King's Creek Plantation Unethical Sales Tactics

Has anyone purchased from King's Creek Plantation in Williamsburg, VA ? We were sold a pack of lies and now are in debt for $17,000 for a timeshare we didn't need. Would love to hear from you as we are trying to get out of this puchase. Thank you !

joanm359 wrote:

Has anyone purchased from King's Creek Plantation in Williamsburg, VA ? We were sold a pack of lies and now are in debt for $17,000 for a timeshare we didn't need. Would love to hear from you as we are trying to get out of this puchase. Thank you !

An old saying from timeshare educated people, "if a timeshare salesperson moves their lips they're lying".

What a timeshare salesperson tells you verbally in a presentation does not hold up in a court of law .... the only thing that does hold up is the contract .... with a large $17,000 purchase I would have certainly researched timeshare ownership backwards and forward and inside and out before signing on the dotted line .... why did you buy when you didn't need to own a timeshare ????? Yes, salespeople can be persuasive, but you needed to do your due diligence before signing for such a large purchase.

About the only thing you can do is read your contract to see what the rescission period by law is after purchasing .... if you're past that period then you own a timeshare .... hopefully you learned a valuable lesson during this process.

Yah, we should have known it was too good to be true. We have attended a lot of presentations and thought we had heard it all. Ric Lainhart, the sales rep, said he would help us sell the timeshares we already have to purchase at King's Creek. The benefit would be less maintenance fees and more points. The numbers all worked, but Mr. "trust me" never came through on the assistance to sell our other time shares. Now we have 4 times shares with 4 maintenance fees and 5 years of debt to pay King's Creek off. We definitely feel dooped, not to mention the financial situation it has put us in.

joanm359 wrote:

Now we have 4 times shares with 4 maintenance fees and 5 years of debt to pay King's Creek off. We definitely feel dooped, not to mention the financial situation it has put us in.

Well now that you know there are a lot of scam artists out there, watch out for the blood-sniffing sharks who are likely going to contact you with all sorts of unbelievable claims such as getting you out of your timeshare, ending your timeshare mortgage/debt, selling them for megabucks, etc.

They're usually scams, especially if they ask you to pay a large, upfront fee.

If you do a quick Google search of "Rick Lainhart" you will find some interesting reading.

We have owned at Kings Creek since it was in the planning stages. Last year we attended an "Owners Meeting" where Ric Lainhart sold us an upgrade with the promise that he would broker the sale of some other timeshare properties we own in order to pay off the upgrade debt. It all sounded reasonable and we "agreed". I should have taken notice of the red flag when Lainhart told us not to throw him under the bus when we met with the financial people to sign the paperwork. He claimed that management did not know that he was brokering private sales. Well, that's the last we heard from him!!!!! Fortunately, after several months and several payments on the new debt, I posted the situation on Kings Creek's facebook page. Low and behold, the ball started rolling and I was eventually released from the new debt and returned to my original Kings Creek status. I thought Ric would be fired, but it seems that he is still there swindling others. BEWARE!!!!!

Glad to hear you had success. We were not that lucky. I posted on King's Creek website as well and they wouldn't budge with releasing us from the sale. I would love to get a class action lawsuit going against them !!

I posted a rather terse post on their facebook page and warned others about Lainhart's sales tactics. I got an immediate call from their customer service department. It seems they didn't want negative posts about them on their facebook page.

davidg1049 wrote:

I posted a rather terse post on their facebook page and warned others about Lainhart's sales tactics. I got an immediate call from their customer service department. It seems they didn't want negative posts about them on their facebook page.

Posting negativity on a Facebook is the best thing I've heard in years .... good for you for being creative.

I also posted a very strong message and we did get a response from Crystal Gaskins who then turned us over to Julie who we talked with numerous times but she would not budge on buying the timeshare back. She offered to rent it for us which has also been a nightmare ! I think the fact that you were an owner there worked to your benefit. We also contacted the BBB and OIG with no help as we signed the sale paperwork. It's quite a cat and mouse game they have going there, and I'm sure others are being scammed every day !

