Grand Vacation contacted to rent bonus weeks

[JustKathy721]

I got a call from:
Grand Vacation
10 Fairway Drive
Deerfield Beach, FL, 33441
Customer Service (888) 317-1059

They were offering to rent my "bonus weeks." I felt they had a little information, but asked questions to fill in the blanks. They wanted $1794 to rent out 6 weeks for me. They promised $1600 per week, guaranteed.
I have 10 days to cancel. When I got the contract, it was very vague, no guarantee, just said if the time has not rented in 6 months, they will renew for another 6 months at no cost. Thinking I got scammed and need to contact American Express.

Anyone have this experience? I cannot find any reviews on this company.

 

[dioxide45]

Scam!

They cold called you, this tells you all you need to know.

 

[LannyPC]

They wanted $1794 to rent out 6 weeks for me. They promised $1600 per week, guaranteed.
I have 10 days to cancel. When I got the contract, it was very vague, no guarantee, just said if the time has not rented in 6 months, they will renew for another 6 months at no cost. Thinking I got scammed and need to contact American Express.

Anyone have this experience? I cannot find any reviews on this company.

Did you pay already? If so, cancel the payment on your credit card. As dioxide said above, it is a total scam!

 

[moonstone]

I got a call from:
Grand Vacation
10 Fairway Drive
Deerfield Beach, FL, 33441
Customer Service (888) 317-1059

They were offering to rent my "bonus weeks." I felt they had a little information, but asked questions to fill in the blanks. They wanted $1794 to rent out 6 weeks for me. They promised $1600 per week, guaranteed.
I have 10 days to cancel. When I got the contract, it was very vague, no guarantee, just said if the time has not rented in 6 months, they will renew for another 6 months at no cost. Thinking I got scammed and need to contact American Express.

Anyone have this experience? I cannot find any reviews on this company.

I realize you are a newbie but if you had read though all the Help & Advice section you would know that this is a scam. Hopefully you can get your money back. Often the callers say they are calling from RCI (& when I asked what RCI was they didnt answer correctly). Here are a couple of pages from the H & A section; https://tug2.net/timeshare_advice/timeshare_company_legitimate.html and https://tug2.net/timeshare_advice/timeshare_scams_revealed.html


~Diane

 

[sue1947]

They were offering to rent my "bonus weeks."

What bonus weeks? Usually, these scam calls say you have bonus weeks through RCI or II; you don't. If they were worth $1600 each, don't you think whoever you had these bonus weeks through would rent them out vs giving them to you for free? None of it makes any sense, but they catch people who haven't paid much attention and make up enough to catch you before you've had a chance to think it through.
Cancel, block the numbers and don't respond. You are now on their 'suckers' list and will get more calls from other numbers but just hang up on all of them.

 

[GT75]

I have 10 days to cancel. When I got the contract, it was very vague, no guarantee, just said if the time has not rented in 6 months, they will renew for another 6 months at no cost. Thinking I got scammed and need to contact American Express.

Cancel, total scam. I would also contact AmEx. Several ways to know this was a total scam, 1. Cold call, 2. Request upfront money for some ”guarantee future money”, 3. RCI bonus weeks can not be rented, and 4. Too good to be true.

 

[dioxide45]

I hope Amex can help you, but prior reports seem to show people having little success in disputing charges. Did you sign a contract? What exactly does the contract say? I believe prior research by @RX8 seems to indicate these outfits use contracts that relate to just listing your timeshare for the fee. Thus they are able to successfully dispute the chargeback from the credit card companies.

 

[RX8]

I got a call from:
Grand Vacation
10 Fairway Drive
Deerfield Beach, FL, 33441
Customer Service (888) 317-1059

They were offering to rent my "bonus weeks." I felt they had a little information, but asked questions to fill in the blanks. They wanted $1794 to rent out 6 weeks for me. They promised $1600 per week, guaranteed.
I have 10 days to cancel. When I got the contract, it was very vague, no guarantee, just said if the time has not rented in 6 months, they will renew for another 6 months at no cost. Thinking I got scammed and need to contact American Express.

Anyone have this experience? I cannot find any reviews on this company.

So sorry you were scammed. The first red flag was the cold call. The second red flag was the contract that didn’t say anything about their promises/lies.

There is limited info on the internet about this scammer because they haven’t been around very long (website created March 2022). I’ve said many times before that these advertising companies get started because it is easy money for absolutely no real services being provided (all they do is cold call all day) and very little, if any, risk of arrest for stealing.

This company is so full of BS. Most marketing scammers lie about the bonus weeks on the phone but they make no mention of it on their website. This scammer doesn’t even try to hide their lies. This is from their About Us page:

• Engage with one of our licensed inventory specialists to furnish them with the details of your unused timeshare bonus weeks and determine the quantity you wish to activate.
• Our dedicated team of professionals will meticulously pair your luxurious accommodations with reputable corporations seeking suitable venues for their high-profile events and conventions.
• We'll facilitate seamless collaborations between you and these corporations, ensuring your activated bonus weeks are utilized for their events while providing exceptional accommodations.”

