[2013] Beware Redweek4less / IA Vacations / VP Title / [see new names below][merged]

[SunandFun83]

Redweek for less has started using some additional names on eBay that won't fit in the title:
destinationsrus-2006
vacationspots-2014
travel4you_99

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Redweek4less is a frequent Timeshare seller on EBay and I want to share my bad experience. I expect many other people will post there bad experiences and want to suggest that publishing the facts of bad behavior is more informative than insults like despicable slime!

I won EBay auctions for a Hyatt Coconut Plantation diamond week and a Marriott Oceana Palms Platinum from Redweek4less this year. The prices were incredible and the properties at the top of my list. I bid without reviewing comments on TUG and find this barely less idiotic than buying retail from the developer. I did not "Buy" any weeks from them because they failed to deliver. Marriott and Hyatt told me several times over sixty days that VP Title did not submit ROFR requests.

I bid with Redweek4Less and got a congratulations e-mail from Stacey Gillespie at IA Vacations. I also heard from Robbie ( a boy not a girl) The best I can say is that they asked me to pay with a credit card via PayPal and I was never at risk of losing my money because of credit card protection.

Hope said she was doing the closing at

VP TITLE, LLC
888-823-9742
Fax:865-622-8357
P.O. Box 6297
Sevierville, TN 37862

The indisputable fact is that afterr 60 days VP Title said they were not able to deliver either of my weeks. I spoke with Marriott Resale and Hyatt Title Transfer and was told that VP Title did not submit valid ROFR and that sometimes an unauthorized ROFR is disputed by a seller. Hope did not take my phone calls, nor return them. The excuse for not delivering the Hyatt is that the seller changed their minds, no excuse given for failing to deliver Oceana Palms. How does a company repeatedly list items for sale on EBay without having the ability to deliver what they sell?

I paid immediately by credit card for one purchase and was in the second day of three days allowed to pay for the second when Redweek4less blocked my bids on a Marriott Canyon Villas which sold for $5500. Robbie said they did not block my bid, of course they want the highest price. I do not think this was true. They blocked my bid!

They were quick to offer me a refund when I complained about 45 days without ROFR. MAKE SURE YOU TAKE THE REFUND AND KEEP THE POINTS ON YOUR CREDIT CARD. How do they make money doing that?

Redweek4less actively manipulates their feedback ranking by doing purchases of $3 - $5 items with positive feedback. Twenty planted purchases cover up two bad timeshare feedbacks. I complained to EBay, they claim no buyer protection for Timeshares and therefore no responsibility to police practices.

I spoke with Jane P. Salem, Consumer Protection Specialist with the State of Tennessee, and she told me the complaints are public record. I have not looked yetr, but was told that fourteen complaints have been filed and some victims do claim to have lost money. I got my money back and a lot of aggravation.

You can contact the Tennessee Consumer Affairs Division at 1-800-342-8385. If you had a similar failure to perfom issue with these companies, I hope you will post here and call in your complaint.

 

[lizap]

An argument for buying from a reputable broker. You will likely pay more, but likely won't encounter this ...

Redweek4less is a frequent Timeshare seller on EBay and I want to share my bad experience. I expect many other people will post there bad experiences and want to suggest that publishing the facts of bad behavior is more informative than insults like despicable slime!

I won EBay auctions for a Hyatt Coconut Plantation diamond week and a Marriott Oceana Palms Platinum from Redweek4less this year. The prices were incredible and the properties at the top of my list. I bid without reviewing comments on TUG and find this barely less idiotic than buying retail from the developer. I did not "Buy" any weeks from them because they failed to deliver. Marriott and Hyatt told me several times over sixty days that VP Title did not submit ROFR requests.

I bid with Redweek4Less and got a congratulations e-mail from Stacey Gillespie at IA Vacations. I also heard from Robbie ( a boy not a girl) The best I can say is that they asked me to pay with a credit card via PayPal and I was never at risk of losing my money because of credit card protection.

Hope said she was doing the closing at

VP TITLE, LLC
888-823-9742
Fax:865-622-8357
P.O. Box 6297
Sevierville, TN 37862

The indisputable fact is that afterr 60 days VP Title said they were not able to deliver either of my weeks. I spoke with Marriott Resale and Hyatt Title Transfer and was told that VP Title did not submit valid ROFR and that sometimes an unauthorized ROFR is disputed by a seller. Hope did not take my phone calls, nor return them. The excuse for not delivering the Hyatt is that the seller changed their minds, no excuse given for failing to deliver Oceana Palms. How does a company repeatedly list items for sale on EBay without having the ability to deliver what they sell?

