Hi Brainfreeze!
Well, I have to say, these folks play their cards close! I've combed
every inch of the records that are available online and have come up
with a rather motley assortment of information for you.
First of all, this company reveals nothing about the actual people
involved in running and owning it. Names are nearly nonexistent.
Secondly, they are a Limited Liability Corporation incorporated in
Delaware, and the Delaware Division of Corporations website is
completely useless. I can find no way to search for a company's
incorporation information in Delaware.
Here's everything there IS to be found about VACATION TRAVEL CLUB.
VACATION TRAVEL CLUB - HOMEPAGE
http://vacationtravelclub.com/index.php?VTCID=9a9f79d347abc9cd47f7b2b1f56ee311
BUSINESS ENTITY ---------------
VACATION TRAVEL CLUB
3423 HILL STREET
ST JOSEPH, MI 49085
(616) 988-5282
Type of Entity: LIMITED LIABILITY CORPORATION
Phone Number: (616) 988-5282
Fax Number: (417) 988-5357
Type-of-Business Classification(s): VACATION CLUBS
MISSOURI OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE RECORDS ----
Vacation Travel LLC
Business Entity with Charter Number LC0027210
Domestic Limited Liability Company
State of Business ; MO
Status Date 04/09/1999
Status A
Registration Date 04/09/1999
Current Name Date 04/09/1999
Expiration Date Perpetual
http://www.sos.state.mo.us/businessentity/charter.asp?cn=LC0027210
Vacation Travel Outlet (a related company, see "Lawsuits" below)
Business Entity with Charter Number X00395546
3265 Falls Parkway
Branson, MO 65616
Business Type: Fictitious Name
Registration Date 08/22/2001
Status Date 08/22/2001
Owners:
1 Lc27210 Vacation Travel, Llc 3265 Falls Parkway Branson, MO 65616
100%
http://www.sos.state.mo.us/businessentity/charter.asp?cn=X00395546
To incorporate in Delaware, one must obtain a Registered Agent. A
registered agent must have a physical (street) address in Delaware.
http://www.state.de.us/corp/corp.htm
The Registered Agent for Vacation Travel LLC is --
Carol A. Gajewski 1013 Centre Road Wilmington, DE 19805
http://www.sos.state.mo.us/businessentity/organizers.asp?cn=LC0027210
COMPANY HISTORY ------------
This is from their own website. I cannot confirm any of the dates.
1990 - incorporated as Vacation Travel Incentives, d.b.a. Vacation
Travel Club
1993 - expanded to include new locations in Alabama, Missouri and
other various locations throughout the United States.
1994 - began offering distributorships to individuals and
corporations."
LAWSUITS, ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, ETC --------------
Feb 1, 2002
Judge orders travel business to stop illegal practices, pay almost
$158,000 in restitution, penalties and costs
Jefferson City, Mo. — A Branson travel business and several of its
owners and employees will pay almost $107,000 in restitution to
consumers who bought travel club memberships in Vacation Travel Club,
under a court order obtained by Attorney General Jay Nixon.
The order from the Taney County Circuit Court also requires the
business — called Vacation Travel Outlet — to stop violating Missouri
consumer protection laws and to pay more than $50,000 in penalties and
costs to the state.
http://www.ago.state.mo.us/020102a.htm
(I searched online for each of the people named in the lawsuit, but
found nothing more about them)
BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU REPORTS -----------------
BBB of Eastern Missouri & Southern Illinois Database
Records search for Vacation Travel Club netted no results
http://www.stlouis.bbb.org/
BBB of Ozarks and SW Missouri -
"… a local report is not available on this company, since this company
is located in another Bureau's service area, we necessarily must refer
you to them."
http://www.springfield-mo.bbb.org/commonreport.html?compid=A2080468
BBB National Search Results --
VACATION TRAVEL OUTLET
3265 FALLS PARKWAY #M/N
BRANSON, MO 65616
(417) 339-3867
Government Action
"On August 22, 2001 the Missouri Attorney General's office obtained a
Temporary Restraining Order prohibiting certain business practices.