The hard truth is that no timeshare owner has bonus weeks that they can rent out and there are no corporations looking to rent timeshares. It is all their elaborate scheme to steal money. The scam business model for many of these companies is to cold call, lie, collect credit card payment, lie, stall, send fake “offers” that can’t be reserved, lie, ignore emails/calls, stall, etc and then repeat it for the next victim. They will simply go out of business in a couple of years and then start over under a new name. Unfortunately, when one files a credit card dispute the scammer will show the credit card company the signed contract which is nothing more than advertising services. One can claim scam but the burden of proof is on the timeshare owner. You and I know it is a scam but the credit card company may only look at the contract. If you are still within your 10 days of cancelling do so but still file the credit card dispute because there is no guarantee they will refund you.

Your next steps should be to file a dispute with your credit card, file a complaint with the state Attorney General and file a complaint with the BBB.

Below is another TUG thread about a similar scam company.

[ 2023 ] Ownersaccommodation.com

Anyone ever heard of ownersaccommodation.com ? They say that I have several unused Getaways at Interval International that they can rent out. I'm not about to give them any information, but they said that they find weeks for corporate events and back end them through Interval.

tugbbs.com

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

I got a call from:
Grand Vacation
10 Fairway Drive
Deerfield Beach, FL, 33441
Customer Service (888) 317-1059

They were offering to rent my "bonus weeks." I felt they had a little information, but asked questions to fill in the blanks. They wanted $1794 to rent out 6 weeks for me. They promised $1600 per week, guaranteed.
I have 10 days to cancel. When I got the contract, it was very vague, no guarantee, just said if the time has not rented in 6 months, they will renew for another 6 months at no cost. Thinking I got scammed and need to contact American Express.

Anyone have this experience? I cannot find any reviews on this company.

This is 100 percent a scam. It is a well known scam. Contact your credit card immediately.

 

[WorldT]

New user. Just registered and first post is to plug a scam company.

 

[dioxide45]

New user. Just registered and first post is to plug a scam company.

Are you sure they are offering a plug (aka endorsement) of a scam company?

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Are you sure they are offering a plug (aka endorsement) of a scam company?

That would be the strangest “plug” I have ever seen.

 

[joybuzzer]

I got this same call yesterday afternoon. Initially rep said that he was with RCI, and he had guaranteed renters for my ' RCI getaway certificates'. Last I checked I don't have any certificates, just points. Anyways the more I pressed him for specifics he finally told me that they were selling a vacation club with a rental program feature. He was very scammy, misrepresenting which company he was representing. Beware!

 

[RX8]

I am happy to see people finding TUG threads about these scammers. In many cases, TUG is the only warning out there. In the case of Grand Vacations, there is no BBB file yet, in fact there is nothing else about their scam on the internet. TUG is all there is. These reviews/posts will catch up to them eventually and when they do the company will disappear and start over again under a new name.

If TUG is the only warning out there how can we be sure they are truly a scam? These scammers start with the cold call with no regard to DNC rules and they lie about non-existent bonus weeks. It continues with the lie about renting to corporations.

I am seeing this scam evolve as it used to be companies wanting to list your timeshare for sale or rent. It is all a facade though because there really isn’t anything going on behind the scene. That also required them to have a website that looked like a legit booking site and a way for potential renters or buyers to inquire about these weeks. The companies made it burdensome to inquire, such as requiring a name, email and phone number just to ask if something was available but I am sure some people did respond. This all required more work than the scammers wanted to exert so I am seeing many instances of scammers changing to the “we market directly to corporations” lie. Why? Because they no longer have to make a website that has the appearance of a booking site. Now they really don’t have to do any other work other than cold call timeshare owners.

Grand Vacations (I am sure the name is intentionally similar to Hilton Grand Vacations), implies on their website that they attend corporate events to market the timeshares directly to corporations. I have never, even once, found any evidence that any of these scammers was a vendor at any corporate event.

The website for Grand Vacation is nothing more than a prop to support the cold call for the upfront fee. It is just an ad full of lies. It is also very hard to find on the internet. Even this TUG thread comes up well BEFORE the website in a Google search. This company claims they market to corporations but they have no website to support that claim. Even if they attended a corporate event, what would they be selling? I posted this below on another TUG thread about a similar scammer lying about attending corporate events. This is a corporate executive stopping by the scammer’s booth at a corporate event.

CORPORATE EXECUTIVE “Hi, I own a company with 50 employees and would like some information about what you do, and how we go about booking some lodging for an upcoming event."

SCAMMER COMPANY Representative - "I don't have anything I can give you, nor do we have a website or phone number, but I can write my personal cell phone on this napkin for you".

Does anyone think a corporation would trust their dollars to a company like this?

