Beware Of Encore Park Reservations Options

[kthorn]

Recently had a bad vacation experience. Reserved 12 days at Encore's Pioneer Village in Fort Myers in early Jan. for Feb.12-24. We also prepaid. This was all done by phone through Encore central reservations. We drove 1400 miles from Toronto. When we arrived we were told that they had overbooked and had no sites. They claimed that Encore just keeps taking reservations and has no idea when park is full. This is hard to believe. They also offered no compensation because as they put it "you do have your RV to sleep in." I'm sure that everyone knows how difficult it is to find a place in Florida in Feb. After calling over 20 parks we found a spot in Lakeland, but we spent 5 days of our vacation moving from day to day until we found it.
We have stayed in Encore parks before with no problems, but when you have a problem you really find out a lot about an organization. In this case Encore and Pioneer rate a big fat 0.

[Sandpiper]

I've just joined this forum, but Ijust have to chime in here and agree wholeheartedly that Encore is a disaster. I stayed on a yearly basis at the one in Lutz/Land o'lakes, Fla. and found they had 4 managers come in within 9 month time period. Only one was educated, friendly, and efficient and they nipped that in the bud within a month or so. There is a dreadful lack of courtesy and efficiency as no one seems to know how to run the computer program that lists residents and payments and registrations. Things were constantly being fouled up with my reservation and payments, as each manager changed something, until the next one came in to change it back again. Nothing is really solid except their really irritable attitudes. After I had been there a few months, I found that my generator in my new coach was dissasembled (my dog had barked and scared them off the policeman told me) and I had to have it fixed at a Tampa Onan shop. There is little security there, even though they claim a fellow sits up all night, somehow things get gone and strangers come to dump in the dumpsters late at night. They refuse to hear any complaints or suggestions and are downright rude. I surely didn't expect to find this type of treatment of residents, and moved finally to another park. No matter where I travel now in my work (I'm an editor and LLC) I will never stay in an Encore park again. Ever. I'd rather live at the Flying J than park one night at Encore.