On 7/22/09, I was online looking for hotels for Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The website I found was Tntresorts.com. Thinking they were a legit hotel company I called to get more information. The guy I spoke to described the hotel I was after and said they are offering discounted rooms to people who are willing to take a preview tour of a new hotel. The tour takes about 90-120 minutes of your time. I said this vacation will be with my wife and 5 year old child, so I don't know if I'll be able to do that, so he kept on by saying the preview is just to get word of mouth out about our hotel, it's very "kid friendly" and "family-oriented". The name of the new hotel is the Grand Crown Resort. I gave my credit card and was transferred to a person to verify everything, my total was $200.97 for 4 days, 3 nights at the Eagle Ridge Resort, charged to my Visa credit card. He read through the rules incredibly fast and asked if I understood everything. I said can you repeat the last part, what happens if I don't show up for the preview tour? He responded with I will be charged full retail price of the room. I said that's not a problem and he said to wait for a confirmation letter in my e-mail. When the e-mail came, it was nothing like what the people on the phone had said. It's actually a timeshare presentation, which would not be okay for my 5 year old son with autism. The grand crown resort we would be touring, is not even near the address where our REAL meeting would take place, 2703 Teaster Lane, Pigeon Forge, TN. I then called to find out the Grand Crown Resort is not even under construction. I called an hour after the initial call was made and a rude lady said I have to wait 48 hours to hear from our cancellation manager. They also add a thing in the confirmation letter that states THEY CAN CHANGE YOUR HOTEL/ HOTEL ROOM if they wish. So you don't even get what you request and what is described! At this point I mentioned my child's disability and asked about a refund. She said that because it wasn't thirty days before my arrival date, there is no refund. It wasn't mentioned that a refund is impossible if your trip is 2 weeks away. After I recieved the call from the cancellation manager, he made it clear that I agreed on "recording", and that I cannot cancel, he could re-schedule it for a later date whenever I choose. They call this an open-date package, and I assumed I could call back and set something up within a year. Today I wake up and I'm being charged the $200.97 to my credit card, so I call to ask for more information because he was definitely not clear in stating that I would be charged right now for a trip that's not even set up yet. The lady I spoke to was extremely rude, I could never get a refund because I was not in the thirty days. I told her that these were special circumstances because of my son's disability and if I wasn't lied to completely on the first phone call I would have never signed up. She repeatedly let me know that there is no refund possible and if I contacted my credit card company that they would play the tape of my oral agreement. I said well then you can also play the first tape where I'm completely lied to, and she said we have no data of that tape. I've contacted my credit card company to let them know I'll be disputing it within a couple of days. No one should deserve to go through this, I will do whatever it takes to shed some light on this company's practices. They misrepresent a timeshare presentation to sound like a tour of a hotel and I unknowingly trapped myself into the sale because my arrival date was never 30 days before my call. They trick you into clicking confirm online by telling you that you might not make your dates if you don't click to receive your hotel confirmation which is different from your letter confirmation but they are attached in the same e-mail? PLEASE DO NOT GIVE THESE PEOPLE YOUR CREDIT CARD they will say anything to get it from you then you are trapped. http://www.tntresortshelp.webs.com is a posted copy of my complaint sent to the BBB and the FTC.

I don't mind previewing timeshares, and I don't do it often, but this time I felt I might need one for my future travels . Anyway, after searching for an hotel to stay in Orlando, FL., I saw an advertisment for TNT Resort, well needless to say, you get what you pay for.. For $39.95, for the whole weekend, seem too good to be true, well it was...The hotel was not at all what I expected, the beds ( 2 full size beds) not sleep number beds, were hard as a brick, we might as well slept on the floor, the tub was dirty, and they didn't have any extra pillows. Thank God, I didn't plan on staying in the room that often. The kids even complained, I was not at all satisfied.. The spa was nice and hot, the pool was enjoyable, since it was after 9:30 pm. But worst of all, I didn't receive the 2 adult tickets, I was promised for previewing this hotel, which is supposed to be newly renovated. Now when I viewed the unit, it was a nice 3 bedroom unit, but after such a bad experience there... As you may have guess, no way was I going to become a member of this companies timeshare. I just thought I would give a recent update (3/20/09- 3/22/09) of this timeshare diaster.