1st things 1st
A phone call followed by another, then another. I have been avoiding these calls for years because I have heard so many things about Silverleaf Resorts. First, of all I worked for a title company and I see the time share they were selling deeding from one to another. I live 20 miles from the resort so I see the ad in the paper that they are always hiring for sales, never good sign if you are a customer. It means one or two things; you have a bad employee turn around and the sales personnel really do hate their job.
So, this time my husband decided to pick up the phone and he accepted to the three day two nights give away in exchange for a 90 minute tour of the resort. To get you there, The resort offer you a great chance to win special prize by playing their “Instant Gold”, which enables you to win one of four Mercedes Benz, BMW X5, Porsche Cayenne, $40,000 OR $1500 Gift Card to Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Sears, or Wal-Mart, OR A Romantic Island Holiday which includes A 5 day, 4 night getaway to your choice of vacation destinations OR $500 in cash to spend however you like plus a special bonus gift. That’s a way to wheel you in, right!
They said they were going to send a confirmation in writing before the schedule time to come. We didn’t receive that confirmation until a week after we went, but life goes on. We received a confirmation phone call a day prior to make sure that we showed up. They specifically told my husband if we did not show up that member that referred us would be charge $50. (Is this a threat?) Oh, they tell you don’t forget your credit card because in order to stay you must have a credit card! – Which is a lie!
Our first day
October 17, 2008 – So, it’s check in day. When you drive up the villages, there is a security guard at the main gate which will instruct on which way to go. If you are a member you name would be on the list. If you are guest, your name would be on the list for that specific weekend.
They roll out the red carpet for their guest, with ordure’s, snacks, drinks and the whole party. At the check in counter, they give you a little booklet and tell you the basics of the villages and where you will be staying. So after they make you feel good and pleasurable, you are then released to go to your room.
A few things to remember when you are at the villages…
1. No cell phone signals, I don’t care if you have the best wireless network there is. You will loose your signal!
2. No Wi-Fi, even though they tell you free Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is only available in the activity center which is not close to your room!
3. Bring your allergy medicine. If you allergic to anything be prepared!
If you are the type of person that loves checking your email or if you figure that if you don’t have your PC you can check your Blackberry or I-phone…. Forget it! It will not work, you are excluded from any type of communication with the outside world unless you either go to the activity center or head back toward town to get a signal. If you don’t have a laptop then to take to the activity center then you loose!
Once you get over the hump of not being able to communicate then… life almost goes on. As for me I was devastated! I couldn’t check my emails, I couldn’t study! I thought for sure when I got out there I would be able to catch up on some class home work and study time. Forget that idea, I was isolated from anything technical. So, this first day/night is not so good for us.
Oh yeah, you must go to the grocery store because if you must cook! So we spent about $60 bucks for the weekend to get food for the family. If we would have known this, we would have grabbed some stuff from the house.
Our room
We were told that we were VIP and we would be given a Guest VIP I suite. Well, we were given a room at “The Lodge”. It was two bed rooms with two baths, a mini kitchen area and living room/dinning room area.
The kitchen was very small, only one person could be in it a time. The refrigerator was directly in front of the oven. So, if someone was cooking another person could not grab something out of the fridge. One at a time, kitchen was too small!
Bedroom 1:
With a rustic country feel, the room included a 27 inch colored TV and a queen size bed. There is a little kitchenette area in the guest bedroom with a two-iron electric topper with a mini refrigerator in the room. Not much closet space at all. If you had something that hand to be hung and you needed height room, for get about it. The closets are very short. The restroom was a reasonable size and all of your toiletries were included.
Master Bedroom:
The master bedroom was about the same except it had king size bed. The indoor world pool tub was right next to the master bed, which is not the perfect idea. The floor is easy to get wet right were you are sleeping. The toilet is in the master bed room but in a very small room of its own. The closet space is the same as Bedroom 1, only being able to fit a small half/size iron board in the closet. That is how long the closet is. Again, if you are desperate for closet space while on your vacation, forget it!
The 90 minute tour
They wanted to book the tour for our departure date which was that Sunday at 9:30 a.m. We couldn’t do it, we go to church on Sundays and even though we are out in the middle of no where we are still making the sacrifice to leave extra early. So, they change the tour to 9:30 Saturday.
