My RCI Timeshare Horror story - The Grandview Las Vegas
In October 2006, my fiance and I decided to get away for a weekend and visit a few of his friends in Las Vegas, Nevada. Despite our amazing hotel deal, we were pretty tight on funds and the trip was last-minute in nature, so when we were approached by two sales associates at the Mandalay Bay offering “free show tickets”, there was no hesitation to find out more. We were informed that we would be eligible for numerous Vegas show tickets that evening including Cirque de Soleil, Lance Burton, and others. We were also told that to qualify for the tickets we would need to attend a brief presentation on “real estate opportunities” lasting about 2 hours in length and that there was no obligation to buy - I would later realize that the latter part of this statement was entirely false. Within what seemed to be seconds of accepting the invitation we were whisked through back corridors of the Mandalay Bay and lead to a secluded parking area where a handful of sight-seeing vans were waiting. The 5 minute drive turned into 20 minutes and we ended up pulling into a dilapidated strip mall, far from the glitz and glamour of the strip.
Next came the waiting area. I estimate there were 50 other couples crowded in the converted grocery store that now housed the sales headquarters for the Grandview Las Vegas. We were processed by a Grand View employee and told to wait until our name was called. After waiting you were actually pretty excited when your name was called because this meant you could eat some free food, get on with your day, get your show tickets, and get on with your trip.
After our time share purchase, I realized that a portion of our monthly income was now dead and it was at this point I sincerely believe I went through Kubler-Ross’ stages of dying:
- Denial and isolation - I simply pretended there was no time share and did not tell anyone about it or my experience with RCI.
- Anger - I wanted to sue RCI for everything they were worth, spam them everywhere, and warn everyone of their unfair business practices.
- Bargaining - Just please let me bank these weeks that I can not afford to take a vacation!!
- Depression - We are never going to be able to make this time share worth it, how could I have been so stupid?
- Acceptance - I am now a part of the RCI time share community, how can I make this work for me? What benefits can this offer? How can I help other people?
I have created this site to help those in all stages of their timeshare experience in hopes to create a more informed buyer, owner, and seller.
July 3rd, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Yikes, same boat, you want to buy ours??
July 8th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Was your experience with the Grandview Las Vegas as well? Good luck with selling!! Be sure to check out some of my other posts with tips on how to sell your timeshare - I am always adding new content.
Best wishes.
August 7th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Sorry to hear about your experience with RCI,did they tell you guys that you had seven days to cancel after the day of purchase? They didn’t mention this to us, but another timeshare co. told us about it. We just purchase ours and after looking at the hotels that they offer we are going to cancel this contract. Some of the hotels are in very bad shape and they look like motels and not resorts. Hope you guys are able to do something with this information. Good Luck.
September 4th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Yes, it is. When we bought RCI timeshare at Vacation Village at Parkway in FL, we went through the exact experience. Now, we are stuck. My wife and I are trying to make the best out of our timeshare but it is very difficult. Can someone post their sort of happy stories? We want to pick a few tips from the happy buyers if there are any.
September 4th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
I do recognize that experience - unfortunately or not (depending on your point of view), my mom and I were veterans of that set up before we decided to buy. My mom owns a timeshare at the Jockey Club adjacent to the Bellagio, and they are owned by the same parent company. Mom’s managed to snag more than a few free or discounted tickets out of these places (and she loves the idea of free food), so I am more or less resigned to giving up a half to 3/4 of a day when she wants to go to one of these.
In this case, we purchased a one bedroom instead of the entire suite. Since you can bank up to three years or borrow into future weeks, I figure we can get a two bedroom suite every other year and hopefully drag friends and family along. It can be rough going, trying to figure out when to get away and how to afford things beyond just the lodgiing (assuming you go on your exact week).
I would definitely be sure to calculate the annual cost of maintaining the timeshare (maintainence fee, RCI membership), add the cost of going any other week other than your week (that’s what, $150) and see if you have any takers amongst family and friends. Even at $99 per night on an internet special at Paris or Aladdin, $550 is a little cheaper than close to $700 for a week with a kitchenette. I guess that you can also donate your week to a charity for an auction or fundraiser, though I don’t know too much about the legal aspects of that idea. All of which you seem to have covered in other articles - so great job there!
I am sorry that you had such a terrible experience. I know that a lot is promised about the sort of business that is *supposed* to be creeping its way down the strip. I’m hoping that later on down the road this will turn out to be a not-so-bad situation for all of us.
Best, Liza
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:46 pm
I am back today from 5 days in Las Vegas and bought the 2 bedroom at Grandview believing trading would be easy. I was fortunate enough to meet buyers from 2 years ago with bad experience on the bus returning to the airport and they highlight the possibility to cancel after 5 days. At business center at Luxor they told me at least one customer cancel each week which I immediately did through fax and Fedex. I didn’t get one single positive comment so far as trading is almost impossible. I hope this comment would help people that are within the cancellation window
October 30th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Hi,
I have been reading all your posts and have 2 positive and 1 negative response. First the positive: We purchased a 2 Bdr. timeshare in Carlsbad Calif. 7 years ago and it was the best thing we could have ever done. This summer we wanted to go to Hawaii instead, so instead of trying to trade, which is virtually impossible, we rented our unit on Ebay and used the income to purchase 2 tickets on Princess Cruises for 2 weeks from LA roundtrip to 5 of the Hawaiian islands.
As a RCI member you can get great deals for hotels in Mexico and other countries. We stayed at the Westin Regina in Cabo San Lucas for $129 for the entire week. So if you love to go on vacation owning a timeshare and using RCI is a good thing.
Now the negative:
We were in Las Vegas last year and after attending a presentation, we wanted to get free Circe de Soleil tickets, we purchased 1 Bed. at Tahiti Village. It is a beautiful resort and part of Interval International. We have been trying to exchange the unit for something closer in Cal. but no go. So we decided to stay at Tahiti Village and got roped again into attending a “Owner Update”, which resulted in our agreeing to trade in our 1 Bed for a 2 Bedr. suite. After 3 grueling hours the price difference went from $21 000 down to $11 000. Even though we thought this was a good deal, it isn’t when you can’t afford it. I read thru all the paperwork and found the page that explains we can rescind within 5 days. I sent the notice via certified mail and am waiting what happens. These guys are pros and know exactly what it takes to make a sale.
By the way, Liza, your mom must be extatic. You say she owns at the Jockey Club. Rumor has it that the owners finally agreed to sell out. She must be getting a bundle.
November 13th, 2007 at 12:05 am
I have just returned from Vegas today, November 12, 2007 and I purchased a 1 bedroom unit from Grandview at Vegas for $4,400.00. This is what I get. This is what they promised. I get one free week every year from a Extra Vacation certificate that states I can go anywhere they service the mainthing is that I keep up with my renewl fee each year. My deed week is every third year. So since I purchased in November of 2007 I can tack advantage of this in 2009 and then 2012 and so forth. Do you all think this is worthit. And does anyone know info. on Extra Vacations certificate that they promise?
I would love to hear from someone quick.
Thank you
November 17th, 2007 at 12:15 am
Hi Kehaukainani,
I had been meaning to write a post about RCI ‘extra’ vacations, and your comment pushed me to get it done! So please visit RCI Bonus Vacations for more information. And as for a certificate for extra vacations, I have not personally heard of this before, you may want to contact your RCI salesperson and inquire about that, or contact RCI directly. Did you get it in writing that this certificate would be produced? Also, do you need to just keep up on your membership fees each year, or are you required to also pay maintenance fees for the years that you are not staying at Grandview?
November 20th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Hi,
What is the grand view vegas address that we need to mail the cancellation to. I also had trouble finding the fax address. Could somebody help me with that. Where on your deed documents did you find the fax address for sending your cancellation of deed.
Thanks,
Anshu
November 20th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Hi Anjie,
You will be able to find the address and fax number on your contract. It will most likely be on the last page where you signed and/or in the header on the contract. Make sure if you are mailing the rescission papers you use certified mail so you can be sure it arrived. These other two articles should also be of some help to you - 10 Steps to Successfully Rescind Timeshare and Can I Return My Timeshare? Good luck and let us know how it goes!
November 30th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Hi Guys,
Me and my wife are scheduled to go for the 3 days and 2 nights trip to Vegas courtesy the Grandview promotion.
My understanding is that we both have to attend this 2 hour timesharw presentation BUT are not “required” to buy anything. Is this false? Are we in anyway legally or otherwise bound to buy anything?
We are promised 2 show tickets and $50 in gaming coins for “just attending”…am I being grievously misled?Please advise>
Thanks,
Sandy.
November 30th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Hi Sandy,
You are in no way EVER required to purchase timeshare by simply attending a presentation or taking part in a courtesy getaway promotion. My advice - enjoy your vacation, attend the presentation to obtain the freebies, and if you end up being really interested in purchasing timeshare at the resort, do so on the resale market.
Here are some articles I have written in the past that will help you be more prepared to attend a timeshare presentation -
7 Tips to Avoid Timeshare Scams
Common Timeshare Sales Practices
Have a great time and let us know how it turns out.
Best wishes,
Mandie
December 16th, 2007 at 10:21 am
WE PURCHASED TWO WEEKS AT OAKPLANTATION RESORT IN KISSIMMEE FL TEN YEARS AGO AND I NEVER ONCE USED MY TWO BEDROOM THERE WHAT WE DO IS BANK AND REQUEST AND HAVE TAKEN GREAT VACATIONS ALL OVER I WOULD NEVER SELL MY WEEKS IT FORCES YOU TO GO ON A QUALITY VACATION MAKE YOUR TIMESHARE WORK FOR YOU PS PUERTO VALLARTA IS A GRETA DESTINATION THE MAYAN PALACE IS EXCELLENT
December 27th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Well some good news. My fiance and I did purchase timeshare and even upgraded since then and have had good experiences thus far. We have only used it once (in florida) and the resort was excellent and so was the service. We just upgraded and will be using it again next year. I’ve had good experiences but I will tell you this, when it comes to timeshare, its ok to walk away and not be bullied into anything. Also, negotiate well, very well. Timeshare sellers will negotiate so if you can’t afford a high payment but can afford a small one, tell them that and STAND FIRM!!!! and you’ll be fine. Thats what we did. Also, I recommend the points system instead of the weeks system. Points are easier to manage and use. Good luck everyone!!!
December 29th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
My wife and I recently spent a week in Vegas for the first time. We were offered $200 in gift certificates for our hotel resturants or gaming for paying $50 and going to a “presentation” the next morning. We decided to do this and ended up going out to the Grandview also. I found it a little awkward that our hotel was trying to sell us out in such a way. (Different desk attendents try to sell me again for the next two days, and even another desk attendent from another casino with a similar offer). We got up early took the bus out to the grandview which currently looks like a small outlet mall with desert on the other side of the road. They herded us all into a room full of chairs where we sat, and a couple at a time were called out by a salesperson coming out of the back room. He tooks us down to the grandview to see the rooms, single and double bedroom. They looked nice but it just wasn’t for us. After a tour we went back into a room and were very suprised by probably 40 other salesman and couples sitting at small tables all over the room. With all the noise, sales pitching and confusion it resembled the stock market floor! We sat down and let the gentleman do his sales presentation for about an hour. He had some very pushy sales tactics as in “You have to decide now, yes or now.; If you do not want to buy today you cannot come back to use for at least 2 years; I can let you think about it but it will cost you at least $300 today, and you can make up the difference of the deposit in the coming months.” It was tempting severals times for a few seconds, but then we came back to reality and realized anyone who has anything decent to sell wouldn’t have to push like that. We said if we had some time to research we might possibly consider it. That is when we were hit with the “we can do that but you have to pay $300 today…” After several adament attemps to tell the sales personwe were not interested but appreciated his tour we were wisked away to another back room. He had even went so low as to say how dissapointed he was in that he thought for sure it’s exactly what I wanted (guilt trip sales?). He was not quite as friendly from that point on. In the back room we were greated by another person who was a fast talking no conversation sales closer, ABC - Always Be Closing. I think he had a time quota of 5 minutes per sale. He offered us the same 1 bdrm with 1 week a year for almost 1/3 of what the previous salesperson had. This again was very tempting but luckily reality gave us a little nudge and brought us back. We respectfully declined again and were took to yet another room to receive our gift certificates. The morale in this room was that of the DMV. At this point we just wanted to get our tickets and get back to our “vacation.”
All in all it was an interesting experience but I feel bad for anyone who gets suckered into that right from the get-go. I would do it again if asked but only for the gifts. I feel the time is worth it, just keep your senses near.
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:37 pm
I wish I would have bought when I was there last november, does anyone know where I can go to purchase a timeshare at grandview (hopefully directly through them)as they have their own financing and I am currently carrying 2 mortgages and dont htink I can get a third yet.
January 8th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Brian, I did buy a timeshare when I was at Grandview on Dec23 2007. I think I bought it for a pretty good price. I get 1 week of vacation every 3 year at Grandview and I paid $4491.I am planning to sell this as I realized that I won’t using this as much because I rarely go on vacation.Let me know if you are interested.
January 8th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I purchased a timeshare at Vacation Village Parkway, Orlando Fl in Oct. 06. As many of the horror stories of the bullying I was somewhat put into the same situation - no credit check, etc. I was also talked into buying both “A” & “B” sides and that I have a great “Trading” week as it is the 24th week of the year (when kids get out of school - what’s that all about)? I asked about refinancing or getting my own financing because Lando Resorts rate is at 17% - the sales guy told me it should be no problem. Much to my dismay nobody will finance a timeshare because it is considered an entertainment home and I really have no equity per say. Secondly, I asked why they don’t check my credit (although very good) what would happen if I just couldn’t make the payments, they said they would just take the timeshare back - no problem - the money I paid of course I would eat…well not true either! I didn’t take vacation last year and was deciding if I just wanted to forfeit my timeshare when I called RCI (or Lando Resorts) they told me that I would go into collections, etc. the whole 9 yards.
So it is I am stuck paying $208.00 p/month for 6 more years plus $89 p/year RCI plus $655.00 p/year maintenance. I only hope that I can at least get some decent vacations out of this but according to the emails above it’s highly unlikely!!
By the way if anybody can shed some light on how to obtain a separate loan or something so I am not paying 17% interest, please let me know.
Here’s to hopeful happy timeshare retirement at least (oh and maybe a couple of trips to Hawaii) By the way if anyone wants to come down to Orlando, Florida and needs an extra unit my “A” side is available for rent 24th week. (I believe it’s about the 14th of June)
January 10th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Tracy,
We do have a week at Vacation Village Parkway too. This is what we did with their 17% ridiculous rate. We paid them $14k and transfer balance to 0% APR credit card luckily. First a couple years after we purchased a timeshare my wife and I tried to rip off them. We went to many timeshare presentations for free perks like, breakfast, lunch, theme park tickets and dinner show tickets. And that was something very stupid, I admit. As you know, these presentations takes long time, you have to go on tour, listen not just one sales rep but like three or more. Then, at the end when they can’t convince you to buy, they give you the tickets. The whole process could take up to 6 hours. We were mentally and physically tired after spending our two small children in their office for 6 hours. Basically, we wasted one day out of our precious week vacation for stupid free park tickets. As I said it was very stupid for me to do that. Now, we are trying to make the best out of it.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Jan 15th 2008
Hi there. My wife and I just got back from vegas. Long story short,
we purchased a 2br suite at the grandview for 22900 plus 89 anual renewal fee and 590 per year for maintenace for 1 week in a 2br or 2 weeks in a 1br. We were also “given” 4 additional free weeks (we still have to pay the 199 fee) at any RCI affiate resort for every year for life. We were also told (it is in writing) that we can will our timeshare as well as the free weeks to our kids.
Does anybody out there think we got ripped off? We are still within the 5 days so a quick response would be greatly appreciated.
March 11th, 2008 at 2:33 am
I have read most of these posts and think that most everyone here do not understand all about the Grandview timeshare. We have taken the extra vacations and my wife could not have been more pleased. It was an extremely NICE place. We have banked our time to be used in 2009 for a month stay in Hawaii. I feel like this is a good deal.
March 11th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Oh my Gawd, people act like they put a gun to your head to buy. Just say no, thank you, take your show tickets and move on. As someone posted, if you like what you see, buy it on the resale market for nickels on the dollar. You can buy the Grandview on ebay for $1500 w/ lots of points and the same $295/mo maintenance you will pay the developer $20,000 for. THE SAME EXACT THING except one person pays $2k and another pays $20k. People need to perform due diligence and use common sense. It is a real estate purchase and a complicated one at that. Would you walk into a BMW dealership because they offered a free lunch and then buy a car you couldn’t afford because the salesman was pushy?! C’mon people, take some responsibility for yourselves.
April 15th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Mandie, you didn’t buy from an RCI person. RCI arranges (for a fee) exchanges. You bought from a representative of the developer of the resort.
Mike (03-11-08) hit the nail on the head. When you go to a presentation, ONLY buy if you think it’s a good deal. It rarely is. It’s usually much less expensive to buy the same timeshare property as a resale. Ebay is always full of timeshares for sale for excellent prices.
Exchanging can be difficult, but not impossible. You can see from some of the above posts, that some people are doing quite well with exchanges.
If you decide to go to a presentation, the routine is almost always the same. First, you meet a salesperson who takes you on a tour and gives you a high price. If you don’t bite, then a second salesperson (usually called a manager or something like that) comes in with a better deal. Frequently this is where the “Extra Vacations” are offered. Keep in mind that these are only offered to places that no one wants to go to. For instance, the Florida panhandle in mid-winter. It’s quite cold, so the demand for condos is minimal so you could use your “Extra Vacation” week for something like that. The “manager” might offer lower price, or a one bedroom unit instead of a two bedroom unit. If you still don’t bite a third person shows up supposedly to make sure the saleperson did a good job. SAY THAT IT WAS EXCELLENT!! You don’t want to get trapped any longer than possilbe. This final salesperson will have the best price or some offer of a free vacation in addition to the unit you’re considering. So, even if you think it’s a good deal, hold out until you’ve seen 3 people.
I feel badly for all you people who have purchased something you really don’t want. If you want to buy something and not have any regrets, buy Disney points. I’ve purchased a number of timeshares since 1988 and the only one where I could sell the unit for more than I paid is at Disney. There is no high pressure. They don’t need to pressure you. The places are so desireable that people are standing in line to buy. Disney trades through Interval International (II) and you can get anything you want anytime you wnant it because the Disney properties are in such high demand. I believe Hilton and Marriott points are also very good, but I don’t personally own them.
Timesharing is great. We’ve been all over the US and also a few places in Europe.
Good Luck!
April 17th, 2008 at 11:36 am
We just bought a timeshare at the Grandview - 1 bd with 2 extra weeks every year for 16,999. We bought because we knew we could afford it. I don’t understand people who could not say no. What is the matter with you?