 

[JustKathy721]

Thank you everyone. Went with my gut and called them back and said I wanted to cancel. They tried everything, even saying they were part of Hilton Grand Vacations. I told him I knew they were a scam then. They sent me a receipt of a voided AE receipt but I was not trusting them. Called AE and they did reverse the charges. We got new cards so this number could not be used in the future. Thank you everyone. I know better. If it is too good to be true, then it is.

 

[chapjim]

Thank you everyone. Went with my gut and called them back and said I wanted to cancel. They tried everything, even saying they were part of Hilton Grand Vacations. I told him I knew they were a scam then. They sent me a receipt of a voided AE receipt but I was not trusting them. Called AE and they did reverse the charges. We got new cards so this number could not be used in the future. Thank you everyone. I know better. If it is too good to be true, then it is.

You are probably in the 1% Most Fortunate Victim category.

 

[Huskerpaul]

Congrats on your good outcome!

 

[Mr. Phil]

I got a call from:
Grand Vacation
10 Fairway Drive
Deerfield Beach, FL, 33441
Customer Service (888) 317-1059

They were offering to rent my "bonus weeks." I felt they had a little information, but asked questions to fill in the blanks. They wanted $1794 to rent out 6 weeks for me. They promised $1600 per week, guaranteed.
I have 10 days to cancel. When I got the contract, it was very vague, no guarantee, just said if the time has not rented in 6 months, they will renew for another 6 months at no cost. Thinking I got scammed and need to contact American Express.

Anyone have this experience? I cannot find any reviews on this company.

I received the same call. While on the line. I googled all the information, including the company. It appears to be legitimate. They are a vacation rental company looking for inventory. Yet does sound too good to be true.

 

[DeniseM]

Nope - It's a SCAM because the exchange companies DO NOT allow bonus weeks to be rented. They will collect a fee from you, and you will never hear from them again.

 

[chapjim]

New user. Just registered and first post is to plug a scam company.

I don't see a plug. I see a victim, who fortunately was able to recover $1,794.

 

[TheHolleys87]

you will never hear from them again.

Until they have a new scam for you!

 

[splance]

Thank you all for your inputs!! I was contacted by Grand Vacation and was going to give them money but wanted to do some research and found all the responses from our group and will not being giving any money!!
Thank you again, have a great day, year, always, to all!!

 

[davidvel]

Most of these scams revolve around some amount of GREED. When people think they can get rich quick/money for nothing/ a "secret" to making money (that none else figured out), etc., all sense and logic goes out the window. The Nigerian bank/lottery scams all thrive on this basic principle.

 

[Hecken21]

I received the same call. While on the line. I googled all the information, including the company. It appears to be legitimate. They are a vacation rental company looking for inventory. Yet does sound too good to be true.

I got a call from:
Grand Vacation
10 Fairway Drive
Deerfield Beach, FL, 33441
Customer Service (888) 317-1059

They were offering to rent my "bonus weeks." I felt they had a little information, but asked questions to fill in the blanks. They wanted $1794 to rent out 6 weeks for me. They promised $1600 per week, guaranteed.
I have 10 days to cancel. When I got the contract, it was very vague, no guarantee, just said if the time has not rented in 6 months, they will renew for another 6 months at no cost. Thinking I got scammed and need to contact American Express.

Anyone have this experience? I cannot find any reviews on this company.

The address they are using now is: 1 S. Orange Ave, Suite 4B, Orlando, FL 32801. www.GrandVacationsClub.com

Same experience as everyone else. Unfortunately, I signed up; however, cancelled within the hour and notified my credit card company of fraud. They called me regarding my email cancellation and tried to convince me over a 13-minute call that (1) they already had a buyer for my weeks and (2) they are legit and it is another fraudulent company who may be imitating them. They want you to believe they have a buyer, so you exceed your 10-day right to cancel. This is an 'advertising' company that charges 180-day advertisements of your time share for a fee - they do not guarantee actual sales.

 

[RX8]

The address they are using now is: 1 S. Orange Ave, Suite 4B, Orlando, FL 32801. www.GrandVacationsClub.com

Same experience as everyone else. Unfortunately, I signed up; however, cancelled within the hour and notified my credit card company of fraud. They called me regarding my email cancellation and tried to convince me over a 13-minute call that (1) they already had a buyer for my weeks and (2) they are legit and it is another fraudulent company who may be imitating them. They want you to believe they have a buyer, so you exceed your 10-day right to cancel. This is an 'advertising' company that charges 180-day advertisements of your time share for a fee - they do not guarantee actual sales.

We already know they are scamming. Their claim of having a buyer is in violation of Florida statute 721-205 and proves that they don’t follow rules when scamming. My recommendation is to file a complaint with the BBB and the Florida Attorney General. Below is taken from Florida statute 721-205 2. (b)

(2) In the course of offering resale advertising services, a resale advertiser may not:

(b) State or imply to a consumer timeshare reseller, directly or indirectly, that the resale advertiser has identified a person interested in buying or renting the timeshare resale interest without providing the name, address, and telephone number of such represented interested resale purchaser.