They also petitioned the court for a Preliminary and Permanent
injunction against Vacation Travel LLC from engaging in the sell of
travel club memberships…."
http://www.springfield-mo.bbb.org/common.html?bureau=spring&location=/home/common/www/bips/report.php&compid=99090230&national=Y
ONLINE GROUPS COMMENTS / COMPLAINTS ----
Found no comments, good or bad, about Vacation Travel Club in a search
on Google Groups:
http://groups.google.ca/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22VACATION+TRAVEL+CLUB%22&btnG=Google+Search
As far as credit rating and assets and property owned, unfortunately
since the company is a privately held (i.e., not a public company)
they are not required to release corporate financial information to
the public.
For property, if you wanted to do a painstaking search by county, you
could go to the various county offices that offer property searches
online, and see if anything comes up, but most of the counties in MO
do not offer online searches of their databases. Here’s the link to
the county directory in MO. If you scroll down you can see each
county. Only those that say "GO TO DATA ONLINE" offer live remote
searches. You will need to log in to the sites to do the search.
*note: some sites are searchable by name, others only by parcel or
address.
http://www.netronline.com/frameset.asp?page=Missouri
Also Delaware --
http://www.netronline.com/frameset.asp?page=Delaware
DOMAIN NAME OWNERSHIP -------------
Owners of www.vacationtravelclub.com
Registrant:
Vacation Travel Club (VACATIONTRAVELCLUB-DOM)
3423 Hill St
St Josephs, MI 49085 US
Domain Name: VACATIONTRAVELCLUB.COM
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Johnston, Joe E (JJ4979) joejohnston@SOCIALGRAFFITI.COM
Information Palace
2238 Old Elm St. NE
North Canton, OH 44721
US
614-222-2763 (330) 497-5776
Record expires on 06-May-2003.
Record created on 06-May-1998.
Database last updated on 28-Aug-2002 22:38:48 EDT.
http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois?STRING=vacationtravelclub.com&SearchType=do
FURTHER READING ON TRAVEL CLUBS IN GENERAL ------------
Better Business Bureau
http://www.bbb.org/library/travelpackages.asp
http://www.bbb.org/library/travelfraud52000.asp
http://www.bbb.org/library/vacation.asp#scams
Missouri Attorney General's Office --
"In another scam, consumers must pay hundreds of dollars to join a
travel club to claim a “free” vacation. The problem? When the consumer
selects a vacation date, it always is unavailable or booked."
http://www.ago.state.mo.us/consumerfraudguide2001.pdf [pgs 18-19]
http://www.ago.state.mo.us/travel.htm
United States Postal Inspection Service
http://www.usps.com/websites/depart/inspect/vacation.htm
Google Search for Travel Club complaints
://www.google.ca/search?q=%22travel+club%22+complaints&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Although not the Vacation Travel Club you are looking for, still in
your area ---
BBB Files Suit Against a Vacation and Travel Club Company
August 2, 2000, St. Louis, MO
http://www.bbb.org/alerts/bbbsuit.asp
Nixon sues two travel club distributors as Missouri, 16 other states
and FTC announce "Travel Unravel" sweep
Aug 23, 2000 Jefferson City, Mo.
http://www.ago.state.mo.us/082300c.htm
So, I think that wraps it up. It was quite the exercise to get even
the basics on this company. As I said, they are a privately held LLC
and don't have to give out anything they don’t want. My entirely
unsolicited advice would be to tread carefully. I was frankly amazed
by the number of lawsuits and actions Travel Clubs like these have
been involved with over the last few years.
Please let me know if anything I've said isn't clear and I'd be happy
to clarify it for you.
Safe travels ---
--K~
Search terms:
"Vacation Travel Club" combined with terms such as complaint, lawsuit,
review, BBB, Attorney general, etc
"Vacation Travel" LLC
Missouri public records
Delaware public records
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