What Happened to Selling Time Guys/Elite Resort Transfers

[lizfox]

I purchased a couple of timeshares a few months ago from Selling Time Guys and I haven't seen them on eBay for a while. Anyone know what happened to them? I think they were affiilated with a closing company called Elite Resort Transfers.

 

[slip]

I was wondering the same thing. I bought my last timeshare through them.

 

[theo]

Seek and ye shall find (...or, "the search function is your friend")

I purchased a couple of timeshares a few months ago from Selling Time Guys and I haven't seen them on eBay for a while. Anyone know what happened to them? I think they were affiilated with a closing company called Elite Resort Transfers.

Look in the very first "sticky" above this forum for a thread entitled "Notes from Orlando Police Department Investigator". In post #2, you will promptly find clear and specific reference to both Selling Time Guys and Elite Resort Transfers --- in the context of a (undocumented and completely unsubstantiated) claim of a February 17, 2012 announcement reportedly issued by the FBI. We should perhaps be wary of such claims, made without factual back-up, news link or any other supporting material of any kind. Fwiw, my own (admittedly brief and cursory) Google search for some factual back-up to the OP FBI claim has yielded nothing in support of that claim.

IF the (unsubstantiated) claim of FBI involvement in the above referenced post is true and accurate, then both entities would appear to now have the attention of the FBI for alleged scamming / stealing escrow funds. Accordingly, if so, they may be a bit "pre-occupied" with matters other than "business as usual".
You may not be "seeing them on eBay" (...or anywhere else) again anytime soon --- if ever.

 

[lizfox]

This may be a naive question but I'll ask it anyway. How do you steal funds from escrow when you own both the company that is selling the timeshares (Selling Time Guys) and the closing company (Elite Resort Transfers)? Does that mean that someone from Elite Resort Transfer was stealing funds from the escrow account? Or was this company as a whole just putting money from timeshare sales in an escrow account, taking it out for themselves, and not completing the timeshare ownership transfer?

I personally didn't have any issues with my purchases from Selling Time Guys and I thought they were one of the "good ones" until now. I guess they were doing some illegal activities behind the scene.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Many of these companies just operate out of a home, and they have no such thing as escrow, even though they claim to hold escrow.

I think some of them were caught claiming to be legally organized, but they really were not registered in their states. All it takes is for one person to be upset with a closing and talking to the right person, like the Attorney General of that state.

 

[theo]

I dunno, but...

I think some of them were caught claiming to be legally organized, but they really were not registered in their states. All it takes is for one person to be upset with a closing and talking to the right person, like the Attorney General of that state.

IF these people have managed to get the attention of the FBI (i.e., not just a state AG office), I think it's a safe bet that there would be considerably more to this matter than just "failing to be state registered".
The FBI surely doesn't care one bit about state registration or administrative procedures or requirements. More likely, if the (undocumented and unsubstantiated) claim of FBI involvement is even true and accurate in the first place, there must have been mishandling and / or other misappropriation of significant amounts of money and have also involved interstate activity (e.g., wire fraud), thereby making the participants eligible to play in the major leagues of Federal attention (...and potentially, face Federal prosecution).

 

[rrlongwell]

These people have managed to get the attention of the FBI (i.e., not just a state AG office). Accordingly, I think it's a safe bet that there is considerably more to this matter than just "failing to be state registered". The FBI surely doesn't care a whit about state registration procedures or requirements. More likely, there was mishandling and /or misappropriation of significant funds involving interstate activity, thereby making the participants eligible to play in the major leagues of Federal "attention" (...and perhaps, prosecution).

Apparently another one "bit the dust" maybe major E-Bay re-sellers will take a not so sutle hint from law enforcement to clean up their act.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Theo, definitely in agreement with you.

Selling Time Guys was renting DVC exchanges on eBay, which was annoying. Several DVC exchanges each week, going on for weeks at a time. I think it was their last ditch attempt to make some cash at the end.

I bought from STG and was especially angry at their eBay rentals, but Anna Hickman did a good job with closing our purchases. We were lucky to be done before the stuff hit the fan.

Antonio Comas is probably related to Jon Comas, because they had businesses very near one another, and share the same last name. So Jon thought he could do what his relative (brother/father/uncle??) did, and he started his own little business. Jon is now selling timeshares under a brand new name and closes them himself as Lakeside Closing Services.

Jon Comas has used several id's on eBay, peddling timeshares as Affordable Luxury Items, Memorable Vacations, and now Timeshare Warehouse. Maybe there are some other names in there somewhere that I don't know about.

Jon doesn't get his closed in a timely manner but sure expects people to pay immediately. I bought one from him, and that was it for me. I asked him over and over again to get it closed, and he had sarcastic emails in answer to my queries. How classy.

What was the crime, I wonder, by STG? Maybe they were holding too many timeshares they weren't getting closed. This could be the end to many of these companies, ultimately.

 

[richardm]

I'm not a fan of the Comas brothers.. But has anyone actually seen a link to this "FBI" investigation.. Perhaps I just missed it on that post- but I didn't see anything other than an individual poster making the claim.

 

[theo]

A good point --- and well taken...

I'm not a fan of the Comas brothers.. But has anyone actually seen a link to this "FBI" investigation.. Perhaps I just missed it on that post- but I didn't see anything other than an individual poster making the claim.

Sharp eye there, Richard. Well done!

Looking at this a bit more closely, I now belatedly see that OP Jasmine658 (as stated in a 2/18/12 post), has merely reported an alleged personal loss of $7298 to one or more of these entities to the FBI (...and apparently to the FL AG, as well).

This is, of course, a distinctly different situation from there actually being a FBI "investigation", since this individual "consumer complaint" will likely just be summarily ignored by the FBI, an agency which has much bigger fish to fry --- and which will simply defer to state jurisdiction in the absence of any wire fraud, unlawful interstate activity, big money theft and / or an actual grand scale conspiracy.

Jasmine658 may well get some investigative response or action from the FL AG office, since Florida (as you well know) already has state laws on the books enabling them to deal with these types of parasites.
How effectively Florida deals with such parasites, however, seems to be another matter entirely.

 

[Cdn Gal]

That is too bad, we bought from STG and has no problems. IOt was a breeze to deal with them in comparison to the first time we bought a timeshare on eBay. It worked out so well in fact hat my dad a year later bought a contract with them and again had no problems. I too thought that they were one of the more reputable sellers on eBay.

 

[theo]

A cautionary note...

I too thought that they were one of the more reputable sellers on eBay.

I don't know the seller or the closing entity and I certainly will not utter a word in defense of either one.

That being said however, I would just point out that the expressed dissatisfaction of a single individual in a single post does not constitute (or in any way substantiate) evidence of wrongdoing. For all we know, this could just be an ongoing transaction in slow progress and the complainant may simply be unhappy with the pace of the "closing of the deal". Absent any presented facts or timelines, it's impossible to know.