Consumer complaint received 07-05-2017 about Credit card or prepaid card (General-purpose credit card or charge card) with Alliance Data Card Services (IL).
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card

Complaint: On XX/XX/XXXX, we had been pressured into the purchase of a XXXX timeshare. We had written letters to them on several occasions to explain why we were requesting to be released from their contract and and they denied our request due to the signing of the contract. We went to the resort located in XXXX FL and we were invited to a tour while visiting a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. The XXXX Representative advised we had to pay {$20.00} to reserve a spot to attend the tour, but advised we would receive {$80.00} after the 90 minute tour was completed. We thought 90 minutes for {$80.00} sounded like a fair deal. We were told the tour will only last 90 minutes. In reality, the tour lasted from XXXX-XXXX. Upon arrival, we were told we will meet with an agent at XXXX, we waited for 45 minutes before our agent XXXX greeted us. Overall the whole tour took about 7 hours, including the time we were pressured into purchasing the time share. We told our sales agent XXXX, we wanted to skip breakfast after waiting 45 minutes to greet him and just receive our {$80.00} cash offer for the tour. This was our first decline and they did not accept the decline. The initial 1st sales offer with XXXX was for a unit that cost {$40000.00}, we declined offer because it was way too expensive. The second offer was provided by XXXX Manager, XXXX XXXX for a unit of {$35000.00}, in which we also declined. The third offer, provided by the manager was for a unit of about {$20000.00}, in which we again declined so she let us think about it some more. The fourth offer she came back with a deal she said we " ca n't pass up, '' a unit of {$15000.00}, in which we felt pressured at that point and told her we could only possibly afford maybe {$200.00} a month. The manager came back with her final offer of {$12000.00}, in which we accepted after being pressured for 6 hours. We were told that purchasing a time share would be an investment and that our future kids will be able to use it. Also we could sell or rent it to family or friends, however, with the taxes and maintenance fees of {$1000.00} and other costs, it is not an investment at all. When we asked to leave to think everything over we were told by XXXX that this offer is only available today and if we came back another time, the same offer will not be available. The closing process was rushed when we signed and initialed she went through the signing process contract quickly. As she said she wanted to get us on our way to enjoy our vacation. It was not easy to undertake the closing agent due to the language barrier as she talked very fast and with a thick accent. English is our primary spoken language ; however, the sales Agent XXXX told us that this was his first time doing a presentation in English, as he is from XXXX. Therefore, there was a language barrier due to the agents first language is not English.  There was also the language barrier with the closing agent XXXX. We felt we were taken advantage due to their pressure sales tactics. They put pressure on us for over 6 hours and kept giving us other options after we continuously refused the sale. Also we had told them that we had never been to any timeshare tours and this was our very first vacation together, therefore, I believe they took advantage of us because we didnt know what we really were getting into. In recorded closing, she never explained the maintenance and taxes fees and when we asked, she avoided it and went around the question. We later followed up with the closing agent within the 10 days window to cancel timeshare and she stated that the maintenance and taxes do n't go up and they stay the same. The other documents were not explained in detail during closing because they rushed us and the information was hard to read on the 8inch tablet we used to sign. They never informed us of our 10 day window to cancel in the sales process or the closing process. We found out in the contract days later that we had 10 day window to cancel. As I stated above we did call during that period to cancel and question everything and we were turned down. We have not been able to utilize the timeshare. We attempted on XX/XX/XXXX to check availability for reservation and was informed maintenance and taxes of {$1100.00} had to be paid upfront for XX/XX/XXXX before making any reservations, and of course we were not aware this would be a problem. When we attempted to make a reservation online with XXXX resorts, we observed that we had to make a reservation at another resort or hotel due to XXXX resorts are not located in the applicable state we requested. In the sales pitch by the agents, we were told that we can go anywhere ( any state in United States ) to reserve a XXXX resort and use a XXXX property like the one shown in sale. However, we were provided with a request number and the online site stated we will receive a reservation number via email/phone by an account specialists. This is still pending as of today. We were taken advantage by the sales agent and the closing agent with the language barrier. Then we were pressured by the sales agent and his sales manager for several hours, within those hours they kept giving us more options until we accepted the last offer after. We were lied to about being able to exchange anywhere in the United States and internationally ; when in fact there are less than 10 XXXX resorts in the United States. They neglected to advise that in order to reserve these resorts, we will need to pay off all maintenance fees or provide details about the additional cost for reserving at specific resorts or hotels. We were told the resort in XXXX would be free, and {$170.00} for all other resorts ( we were told all states in the USA ), however, this was incorrect information as there are fees for other resorts and not all states. We were rushed through the closing process and lied to about specific questions on the maintenance and taxes. XXXX also called to ask the closing agent within the 10 day window to cancel timeshare as well as to ask about the maintenance and taxes. The closing agent advised us that this will not go up and would stay the same for years, which was indeed another lie. Finally, we felt that during the closing process the tablets they provided us limited our ability to read the contract as the digital tablets made the words in the contract appear even smaller than they already were. Also when signing, some parts of contract only indicated do you acknowledge the maintenance and fees, however, there was not any dollar figure listed when signing. Now they have terminated our contract due to non payment, and they will not take responsibility for the XXXX Credit Card they had pressured us into signing up for and it has started to negatively impact my Credit and I would like them to remove it.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief