Tuesday, January 30, 2007

STAY AWAY FROM TRAVEL MORE NOW VACATION CLUB!!!!

Travel More Now
1316 West Hwy. 76, PMB 177
Branson, MO 65616
Phone 417-336-0765
Fax 417-335-5401
www.travelmorenow.com


We have had problems with TravelMoreNow (Mr. James Kilroy, Owner) for quite some time. We have contacted the staff numerous times. Here is a detail of the program.

On 11/21/2005 we attended a sales presentation in Branson, MO presented by TravelMoreNow selling Vacation Club packages. At that presentation our salesman (Stan Hitchcock) presented the program, telling us how much the travel program would save us in all facets of travel--rent condos’ for a week for $249.00, get great discounts at upper end hotels such as the Hilton, get discounts on cruises, airfare, etc.

During the course of the conversation, we mentioned that we owned a timeshare that we would like to sell. Stan Hitchcock said if we bought the TravelMoreNow program that they had a great tool to help us. Mr. Hitchcock suggested that we buy TravelMoreNow and charge it to our credit card. Then TravelMoreNow had an arrangement with CitiBank credit card Company whereby we could transfer the balance on our credit card to CitiBank and for a year there would be no interest and no payments. Additionally, TravelMoreNow had a person available (Mr. Paul Lox) who would sell our timeshare at no cost. Mr. Lox is not an employee of TravelMoreNow, but is an independent contractor. When the timeshare sold, we could pay the commission, pay CitiBank credit card off and have the remainder of the money for ourselves and have the amenities of TravelMoreNow. We asked what would happen at the end of the year if the timeshare had not sold. The salesman said that it should sell within three (3) months, but if we got to the end of the 12 months and it had not sold, Citibank would just roll it over for us. We asked several times if he was sure this was the way it worked and he assured us over and over that it was. The salesman said that he had done this same deal about two years ago with no out of pocket money.

After we decided to buy based solely on the premise of selling the timeshare and charging to Citibank with no interest and no payments, we met with a manager who went back over everything with us. She taped our conversation, but the tape was turned off many, many times.

After we returned home, we transferred our balance to Citibank as instructed. Then we contacted Mr. Lox about the sell and he sent us paperwork, etc. The end of December we received a bill from the Citibank with a minimum payment of $128.00. We contacted Citibank and TravelMoreNow concerning this. We told TravelMoreNow that we could not afford to make payments and told Citibank what we had been told. Both parties claimed to know nothing about this. We have been making minimum monthly payments to Citibank each month. We have talked to Mr. Lox only a few times. He has not shown our property to our knowledge and no offers have been brought to us.

During February we contacted TravelMoreNow again and spoke with Ms. Melody Gaskins and told her what had happened and that we wanted our money back. She assured us that she would take care of the situation and get back to us. We talked to her several more times but nothing was done. Then we spoke with Louella at TravelMoreNow and she said Melody was out on extended leave and the only thing Louella could do for us was to have Paul Lox call us. She did have Paul Lox call us--we hadn’t heard from him since January--and he said he was just beginning to book prospects for the summer and would be booking ours soon. We spoke with Louella again on July 18, 2006. She informed us that Melody no longer worked for TravelMoreNow. We again requested our money be returned. She said that the only thing she could do for us was to have Paul Lox call--again we hadn’t heard from him since the April call. He said he was working on fall bookings. We haven’t heard from him since as far a booking or sale.

We talked to Louella on 9/28/2006 and informed her that we were contacting an attorney about this matter. She said she would have someone from the administrative staff call us on Friday or Monday, 9/29/06 or 10/3/06. Mr. Paul Lox left a message late Friday and when we returned his call on Monday, 10/3/06 he was out of the office until Thursday, 10/5/06.

In addition to having been misled concerning the credit card and the sale of the property, their vacation deals are not as good as what any individual can find for themselves on the internet. We tried several time to use them to book hotel accommodations and the only thing they had to offer was low-end properties such as Super 8. We asked about higher end accommodations like they advertised in the presentation such as the Hilton and they couldn’t get us any better price than we could get for ourselves. Also, the salesman told us that any of our friends or family could use these services as long as we put them on our list of approved people. Yet when we got to the meeting with the manager, the truth of the matter was that a person on our list had to be related to us.

We need our money ($8,599.00) returned to us now. We cannot afford this and TravelMoreNow has not done anything it said it would. Feel free to share this information with anyone

Can anyone out in cyber land help get this money back or at the very least help to make sure this doesn’t happen to someone else?

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11 Comments:

At 2:34 PM, Blogger Sonshine said...

