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BEWARE of the Sales Pitch!

Moon Palace is a beautiful resort. The service and amenities are top notch and the staff is extraordinarily helpful. The problem is senior management and the sales department. I am an Diamond member with Palace Premier and Palace Elite and a Hall of Famer with Hard Rock Legendary. I have invested an enormous amount of money in Palace Resorts over the last 10 years, because I have been so impressed with the resorts. We have also referred countless people to the resorts and have brought friends and family with us to the resorts. I highly recommend the Palace Resorts as a vacation destination.

But do not invest in the resort!!!! Every couple over 30 is invited to the Sales Pitch and is enticed to attend with gifts, such as 200 Resort Credits. (Be careful - there is a 20% surcharge, so you will have a $40 room charge for every 200 Resort Credits you use.) The "orientation" as they often call it, is supposed to last 90 minutes. That never happens. The pitch lasts about 2.5 hours including breakfast. That is if you are absolutely firm that you have no money and are not at all interested in buying a membership. If they think there is any chance at all of selling to you, you will be tied up with them for at least 3 hours. If you decide to buy, figure on at least 5 hours.

But here is the problem, the salespersons may or may not be aware of what they are doing, but they will blatantly lie to you. Sometimes I believe they are as in the dark as the consumer, but it is hard to tell. The pitch will start with some astronomical number, but will then come down to where you lead them. They are very good at this. If you do not want to buy, DO NOT ENTER the pitch room after your tour of the resort. In the pitch room you will be handed off to a much more experienced salesperson and if you resist, they will bring in a "closer" and if necessary the sales manager and so on, until you are too worn out to resist. You will also be served alcohol in the pitch room.

Many of you probably know that Palace Resorts is a family business, owned by two brothers. A couple of years ago they made a deal with the Hard Rock organization and were permitted to re-brand half of the Palace Resorts hotels. The hotels are still owned and operated by the brothers, but Hard Rock ensures that the decor, etc meets their standards. About a year after the deal was reached and Palace hotels were being converted to Hard Rock hotels, the brothers decided to split the company. First they created Legendary and started selling memberships that only gave access to the re-branded Hard Rock hotels.

Prior to that, Palace Premier (original organization) members had access to all of the Palace Resorts. Many contracts also gave access to Le Blanc. (Le Blanc is a joint venture where a third party owns the land and the brothers own and operate the hotel.) Some contracts, like ours, also gave access to all future Palace Resorts (excluding Le Blanc). When the re-branding occurred, we still had access to all of the resorts. We then bought into Legendary, because we liked the resorts and we believed this would be a good investment for us. The salesperson said they were no longer offering access to future resorts, but not to worry, because as original Palace Premier Diamond members and based on our contract including future resorts, we would have access to all future Palace Resorts and Hard Rock Resorts.

Next we bought into the new Palace Elite organization and we were told the same story. Another year passed and lo and behold, Palace Resorts is opening a resort in Jamaica. That is when we found out that all of this has been a lie. We have now been advised that the original organization (Palace Premier), no longer exists, so there can't be any future resorts under that brand. So we only have access to the resorts that existed before Palace Elite was formed. But, get this, the Palace Premier and Palace Elite Diamond phone lines, offices and personnel are the exact same. The owners have not changed. They just changed the company names to deny their original, most loyal and most heavily invested members access to future resorts. Talk about "bait and switch".

I have many other examples of these unfair sales practices and can give you tips on how to protect yourself from the many other more minor deceptions. Feel free to reach out to me at lisadavevacations@***.com.

Reason of review: Poor customer service.

Monetary Loss: $130000.

Preferred solution: Deliver product or service ordered.

Palace Resorts Cons: Misleading sales presentations, Refusal to honor contract.

Location: West Bloomfield Township, Michigan

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Guest

I am a trial lawyer and have worked on class action cases, I see a lot of fraud and deception here, if you have details maybe you can email me at tim@***.com. You guys should be refunded your monies.

Guest

Any updates on this issue? Do Premier Members have any recourse - is there a lawsuit of any kind? This is absolutely ridiculous!

Guest

I was just there this week and was not even allowed into Hard Rock because they said I was using my elite week. I am supposedly grandfathered in, and I am a member as well with elite and premier and legendary.

They were rude to me and when I asked to speak to higher management they said no one was available and they were going to escort me out now.

I have paid $55,000.

I'm looking into if anything I can do to cancel my membership. I have broken no contract, only them. As a matter of fact, the referral program is now going away.

Everything in resorts credit is limited now and had high tax amount, so at the end the costs are the same as they would of been anyway.

They just mark it up to look good.

Complete total rip off. The hotels and staff are very nice though. I don't think the staff even knows the lies that we are told.

As a matter of fact, part of our buy in was because we were told that that we would have top notch service for drinks at pool and beach, and a separate area.

Our wristband etc. I asked the staff if they knew the difference and they said no. NOPE! Treated the same as everyone else.

Including non members who just bought for the weekend in expedia.

We stayed at sun palace in presidential suite. Bonnie

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-989207

I was reading your palace resort beware of the sales pitch, and as I was reading it, it is almost identical to our situation, I am so mad because we upgraded again last November because they added Jamaica and Cabos but after trying using some of the free weeks we have to go to Jamaica, they said we can't use it and I remembered they said yes we can use them, we had paid a lot of money already because we also love the service, the resorts but I am sorry I bought into it, we promised to go to the meeting to complained but we always wind up upgrading AGAIN.

John I Cei

Very well written and documented. Timeshares have proven to be very difficult to enjoy in the long run.

"Terms and conditions are subject to change." That phrase is in most contracts. It gives the developers an opportunity to screw customers.

Plus the escalating maintenance fees. No thanks.

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