April 17th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Just a note - this is not a forum for people to post discouraging remarks directed toward people who made uninformed timeshare purchases. This site is dedicated to informing consumers and to provide support for timeshare owners - whether they knew what they were getting themselves into, or not. That said, if you do not have anything constructive to say, please keep it to yourself - any posts containing disparaging remarks will be edited and/or deleted. If you need to find an outlet for your negative energy try Craigslist’s Rants and Raves section. Thank you:)
May 6th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I currently own a timeshare through Fairfield Resorts, and 2 weeks with 4 bonus weeks at
Grandview Las Vegas. I love my Fairfield Resorts timeshare. No problems at all with them. Grandview on the other hand has been my worst nightmare for the past month that I have owned it. I was walking to get breakfast on the strip when I was approached by a guy trying to get my wife and I to check them out. He offered us $400 in casino cash at the Grand Royal Casino, and free breakfast. Said the presentation would take 2 hours max. I figured I would wait that long in line anyway at the buffet so we went for the free cash, and food knowing we were not going to buy. Once we got there our sales rep gave us this line about how it was his last day, and he was going to hook us up with a sweet deal. Said we would get 6 weeks for what everyone else paid for 2. He then proceeded to tell me that Grandview rents back their weeks from their owners at $1250/week. He promised me that all 6 weeks can be rented back each year if I wanted to do so. I even verified this with his manager. With that being that case I would have been an idiot not to take the deal. It would have been paying me to take it. I asked the guy 6 times if he was for real, and check 2 different times with his boss. They both said all 6 weeks and can be rented back to them for $1250/week no questions asked guaranteed. I was never told that
The 4 extra weeks were treated any differently than the other 2. They way it was told to me is that I got 6 equal value weeks. I know, because again I asked that question a few times. It all seemed hard to believe. Guess that should have tipped me off. Needless to say the guy who was quitting the company still works there, the $400 casino cash could only be used on a very limited selection of slot machines that could not be cashed out unless the jackpot was hit, the breakfast we a small selection of doughnuts, I later found that the 4 weeks were extra weeks, with minimal value, yet I still get charged the same maintenance fee as the 2 1br weeks, I can not rent back the 4 weeks, and the 2 that I can rent back are not guaranteed, but if rented back they kindly take a 30% fee off of the $750 that they really give you instead of the $1250. Horrible company. Oh yeh, and don’t try calling them to ask any questions unless your prepared to be put on hold for 15 – 20 minutes before anyone answers. I have called several times, and every time I had to wait a minimum of 15 mins before the call was even answered. For issues with your contract you will be directed to your verification officer who will conveniently be in a meeting every time you call and will also kindly NEVER call you back when their meeting is over. As for transferring my 2 deeded weeks to RCI, no problem after you pay your maintenance fee, luckily when you call RCI you get a foreigner on the line, who is conveniently hard to understand, but is as equally helpful as the Grandview Resort staff. Luckily I had the 2 powerful deeded weeks on my RCI account when trying to book my vacation this summer because I was told I can go to either Georgia, or Vermont. Everywhere else is booked. With sooooo many options I have yet to decide which of these exciting locations I should go to. Now I did get online myself and found several locations I could go to elsewhere, but that is the kind of help I was offered when calling in. Despite all of the hassle I was very nice to everyone I spoke to so I could not have received poor service for being a jerk. They just provided it willingly. Although I joke about my ordeal, none of this was an exaggeration. I rarely get suckered into anything like this. I guess that’s what I get for trusting a sales rep in Las Vegas. I would say it would be a good deal if you spent the $24,000, and your time there if your other option was losing $24,000 at the tables. If you read this, and still buy from Grandview then send me an e-mail sometime, and we’ll schedule a time to play poker online heads up. Fairfield Resorts GREAT company. I just wish I had spent the money on more points with them.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
I just got my contract in the mail today for the odd year Grandview resale I bought on ebay. This is my second timeshare purchase on ebay. I am looking forward to trying points. I researched thoroughly the points to maintanence value, and I found this to be quite good compared to most others.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Wow. I went to grandeview timeshare a week ago and after explaining over and over and over that I am not interested they then went after my girlfriend. When they were finally going to let us go there was one last chance there last guy that was going to cash us out tried one last ditch effort to sell us. He failed and I was more then rude and it actually almost came to blows. I don’t believe it this guy jumped up and made motion like he was going to attack us and I moved back to protect myself and then he apologized. I am currently looking into legal action. I don’t want to collect anything from these people but I wouldn’t mind making them feel the pain they put me through. My advice to you? Timeshares are a scam after this grandview time share I will NEVER do another again. Thanks Grand View.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:07 am
My wife and I were on vacation on Las Vegas Last week and we went to listen to a presentation at Grand View. My experience was not as bad as the others - sales person was reasonable and patient. After looking the points and the maintenance fees we decided to buy a 1-bedroom week. The price was $16,999 for 61K RCI points annually and the deeded week was Halloween week.
After we got home I looked at all the posts here and on other boards as well as prices on the secondary market. The same deal can be purchased ’second-hand’ for about $4000-$5000. Thankfully, I was within my 5-day window. I called the salesperson and he was furious, he asked me to send him a check for $200 that he spent driving us around that night and buying drinks! When I called the office, they seem to have no problem with the cancellation and told me to fax the revocation form over.
I’m still waiting for my initial deposit to be refunded to my credit card. After this is done, I think I will look into purchase a week in this resort on the secondary market.
If you want to figure out if the deal is worth it – put it on Excel spreadsheet and perform a discounted cash flow analysis to compare all the fees you have to pay every year plus upfront cost with regular room prices that are approximately $100-$120 for this type of room.
May 31st, 2008 at 8:46 pm
can anyone tell me … is it really safe to buy time share in Ebay?
I find it hard to believe, some starting out with only $1 or a few
hundred dollars only. where do they (the sellers) get the time share
and how do they make money if they end up selling for so little money.
June 1st, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Hi chukm,
This post should help to answer some of your questions about ebay timeshare sales - Selling Timeshare
Ebay is a great way to find a timeshare deal. The reason many owners are willing to sell their timeshares for as low as $1 is because they often do not want to continue using the property and do not want to have to keep paying maintenance fees on a timeshare they do not use. Timeshares are often not easy to re-sell, and many owners will use ebay as a way to practically give the timeshare away. These people are not looking to make a profit or scam anyone, they just want to get themselves out of their time share contract.
If you have never done an ebay transaction before you will want to read up on how the auctions are done and become familiar with their site so you do not become the victim of a scam.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Hi All,
We have just got back from Las Vegas and I’m ashamed to admit that we purchased a 2 bedroom apartment, 1 week every year (week 22) and 4 weeks late booking use. This came to approx $23,000. After reading reveiws on the internet and fully reading all our paperwork we realised the deal wasn’t half as good as we thought. We decided to pull out of the deal but were past our five days. I phoned different people and was told there was nothing we could do and the only way to get rid of it was to sell it. I kept phoning around until I got put through to the cancelation office at the Grandview Sales office. A nice lady told me that although we had pasted our 5 days we could still revoke the deal and just loose our deposit (you have to do this within 10 days of purchasing). It was an expensive lesson for us to learn but cheaper in the long run then being stuck with something we wouldn’t use. My advice for if you want to cancel your contract is to phone the number on the Verification Officers card and ask for the cancelations office or fax your revocation form to the fax number on the same card and address it to the cancelations office.
I hope this will be of help to some people and just remember if a deal sounds to good to be true, it probably is!
June 10th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
I and Mr. West did purchase a unit from Vacation VIllage in Florida, four years ago. Here’s how it went: we did the three hour thing, and from 30,000 they came down to 14,000, and that did include a second unit, which translates into one week in a suite of two bedrooms (8 people), or two weeks in each one, either together at one time or, separately. To that deal, we also get bonus weeks from RCI with our paid annual membership. (These are certificates you have in your folder you can use as you see fit). Pay that for say, ten years (we’re paid up until 2014), and you can add on several weeks to your vacation every year. Now, it is less costly to bank your week(s) and go to a foreign country. There is no maintenance fee, (only an exchange fee). The maintenance fee only applies to your home unit, and is paid on a weekly basis, so you can see where it is more advantageous to fly and explore other lands, and meet new people.
Last November. we spent a month on the island of Crete, at the Village Apartments at Khotoulofari, and it was incredible!!!! The service impeccable, the food reasonable, you buy from the supermarket, and pick from the trees that grow there. All we spent euros on, was gas, and entertainment.
I can not emphasize enough the need for you, whoever you are to READ YOU MATERIAL that comes with your contract!!!! Also, the people at RCI are more than willing to help. When we bought, the last thing on my mind was to do any reading. I thought I knew it all.. yeah right. NOT. So, I called and called and had them break down to me everything I did not understand the first time. TAKE NOTES. And now, I can write this as an educated owner that would not trade this experience in for any thing in the world.
This time share is ours for the rest of our lives, and then it goes to our family, and if time allows, so and so on.
It is the best investment we made, short of our fixed index annuities with Allianz. It has paid for itself many times over already.
Do use your phone numbers and ask questions. You have time to use your time, remember that. It carries over to the next year so you can accumulate weeks, and have grand voyages, adding on bonus weeks to make your trip even longer.
And last, if you can do it, pay your off your time share as soon as you can. If you have a net sum, they will work with you, so you can eliminate extra finance, and interest charges, and just pay off what you owe. It may be a strain at the time but you will be glad you did, down the road a ways, you’ll see. (especially with everything going up in price)
…. and then there are the free cruises, free three days weekends, free seven day cruises, all you need is, to get to the ship. We have been on several and still have some left to do. We do have to work sometime, so they’ll wait until we are ready, they do not expire.
