Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/04/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Buying a timeshare with Great Eastern Resorts was a huge mistake and one that I have been trying to undo for some time now. Due to various medical reasons, which I have already explained to them, I need out of my timeshare. I cannot even use the timeshare due to my medical conditions so traveling there is out of the question. There is no sense in me paying for this when I cannot and have not ever used the timeshare. I have explained this to them time and time again and their response is always the same, “There is nothing we can do for you, make a payment”. I was sold this timeshare with the belief, based on what I was told by the sales representative, that this was going to be so great and that they would be there to assist me if I ever needed it. Well that has not been the case at all. They are the worst company I have ever dealt with. What I have requested is simple, take back this timeshare and free me from the major stress it has caused me!

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/08/2022

  Ms. *****,While we have empathy for your current medical situation,
  there is no person, department or program that can assist you in canceling your
  contract. As long as the deed is in your name you are responsible. In order for
  you to no longer be responsible the deed would have to be transferred into
  someone else’s name. Again, we will again suggest exploring the resources found
  on the American Resort Developers Association – Resort Owners’ Coalition (ARDA ROC)
  website, **************************************************************** We have processed many of these transfers and know
  that this program works. If you choose not to work with ARDA there are other
  avenues to help assist you in selling your timeshare such as social media,
  newspaper, friends and family as well as other sources that can be found on the
  world wide web. We also caution you not to pay anyone a set amount of money in
  advance if they promise they have a buyer lined up for your timeshare, as we
  have seen a rise in the number of scams of this nature. Once you have located a
  buyer for your property please call the Owners Administration for the steps to
  remove your name from the deed. If it would be more palatable for your finances to set up
  a monthly payment on your past due annual maintenance fees, please call ********
  at ************ and someone will be happy to assist you. Regards,****** * *********Customer Service Specialist

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/08/2022

  I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  
  Regards,
  
  **** *****
  
  8/8/2022 @ 2100 When they sold me this property I didn’t realize my medical condition would prevent me from using the timeshare. Even if I were to travel to another site, my severe allergies still present a problem to the point where I have to be on a respirator. I’m just asking someone to please release me from this contract that I never used. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/02/2022

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  In September of 2020, I visited the Massanutten Resort in Virginia. During my stay, I went on a tour of the hotel. During the tour, my wife and I were shown the entirety of the accommodations the hotel had to offer. What we did not know is that we would be taken to a room with our tour guide and sat down for over an hour being pressed to purchase a timeshare through the Great Eastern Resort Corporation. A female named *******, our tour guide, sat us down and asked extremely personal questions. These questions included (but not limited to) what our income was, what we did for a living, who took care of the bills. Questions I was not expected to be asked from a tour guide. She took down notes and continued to press about if we were interested in credit cards, flights, points for hotels and flights, and so on. Seeing we were clearly uncomfortable with the questions, she stated she would get her boss. An older gentleman entered the room and asked what questions we had about the resort and how we were enjoying our stay. After the small talk, he asked what was holding us back from being timeshare owners since we liked the resort so much. We continued to state we were not interested in purchasing any package and had no intention of giving our credit score information or credit card information. He stated he understood and offered us a lower price on the timeshare. We, again, adamantly stated we were not interested at this time. He stated he would retrieve ******* for us to conclude our tour. ******* returned and asked us questions such as, “Isn’t he great?” She continued to talk about how her and her boyfriend use the timeshare to travel all over the country, staying in five-star hotels, as well as using the timeshare perks for vehicle rentals. We continued to state we were not interested. She then left the room and the older gentleman again entered the room moments later. He stated he was able to get us a lower monthly price on the timeshare as we would be taking over s

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/10/2022

  Ms. ******,Please accept my apologies if
  you felt that you were mislead in any way to purchase the property. I have
  reviewed your purchase and see that you initialed signed and dated the Buyer’s
  Acknowledgement form. This form outlines everything that pertains to your
  purchase. It describes your week owned which is week 20 and that your unit is a
  4-person occupancy limit that begins in 2021, that the maintenance fee is
  subject to change as well as your purchase contract is binding and that no
  other representations, oral or written have been relied on. This document also
  states that we do not have a re-sale, rental or buy-back program. You were given
  a 7-day recission period in which you could have cancelled the purchase. We did
  not receive a cancellation letter within that time-frame therefore this is a
  legal and binding contract. In order for you to no longer be responsible the deed
  would have to be transferred into someone else’s name once your account is paid
  in full. We suggest exploring the resources found on the American Resort
  Developers Association – Resort Owners’ Coalition (ARDA ROC) website, ***************************************************************. We have processed many of these transfers and know
  that this program works. If you choose not to work with ARDA there are other
  avenues to help assist you in selling your timeshare such as social media,
  newspaper, friends and family as well as other sources that can be found on the
  world wide web. We also caution you not to pay anyone a set amount of money in
  advance if they promise they have a buyer lined up for your timeshare, as we
  have seen a rise in the number of scams of this nature. I hope that you find the information within this correspondence
  helpful. Regards,****** * *********

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/01/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  This is to be our formal complaint against Great Eastern Resorts. We own a timeshare with them and have been reaching out to them to end our ownership. The responses we have gotten from them are disheartening, to say the least. They keep telling us that there is no deed back program and that there is nothing they can do to help us. We know that this isn’t true. We have done the research and know that other owners have ended their relationships with Great Eastern. We are filing this complaint with you in the hopes that you will look into this for us and help us get a termination offer. Below you will find a snippet of one of the letters we have sent to them. Thank you for your time.
  
