Roark Vacation Travel Club reviews and complaints
RIp OFF
WE were duped into purchasing a membership in this club. Was suppose to be a 70% discount on all travel . Origional price to join was stated at 15000 then when they learned we were Time Share owners the price was dropped to $3937
We signed up and tried to cancel within three days but could not due to the fact we did not have a member ship number. Have written several letters to cancel and ask for a refund of money paid and have recieved no answer.
Country of complaint: United States
Address: 2o640 Lake Montcalm RD, Howard City, Michigan
BUSINESS MANNERS
KC Inc
16104 81st PLNE
Kenmore, WA 98028
Wednesday morning, 9/15 met with Dave Hinton, Project Director, to discuss transfer of our deed. This was to be done as a favor to my friends that had purchased a vacation package. He was given our original deed to be sent by courier to corporate to determine how the transfer should be handled. He stated couriers travel back and forth a couple times a day. He expected a response as early as Thursday afternoon, but no later than Friday. However, Friday is his day off so if we didn’t hear from him by Thursday afternoon, expect a call first thing Saturday morning. He understood we would be checking out as early as possible on Saturday.
Saturday morning came and no call. We called the office and his cell. On the second call to the office we were told he had called in sick, but someone would look into what was being done and would call us. Twenty minutes later we still hadn’t received a call so we called again. We were told the Gary Cosatt would call shortly. Shortly came and went. We decided to go to the office and wait it out there. A woman greeted us and said she would find Gary. Almost immediately Gary appeared. He was very cordial but didn’t know anything about the pending transaction or where the deed might be but would help us the best he could.
We sat with Gary and explained that David was working to transfer our deed for ROARK unit 233, week 47. we stated Dave would/didn’t take payment because he wasn’t sure how it was going to be handled. During the conversation with Gary the deed appeared. It appeared that nothing had been done on Wednesday. Gary had us complete a form declaring our ownership, current paid status of our maintenance fees, and the fact that the 2010 week has been banked. However, he would not provide a copy of this document for my file, but did return our deed, stating he ad a copy. He said the deed copy and the form would be the first thing on David’s desk when he returned.
We were told someone, probably David, would be contacting us at our home number, [protected].
Today, 09/22/2010, I called David Hinton and left a message since his phone went to voice mail. He returned the call not too much later. He stated he knew our original deed was returned to us. I asked as to the status of the deed transfer. He stated that our friends, unbeknown to us, had opted out of their vacation package at the same time we had been discussin the transfer procedure and therefore the transfer wouldn’t be processed. OK, I understand, sort of. I then asked why I wasn’t contacted Wednesday afternoon or Thursday and told the transfer wasn’t going to happen (a common business courtesy) since he knew we wanted an early checkout on Saturday. This is where the telephone conversation became REALLY un-business like. He stating he didn’t need to talk with someone like me, me stating he was lacking common business courtesy. He saying he was hanging up, me saying I wasn’t done talking. He saying there is nothing more to talk about, me saying I would simply call again. He stating if I continued to call he would file a complaint with the FCCA. He hanging up! Really professional business manners, right?
Company Business Name: Roark Vacation Travel Club
Country of complaint: United States
Address: Branson, Missouri
Phone: 417-332-0625
Website: roarkresort.com
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
3 day right to rescind
My husband (retired Army) and I purchased a $99 package from Branson Hotline for 3 nights in Branson, a couple of show tickets and a $30 gift card to Olive Garden. We knew that we'd have to listen to a 90 minute sales pitch about their vacation club. We went this weekend. We attended the presentation given by Jane Roden on Sunday morning. There was a lot of hype, but it sounded really good. After the presentation, Jane came to our table to sell us the $9000 program. When she saw that my husband was a vet, she dropped the price to $3900 and added unlimited red weeks at timeshares @ $450/week. Still sounded good, even though as a vet, we can use Armed Forces Vacation Club anytime we want on the exact same timeshares and only pay $329/week without any enrollment fee. The difference was that Jane promised that it'd be practically a piece of cake to get the large units in the locations we'd want. My husband and I thought that with the HUGE discounts on cruises and complete vacations offered, it'd still be a great savings for our whole family. We were ready to sign, but didn't have the needed funds right then to do so. Not a problem...use a credit card and they drop the price to $2500. Wow. We put $1000 down on one card with a promise to pay the balance in full when we got home via a card we had with a 0% interest rate. Before signing the papers, I asked about the cancellation policy. By law, it's three business days. Not much time, but I was sure that I could do the research when I got back to the hotel room since we'd brought our laptop with us. We signed. When I got back to the room and got online, I found that I could not access their website without my member number which would be sent snail mail in a couple of weeks...well after the 3-day window. We checked the BBB and discovered an "unsatifactory" rating. I read a lot of posts from people that were very dissatisfied with the service and lost their money. My husband and I decided to go ahead and cancel, in person, the next day rather than risk losing so much money on what was appearing to be a worthless membership. First thing Monday morning we took back the binder and gift basket they'd sent to our room along with a letter stating our desire to invoke our "right to rescission." We met with Lingell, who was initially very cordial and refunded the $1000 back to my credit card. His attitude changed when I asked for a signature or a company stamp on our copy of the rescisison letter for proof that they had accepted the letter. That's when he got a bit nasty and actually implied that I might unscrupulously use his signature on other documents. ARE YOU KIDDING ME! I ended up going to the post office and making another copy of the letter and sent it certified mail, return receipt. I guess I'll have my proof after but I had to pay $5 for it!
Company Business Name: Roark Vacation Travel Club/CRI
Country of complaint: United States
Address: 403 N Business 65, Branson, Missouri
DO NOT RENEW, I admit they took advantage of us also. No trips, No availability, forget it if you want to go to beach in Oregon, or Phoenix.
Take your $4, 000 and book a trip elsewhere and save the hassle.
Yes, they scammed us also and ruined wedding plans,
Timeshare sales force reinvented, same scumbags.
Total scam! My wife and I attended the Presentation and as soon as they found out I was Clergy, they dropped it down to $3000. Later, back home, when we tried to book through the Travel Club we couldn't because the number we were calling was in Canada and it only applied to Canada. Then we were given another number and the hotel prices were higher that what we normally get by booking online. So then I call Roark and come to find out they changed their name and that we can do a "rollover". If there is a lawsuit in the works, I want to be a part of it.
Dissatisfied consumer
bg3387@yahoo.com
Has anyone ever got back their payment to Roark after the 3-day cancellation period? Thanks.
DITTO To all of the above, Check out all of the complaints. There are plenty of them
Last year in April we were at one of the presentations and sadly to say, we did not use our best judgement. It sounded good and the examples they gave on the savings to be had were enticing. We charged $4000 to our credit card and signed a ton of paper work. Got our free show tickets and present of a jar of peaches and some coffee. Stupidly, we did not get on our computer to check this out until we were back home a week later. The 3day cancellation period had since lapsed.
We have tried to use the club to book hotel stays, one time we actually saved a hundred dollars, but had to pay at time of reservation with no cancellation time allowed. The company is somewhere out of the country, (received a credit card fraud alert). Another time we tried to book a week stay at a resort condo in Florida, there were no savings to be had there. Actually booked it on my own on the internet with a better deal and available cancellation period. So far the discounts that were promised are just not there, they claim the same discounts that you get on the regular hotel memberships.
Now it is time to send in the annual $99 membership fee and I am not sure that I want to throw good money after bad.
I want the world to know NOT to sign up for stuff like that. I should take out a billboard advertisement in Branson and warn others.
The gentleman "Robert Hall", our representative and customer service guy has returned our calls and so forth, but it does not change the fact that we are out $4000 for nothing.l
My main complaint against ROARK TRAVEL COMPANY:
This is a company that sells a product but then they do not provide any help or support. They would not call me back over many days and numerous calls. I had some serious questions I needed answers to and could not get any help.
