Galway Bay Cottages IRE - Help with sudden increase in maintenance fee

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Read the Timeshare Talk thread that I linked to. Kayleigh Reid worked for this outfit at Dysearth Falls, previously to working with them at Galway Bay. Dysearth Falls is where a lot of the questionable activity took place.

Here is the last I recd from them. It strikes a nicer tone. If that dude sent me that email I'd tell him to go eff himself.

Good Morning
I trust that you received our email last week advising of the future of Galway Bay Cottages.
This year is going to be an exciting year in Ireland as it is 'The Year of the Gathering' Please have a look at this link www.thegatheringireland.com/ for more information.
I write to you to discuss you 2013 maintenance fees. We are collecting 2013 maintenace fees and would like to collect these by end of January 2013.
I know some owners had held off paying fees as they were unsure of the future of the resort however I hope we have restored confidence and would like to ask that payment for your fees is made. Your fees can be made by direct bank transfer to the following account:
Branch: AIB, Lynchs Castle, Galway, Ireland.
Account Name: Galway Bay Cottages Limited
Account No: 27205-069
Sort Code: 937096
Swift Code: AIBKIE2D
IBAN: IE39AIBK93709627205069
Can I please ask that when making payment you clearly state your name and unit number? The fees for 2013 are 717 euros or 919 US Dollars however as the previous owners advised this was a one off levy in order to have a new sewage system installed. The fees for 2014 will go back to normal next years.

Should you prefer to pay by paypal using a credit card please email me your paypal linked email address and I can send you an invoice via Paypal.

We do need to collecte outstanding fees as soon as possible,

Please let me know if you need anything further from me and a big thank you to all our owners that have already contacted to pay fees.

****All owners that have paid by the end of January will be in with a chance of winning a free holiday to our second resort Dyserth Falls in Wales. Three fully paid up owners will be drawn at random and win a free weeks holiday to Dyserth Falls. You can use this week to either bank with RCI or to visit the resort for your anual holiday. ****

We are looking forward to sharing an exciting 2013 with you all.
Kindest Regards
Kayleigh Reid
Galway Bay Cottages

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

It is reported in the thread below that UK public sites identify John Byron and Peter Metcalf as the sole directors at Galway Bay Cottages (see page 4)

http://www.timesharetalk.co.uk/index.php?topic=17351.0

There are some very sordid details in that thread about their shananigans at Dyerth Falls, Brockwood Hall, and Carvynick Cottages resorts in the UK, and some senior people at those resorts have even signed their names to posts that detail what has gone on.

From what I read there, this new management at Galway Bay is sending the resort from the frying pan into the fire. BEWARE.

[senorSamba Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close senorSamba]

So What the heck should we do? Who here has paid?

[joycapecod Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close joycapecod]

You should do what you feel is best for you. No one can, nor should they tell you what to do.

I paid my fees and deposited my unit with an independent exchange company and took advantage of their 2 for 1 deposit promo. That promo made the maintenance fee more palatable. If the fees are the same next year as they were this year, then I will need to rethink my position.

Joy

[senorSamba Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close senorSamba]

Joy, did you read about how they the other timeshares they manage went down?

[joycapecod Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close joycapecod]

The resorts are still operational to my knowledge. None are out of business, to my knowledge. Yes, I read aboput as much as I could stand, and then made up my own mind to do what I felt was right. You need to make up your mind about what you feel is right for you.

Joy

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Here is another thread on the ''exploits'' of Byron and Metcalf:

http://www.timesharetalk.co.uk/index...17677.msg53961

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Byron and Metcalf are now defending themselves on TST, and their version is that everybody else has crapped on them, from all three other resorts, each of which has separate players.

It is an interesting read as the major players are now duking it out on the internet.

I did ask them a question about Galway Bay and owners committees, and here is the response I got:


''Galway:- We have taken over Galway Bay Cottages. Galway Bay is not in active sales we are simply running at the moment on rentals and trying to do some work on the resort to improve the standard.

Owner Committees: We are unaware if Carvynick has an owners Committee, we believe at one stage there was but Eric has changed this. Brockwood Hall - We inherited this resort as was and to be up front we are not 100% sure if there is an owners committee.
Dyserth Falls - Yes we had full control over this resort when we were there and we did have in place an owners committee.
Galway Bay - We have only started work with this resort this year and we do not think there is an owners committee however this is not something we shy away from and we are happy to help set this up in the future. At the moment I am sure you can appreciate our main Aim is to get Brockwood and Carvynick to a stage where the owners we sold to are happy before we can consider giving anything else our focus.

I hope this clears this up for you. If you need more information please feel free to message us directly.

Peter Metcalf and John Byron.''