We got nowhere with Julie. She agreed, however, to release us from the upgrade contract, but said we could not get back in the cottages where we were originally without paying a high fee since the price of getting in the cottages has gone up considerably since we first bought and paid for ours. She said we could get in the Townes for a small fee (this was a downgrade from the cottages). Julie just didn't want to work with us. So I contacted Crystal Gaskins and she worked personally through their attorneys to get us back in the Cottages with NO fees. My wife and I suspected all along that Julie was quite cognizant of what Ric Lainhart did to us. Looking back we remember him giving her a "thumbs up" when he turned us over to her.

We, unfortunately, were assisgned to Ric "the bomber" at Kings Creek who sold us an upgrade from the original worthless week we owned....and promised to just send the money for rentals of the property, that we wouldn't ever have to use it, because of the high demand for rentals. He then referred us to Bryan Jackson, an agent who called and insisted we give him our credit card number, so the could charge his "listing fees"...we declined, the deal smelled rotten. It was....we protested & got nowhere. Now own a property there, and don't want to use it. There is no escape?? Shouldn't "the bomber" be investigated & charged with something?? the office appears to cover for him....we can't afford to hire a lawyer to investigate what they are doing there.

Ric the Bomber also referred us to this Brian Jackson, but wouldn't give us his phone number or any other information about him. This Jackson guy did eventually call us and also wanted our credit card info. Of course, I didn't give it to him, and he hung up on me. I also believe the office is covering for Ric the Bomber Lainhart. The only person who ever seemed slightly surprised by Ric's tactics was Crystal Gaskins. As I have said in a previous post, Julie didn't act surprised at all. In fact, as we were leaving her office one day (we live fairly close to Kings Creek), we saw her dart out of the door and cross the parking lot with none other than Ric the Bomber Lainhart. I still say that if it hadn't been for Crystal Gaskins, we would still be stuck with an expensive upgrade and a bunch of lies!

So who is the sales manager at KCP, (over Julie?), and does he have a clue that these unethical deals are taking place? is Crystal the higher level salesperson? do any of these people read these discussions about KCP, and if so why would the bomber still be making his deals? Where do we file a report?

Something needs to be done !! We reported our experience to the BBB and Office of the Attorney General in VA against Kings' Creek. We had to submit various paperwork from our purchase, but the bottom line with them was that we signed the papers and that King's Creek did nothing illegal. Now I'm going to file with them again but this time I am going to file against Julie and Ric and see what happens. If enough people do this, we may get somewhere. We have been trying to get out of this for over a year. Their lies have put us in a very difficult financial situation. Would the person who lives near Kings Creek be willing to see if there's an attorney in the area that would take on a class action lawsuit to be paid from the settlement. We can't afford to keep paying for this timeshare, not to mention that it's impossible to get a week there when you want it. We are trying to rent it out to pay the maintenance fees but haven't been able to get a week in the Estates.

Crystal Gaskins is the Director of Owner Services. A phone call to her might just get you somewhere. She was on top of my situation until she got it resolved. Not sure who the sales manager is, but will try to find out from the mountain of paperwork I have as a result of the problems I had with Ric, his lies, and the huge financial obligation as a result of the upgrade.

I believe Julie Martin is the sales manager as she made the comment that Ric was "her" closer. She is part of the cat & mouse game they play. I will contact Crystal. She was the one that originally responded to our email, but then Julie was the one that called us which was a bunch of nothing !

Joanm359, I suggest that you call Crystal and tell her that you plan to advise others to beware of the sales tactics used by Ric. I would go so far as to say that you will be writing a letter in the local papers about your experience. I would also suggest that you post on their facebook page and their website continuously. Also tell her you do not intend to talk to Julie anymore, and that you want something done so that others will not suffer as you have. With regard to shady timeshare business, you just have to declare all out war and sometimes get nasty. Be a pest! Good Luck....

I wish I would have never purchased a time share from this company. I purchased in May 2013 and was told that I could get on the list in 2014 and rent out my timeshare if I wasn't going to use it. When I called today I was told that they rent our a year in advance and I would be able to get on the 2015 list once I paid my fees/taxes.

I also think there were other lies told. Now I am constantly being bothered by the ICE group. Biggest mistake of my life..

There are a lot of timeshare purchasers in the same boat as you. The best thing to do is to try to make use of what you purchased.

Never, ever pay anyone a large, upfront fee to rent out, sell, market, or "Cancel" your timeshare. If you want to rent it out, you can do that yourself without paying some third party fees or taxes.