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My husband and I purchased a 5 day vacation through Gecco Marketing in 2011. I, Briley Leveronne had been in contact with Lauren, in the Wellington, Fl office several times. She told me she would forward our confirmation via email. I contacted Lauren 4 times over the course of three weeks because we did not receive that confirmation. On August 22nd, 2012 we received an email that contained confirmation dates of March 2012. (Our trip is for November 2012) I called the office back and explained I was getting frustrated because this was my 5th call. I explained that I had been very patient and understanding but that this was not a great first impression on the company. Lauren became very defensive and said I needed to re-check my email. She said, "Well this is the 5th time we have had to deal with you." She implied that I just couldn't read the dates correctly. I felt very insulted and asked kindly if she could please forward me the email again. She then began talking over me, interrupting me and not letting me explain what I was seeing in the email. Her volume became escalated and then I was hung up on. I called the office back and was sent straight to voicemail. I left a message on the machine asking if a manager could please call me back. I have not received a call from a manager apologizing or inquiring as to what I needed or could be helped with.
I do not think this type of behavior was acceptable. There seems to be no 'manager' at this office. I have only ever spoken with Lauren. This company helps set up time share vacations. Lauren's poor customer service is our only impression of this company. My husband and I are looking into the possibility of purchasing a time share. I am afraid if this situation is not rectified and handled correctly, we are going to cancel the reservation, and two potential life time customers will be lost.
I was very patient and understanding the first 4 times I had to contact the office. I want to believe that this company does not accept the behavior in which Lauren demonstrated. I feel it is in poor taste to resort to your customers as having to be 'dealt with', to be interrupted countless times, and ultimately be hung up on. There was no patience to explain why we are seeing two different emails, no apology, and no return phone call from management.
I hope this company can make this situation right.
You will not get a refund even if you follow the 30 day written requirement of the law. After you have paid basically all of your calls to their company will be screened through voice mail. If you request a refund they will not return your call or even pick up your phone calls. However, I was proactive and visited their website to request the refund in writing. Guess what conveniently they argue that their website links are inactive! What she fails to tell you is that they will sell products under the Gecco Marketing name and that license expired 4/28/2011. They sold me the package in Oct. of 2011 under that name. Therefore, they will sell you the product under the Gecco Marketing name and then after requesting a refund you will get a letter that says the business is closed and that Vacation Headquarters, inc. will now handle the account. You will even find that someone claiming to be one of their own employee's or previous employees has stated on the scam boards that they will not refund the money even if you contact them within the 30 days.
Here are the avoidance tactics they have used against my attorney and I:
1. Say initially that you are out of the refund period even if you contacted them within the 30 days.
2. With the website say that the links are inactive
3. Deny with the BBB any wrongdoing. The BBB found that "Business did not make a good faith effort to resolve the issue." They even tried to say I was putting their company in a false light, but all of my evidence against them proves different. (Just as They have done on this board!)
4. Their final response to the department of agriculture and consumer services was that "He was never told to contact us through our website." Awful funny that their package says please visit us at www.geccomarketing.com
5. Their final tactic has been not to reply to the last letter asking for the name of their attorney to send a lawsuit to.
As you can see they try to use every possible way to avoid the refund. However, I would have likely re-booked a trip with them at a later time had they just refunded my money. Now I will set out at every step of their way to prevent them from doing this to other people.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY there are far better companies out of Florida that have better policies and responses to consumer needs.
BTW the Lauren is likely "Lauren Fillingame", so you are talking to is the president of "GECCO MARKETING/Vacation Headquarter inc." So since she is the President of the company of course she doesn't care about customer service as described above.
I have previously responded to this outrageous, libelous effort to project onto Gecco Marketing the behavior of Briley Leveronne. She placed dozens of unwanted harassing phone calls to our office when we were on location and it was impossible to get to them at the very moment. Her reservation had been sent several times to the address she provided to no avail. She continued her rant insisting we act immediately. We did. In so, the date was not changed from the previous reservation on the form letter she received but was quickly changed as soon as we were notified of the error. Briley Leveronne's action were so outrageous, she was interfering our efforts to assist other customers. She even threatened legal action. Briley Leveronne insisted we provide her with our attorney's contact information. She was given the company's address as the president is an attorney. This is precisely why we have qualifications for promotional offers. It is to ensure this element of society is not socialized at the resort.