Complaint Review: Silverleaf Resorts - Dallas Texas

We’ve had really poor experience with Silverleaf Resorts, and have requested that they terminate our timeshare agreement.  Silverleaf has responded that they will not, and have threatened us with foreclosure.  They have not given us any explanation of why they will not terminate our agreement, nor have they provided direct answers to the long list of specific complaints we sent them in a letter. This does not surprise us, as our entire experience with Silverleaf has been characterized by evasive and what we consider to be unethical tactics. We are exasperated and exhausted by our timeshare “ownership.” We hope that our story is valuable to you, and helps you avoid the adversarial and unhappy situation that we find ourselves in.

We purchased our timeshare in July 2010, soon after our first transaction with Silverleaf.  We were invited to an “owners’ update meeting” in Galveston, a pleasant euphemism for being held hostage by a pack of ravenous salespeople. There were no “updates” or any useful information offered, only a prolonged and exhausting sales pitch. This was designed to wear us down and thereby extort our signatures and our money, through lengthy, repetitive and one-sided conversations and successive negotiations. After more than four hours of this, we were hustled through the signing of documents the contents of which were not disclosed.   We settled on a unit at Hill Country Resort (near San Antonio, TX) after rejecting their initial offer of a timeshare at the Galveston location. They explained that the previous owner of our unit had had to give it back, due to personal hardship, and that Silverleaf had allowed them to do this out of the kindness of their hearts. Consequently, they were able to offer us a great deal.  When we asked Silverleaf to extend this same courtesy to us, we were rebuffed and flat out told “no.” 

With this unit we would have a wide range of options for travel, they told us, especially with the membership in RCI we would receive. What we found after using RCI was that availability is limited, that the units that are available for trading are generally not the highest quality (one unit in Oregon had paper thin walls & we were totally unable to sleep), and that there are fees involved with trading or combining weeks that we were not told about.  Availability of units during the “Bonus Times” we received was also overstated. The one time we were able to stay at Hill Country using Bonus Time, we didn’t receive the spotless Presidential unit we’d been promised, the pool was closed and the recreation area was deserted.  We have never gone back. 

Silverleaf told us that our “Presidential” Hill Country unit had a great deal of trade value because it was a “destination” resort.  We learned that Hill Country actually has a lower RCI trade value than our other property (Ozark Mountain Resort).  We typically have to combine weeks to get what we want elsewhere.  They also made a selling point of the idea of renting out our timeshare for income. We listed our unit for rent through a third party and generated no interest whatsoever. Likewise, no one is interested in buying it (why would they when you can get one for $1 on EBAY?).

Our principal salesman, Tony M., assured us he would be our personal contact at Silverleaf—that, essentially, he would provide us with concierge service. He gave us his phone number and urged us to call him with any little request, reservation, or problem. The first time we wished to take a trip, we repeatedly attempted to reach Mr. M, with no success. This, as we said, is typical—the only time we are able to talk to a Silverleaf rep is when one calls to invite us to another “update” meeting. In short, Silverleaf overpromises and under-delivers, and its customer service is wretched. The company exists solely to pry more money from owners’ pockets, it seems. They have done nothing but dodge us from the start, and they are now dodging our request to cancel by threatening us with foreclosure. On that subject, we were never told about or shown our legal right to cancel during this presentation. This document was buried in our paperwork, all of which was hidden in an envelope the same color as the inside cover of our binder, which we did not even come across until we needed it for the rental company.  

Please, be warned that if you enter into an agreement with Silverleaf, you may well regret it.  This isn’t a rant against all timeshares; we have a membership with another company that we enjoy very much.  We visit their resort every year, are treated honestly, like friends and with respect, and because of that I know with certainty that Silverleaf is treating us wrong.