Coping with Copeland (Marketing Rip-off Artists)

[clairh77]

What is the name of your state? Indiana

What is the name of your state? Indiana

I want to pick up on a closed thread here, last posted by M ****** on 5-23-06:
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Quoting flaloggie
Junior Member

Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 1
Flaloggie

Quote:
Sorry, no answer for you. I am in the same situation. Copeland swindled us out of $700.00 before we even signed the Listing agreement. Gave them the Credit Card # (stupid, stupid) said they would send the agreement for signature. Told me I would only have to pay the $700.00 if I would accept an offer to sell and then would back out of that offer. The Credit Card got charged before I even got the contract. They have NOT replied to anything since 01-19-06 and still have our money. I would also appreciate any good ideas to let the world know the truth about this company. THIS IS A BIG RIP OFF!!!!!!
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I am also trying to find out if Copeland Marketing is for real. I sent them $600 almost a year ago and nothing has been done in selling my Florida timeshare. On my 5th phone call to them today, I was told that the Presentations Director and that my original salesman,are out making a presentation. Also, that the Day and Night Managers of the Resale Dept. handling rentals and sales.

I have requested to attend a presentation ( if they exist) and also an explanation of exactly how a timeshare sale is completed. I will follow up again on Friday to see what they say.
Other customers have told me they make no presentations, no sales, and get all their money from up-front promises to "market" your timeshare and from "memberships" in their Vacation Club.

Last edited by m ****** : 05-23-2006 at 10:18 AM.

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I am also in the same spot and have followed all the advice of contacting the Attorney General in Florida - Charlie Christ (since Copeland Marketing is based in Daytona Beach), the Central Florida BBB, the Dept of Agriculture who holds Copeland's marketing license, and, finally, the Consumer Sentinel Project Team in Wash. D.C. -- all encouraged by their former employee who posts as "x-telemarketer" but whom I know as Vicki, from Daytona Beach, FL, where she also posts at Rip-off Report.com.

See her latest at http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff198977.htm plus the whole collection of Copeland complaints at that website by going to http://tinyurl.com/s2ghq

I, too, have thought of implementing the strategy M ****** was tempted to deploy in the last paragraph above, and wonder, since it's about 6 or 7 weeks down the road now, if there has been anything learned from doing so that may be of value to the apparent dozens, maybe hundreds, of the rest of us Copeland "suckers." I must say they are slick in their "come on" because we did some researcy on them back in November 2005 before giving them our credit card number and they only had one BBB complaint against them then (because they must have been new) and the BBB didn't tell us how long they had been in the (swindeling) business -- and my wife has a real estate background! Luckily we didn't get charged for anything else by them -- we watch the account with an eagle eye.

My questions for the attorney here, are:

1) How long does it typically take to get a class action suit underway, and completed, which is apparently "in the making?" -- a year or two?

2) How much would the various plaintiffs likely be expected to "shell out" to join such an action?

3) Are there precedents for such a suit being successful with this type of company?

4) Where does one go to find out if there is in fact a class action suit underway?

I hope that Vicki, too, can respond with an update on that.

Clair in Indiana

 

[clairh77]

I'll never trust a BBB report again - this is shameful - can anyone defend it?

Vicki, at Rip-off Report.com has educated me:

STOP! ..before you think about using the Better Business Bureau (BBB)... CLICK HERE to see how other consumers were victimized by the BBB's false or misleading information. Don't be fooled! It has been reported, when there are thousands of complaints and other investigations underway by authorities, the BBB has no choice but to finally give an UNsatisfactory rating to a BBB member business that is paying the BBB big membership fees every year. When a business is reported that is NOT a BBB member, BBB files WILL more likely show an UNsatisfactory rating, then reportedly shake down that company to become a member of the BBB. One positive thing about the BBB is, either way, if a business has an unsatisfactory rating with the BBB, you can be sure, the business is bad. But what about all those BBB member businesses that had complaints filed against them? Consumers never get to hear about them. What about the BBB advertising to the public? Is this a false and misleading perception they are giving about �consumer confidence� when dealing with a business? Click here to understand more of what consumers and business alike are saying about the BBB. You decide. ..Remember. The BBB membership is not earned, it's paid for!

See http://badbusinessbureau.com/reports/ripoff1343.htm for many, many testimonials and case examples substantiating what is said above.

Can anyone defend this sort of behavior. What do the atttorneys here have to say about this?

Clair in Indiana

 

[clairh77]

Writer is from Indiana

To the owners of this Free Advice service, is what Vicki is proposing possible? Can we begin using this site to share addresses and such in order for those of us who are ripped off to communicate with each other and start a class action suit? What is the precedent or policy for this sort of communication within Freeadvice.com? Look at the magnitude of this problem Vicki is describing!

Vicki, thank you so much for your clarifying emails. Your intentions are clear and you can be "forgiven" now because you seek to help create restitution. So, take the monkey off your back now and rejoice that some others just might have the "chutzpah" to join with you in moving this thing forward. I don't know anything about starting a class action suit but I know how to organize people.

(If this is not permissable to do on this list then I know how to set up a free "private group" at Yahoo Groups, and advertize it at the right places to help us communicate with each other for the purposes of organizing a class action suit or whatever is needed to bring about justice.)

I'm going to send a copy of this directly to the owners of this website, so we can be sure it is getting read and responded to.

Clair In Indiana

 

[clairh77]

One way or the other, I am planning to share some personal information with you Vicki. Contact me at clair.hochstetler at gmail dot com

Clair in Indiana

 

[x_telemarketer]

Dear Clair

I am sorry but I am unwilling to publically disclose an e-mail address. Just speaking on this forum is dangerous enough for me. This is a million dollar a month business and I cannot risk that for obviuos reasons. I have this evidence that I cannot personally do anything with, but you can. Your yahoo idea is generous, but Clair, I have several thousand names and phone numbers, along with details of their scam that I will send to you. You can start calling them on the phone immediately! Encourage them to call the BBB, Attorney General, FTC. Find out which of them are lawyers and see if they will help you organize the suit. In your next post please provide some mailing address. A P.O. box would be best. I will immediately send the info to you so we can get this ball rolling and put an end to this. This offer stands for ANY victim, or law enforcment agency, that wants this evidence and is willing to provide a mailing address through this forum.
Sincerely,
Vicky