FORSYTH — Less than a week after filing suit against a
Branson-area travel club, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is
suing another one.
On Dec. 15, Koster filed court documents in Taney County Associate
Circuit Court against JD&T Enterprises, Inc. of San Diego,
California, and against Forever Grand Vacations, of Branson. Forever
Grand Vacations sells travel club memberships in Branson for its
partner, JD&T Enterprises, which is doing business as Travel to Go,
according to the suit.
On Dec. 11, Koster filed a similar suit against VSA, LLC; VSA
Holdings; Vacation Services of America, LLC; and International Travel
Solutions, LLC; and the individuals Thomas Wood, of Orlando, Florida and
Denver Wood, of Branson.
In this most recent suit, Koster is seeking a permanent
injunction that would prevent the defendants from doing business in
Missouri and would prevent the defendants’ representatives and employees
from selling vacation benefits. Koster is also asking the court to
require the defendants to provide full restitution to customers, and to
pay refunds to all Missouri customers who provided notice to have their
memberships rescinded. He is also asking the court for the defendants to
pay the state an unspecified civil penalty, to pay the state 10 percent
of the total restitution paid, and to pay all court costs.
According to the suit, Forever Grand Vacations and and Travel to
Go were selling travel club memberships to customers in Branson.
The companies told the customers that the membership would give
them access to large discounts. However, according to the suit,
customers found that they were not able to get the discounts advertised
and customers had difficulty getting out of their memberships.
According to Koster, the defendants have accepted at least
$100,000 from at least 37 consumers for goods or services that were not
provided.
Examples
The suit gives two examples:
On Jan. 26, 2013, a customer from Waynesville attended a
presentation and purchased a membership for $3,288. He was told he would
have six months to cancel and receive a full refund. After making
payments for four months, the man decided to cancel; however, he was
told it would cost him an additional $500 to cancel and he still had to
pay the $3,000 balance on his membership fee.
He was also offered, for $500, an opportunity to sell his
membership. The customer paid the balance on his membership, as well as
the $500 listing fee. His membership was listed on a site with hundreds
of others and he never received a refund. He is also still being
contacted by the defendants with other offers.
Another customer, from Virginia Beach, Virginia, attended a
travel club presentation in Branson in March and was told by his
presenter that the presenter had gone to Hawaii on a 50-70 percent
discount and that airfare can generally be purchased for 50 percent less
than the normal rate.
The customer paid the membership fee of $5,544 up front. The
customer then tried to book a cruise but found this his membership could
not get him a lower price. He eventually got a $2,500 refund after
attempting to cancel his membership, but he is still owed $2,044.
Counts
The suit accuses Forever Grand Vacations and Travel to Go of
three counts of misrepresentation and one count of deception. It also
accuses Travel to Go, specifically, of operating as a travel club in
Missouri without being registered as a travel club in the state.
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