse is their rules which I believe are just stupid words put in white paper which does not benefit the poor consumer.
We work hard for our money and we only need a little vacation and stay in the place to recharge ourselves. What happens now is we are even stressed out dealing with the ridiculous policies. In other words, our hard earned money is just being collected and no service nor facility use in return. Isn't that ripping off the poor consumer.
When we signed the loan, we were also told that it is a mortgage loan and the interest we paid are tax deductible, but since 2006 no form 1098 was sent so this year I called the Accounts Dept. to remind them and I am also having a big struggle dealing with the employees because they do not act on it. In fact the second time I called I was told there was no notation of the first call, so that means I was just talking to a ghost. Unbelievable. I really wonder if a 1098 could really be generated from this kind of loan. I am still waiting for the form that they promised to send.
So far, I am very frustrated with Orange Lake. I wish I can just give up this timeshare. I will never encourage my friends and family to get timeshares. It is better to save your money and spend a real vacation without the hustles of dealing with RCI or Orange Lake.
Sir, I am sorry to hear of the I’ll treatment you have received and the money continually being wasted. I was wondering if you published your story with the better business bureau and with the company’s complaint and board of directors? Just curious?
Hi. I also am an Orange Lake Owner who feels that the rules change at whim. We just purchased in 2/08 and were instructed to drop our RCI membership because we would never need it again. They assured us that the Orange Lake Reservations Department would only cost $40/exchange or $80/upgrade. Of course, I have nothing in writing.
Last week, I received another invoice for membership fees for some new Hotel Group. What is with this place? Do they even follow the economy? The last thing people need right now is another membership fee to pay. Sure, it's only $99 this year but I remember when our maintenance fees were only $260. They went up pretty fast.
Hello. I am an owner at Orange Lake and know a couple other families who are owners as well. They could join RCI ($89 or so per year) and exchange their week for the other week. Not sure if you have explored that option? It seems the least expensive way to go about it...