Stay away for travel clubs

 
At 5:10 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

I was also scammed by Travel More Now to the tune of $7599.
Please email me at crhugs@aol.com immediately.
We are trying to get enough people that were scammed to file a class action suit. Please also let me know if you've already been contacted by the Morrissey Law Office in Branson, MO.
If you know of anyone else who was also scammed, please have them contact me as well.
Thank you much,
Alta

 
At 10:05 AM, Blogger jerry said...

I just found out today when I tried to sign on the travelmore website, that the travel club has allegedly been sold to Coast to Coast grand getaways. The phone nr in Las Vegas is not being answered.
The phone nr I was provided is:
877-568-2228.
Website: gograndgetaways.com
The Branson nr 417-336-0765 is being answered by Barbara who was most helpful

 
At 3:38 PM, Blogger bj said...

We were scammed by Travel More Now also. They were bought out by Coast to Coast. Another scam!!!! Stay away!!! Won't live up to Travel More Now contract.

 
At 10:42 PM, Blogger Linda said...

Dear Sir:

We were scammed by TMN as well. I have tried to speak with a supervisor from Branson and Pat from LasVegas and of course they deflect; ignoring the whole problem of lack of integrity and honest dealings. (mediation was tried with Branson, but Barbara simply deflected once again.)

I have written Branson's mayor and Alderman, also BBB and the attorney general. I have made our complaint with no luck.

I have suggested to the above individuals that if they cannot get them out of Branson legally, they bring up the awareness so people like me and you coming to Branson or Las Vegas, have a 'heads up' on this type of scam.

suggestion one.

On billboards and brochures place some generic statement like the following...

CHECK IT OUT!

Don't sign a contract for anything until you check it out......Call.......(.................)

Remember if you have already signed, you still can call and rescind your decision within 3 days. Remember it's the MISSOURI LAW.


Suggestion two... To also make an appeal to the Chamber of Commerce, Christian Business Men and Town Fathers.....We make a meeting all together and make a very personal appearance to plead that they do the above and also encourage businesses to get a court order that TMN CANNOT use their premise to hold their build board up to encourage people to come to their promotional meeting for a free show.

Suggestion Three.... That we all agree to start praying to God that he will put them out of business and get our money back.

I have no money to sue them; so that is out.
I wanted to take them to small claims court, but someone told me TMN would likely get the date changed and there I would be with the expense of a flight for nothing.

I still have a number of places to write; the senators and governors of the states and the president of the United States. I don't know what it will take to get action. I never even got a response from the mayor of Branson and one of the Alderman wrote me and gave me to believe he knew nothing of the problem. I shall continue on. Please let me know if anything of substance at this point is being done to get people's money or at least get them out of business.

Sincerely,

Linda.

 
At 9:32 PM, Blogger Vacation Tour Tricks said...

There is a class action lawsuit being put together by some members with the help of a former TMN employee. He is going to provide a list of ever TMN member to the attorney. He also has the proof Kilroy commited fraud so they can go after him personally. Contact crhugs@aol.com she has the inside scoop. Prayers are about to be answered.

 
At 8:57 AM, Blogger Bob said...

I was also scammed by travelmorenow. I contacted the BBB in MO and wanted to get my money back, and after several conversation and phone calls, I'm still out of over $7000.00.
I think a class action suit is what needs to go forward.

 
At 5:36 PM, Blogger Vacation Tour Tricks said...

Visit our blog for more details on the fastest con in the midwest:
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At 2:48 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow! I can't believe so many people were scammed from this company. I guess it's always easier to just go through the Branson hotels and see if they have any discount packages...

 
At 8:57 AM, Blogger Susan said...

We we're also scammed be Travel More Now company. We feel we we're first scammed by Festiva Resorts where we bought our first time share. We wanted to sell it and Travel More Now said they were sure they could sell it for us in 3months. We have also tried to sell it through two different agencies and of course that didn't work either. Our advice is NEVER GET INVOLVED IN ANY WAY WITH A TIMESHARE OR A TRAVEL CLUB OF ANY KIND!!! I'm not sure the exact amount we are out but it is well over $13,000. dollars. Susan

 
At 8:51 AM, Blogger Karen said...

My husband and I signed up with a company called The Owners' Advocte. They deal with this kind of misrepresentation in timeshare. They guarantee to get people out of contracts and they actually got us a $9,000.00 refund.
They're not allowed to lie to you in these sales presentations, it's against the law. If you call Hannah Anderson at The Owners' Advocate, that's who we talked to, she was awesome and explained everything. Their number is 866-644-7776 and her extension is 186 I think. They're one of the few companies trying to make some noise and bring this kind of crap to an end.

 

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