My stay was mostly pleasant, however, I must report abuse from the overly
aggressive sales. Yes, I agree with the many reviews below which praise the
goodness and beauty of Massanutten, but, Great Eastern Management has
tainted your resort experience with a downright vicious and relentless sales
approach. For those of you who value your time, steer clear of the "owner's
update/tour" or the free sales breakfast/dinner. You will be offered $100 or
so, but the sales staff will pressure you, nag you, and nearly drain your will
to live until you either walk away or write a large enough check that
satisfies the company's voracious & greedy business appetite.
I have to share a letter with you that was written after being conned by
one of the staff at what is suppose to be the Massanutten parking pass
desk. Exhausted from the long trip to this resort, I misunderstood the
saleslady who is supposed to issue guests a parking pass. I handed the
saleslady a payment for what I thought was the parking pass, later to find
out it was a $20.00 charge for an invitation to breakfast. It's hard to
believe, but yes, the "parking pass counter" will charge you $20.00 for an
invitation to a sales breakfast. Buyer beware, do not trust the folks who are
supposed to furnish you with your parking pass. The second you hear the
check-in desk official tell you to go to the parking pass counter to acquire
your pass, you need to mentally arm yourself with the confidence and
resolve to strictly obtain your parking pass and accept nothing else from the
salespeople. This is unless you have the time, patience, and nerves to
endure their high-pressure sales presentation.
At Massanutten, they have a trained sales staff that tries to play on your
emotions, and they will hit you with rebuttals when you try to leave or
decline their timeshare sale. When I contacted the sales division to decline
the sales presentation service altogether, I was not refunded the $20.00
payment. This denial of refund goes against the terms and conditions of
VISA's contract with businesses, and VISA was the form of payment used for
the transaction. My legal firm is assessing this situation to weigh all options
and to determine how best to proceed. For the many vacation-goers who
have had run-ins with this kind of scenario, I am with you and I pledge to
share any information/results that may help you to avoid or remedy shady
practices of this nature. For now, though, the email address for the sales
lions at Massanutten is sales at massresort.com. If you run into something
like this, or would just like to support the cause; you are urged to copy and
paste the second paragraph of the below letter into an email to the sales
staff. Together, we can stop what has become a lackluster experience at a
pushy timeshare complex, and help restore it into a five star deluxe resort
accommodation. Thank you.
Below is the letter written to the Massanutten sales dept. and shared with
RCI/Redweek & others to express my displeasure with the sales approach:
[Today I write you to reiterate that I have declined your sales presentation
service scheduled for Jan 19, 2009. My method of payment was with a VISA
credit card number ending 3821. According to the VISA terms and
conditions issued to both businesses and cardholders, any service that goes
unfulfilled or unrendered is subject to a full refund. Since I have declined
your sales presentation on the above listed date, I ask that you please
credit my VISA card the full amount of $20.00 within three (3) business
days. Failure to do so will result in my contacting VISA, RCI, and all other
concerned entities and agencies to report this incident.
I also request in writing, that in the future I not be approached by any
member of the Great Eastern/Massanutten sales staff with any offer to
attend a sales meeting. I would like the parking pass and nothing else from
parking pass officials. Please do not make liars out of the check-in staff who
direct guests to the parking pass distributors only to be dealt an aggressive
salesperson . As a customer, I feel that luring vacation-goers into an
aggressive sales session by using the parking pass counter is an unethical
and dishonest ploy. This tactic gives timeshare resorts a bad reputation.
Please restore my pride in Massanutten ownership by reconsidering and
changing this practice. Thank you for your cooperation.]
***NO MORE ABUSE from pushy, aggressive and unethical timeshare sales
practices!! Enjoy your travels! de
UPDATE 2/9/09: VISA issued a full refund after reviewing the situation***