I paid immediately by credit card for one purchase and was in the second day of three days allowed to pay for the second when Redweek4less blocked my bids on a Marriott Canyon Villas which sold for $5500. Robbie said they did not block my bid, of course they want the highest price. I do not think this was true. They blocked my bid!

They were quick to offer me a refund when I complained about 45 days without ROFR. MAKE SURE YOU TAKE THE REFUND AND KEEP THE POINTS ON YOUR CREDIT CARD. How do they make money doing that?

Redweek4less actively manipulates their feedback ranking by doing purchases of $3 - $5 items with positive feedback. Twenty planted purchases cover up two bad timeshare feedbacks. I complained to EBay, they claim no buyer protection for Timeshares and therefore no responsibility to police practices.

I spoke with Jane P. Salem, Consumer Protection Specialist with the State of Tennessee, and she told me the complaints are public record. I have not looked yetr, but was told that fourteen complaints have been filed and some victims do claim to have lost money. I got my money back and a lot of aggravation.

You can contact the Tennessee Consumer Affairs Division at 1-800-342-8385. If you had a similar failure to perfom issue with these companies, I hope you will post here and call in your complaint.

 

[sjuhawk_jd]

An argument for buying from a reputable broker. You will likely pay more, but likely won't encounter this ...

There are plenty of threads/feedback about this company on TUG, dating back 4-5 years. I have had about 7 successful transactions with this company and got my money back on another 4 (when they failed to deliver). Every single one of them (successful or not) was stressful. They are not looking to scam anybody, they are just incompetent, overwhelmed and lack customer service skills. I have had many discussions with them and at the end, they are all nice people, who have no idea how to handle multi-million dollar revenues coming from all sides of this business. It is a confusing mess of post-card companies (timeshare resue?), reselling through ebay, and a title/closing company, all under same ownership.

 

[Egret1986]

Excellent summation of this group

There are plenty of threads/feedback about this company on TUG, dating back 4-5 years. I have had about 7 successful transactions with this company and got my money back on another 4 (when they failed to deliver). Every single one of them (successful or not) was stressful. They are not looking to scam anybody, they are just incompetent, overwhelmed and lack customer service skills. I have had many discussions with them and at the end, they are all nice people, who have no idea how to handle multi-million dollar revenues coming from all sides of this business. It is a confusing mess of post-card companies (timeshare resue?), reselling through ebay, and a title/closing company, all under same ownership.

I have also had successes and disputes with these folks. I will still bid on their auctions if it is something that I want. I like the fact that they do accept credit card payments, as added security if something doesn't pan out and a dispute is necessary to get them moving in the right direction (one way or the other). As stated, "they are all nice people", but occasionally lose their way some times on the business side.

 

[kwindham]

I have bought from them a couple times and had no problems. My process actually went exceptionally fast.

 

[nazclk]

Terrible

I had a Marriott with them, took months to close, finally did, and was suppose to get a 2013 week, had to fight with them about that. I paid THEM for the week and they said it was a problem Marriott, Hope at VP title is about as worthless as a T*t on a boar. And think of this, she a supervisor, what a joke. After I went round and round with her, I guess she didn't like it so they blocked me from bidding on their auctions, plenty more fish in the sea.

My advice. STAY AWAY FROM THEM.

 

[DavidnRobin]

I bid without reviewing comments on TUG and find this barely less idiotic than buying retail from the developer.

I found this statement to be interesting... So... no research on a forum that is the #1 source of TS information. Now that seems to be very unwise - especially considering that you already knew about TUG. It would have taken <5mins on TUG to find out that you should stayed away from RedWeeksForless as an eBay seller unless you are okay with hassles and purchase not going through.

I am sure there is a word for that...

 

[csxjohn]

... I bid without reviewing comments on TUG and find this barely less idiotic than buying retail from the developer...

I found this statement to be interesting... So... no research on a forum that is the #1 source of TS information. Now that seems to be very unwise - especially considering that you already knew about TUG. It would have taken <5mins on TUG to find out that you should stayed away from RedWeeksForless as an eBay seller unless you are okay with hassles and purchase not going through.

I am sure there is a word for that...

The OP did say that it was a big mistake to not check here first but it bears repeating so that others remember to check out different companies here and elsewhere before doing business with them.

