Timeshare owners in Alaska who feel that they have been a victim of a scam company to file a complaint with the Consumer Protection Unit online after a woman who was contacted by the timeshare re-seller company Carriage House Travel Inc lost $26,800.00 in false selling.
The company which is reportedly no longer trading fraudulently offered to sell the victims timeshare on her behalf. Consumers have reported that they were required to pay upfront fees ranging from $3,000 to $40,000 to secure the sale. The payments were made to a Mexican bank despite the fact that the company claimed to be situated in Kirkland, Washington.
Michelle Tabler, regional manager in Alaska for the Better Business Bureau stated;
“Consumers allege the company made false statements about their services and they subsequently requested refunds which were not received.
She and her husband lost $26,800 on this,” Tabler said. “Her friends didn’t know she had done this, and she was too embarrassed to talk to the media.”
“Alaskans tend to travel, so they tend to have these timeshares also,” Tabler said. “One of the big red flags is that they call to ask you to sell your timeshare, and they say they have a buyer for you.”
The BBB’s website lists seven complaints against Carriage House from people who lost money in the scam.
“We then turned them in to the attorney general who informed us that they did not get a response back from them and since they cannot do any more than just contact them, they were closing the complaint,” the customer wrote. “This is nothing but a scam and we were dumb enough to fall for it. The $20,000.00 we are out was a hard lesson to learn.”
Carriage House replied to some of the complaints, even telling a Washington customer seeking the return of about $10,000 in December that posting a complaint on the BBB’s website before 60 days had elapsed constituted a “breach of contract.”
“Due to the nature of the comments from the client, the comments should NOT be published as they have a very negative connotation,” Carriage House representatives wrote. “We are operating within the parameters set forth in the contract the client signed. To date, we have done nothing that would even warrant a complaint.”
None of the people targeted in the scam ever received refunds from Carriage House, according to the BBB. When the bureau tried to track the firm at its mailing address, staffers didn’t find anyone behind the timeshare operation.
“This company was just a shell,” Tabler said. “They didn’t really have an office there; it was a mailbox thing.”
Cindy Drinkwater, an assistant attorney general with the state’s Consumer Protection Unit, said any complaints the unit receives about specific companies are confidential unless the state files a lawsuit against them. Online court records didn’t list any proceedings against Carriage House as of Thursday morning.
“We accept consumer complaints and engage in an informal mediation process, and we base some of what we file as lawsuits on those complaints,” Drinkwater said.
While Drinkwater couldn’t comment on the Carriage House complaints, she said that the office has seen similar cases on a regular basis.
“We are generally aware of these kinds of timeshare reseller scams,” Drinkwater said. “It’s fairly rampant across the country, and it happens in Alaska just the way it happens in other places.”
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk