The InnSeason Scandal

38 Comments to "The InnSeason Scandal"

1. Chatter by Dan on 09/19/2007 @ 8:42 am
   

   That convo reminds me of my 3 week adventure as a mortgage broker. I’d put on the headset and a random voice would call out. The names I was called, the tears I shed, and the fun I had. So much fun that I quit after 3 weeks and everyone seemed sad that I was leaving. Not sure why.

   Anyway… I had to attend a time share meeting when I was 8 or 9 in Virginia so my family would get free tickets to Busch Gardens. My parents apologized after it was finished- for my brother and I were forced to play on a small playground while this lady tried to trick my parents into buying something they had no desire of buying.

   “But mom… we want to go to Busch Gardens!” I would yell at them, as they chatted away in the car.

   “Oh you don’t want to go to Busch Gardens… it’s cloudy.” The Time Share Witch would then say.

   Now this was not right. A fine boy who thirsted to ride the best roller coaster on the east coast cared not for clouds. He did not want to go up and down the same damn slide over and over again.

   We finally out of there- 6 hrs later. That’s right- the 90 min presentation is a lie- it’s really quite longer. After that I realized how much scum Time Share People are, as they define their own race of scum.

   Good job Chris- on bringing back horrible memories. I’ll drink to that.

2. Chatter by HP on 09/19/2007 @ 10:25 am
   

   I live to bring back horrible memories to people. Anyone out there molested as a child? If you were, remember that for a bit! Ha!

   Really though, I want to know what kind of souless people could do this? Everyone I talked to was coached to say the same thing, over and over. They were brainwashed! I talked to some family about this, and they say the plane tickets were “legit.’ I guess I have some cousin who has taken advantage of deals like this. However, I don’t appreciate this hard sale bullshit nor the steep stipulations involved with tickets.

   Side note: This Derrick:
   
   His last name is “dyke.” Snicker.

3. Chatter by Mike on 09/19/2007 @ 1:40 pm
   

   Heh, I get it.

   Lesbian.

4. Chatter by Ashley on 09/19/2007 @ 3:39 pm
   

   Mmm flaming bikes, syringe filled beaches and good company. Yay!

5. Chatter by poop shoot on 09/19/2007 @ 8:42 pm
   

   nice grammar. how much time did that take to write? you seem smart. i pet things. i smell poop.

   mr. shoot (bandit)

6. Chatter by Anonymous on 09/22/2007 @ 9:48 pm
   

   I found the Better Business Bureau’s report on InnSeason resorts. Thought it would be interesting to get the perspective of a company who deals in reporting crappy companies.

   http://www.bosbbb.org/reports/reliability_report.asp?FirmId=27017

7. Chatter by Dan on 09/24/2007 @ 8:26 am
   

   Poop Shoot’s post was probably the greatest thing that ever happened to this site. I read it, and reread several times, and each time I receive a bundle of joy in form of deep thoat and meaning.

8. Chatter by HP on 09/24/2007 @ 6:00 pm
   

   “in form of deep thoat and meaning.” Now, was that meant to read “in the form of deep throat and meaning?” You are an odd child, Dan.

   I disagree with your opinion that “poop shot” is the “greatest thing ever.” I think he’s more of a waste of pixels. But that is just me.

   So, I’m not surprised by the better business bureau’s reports. At all.

9. Chatter by Dan on 09/25/2007 @ 10:53 am
   

   yeah… thoat = thought. me am teh tired!

10. Chatter by Jess on 09/30/2007 @ 4:27 pm
    

    Derick number 13′s pretty hot.

    If I miscounted, I’ll either look like I’m into serial killers or toddlers. Does that matter? No. No it does not.

    Time share corporations, much like the Mary Kay makeup company, are far too reminiscent of the “religious cult” mindset to be anything but unsettling and slightly terrifying.

11. Chatter by anonymous2 on 11/10/2007 @ 2:33 am
    

    So, I do want to clarify a few things. I use to work at InnSeason Resorts as a sales rep on the phone, just like Derrick does.

    This is the deal…

    First off, the leads we have, are from people filling out entry forms. Maybe it wasn’t exactly for airline tickets but they did fill them out.

    2nd… yes, they do over timeshare and vacation ownership programs. It is clearly said to you before you come to the resort. It is stated that you must come on a 90 minute walk and talk tour presentation on what we have to offer and to make sure you bring a credit card or checkbook in case you are interested in a vacation club.

    And lastly…

    The qualifications are this:

    Ages 21-24 need to make 75,000 a year or more. The requirement is that because we know someone that young probably wouldnt purchase and just wants to take the tickets and run. which is fine. however, of course we would like people to atleast be considered in purchasing.

    Ages 25-70 need to make only 40,000 a year or more.

    everything said to you on the phone was legit. They do just want word of mouth. They are a resort as well year round incase you ever just wanted to stay there for that.

    Also, I dont know why he told you Oqunguit when if you are from the cape, Harborwalk would have been a much better choice. The magazine was better living magazine btw that it was rated in.

    I hope this helped clear a few things up.

    Take Care

12. Chatter by HP on 11/11/2007 @ 12:02 am
    

    Thanks for the info, anony2. I understand that everything Derick told me was legit, I just think it’s a really jerky thing to do. I was worried about the situation at first, so I began to research it and I found that, although the InnSeason seemed like a fine place to stay, they specialize in hard sales. Rock hard sales. I’m hoping that people are finding this page so they can see what they are in for.
13. Chatter by someDude on 02/14/2008 @ 9:31 pm
    

    thanks for the info. Looks like Derek just wasted an hour of my life.

14. Chatter by Cody Leonard on 02/15/2008 @ 4:24 pm
    

    i took the tour got my tickets and if you actually read that entire stupid ass report you will notice there was no scandal at all this is just some fat asshole with too much time on his hands i mean he NEVER EVEN GOT THE TICKETS TO KNOW IF IT WAS A SCANDAL OR NOT WHAT A STUPID MOTHER FUCKER

15. Chatter by Formersalesrep4isr on 06/5/2008 @ 3:51 pm
    

    Funny I am an ex employee for Innseason Resorts (ISR) the reps have no idea that the tour is actually 3 hours or they use hard sales and generally the inner workings of the company are rather hush hush or misrepresented to the people on the phone we are not soulless people just led to believe that we are giving something that we are not. As a matter of fact I went on the 90 min tour and was out in 45 min coincidence hmmmmmm no that way when you ask is the tour really 90 mins I can say no sometimes it is less than an hour and not be lying to you right. The cold callers are misguided not evil.

16. Chatter by Scooter on 07/2/2008 @ 8:13 pm
    

    Chris your a dumb ass with too much time on your hands.. you need a girlfriend or a bottle of jergins.. why would he say you need to make 75k a year if your 25+ years old? if you are 25+ you only need to have an income of 40k a year or more? obv you are lying or just need to clean the shit out of your ears.

17. Chatter by HP on 07/3/2008 @ 9:03 am
    

    I won’t argue that I’m a dumb ass or have too much time on my hands, but he said 75k. Maybe he wasn’t very good at his job? Bonus fact: at the time of this phone call I was not 25+ old.
18. Chatter by Gretasixx on 07/15/2008 @ 7:53 pm
    

    wow… talk about timely info. I loved coming across this site after having done the usual googling… even checked the BBB site. but your transcript section cracked me the hell up, because I just heard those words less than an hour ago.

    okay i don’t feel like typing anymore right now. but, soon I will. this site rocks by the way.

19. Chatter by HP on 07/15/2008 @ 8:10 pm
    

    Thanks! Glad to help and amuse.

    Fun Fact 2008: InnSeason continues to call me. This time it’s a different representative. I have not filled out anything on the street this year. Wish they’d go away.

20. Chatter by Gretasixx on 07/15/2008 @ 9:01 pm
    

    the funny thing is. we thought we might take a trip there… to see what the hell its about. Ogunquit – not such a bad ride = plus what the hell did i fill out at the Melissa Etheridge concert last weekend that could be so EVIL. Almost seems worth the trip just to experience/write about it… but anything more than 90 minutes would be an issue. And I’m not buying squat.

21. Chatter by John D on 10/3/2008 @ 12:03 am
    

    I hate these guys. InnSeason Resorts. The more I’m researching these folks, the more unscrupulous I’m finding them. They may be leeching onto your information on many fronts: bridal shows, home shows, or fairs. Their lines are 603-581-1991 and 1-800-421-4213 (Gilford, NH).

    Recently, my girlfriend and I (both savvy young professionals) attended the King Richard’s Faire in Carver, MA. About a 100 feet from the front gates to the fair was a white tent, a couple of tables underneath, and a couple of women dressed in Medieval costumes staffing the tables, calling out to fair-attendees, “Enter a raffle to win $5,000 in free gas – there are NO catches!” I was, as usual, about to bypass this booth, but when my girlfriend heard the staff stating there were “no catches,” she led me toward the tent saying, “What is there to lose?” Well, later we would find out, we lost our contact information to a time-share company.

    Anyway, we went over to the tent. There was only one sign at the tables, which read, “Enter to win $5,000 in Free Gas.” There was a small raffle drum centered on the tables, and many booklets of small sign-up cards on the tables. Otherwise, there was no other signage, nor any reference to whom was sponsoring this raffle. (Turns out, it was the InnSeason timeshare company.) The women staffing the tables repeated to us and others there, “There are no catches. Sign up for a chance to win free gas. Don’t worry, your names won’t be added to any lists, and you won’t be contacted by anyone unless you win the gas.” Not one of them verbally mentioned InnSeason Resorts. So, under the impression we were entering a “strings-free” raffle, we signed up. We put our names, addresses, and phone numbers on the small signup slips, and then put them into the drum. As we put them into the drum, we noticed there was also nothing on the backside of the slips (i.e., nothing that stated we were authorizing anyone to contact us for any reason — other than if we won the gas, obviously).

    Egg on our faces. One week later, on a weekend, we began getting our first calls from the InnSeason telemarketers, leaving us messages about fabulous packages and airline tickets we had won on account of our entries into this raffle. I finally spoke with one of the representatives and expressed my displeasure with the outright fraud and unfair practices her company was using to obtain people’s contact information. I insisted to be transferred to her floor manager. After a moment’s pause as she found her manager, Kerrie Parker, (and following a background description by the rep to her manager of the scenario, accompanied also by some low laughter), Kerrie got on the phone. I re-ran through the scenario and my disgust with her company, and she claimed that there had to have been authorization language on the slip I filled out — but my girlfriend’s memory and mine are perfectly fine, and there was absolutely nothing there. Furthermore, those workers were clearly defrauding people through there verbal statements, and nothing in writing anywhere under that tent featured the name InnSeason Resorts.

    Well, I demanded from Ms. Parker the name of yet another superior (namely, the person in charge of their field employees that staff these tables at different events), and she said she could only give me the number to the corporate office (which, for your records, is 508-957-1800).

    To all those who were contacted/had your information collected under false pretenses by this company: I recommend you do all of the following:
    1.) File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau;
    2.) File a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office in the state in which you live (as well as the state/region in which you were wronged, if different);
    3.) Contact InnSeason Resort’s Corporate Office at 508-957-1800 and express to them how upset you are with their practices – and that you have reported them to the agencies above;
    4.) Post the details of your scenario on this site, as well as http://www.whocallsme.com and 800notes.com

    I intend to continue to gauge the volume of complaints I find here and on other similar websites to see how drastically this company has been purposely misleading people. Depending on the response, I may be reaching out to others in examining the possibility of filing a class-action lawsuit against InnSeason Resorts for their outright deceit toward consumers.

