My wife and I purchased 2 suites from RCI for our upcoming trip to Alaska with our 2 children. We were initially very pleased with the sales staff until we were looking through tripadvisor.com (which was recommended to us by them) a couple days after purchasing our tickets and spoke to two cruise companies that came within $125.00 of RCI's (discounted prices with a trade-in of one of our timeshare weeks) prices. We had been told by RCI sales staff that we were saving between $800 and $1,000 dollars plus they would match or beat any competitive prices. When I called the sales staff 2 days later to ask for a review of their pricing structure I was forwarded to someone at RCI by the name of Chelsea Fresh, a supervisor in customer service. Ms Fresh calmly told me that based upon our cruise contract, we could not make any changes after 24 hours.or we would lose the $7500.00 we spent. After speaking with 'upper management Ms Fresh said RCI (based on the fact we were good standing members for ten years) would give us back our week but still charge us the $199.00 fee for using the week!

It infuriates us that RCI conducts business in this manner. Raising their prices for timeshare owners, then artificially discounting the trips in exchange for our timeshare week is a disceptive and dishonest practice. I wonder how many RCI members have been taken advantage of with this bait and switch practice. I am certain we will enjoy our vacation, but once again there is a bad aftertaste after doing business with RCI.

Fred
Portland, Oregon
U.S.A.