If you’re looking for a timeshare exit company, you’ve likely already had bad customer service with a timeshare contract. You want to be sure that when you are enlisting a company or lawyer to help you escape, you’re getting the very best.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of poor timeshare exit companies out there, and they can do just as much damage as the timeshare developers themselves. Using one of these bad services can compound the mistake of getting a timeshare in the first place because they may not complete your exit after you’ve just thrown a lot of money at them.
The internet is filled with stories of lawsuits and failed companies that don’t do what they promised, including Timeshare Exit Team, Timeshare Compliance, and Timeshare Freedom Group. Sometimes, these companies can lead you into worse legal trouble, like timeshare foreclosure. Other times, they might just take your money and run.
Complaints and reviews on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website — bbb.org — are there to help you decide whether a company can really help you with your timeshare problem or if they will only make it worse. You need to know, though, about the uses and limitations of BBB complaints vs. reviews and how to use them properly.
This article will take a look at BBB reviews and complaints and how to use them in a smart way to achieve the timeshare exit that you need.
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When you look at a BBB business profile (like Centerstone Group’s, for example), you’ll see their BBB rating. There are also two sections in the middle column of your screen: one for reviews and the other for complaints. If this is your first time with the BBB, you might not understand that complaints and reviews are two very different things.
A review on BBB is something that most modern internet users understand. Review sites like Yelp and Angi exist for honest customer reviews so that potential customers can see whether any given company is a good one that engages in trustworthy business practices.
BBB customer reviews work in much the same way, but they have the credibility of the Better Business Bureau behind them. Because the BBB has been a nonprofit company helping consumers with business problems in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada for over 100 years, it has a uniquely trustworthy position in the minds of consumers.Â
People are more likely to see and be influenced by positive and negative reviews on the BBB website than elsewhere. If a company has no BBB reviews whatsoever, that is a red flag. It could mean the company is brand new or doesn’t have a lot of experience in helping timeshare owners achieve legal, ethical exits from their contracts.
On the other hand, just having a bunch of positive reviews isn’t necessarily a great sign either. You need to look at the reviews specifically to make sure they haven’t been paid for or otherwise obtained from people who aren’t customers of the business. Though the BBB tries to fight these, it is impossible to keep all fake reviews off the site.
It’s not always easy to tell which reviews are fake. If a company is paying for reviews, generally they will come in large batches, and that will reflect in the posting of those reviews. If you see long periods of no review activity followed by several reviews in a short period (like one to three days), the positive reviews you are reading might not be genuine.
Also take a look at the profiles of the people leaving those reviews. If they are light on detail and created closely in time to when the reviews were put on the site, those could be paid-for reviews.
The BBB itself offers some helpful tips for spotting fake reviews. You should watch for things like:
Reviews are only part of the vetting process though. You should also pay particular attention to BBB complaints.
Complaints are different from the review process. They are central to the modern Better Business Bureau’s process of marketplace interaction.
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One of the BBB’s key services is that it mediates disputes between consumers and businesses. (It also offers some more involved dispute resolution services, like binding arbitration between aggrieved consumers and businesses.) It then tries to obtain a satisfactory result for both parties. Ideally, the customer gets their issue addressed and the company protects its reputation.
BBB-accredited businesses have to respond to complaints. Non-accredited businesses don’t, but it is a very good idea for them to do so.
Because complaints are central to its mission, they are more strictly reviewed and controlled by the BBB than reviews. They have live people reading them, verifying details, and working with the parties to settle disputes. This extra level of review means that you should give complaints more weight than online reviews when evaluating a timeshare exit company.
Read the details of any complaints closely. If many of them keep coming up (like bad communication or foreclosure on one’s timeshare), you can probably expect to experience the same kinds of issues if you contract with that company.
You should also pay close attention to the number of complaints on the BBB website. Complaints are often filed by consumers who have been fighting with the company for a long time; not everyone will have the time or patience to file one. As a rule, you can assume that for every outstanding complaint on the site, there may be as many as two dozen other dissatisfied customers.
Finally, make sure you note whether and how BBB complaints are resolved. The site will often give you a response from both the company and the original complainant giving more details and saying if they worked out a deal. If the customer changes their mind based on the company’s response, they may even contract their local BBB office to withdraw the text of their complaint.
Whether you’re talking about reviews or complaints, Centerstone Group has a sterling record with the BBB and is proud to be an A-rated, accredited business. We do not buy reviews or solicit people to create them in exchange for free goods or services.
Instead, we focus on using our collective decades of experience in the timeshare industry to make sure each of our clients get service specially tailored to get them a legal, ethical, lasting exit from their oppressive timeshare contracts. Whether that takes the form of a contract cancellation, one of our proprietary pressure campaigns, or legal help with one of our trusted attorney partners, we seek to earn every good review we get on the site.
We also invite you to explore our record with customer complaints. At the time of this writing, Centerstone has had only one customer complaint in the last three years.Â
That complaint was resolved and later withdrawn from the website. That kind of responsiveness and good faith is another hallmark of Centerstone Group. We will respond to you as quickly and efficiently when there are problems as when you first sign up with us.
Hiring a timeshare exit company or attorney can be a daunting task. You are likely looking at the option of a timeshare exit because you can’t afford to keep throwing money away on a timeshare. That means it is even more important that you make the right decision when hiring an exit company, so you don’t throw good money after bad. Knowing how to read BBB complaints vs. reviews is important while doing your research.
Centerstone Group is committed to getting you the help you need and doing it in an ethical, efficient, and friendly way. We invite you to check out our profile and BBB complaints vs. reviews as part of your thoughtful and thorough search process. We’re also happy to answer any questions you might have. Contact us today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
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