Embarc Resorts review: deceptive business practices 41

you know you can sell them yourself right? there are Real Estate agents (in Whistler at least, and maybe Tremblant) that will sell your memberships for you. They sell them below today's market value, but usually near what they cost originally - depending on what you paid (how long you've had membership). In think current rates go at around $100 CDN/point. Because it is a multi-location club, you don't have to sell in Tremblant. Try a guy named Don Carmichael at Whistler real estate. He has sold many memberships on the private market. Good luck.

Sign me up for the class action. They outright lied to us. They can sell more inventory than they own since the "equity" is not linked or based on "room nights" available. This means you can pay a lot and get nothing in return except more invoices from Intrawest. Time to take them down.

Duane Nickull
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I have decided to fight them in court. Just got served by BC court. Need a BC lawyer now since I live in Ontario. Any recommendations? Almost impossible to sell the membership due to our failing economy.

Just went to one today in whistler, took 3 hrs after we were told it would be 90 min. Promised us the world. When it FINALLY came down to the numbers I found it odd that they wanted an answer NOW and the offer they gave us would be gone if we came back. They offered us a "free" trip if we paid the up front fee of over $2000, most ppl can't do that so they let us do it in 6 payments but took away the trip an offered $200 in visa cards (WTF). I saw the final price was around $20, 000 but if you do the monthly payment plus the yearly fees it works out to around $40, 000. HOW THE HELL CAN THEY GET AWAY WITJ CHARGING %50 interest on this ###? On top of the fees, u still need to eat and fly to these places. You can get an all inclusive with flight to Cuba for 2 weeks for $2000 at 4-5 stars. WHY NOT JUST DO THAT ###? When we said no finally, the salesperson kept saying I don't believe in pressure but that's all we felt. Then we went to close out our NO and got a final offer which actually sounded great and told us that the perks and prices from the previous salesperson would be frozen. We were offered 160 points good for 1 year for $2, 299 with $500. That's a way better deal than signing my life away, we still declined then she dropped the price to $1799 for 160 points and $500 with 6 months payment, so sound $340 a month. We still said no and got our "free" gifts and left. If you wanna sign up, keep saying no until you get to the final "trial" offer, at $11.25 a point it's a good deal, but I don't doubt there's still some fine print on that as well. BE CAREFUL

Very dodgy company. We are from the UK and really got the hard sell in Whistler. It goes like this.
They invite you, YOU pay $20 which you get back, and some sales rep gives you the pitch. They tell you about every place you could visit using your 'points' exchanged as dollars. Its not an investment, they tell you about the losses you can make but then pile on the smoke and mirrors scam with dubious math calculations. Points buys you 'real estate' is the scam. They insist on showing you a made up room. This could be his hotel room for all we know. What difference does it make to show us a room if we are going to use the points in 100's of locations around the globe? Then the sales pitch...
$30, 000 for 125 points. Right...we look not interested. The the offer of a free 1 week holiday and cash back...$20, 000. Then he leaves the room talks to his boss and they can offer more points for the same money.
"we'll think about it"
Then the boss. Thanks for coming. We'd really like you to buy today. This file is closed when you leave and is not open for the same offers at any other time. WELL IF ITS SO BLOODY GOOD I'LL BE BACK WHEN I'VE HAD A CHANCE TO THINK ABOUT IT. But no... then they offer a free 1 week holiday in THIS resort if you sign up today, and if you do we don't take a 10% deposit, NO, not even a $1000 deposit, NO... for you only today $200 if you sign your life away at this very moment in time.
Really uncomfortable hard sell tactics. We saw sense and walk away with the promised $175 voucher.

What really concerns me is their business model. 125 point bought by us today a week anywhere. We can hand these points to our children, our grandchildren, their grandchildren for generations... this will effectively be a free 1 week holiday anywhere in the world FOREVER. I don't care who you are but that pack of cards will eventually crumble and everyone is going to loose the investment they are promised...real estate. This is truly a scam that Canada is going to never live down... its growing and the media frenzy when it falls will be huge.