    Thank you, and again, file the complaints; make the calls; and let’s teach companies like this a lesson!

22. Chatter by HP on 10/3/2008 @ 11:04 am
    

    Thanks John D, that was great. I’ll look into some of those options.

    Even after all this I have still received six calls from InnSeason, from at least three different reps, all telling me I have won an amazing package. This is after I declined Derick’s offer and I have not filled out any forms since.

23. Chatter by Sarah on 11/11/2008 @ 10:09 pm
    

    My uncle received a phone call about 45 minutes ago from a guy named Ronald; Ronald said that he had won 4 free round trip airplane tickets, from a raffle they entered at a fair. My aunt remembered entering a raffle, but not for airplane tickets, she remembered entering one for $5,000 of free gas money. This made her very suspicious, so she told my uncle to tell Ronald that there were no postings of this prize. He just said “Oh, she must not have looked on the back of the sign up sheet.” When my aunt clearly remembers it being blank. Ronald said that all we had to do was come to Ogunquit and watch a 90 minute presentation. My uncle is very gullible, and was completely convinced. It all seemed very suspicious to me, so i searched it on Google. I am very thankful that people like you have taken their time to type up their own stories and save others from making this mistake. I am amazed that a company would go so far. I can almost garuntee you that without this website my uncle and aunt would have fell victim to this scam. so once again thank you!

24. Chatter by L.Y. on 11/22/2008 @ 3:00 pm
    

    HP and John D, thank you both for sharing this info. I got my “4 free airline tickets” call yesterday from InnSeason, and decided to google them to double check. A lot of the sales phrases sound near-identical to what HP reported. And if there had been any doubt in my mind, I went to the /exact/ same Faire as John D. and filled in the same form (I couldn’t recall what it was for until I read your comment; all I remembered was that it was car-related, not airline-related).

    The guy on the phone told me flat-out “This is not a timeshare. There won’t be any high-pressure sales. Be sure to bring a credit card for ID purposes.” Misleading sales tactics are one thing, but bald-faced lies? Incredible.

    Thanks for saving me (and my friends) a lot of headache.

25. Chatter by s.a.m. on 02/12/2009 @ 8:29 pm
    

    same thing, won at the providence boat show. we went to see what is was all about. drove 2 hours. high pressure. did research before we went so we knew what we where getting into as far as the 4 free tickets. they come from first priority travel out of orlando florida. they get paid to do these kind of incentives for companies. after we flat right refused to buy into their $34,000.00! 110,000 points at $402.00 a month for seven years, plus $771.00 a year for whatever they call taxes etc. and $143.00 to get their resort book, the rep. tossed the booklet with the “tickets” in it. i asked how it worked. he said he didn’t know and i had to read the back pages. what a scam! i would also like to know how they can deed you the rights to a piece of property that is owned only by points floating around somewhere and not an actual unit.
    in this economy, after seeing what is happening to people losing their homes, they have the nerve to pressure people into buying these units because “it is the american way to owe money”. and he was dead serious when he said this. sorry, not us. we need the money for that cobra payment down the road, and food on the table.
    200 miles later, we did end up with a $20.00 gift certificate for lunch at certain restaurants, which most were closed, and a $20.00 gift certificate to macy’s. not bad for a real learning experience.

26. Chatter by Tommy D on 07/28/2009 @ 8:17 pm
    

    Great observations. Just got back from Maine and super high pressure. Stay away. Run do not walk. We have hired private entity to investiage there practices.

27. Chatter by joe on 10/5/2009 @ 7:54 pm
    

    So the airline tickets are some bullshit deal where you have to reserve a certain amount of time at one of their resorts with your credit card and then the tickets are paid for?

