Hi guys, thought I ask around every possible places I can come across. Anyway what happened is summarized in the story below. What I really want now is to END this sh*t once and for all. Wondering if anyone of you is in this same sh*t as me?
Here it is....
MY TIMESHARE EXPERIENCE WITH ERI (THE SCAM)
It was a fine day that my phone rang out of no reason from a caller I don't even know, " Hello Sir, firstly I want to congratulate you for being a lucky winner of 7 rolls or film and a pair of exclusive watch, but you have to come down personally to collect it over at our office at Orchard, but you have to sit down and listen to us for about an hour." I asked how did you managed to get my number? The caller claim that under the Mobile operators in Singapore, that they did some survey and got my number, I was like" What?? You mean M1, Starhub and Singtel can give number out like that? Anyway then I thought why not going down listen to some presentation wouldn't hurt and further more I have free gifts.
So I went down with my girlfriend, went to the reception, check my name, and a friendly lady came out and greet us, talk to us in a very professional ways, in no time she was like a friend to us! She told us to enter the room but reminded us to switch off our phones. Sited down she introduce someone to us, I think it was her boss. Anyway tidbits and drinks were served to us, making us feel comfortable. So there she go, sharing with us all the holidays resort that they deals with, it was easily a 4 or 5 hours session that we had to sit through. Her boss joined us and talked to us too. Anyway they put it in a way that was so good. They were very persuasive. I wanted to leave but they kept holding us back. Promised us that this thing can even be an investment that it will NOT depreciate in value that I could sell it away when I wanted and make monies from it. It was a long day, we were very tired, we thought okay, we might be interested if the price is good. But it was $19,000!! We were shocked!! Then they told us payment can be very affordable, that they could work out an installment plan for us that we can easily afford!! But They we were have to put a deposit $3000, But we said we could not come out that much, but the lady said, let me check with my boss, she went away for a while and returned and said, you guys are very lucky!! For you we can take just $1000 as deposit!! I told them I needed time to consider this. But they kept holding us back and said, its only for today that we can offer you this, not even tomorrow! Tomorrow will be a different price and I can tell you it would be higher!! After being in the office for a long 5 hours or so, our minds was like Okay. Since that we signed,13th of April 2002. That was the time I know things were all wrong.
How stupid was my then girlfriend and myself to actually sign on the dotted line and that stupid bell rang!! Gosh I must have been so stupid then!!
Anyway we realized this is nothing but a scam, we called them up and wanted to cancel the so called membership, but they said we can't as stated in the contract!! I was like what!?? I can't?? Is there such a clause in the contract!?? We were not even aware of that! When we bought that thing, we thought we could sell it off!! That was what we were told!! But on the phone, he said only when you paid up in FULL. I was so pissed off!! I even told them we were willing to for-go all that we had paid!! But he said, you must understand, what you are paying was only 20% of the whole ownership, we had to source out the other 80% for you from investors. If you were to give up! what happen to the 80% upfront paid for you!??Anyway lastly he said that its in BLACK & WHITE as signed by us in the contract. Sigh....Anyway we didn't want to let this be a burden to us, so we actually lower the installment from $300 a month to $150 a month. We knew it was going no where but we were so helpless. So we continued to pay the $150 a month till somewhere we decided that was it!! We do not want to carry on anymore, especially after reading so many bad publicity towards this timeshare scam. Enough is enough. we are not going to let our hard earned money be wasted into something that we don't even use! Or I put it CAN'T even use. So we defaulted the payments from 03rd July 2002 onwards.
On the15th August 2003, we received a letter from ERI stated that if we do not make the payments within 7 days, they would pass this case to their legal department and we would be deal with in accordance with the contractual terms. We choose to ignored.
On the 28th September 2004, we received another letter from ERI stating that " Please be informed that you have been in arrears of $16,200 being the total outstanding amount due for the purchase of the said agreement." And that if we do not pay in FULL or PARTIAL payment from us, they would not hesitate to instruct their Legal Department to institute the legal proceeding against us to recover the monies due to them.
I really want to put an END to all these nightmare, I can choose it ignore it once again, but I know that someday it will still be resurface. Thus I am desperately seeking help to end this nightmare, furthermore I am no longer with my partner whom I signed this agreement with.
And I heard that CASE cannot do much regarding this issue although there had been countless complaints against Timeshare companies.