 

[icydog]

The WORST

They sold me a week and dragged it out for months. Meanwhile the week lost value. What happened was they sold me a week they didn't actually own yet. They still had to pay the original seller since it was a postcard sale. I cannot reiterate strongly enough, beware of this seller!

 

[rickandcindy23]

I have had okay experiences with them but never bought anything with ROFR. I would rather buy from them than one other company that is HORRIBLE at closing even the simplest timeshare.

 

[4Reliefnow]

Dumb but not dumber

I found this statement to be interesting... So... no research on a forum that is the #1 source of TS information. Now that seems to be very unwise - especially considering that you already knew about TUG. It would have taken <5mins on TUG to find out that you should stayed away from RedWeeksForless as an eBay seller unless you are okay with hassles and purchase not going through.

I am sure there is a word for that...

Please do not be too hard on me D&R. I posted to try to help others to be smarter. I bought Marriott Oceana Palms on Ebay for $7,350 and did not expect to win at $4.000 less than market. I paid with a credit card and cancelled with the credit card.

I had very little risk, just aggravation.

 

[Saintsfanfl]

Please do not be too hard on me D&R. I posted to try to help others to be smarter. I bought Marriott Oceana Palms on Ebay for $7,350 and did not expect to win at $4.000 less than market. I paid with a credit card and cancelled with the credit card.

I had very little risk, just aggravation.

Just my two cents but I have to argue that the market value of a platinum at Oceana Palms is definitely not $11,350. I am basing my opinion on the following reasons:

1. Platinum does not cover President's week, Christmas, or New Years. Platinum does cover these weeks at Ocean Pointe.
2. It cost the exact same number of DC points at both resorts but Oceana Palms has a maintenance fee that is $200 higher.
3. With the second tower open it is easy to exchange in to Oceana Palms during a good portion of the year, including May, Nov, and Dec platinum weeks.

It does bring higher rental rates. I think $7,350 is probably at market and maybe a little high. If there was another ebay auction tomorrow it would likely end around $7k. For owner use during Feb & Mar it is a real bargain long term over renting, but for any other purpose it's not that great. I stress long term because it will still take about 7 years to break even but I don't think the value will fall for Oceana Palms since there are not many legacy weeks.

 

[grupp]

I recently purchased a week from them and am still going throught the closing. Just found out that Marriott Waived ROFR. I knew when I purchased it that it might take a little longer based on what others have posted, but things are moving forward. I got a good price, so willing to be patient.

Communication has been good and have always responded to my questions and provided me with a copy of the Waiver from Marriott. Still a ways to go before it is actually in my name, but so far no problems.

Gary

 

[nazclk]

Transfer

Good luck to you

 

[Geeejow]

redweek4less

I have been working on a timeshare transaction with Redweek4less since April 1, 2013. I've been told so many things that have not occured. So far, they are waiting for ROFR from Marriott, Marriott found another name on the timeshare so they had to correct paperwork, they were waiting on Marriott again, they were going to refund my money, they would send me a tracking number, the money has already been sent {still not tracking number}, they were checking on the tracking number again and would get right back to me......on and on. Hope is now on leave and the fill in was to call me today, surprise, still no call! I saw someone say to contact Tennessee authorities, but do you have to live in Tennessee, or is the company in Tennessee?

 

[boyblue]

The company is in Tennessee.

I bought a VVP from these guys and it took forever. Yes it was stressful but I'd probably do it again because as the saying goes, you can get it good and cheap but it won't fast. My transaction took 6 months.

 

[team2win]

I've bought, did not deliver

I purchased 2 weeks from Redweeks and vp title, hope, etc.. all involved.
Both weeks were transferred successfully, but one week was suppose to have 2013 usage, per our contract. Come to find out, it was points, not a fixed week as advertised. Then found out 2013 week was not available because it was an rci points contract. Obviously was looking for 2013 week, or compensation for a week, but they were not going to make that happen.

Seller/redweeks then says, 2013 week was a bonus, but auction said 2013 week included and contract says 2013 week included, so that was b.s. Spoke with Hope at VP, no help again as the response was we only do the transfer, SMH.. unreal.. So redweeks continues to sell on ebay without any penalty by ebay.. needless to say, they are on the bad list of sellers.

The other week was to start in 2014, so no issue since it was a simple deeded transfer luckily.