28. Chatter by Danny Foster on 10/20/2009 @ 1:54 pm
    

    At the time of purchase the salesman, Mike Hardy, had indicated that Inn Season could be used very affectively to sell our unused timeshare weeks and allowed us to deposit the weeks we had previously owned ,from other timeshare companies, giving us the points to become a diamond member. Mike Hardy also gave us the name of Luke Lanagin at Sell My Timeshare Now and indicated that if we use our points to sell red weeks that they should easily sell for $2,000 weekly during peak season.

    Based on this information we purchased. We also traded our weeks for Inn Season points to acquire three red weeks to sell through Luke Lanagin at Sell My Time Share Now . All of which the sales department was aware of and helped arrange the Harbour Walk red season weeks. One of these weeks sold at $600US far below $2,000US and the other two weeks would not sell unless I sold them for less than the maintenance fees. Each time I called to acquire, trade or anyway deal with the request to Sell My Time Share Now, I was informed by Inn Season employees that I was not really allowed to sell my weeks or points.

    We have already put in over $5,500 which has been a waste of our money as well as the weeks we deposited into Inn Season points. This has been a very bad experience for us and

29. Chatter by Richard Judah on 05/4/2010 @ 12:20 pm
    

    My wife and I believe we have been the victims of a well-choreographed scam where we purchased a Diamond Memberhips based on the promises of a sales rep named Ric Lainhart, who promised to rent our weeks/points. Once the deal was cut, Mr. Lainhart disappeared and the other involved InnSeasons reps have denied the nature of the deal. I am currently developing a lawsuit to seek restitution and damages. If there are any other Diamond Members who have the same experience, I would like to hear from you. If I can get enough support, I may be able to get the Attorney General of MA to investigate and support my case.
    Leave a message here. I will check frequently and if there is a response I will leave my e-mail for contact purposes

30. Chatter by HP on 05/4/2010 @ 3:18 pm
    

    Wow, dude I am sorry. My site doesn’t do all too well with Google and lately hasn’t been getting much traffic, so you might be better off checking the many spam phone number message boards out there.

    Best of luck to you.

31. Chatter by ThaiGold on 05/10/2010 @ 11:32 am
    

    What scam are you people complaining about? It sounds pretty clear to me that nobody is aware of how these companies work. It’s simple, you sign up for a contest, whatever it be, everyone’s a winner, and then you receive a call from the sponsoring corporation to buy product from them while you redeem your prize. They give you air tickets or a hotel package and a day somewhere, you give them either hours of your life or $$$. A lot of people have walked away from these “scams” very happy. I have received rewards like this from several different places and never have I walked into something I didn’t expect, with a little research. If you REALLY believed you were signing up for a sweepstakes with NO STRINGS, than you are dumber than you let off. Haven’t seen one of those since my last school raffle and even those cost $1 to enter. If you don’t remember signing up, then you either need to speak to your friends and relatives who are forging your information at these booths, think about the friend who is always dragging you into the local radio booth, OR lay off the hashish, you can give it to me I will dispose of it for you. I have won only one sweepstakes you could call strings-free, unless you count the 15 years I smoked their cigarettes. Otherwise I have redeemed a hotel package in Boston, airfare to Las Vegas and turned down an offer for a cruise. The timing was bad. All of these had some sort of sales pitch that was usually optional. The cruise and hotel were basic packages that could be upgraded to exquisite for a price and the flight required me to apply for a credit card they were offering, I applied then subsequently and according to the contract cancelled the card. No scams. It sounds like you people just expected something for free, which I bid you good luck in ever getting that. And as for the booth attendants claiming no-strings, that hardly has anything to do with this company, they do not staff the booths themselves. They sell the right to offer the prizes to smaller corporations like a new siding company who uses these drawings to lure in spectators at their own booth. The resort company itself has no part in it if the attendants are just blabbing away what they don’t know.
    Thank you for the posting HP, the transcript was very helpful in understanding what I am looking into. I think I will call them back now and find out exactly what my stipulations are to redeem my air tickets. If it is not too much trouble, I just may be able to enjoy myself somewhere on their dime.