The hard sell is an understatement. These ar*%holes should be locked up. This may not be fraud by the law, but certainly lies and deception. They promise the world and deliver nothing.

Just came from the same "show and tell"
Property? When you own property you can leverage it as collateral. Something tells me my banker isn't going to give a hoot about the points I would own!
The math is ludicrous as well. Buy into this for $30, 000 and still have annual dues of $1000. Not to mention that if you want to sign up with Interval International its anothrer $12, 000. This gives you $125 points annually at a value of $7.31...What a Joke!

We also got sucked into an Intrawest 'presentation' at Whistler- AND WHAT A CON! We got a free Peak-to-Peak pass out of it, thanks god, , but at the cost of 2 and a half hours of blather and eventual extreme rudeness and pressure. They were rats! Tried to sell us 220 points for some $44, 000! (This can be had for a third the price on a resale site, but don't do it- seems people can never book when they want!?) Intrawest is a BLOT ON THE WHISTLER FACE! Do not have anything to do with them, , , unless you know you will say NO! and just want a free ticket to something.

Any news on this? Did anyone manage to sell the points? How?

Too funny. My wife and I recently purchased a discounted 2 nights / 3 day stay...on the promise that we would attend their 90 minute presentation. We attended the presentation and insisted that we only had 90 minutes...so glad that we started the conversation with this communicated to them up front. The presentation was full of BS, dog and pony show, etc...and the sales person even implied that my marriage would be at risk if I was stupid enough to not take the package they offered. Luckily we said NO... 5 times, before they let us go.. We managed to escape after only being there for 100 minutes. People should run from this scam as fast as possible.

We Were lied to also in same way. Avoid at all costs!

Club Intrawest has first right of refusal on your points that you try to sell. That keeps the price up because they can botch your sale if you try to sell for less than the current pricing at the presentation. You don't have the "free" tickets, weeks, etc. to sweeten the bargain and no one is going to pay you the current pricing with no bonuses when they can get it all at a presentation. So, good luck!

Okay, reading the comments really scare me. I just bought a discounted 2 nights / 3 days stay in Whistler with the condition that we attend a 90 minute presentation much to the chagrin of hubby. Now I don't know if I should even book the stay.

Got roped into attending a presentation in Whistler. Very slick, VERY high pressure sales pitch...when we repeatedly said "sounds good, but not today" the salesman told us if he got enough "no's", he would get fired . He also told us that since we said no that we must have lied about our income . Yes, call people liars, great way to sell something . Sales pitch continued with the same amazing today only offers as others have commented above. At the end, they tried to "accidentally" forget our promised gift. Thanks for the Peak- to-peak ...liars!

We have been club members for 13 years. Were somewhat satisfied in the beginning but I can tell you it has consistently gotten worse with every passing year. Costs have doubled, and it has become impossible to book a resort. Grossly oversold, grossly over booked. We have decided it is time to exit, but as many of the other posters have noted, it is also nearly impossible to get out and recover any of your investment. Seems like things took a major turn for the worst when the new US owners took over. IT is all about a money grab now, and they do not care or listen to the members anymore.

