If you are here, you probably already knew all the bad things about Shell Vacations Club. They lied to you, and now it's too late to cancel. Now you find yourself a victim. But it's not too late to do something to recover your losss and prevent the company from preying on other people in the future.

If you are victims of Shell Vacations Club's misrepresentation, unethical and illegal business practices, please contact [email protected] immediately to join a class-action law suit against SVC. There will be no fee to join. Together we can help fight these abusive corporations. If you find yourself a victim of Shell Vacations Club, the first thing you should do is write to the Attorney General consumer complaint division for your state. They usually have a specific section for complaints against companies. For California, the website is:
http://ag.ca.gov/contact/complaint_form.php?cmplt=CL

Fill it out, asking that they not share information that would identify you to SVC, and send it in immediately. The reason for doing this is that, even in the event that you have to sign a complaint disclosure agreement in order to settle, the Attorney General can continue its investigation to stop these criminals.

Back in 2004, at the Legacy in AZ, I bought a trial membership for $4500, to be used within 2 years. After reading the fine print, I did see that I could cancel the contract within 7 days. I decided to keep it and I booked 1 week in Hawaii and had only used half the points that I bought. I was offered free gifts to attend another presentation in Hawaii( free rental car for 1 week and free weekend in Hawaii). I used both without any problems. At the presentation, I ended up purchasing enough points for 1 week per year at the Napa Valley location, which cost me half as much than buying in Hawaii, but I trade it for Hawaii every year. I have used it numerous times for numerous locations, and have also shared with family members wishing to "rent points" for a fraction of the full price. There have been minor problems, but that would happen at any place, including Marriott, Starwoods resorts, Hilton, etc. Overall I would say that I am extremely pleased with my purchase. The properties are clean and well maintained. I work for the airlines so I get free air travel and have stayed at many different hotel brands. The maintenance fees have gone up $200 since I purchased 6 years ago. But that was explained to me in the beginning. so no surprise. I paid my account full and in cash, so no outrageous interest charges. My advice is not to buy a timeshare on credit or loan. Make sure you can afford it with disposable income, and book as soon as possible, you can always cancel without penalties 60 days out. Overall I'm a very satisfied and happy customer, Shell Vacations is one of the better timeshares, along with Mariott and Hilton.

When we purchased this timeshare we were told that we would be able to bank points for 4 years - enough to return to Hawaii every four years if we so desired. That was clearly defined and asked about - we own timeshares with other companies and understand the pros and cons fairly well. When the time came for our points to roll over we discovered they are only good for two years. We have tried to resolve this but Shell says too bad - rather than believing our salesperson you should have read the fine print. We are very unimpressed and Shell has shown NO INTEREST in discussing this. BBB complaints got to arbitration and stalled since now we have to put up more money for arbitration if we want to proceed. Stay away from this one - Shell is not consumer focused in our experience!

I bought into this timeshare plan about in Feb 2009. I was very hesitant to buy into it from the sounds of how it works, I honestly only went up there to get the free dinner and free gas :)

Anyway, I bought into their cheap low line package which ended up being about $20k in the end. I was engaged at the time and the guy trying to sell the package was saying we could go on a honeymoon with this package AND hes going to throw in a whole years worth of points for us. Awesome!

We get home, everything is settled and put into place with this program and I go to book a trip down to Florida. Nothing. I can not find a resort anywhere for ATLEAST another 7 months. WTF?

I finally found a place down in Key West (pretty much the only one shell could offer without paying RCI a few hundred bucks). It was pretty decent, I must admit but then while down at that resort, I had these jerks try to sell me ANOTHER TIMESHARE. Talk about vultures!

After that holiday, I decided to try to book a time for our honeymoon (June 2009). I get hold of RCI, because I wanted to go somewhere overseas. Sorry, they say, they dont have any openings with the "popular" places for OVER A YEAR AND A HALF!!! The other thing that pissed me off is the fact our "sales" guy said, and I quote "You can go anywhere, anytime you want..."

That was total B.S. Now, I paid about $1500 in the payments PLUS a year of maintenance (~$700) and now they tried to come for ANOTHER YEAR within a month of charging me for the last one.

So, being smart and knowing this "loan" was from the USA and it can not come after me, I decided to stop making payments. I had them pass my account to a collection agency, Collect Canada Corp. These guys were surprisingly AMAZINGLY helpful. They knew about the problems with Shell, they constantly work with people who are getting screwed by them and know how to act about it.

I had them offer me a "deed back" which I give them some money as a "fee" to give my deed/title back and im free and clear of the loan and whole timeshare alltogether. $2500 ! ... It was a big chunk indeed, but I would rather pay that and let them goto hell and I can now share my story about their horrible sales and business practices. The reason why I am posting this now, is because I paid this deed back in July 2009, and I have still yet to get a reply back about it. They have $2500 of my money sitting there and have not acknowledged anything. They are still sending me emails asking if I want to use my points, and everytime I call to get an answer they just ask "Where do you want to go today?" ... Im sure you know what my answer to the guy was :)

Once they get your signature, you better watch out. They will try to milk you for everything you have, plus more. And also give you a hard time with booking a holiday. Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT go up to Carridge Ridge, Or any Carridge Hills resort up in Barrie, Ontario ever, atleast not for the timeshare part.

