Monday, August 12, 2013

Orlando Area Summer Bay Resort Sinking?

Resort Apartments Near Disneyworld Swallowed By Sinkhole

CLERMONT, FL. -- The Summer Bay Resort, a timeshare vacation facility just a few miles west of Disneyworld in Central Florida is sinking in more than one way, some customers report.

This weekend, two three-story buildings at the vacation resort were affected by a growing sinkhole that swallowed up parts of two vacation apartment buildings.

Estimated at about 15 foot deep, the dangerous collapse of earth caused Lake County authorities to evacuate several dozen people from the apartments after the buildings suffered a partial collapse.

Not only is the resort suffering damage from natural disaster, customers of the timeshare operation have long complained about business practices by the timeshare company owners.

Customer Complaints - BBB "F" Rating

The Better Business Bureau of Central Florida gives the Summer Bay Resorts an "F" grade due to complaints filed against them over the last three years.

The BBB says 194 complaints were filed in the last three years and 38 in the last year. Complaints included 17 about sales or advertising, 17 billing issues, and 95 issues with service and the product sold to customers.

According to it's website, "Summer Bay Resort is a RCI Gold Crown resort developed and owned by Joe H. Scott, Sr.," adding,  "The resort has become the "crown jewel" of his business portfolio." The resort is not a member of the BBB.

The resort sells timeshare vacation packages and according to the BBB "In order to qualify for the accommodations consumers are required to attend a 90 minute sales presentation and tour of all reserved accommodation sponsoring resort properties. Failure to attend ether of the required presentations will result in the consumer being charged the retail value (full rate) for the accommodations reserved/received and also the issuance of any gifts contained on the said purchased packages will be denied."

Reportedly, the package holder is required to meet the current financial requirements of Summer Bay and if you do not meet the current qualifications you will be housed and toured at an alternative accommodations provider.

The BBB says the company also operates under these names: Gatlinburg Town Square, Inn at Summer Bay, SBR Florida Vacations, Summer Bay Partnership, Summer Bay's Crown Point Lodge & Golf Club, Summer Bay Resort Condominium Association, Inc., Summer Bay Inns

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:10 PM

    Estimated at about 15 foot deep...

    15 is more than 1, so it's:

    Estimated at about 15 feet deep

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rick and Cathy9:00 PM

    Summer Bay is a lovely resort. We have belonged and stayed there for many years.It is tragic this sink hole occurred here; and great no one was hurt. I wish there were a way to know where sink holes will happen so we could prepare for them. But so far we can't predict. Having 200 complaints out of the thousands of patrons is not a large amount. I would hope The Resort would try to solve the issues. We have had no problems and only great vacations.

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  3. Anonymous5:03 PM

    Summer Bay is a very desorgonised resort in and out,their stuff in every department suffer from mediocre administration,especially sales and leasing, where the bosses don't know much about their product, they only know about getting a sale at whatever it takes to get there.My wife and I been in one of their timeshare presentation,at the end after we declined, we see clearly the disapointment of the saleperson, adding this women director (spanish) of sales yelling at her...just inconfortable..bad experience.

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  4. Anonymous10:19 PM

    Very dodgy company. my wife was sold a "fantastic" 2 week holiday over the phone. I quickly realised it was a timeshare scam and started proceedings to reverse the payments. (naturally the money had come out of the credit card account pronto).

    Had numerous phone calls, emails and registered mails demanding reversal of transaction as per the guarantee on the terms and conditions.

    Guess what ? They actually paid the money back!/ Very relieved. Just took a small loss on currency transactions.

    But never, ever, ever get sucked in by these guys.

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  5. We have 4...yes count them 4 timeshares with summerbay and RCI. We have only stayed on property at Summerbay once and really enjoyed it. We have used our points and weeks to vacation in some wonderful resorts in and out of the country. They have saved us quite a bit of money. I enjoyed my presentation when we first joined. It was done by a man named Alex...He was very informative and we learned a lot. Besides who wouldn't want to tour the property? It kept me from getting lost. :) I'm sincerely sorry that the resort is having to go through this natural disaster. I'm sure they will pull through just fine.

    ReplyDelete