Two years ago we came to Las Vegas for one of theses free trips, my Birth Day, and at the Golden Nugget in the lobby, we were approached by young people at one of the desks boasting free Caribbean cruises, just for listening to a presentation and free lunch at a given location. Well, we courteously listened, and after about ten minutes we let them know that we are already owners of a time share. We were given Three Seven Day cruise vouchers to the Bahamas, just for being polite and not blowing them off.
Lesson learned: don’t run from what can be a freebie. Be a little patient, it will go a long way. And be firm; if after you’ve listened your decision is NO, then stick with it. These folks will respect that. They will go great lengths to make a sale and you never know, the magic affordable number may be said eventually, or not.
Now for the icing on the cake: this summer, we are having a family reunion in Las Vegas, at the Grand View. We have four apartments (two suites), and our single, accommodating twenty of our immediate family and friends, for seven days. Each apartment has it’s weekly maintenance fee, which each family is more than willing to chip in.($139,00). It is less than one night stay at a nice hotel in Las Vegas. A whole week!!!! Just plane tickets and party $$$$ The extra apartments were open, and we got them with our free extra weeks.
So, I hope this was enlightening for who so ever has any questions/doubts as regards Vacation Village/RCI’s time shares.
Take your time and work it, to your advantage. You can do it and your family will love you for it.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:21 am
hi guys, we purchased a 2 bedroom condo on june 9, 2008 at grandview resort in las vegas, which costs us 15,900 US funds, downpayment of 2000 US funds, been told that we can have 2 weeks that we can use and bank and extra 4 weeks to use and lose if not use within a year. It’s our first time to buy timeshare, not sure if this was a good deal. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
thanks a lot
June 17th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Hi all,
Long story short we bought timeshare at Grandview Las Vegas on last month. Two bedroom unit 19,000 dollars with 680 dollars maintenance fee plus 89 dollars RCI membership per year. Now I’m just wondering can we change from 2 bedroom unit to 1 bedroom unit so that we will pay little less yearly maintenance fee? Please advice.Thanks.
June 18th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Hello everone. Immediate reply is requested as we are leaving las vegas tomorrow.
today my wife and i sat through our first timeshare presentation for the free gifts and after much debate, negotiating, and thoughts I can’t believe we actually grabbed it. I’m wondering if this is a good deal or not in our Grandview purchase:
49,000 points per year (no $5000 fee)
1 week in a 1 bedroom (week 28)
2 bonus weeks up to 4 bedrooms
$13,199
10% downpayment
To us this seemed like at least 3 to 5 weeks of vacation assuming we book standard or silver rate locations. We generally are ok booking hotels within 90 days of going places.
Most of the ebay $4k offers seem for every three years deals and much less points.
Thoughts? Thanks so much!
June 22nd, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Well we stay at the Grandview as “renters” by getting this property on Priceline for about 100.00 per day..About what RCi purchasers have to pay for yearly maintenance No Timeshare purchases but we are solicited every time we check in…
The Grandview is simply not worth it.. You can saty at the Casino hotel next door for about 75.00 a day and have a better facility
June 25th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Hey you guys,
I wish I saw this earlier.
All of you are doing it all wrong.
Traditional timeshare is you buy so many weeks, but you’re locked into that time,that place,and that size.
The company with Thee best program is Wyndham. You not only own with them you own with RCI for no additional price.
Also you can use
travelshare which means if you have left over credits you can use them for airfare, to Rent a Car, Entertainment, and you can even cruise with them. I know of a couple who uses their credits to eat at chili’s and claim jumper.
They are very flexible with their prices. If you buy 16,000 credits that will get you a great vacation, but you can always get less.
You don’t own a 1 or 2 bedroom. You are a co owner of all the resorts they have.
I read that some had to pay extra for RCI. It is FREE when you become an owner with Wyndham.
You should look into it. They Don’t do points they Do CREDITS which is great because you can do so much with them
June 29th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Hi all, we just bought on June 23rd a 1BR unit at Grandview for $13,990 with 49,000 points, deeded week 29, plus 2 extra vaction weeks per year, $295 HOA. After reading this blog, I feel very depressed knowing we overpaid it. The unit is on the 8th tower and is not available until 2009. We thought the sale manager was honest and gave us the best deal and the price seemed affordable. Now I feel stupid and mad that we didn’t wait until we met the last (highest) ranking person (we didn’t know about this scheme) to get a lower price. How much do you think I overpaid? Well we already passed the 5 day windows to cancel it. I just hope that the water park project would come through and help increase the market value of this timeshare in the next 2,3 years and that I might be able to resell it then.
June 29th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Luckily I live in CA. When I called the number in the Verification Officer business card and asked to speak with the cancellation office. The guy said since I am in CA I have 7 days to revoke and told me to fax the form to him and I did. Whews!!!
June 30th, 2008 at 2:45 am
Hi All,
I recently recieved an email from RCI offering a discounted holiday with no commitments to purchase a timeshare, my husband is away and i didn’t want to commit so RCI have agreed to call me on Saturday when he returns. Is this a scam as they will take credit card details and there are fees to pay such as air and ground tax, meals and hotel tax. We have children and I would hate it to turn out in to a horror of a holiday. from what I have read about RCI I am now very reluctant to accept. HELP!!!! Any comments please!
July 1st, 2008 at 8:14 am
Good for you Bryan!!!
You did over pay because you can receive way more benefits for less and you walk away owning it which means you can sell it, rent it,or
you can even turn it over to the people that you like or love!!!!
I want to say to all of you don’t let these bad experiences keep you from investing in a vacation home that allows you to reconnect with your spouse or significant other or your family.
There are ways around the scams.If you want to know how you can call my personal cell phone even phone me from a private line if you want.702.XXX.XXXX (edited by admin)
July 1st, 2008 at 8:21 am
Brie,
It is not a scam it is a marketing tactic, I am not a 100% sure about the tax thing but I do know that you have to attend a presentation while you are there. I can look into the fee thing for you. They may just need a card in case anything gets damaged in the room.
July 8th, 2008 at 12:49 am
I work at Grandview and sold the 1 bedroom unit to “AB” the 30th entry on this post. As he stated, I was reasonable and patient. It’s unfortanate that some clients have issues with their agents and take it from a sales agent…most of the time, the attitude you are getting from your sales agent is the attitude you are putting out there. When you are polite, respectiful and attentive to your agent, you will be treated likewise 99 percent of the time. Timeshare agents rarely get angry because you can’t afford it or think it’s not for you, though it does happen sometimes if the agent is having a bad day. Most of the time the client is unaware that they are curt, cranky, uncooperative, unwilling to participate in a dialouge or flat out rude. Or have been to dozens of presentations and are basically scamming the system. These things will most certainly piss off your agent.
“AB” obviously sees the value of Grandview as a new years two bedroom week is worth 122k points…more then the Hilton timeshares in Las Vegas. He purchased a Halloween One bedroom week for less then half the cost of a new years week and still recieved 61k points. Will he actually buy one on the secondary market? Doubtful…I just looked at Ebay and their is one with 40k points, but will he actually buy it? No probably not. Not because it’s not a great product, he knows that it is. It’s simply the fact that life takes over and it gets shuffled into the background and before you know it, you are planning on a vacation and paying rent once again.
I own a timeshare through II and let me tell you this. People who say they can’t get what they want?? That’s absurd. Take a little time on the website, plan a little bit or even not at all at times and you can get virtually anything you want, anywhere you want. I just got back from Cabo on a trade and I could have gone to Hawaii on three weeks notice but chose Cabo because the airfare was so cheap.
Timeshare is not magic. High demand times and resorts take planning, but I gaurantee you all the other timeshare owners who are staying at the resort you couldn’t get absolutely love their ownership. They simply know how to properly use them.
It is true that the points system is far superior to the old way through RCI. RCI points is the modern product and was designed to fix availability issues by completely taking the “week banking” management out of the hands of owners and do it for them automatically. I would definately recommend points over weeks and in fact prefer to sell points though they are harder for newbies to understand.
I was in fact furious that the guy cancelled his contract. I rarely entertain clients after a sale but they were young and caught me on a good day. I did spend 200 dollars entertaining them. When they cancelled, I did ask for them to cover that expense. Of course they promised, but did not send me anything. They said it was “the risk I took”. I thought this was quite insensitive as agents do not make thousands and thousands of dollars and I did this for them as a friendly gesture. Though he had my contact number, he did not discuss with me his issues prior to cancelling he just cancelled. I know nobody is gonna see my side of this, but the fact of the matter is, we are working for a living just like everybody else, and though the discontented shout from the rooftops, the vast majority of timeshare owners are very very pleased with their ownerships and in fact buy more time and pay retail to own more time.
Buying retail means a few things that buying on the secondary market does not. First? Disclosure laws, everything is in writing. Second? Most good agents will be available after point of sale to help you with your trading, though it is quite easy to do, for the first couple of times it can be helpful to have a walk through. Third? You would probably never own a timeshare without hearing a presentation from an agent and agents cannot work for free. We provide a valuable service to our owners, and building a resort takes millions of dollars so of course we have to charge a “retail” price so that we can profitably provide this product to the market place.
People who dump their timeshares are in my opinion, ignorant. The whole reason they bought from the salesperson is because we show you that your life is not about working 40 hrs a week until you die. Owning a timeshare helps you to commit to quality family time in gorgeous locations, which is why this is most apealing to the wives. Their husbands do not take the time their family needs to spend quality time away from work. These workaholics look at the money involved in owning a timeshare, and yes it can be substantial, but they are then content to not ever take a real vacation or stay in crappy motels for 100 dollars a night. Not much of an alternative. Paranthetically, if you want to vacation just two weeks a year, you will spend far more renting hotels. 1968 motel 6 was six bucks a night…now what do they charge? The room in Cabo I got was 200 dollars a night with a thirty percent discount my maintenence and exchange amounted to 367 and 154 respectively. Do the math. Not to mention I probalby would have never gone without a timeshare ownership so we’re talking about hypothetically going and paying 1400 for the same room, which I most certainly would not have done. This makes the cost of not owning a timeshare for most people….simply not going at all.