32. Chatter by HP on 05/10/2010 @ 12:38 pm
    

    I’d like to note that I never once referred to it as a “scam.” I called it a scandal, but only because of a running joke on the website.

    However, my issue was this: I did not sign up the contest they claimed I did. They cold called me over and over for a over year, after I said no. People go into this expecting one thing, and are then pressured into a hard sale with loads of stipulations they didn’t expect.

    I’m just trying to get some word out, is all.

33. Chatter by Sublime on 08/21/2010 @ 11:58 am
    

    AH HA!! Went to a sublime concert here in NH.. Got the same call saying a won a sublime package. I called back and said congrats you won 4 tickets blah blah blah. He told me the closest place was about 10 min from me. .. I just got laid off so i told him that after he asked me if i made over 50k a year. He said well if you know someone that does and bring them they can transfer it to you. And for putting you out of the way because you can’t do it we will treat you to lunch 25 dollars and give you 1000 in groceries. I said i don’t know anyone with that kind of income and he thanked me and said sorry. I lol’ed cuz i knew it was a timeshare and i asked him that and he paused for a second and said no…. Oh well I hope they don’t continue to call but maybe not because i said i was laid off.

34. Chatter by Ann B. on 11/18/2011 @ 1:24 pm
    

    I got a call a couple of years back also, from a “Melissa”…congratulating me on winning four free tickets for something I never signed up for. At first, I agreed to come down with my hub for the tix to pick them up in Falmouth. But after my hub and I reviewed them and I saw all the ridiculous complaints and comments people had about the scam this was, I called them back and told them we would be coming. Meliisa tried giving me the hard sell, I told her plain out, sorry,we weren’t going. She then transferred me to her ‘supervisor’ (don’t remember that one’s name), who was absolutely adamant about what a great resort they had and all they were lookinig for was someone to come up and see how great they are and spread the word. I was insistant that we wouldn’t be coming up, and the ‘supervisor’ got verally nasty with me and told me that I’d already been reserved and they could possibly penalize me for cancelling. I just said ‘Yeah, whatever, call my lawyer’ and hung up on her. So…I was almost a poor unwitting victim myself.

35. Chatter by Sarah on 12/6/2011 @ 8:38 pm
    

    Ahhh, I remember that weekend… crazy death-trap bike, a lovely beach with sharks and garbage… good times ;p lol

36. Chatter by Jeska on 11/19/2012 @ 3:50 pm
    

    I used to work for them out of their call center in Merrimack, NH. SCAM SCAM SCAM! You PAY fees to even activate your tickets!

37. Chatter by Louis on 03/27/2013 @ 11:38 pm
    

    Just got the phone call today. Sounded legit, told my buddy i’d give him 2 tickets for his honey moon. Then i did my research and found all this information. They pushed me to schedule a drive up immediately during my work hours. i accidentally called back to postpone all trips up there due to family issues that have arisen. I’m pretty sure this was a sign to get out while i can. I know i signed up somewhere during my visit to a golfer’s expo. I am expected phone calls back from them and am ready to tear them a new one. Thank you all for your posts and i will fill out the proper forms if they keep spamming me.

38. Chatter by Rachael on 04/7/2013 @ 9:25 pm
    

    Just in defense of InnSeason Resorts, I just did their whole time share spiel this morning. I got to stay for free at their resort last night. It was a very nice suite with a full living room/dining room, half kitchen and the master bedroom has a jaquzzi. I got to stay in this room for free. After doing the time share presentation (which only lasted 74 minutes and was not high pressure at all) I was given a $20 gas card to Gulf and I was given the 4 airfare ticket vouchers. I won’t speak on the legitimacy of the ticket vouchers as I obviously haven’t had the opportunity to use them yet. But I feel like I can assure you that had you gone to Ogunquit you would NOT have been raped and you would have gotten a free night at a nice hotel overlooking the ocean.