If a Charleston business is questioned, a mark will be added after following the city ordinance

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WC) – As tourism season gets underway in the Lowcountry, the city of Charleston has safeguards in place to let visitors know about local businesses, but not everyone is following through.

As required by city code, a new 24-inch by 36-inch sign has been placed in the window of Vacation Initiative LLC, located at 229 Meeting Street. Vacation Club Business promises discounted travel packages to members after they attend a presentation and sign a non-cancellable agreement.

As of last week, the business does not appear to be in compliance with City Ordinance 21-233, which requires all to display signs identifying vacation attorneys, vacation club membership attorneys, vacation salespeople and vacation club membership sellers. Things should read, “This business is not affiliated with the City of Charleston or the Charleston Visitor and Transportation Center or the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.”

Rosita Lacey signed one of those contracts in 2017. Lacey and her husband came to Charleston for his birthday and bought a $5,000 membership after they said it was a very compelling approach.

“I’m not saying this business doesn’t work for some people, because if it does, I’m happy for them,” she said. “I feel like everyone who filed a complaint was taken advantage of.”

After the contract was signed, the business prospects were realized to be very good, so she asked for the money back.

“I told them I’d put them before their business,” she said.

That’s when she got her full payment.

But she knew she was one of the few who got all their money back.

The last report of November showed about one hundred complaints against the government against the business; This number has increased.

Of the 18 complaints reviewed, two customers received full refunds and four received partial refunds.

Jeff Pumilia, director of member services, said the number of complaints is small and they have thousands of happy customers.

Read moreVacation Club linked to previous settlements due to consumer complaints

“I couldn’t live up to the fact that so many people dream of going on vacation and vacationing in a beautiful place for a discount. And they got nothing in return,” Lacy said.

Lacey did her own research to find the sign requirement in the city ordinance.

“My husband thought it was the Chamber of Commerce,” she said. “And, when we got into the place and we were in there, we found out that it wasn’t, but they had all these flyers and everything that made it look like that. And there were no other signs in the window. So we listened to what they had to say.”

At the business on April 11, there were no visible signs from the sidewalk or inside the windows. None of the staff can point to a sign that is in line with the law.

David Levine, an attorney for the business, wrote in an email Sunday that the signs will be available no later than next Tuesday, adding that the “sign has been there for years” and may have been removed when the company relocated during the outbreak. Their building lease has expired.

The signs were posted on Monday.

“The aim has always been to comply with the relevant requirements,” he said.

Dan Riccio, the city’s director of lifestyle and tourism, said he’s received one complaint about the lack of signage but none about aggressive solicitation tactics, which are illegal within city limits, according to Sec. 21-232, over the past few years.

But he agrees that the lack of signs does not follow the law and should have been corrected earlier.

“There is no excuse. You know, things have changed in 2019 and 2020,” Riccio said. And we went in the great opposite direction of where we were going.

He said he had visited the business before and saw a sign, but he believed it wasn’t enough.

Lacy previously emailed Richo, the city’s former attorney, and even sent a letter to Mayor John Tecklenburg asking for a solution over the years.

“I love the city of Charleston, but I’m ashamed of the city of Charleston because they didn’t do what they should have done,” Lacey said. “I asked them for six years to do something. And they’re not the people who went in there thinking it was one thing, and it turned out to be something else, knowing that he was guilty for six years and doing nothing.

Linda and Jeff Fisher of Reno, Nevada, say that’s what happened to them. The couple visited Charleston in November and lived at 229 Meeting St. They attended the presentation after visiting the official Charleston Visitor Center on Highway 17.

They were promised a free tour in exchange for their time at the event and asked to deposit $20 in cash. Then they signed a contract.

They claim to have confirmed the line in their membership agreement, agreeing that after experiencing high-pressure sales tactics, they signed but were told to change it by an agent.

After comparing quotes from the business and directly from the supplier, they say the huge savings promised are nowhere to be found.

“Everything was apples to apples, and the quote was selling that Viking. [Cruises] What he gave me was a difference of $1 on $12,000. So, there was no benefit to membership, no wholesale pricing,” Jeff Fisher said.

“The biggest mistakes I’ve made in my life,” says Linda Fisher.

The fishermen stopped at the Charleston Tourist Center at 3937 Savannah Highway.

There’s no visible sign from the outside that the business is separate from the city, but it’s unclear whether this place is within city limits like vacation clubs and must follow curfew laws.

No one was at the business to answer questions during an in-person visit on Thursday. Phone numbers found online were disconnected and an email to the business bounced.

Rest Incentives did not respond to a request for comment on the fishermen’s claims.

Meanwhile, Riccio said he plans to meet with the zoning and law departments to resolve how the signs should be displayed.

“I don’t see this as a failure,” he said. But I think it’s time to take a look at this and put it back where it won’t happen again in the future.

Charleston City Attorney Julia Copeland released this statement:

Through regulatory changes and strong enforcement measures in the early and mid-2010s, the city has reduced the number of timeshare operators from a dozen to one over the past six years. However, we are always working to ensure that residents and visitors alike can shop safely across the city, and we are always reviewing our systems and processes with this goal in mind.

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