Timeshare is exciting because it hits a real emotional nerve. The fact that we, especially americans, tend to get our priorities all backwards and rarely take vacations with our familes. Timeshare is a great way to do this. Unfortunately, you have to actually use the damn timeshare to get any value out of it and some people don’t take the time to simply use them properly. Those that do find that it changes their lives.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Hi, I would like to know if those people who revoked their contract indeed got their deposit back. I am still within the 5-day window & I faxed my form today. I called to confirm if they got it. Still, I don’t think I’d be sleeping well until I get my deposit. I also sent the form to the Florida office via certified mail. Please advise if there is anything else I could do to ensure I get the deposit back. Thanks!
July 15th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
How did you pay for the deposit? If you paid with a credit card you can call your CC company and request that they stop payment, you could also do the same with a check. This article should give you some more insight as well - 10 Steps to Successfully Rescind Timeshare
July 15th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Thanks Mandie. I paid by credit card. I signed the contract on a Saturday & on Monday morning, it was already in my credit card statement.
July 18th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Just an update, Grandview just refunded us for the deposit. I signed the contract last Saturday, faxed my revocation form last Tuesday, then we got the refund yesterday, Thursday. I had my CC replaced right away, in case somebody accidentally charges me for the mortgage payments. Despite this whole ordeal, I’m pretty impressed with Grandview’s prompt response.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. If I didn’t stumble upon this discussion, my cousin (who also got their own timeshare last Saturday) & I would be frustrated & stuck with this.
July 20th, 2008 at 8:17 am
For me I feel like this was a worth while investment. We purchased a 1 bed at Grandview for $10,999. We get 49,000 points every other year and pay $208/month. We did get other incentives like a cruise and free week with RCI and a terrible 17.9% interest rate. HOWEVER the financing as most of you know is owner fincanced with no qualifying. Given my current credit situation I am not able to qualify for loans and such so this was an open door for us. Don’t mis understand we have a beautiful house and a huge pool on an enormous lot and do not want for anything. I simply had a rough patch with some investment property (renters) that slipped into forclosure before I could sell it. I was able to pull it out of forclosure and sell the property but not before my credit was severly damaged. I know these timeshares can be bought second hand but I’m not in the situation where I can come up with thousands of dollars to pay it off from the start. People in situations like mine need special accommodations and often are stuck paying twice or sometimes three times as much as people with great credit. That’s why I think this is still a great opportunity. If you can afford to buy outright from a previous owner then that’s obviously the best way to go but in not then I relly think this is worth a look.
I do have a question. Because I have points and not weeks. Will I have trouble finding really nice places to vacation or will I be stuck like some of the other folks who have been posting that they have trouble trading their weeks. Is that because they are stuck with certain weeks they own and no one wants to vacation on those weeks?
Any info would be appreciated.
July 20th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
We were given a free trip in January by a doctor friend of ours. All we had to do was pay the exchange fee. He was with Interval International at a resort in Orlando. We wanted to go further south so we found Vacation Village @ Bonaventure in Westin Florida near Ft Lauderdale. We ended up in a breakfast and sales program for “owners” by accident. When asked during check-in, I answered yes that we were there as owners because we were there on our friends time-share. I wasn’t trying to deceive them. We agreed to the presentation for the coupons etc. Our sales woman was very nice and low-key. I explained immediately upon meeting her that we would not be buying anything because my wife was in school and we were trying to budget now for a one income family. She said she understood and that we wouldn’t be wasting her time. She asked us to listen to the offer only and made no attempt to coerce us. We quickly saw the model after breakfast and coffee (we were staying at a similar model and were very impressed already). At the sales office she explained that what they had to offer were upgrades for owners (we were told the unit we were offered was a foreclosure). She was surprized that we were not owner’s but were invited to the presentation. This is when I realized why I had been asked at check-in if we were owner’s. I told her of the mix up. She checked with her manager and brought him to meet us immediately before ever giving us a price (maybe because I was up front with her about our intentions… maybe because she thought the only chance she had at selling us was if she came low the first time… I don’t know.) What we were offered was a 2bedroom every odd year that we could deposit and exchange for a 1br every year and free week for life. The price was 8,900.00k with maint fees of just under 600.oo every other year plus the RCI membership fees. We had excellent credit so they got us approved for financing plus a 0% RCI credit card with Bank of America for the downpayment. We paid off the credit card right after we got home and were fortunate enough to be able to pay the total note off before the 2nd payment was due. I went ahead and paid the maint. fees for 2009 so we’re not due again until 2011 and I paid RCI for 10yrs through their discount offer (600.00 I believe). Now we have just booked our first week through our own time-share at their sister resort The Grandview in Las Vegas. It will be both of our first time in Vegas and we are looking forward to it. We knew people who have paid upwards of 20k for time-shares… in fact the doctor who loaned us his paid more than we did. We both wanted vacations together and with family to be a priority and goal for us. The time share we bought was in the perfectly landscaped town of Westin Fla (so perfect it was a little scary… like the suburbs of The Stepford Wives
Our Week is the first week in September and the condo is in the tower on the golf-course overlooking it, a fabulous pool and the country club clubhouse. I don’t play golf but apparently it is the course where Tiger Woods is a member and played his first PGA tour, championship or something. It’s a golfer’s paradise for sure so we thought it would be easy to sell if we wanted to. Booking in advance or at a glance 
suits us either way so we are hoping for happy vacations. I’ll certainly be leary of the Grandview though after reading this blog. Sounds like we maybe could have gotten a little better deal but also sounds like we could have done a lot worse too. Sorry about all of the others misfortune. I hope they can find something good in it all. Of course any feedback about our investment is welcome. Thanks,
Robert & Trina in SC
PS We loved South Florida
July 21st, 2008 at 1:29 am
Most people who have trouble trading their weeks, simply do not know how to use them. It works like this…Deposit your week early, request as early as you can. That is how weeks work. Now then, what about points.
Points is the timeshare revolution. The biggest benefit to points is availability. What RCI did is simply take the management of the timeshare away from the owner and do it automatically for them. If a points owner does not call RCI a year in advance and tell them they are staying at their home resort, they will automatically bank the owners’ week for them. This is huge. What it means is…at ten months prior to your vacation, every points resort in RCI is completely available (unless the owner chose to call and book his own property). Obviously the sooner you reserve your time, the better. If you wait longer to make your reservations, your selections will begin to have limits. Book early. BTW, points resorts are the newer properties so yes, you will have great places to stay.
July 21st, 2008 at 1:38 am
One more thing Craig…
They don’t tell you this because they want you to buy as many points as possible, but here goes. If you use your points account to book within 45 days of the vacation…RCI charges you a maximum of 9,000 points per week.
That means your 49k points equals 5 weeks of vacation.
Thought you would like to know that :))
July 21st, 2008 at 12:01 pm
KB
Thanks so much for your most helpful information. We are very excited to have this opportunity for many, many years to come.
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:17 pm
We bought our first timeshare in 1986 in Gatlinburg TN when we were on our honeymoon. It was a Peppertree Resort which has been sold to two management companies since, but has a good board. We stayed at our home resort at least 7 times, and have traded for other places across the country. In 1994 we bought into ARI, which is with Interval International, and we are embarrassed to say that we have yet to use that week, which is in alternating “even numbered” years. My brother/sister-in-law use theirs every other year and have had some good vacations. In 1998 we bought at Massanutten, which is a sister resort to the Grandview, and we actually have two units there. We have stayed there, and traded. As someone has indicated, you have to deposit early and plan early to get into the really good resorts. Another thing we’ve found is that sometimes we have to take a one-bedroom unit vs a two-bedroom (all of ours are two-bedroom in red season, and weeks not points) and have even given a week as a gift. As I said, we own at a sister resort to the Grandview, and we have stayed at other sister resorts, Mizner Place in Weston FL and Vacation Village in the Berkshires in MA. I have to say, the biggest sales pressure we have EVER received from ANY of the places we have stayed, is at the Vacation Village Resorts. They are all the same–you check in, and then have to get your parking pass from the “concierge” who tries to get you to sign up for the free breakfast or lunch, and asks you to choose your gift. When we were in Florida, we went for it and got the three-level push (which cuts the price–as well as how often you can vacation–with each person sent in). Once they realized our no actually meant NO, they were showing us to the door, and we had to ASK for our gift and stand and wait for it. We were warned about the Berkshires, so we held our ground and say no we wouldn’t be able to attend as we had other plans. I’m coming to the Grandview in March 2009 with my daughter and I don’t think I’ll have to worry about the sales pitch since hubby won’t be with me.
As for timeshares, it’s really not all bad. There are some good deals, and there are some really great vacations to be had. We have never been disappointed with our timeshares and owning them has allowed us to have really nice vacations . . . . and in years when the finances were lean, we were happy to only need to worry about getting there and eating (and the kitchen made it even better). On the occasions that we have to stay in hotels (ie, weekend trips or work trips) we really miss having a ‘condo unit’–we are spoiled.
You can shop around/look around and feel free to go with some of the bigger companies such as Hilton and Fairfield. We’ve stayed at Hilton Grand Vacation Clubs, went to the sales pitch, and said no. We’ve also stayed at some resorts that are already built up and established, and have nothing for sale–so no “sales pitch”.
Each of us is at a different place on our life journey–so there’s really no ‘right or wrong’ but what works for us at that time. Best wishes to all!