They are on record as saying they are willing to set up an owners committee, so if you own at Galway Bay, contact them and express your interest.

[MaryH Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MaryH]

The test is would they give you the owners list ... My would not and is still pushing 2011 budget as 2013 budget with only the year changed despite several requests and all are same old same old.

[Doc Holiday Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Doc Holiday]

Galway Cottages Update?

Has anyone had an update from Galway Cottages?

Read the Timeshare Talk thread that I linked to. Kayleigh Reid worked for this outfit at Dysearth Falls, previously to working with them at Galway Bay. Dysearth Falls is where a lot of the questionable activity took place.

[exiledscotsman Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close exiledscotsman]

Hi folks.

re the links in the posts by Carolinian that relate to a situation that exists in the UK regarding three timeshare properties, they are Dyserth Falls in North Wales, Brockwood Hall in the Lake District in NW England, and Carvynick Cottages in Southern England. Please read them, not once but twice.

The sales team behind the fractional ownership scheme that collapsed with around 100 people incurring loss was run by the two people named in this thread, Paul Metcalf and John Byron. These names should be familiar to those of you with an interest in Galway Cottages, as according to a web search, on the site solocheck.ie, shows that the only two directors of Galway Bay Cottages Limited are John Byron and Peter Metcalf.


Draw you own conclusions.

[charlie1 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close charlie1]

We are hoping that common sense prevails and your new owners can sit around the table and get this resolved in the UK otherwise I fear that this will impact upon Galway Bay Cottages

[Keith T Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Keith T]

Being one of the ‘Carvynick 11’ mentioned in the ‘timeshare talk’ forum, I have read with interest this thread, and felt I couldn’t restrain myself any longer from posting on here just to keep people informed of what they may be getting into if they progress their interests with anything associated with Mr Peter Metcalfe, Mr John Byron and Kayliegh Reid. How they can be allowed to continue to trade in the timeshare industry, with the apparent support of RCI, until ‘unfinished business’ at Carvynick Cottages and (as I understand) at Brockwood Hall is resolved – is totally beyond me.
I have been in the process of transferring from a timeshare owner at Carvynick to a fractional share owner at Carvynick, the deal put to me, in August 2012, had certain advantages that made it very appealing. So I paid my deposit which got receipted (and I assume is safe, somewhere!) then paid my balance in December 2012, as requested to WMB Sales (Owned by Mr Metcalfe & Mr Byron) - this did not get receipted. Now well into the 1st year of the supposed fractional share year I have absolutely nothing to show for it. I have no idea where my money is, but do know that Mr Byron & Mr Metcalfe have acknowledged to another party (RCI) that they received it, and yet I do not have my fractional share contract. There are 10 others affected in a similar way at Carvynick. I am also given to understand there are 80+ others affected at the resort of Brockwood Hall, all signed up for a fractional share issue, all paid their money – yet nothing received by them.
Kayliegh Reid was initially working for Mr Byron and Mr Metcalfe dealing with Carvynick, when things ‘blew up’ on the timeshare talk forum, she was very quick to try and distance herself from the situation stating that she now worked ‘for herself’ and I guess she felt she could not afford the tarnished reputation that association with this situation was beginning to bring. However now we find her working for Galway Cottages, a site owned by My Byron & Mr Metcalfe, intriguing!!
Mr Byron & Mr Metcalfe have stated they remain committed to resolving the problem, but since saying that almost 2 weeks ago we have heard nothing. They promised to set up an e-mail address for those affected at Carvynick to direct their queries to – this was supposed to have been notified to us, by them, by Friday of last week, so far we have had nothing sent to us by them. So whilst they have publically sympathised and said they would try to resolve the issues for those at Carvynick (and I believe said similar to those at Brockwood), nothing has yet materialised, money appears to have ‘disappeared’ and we the customer are left with a hole in the bank balance, and nothing to show for it.
I leave you to decide if you want to get involved with these characters, I certainly know what I would do!! Should this situation miraculously reach resolution, I’ll report so on this forum’s thread. Somehow I suspect I may not be doing that.

[Doc Holiday Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Doc Holiday]

RCI Whistleblower has some interesting comments to make about Galway Cottages on a UK forum. Owners are warned http://www.timesharetalk.co.uk/index...17351.msg54200

[exiledscotsman Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close exiledscotsman]

The alarm bells should be ringing now for all of you that own at Galway, the updates on Metcalf/Byron saga relating to their failed Fractional ownership scheme at three resorts in the UK gets worse. You must spread this information to other owners at Galway. There are two posts on the following forum that you must read.

http://www.timesharetalk.co.uk/index...opic=17351.140

Make sure you carefully read the posts by 'RCIwhistleblower1' and 'In The Know'