I am adding this letter to the Dispute form since as you see my handwriting is not very good. I shake a lot and can’t hardly read it myself. This was a 1 ½ Hour Presentation to sell a Vacation Plan to customers in return for show tickets at Branson, MO
My wife, grand daughter, and her fiance all went on a two day vacation trip to Branson, MO to see some shows and spend some time together afterwards. We patiently listened to all the people. The 1st gentleman gave a Presentation about the Vacation Program offering discounts to the program since I am retired Navy . After wards, we talked to the 2nd gentleman who was the Sales Representative & Closer who summarized and answered our questions. It sounded good so we talked with the 3rd man who worked in the finance department. I spent about another hour in the office trying to read & understand all the 12 pages or so and filling them out . I left my glasses at home so unfortunately for me, I could not read the fine print. My wife listened also but she left the decision to me. I had trouble really understanding the program but filled out the paperwork anyway since I figured they would give you 3 days to change your mind. This was not the best thing to do because after many days after I got home I finally had the time to read all the paper work ; however I still didn’t understand all the fine print. You would have to be a lawyer to understand it .
I called the company many, many times over the next several days because I wanted to speak to the gentleman that sold me the program. I was always told by the receptionist that I could only speak with 1 person who was the manager of the Customer Services Department. Each time I called she said she said he was with a customer, at a meeting, etc. but that she would place a note on his desk and have him call me back. After many, many phone calls to the company over the next week, I was always told the same thing so I patiently waited for the return calls because I really needed to understand what I had just purchased. I have worked in customer services for over 50 years in the Navy and then as a teacher so I know that nobody can be so busy that they cannot return a phone call. When something is sold, particularly for this large amount of money, there should be something called customer services. Frustrated, I finally gave up & figured I just lost over $3, 000 since the 3 days had expired and I figured I would have to bite the bullet -even though the days lost were because I couldn’t get return calls. After really thinking this over, I finally decided to contact my credit card company to issue a complaint against ROARK.
“Sales Center for Roark Vacation Travel Club - Club Resort Intervals -”
Property is straight out of the 1970's. Roark uses this as it's Branson base for high pressure sales pitches for their low value - high priced, Travel & Timeshare Club!
Do not stay here! We did not have bugs in the room, but encountered them crawling out of the rooms on the lower level.
We know this is not a scam for Travel services, just low & slow service levels and no real discounts.
So slow... that booking a vacation takes 3 weeks and 8 calls to their rep. The contract fine print has no commitments regarding service or service levels, so the club members are at their mercy.
Travel services is a nightmare!
- They promise wholesale pricing, but they define anything on the web as "wholesale", so there's really no savings, so there's no benefit to being a member.
- Timeshare rentals are impossible to coordinate. Nothing is on-line. Everything requires phone contact with their rep in New Hampshire with the rep responding after 2-3 days with email contact with timeshare property managers. Slow! Very Slow!
My husband and I attended one of these presentations over the past weekend. Of course this really sounded good to us. Before going in we decided that no matter how much they pressured us that we would not purchase anything that day. When it was time for our children to go to "kids corner" so that we could sit through the presentation, they informed us that time was running short and that neither of us would have time to accompany our children over to "kids corner", I looked at my husband and told him that at least one of us was going to walk with our children over there or they weren't going and we'd just leave. That's when they decided that one of us could walk with our children over there. We arrived 45 minutes before the presentation so that we could take them to ""kids corner" ourselves, then to be told that they were running short on time when they were still checking people in made me upset. After the 90 minute presentation, we were told it was 90 minutes per person. I told the salesman like heck it was I signed up for 90 minutes and that's all of my family's time he was going to take. I don't like leaving my children with strangers that they don't know, so when I tell them that I'll be back in an hour and a half, and yes my older boys can tell time, I'm going to be back at that time. The salesman was really pushy and then asked if either of us was a veteran or had a veteran in our family, well my dad was a veteran, so then he dropped the price to $3350.00. I kept telling him no that I was not interested at this time and I wanted to go get our children. Well long story short, I finally agreed to send a check back for $350 down and pay $99.64 a month for 36 months. Well that's not going to happen and I've contacted my back and paid $31 so that they will stop any kind of transactions that try to come through on my debit card from this company. They're not getting any of my hard earned money because I never signed any paperwork, not even anything stating that I will send the down pymt and make payments. Let them try to hold me to a contract that neither of us signed and I'll slap a law suit on them quicker than they can snap their fingers. I've taken college classes for paralegal so I know what my rights are. This company seems to me like they make their living by scamming people.
