SamSampras
newbie
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2025
- Messages
- 1
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- Resorts Owned
- Holiday Inn Club Vacations
My mother-in-law is a HICV elite platinum owner with points at Orange Lake, Cape Canaveral, and Gatlinburg. She went in for her annual "meeting" this past week and came back to the room (my wife and I were staying with her at River Island - Orange Lake). After two hours in the meeting, we knew she bought something. She has dementia and they have duped her into sinking more money every October. She came back and we questioned her about what happened. We pressed her to know if she bought anything and lo and behold, she upped it to DIAMOND status for only a cool financed $140,000 (due next year, of course!). Her annual maintenance fees would go up to $22,000 per year. We were flabbergasted. We wanted to know why on earth she would do this when she has repeatedly told us she was done buying stuff from them.
She then told us the scam her salesperson Sean Pendergast (I'm gonna use his name because he is a crook!) told her. He said to cover her annual fees and even MAKE a PROFIT, she should up to Diamond status and use half the points for her own vacationing and then they would help her set it up to have the rest of her points sold through Red Week. He said that Red Week would buy her points up at 20 cents per point even if the booking she made to sell through them was not taken! She was also told she could list numerous listings and only pay a one-time listing fee. He said she would be guaranteed to make about 20 to 30 grand per year selling her excess points and that Red Week would buy her points regardless of whether the booking was taken by anyone. He said he himself did the same and made 20 to 30 grand per year. He also told her not to tell anyone else about what he was sharing with her!
Finally, my mother-in-law listened to our reasoning and decided to rescind her contract she signed. I went with her to the sales office and she told her quality assurance specialist she wanted to rescind and of course they tried to talk her out of it and when that didn't work they tried to get her to at least buy something even if it was upping by 100,000 points. They asked her why she was rescinding and what made her want to do the deal in the first place. Because of her dementia she is not able to explain herself well at all. She kept telling the sales people she had "brain issues" and that she was "crazy" but they kept pushing and pushing. Finally, I stepped in and told them what Sean Pendergast had told her and the whole tone in the room changed. They left the room and I overheard one of the senior sales people named Brad say to the other, Gabriel "We are gonna need her to write a statement". They came back into the room with the VP of Orange Lake on the phone who apologized profusely and asked if she would write a statement explaining what Sean had said. They disavowed themselves of his sales strategies and said it was not representative of their company. I appreciated his tone but they were definitely trying to cover their butts!
In the end, he gave us a $100 gift card for resort use (WOW! after 3 days of wasting our time and stressing over all this junk a $100 gift card is fantastic
), helped us cancel the contract, and said they would handle things with Sean.
My mother-in-law didn't want to write a statement because she felt bad and didn't want to get the guy in trouble. She also has a hard time with recalling events. I am scared about the next time she gets in front of these people .She LOVES HICV. We HATE them. I don't want her to forget about this last scam they tried to pull on her and do it all over again.
Any advice on how to proceed with a parent who has dementia and keeps getting suckered for digging in deeper with HICV?
She then told us the scam her salesperson Sean Pendergast (I'm gonna use his name because he is a crook!) told her. He said to cover her annual fees and even MAKE a PROFIT, she should up to Diamond status and use half the points for her own vacationing and then they would help her set it up to have the rest of her points sold through Red Week. He said that Red Week would buy her points up at 20 cents per point even if the booking she made to sell through them was not taken! She was also told she could list numerous listings and only pay a one-time listing fee. He said she would be guaranteed to make about 20 to 30 grand per year selling her excess points and that Red Week would buy her points regardless of whether the booking was taken by anyone. He said he himself did the same and made 20 to 30 grand per year. He also told her not to tell anyone else about what he was sharing with her!
Finally, my mother-in-law listened to our reasoning and decided to rescind her contract she signed. I went with her to the sales office and she told her quality assurance specialist she wanted to rescind and of course they tried to talk her out of it and when that didn't work they tried to get her to at least buy something even if it was upping by 100,000 points. They asked her why she was rescinding and what made her want to do the deal in the first place. Because of her dementia she is not able to explain herself well at all. She kept telling the sales people she had "brain issues" and that she was "crazy" but they kept pushing and pushing. Finally, I stepped in and told them what Sean Pendergast had told her and the whole tone in the room changed. They left the room and I overheard one of the senior sales people named Brad say to the other, Gabriel "We are gonna need her to write a statement". They came back into the room with the VP of Orange Lake on the phone who apologized profusely and asked if she would write a statement explaining what Sean had said. They disavowed themselves of his sales strategies and said it was not representative of their company. I appreciated his tone but they were definitely trying to cover their butts!
In the end, he gave us a $100 gift card for resort use (WOW! after 3 days of wasting our time and stressing over all this junk a $100 gift card is fantastic
), helped us cancel the contract, and said they would handle things with Sean. My mother-in-law didn't want to write a statement because she felt bad and didn't want to get the guy in trouble. She also has a hard time with recalling events. I am scared about the next time she gets in front of these people .She LOVES HICV. We HATE them. I don't want her to forget about this last scam they tried to pull on her and do it all over again.
Any advice on how to proceed with a parent who has dementia and keeps getting suckered for digging in deeper with HICV?