B&J from Indiana
July 25th, 2008 at 12:23 am
Look guys…lol.
Please, if you’re not gonna be adding another week or not seriously shopping and you already own. Please do not attend a timeshare presentation. These agents earn only commission and many times only get one to two chances a day to see a client. When you attend one knowing that there is no chance you will be buying, you are taking food off thier tables. I’m not saying never attend…I’m just saying that no matter how many times you say, “we don’t want to waste your time” to your agent. You really really already did by attending. Keep in mind these people work as hard as you do for their living and you are taking from them. The O.P.C. (outside personal contact) who books you for the tour makes money whether you buy or not. But the line agents do not. You really are hurting them. So please consider that
July 29th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I WILL MAKE THIS SHORT, SWEET, AND INFORMATIVE ALL AT THE SAME TIME. IF YOU ARE TRULY INTERESTED IN A TIMESHARE. NEVER I REPEAT NEVER BUY IT FROM A SALESPERSON AT THE RESORT. GO ON THE INTERNET AND BUY IT FROM SOMEONE WHO NO LONGER USES THEIR TIMESHARE AND WANTS TO GET RID OF IT. YOU WILL PAY MUCH MUCH MUCH LESS FOR THE EXACT SAME THING. THINK OF IT LIKE BUYING A NEW CAR FROM THE DEALERSHIP (PAYING FULL PRICE) AND BUYING A NEW CAR FROM THE CLASSIFIED ADS(AT A FRACTION OF THE COST) SAME CAR, DIFFERENT PRICES. WITH THAT BEING SAID, I WILL SHARE MY PERSONAL STORY FOR THOSE THAT ARE INTERESTED.
My husband and I were in Vegas for my brothers wedding when we were asked if we wanted $100 of gambling money plus show tickets. How could we say no. We went to the presentation, not having any knowledge or experience of the situation. To make a long story short, we purchased a time share for $17,000. Being the internet freak that I am, I began researching my new investment the moment I got home. I found the EXACT deal I purchased for $17,000 for $6,000 on e-bay. WHAT? I immediately canceled my purchase and thanked God I still was in my 5 day cancellation window. They really should make it closer to 30 days. Anyway, the thought of a time share was still appealing to me because my husband and I are both teachers, so we take family vacations every summer. I decided to purchase a timeshare on e-bay for $300 paid in full. The resort is close to home, so we can go there every year or we can join RCI for about $80 bucks, bank our week, and pay the $164 exchange fee to stay at any of the 4000+ resorts they offer. What does this all mean? We can stay at our home resort and get a 2 bedroom 2 bath for $650 dollars(maintanance fees) for a week vacation. That is less than $100 dollars a night. Pretty good deal! Or if we bank our week with RCI, we will pay $650 (maintanance fees)+ $80 (RCI fees) + $164 (exchange fee) = $894 for a 2 bedroom 2 bath at any resort RCI offers. That is about $128 dollars a night. Still a pretty good deal! For example, we banked our week this year and will be using it next year at the Hilton in Florida. We will pay about $127 a night as timeshare holders but anyone else would pay over $250 a night for the same exact unit we got. Make sense? I hope so. If you have any questions what so ever, please do not hesitate to e-mail me mamaya@stx.rr.com. I am a teacher and I love educating people inside and outside the classroom. Happy Vacationing everyone!
July 30th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Just a coiuple of tips on timeshares.
1) Check out the internet and ebay for “used time shares. The price will be a lot lower.
2) Never buy an RCI “weeks.” Be sure you have “points.” This makes trading easier and even allows you to purchase plane tickets, car rental, etc with your points.
3) If the salesperson says anything about the timeshare being an investment, spit in his face and leave. Time shares are a way to plan and save on future vacations, but as an investment, time shares make Enron look like a great deal..
4) Check out the time share’s history. Number of foreclosures and the past, current and projected taxes and fees.
5) Be ready to just say NO and stick to it. They will ring bells, blow whistles, etc. to make it seem like everyone is buying. Take your free tickets or meals and run. This is a major investment that does not need a used car sales pitch.
6) If you do end up buying on a “whim,” cancel. Instructions are in your paperwork-but do it quickly, as your recission period is very short. Also send by registered mail to assure dates.
My wife and I own 2 timeshares, both on points. We enjoy the travel opportunities at a savings and convenience over hotel rooms. We bouight specifically to have vacations-no investment opportunity, no rental thoughts, Just vacation. We also went to a lot of time share presentations before we purchased.
Mr. No Down
August 12th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
We bought a timeshare at the Grandview on July 11 of this year. After we got home, we decided that we weren’t able to make payments. (2bd, 98000pts, 4extra weeks for 24,000-add all the interest and fees it works out to be 45,000) I sent a certified mail to cancel, but read the contract wrong and missed on the 5 days. Eldorado Resorts called and informed me that our contract was canceled and would not get our deposit back. I didn’t fight back since I was over the 5days. I wish they would have told me about it when we bought the share. Anyways, yesterday we got a call from someone at the Grandview trying to get us to keep our contract. (I thought they canceled it?) He said he would help us by getting us a 1bd with 2extra weeks for 14,000. My husband and I wanted to talk about it first before we made another rash decision. That is why I am on this site. I was doing some research on this and just appalled! I was reading the story by one guy-Robert about a man who said it was his last day working and was going to hook us up with a great deal. Well, that is probably the same sales rep we had. He was a good actor! He even took us to a private area to tell us about this secret deal which I now know everyone has! He told us that the points can be redeemed for airline tickets and so on. He even told us we can try to sell them. He gave us his phone number and everything. I knew it was too good to be true! He also went as far as bringing us 2 free tickets to the Secret Garden (which he never did!) My husband and I with our two small kids walked all the way down the strip to get them to found out that there were no tickets. not there or the hotel we were staying at. He even called us to let us know that he was at the hotel to drop them off. I know that my husband and I weren’t very smart when we bought it. But I can’t believe that some sales people can be so dishonest. We now know what to do. We will just loose out on the deposit we made and not buy this timeshare. I think the only way we might reconsider is if they sell it to us for 3,000 with 98,000pts on week 1 with 2extra weeks. Do you think that’s a deal?
Well if any of you have been given this same story from a sales rep recently, please let me know so I know it’s the same guy. I may just send him a quick email.
August 13th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Message to KB: I understand where you are coming from. I have family members who are in sales and know the hard work it takes to make a sale. But when one lies and makes you look and feel like fool, it is not hard working nor is it good work ethics. I am not saying that that is you, but our sales rep did just that and my husband and I are really disappointed.
August 13th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Last Oct 2007, we went through the whole high pressure sales thing and said no, no, NO!! We don’t have the money…etc. Well, finally they took us to another room where we were supposed to get our tickets for dinner and a show, but NO another sales pitch. This time the $35,000 timeshare was only $5,000 for a 1 bedroom every third year and the maintenance fee only $295 (every third year). Hmmmm…sounds like a good deal?! We were so tired and bummed out we finally said fine if we can get our tickets and leave now. We signed the paperwork, got our tickets and a nice lady dropped us off at our hotel on her way home. When we got back to the hotel I felt sick to my stomach. What the heck did we do?!?! We will be staying at the Grandview for the first time in January 2009…so well shall see if this was a good deal or not. From the reviews I’m very nervous about it. To book the room with RCI I had to pay dues, cancellation insurance, and then I had to pay our dues at Grandview. I think booking a room at a hotel in Vegas is the way to go. I feel like such an idiot. What a rip off. Worst case scenario, we are out our $5,000 + fees/dues, which is bad but not the end of the world. Could be worse, we could have caved at the $35,000 level. I feel for everyone who has/will be involved in this BS!!
August 14th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
For all those of you out there, pls do research before you buy a timeshare. If you already did, be careful.
If you have read my other posts on here, I actually called Grandview to see if our sales rep was still there. (he told us it was his last day so he’d hook us up with a deal that only 1/50 ppl ever get) Well, he is still there and the deal isn’t the best at all. I was able to cancel but lost our deposit (trying to get it back)
If I had a laptop with me that day, I could of avoided all of this.
Good luck to you all.
August 18th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Thanks for all the comments. It has been an education. We just purchased at Grandview Las Vegas and are wondering if the rescission is 5 days or 7 days as we are CA residents and both forms are in the contract (NV - 5 days revocation CA-7days)
Today is day 7.
August 18th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
We went on a “mini vacation” compliments of the Grandview and were invited to become “homeowners” of a “vacation home” in Las Vegas that even came with a warranty deed! Long story short, its a TIMESHARE!! You can color your picture any way you want but if it looks like a duck and you know the rest…We literally had to chew our arms off to get out of there..the sales lady even went so far as to tear up on us! It didnt work, home or not its more important to us to have a “home” we can live in every day than one we can only visit when we have the opportunity to go on a vacation! By the way, if you are really considering buying this timeshare, I mean “vacation home”, wait tell your sales rep “no” at least 2 times even when they drop the offer to $10,500 today only because guess what? Just when you think its FINALLY over, they hit you up one last time and you can get it for $4000! They wouldnt even call us a taxi..they wanted us to ride back on the black bus but in order to do that we had to wait for all the other people who were trying to chew their arms off!!!
August 19th, 2008 at 5:19 am
We recentlly purchased a 2 bedroom unit every year with four extra weeks for $33990 at the grandview. After reading some of the comments on this site about the secondary market we probably over paid. We are past the 5 day cancellation period. Our sales person was in her early thirties. She told us that we were getting a great deal and that our kids and grand kids can use it because the property was deeded. She sure made it sound good. She told us that she did not enjoy selling timeshare that she was looking for another job. No matter what the sales person said it was our decision to buy it. Since we already past the 5 day period we have a choice either we can lose our deposit or we can keep it. We have friends that own timeshare they seem to like it. They suggested that we keep it. Plus buying timeshare on the internet makes us a bit uncomfartable.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I to experienced high pressure selling in Gatlinburg Tennessee a few weeks ago. I sent a certified cancellation letter to the resort after I had time to really consider what I was doing. It sounded like vacation heaven, but I quickly realized I was spending more to own than to rent vacations. But, my story has a happy ending. After REALLY searching for timeshares that I could pay cash for, I found 92500 annual RCI points for 4275.00 including closing costs. This was twice the points I had bought for 13200.00 dollars! I bought these points and have a 655.00 dollar maintenance fee. We will probably get 3 to 4 weeks vacation per year if we use our points wisely. Even two weeks is a major savings at a High quality resort. I admit that one must do a lot of research to find out what will work for his situation, but a timeshare can save you money if you buy it at a reasonable price with low maintenance fees. You can forget about getting a good deal on any NEW timeshare or purchasing from a developer. I am getting ready to purchase another timeshare on the “weeks” rci program. This one will have a 525.00 maintenance fee per year, but in the summer it would cost 1500.00 for a week to stay there. My dates are floating (I can stay anytime from June to end of August for 7 nights. If I use it I win, If I rent it out I win. I am sorry about everyones bad experience. I sympathize with all of you. I hate to see these crooks hornswaggle everyone into Paying 10 times too much for a timeshare.
August 30th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I purchased in 2007 for $4,400 for every 3rd year, there was no pressure to purchase because we have been to many presentations and it just takes saying no, I want my gift. Their job is to sell, if you expect to attend a presentation and get tickets worth $75-$100 then something is wrong with you if you believe they are not going to try to get you to buy. They get commissions on their sales and they want to make a living. I also own with Worldmark and I have no problems with their presentations because I attend 4-5 each time I go to Vegas and I say no give me my gift. The Grandview has great rooms and so does the Cliffs which I have also stayed at. I have my stay in 2009 (staying in Aug at Grandview 1 wk $ 139) for the Grandview but I have had no trouble using my free week once each year. If there is a problem do not attend the presentations, there is never something for nothing, they will try to sell, if they see you mean no they will get you out because you are causing them not to make money.
James
August 30th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Thank you all for the information. This is a great site and is really helping lot of folks. Thanks for all the help, I really got lot of info i needed, and i am on my way to cancel my contract, can i place a hold on my credit card or replace my card so that they don’t charge me at all, and i don’t have to fight for my deposit. I checked my card online, the charge is not yet reflected. Will it affect my credit score if i do that. Please let me know as soon as possible. appreciate your help.
September 1st, 2008 at 5:47 am
We were approached in the forum shopping centre last week about a new “hotel” they wanted feedback on and told that for 1-2hrs of our time we could get show tickets or a cash equivalent.
Turned out to be a grandview timeshare presentation, but didn’t find that out until we got there. Bit annoying the way it was missold, but we weren’t looking for a timeshare so didn’t get one. The presentation also ended up being closer to 3-4hrs. I was amazed that it was worthwhile pulling couples of the street and giving them the equivalent of $200 in gifts, but our presenter mentioned they have a 1 in 4 hit rate with this method.
We also got the 3 pronged attack and got a final offer of about 4900 from the last guy. If anything this soured the experience for us and made it all appear a bit sleazy. Surely there should be a price for real estate that they want to sell it for that they stick to. Starting at 40something thousand and being able to drop the price to 4thousand means a lot of people who genuinely get on with their agent and don’t get to the final guy are getting scr3wed. Even if this is legal, it’s pretty immoral.
Also, the maintenance cost is a rip off. $595 for two weeks???!!! That’s $15,470 on maintenance a year if they can get rid of all the weeks on a unit. The rental prices may be fixed but the maintenance didn’t seem to be so I reckon inflation rises can get added in there
September 4th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I also got enticed by their luring statement of passing this to kids and grandkids. After I came back to SF, I was told by my colleages that usually this time-shares are scams and you need to be very flexible for your free one week vacation. I tried cancelling the purchase and luckily I hit the 5 day mark. They refunded my money back and I am happy fellow for not getting into this scam.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:44 am
Me and my girlfriend bought a timeshare at Grandview Las Vegas.
We weren’t aware that we could cancel the purchase after 5 days.
Now we have come back to Spain from our holidays we have read the contract and we think they gave us a false information about the exchange weeks program when we purchase.
As we don’t know the US legislation we are wondering what would happen if we don’t pay our timeshare.
In Spain the company would get the title back and the deposit that was paid and anythingelse. But I don’t know what happen in USA when you don’t pay a debt. Could you answer please to this question.
Thank you in advanced
September 10th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I was unluckily dragged into this by the lie of visiting a new hotel to later discover that it was a timeshare presentation. Damn that girlfriend and her lust for free money.
These sort of “deals” should be avoided at all costs and I was horrified when I was told that 25% of people end up buying at the end of the presentation. I thought this was a lie until I discovered this blog.
Essentially what they are doing is selling something for a LOT more than its worth, by trying to convince people they should do it for their family. I had a look at ebay for the grandview and the prices range from $167.50-$3050 for completed items . Why do you think their deals won’t be available tomorrow? Because if you go away and research it you’ll realise all the prices they offer are a rip off.
All the give aways are there.
You have to ask yourselves how can they afford to drag random people of the street and spend nearly $300 on them (if you include taxis, food, sales people, gifts etc), if they are offering a fair price for their timeshare. Essentially the 1 in 4 people that sign up give $900 straight away to the other 3 that were smart enough to say no.
The horrifying interest rate of 18.9% is shocking as well. I guess they are again hoping when people get home they just bury their head in the sand and try to forget they bought one and do nothing to change it.
The three “offers” is another HUGE give away. The final being 50% of the second. This must surely spell danger to people. Don’t believe the “oh its my last day”, “oh but I really like you guys” lies. They are conning you out of $1000 for nothing.
My advice for anyone who is reading this blog after just buying a timeshare from them is to quickly get on the phone and cancel it.
If you are still interested in timeshares, do some research on the web. There are plenty of cheap deals to be found out there if you like the concept. Check out ebay for different timeshares, including grandview ones if you’d still want to buy there.
September 12th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I am a happy timeshare owner and also happen to sell timeshare. Timeshare is not for everyone; it certainly is not for cheap people who want everything for nothing. People who most likely have their kids eat cheap pizza on their narrow motel beds and keep their cheap beer cold in the bathroom sink. As for the second hand market….do you honestly believe you can get quality vacations for the price of a latte? Get real, people.
September 13th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Just for your information … one of my relatives bought from Grandview at Las Vegas last May, a one-bedroom (fixed week annually) for only $5000 and the annual maintenance fee is only $98 (yes.. $98, not a typo.) He was also given a certificate entitling him one extra week vacation every year. This is the lowest I’ve seen so far.
September 13th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
yeah, right. who ever said we can get something for nothing? or maybe i’m just stupid. or wait, maybe not. after all, i do own 3 timeshares, have traveled 4 continents, have lived in vegas 8 years and worked the past 4 as a vacation counselor.
FYI, maintenance fees cover: 1. taxes ( for a property on the las vegas strip at that) 2. upkeep and maintenance of your resort (again, on the las vegas strip ) 3. insurance (probably get a break here as vegas doesnt have tornados, hurricanes or earthquakes )
and 4. they cover all the amenities that come with a country club lifestyle. will $ 98 cover all that, i wonder ? ? go figure. btw…..i wish him luck trying to book that free certificate every year???? when has RCI even been non-profit ? hey, someone has to shoulder costs for their glossy covers too, wouldnt you agree? free ? yeah, right.
September 14th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Caroline, I do not think people are looking for something for nothing, we are just sick of being lied to by timeshare representatives, and being made to think that paying for a timeshare is somehow a bargain when compared to vacationing every year - which it simply is not. Let me answer you question for you - you are stupid if you think people looking for bargain timeshares are cheap fools. Why would someone want to overpay for something when they can get it for a fraction of the price on the resale market? Why would someone want to finance their vacations at an insane percentage rate, when they could buy it outright without interest? I am aware of what maintenance fees cover, and I am also aware that Grandview would not be able to offer free show tickets/checks/free hotel stays to people attending their presentations if they were not making a ton of money selling their timeshares at an inflated price. I sincerely hope you do not talk to the people you counsel about vacations in such an abrasive and condescending manner.
September 14th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
violet, i appreciate and respect your imput. the reason i do well is because i do represent both sides of the spectrum and i let my owners know that.
as for the freebies, these are covered by the cost of doing business, just as advertisers pay for ads costing millions of dollars whether they sell their inventory or not. timeshare’s greatest advertisers though, are happy owners who’s lives we have enhanced and would like to share the experience with friends and family. what i do not appreciate are comments from people ( start reading from the top) who do not see the total picture and therefore give timeshare a bad name. as for high interest rates, i always encourage my owners to get their own financing (my husband paid for his with 3 credit cards and used the points he earned for airfare). financing with the company is not the only option, just as any store will not refuse a customer who pays cash for his product. as for the resale market, i also speak from experience; i did test the waters as i tried to help an owner of mine sell due to hard times. bottom line is, i always tell people, just like cars, homes and everything else for sale, people who buy new do so even at a higher price because they know their purchase comes with a warranty and the benefit of ” tech support” 24/7.