In 2014, we got a discounted 3 day 2 night stay through Club Intrawest at Legends in Whistler. Went for the presentation where all the salespeople were extremely friendly. Our Sales rep painted a very rosy picture of Club Intrawest and all the options for travel. The costs for membership were high so we asked her to leave us so we could discuss it. She sent her manager in who dangled a few carrots such as price discount. Then he left and she came back with more carrots-1 week free holiday and later a second week. Of course it all sounded wonderful but was a big commitment so we asked for some privacy to discuss. Then she got really pushy, even a little rude. She sold the whole package as a way to prepay for luxury vacations. As far as she was concerned, after going through our vacation spending over the past few years, if we spend a certain amount on vacations a year anyway, then this worked out to be a great deal!
For the deal to go ahead, she told us that they needed a $5000 deposit then and there. I told her it was a big commitment so we needed to think about this. She didn't seem to understand my hesitation even after I asked her if the deposit was refundable if I changed my mind tomorrow. She said no.
In the end, we decided to go ahead with the deal. There were lots of smiles and congratulations from the sales team and they even brought out the champagne! That night I felt very uneasy about the whole thing and can't believe we had committed to $35, 000 plus maintenance fees of $1200+ for the rest of our lives! At that stage I was willing to forfeit the $5000 to get out of the deal. I scoured the internet for a way out and then read through the fine print of my contract. The sales rep had lied to us. In fact the $5000 was held in trust for a short period (can't remember how many days on the contract) during which time we could cancel the contract with no penalty. Also found this online at Consumer Protection BC- BC does have legislation in place to protect consumers entering into property timeshares only as it relates to specific aspects of the contracts. Under the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act (BPCPA), which is administered by Consumer Protection BC, consumers have a 10 day cooling off period to cancel a timeshare contract and under those limited circumstances are entitled to a full refund. Contracts must also contain the required contents (see here for that list) or consumers may cancel within one year. http://www.consumerprotectionbc.ca/other-business-news/1150-timesharestips

I was extremely relieved and then found information online about drawing up a contract to exercise the rescission clause in our contract. Gosh I felt like we really dodged the bullet on this one!
Now when we first arrived my husband and I had no intention of buying into this thing. We are both generally level headed and well educated with knowledge of the many scams out there. Yet embarrassingly enough, we caved in. The pressure tactics and sales pitch is so intense and it is easy to carried away by the whole thing. After this awful and very stressful experience we wouldn't want anyone else to go through this. Timeshare is expensive when you consider you still have to pay for airfare to get there. We usually go to Mexico all inclusive but with Club Intrawest, the airfare alone is about $4000. Plus we have to pay for food! It is also sold as something you can pass on to your kids. But consider the fact that maintenance fees are about $1200/yr currently. Who knows what they will be 10-15 years from now so this could be a burden you are passing onto your kids. If you haven't bought into the timeshare yet, please beware. If you are taking advantage of their special rates on the condition of attending a presentation, do just that. Take advantage, go in for the presentation, listen and then say thanks but no thanks and RUN!

The salesman tells a lie to convince you. Me and my wife were told that we can cancel anytime our membership as long as we have not yet paid the monthly amortization which will take effect after almost 90days. We missed to consider carefully what we signed in the contract and after 14days, due to unavoidable financial circumstances, we requested them to cancel the contract and refund our 10% downpayment, because we can't pay anymore, but just like falling on their trap, we can't get out and they said we were bind with the contract we signed that we have only 7 days to cancel and as per BC Real Estate Law. After doing some research, I found this site and seems like a nightmare to be a member of Club Intrawest.
Anyone who could help us how to get out from this membership. We have not yet received the points as this will take effect after April 1st.

I will file a lawsuit on a small claims court in Vancouver in the next few days. Anyone who wants to join, please contact me.

Set a timer on your phone for 90 minutes but don't tell the salesperson. At 90 minutes stand up and say the following: "thanks for covering the cost for my 90 minutes, but you have not persuaded me that this makes sense." At this point, you have met your obligation as was the deal. Take your $150 Visa card and leave. When the next sales person says something about a survey tell them to fit the survey into their 90 minutes. Then go have a really nice dinner on them.

This is such BS! After purchasing this time share and reading this I totally regret what I did
I am trying to cancell it because I have not began payments yet - it starts on May 1st ...please help! I am looking for a lawyer!
They say I can't return it after 7 days but...
If you read page 2 of the contract under " 3: closing" it does say :
"When the rescission period has expired (ie 7 days) the escrow agent is irrevocably authorized to deliver to the developer the down payment in payment of the resort points UNLESS THE PURCHASER HAS RESCINDED, in which case the sole obligation of the developer will be to refund the down payment to the purchaser without interest and upon making such refund, this agreement SHALL BE CANCELLED and all rights and obligations hereunder shall terminate"
So my question... is club intrawest doing another scam by lying to the purchasers that they can not cancell their time share! I even went to my bank and my financial advisor tried talking to this lady on the phone from club intrawest but she stated there was no way out of the contract!

We should all get together and bring this to the media

A very unhappy Winnipeger !

To Unhappy Snowboarder, we have the same situation. I'm from BC, the only thing we could do now is to bring this into court. I will be filing a case to BC small claims court to refund my money & to rescind the contract in the next few days.

I am in the same boat, whatbhappens if you stop paying the yearly members dues, our 160 points cost us 30k and its paid in full, just want out and recoup whatever i can

I managed to sell my points. There is literally one guy in Whistler who can do it but it is very hard and you will be selling them for pennies on the dollar. Still - way better than being stuck paying those annual fees.

For anyone doing a lawsuit, please tell us how out works out. We all need to know.

Anyone has a contact to sell the points, even at a loss?

Here my rant towards Intrawest. i purchased and agreed to the membership on July 30, 2005. I made a cash purchase of $22, 859.40. With resort fees of $684, 20 back in 2006. We even increased the size of our club Intrawest membership in 2006. We where very pleased with purchase, up to until 2013 when a lot changed in the way they did business. I think that's when i received my welcome to the Interval Gold membership. What we purchased was no longer what it had become.

We decided that we wanted to sell. The BC office at first was very helpful, they even put us on a sellers list. Things started getting interesting when we missed one year in paying resort fees, which by the way jumped to $1, 169.60 in 2013. We even tried to arrange a monthly payment. We had never missed our dues up to 2012, ... In August 8, 2013 we get a notice suspending our membership and they demand payment of the total unpaid balance with fees, interest, and collection cost totalled $1, 406.72 and this is during our attempt to arrange monthly payments. Which they did agree to monthly instalments but with the understanding that we can not use our points that we (Banked) paid in 2012 until our dues are up to date.

During this time with many attempts to explain that we can not travel like we used to because of health reasons. Correspondence dragged on and in 2014 I owed them $2, 645.50. Still waiting and hopping that the membership would sell, when we received a call from the membership department informing us that unless we paid the 2013 resort fees to the club which were due on November 30, 2012 they would automatically forfeit our membership and resorts points. Their letter dated July 17, 2014 stated that at a meeting on July 16, 2014, the Board of Directors of the Club passed a resolution forfeiting our membership unless i send them $1, 714.01. I refused to pay.

Now after all that I thought it was over but in November 30, 2014 i get a 2015 Club Intrawest Resort Dues Invoice Totalling $4, 440.18. > I will let you know if i get another Notice to pay dues in 2015. Ending my rant, ... fck the 20K ! It's the dishonest sales tactics that bothers me the most, ... and they are getting away with it.

I am highly interested in a class action law suit against Club Intrawest. They clearly misrepresent that the rediculously high price of the membership is an "investment" and that it is easy to re-sell. Being a Club Intrawest owner is a liability - with exhorbitant annual dues which equate to a regular priced vacation! Club Intrawest demands the right of first refusal to re-purchase points from its members. Prospective buyers are put off by this as they could spend many hours of their time negotiating and completing paperwork with a notary only to find that the deal could very well fall through. I own 360 points which cost over $60, 000.00. I have been trying to sell them for 4 years on Sellmytimesharenow.com, recommended by Club Intrawest, which cost $500 to advertise the sale and I have dropped the price to $18, 000.00 and still there hasn't been one interested purchaser in four years! I have dropped the price to $50.00 per point and the price that Club Intrawest is charging currently is over $200.00 per point. And still there are no buyers. I cannot afford the annual dues anymore as I do not have permanent employment. Now I am receiving threatening letters. They have my investment and my membership is suspended and I can't even sell it! If anyone knows of a class action that I can join then please contact me at fedupwithintrawest@gmail.com. Thank you, Anne

Right now, one cannot sell the membership to anyone as the club is being pitched to Diamond Resorts for 89 million. They in turn will begin squeezing all the current owners to convert so they can play with all the new clubs. If you wish to sell your points, find someone willing to take them for free. The few realtors out there that sell in Whistler have a line up around the mountain of sellers with no buyers. It has now dropped to $30.00 bucks a point, and it is still not moving the selling line. Stay away big time.

