am a owner of a timeshare at Fairfield Grand Desert in Las Vegas and Westgate Lakes in Orlando, FL. In January 2007 I received a phone call from a company called Timeshare Solutions with Fairfield Resales in Las Vegas offering to sell my timeshare. Since I owned a timeshare with Fairfield I thought this was my home resort calling and asking to sell my timeshare because of the growth and demand in the Vegas area. I spoke with someone who identified himself as “Norm Howard” and he explained to me that for a fee of $199 their company would sell my timeshare. He said if it did not sell in 9 months, I would get a full refund. I was hesitant to accept the offer so he said he would give me a break and lower the price to $99 and a he guaranteed a full refund if it did not sell. I told him I would have to talk with my husband and I would get back to him. I went on the internet and checked to make sure the address was valid and that such a company existed. I looked at the website and viewed the timeshares they were "selling" for other customers, everything appeared to be on the up and up. I decided to take a chance and accepted their offer.

Nearly 9 months later on September 13th 2007, I received a call from someone who identified himself as “Bill Ellis” of Timeshare Solutions. He told me that my timeshare had been sold. I was told that they wanted to buy it for $24, 640 even though I was only asking $18, 000. The buyer and the seller would have to split the $1, 400 closing costs which were to be paid up front. I asked why up front, I would pay as sonn as I got the closing papers and signed them, I would send my payment with the papers. On that date, $800 was charged to my credit card. Bill assured me that I had nothing to worry about and it was a “done deal”. He said it would take between 45-60 days for the deal to be completed. I would then be sent disclosure papers which I would need to sign and return in order to receive my check for $24, 640.

Approximately 9 weeks later I had not heard from them so on November 13th 2007 I called to inquire on the progress of the deal. I was unable to reach anyone so I left a message. A few days later on November 15 2007, I received a call from someone who identified himself as “Bob Downey” from Timeshare Solutions. He said everything was going fine and “Bill Ellis” should not have told me that it would take 45-60 days. He said that Bill had been reprimanded for that and it would take a couple of more weeks to finalize the deal. He again assured me that it was “a done deal” and I had nothing to worry about. I had a bad feeling, so I took my paperwork and went to my attorney's office and we made a phone call together on speaker phone, I was told that Bob was out of the office, or on lunch etc... we continued that afternoon to contact Bob and finally after 3 hours got through to him. Bob said this was the normal procedure for selling timeshares and quoted some legal jargon that even my attorney believed him. He told me that the disclosure papers are drawn up from someone they contract with and that they were backlogged with sales and must have fallen behind. I was informed to wait a couple more weeks and I should have the papers.

I waited 6 more weeks without hearing from them so I called on January 28th 2008 and left another message. There was no reply. In February I called the toll free number again (800-898-5413) and got a message that said, “This number can not be reached from your calling area”. I have never had a problem prior to this. I then called the local number (702-733-1477) and got a message saying this number is no longer in service. I went to the website that was on the paperwork I signed from Fairfield Resales and the site no longer existed.

I then entered “Timeshare Solutions” into the Google search engine and found several other testimonies that had been recently posted with stories that were nearly identical to mine. September 8th, 2008 I sent a letter to the address listed for Timeshare Solutions demanding that they cancel this “deal” immediately and give me a full refund in the amount of $799. I am awaiting a response, but highly doubt I will get one. Because of this fact, and the testimonies of others that I have found via the Internet, I believe that I have been the victim of a scam and I am willing to do anything to bring these thieves to justice and get my money back. Clearly there never was any “deal” and their intent from the beginning was to defraud me out of the money that I allowed them to charge on my account in good faith.

I truly hope that we can somehow join forces and bring these lying thieves to justice, and that stricter laws be enacted on Timeshare sales and resales so that people are not taken advantage of. A timeshare purchase or sale should not be any different than a real estate transaction and the same laws should be applied. If a timeshare owner wishes to sell their unit or week etc...the home base where they purchased the time share should either buy it back or attempt to sell it.