Jul. 8, 2003 - CELEBRATION, Fla.--James Size of Liverpool, England, planned to enjoy Orlando's theme parks Monday with his family. 

Instead, Size and half a dozen other vacationers spent the day tussling with workers at Families First Vacation Homes, which they said promised them vacation rentals for as much as $2,000 a week -- and then didn't deliver. 

Size, 41, arrived Saturday only to find another family in the house he expected to occupy. Efforts to contact the operators of Families First Vacation Homes were frustrating and yielded no satisfaction, customers said. 

"It's been nothing but a complete nightmare," Size said. 

The same thing happened to Oscar Galvan of Brownsville, Texas, when he got to town Thursday, just in time for a big Fourth of July holiday with two other families. Galvan's brother-in-law Victor Escobedo and his family decided the trip had gotten off to a bad start and headed right back to San Antonio. The others stuck around, determined to make the best of it. 

On Monday, angry families clogged Families First Vacation Homes' first-floor office in a building in Celebration and demanded answers. Fed up with being told to come back later and then finding the office closed, Galvan, 41, even called an Osceola deputy sheriff to the scene to try to force employees to open the doors. 

Galvan said there was a list at the door of 25 families who didn't get a house as promised. Lisa Williams, who said she was the manager, would not comment on the situation. Registration papers with the state Division of Corporations list her as president, director and vice president of Families First Realty of Central Florida. 

Williams referred inquiries to her husband, Steven Williams, whom she said is the owner. Attempts to reach him were unsuccessful. Williams is listed as "resident agent" of the corporation and also director of both Families First Management, an Orlando corporation, and Bright Star Resorts, which operates out of the Celebration office. 

The company's Web site lists several pages of glowing testimonials from previous customers. But the company has been swamped with disgruntled patrons the past several days. 

Among them: Ashwin Sharma of the African nation of Zambia, whose three children were waiting in the car in 90-plus degree heat as he tried to secure a vacation home for his family. Paperwork assured Sharma that space was "guaranteed for your arrival," but when he showed up at Families First offices Monday morning to get a key, he said he was told to come back at 4 p.m. 

James and Carolyn Wiggins of Indianapolis were upset that the office was closed when they got to town Sunday afternoon and they found they could reach only a recording. Like Galvan and his family, the Wigginses and their five children had to spend the night at a hotel. 

The snafu was particularly irksome because the families paid in advance for the rentals, which ranged from $900 a week to nearly $2,000 for houses, condos and villas from Lakeside Estates in Kissimmee to Four Corners in west Osceola County. 

"I don't feel that you should take people's money unless you do what you say you're going to," Carolyn Wiggins, 50, said. 

Eventually Monday, Families First Vacation Homes refunded $675 Galvan paid to have his vacation rental cleaned during what was to be a nine-day stay and promised him a full refund. 

"We just want our money back and not to have this happen to anyone else," said Galvan's wife, Donna, 39, at the Families First office, which was filled with posters advertising Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens as well as layouts of spacious vacation rental homes. 

Oscar Galvan said the hassle hasn't soured him on Central Florida. 

"I love Orlando," he said. "I'll keep coming back. But something's got to be done to protect us." 

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(c) 2003. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.