93.3 KWTO Keeping Watch Over the Ozarks
A Springfield-based timeshare exit business is the subject of a warning from the Better Business Bureau regarding unethical business practices.
BBB officials say that Relief Solutions International (RSI) has failed to cancel timeshares within a promised timeframe, failed to issue refunds, gave misleading sales presentations, and provided poor customer service.
The BBB reports over 100 consumers from 33 states and one Canadian province have registered complaints about RSI.
An example of RSI’s poor customer service provided by the BBB was a St. Louis woman who paid just over $5,000 to the company to be released from a timeshare. An employee of the company told the woman it would take up to 18 months. When the exit took longer, the woman asked for a refund, and the company refused to give it to her.
RSI then asked her to pay an additional $600 in 2020 so that a new law firm could handle her case.
“It appears these consumers have been more than patient with this company,” BBB St. Louis president and CEO Michelle L. Corey said in a statement. “If the company cannot deliver on its promises of getting them out of their timeshares in a certain time frame, then they should issue refunds. Stringing them on for years only hurts the customers who continue to pay maintenance fees for those timeshares.”
RSI registered as a business with the state in 2012. They did not respond to BBB letters about the complaints or their business processes.
“RSI is not a listing services or a timeshare resale company, and therefore does not charge any listing fees, any type of advertising fees, nor make any false promises to sell your timeshare to a buyer that may not exist, as some companies suggest,” the company website reads. “However, RSI does provide timeshare owners with a valuable service and will only request payment for the service RSI provides.”