The Coral Resorts review: Verbal Misrepresentation and Fraud 29

We are not new to timeshares. However we were grossly mislead (okay I will not sugar-coat it) we were flat-out lied to during the timeshare presentation. The maintenance fee is more than double what we were told it would be. Additionally we were told that they Timeshare Parters was purchasing our existing timeshare and that at closing the deal would be a wash. Months later we learned that all that Timeshare Partners is doing is listing our timeshare, and there are a dozen other identical ones listed there as well (with quite a wide variation in listing price). I am fighting mad right now and not certain how to proceed. Rest assured that I will not sit by and do nothing. As I see it my options include finding an attorney to contest the sale based upon verbal misrepresentation and/or picketing the sales office over the Memorial Day Weekend. If I resort to the latter, please consider this an open invitation.

The folks at Island Link HOA are rude and totally unprofessional. I purchased a time share in 2005, in 2006 I moved to a new home. I made a change of address at my post office at the time and informed everyone that I received mail from on a regular bases. Since I had bought my time share in 2005, I did not get any correspondence from Island Links until February 2011 when my triannual dues were due. My initial shock was that the HOA fees were not the same as quoted, my second shock was a 25.00 late fee. (this was the first correspondence I had received in 3 years). When I called the home owners association the first time, I went through voice mail announcements for about 5 minutes and listened to the ocean and birds cherping for about 5 minutes only to be forwarded to a voice mail box asking me to leave a message. The message indicated that my call would be returned within 24 hours, that did not happen. I called again this morning and spoke to a very rude non-caring young lady. She would not look at my situation from a common sense approach. I explained I had moved right after purchasing and did not think to contact them. After all, I did not get mail from them before moving. I asked that an exception be made and to deduct the 25.00 late fee. She told me in no uncertain terms NO, she said because I did not call them and give them my new address that they had to pay a firm to find my new address. I asked why they did not call me, my telephone number did not change. She asked me if I realized that they had over a 1000 customers and did I know how long it would take for them to call folks that had moved? I told her that it probably did not take as long to call someone as it did for them to contract someone to find my address. This lady would not use any common sense, she told me that the 25.00 would stay on my account and there was no exceptions, she also had a real bad attitude. I informed her that I would attempt to sell my time share and I did not want to come back to Hilton Head and spend any of my money in that community. I not support a town or company that supports that type of attitude from their employees. I have now placed another phone call to customer service and again had to leave a message for someone to call me back. I was dissapointed the first time I tried to book a week in my condo, I was dissapointed in the RCI process and available resorts and now I am dissapointed again. IF YOU ARE LOOKING AT BUYING A TIME SHARE WITH THIS RESORT, PLEASE SAVE YOUR MONEY AND TAKE A VACATION WHERE PEOPLE ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT YOU. I DON'T THINK THEY REALIZE WHAT THE $25.00 LATE FEE HAS ACTUALLY COST THEM. I WILL NEVER GO BACK, WHAT A SHAME OVER 25.00!

scammed by coral resorts . any way to file a class action lawsuit? email me at gizzo2@aol.com i am ready to see some heads roll! thanks, William

First and foremost, read AND understand it. Then ask to use THEIR pen
You are agreeing to all the provisions, obligations, agreements, consideration and terms of the contract. You need to read it carefully to determine what they are before you agree to be legally bound by those obligations.

No island on earth has more loving residents than this one.
Their critical comments about it are actually expressions of their adoration. That love grows stronger as it grows older.
- Jonathan Daniels, quoted in the Island Packet, August 31, 1972

We purchased an Island Links timeshare in August 2009 and took part in their Buyback program to sell our old timeshare in Hawaii. We filled out all of the paperwork and handed the title over to them.

In November & December 2009, we received invoices from HGVC (old timeshare) for the annual maintenance fees. I called Reba Management and was told to just ignore them, since they would pay now that they owned them. I left several messages for Reba when I kept getting invoices for the balance due.

In May of 2010, I ended up paying for the HGVC maintenance, including all late fees and finance charges, just so it wouldn't go to collections. That's when HGVC said that they have no record of the title ever being transferred. I called Reba back every week from June 2010 - May 2011 and left messages each time, asking for someone to call me back. I never received any acknowledgment from them.

I am about to pay the 2011 Maintenance Fees, finance charges, and late fees so it won't go to collections.

I actually spoke with someone in the Reba Management Administration offices today (yay!) and was directed to Kate Swisher in the Sales Office. I left a message for her and asked her to call me back.

YES! They told us the maintenance fee would be no more than 350$ then the bill came and it was 975$! Also when I try to book anything my points cannot purchase anything!
They also said that within a 30 day booking period all resorts would only be 9, 000 points to book!