So let me get this straight you both are complaining about a product you never used, based your decision to cancel based on the opinions of someone you have never met before (could be upset employees) who also never used the product. This "Scam" company obviously gave you your money back because your not on her complaining about that! I am so tired of people who base decisions on the rants and raves on an un regulated complaint board. Me and my wife traded in our 15, 000 dollar timeshare (it sells on Ebay for a dollar!) and fell for the "Scam". We have used it over the last two years quite successfully (alaska land and sea 3, 200 FOR THE COUPLE!) plus two 7 day cruises to the eastern and western Carribbean for under a grand each for balcony staterooms. We are very thankful for the day we met Tara Kuhn and Prissy. I am out of a $800.00 a year maint. fee and own a product that works. The common denominator in all these complaints is that they all canceled in 3 days. How can you complain about a product you never used? The multitude of fools is a protection for the wise. Evaluate and make your own decisions.
I attended the Roark Vacation Club presentation over the weekend and decided to purchase with them. After returning to my resort I noticed a gift basket sitting on the kitchen counter...it was from Roark Vacation Club welcoming me as a new member. At the same moment something told me to get on the web and do some research and I'm so glad I did! I have read so many negative reviews and reviews about missing paper work. I looked over my paper work and noticed that the papers I had made notes on that they promised and I had them initial to cover all bases was missing! I decided to rescind my contract with them. Needless to say I went this morning and boy was I treated very rude, unprofessional, and cold! Lindell is the same person I dealt with and he smuggly told me I was lying and that all the paperwork was included in my documents and that he knew nothing of the paper I was speaking of. So he pretty much sat there and lied straight to my face. He was so rude and then another man came in since we were rather loud and immediately sided with Lindell...go figure. They did not want to sign my letter to rescind the contract or give me any type of statement saying I was rescinding my contract. I left very upset and boiling hot and on my way out Lindell gave me the finger. I politely told everyone in the lobby that Roark Vacations was a scam and very unprofessional! Oh and I'm a timeshare owner, they also tried to get me to give them the deed to my timeshare to bring the cost down even more it started at 15, 900 and they were going to give me 13, 000 for my timeshare and since I was a single parent they knocked off another 400 which would have brought my total to $2, 500. I'm just so thankful I realized the stupid mistake I was about to make before it was too late. Hope this helps someone not make a terrible mistake and get scammed by Roark Vacation Club in Branson Missouri.
Misleading on discounted Vacation Packages
9/25/2008
My husband and I attended a “travel club seminar” at Roark. Mid-August. We were provided 3 night stay at Branson, Missouri for $99 if we attended this 90 minute “travel seminar”.
During our (I’ll call it our interrogation), they asked us what type of vacations that we like to go on. We specified that we go on All-Inclusive. We enjoy these vacations because its one price and we really don’t need to worry about additional money when we are on vacation. We don’t have to worry about where we are eating, I don’t have to cook, don’t have to worry about drinking and driving, worry about cab’s etc…….
The seminar oozzzed about wholesale travel discounts going to Hawaii and Alaska for approx. $800 ( I don’t have the exact price). The speaker had copies of Expedia costs from the Internet in his hands to show how their costs vs. Expedia. He was going on and on about the travel savings and that this was not time-share.
Sounded good…..I asked if this included All-Inclusive travel, and the response was “ we can handle all your vacation needs” . It’s sounded good. I even asked on the ROI. Based on what they discussing in the sales pitch, it’s usually 3 trips. They talked about the 50 years plus in business. We went for it. It cost us $4500…..with the exchange rate, it cost us $4900 CAD. In addition, there is $99 US year membership.
Towards the end of August, I received my member ship number in the mail. So, I started to call and inquire about some vacations. I requested vacations, NYC, St. Martens, Bahamas, and Cuba. I actually asked for ANY wholesale packages, ANYWHERE as we were promised. I didn’t see any wholesale discounts in the pricing that they were providing me. The most I seen was 15% or approximately $100 in savings. This just covers my yearly membership fee.