September 14th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
continued: as for timeshare being a bargain…..remember, timeshare payments stop; rising room rates don’t. so there is a break even point. true, there are maintenance fees after the timeshare is paid off. well, even cars have maintenance, taxes, and insurance. and with room rates the way they are right now…a $ 500 a year maintenance fee that covers so many vacation experiences in various locations could very well be the the price of a hotel room on the strip. so which would you rather have ? one year’s worth of vacations for the family in various condos all over OR one night in one hotel room in one city?
September 14th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Caroline, I wasn’t trying to say all timeshares are a bad idea. I’m quite sure they work very well for some people.
However what people want is the best vacations they can get for their money (even considering the long term). What they don’t want to do is fund people’s show tickets and sales reps huge commissions.
Here is what I found on ebay for the grandview that had successfully sold (only in the last 2 weeks, think you need to pay for further history).
$167.50 : 1 Bedrrom | WEEK 15 | Trienniel
$203.54 : 1 Bedroom | RED WEEK 28 | Biennial
$372.27 : 1 Bedroom | 12/06/08 | Yearly
$499.00 : 1 Bedroom | November 1st | Yearly
$611.51 : 1 Bedroom | WEEK 5 | Yealy (40,000 Annual RCI Points)
$935.00 : 1 Bedrrom | WEEK 26 | Yearly (49,000 RCI Points)
$945.00 : 1 Bedroom | WEEK 18 | Biennial (49,000 RCI Points)
$3,050.00 : 2 Bedrrom | RED WEEK 14 | WEEK 14
I had looked previously and seen lots that hadn’t sold at 10k+. Presumably from people that wanted to get rid of their timeshares and thought they could get their money back.
Considering these resale prices, after you walk out you can be looking at a loss of around 90% if you tried to sell straight away.
As far as “resale” goes, since when was second hand property a bad thing? This is second hand property with a management company talking care of it with regular cleaning. Anyway, you are sharing the property with up to 156 (considering 1 week every 3 years) other people. I don’t think second hand property that is nearly new is much of an issue as long as it is well maintained.
September 14th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
@Caroline:
Who do you work for?
September 18th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
We own a Timeshare and so far we have enjoyed our quality accomodations. We understand that each time we travel we will have to attend some type of sales/upgrade presentation to get the free stuff, for example, free dinner coupons in San Diego, free show tickets in Vegas. Each time we attend have seen 3 sales people and the price gets cheaper with each person. So never think its a good deal until the 3rd sales pitch. If you like what you see buy it. You can always say NO and no one knows better than you what you can afford. Don’t feel obligated because they are giving you a free gift either. Someone in a earlier post had a great analogy, “Would you walk into a BMW dealership because they offered a free lunch and then buy a car you couldn’t afford because the salesman was pushy?” Timeshares are not for everybody if you only take a vacation every few years a timeshare is not for you. If you do your travel on the spur of the moment a timeshare is not for you, because many timeshares are booked months in advance. If you plan you vacations more than a couple months out and do your homework and check out all of your purchasing options and the different timeshare companies before your stuck in the high pressure sales office. You can enjoy timeshare ownership. You just have to be smart and if your gut tells you you can’t afford it, Just say no.
October 24th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
When we first arrived to our hotel we were attacked by a employee it was my first time to vegas so i had no clue what was going on. Well the guy who set us up for the stupid time share was nice and he showed us lots of stuff about how to eat cheap and see free stuff and everything but then we went on the tour. We got free donuts which was nice and a free sandwich we were there for like 5 HOURS!!!! The time share lady we had was someone from oversees and she was really nice she knew we were broke and we could of barely afford it. and she wasnt pushy. Then, some manager guy came over and boy did he make my day bad! He gave me a price of 22000 or whatever i told him no and then he said oh let me go away and come back well he comes back i say no again and amazing the price goes down. and then i say look fucker im trying to buy a house i said no so what he does is he says i can own it every other year and i got 6 months to come up with the money.. im sitting there like OMFG! so i start crying because he was just so super pushy.. i mean like he wouldnt take no for a answer i told him i had like 500 dollars in my bank account and could barely afford this trip he still wouldnt stop!!!!!!!!!!!! then finally I said fuck these damn show tickets fuck these free money i cant take this harrassment i stormed out the door. and then the nice lady we had in the beginning came i said look lady i would buy from you but i just want to go and then all of a sudden after all this drama they let us go. they tell you its a 3 hour time share meeting and its not ITS 5 HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i mean shit now that They wasted 5 hours of my vacation and it was done and over with.
we go back to the hotel and no matter where you go where you are you get attacked by someone every corner every hotel and every where to me that is harrassment.
and that is just annoying.
October 26th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Hi,
We just got back from Vegas and got suckered into buying from the grandview. After the long drive home we decided to research grandview and found this site. All I can say is THANKYOU! I didn’t feel comfortable with the purchase but the sales guy convinced us that it was the best deal we would ever get. Needless to say we are on day 3 and we are sending our revocation form today and calling them as well as our bank. I will let you all know when our money is refunded. If I ever hear anyone talk about a timeshare again I will run away! Thank you for your posts!
October 29th, 2008 at 1:05 am
I just purchased a one bedroom for 13,999 for 1 week a year at Grandview they also gave extra 2 weeks my understanding the sales person said the extra 2 weeks was part of the deal. We would receive it on a continued basis as long as we keep our membership current on the flight home I noticed a certificate the two weeks was for three years only
At first I thought maybe it was my mistake, and I misunderstood the 2 salespersons we communicated with
I asked my wife if she realized that the two extra weeks are only for a three year period her comment back to me was. I was wrong, we get three weeks vacation per year, one week is our deeded week which can be rolled over or traded the other two were there to use and can not carry over that is exactly what I thought and that is what our salesman told us. They also told us by taking the insurance we would be covered for death and disability on the loan the insurance only covers death no disability. I am also finding other discrepancies
I tried leaving without purchasing, and I notice a second salesman was getting a little upset. I told him I would like to have the contracts reviewed and also give me time to review our financial situation to see if it was affordable. I asked if we can come back in the morning after we discussed it over dinner to give us a chance to make the right decision. The salesman said once I leave. I would never come back. I told him I am a man of my word and I would return in the morning and I would give him my credit card. So that he could have some assurance that I would be back.
They went back and reworked numbers lowering the price. He then started working different angles on how we could rent out the extra weeks. We ended up signing, but I am going to revoke the contract even after our purchase when returning to the hotel we were approached to attend the presentation I told them we purchased today. I was then asked when I would be returning back to Las Vegas. I said one year I was then told after 90 days I can attend the same presentation and collect the free gifts
We came to the Luxor Hotel on a four day vacation. While there we were approached at least 20 times to attend the presentation by different hotel staff. I will never stay there again we were very pleased with the room constant nagging of attending this presentation is uncalled for.
I have nothing against timeshare resort and will eventually choose one to do business with I think it’s a great way to plan vacations
I will choose the one that has a good reputation and proven track record of satisfied customers. Grandview has some great customer reviews and scores high on a number of charts for their amenities. However, there are also a lot of unhappy customers to give me an uncomfortable feeling of doing business with them. I made several attempts to leave the presentation and research the company. Before signing a contract with the salesman kept coming up with excuses why I had to sign today the end result is a lot of my time was wasted their time was wasted, and it was all brought on by their staff members continually nag you coming up with convincing reasons to purchase.
The main reason I am canceling after reviewing our financial commitments and taking into consideration today’s economy and unemployment rate. It was not the right time to purchase a vacation timeshare and no they did not stick a gun to my head, but they sure did a good job convincing us now was the time to purchase a vacation timeshare
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:14 pm
My wife and I are experienced timeshare hoppers; While we were in Vegas we visited 3 timeshare presentations (Bluegreen, Westgate, and Vacation Village) and racked up over $600 in free goodies. We also attended several other presentations over the last few years. Average time = 3 hrs per presentation. Some advice:
The initial sign-up
• Bargain, Bargain, Bargain. The person giving out the free gifts usually has a budget – Max it out and then ask for more before closing the deal. It’s very hard to get more once you sign up.
• You can always walk away and find a better deal, especially on the Vegas Strip where one company will offer different deals depending on their Hotel/location/territory.
• Walk away if he salesman gives you “bad vibes,” this will spoil the whole experience.
• For the “prepay” trips (1-2 free, $ to add more), always buy the lowest package. You can always upgrade later and buy more days, or even get a better room for free. This way you are not stuck with too many non-refundable days.
• Read the fine print. We found out too late that GRANDVIEW was really vacation village in disguise. We had to sit through their identical presentation again, which was extremely painful (it’s word-for-word across the country).
• Make sure you read the fine print when you sign up. You may even want to photocopy it for your records. Some companies *cough*Vacation Village* may lie through their teeth once you go to their presentation.
The Presentation
• If you can, drive to their showcase site to save yourself the “shuttle-time”.
• Be skeptical, do not trust their “facts”. Many timeshares will claim anything to make a sale. For instance, the “equity” argument is mostly BS.
• You are NEVER obligated to buy any timeshare. Ignore any guilt. They know that at least 1 of 4 people will buy, and the top brass is making 60% profit. The salespeople will not starve to death if you don’t buy.
• DO NOT buy a timeshare on your first visit (or cancel within 5 days). Go home, do the math, and work out what you want, then look for a program that meets your needs. In fact, demand that they offer you a program that meets your travel style and price, you may be surprised – the industry is always changing.
• They’ll push a “one-time” deal, but you can usually attend again 6 months to a year later. You can also visit several different companies in a row. Don’t fret, there will always be another similar deal, and better prices online.
• A market will never be “hot” or “gold” forever. Florida used to be super hot, now it’s flooded with timeshares. Virginia is also timeshared out. Las Vegas will be hot until the developers overbuild (give them 8+ yea