 

[rambo62]

Just another victim

I purchased a Worldmark timeshare from redweek4less on ebay in August of 2013 for $4300. Worldmark is a pure point system with no deed or title to transfer so the transfers typically take only a few weeks to complete. Well it is now December 2013 and I am still waiting on Vp Tittle, a.k.a. Hope, to complete the transfer. Over the past couple months, I have ask for a full refund on several occasions but Hope does not even acknowledge the request. I have requested the account number of the property that she claims to be selling me but she refuses to provide that information. If I had the account number I could confirm through Worldmark that the property does actually exist and that it is in the process of being transferred to me. Without it I am forced to rely on Hope's word, which as you can see is pretty much worthless.

Anyway, it is looking like I am going to loose my $4300 but I am not going to go away without a fight. I have filed complaints with both ebay and paypal. It is amazing to me that neither seemed to care the least bit. ebay/paypal should be held accountable for allowing this fraudulent activity to persist for such a long time span. My story is not much different than the many others I have read so I am certain that I am not the first to complain. They are an accomplice in this, ignoring buyer complaints while collecting fees. Do not be fooled into thinking that ebay or paypal are looking out for you. They are not!!!

I plan to fill a criminal complaint with Sevierville Police Department 865-453-0789 in the morning. What they are doing is blatant fraud and they belong in jail. I see someone suggested filing a complaint with the Tennessee Consumer Affairs Division so I will do that. I have also noticed several complaints have been filed with the BBB so I can add to that collection. Hope replies to those too, so perhaps that will get her attention.

Outside of flying to Tennessee to raise some hell that's about all I can think of. If anybody has some other ideas how to get my money back I would love to hear them. I would also encourage all of you other victims out there to call the police, and complain, complain, complain to anybody that will listen. We have to put this slime out of business and I intend to do my part to see that happen.

 

[Bigrob]

I purchased a Worldmark timeshare from redweek4less on ebay in August of 2013 for $4300. Worldmark is a pure point system with no deed or title to transfer so the transfers typically take only a few weeks to complete. Well it is now December 2013 and I am still waiting on Vp Tittle, a.k.a. Hope, to complete the transfer. Over the past couple months, I have ask for a full refund on several occasions but Hope does not even acknowledge the request. I have requested the account number of the property that she claims to be selling me but she refuses to provide that information. If I had the account number I could confirm through Worldmark that the property does actually exist and that it is in the process of being transferred to me. Without it I am forced to rely on Hope's word, which as you can see is pretty much worthless.

Anyway, it is looking like I am going to loose my $4300 but I am not going to go away without a fight. I have filed complaints with both ebay and paypal. It is amazing to me that neither seemed to care the least bit. ebay/paypal should be held accountable for allowing this fraudulent activity to persist for such a long time span. My story is not much different than the many others I have read so I am certain that I am not the first to complain. They are an accomplice in this, ignoring buyer complaints while collecting fees. Do not be fooled into thinking that ebay or paypal are looking out for you. They are not!!!

I plan to fill a criminal complaint with Sevierville Police Department 865-453-0789 in the morning. What they are doing is blatant fraud and they belong in jail. I see someone suggested filing a complaint with the Tennessee Consumer Affairs Division so I will do that. I have also noticed several complaints have been filed with the BBB so I can add to that collection. Hope replies to those too, so perhaps that will get her attention.

Outside of flying to Tennessee to raise some hell that's about all I can think of. If anybody has some other ideas how to get my money back I would love to hear them. I would also encourage all of you other victims out there to call the police, and complain, complain, complain to anybody that will listen. We have to put this slime out of business and I intend to do my part to see that happen.

You mentioned "Paypal" and ebay. Have you tried going through Paypal to reverse/deny the charge? Was the payment through paypal via a Credit Card or directly from a bank account? If via credit card, have you tried to dispute the charge? Ebay will not provide any help on timeshare sales and they publish that Buyer Protection does not apply for real estate listings.

Good luck.

 

[sjuhawk_jd]

They sold me a week and dragged it out for months. Meanwhile the week lost value. What happened was they sold me a week they didn't actually own yet. They still had to pay the original seller since it was a postcard sale. I cannot reiterate strongly enough, beware of this seller!

I do not think they (redweekforless/IA vacations) pay the original seller. The seller pays them. Once they find a buyer, than they go back to the seller and ask for the money (this is usually $3K handling and processing fee). Many times, there is a dispute in who pays what to whom.

