From our 'brief' discussion with the collection agency we were advised they added an additional $300 per week for 'late fees'. Our Maintenance Fees have been paid but we are in 'litigation' for the Supplemental Fees.
We, too, are asking for a 'breakdown' of our $3500 fees they say we owe. We own 2 wks. Do they honestly think we will just send them $3500 without any additional info other than 'delinquent fees'? Let's not forget we are dealing with the Verdier family!
We've also heard they are posting at the front desk upon check in an additional surcharge (ie-Villa...$110) for utility usage?!?!?!? They're trying to get us one way or another.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2008 08:22AM by SXMaholic.

Unfortunately Collection Agencies are paid hefty rewards to collect and whether they think their customer is in the right or wrong makes no difference to them. Their salary is based on their collections and they have blinders on when doing their job. I would rank them as low as telephone solicitors in annoyance.

We had a collection agency in the US call us repeatedly with even threatening and obnoxious voices to collect a charge 5 years prior that we were told by our insurance agency not to pay. Luckily I had this in writing and still had all the paperwork from that time and so I sent it to them which then they still proceeded to argue but in the end gave up since someone finally realized the customer's error.

This may not help you resolve your issue but maybe explain that these people are totally separate from the original collector of your money. If you have written proof that you were not to pay any $'s pending the litigation, then you need to repeatedly fax them these copies along with the understanding that this was a court ordered ruling and that even the penalties are not warranted and to leave you alone.

[www.vrbo.com]

Life is not a child's game of follow the Leader. Instead, life is more about finding one's own purpose in life....your life's plan, and then making a positive difference on earth.

I've thought all along that I wouldn't mind paying the SA if I thought they were ever going to do the improvements. Last March there was new furniture in storage but no improvements in our two units. Anyone know if they have made any significant progress since then?

We were there for two weeks, two different units. The first week the refrigerator didn't work and a lot of the food became spoiled. There were exposed electrical outlets. The hot tub was full of mold. We also noticed that in the pool, one of the lights was hanging loose and the wires were exposed. We had a lock-out unit and our friends stayed in part of it. They had a lot of mold in their shower, in fact they went to the market and got some Clorox. They were not clean units and the all-around maintenance of the property was way below standard. We have been trying to contact Sapphire Beach about our maintenance fees as we didn't know where to send our payment -- we've received no response to our requests. Two days ago we received a notice from a collection agency for $3800. I am assuming that is late fees as well as maintenance fees. We certainly don't mind paying the maintenance fees if we thought the money was going to improvements. We have tried to resolve some of the maintenance issues while we were there. The man we dealt with was very angry and yelled at us in French. We've been going to Sapphire Beach since there were no buildings except the villas. We love the place but it has gone way downhill, I don't care if I ever return. We also heard from several of the staff that Mr. Verdier spent a lot of his time and Sapphire's money in Paris. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to deal with these problems and the issue with the collection agency??

I contacted the collection agency and got my breakdown. Collection fees on both the unpaid maintenance fee and the assessment fee totaling over $500. I clearly understand that no one was mailed their maintenance fee invoice, nor their special assessment fee invoice. They then can send it to collections, have people drop out so they can sell to the next sucker who stops by.
So some have stated that lawsuit in the states will amount to nothing because US law is not applicable on the island. Can anyone clarify this?

Kevin

Does anyone know when the "special assessment" was imposed. We never received any notification other than a recent letter from a collection agency. I know their slow but this is beyond reason. What was the month and year?

Help

If I recollect correctly, it was in Sept 2006 with the Annual 'report' they send to all timeshare owners. Saying it was necessary since so many TSrs don't pay their maintenance and cost of things going up, yada, yada. Which we all know is a crock.
I'll look further in my papers to be absolutely sure.

-Gloria

A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a 'true' friend will be sitting next to you saying...'damn that was fun'!

Does any one have any suggestions as how to handle the issues at Sapphire regarding the maintenance and special assessment fees? We have called and e-mailed SBC trying to get some answers but no one is willing to help us. Today, we called Wyndham Resorts and because SBC isn't a "class 1" resort they say they
are unable to help with the situation.

If anyone has any ideas please let us know.

Not sure exactly what your issues with SBC specifically are. SBC is useless when it comes to assistance of any kind.
We got a call from the collection agency and asked for more info. They sent a form letter with a flat fee with no explanation. We sent a certified letter advising we wanted the fee broken down and that we are in the litigation group with a copy of the letter from the SXM lawyer handling the litigation.
If you have your MF statement (or last years) send that in with a note and payment saying you never got your MF statement. That's what we did and they cashed out check.
If you are part of the Supplemental Fee litigation group you do not have to pay them the SF. It is in direct violation of the court order.
Wyndham just lets SBC use the name and has no control of the running/fees SBC charges....this from Wyndham.

-Gloria

A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a 'true' friend will be sitting next to you saying...'damn that was fun'!

Gloria: Is it still possible to get into the litigation group. I sent Jerry an e-mail but haven't heard back yet. We received a $3,500 Special Assessment notice on Oct. 5, 2006 payable by Oct. 15, 2006. We called SBC collections immediately and were told to e-mail Bill Olliver with our protest, which we did. Never heard from him or SBC again re: the SA. We've paid our Maint. Fees every year since then and have banked and used our points else-where. 3 weeks ago got called by the collection agency (Meridian Financial) and they sent us a "bill" for $4,712.00. We are sending them our letter disputing the charges on Monday. Would love to get into the suit if possible. What is the status of the suit; seems it's been pending for a while now according to the posts in this thread. Thanks.

John

Hello,
My husband and I need some definite help. We have never been sent a bill and/or invoice from Sapphire or any tenants assn. group. Apparently special assesments were sent out in 2006. We never received anything. We own 2 weeks. We just paid 2009 maint. fees via phone yesterday to exchange into points. This is when we found out about the special assesment. We have never been told anything until this week of 2008. We are interested in becoming part of any litigation group. We have requested paperwork but no one in Sapphire can give us the paperwork. They say to wait until Meridan contacts us. We have never been contacted by Meridan; however, collections at Sapphire stated that all of the accounts were transferred over to Meridan in July of 2008. We would like to have contact information for the litigation group as well as the tenants assn. By the way, we never joined the tenants assn. group either. Please help us...we are in the dark. We have not been to this resort since 2001. We are also concerned about our credit rating.

Kathie

John,
I am interested in becoming part of the litigation group. Can you email Jerry? I do not know who he is or what but I am interested in the information. Can you help us.

Thanks,
Kathie Smith

Jerry is apparantly Jerry Hertzenberg who organized the litigation. See this link:

[www.jmbcommunications.com]

I e-mailed him yesterday but haven't heard back yet. John

BTW, Jerry's e-mail supposedly changed to

grhertzy@comcast.net

See the post near the bottom of page 3 above in this thread. John

Don't even bother joining the SBC Tenants Association. Bill Olliver is useless and 'works' for the Verdiers. It's a farse!
We sent Meridian (the collection agency) a certified letter which they received and as of yet have NOT gotten any breakdown as to what the $ is for. Maybe we stopped them in their tracks by confronting them...who knows.
We payed our 2008 Maintenance in June/July but have not and will not pay the Supplemental Fees (as per the court order).
Contact Jerry Hertzenberg at grhertzy@comcast.net not sure what can be done if you weren't in the original litigation group but I'm sure he can advise you further. Also check Jeff Bergers site too. That has info.
Good luck to all.

-Gloria

A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a 'true' friend will be sitting next to you saying...'damn that was fun'!