They lied about everything!

I thought about NEVER visiting Hilton Head again, but I now think that's the wrong decision.

Yes... the people of Hilton Head Island and Beaufort County, S.C. should put Coral Resorts out of business.

And yes... they are partially responsible for this and other "timeshare frauds".

But Hilton Head is an otherwise wonderful place to visit.

I think we as consumers can put Coral Resorts out of business.

To start with... let's name all these employees with whom we've been dealing. I don't think it's enough to just say "the salesman" or "the rep". Let's name them by person. Why not? What if anything can they sue about? Just be honest and tell the truth.

My "vacation counselor" was Mark Broderick.

The "verification officer" was Sheldon Stanhope.

The owner services representatitve Lori Lucas.

Their attorney (at closing) was K. Michael Barfield.

Their law firm: Barnwell, Whaley, Patterson, & Helms of Charleston, S.C.

Despite what they might say... everyone involved in any fraudulent transactions concerning Coral Resorts - Island Links is jointly and severally responsible.

Don't listen to them or their attorneys.

I will soon seek legal counsel myself.

By the way... as I was reviewing my contract... I just noticed another scam they pulled on me.

We purchased an ANNUAL timeshare -- but the contract says "Tri-X" in three different places, and one of those places it also says "(Every Third Year Usage)".

Sheldon Stanhope signed those papers, so I'm holding him personally responsible for that "fast switch".

Re: Dwight Trew - Owner Coral Resorts

Excerpts from: TimeSharing Today (Mar/Apr 2006)

Coral Resorts Accused of Fraud

As consumer complaints mount, a former salesman for a Hilton Head Island timeshare company claims in court papers that the company engaged in fradulent practices.

Archie Elliott worked for Coral Resorts, which markets and sells timeshare units at Coral Sands and Island Links... in order to close sales, as a general practice, managers knowingly made statements and guarantees to buyers that were not truthful.

The affidavit was filed to support a motion of property owners of Island Links time shares. The owners have asked a state court judge to appoint a receiver to manage the company, claiming fraudulent sales practices put the development at financial risk because of the possibility of future lawsuits...

Elliott's claims are similar to 38 complaints from buyers that Coral Resorts sales staff made verbal assurances that differed from contracts buyers later signed. The complaints, filed over a two-year period... were made to the state Real Estate Commission, which regulates the industry...

Representatives from Coral Resorts and the Real Estate Commission met May 26 to discuss the complaints after the commission described them as "alarming and far in excess of any reasonably acceptable norm, " according to an April 14 letter from the commission to Dwight Trew, developer of Coral Sands and Island Links.

[No further mention was made whether anything ever came of the motion to the South Carolina judge. Apparently nothing ever came of it, since we purchased our timeshare in late 2010, and the same sales tactics were being practiced.

Shame on the South Carolina Real Estate Commission for allowing Dwight Trew to continue defrauding unknowing consumers!]

The steps necessary to bring Coral Resorts to justice are several:

1. Plaster the internet with real life stories of the fraud (perceived or actual) committed by Coral Resorts, whether it invloves Coral Reef; Coral Sands; Island Links; or Port O'Call. Mention all of these by name, as well as Hilton Head Island and words such as fraud.

[Internet search engines determine ranking by frequency and relevance to search phrases. It shouldn't be that difficult to cause consumer complaints to become the highest ranking "hits" for Coral Resorts.]

2. Stop any friends, relatives, or even strangers from even stepping foot on any Coral Resorts properties, let alone visiting their "sales presentations".

3. Encourage all recent buyers to rescind their deals with Coral Resorts immediately.

4. Encourage all current owners to NOT default. This is the worst possible thing a buyer could do. Default is playing into the "business model" of Dwight Trew and his gang.

5. I have PLENTY of other ideas, which I won't mention at the moment. All of them are focused on denying Coral Resorts the "cash flow" they need to operate their business.

[None of my ideas involve violence or illegal activity!]

coolgunz, I have tried contacting you through Email, as I would love to talk to you about the whole situation and what we as the customers can band together and do. If there is anyone else that would like to talk about this, please do not hesitate to contact me. My email address is mumbles23@hotmail.com. I am very frustrated with coral resorts and the lies that me and my wife were told and how deceiving their sales people are.

I too trusted what I was told instead of taking the time to read the contract fully. I was told one thing and have received something else. After calling twice and finally having my call returned I was told, "it is what it is, " you signed te contract and that is legally binding. We don't buy back your developer weeks, your name is given to a third party if they want to buy your week or points. Your points aren't annually, even thoug the paperwork staes that, they are bi-ennial, that was a clerical error. We can't be held liable for what our sales department says, we only represent the contrat you signed. I also enjoy going to Hilton Head immensely, however, I am not happy with what was stated and what was signed. My suggestion is anyone unhappy with the representation of what the contract is and what was represented when told to sign here, here, and here. Contact the "South Carolina Consumers Affairs", at scconsumer.gov, and let them know what is going on. Because the sales department should be held liable for what they represent.