  
  
  Dear Great Eastern Staff,
  
  
  
  We are writing you this letter to inform you that your company has conned us into multiple purchases under false pretenses and we are irate about the whole process. We thought we were getting an amazing chance to get a package that would save us money on vacationing, but we were wrong. Your staff sold us on false dreams and hope. Going around and letting your staff lie to customers is not good business practice and if this is the way you run your company, we do not want to be a part of it any longer.
  
  
  
  Your company promised us that yearly improvements would be made. That was in 2007 and these improvements have yet to be done. Also, they told us that golf would be better with your company. It is cheaper and better off your resort site. We have seen that the customer service is not what we were expecting and see that insects of all kinds especially bed bugs are a problem with your resorts and rooms. This causes us to pause when we look at the book considering we do not know what shape the unit will be in when we get there. We did not sign up for cleaning and ruining the whole day of our vacation. That is not what we wanted nor what we are paying all this money for.
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  **** * **** *************** ********* ***** ****** ********* ****

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/03/2022

  Please accept our apologies
  for the incident that occurred in 2017. After researching I see that we
  promptly moved you to a new unit and compensated you for the inconvenience.With regard to the
  termination of your contract as stated previously we do not have a re-sale, deed-back,
  or buy-back program. The only way that we take back property is in the event of
  a foreclosure or if it is traded on another unit. We have provided you with
  information on the American Resort Developers Association- Resort Owners’
  Coalition (ARDA ROC) website that offers reputable re-sale agents as well as
  advertising directories to help you sell your unit if you are still unhappy
  with your purchase. We would also like to inform you that all of the Woodstone
  units have been completely renovated please see improvements by clicking on
  this link ******************************************* Again, we here at Massanutten strive to keep
  all of our owners happy and aide in assisting them in any way that we can. I
  hope that you find the information in the correspondence helpful and that you
  take full advantage of the resources we have provided to you in the event that
  you remain unhappy. Regards,****** * *********

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/28/2022

  Type:Delivery Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We have been stuck in a timeshare ownership with Great Eastern Resorts since 2018. These last 4 years have been stress-inducing and irritating to say the least. We have been trying to book a vacation using this timeshare since purchasing it and have been unsuccessful every time. We even contacted the company for assistance and they did nothing to fix our issues. We eventually reached a point where it did not make sense to keep attempting since we were never successful.
  We began contacting Great Eastern in March 2021 about our request to get out of this contract. We explained how we have not been able to use the timeshare since the purchase. We explained about the poor experience we had during the presentation where we sat with ********* ******* and her colleagues. We were told several things about our timeshare that we have not seen any sign of. We bought the timeshare because we were under the impression that this would lead to easier access to vacations and time spent together. In reality, it has led to more debt in our lives and more problems in our household.
  We need your help to get out of this contract. They have been unwilling to recognize the plight that we are now in as a result of the timeshare. They have not listened when we voiced concerns about our lack of use of the product we contracted for. We need help to get out of this timeshare and hope that you can help us with this.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/02/2022

  Dear Mr. *****,I have researched your account and it looks like you
  purchased and financed in May of 2018. I also see where we sent you correspondence
  in November of 2018 explaining that we do not have a deed-back or buy-back program.
  We at that time offered assistance supplying you with a third party company
  American Resort Developers Association- Resort Owners’ Coalition (ARDA ROC) to
  assist you in selling your timeshare once your paid your account is paid in
  full. We also offered to set up payments on your past due maintenance fees as
  well as we gave you contact information regarding your mortgage. Within the
  correspondence we gave you contact information to New Owners Vacation Advisors
  as you had stated you have been having difficulties accessing your property. We
  want our property owners to enjoy the property that they own and we have given
  you the resources to become a successful and happy timeshare owner. I again ask
  you to contact the resources that we had mentioned in our correspondence to
  you. I know that these contacts can guide you and educate you on your timeshare
  property. With that education you will be able to enjoy the property that you
  own. Regards,****** * *********

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/04/2022

  I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complain.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appearWhat your research does not show is that we utilized theresource given to us to try and sell our timeshare company,which also put us further at a disadvantage. The entity wecontacted required that we pay $1400 upfront to run anadvertising campaign to sell our timeshare unit. For 8 months,we waited and waited and lowered the price consistently butnever received a buyer. We have arrived at our final decision notto keep this timeshare ownership because the resources providedby Great Eastern have been inadequate for us. Moreover, GreatEastern has still directly disregarded our concerns as owners,citing user error as the reason we cannot utilize this timeshareownership. In reality, it is a direct result of being lied to by thesales representatives during the presentation about how wewould be able to vacation easily using the timeshare. This is notthe case. And we keep getting charged more and more moneyeach year for a service that we will never be able to access. Sowe are not interested in contacting anyone else about anythingunless it will directly lead to the timeshare being removed fromour names for good. For this entire ordeal, we should alsoreceive some sort of reimbursement along with the cancellationof this ownership. Please process this expeditiously.