Hi, I recently was on VRBO.com and I saw Club Intrawest at Blue Mountain advertising their rooms, so I put in a request and low and behold they gave me a quote. I was under the impression only club members could stay at Club locations.

These guys should work for the CIA. They have every trick from the source recruitment manual off pat. I'm 60 years old I have not ever succumbed to the sales patter from timeshare sales people. 'just go along for 90 minutes and collect $170 you don't have to buy anything'. 16 years I've heard the same patter. Ok. What harm can it do? I consider myself shrewd, erudite and savvy. 5 hours 45 minutes I resisted all the bull then in a moment of weakness I bought passport membership for USD 3673.95. Sucker! I know how to manipulate people for the greater good and foolishly thought I would not fall into the traps that I know how to set. Wrong. My grandmother said bought sense is the best sense. I have bought some sense. Bring on the compulsory 90 minute review.

I have just hired timeshare exit for $4000 to get rid of my contract, suppose to take 9 - 18 months, its paid in full but I haven't paid the maintenance fees this year…. will keep you posted

If you want to discuss with other member join the members group https://www.facebook.com/groups/clubintrawestowners/

Include me in your class action suit. Same story was told we would be able to sell our shares after belonging for 10 years at the same price we originally paid. No problem! When attempting to do this we were now told there is a 5yr waiting period and only 10% of the money raised each year on new sales would be available to purchase back shares of those wanting out.
They keep selling new shares which increases the pool looking to use the points to secure their properties.
Also found out that properties that were not available to us for points, were available if we wanted to pay to stay.
What a scam.
We are now stuck with our points which we can not use due to no availability, but can't sell them back, but must continue to pay dues that keeps increasing each year or lose all we have invested.
Len Krebs

My story is very similar, ... we where all in at the beginning back in sept 2005. Was very happy for many years. We mainly used it in New York staying at the Hilton, until we where unable to exchange points. Unable to travel, we made a request to help us sell in 2010. We tried selling it personally, even shared it. We where notified in 2014 that the board cancelled our membership and points because of outstanding fees. Nothing was sent to us to sign, ... it's an expensive lesson learned.

I Just became aware of this website as we are very seriously considering to start legal proceedings against Embarc
Our case would be so much stronger if we join forces and we initiate class action low suit.

Please contactt us

we have been members since 2007 and in the beginning they were associated with resorts club international {R.C.I.} If you could travel within i believe 30 days from when the booking took place, you could get {with a little searching of resorts} a very nice.An example would be on Kauai we got a fantastic 2 bedroom, 2 washroom, kitchen bar, huge livingroom resort for 40 points total for 7 days at wyndam resort.Even when they still had hilton resorts as one of their options we got some great deals at nice accomodations for points only plus booking fees.Now that diamond resorts have taken over the resort dues have gone up and the benefits have drastically gone down.Just try and go anywhere on points only and you will hit a dead end every time unless y you are fortunate or foolish enough to own 500+ points.The only place your 125 points are going to get you is a stay in minnesota in the middle of winter If you go onto booking.com or any of the other booking sites you can find the exact resorts as interval have for almost the same price, perhaps a little more{$20-$40} more but considering interval charge a booking fee of $20.00 per night american per night it is evident that interval are an absolute RIPOFF. this company has gone from something resonably good to a nightmare for alot of people who have been lied to and cheated out of their money.