So my burning question is…………………...where is this wholesale travel discounts that we purchased for $4900? I asked CRI/Roark, where these vacations are? How do I effectively use this travel club to see these types of benefits? I was told by Lingell Johnson to give him a few days. So, I gave him the benefit of the doubt to prove to me that there are “wholesale vacations” available and do exist. I had one gentleman call me back on behalf of Lingell ( I think his name was Bob) and he hung up on me ! Nice customer service eh? As of September 25th (approx one month from signing up with them) Lingell was not able to provide me with a list of wholesale vacations. I even emailed the call center to provide me a list of these vacations. No response. I requested that my money be refunded. Of course my calls are now being ignored. I have begun to search the internet, and found that they have complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau. Also, there is an article in /link removed/
I have supporting emails of my requests along with the phone log and what transpired.
Roark Travel / CRI have misled us, misrepresented as to what was actually being sold and would like to have my HARD earned money refunded. This is a lot of money for us just throw away. How can these people sleep at night or have a conscious scamming people and referring themselves as a reputable company?
Company Business Name: Roark Vacation Travel Club
Country of complaint: United States
Address: Branson, Missouri
We took a trip to Branson the weekend of March 19th, on our way down, we stopped at a Welcome Center in Missouri that had a billboard stating, we can get discounted tickets for Branson shows. We stopped in and an older couple was working in the center, they said they could get us free tickets to shows and a 30 dollar dinner voucher at a restaurant of our choice for attending a 90 minute seminar in Branson, they stated that it was not a time share but never really did say what it was. We chose a 30 dollar gift card to Wheelhouse Restaurant and 2 free tickets to see Legends at Dick Clark Theater.
We attended the seminar on Sunday, March 20, the speaker, Stephanie, was very outgoing, she went around the room and asked each table of guests what their dream vacation location would be. We all responded and then she proceeded to tell us what we would pay for a vacation at these locations compared to Travelocity, Expedia, etc. She showed hot prices for spur of the moment vacations and stated we could stay in Presidential like suites for 149 week.
It finally came down to the pricing for this Rourk Vacation Club membership, the figure she wrote on the board was $9995.00 plus 300 something dollars for administrative costs and $199 a year membership. After this, she had everyone remain at their table with their company rep to go over the plan. Myself and my companion were assigned to Stephanie who took us into her office and proceeded to say something like isn't this a great deal, etc. We said no not really. She went over some details of the plan and we still said no we aren't interested, she lowered the cost of the plan to 3000 dollars with a 99 dollar a year membership fee. She asked if we would put this on a credit card or finance it if we bought. We said we didn't know she excused herself and came back with a finance plan at 12%. The final offer we received was a $1500 plan with 99 dollar a month membership fee which supposedly was for a plan someone stopped paying on and they needed to resell. We said we were not interested, she left kind of in a huff saying fine its your decision I will send so and so in to take you to the front desk. The woman from the Philippines who works for them came in, said you know we can't just give this plan away. We said sorry but we are not interested. She escorted us to the front desk where we received our restaurant voucher and a voucher for tickets to the Legends show. They asked if we would like to attend a different type of seminar the next day and they could give us $100. We said NO THANKS!
That evening we went to the Wheel House Restaurant and found out it is closed on Sundays, now they knew we were only in town until Monday morning. We drove back to Rourk property and told them the situation and they did give us $30 dollar voucher for Red Lobster as a replacement.
We went to The Legends box office Sunday evening to get the show tickets and was told that the Welcome Center had booked our tickets for Saturday night and not Sunday but the theater would honor our voucher and could actually give us front row seats for Sunday which were better seats than we would have had on Saturday.
I went online and researched Rourk Travel after all this and have read nothing but complaints about it being a ripoff/scam, etc.