We woke up Saturday morning, cooked breakfast, remind you it is five us in our family, and we were on our way to the go on our grand tour of the resort. We arrived at 9:15 for what we thought was a 90 minute tour. The guest services were filled with little snacks and goodies to keep you appealed. While a movie was playing on the flat screen, they also give you pop corn and your choice of pink lemonade or bottled water.
About 10:15, they called our name. We waited almost a hour! I was frustrated already. Try to keep three kids tamed for an hour with sweets and a movie that they don’t want to watch…..
As we walk out the back door of member service center, there was an employee smoking. While she is killing us with the second hand smoke, our kids have to walk through this and they didn’t ask to smoke at such a young age. She is speaking and smoking all at the same time. This wouldn’t have been so bad if they had a designated area. But she decides to do it in a public walk way. How rude?
Our tour guy was a smoker and we don’t smoke, how lucky are we? Nothing against people who smoke but it would be nice if smoking was in a designated area. So, we sat down in Salesville! (My word) A place where there are a lot of salesman and everyone is talking. They have you in this area with a lot of tables. They tell you about the resort and everything about Silverleaf and then take you on a tour.
The grand tour
Again, we have a family of five and with the tour guy that make six. You would think sense the salesmen at Silverleaf is suppose to be making six figure income that they would provide transportation to be driven around the property. The tour guy had to take his personal vehicle, which was very small. Remind you that he is a smoker so; his car smells like a pack of cigarettes, how nice?
The long drawn out tour…. I refuse to go into many details because this would turn into a book! The end results are that he insulted our intelligence; he certainly can not drive and talk at the same time. But, he is a nice guy overall.
What I hated about the tour… He insulted our intelligence by over exaggerating about the “Presidential” suites at the villages. He said they don’t mention those on tour because really they are out of our league. He has only had the opportunity to stay in them once and they are filled with plasma TVs, leather couches, and the whole luxury package. He told us a big FAT lie!
As life tries to go on….
The Next big LIE!
As he takes us back to Salesville…. We are accompanied by another smoker. This time, it is like this guy is in his late 50s or early 60s and it is like he just downed a carton or cigarettes. It was horrible! About this time, I had a headache from smoker #1; this is like over the top.
With smoker’s breath, he is trying to tell us about his packages and trying to work a better deal. My God, we just wanted him out of our face because of the smell. My kids were very irritated and I was not a happy camper.
They asked for about $4000 down and $433 to by a time share. After you tell them NO, they try to come up with a better solution. Then, guy #3 comes up as is he is from the corporate office in Dallas, Texas. He says he is only down here for one day and one day only. He gives you the whole sales pitch and hope that you would run with it. He presented a “Sampler” packaged for $150 down and $85 a month for 10 months. After you the $1000 is paid, you can use your free week and then if you decide to keep it they will use your $1000 toward the down payment of a timeshare.
After the final NO! They send you on your way. By this time… It is 12:45. So a 90 minute tour is how long? 4 hours. But we are not done yet…
Pick up your free gifts
They send you to the gifting center, “The Awards Center”, to claim your free gifts.
You sign in and you wait… About 10 minutes later a representative comes out…. You guess it, another smoker! Takes you into small office with two chairs… (Family of five) Tells you just for showing up you qualify for a bonus gift, a trip to Las Vegas or a cruise. The vacation is not a vacation at all; you are responsible for getting to your destination and back. They only pay for the hotel rooms. Get this, when you book it. You have to pay a deposit, some free vacation.
They give you a scratch off ticket called the “Instant Gold” scratch off. She tells us if we reveal five lucky pots filled with gold we win one of four prizes… There are a ton of little boxes… So, when you don’t win…
She tells you that you have a second chance! Whoooooo…. A second chance! Well, you scratch off the box on the same ticket that has a set a numbers. If the number match any of the number that is on their sheet, then you win a gift card or the cash…. You guest it, the numbers don’t match any of the numbers on their list so you are left with a so call vacation.
Why do I say so called… because again, it is not a vacation. When someone tells you that you are going on a vacation, you think “all expense paid.” Well, forget about the air faire and how you are going to get there, that is not covered. You are responsible for getting yourself there and back. They should say your rooms are taken care of not the vacation. Oh and then they forget to tell you that you have to have a major credit card in order to go on the trip.