 

[Saintsfanfl]

I do not think they (redweekforless/IA vacations) pay the original seller. The seller pays them. Once they find a buyer, than they go back to the seller and ask for the money (this is usually $3K handling and processing fee). Many times, there is a dispute in who pays what to whom.

I am fairly certain that they take the money up front and not after they have a buyer in hand. There is no way they would dump worthless inventory on ebay without being paid first. Some PCC's will offer a refund if the inventory never sells.

 

[Beaglemom3]

Playing Both Ends Against The Middle..........

Having had a recent and unpleasant incident with them, my own conclusions are that they play both ends against the middle.

They have someone on the hook (but not reeled in) who will pay them $3-4K to" take their timeshare off of their hands".

Redweeks4less "sells" it on Ebay and then goes back to the seller to say that they have a buyer.

They (redweeks4) scramble to finish the transacton with the "seller" so that they can sell it to the unsuspecting Ebay bidder.

This is the time consuming part. Add their ineptness and poor/lack of communication skills and you're looking at 6-9 months or more.

If the original seller renegs, they invent some wild story or stall enough so that the buyer walks.

Sometimes , miraculously, there's "an exact unit" for sale if you, the Ebay bidder, were bidding against their shill bidder (bidding up the final price) and dropped out just before the auction ended. Yeh, sure.

I could be wrong.

 

[grupp]

Feeling very Lucky

Just wanted to follow up on the Status of my purchase from Redweeks4Less. I won an auction back in mid-September and things have been moving forward slowly. Passed Marriotts ROFR mid-October.

When the deed was recored they had made an error in the name and needed to file a corrected deed. Fortunately, I had asked for copy of the recorded deed and caught the error before the sent it to Marriott.

I just called Marriott today and the have all the paperwork, which they received on November 19 and everything appears to be in order. Hopefully, they finalize the transfer soon. Since they have had the paperwork for 3 weeks, I assume I would have heard something from them if there was a probem.

I guess my experince has been different than most who posted here. Hope has always responded to my emails and I usually would email her every two weeks just to get a status. I also asked for and recieved copies of Marriotts ROFR waiver and the recorded deed. Obvously, they may have a problem with quality control since they did not catch the obvious error they made on the deed.

Not sure if I would buy from them again or not. If so, it would need to be a good deal and probably not be a high priced unit.

Will follow up again once Marriott completes the transfer to let you know if any problems.


Gary

 

[Saintsfanfl]

Just wanted to follow up on the Status of my purchase from Redweeks4Less. I won an auction back in mid-September and things have been moving forward slowly. Passed Marriotts ROFR mid-October.

When the deed was recored they had made an error in the name and needed to file a corrected deed. Fortunately, I had asked for copy of the recorded deed and caught the error before the sent it to Marriott.

I just called Marriott today and the have all the paperwork, which they received on November 19 and everything appears to be in order. Hopefully, they finalize the transfer soon. Since they have had the paperwork for 3 weeks, I assume I would have heard something from them if there was a probem.

I guess my experince has been different than most who posted here. Hope has always responded to my emails and I usually would email her every two weeks just to get a status. I also asked for and recieved copies of Marriotts ROFR waiver and the recorded deed. Obvously, they may have a problem with quality control since they did not catch the obvious error they made on the deed.

Not sure if I would buy from them again or not. If so, it would need to be a good deal and probably not be a high priced unit.

Will follow up again once Marriott completes the transfer to let you know if any problems.


Gary

You are right on the 90 day normal schedule if nothing goes wrong. That is the norm for counties that do not do electronic recording. Your county must do e-recording because I don't think your timeline is possible otherwise since they had to record a deed twice. Almost all my Marriott transfers took right at 90 days.

The transfer office in Lakeland, FL takes 30 days to record a transfer. Yours should be done in a week. I did have one exception where someone started entering my transfer and then never finished it within the system. It took me a few phone calls to track down what was wrong but if I hadn't called it would have remained in limbo.

 

[grupp]

Transfer Complete!

Just checked my Marriott account and the new week has been added to My account. Entire process was 90 days.

It is strange that my experience with VP Title and Hope is totally opposite to what others have experienced, but I am not complaining. Almost makes me wonder if they have multiple employees and they all go by the name of Hope so you never really know who you are dealing with on a particular closing. Probable not the case, but she was very responsive to my inquires while others who posted here seem to be ignored.

Best of luck to those still waiting to get their transactions finalized, I am proof there is always hope (pun intended).

Gary