This company has been doing this for quite some time it appears. My wife and I have also fallen for the promises and examples used in the presentations. I believe there are laws within the US against "deceptive" business practices which this company is obviously using. We were shown "examples" of deals we could obtain at "wholesale" saving 30-80 percent off the travel costs. The sweet talkers then emphasize the "Lowest Rate Guarantee" offered by the club, but fail to make clear the discount is only for "standard" rates and doesn't include any other "special" price offered by the providers. This literally means that you are being offered a Club which provides discounts which are freely available to everyone and, in actual fact, are, in most cases, higher than the price being offered by the hotel/cruise line/condo resort or any other provider. I would like to know if there are any Lawyers interested in backing a clas* action suit against the Roark Travel Club for Deceptive Business Practices and I would recommend to everyone reading this they contact the Federal Government to lodge a consumer complaint. The law says a company is guilty of unfair or deceptive business practices if they perform acts which "will l likely mislead or induce a reasonable consumer, to purchase a product to that consumer's detriment." Paying an exorbitant fee to belong to a club which will provide "discounts" which results in prices greater than any readily available discount falls into that category. If enough of us actually file complaints we can get this "business" shut down and put the leaches out of business. If you are interested in joining me in pursuing a clas* action suit please feel free to contact me @ james.runels at Hotmail.
Don't fall for this scam like we did. I wish I knew if there is any way I could sue them to get my money back. Anyone out there has any idea? I paid $4000 with my City mastercard, only to find out that there are no discounts to speak of. I threw away my hard earned money. Based on all the complaints I hear about this company, there should be a class-action suit.
Advise anyone?
Agree. The presenter was named Robert and a cute Filipino lady took our info in Branson. We paid $20 to attend the seminar with the promise of $120 in restaurant coupons even if we declined. The spiel stated out at $9995 with $150 annual dues unless you didn't use the service in a particular year. Then they got us alone and the DISCOUNTS began. Discount because my husband was a veteran. Further discount because he was a Vietnam veteran. Discount for me as a retired teacher. Discount because we were paying with a credit card. I asked for time alone to discuss, which they gave us. We realized it must be a scam and declined. They didn't pressure us too much...just kept expressing surprise and disappointment that we would not take advantage of such a great deal. We did get the $120 in restaurant coupons (Olive Garden and a local Branson restaurant called MacFarlans...these were the ones I chose). As we were getting our coupons they tried to bribe us to take a tour of lake property. If we did it we would get $120 in Walmart credit. We declined. So I guess we made out OK. I googled them the minute we got back to the motel and breathed a sigh of relief!
I attended a Roark Seminar in April of 2011. I would like to know who their representative was at the Branson Wal Mart. That is where I got "shang highed". She seemed like a nice lady but turned out to be very deceptive. Who was the guy doing the presentation ? Does anyone remember. My wife bought the package after the presentation. Once we returned to Maine she called and cancelled it immediately and it was done without issue.
I'm going through the same thing right now. We purchased in May 2012. As soon we got home I tried to book a vacation for the $149.00 for the week and of course the best they could offer me was 560.00 for the week. I'm in the process of trying to get out of the contract and of course they will not email or call me back. I hope that I can save someone else of making the same mistake that we did.
We bought a timeshare in Florida, same thing it's a ripoff! They won't take it back they don't do that but that's a lie also because that's how we bought ours; someone returned it and we rebought it. Do you think they're making a pile of money from all us suckers? Now we've been scammed from more supposedly reputable companies saying they can help us sell or rent our timeshare; you can only sell if it's paid in full! want to rent they will list for you on craigs list, guess what you get from that? NOTHING! Now we have Roark and paid $3000.00 for that. Oh yeah the interest is a whopping 12% for 3 years!
Yes, I agree 100%. We, too, were mislead except our totals were different. We were charged $3000.00 for 3 years for our vacations. They also told us we would not have to pay a yearly fee unless we used our vacations. If we wanted to let friends use it then they could pay the yearly fee. I have a separate checking account since we put this on a monthy auto payment until 1 month we got an overdraft notice. After contacting the bank we found they were charging us 150.00 a year for our fee for using this except we never found any discounts or anywhere we wanted to go. While we listened to their sales pitch they produced pages of whosale trips which we could purchase, after returning home I got on the same sight (or so I thought) and there was nothing listed like they had. I feel we have been scammed but that can we do? Our deal will be paid for in 3 months. D and D Ellis