Thats my $0.02 worth, or technically, my $2500 worth.

Thanks.

While vacationing in Kauai, Hawaii, we stopped by one of the “Activity Centers” to scope out our options for the best deals on some of the outdoor activities we wanted to do. We were told by the “Activity Center” rep that if we were willing to sit through a 90 minute Shell Vacations Club time share presentation, we would be able to receive two for one on our two selected activities. We thought this sounded like a great option for us since we wanted to learn more about time shares anyway while saving ourselves quite a bit of money on two fun activities. With our activities scheduled on separate days (per our “Activity Center” rep’s insistence) from the time share presentation, we happily left the “Activity Center” and were on our merry way. Little did we know the nightmare Shell Vacations Club time presentation/experience awaited us the next day.

Upon arriving at the Kauai Coast Resort for the time share presentation at our scheduled time (we were even early!), we were greeted by the Shell Vacations Club folks and immediately assigned a representative. Our rep promptly sat us down at a table and chatted us up about our past vacations, occupations, income (of course they want to know this immediately!), and our general habits when it comes to vacationing. The rep was nice enough at first but certainly had her eye on the target (i.e. getting us hooked on a time share at whatever cost). After about 20 minutes of chatting individually with our rep, we headed into a group presentation with the other couples who had been suckered into sitting through this in order to get the discounted activities. The text book marketing guy did a 45 minute presentation on Shell Vacations Club and pitched it hard to us through testimonials (some of which we are convinced were made up after reading so many online complaints about this company).

After the group presentation, we were reunited with our rep, who had our lunches waiting for us at the table. The clock is ticking and our 90 minute commitment has almost expired. We politely let our rep know that one of us have a scheduled commitment (the commitment was NOT one of the outdoor activities that we received the promotional discount on in exchange for attending the time share presentation) in forty-five minutes, which was pre-paid. Therefore, our rep needed to wrap up things with us soon since we were about to exceed our 90 minutes. Our rep turned on us like a switch and sharply let us know that we could NOT leave the presentation at the 90 minute mark. Furthermore, we were harshly scolded that we BOTH needed to be available for the next 4-5 hours and referred to the piece of paper we signed. In Shell’s world, this poorly drafted and confusing document committed us to the extra 5 hour period, beyond the 90 minute presentation, which time limitation was also plainly stated in this same document. We were shocked by the rep’s response and the accusatory manner in which she responded. We reiterated to her that as we understood it from the “Activity Center” rep, our only commitment was to sit through the 90 minute presentation, NOT avail ourselves to Shell Vacations Club for an additional 5 hour period. Our rep left us to go get her supervisor when she quickly realized we weren’t happy. When the supervisor arrived at the table, he had the piece of paper we signed off on in hand and proceeded to get in our face about what we had really signed off on regarding participating in the Shell Vacations Club time share presentation. He pointed to the section about “not having a scheduled activity for the next 4-5 hours following the 90 minute presentation.” Again, we understood the “activity” to mean the outdoor activities we had signed up for in exchange for the time share presentation. If we use the supervisor’s rationale for an “activity” then this could be anything from going to the bathroom to grabbing a cup of coffee….RIDCIULOUS! The supervisor was not only unprofessional and made rookie mistakes as a marketing person, but he was also accusatory and insulted our intelligence.

Even if we were interested in buying a time share with Shell Vacations Club prior to this “activity” issue, we never will now based on the rep’s and supervisor’s behavior towards us. They left a lasting bad impression with us – why would we ever want to do business with individuals who conduct themselves in this manner? They never once apologized for the misunderstanding, but rather blamed US for not freeing up essentially half of one of our vacation days to sit through their presentation. We would have NEVER signed up for this if we had known the commitment was really a 5 hour one rather than a 90 minute one. My wife ended up leaving early in order to get to her pre-paid commitment (so that we wouldn’t be charged a hefty cancellation charge for it), but I stuck around just to appease these folks and in the end our 90 minute presentation turned into an unpleasant 3 ½ hour experience. As the clock ticked on and I sat there through the remaining time, I proceeded to point out to the rep key points the rep was omitting regarding her financial calculations. This included revealing to her that I was fully aware that the so called “$90” a night she kept referencing was actually $410 a night once you add in the monthly maintenance fee and the total purchase price (over the first 10 years of ownership). These folks don’t talk numbers at all until they are well into their presentation. They are hoping (more like praying) that you get so caught up in the property itself that you won’t question their bad math and deceiving calculations.

If our experience is indicative of how Shell Vacations Club does business, then our advice to you is to RUN FAST. In the group presentation, they guy made several references to Marriott’s time share program and their inadequacies…..it’s really ironic that he chose to point out Marriott given that they have the best reviews of anyone amongst time share owners who have voiced their opinions online. Shell Vacations Club on the other hand holds the record for upset/disappointed/deceived time share owners who have voiced their opinions online. We think Shell Vacations Club actually has a lot to learn from Marriott. We never write complaints like this but felt that our experience put a damper on our vacation and we regret having ever signed up for it. Our advice to others is to pay the full price for those outdoor activities in Kauai before signing up for a so-called “90 minute time share presentation” with Shell Vacations Club." Something many of you probably already know, but we learned the hard way. You will be glad you spent the extra dough…well worth it to avoid the kind of negative and deceitful experience like we had. Mahalo!