Dave Ramsey Sued For $150M By Former Fans Who Followed Timeshare Exit Advice

Syndicated radio host Dave Ramsey, locally carried by KODI-AM/FM, is being sued by former listeners of his program in excess of $150 million.

The lawsuit alleges that Ramsey, Timeshare Exit Team, and Happy Hour Media Group, violated the Washington Consumer Protection Act by defrauding customers, committed “negligent malpresentation” and were guilty of “unjust enrichment” and conspiracy. (Happy Hour Media Group is a marketing firm with ties to Brandon Reed, one of the founders of Timeshare Exit Team).

Ramsey, a Christian-focused financial advisor, has long-expressed his hatred for companies that sell vacation timeshares, and boasted about the expertise and ability of the Timeshare Exit Team many times on his show.  In 2018, during a segment of his show, Ramsey told his listeners he had looked for years to find a company that could assist in getting people out of their timeshare contracts.  A Youtube video of his comments remains on the “The Ramsey Show”  website.

“I never could find anything until I found this company called Timeshare Exit Team,” he said in the segment, which focused on the company’s money-back guarantee. “About three years ago, we started endorsing them and I’ve had so much fun pissing off the timeshare people.”

The main focal point of the lawsuit is the promise of “a money-back guarantee.”

But the Timeshare Exit Team, which collected more than $5,000 per customer many times, failed to live up to the guaranteed promise. In 2021, Reed Hein & Associates LLC, which did business as Timeshare Exit Team, were order by a court to pay $2.61 million to settle a deceptive business practices lawsuit filed by the attorney general of Washington state.  The company later went out of business.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege they relied on Ramsey’s enthusiastic endorsement of the Timeshare Exit Team and his financial expertise to do business with his recommended company.

A report published by Religion News Service said that despite its legal issues and troubling allegations that it had defrauded customers, Ramsey stuck by the company.  The company accused government officials, reporters, and the timeshare industry conspired against them, but those allegations were proven baseless.

The lawsuit also details the tactics used (allegedly) by Reed Hein to defraud Ramsey’s listeners. After signing contracts with customers, the company would supposedly tell them to stop paying their timeshare fees and created fake property deeds aimed at convincing those customers they were free of their timeshares.

“When customers finally discovered the schemes and demanded their refunds, Reed Hein fabricated excuses not to honor the promises or stopped returning their calls,” the complaint alleges.

The 17 plaintiffs named in the lawsuit are arguing that Ramsey, with his financial knowledge and broadcasting experience, should have done his due diligence and researched how the company was operating when allegations first surfaced and refuse to endorse Timeshare Exit Team. The complaint alleges the Lampo Group he runs, which does business as Ramsey Solutions, received  complaints about Timeshare Exit Team as early as 2016.  But Ramsey continued to endorse the company even after the Better Business Bureau warned consumers about Timeshare Exit Team and a court case ruled the company had acted in a fraudulent manner.

His expertise, the complaint alleges, should have made him aware that Timeshare Exit Team could not to be trusted and he should have ended his relationship with the company.

The lawsuit also names Happy Hour Media Group, co-founded by Brandon Reed, who also co-founded Timeshare Exit Team. Happy Hour Media Group was used to promote Timeshare Exit Team. According to Washington state’s attorney general, Reed, previously a rain gutter salesman, founded Timeshare Exit Team after seeing another timeshare exit company’s booth at a trade show and the long line of people that trailed from it. He has no legal expertise or any experience getting people out of timeshare contract or agreements.

“However, Reed Hein made many claims that any competent financial advisor with Dave Ramsey’s knowledge and skill would know to be false, and it engaged in many activities Dave Ramsey would have known to be illegal,” according to the complaint.  Also in the complaint it says the company’s sales exploded after it began to advertise on Ramsey’s radio show. The company stopped advertising on Ramsey’s show in 2021.  Ramsey blamed the decision on the cost of fighting “a massive set of lawsuits” against it.

Neither Happy Hour, nor Ramsey Solutions would not immediately comment when asked for a reply.

Among the plaintiffs named in the lawsuit is a shipyard worker named Greg Larson, who was a longtime Ramsey listener who allegedly heard Ramsey’s endorsement of Timeshare Exit Team “hundreds of times” before he directly contacted the company to see if they could get him released from his contract. Other plaintiffs include health care workers, retirees and others who had become Ramsey followers through their churches or the radio show.

Douglas and Roseanne Morrill made plans to travel the world after running a local pharmacy for over 40 years. They thought that buying points from a timeshare company was the way to fulfill their long-planned dreams.  The couple later realized they had made a mistake so Roseanne, a long-time listener to Dave Ramsey’s radio show, heard him talking about how timeshares are nothing but a “rip-off.”  When Ramsey later endorsed the services of Timeshare Exit Team, the Morrills jumped at the chance to get out of it.  The comment that made them solicit the services of the company is when Roseanne said Ramsey stated they would get a full refund if they couldn’t get severe the contract with their timeshare company.

They contacted the Bellevue, Washington-based company because of Ramsey’s endorsement and were told it’d cost them $40,000 for their services. So the Morrills paid the fee.

The complaint illustrates in detail the relationship between Ramsey and Timeshare Exit Team, one of the “endorsed local providers” who rely on Ramsey for business leads. Ramsey Solutions would collect those leads through its church-based programs, the company’s website, and newsletters.

Ramsey’s followers were not aware he or his company were paid for their endorsements or for referrals, according to the complaint. It was a profitable enterprise for both parties, according to the complaint.

“During the period Dave Ramsey was promoting Reed Hein’s scheme, customers referred to Reed Hein by Defendants paid Reed Hein in excess of $70 million in fees for timeshare ‘exit,’” according to the complaint. “Ramsey never returned any of the tens of millions of dollars Reed Hein and Happy Hour Media Group paid him from his own listeners’ hard-earned money.

“Instead, Ramsey has chosen to profit from his listeners’ money.”

But while Ramsey defended Timeshare Exit Team in public, he started distancing himself from the company off the air. When the finance guru was subpoenaed by Washington state’s attorney general in its lawsuit against Timeshare Exit Team, his lawyers objected, saying he was not responsible for the endorsement and then later stated he was too busy to be deposed.

“While he has promoted Lampo’s endorsement of Reed Hein on his radio program and on social media, he is not responsible for the details of the Reed Hein relationship,” his attorneys explained.

Despite his legal troubles, Ramsey has remained defiant. His attitude is best summed up in his 2021 defense of Timeshare Exit Team, even though the company was dropped as an advertiser, he plainly stated, “Bring it. “You have done poked the wrong bear. You done pissed off the wrong hillbilly.”

Ramsey is also the subject of several other lawsuits filed in recent years. Two former employees of Ramsey Solutions sued the company in federal court in Tennessee alleging discrimination after they said they were fired for disagreements over COVID-19 precautions and for being pregnant and unmarried.