Well well well! There are many, many posts on Craigslist.com in the California areas that are proclaiming Memberships to Silent Valley which is a Camping 'Club', and yes, I use that term 'club' VERY loosely. You see, this is a Membership that you purchase........for life! Yours and beyond in some cases. They say that they are NOT a TimeShare........so what are they then? If you own the land and get a paper at tax time saying what your tax payment was, and you only own it for a TIME, and you SHARE it, then technically, it IS a TimeShare. Your Sharing your time on this place. Now, TimeShares, in my opinion, are a SCAM. This Silent Valley Lifetime (or else) Membership is also (in my opinion) a SCAM. Let's see what the definition of SCAM is:
The definition of scam in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is:
a fraudulent or DECEPTIVE act or operation.
Yes, this place is VERY deceptive. Even the Members themselves are deceptive because when they want to get out, they have to pay out of their pockets to escape the FOREVER membership of the place. Currently, the transfer fee is $995. That includes a $250 Background and Credit Check. Both of which you know they are making TONS of money on, because you can probably do both for about $100.
At InstantBackgroundCheck.com, here is what they charge:
Our criminal background checks come in three different packages to meet the budget of most people. State criminal background checks cost $16.95. Regional criminal background check cost $24.95, and nationwide criminal background checks are $49.95.
Anyway, here is how we found all of this out! I was looking on our local Craigslist.com for an entertainment unit. Somehow, up came this ad for a Silent Valley Membership WITH a 1984 trailer for $250. WOW! I was thinking, "Depending on what condition the trailer is in, we could get it for $250! and just not renew our membership!" Uh-huh. You've heard the saying, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" right? Yup, that's what it was. I called the guy (who's a lawyer, no less!) and he touted all of the wonderful things about Silent Valley and how they don't use the membership anymore or the trailer because they are retired and they don't want to camp any longer. So, they are willing to just transfer the membership and the trailer to us but it will cost us a $250 background and credit check fee. Sounds high (I'm a Real Estate Agent so I know I couldn't legally charge these fees!) but the temptation of the trailer was too great. Plus, the guy told us that the Membership was paid up through October 2011 and the Trailer rent was paid through August 2011. WOW!! We could just use the membership through the end and then take the trailer and park it at a friends and be thrilled with the trailer and just not renew the membership.
Now, in any other membership that I've ever had or ever heard of, you pay a yearly dues fee (and maybe something else too) and then if you decide to quit, you just don't pay anymore. Oh, but not this place! And no one told us this either, until after we'd already been up there and toured the place with the owners and filled out the paperwork for the background and credit check and handed over a CHECK (thank GOD, don't ever give cash or a credit card number or you are SCREWED!) for the $250 background and credit check. The guy who wanted us to buy his membership was going to have to pay a $995.00 (yes, that's right!) transfer fee (we would pay the $250 out of that amount for the background and credit check) to be able to get out of his membership! OMG!! SUCH A SCAM!! The courts need to make laws against these types of places. I'm telling you!
Anyway, we did all that, and then we went up to Idyllwild with the kids and played and shopped and had dinner up there. While we were eating and discussing the Silent Valley excitedly, a couple was passing by and heard our words. They stopped and asked us if we were members already or considering it and we told them we'd just put in for the credit and background check. They went into fits and told us the place was a scam and that you HAVE to pay FOREVER, that it's a LIFETIME membership and you can't get out of it and in some cases they'd heard that the place went after people ESTATES to get their yearly dues AFTER THEY'D died! HUH???? I couldn't find anywhere to prove that part about going after peoples Estates, but I did discover when we got home that yes, it is a legal scam this place. And so I got online and stopped our check with our bank (this was late Saturday night) and then Sunday morning I called the man who we were going to be getting them membership from and told his wife we were backing out. She asked why and I told her it is a scam. She said, "It's not REALLY a scam." So, what do you call it then? I would rather call it what it is......a SCAM to make you pay FOREVER. Then I called the Silent Valley and told them we were backing out and to not do the background check and credit check (which Judy had told us would take 5-7 days to do) and I left a voicemail for Judy saying just that and that I put a stop on our check. The girl who'd answered the phone said it was a non-refundable 'deposit' to which I told her I wasn't asking for a refund, it WAS NOT A DEPOSIT, and that we were backing out and stopping payment for services that we no longer gave permission for. I also sent a fax saying the same thing. Judy was out that day until Tuesday. I got a call from Judy today (3/15) telling me that the checks had been done Saturday already (then why did you tell me that it would take 5-7 days to do them?) and that the 'deposit' was non-refundable. I told her it wasn't a deposit, we stopped the check and took back our permission for a credit and background check and that we were no longer going to be having anything to do with the scam place. She said that they WERE NOT a scam. Yeah, right, like you are so honest that you couldn't tell us everything before we agreed to the credit and background check and neither did the owner of the membership! It's called DISCLOSURE, and there was NONE OF THAT! We did not sign a binding contract, we were not told anything about the LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP scam that you have to pay to get rid of. They hopefully have no leg to stand on. At least I'm keeping notes and letting people on Craigslist.com know about the REAL deal. Craigslist keeps deleting my posts and I keep putting them back on. It's called DISCLOSURE!!! So, we'll see how this all turns out, I will have to make sure that I put a stop on my check every year at this time so that they don't save it and push it through. Or maybe I'll just close that account and open a new one. But thank God I gave them a check. Please people, just go to a KOA campground! There is one just down the mountain from this Stepford Wives craziness. Stay away from Silent Valley and go to KOA!! More as the saga unfolds.