So, after being given free room stays… (I don’t consider them to be vacations) we are sent on our way… Oh yeah, by this time it well past 1 pm. We have been there since 9:15.
The kids are hungry, we are frustrated and I am very angry about all of the time that they have wasted. I consider my time to be very valuable and the mere fact that I am somewhere that I can’t even get online is bothering the heck out of me! Seriously.
So, what did we do? My husband gave the so call vacation packages back to her and same it was a waste of our time. He told them “how do you expect us to go out of town on your word when, you can’t even be trusted here and now.”
They lied!
The fact of the matter is that the Villages lied to us. They lied to us about the 90 minute tour. They lied to us about a VIP suite. When in fact, some of the rooms they should us were way better than what we were staying in. They lied to us in the process of trying to make a sell. You know they did what most salesmen do, lie! They took over half of our morning away from us when we could have been doing something profitable with our time.
So, after discussing our feelings with the front desk, she directed us to hospitality. Oh my GOD! She said that lunch was on her from the Pizza bar in the activity center. A free one topping medium pizza and four drinks for a family of five, is she serious? We spent $60 on groceries just to spend the weekend out there. Two of my kids can down a medium pizza before you can blink your eyes. Well, this must be a joke right?
Checking out
Sunday morning, October 19, 2008- We were out by 9am hoping that we could make it to church on time. When we went to check out, they told us that we had to check out with the Manager so they sent us to Membership Services near the activity center to check out. My husband got down there and they clerk told him, “You don’t need to check out with him, he can’t do anything for you. You need to see the sales manager; they are the reason for you being here.”
It’s about 9:15 and we are 15 minutes behind. Headed back up to another area to check out with the sales manager, she apologizes and says that she makes six figures and blah, blah, blah…. Whatever! He tells her that we were going to do everything that we could KTLV, Tyler Morning Telegraph and the web is going to know about how horrible our experience was at The Villages. She goes to apologize and ask to give him a hug as if he needs to be loved. He refuses and she said that she will give us 5 free water park tickets, a vacation to the Bahamas, all expense paid along with a $100 American Express gift card for food and a free four day, three night stay in a Presidential Suite there at The Villages. We finally got out of there at 9:50!
The end results:
It has been One month since checkout? Have we seen or heard anything from The Villages?
Hah Hah…. This is a joke. Last week my husband called the Sales Manager on Wednesday, November 12th. She went through the spill about apologizing and said she would call us back that Friday. There is still no answer from Ms. Six Figures!
My advice to you:
If you are contact by The Villages or Silverleaf Resorts, just say no. I am saving you the headache! Have anyone ever won any of their prizes that they say they are giving away such as a car or $40,000? NO! So, you are only going to waste your time to be caught in the middle of the country with no internet, cell phone signal, and you are going to have to buy your own food for the entire weekend. Not to mention the allergic reaction I got from being out in the country. Oh my God, that is a whole different story.
So, I didn’t sit and type 3000 words for nothing. I am going to the media to let her know that we keep our word even though they don’t get there’s. I hope they enjoy being blasted on my “Horrible List” for years to come! I don’t hate people, but there are a few things I do hate… Like being mistreated, my time being wasted and bad integrity from blood sucking companies like Silverleaf Resorts!
My final thoughts about Silverleaf Resorts: “The Villages” of Flint, TX
I don’t see why they offer up so much security at the main gate, they have other many of entrances of getting on The Villages from without gates or securities. If you do have a Presidential package, the new Presidential Suites are being constructed in an area where there is no security. Whose idea was that?
They over book appointments and then have you to wait all for long period of time to leave you frustrated. They over you free gifts and you wonder what the catch is, the catch is “you”. They know people will fall for free stuff especially when it comes over as something legitimately.
The main issues are, having been through this experience and not share it or not say anything. They tell you their main source of business comes from word of mouth. So if you leave with a good experience they ask you to share it with 10 other friends of family members and promise to pay you $50. But, if they become a no show that $50 becomes a debt to you. What’s right about that? It’s all wrong.
If you have had a bad experience at a resort, please share it! Because this is not the last they will hear from me. I guarantee it, this is only the beginning!
P.S. Just in case you didn’t know, I hate Silverleaf! They wasted my time, in return I will pay them back the same!
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