New Jersey sues Several Travel Businesses for Consumer Fraud

There’s no “bonne” with La Bonne Vie Travel.

The state of New Jersey recently expanded its lawsuit against an individual and several travel companies falling under his name, for multiple counts of fraud and breach of contract.

The lawsuit was filed in May against Daryl T. Turner and his businesses: Dreamworks Vacation Club, Five Points Travel Company and Bentley Travel. The aforementioned names previously operated out of Parsippany, Sewell and Westampton.

After gathering a mound of evidence this month, the state’s Division of Consumer Affairs has included another one of Turner’s businesses, Vacation Clubs LLC, doing business as La Bonne Vie Travel. The company listed a business address of 600 Park Avenue, Suite 200 in Manalapan.

“We’re continuing our investigation of Turner and his companies. This investigative effort has led us to La Bonne Vie Travel, which we’ve added as a defendant,” said David Szuchman, New Jersey’s Consumer Affairs Director.

The division has so far received 300 complaints against the defendants, either directly or through the Burlington County Consumer Affairs Office. Among the complaints were failure to provide any services to clients after payment; misrepresentation of relationships with various hotels, airlines and car rental companies through the unauthorized use of their logos; and deceptive use of resorts, regions and packages in mailings and sales presentations, which in reality were not available.

The complainants also listed the supposed free gifts in mailings, which included free dinners, roundtrip airline tickets, car rentals, gas coupons and even seven-day cruises. When consumers contacted the number listed for claiming the “gifts”, they were told they had to attend a 90-minute sales presentation for vacation packages to avail of the gift offer.

However, victims allege that they did not receive any such gifts, even after attending the presentation.

Some consumers purchased the companies’ services after the presentation, paying $1,200 to $8,000 upfront for a vacation membership package. However, they said that the actual airline, hotel and travel arrangements they received were far from the price and quality shown in the sales presentations.

Turner and the businesses have filed a response to the complaint, denying all of the allegations.

The Better Business Bureau has slapped its lowest rating, “F”, on the businesses named in the complaint. Among the reasons the BBB cited are the pending litigation against the companies; failure to mediate disputes from its customers; advertising issues uncovered by the bureau; and the length of time the companies have taken to resolve complaints.

The bureau logged 129 complaints filed against the companies, 25 of which were not resolved and another 27 that Turner and his businesses completely ignored.

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