Hi My husband and I were scammed into purchased fron Islands links resort and now we can nolonger afford the payment and the maintence fees . does anyone know what happens if we stop paying the mortgage ? How does it affect our credit report?

My wife and I have the same experience with Coral Shores. The dishonest approach they take is outrageous. We made it so clear that it was necessary that we received the monies they promised for our other timeshares. We we promised the sales monies would come in 30-60 days. Not one time was the " third party" sales mentioned. Shame on us for not reading the contract returned to us! Is there anything we can do? I am stuck with a 10k loan and an additional timeshare I do not need.

All of the stories I just read above could apply to my husband and me. I've been trying to do something about our 1 week purchase ever since I had time to read the documents they had us sign also end of 2009. Phil Lucchese was our "salesperson" who lied over and over to us. We were to get an annual week in exchange for 3 properties in FL plus the sum of 19, 000 "within 30-60 days" for the difference. I have contacted Better Business Bureau, Attorney General's office in SC, gotten the runaround with Coral Resorts Customer Service who refer us to so-and-so who refer us to so-and-so and back to Customer Service, etc. We are now stuck with a biannual week we don 't want and can't afford. The tale goes on and on. Please notify me if you have any ideas on how to recoup our money, sue these people or something. cindyt71@hotmail.com

My husband and I were also part of Coral Resorts fraud. In April of 2011 we bought into this timeshare with the understanding that they would buy our time share for the same price of the Island links purchase. We were also told they were giving us 2 developer weeks. Of course, they didn't buy our timeshare, and when I tried to use a developer week, I was told they were booked up. I was flexible so I asked about several other dates and of course these were book also. Then i was told in order to use these developer weeks which were "given" to us as an extra bonus it would cost us 1000.00 dollars a week to use it! How is that a gift? I am very disappointed with Coral Resorts. Never have I had such dishonest sales people to sell us a timeshare. We have two others and have no problems with them. I will no longer go to Hilton Head and will do whatever I can to warn others of their dishonesty. Please notify me of any progress toward getting out of this contract. jacden57@charter.net

I must welcome myself to this string of complains as my wife and I along with our two adult daughters heard every lie and misleading statement as portrayed by all of you. We now have two programs with points, one with them tied to a 17% loan that we can not replace because they did not sell our other points. Amazing that they "just confirmed the price $1.31 per point with the original company and they would buy them back." And the points can get you 3 weeks plus a builders week in a 3 BR. RCI says won't get a week in a one br. These people are sickening as they pervade the entire organization down to the lender and I will call the reseller "the holding company" for long lost points and timeshares. I am sure the one year contract to sell is just a stalling mechanism for Island Links to get you so far into the payback that they win because of defaults. I will be printing all these out, go down April and litter their sales floor if necessary.

My fiance and I were also scammed by these people. The same things that happend to you all happend to us also. They told us that they would gurantee that every place we wanted to go would let us bring our dogs, they told us that 9000 points would get us everything we want. It sounded great. Then i came back to our rental house and did some research and found out that they have a F rating with the BBB. Hopefully we are lucky and don't have to fight with them due to us only being 3 days into the agreement. And we were able to stop payment on our credit card to keep them from getting their down payment. My fiance's husband was killed in iraq 8 years ago so she knows a lot of high powered political figures. Hopefully they will just cancel everything. If not then we will start making the personal phone calls to the senators to get something done with this place. This is just crazy to see all of the negative stuff on here about them. Glad we caught it when we did!

I was also scammed by Sheldon Stanhope of Coral Resorts sales department. I was told I had two free developer weeks in addition to the week I have yearly and they would rent out the developer weeks yearly and i could expect $2500 from each week at the beginning of the year- a lie. I was told I could use the money from the developer weeks to help pay down the loan and I believed them. I could not t get anyone to return my calls. But I did get a call when i stopped my monthly payment. I was then told that no one could have told me that because Coral Resorts has no such program, I was also told when I purchased last August that they would waive the maintenance fee for 2012, well surprise that was not true either. Does anyone know what happens if you stop paying them? Does this appear on your credit report?