Please do help me and end this once and for all.
Thank You.
Steven
Here it is....
MY TIMESHARE EXPERIENCE WITH ERI (THE SCAM)
It was a fine day that my phone rang out of no reason from a caller I don't even know, " Hello Sir, firstly I want to congratulate you for being a lucky winner of 7 rolls or film and a pair of exclusive watch, but you have to come down personally to collect it over at our office at Orchard, but you have to sit down and listen to us for about an hour." I asked how did you managed to get my number? The caller claim that under the Mobile operators in Singapore, that they did some survey and got my number, I was like" What?? You mean M1, Starhub and Singtel can give number out like that? Anyway then I thought why not going down listen to some presentation wouldn't hurt and further more I have free gifts.
So I went down with my girlfriend, went to the reception, check my name, and a friendly lady came out and greet us, talk to us in a very professional ways, in no time she was like a friend to us! She told us to enter the room but reminded us to switch off our phones. Sited down she introduce someone to us, I think it was her boss. Anyway tidbits and drinks were served to us, making us feel comfortable. So there she go, sharing with us all the holidays resort that they deals with, it was easily a 4 or 5 hours session that we had to sit through. Her boss joined us and talked to us too. Anyway they put it in a way that was so good. They were very persuasive. I wanted to leave but they kept holding us back. Promised us that this thing can even be an investment that it will NOT depreciate in value that I could sell it away when I wanted and make monies from it. It was a long day, we were very tired, we thought okay, we might be interested if the price is good. But it was $19,000!! We were shocked!! Then they told us payment can be very affordable, that they could work out an installment plan for us that we can easily afford!! But They we were have to put a deposit $3000, But we said we could not come out that much, but the lady said, let me check with my boss, she went away for a while and returned and said, you guys are very lucky!! For you we can take just $1000 as deposit!! I told them I needed time to consider this. But they kept holding us back and said, its only for today that we can offer you this, not even tomorrow! Tomorrow will be a different price and I can tell you it would be higher!! After being in the office for a long 5 hours or so, our minds was like Okay. Since that we signed,13th of April 2002. That was the time I know things were all wrong.
How stupid was my then girlfriend and myself to actually sign on the dotted line and that stupid bell rang!! Gosh I must have been so stupid then!!
Anyway we realized this is nothing but a scam, we called them up and wanted to cancel the so called membership, but they said we can't as stated in the contract!! I was like what!?? I can't?? Is there such a clause in the contract!?? We were not even aware of that! When we bought that thing, we thought we could sell it off!! That was what we were told!! But on the phone, he said only when you paid up in FULL. I was so pissed off!! I even told them we were willing to for-go all that we had paid!! But he said, you must understand, what you are paying was only 20% of the whole ownership, we had to source out the other 80% for you from investors. If you were to give up! what happen to the 80% upfront paid for you!??Anyway lastly he said that its in BLACK & WHITE as signed by us in the contract. Sigh....Anyway we didn't want to let this be a burden to us, so we actually lower the installment from $300 a month to $150 a month. We knew it was going no where but we were so helpless. So we continued to pay the $150 a month till somewhere we decided that was it!! We do not want to carry on anymore, especially after reading so many bad publicity towards this timeshare scam. Enough is enough. we are not going to let our hard earned money be wasted into something that we don't even use! Or I put it CAN'T even use. So we defaulted the payments from 03rd July 2002 onwards.
On the15th August 2003, we received a letter from ERI stated that if we do not make the payments within 7 days, they would pass this case to their legal department and we would be deal with in accordance with the contractual terms. We choose to ignored.
On the 28th September 2004, we received another letter from ERI stating that " Please be informed that you have been in arrears of $16,200 being the total outstanding amount due for the purchase of the said agreement." And that if we do not pay in FULL or PARTIAL payment from us, they would not hesitate to instruct their Legal Department to institute the legal proceeding against us to recover the monies due to them.
I really want to put an END to all these nightmare, I can choose it ignore it once again, but I know that someday it will still be resurface. Thus I am desperately seeking help to end this nightmare, furthermore I am no longer with my partner whom I signed this agreement with.
And I heard that CASE cannot do much regarding this issue although there had been countless complaints against Timeshare companies.
Please do help me and end this once and for all.
Thank You.
Steven