@Klwheeler01 Lonestar Transfers has been around awhile. That alone doesn't mean that they are good to do business with. Their only real specialty is collecting thousands of dollars upfront in return for a money back guarantee. That guarantee may very well be worthless when you will need it the most. They are not attorneys, nor do they have any special magic to get people out of the timeshare. What they will do is provide you with letters for you to send to the timeshare company. That's it. What is in those letters is nothing that you couldn't do yourself. You could even ask TUG for free advice on what should be in the letter. If they have any success, it will likely be through a deedback you could have requested yourself or worse, a foreclosure. Lonestar has lots of over-the-top glowing reviews. More on those in a moment. In the meantime, below are two reviews from Yelp. The first talks about the letters. The second talks about a foreclosure.
"I must say I paid a lot of money in order to get advice from some very nice and knowledgeable people. They provided a letter(s) to send and I kept them posted on the progress. Since they didn't handle any phone calls, or any other correspondence, I paid thousands of dollars for something I basically ended up doing myself. Their all 5 star BBB ratings were a red flag. "
"I paid them $4,000 and they got the timeshare company to cease and desist all communication (which I could've done for free). My understanding was that they were going to absolve me from my legal obligation to these folks entirely, as it was something we never used even once. For a minute I actually thought that's what they did. Until I went to purchase a home and my credit report showed I was in foreclosure to the timeshare company due to nonpayment. I was given a shoulder shrug explanation over the phone and never a straight answer as to where that $4,000 went."
A foreclosure is a successful termination in the eyes of Lonestar Transfer (and many other exit companies). No one should have to PAY a company so that you could be foreclosed. One could do that themselves for FREE just by stopping payment.
Back to the glowing reviews. There are MANY 5-star Trustpilot reviews. I am suspect of all 5-star reviews for any company that charges thousands of dollars upfront. People typically are not happy to have paid thousands of dollars to any company. Sure, there are some people who just don't know that they are being ripped off and will write a review thinking that they got a bargain, but I do not think that it would fill hundreds of reviews. One thing I have noticed with many other scam exit companies is that a number of their positive reviewers appeared to live in the same area as the company itself (they also reviewed other companies local to the scam company). That would lead one to believe that they are fake reviews, likely by the company or friends and family. I looked at a handful of Trustpilot reviews (I couldn't find Google reviews of this company oddly). Many of the Trustpilot reviewers only had one review. For those that had multiple reviews I had a hard time linking them to the area of Lonestar Transfer in Texas because most of the other reviews were online companies. What I did notice with the handful of reviews I looked at, was that two reviewers shared a review about Thriftbooks. I don’t think of Thriftbooks as a common company to do business with. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not. I mention this because another scam company I reviewed had two separate glowing reviews, both supposedly residing in different parts of the country, and each they shared a review about an obscure mortuary in Oklahoma. The fact is, creating fake reviews is common in an industry that has so many unethical operators. What I did find most fascinating about the Trustpilot reviews though is that multiple individuals reviewed Lonestar Transfer TWICE over the span of a number of months. These don't appear to be repeat customers but rather a way to simply increase the number of glowing reviews.
I am also suspect of any exit company that has many glowing BBB reviews. Lonestar Transfer has 444 reviews. By comparison, American Honda Motor Company has zero reviews. Meta Technology (Facebook), a much larger global company, has 680 reviews, almost all from people with a beef to share. It is far more common for a person to post a review when they have an issue rather than just to say how great a company is.
Exit companies also like to use scare tactics. Lonestar Transfer is no exception. Their website has a maintenance fee calculator, and they use an annual increase of 12% to come up with a huge scary number that is sure to cause panic with the timeshare owner. Lonestar can then say to the potential victim - Your $11,000 payment to us is a bargain because you will be saving $500,000 in maintenance fees!" For my two timeshares, I have never seen a double-digit increase let alone 12%.
The owners of Lonestar Transfer are supposedly Bryan and Kelly Holloway, a married couple. There is nothing on the web about these people which is a red flag to me in itself.
The last thing I want to leave with is that good reviews, a long time in business, a money back guarantee, and even celebrity endorsements does not mean that you are spending your money wisely. See the TUG thread below for what could happen.
Don't do it! New exit companies keep popping up all the time. There is no regulation so anyone, even criminals, can call themselves an exit company and begin soliciting for money. They all start off the same - glitzy website, no complaints on the web, big promises, some companies with glowing...
tugbbs.com