During the 3 hour sales sessions, our sales person lied about the process to sell our existing Timeshare, lied about the annual fees (said they would be $300, they are over $900) and lied about the ease of which to rent our Timeshare and encouraged us to misrepresent who was in the Timeshare if we were going to let friends use it.
DO NOT trust anything the company says because your legal action is limited to what's in the agreement. DO NOT sign any of their agreements until you have reviewed it with your personal legal representative. Yes, that means you will not sign while at the sale meeting. After many attempts to contact Coral, we finally got a response that basically said, "you signed it, you own it". They really don't care what they tell you.
Good luck!

We were scammed too by Island Links, just this last August 2011 we were told that they were buying our old timeshare and we just found out today it wasnt true. Patrick Budnik was our salesman and he said we would recieve the money in 6 weeks. After that time we called and was told he was wrong it could take up to 6 months because our timeshare was in the Cayman Islands. That sounded ligit so we waited and now 8 months later we were told oh no they dont buy your timeshare. The loan for theirs is at 17 percent, which is crazy to start but we thought for a couple months o.k. We also found out that the amount of points doesnt get us a 3bedroom unit ANYWHERE! We bought our Cayman Island unit site unseen 20 years ago from Morritts Tortuga Club and have NEVER had 1 problem. Another thing is I cant believe RCI would allow Island Links to even be listed with them. Please contact me of a lawsuit or how I can get out of their timeshare at munchroehm@hotmail.com

Coral Resorts Hilton Head is a fraud and scam. (They own Island Links, Coral Reef, Coral Sands and Port 'O Call) If you are considering (or have already signed a contract but you are still within your 72 hour recission period), run, don't walk to the nearest post office and notify them via certified mail that you are terminating the contract. The maintenance fee is not $300.00 per year, it's closer to $1000. The 'developer week' is not a free week it will cost you another maintenance fee of $1000. The points that you received through RCI won't get you a week at Hilton Head unless you are extremely lucky and find a spot open, but that is very difficult to do if you make your vacation plans in advance. If you've found your way to this blog your gut is already telling you all you need to know: DON'T DO IT!

I have to post an update on my previous comment dated 6/26/12. We made an appointment with LeighAnn Hoppe, Director of Owner Services at Coral Resorts. We sat down with her and explained our feelings and concerns. She was extremely helpful and understanding. On the spot she made an offer to cancel the contract or revise it to see if we could come to mutually agreeable terms. She did not even pressure us for a decision that day, but offered to put it all in writing and give us some time to consider our options. I could not be more pleased with how she handled things. I am not posting our decision here as that will be each individuals decision based on what is best for them, but I would strongly encourage anyone who has concerns to talk with her first to see if there is something that can be done to satisfy all involved.

Scott,

Please post the contact information for Leigh Ann Hoppe.

My husband and I are one of hundreds that have also been victim to coral resorts fraud and misrepresentation. Has anyone had any luck getting out of their contract or opening a class action lawsuit against them? Please contact me at phoenix3192007@yahoo.com

We fell to the same scam we have contacted the Real Estate commission of SC and retained an attorney - we paid ours in full the first time ($17, 900.00) when we tried to book we were told didn't even have enough to book a week we in fact thought we had 3 weeks - we visited the sales center again and were in fact scammed again ! I know shame on us - we however the 2nd time have not paid the remainder but we are unable to get any type of refund or resolution even with the commission and the attorney that we have - we are at a loss and do not know where to turn - any ideas please reach me at psclark1@gmail.com

You previously bought 3 timeshares how could you believe what somebody would sale to make a sale? When do you plan to read and understand contracts?

We also bought last year - a triennial contract. Everything "coach", our rep said was a lie. Now just trying to make a reservation and talk to someone (so it's not wasted) is almost impossible, unless you go through RCI, which means paying the yearly membership fee. We are extremely unhappy with the agreement. I wish there was a way to warn others. What was a beautiful place to enjoy and visit is now a nightmare. I'm surprised the local government allows this to happen.
Susan Franco

Also scammed here. Upgraded 3 x. Went to Tugbbs which is a blog site and found out there is a class action lawsuit going on since July 2014. The Attorney is Zach Naert in Hilton Head. Contact him at [protected]. Also filed a complaint on line with SC Investigations & Enforcement SC Dept. of Labor Licensing and Regulation at LLR onloine.com

We too were lied to by Sheldon Stanhope and Terrence, we were told 3000 points we can use right now and quest and smart stays lies, lies, lies, I googled Sheldons name to see if I could get an email address for him and up popped this complaint board. I will say Spinnaker Resorts has been good to us and I regret ever dealing with Coral Resorts. Spinnaker you have your time, they are upfront, had them about 10 yrs. without issue. Now I value them even more. Coral Resorts give all time shares a very bad name. Let's just find a way to give Coral Resorts the bad name they deserve. We have had our account 4 months and already can't use, ridiculous, and I wish illegal.