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.
Comments on this post have been continued on our forum @ RCI VIP Timeshare Help Forum
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+ years).
• If there is a conflict, do not let them escort you out of the sales area to resolve the conflict. Keep your cool and calmly demand that the conflict is solved then and there in front of everyone. You can raise your voice and make a fuss, but do not make any violent movements or threats. They will usually pacify you to avoid loosing other sales.
• Despite what they all say, their “deeds” are not easy to sell or escape from. Think about it, there are lawyers that specialize in getting people free from timeshare contracts. We’re still refusing to buy any timeshare that doesn’t have an “escape clause” built in to the contract.
• Push for their “lowest possible deal” first, then work your way up. Then push again. If you find a deal you may like, constantly ask for more. For example: we purchased a $500 trial package that included a 4/3 Resort Visit with meals and 24 Individual days at Interval resorts ($40/night) for a 2.5 year period, membership to a vacation club, several months of interest free payments, no deed, no long-term obligations. All-in-all a nice sampler package, even if half of the promises are false.
• Every timeshare uses a different strategy, adapt accordingly. For instance, Bluegreen uses interactive group presentations, Westgate is all one-on-one and friendly, Vacation Village is just plain evil (agree with them or else!).
• Have fun, think of it as an elaborate matching of wits. You are becoming a smarter shopper in the process. One day you may actually buy something.
• Remember again, they need to cater to your vacation needs, not the other way around.
Happy Timesharing!
November 11th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
I purchased a 1br @ Grandview with a friend in ‘06 for $16,827. Supposedly we’ll be paid off in 2014 but with the interest rate of 17.9 that will probably be never instead. When we bought we both were in good financial situations. He recently lost his job and I recently changed jobs and am making less than I was when we bought it. My parents and I go to Vegas at least 2x a year, but we’ve never use my timeshare because my dad always gets 1/2 our nights free with his bonus points from the hotels we stay at and it most times works out to be cheaper than if we used the timeshare. I’m also not understanding our maintenance fee being biennial but we’re being billed for it every year.
My friend and I can’t really afford to keep paying our fees, mortgage, and membership dues with our current job situations and financial standings. Can we sell it even though it’s not paid off yet? We have a red week according to the paper work but it’s the first week of August so I wouldn’t think that would be a red week but then again it’s Vegas.
Another big problem I’ve had is whenever I call RCI I am told to call Grandview and vice versa. I haven’t been able to get any questions answered about how exactly everything works with banking weeks, using them or exchanging them. Our rep at the resort told us RCI would answer any of the questions we had about that or to just check their website. Needless to say their website is not very helpful.
Any help would be great. There’s just no way for us at the moment to afford these payments and a foreclosure is not an option for either of us. There’s some buyer’s remorse on my end because I didn’t think everything was on the up and up during the spiel but I didn’t listen to my gut and signed anyway.
November 12th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Just remember it’s YOUR decision to buy or not. I don’t think anyone in their right mind would buy if you do the math. I can take lots of cool vacations ON MY TIME for $800 a month investment over a 7 year period. Anyway, it’s entertaining to waste 2-3 hours and watch the action then take your free tickets and such back to the hotel to enjoy. We got 2 free Mama Mia tickets, 2 Chris Angel tickets, $75 bucks in dinning and a 2 night cruise (that we’ll never use) but what the heck, it’s free. So if you have arrived early in Vegas and just want to stash your bags until room check-in time it can be “interesting” to see what goes on in those timeshare dealings. On a sad note though… you will see how evil a person can become in order to make a buck. That can “stick” with you for some time to think how wrong it is. You may feel like you need a shower when you get back to get the funk off of you. Don’t ever buy a timeshare but have fun getting the free stuff!
November 12th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
We were in Las Vegas for the 3rd time this year (yes, I love my Vegas vacations!) and was as always approached numerous times by the people trying to line tourists up for Grandview tours and time share presentations. It is very irritating to be bothered every single time we walked in or out of any of the casinos. We did attend a presentation this last trip and I so regretted the huge waste of time it was! Do not waste one second of your precious vacation on this scam. It broke my heart to see people signing contracts when I figure most of them couldn’t afford the cost, I hope anyone who does buy and wants to get out of it can do just that. We sure did witness one of the more sad forms of human sales techniques, one that I hope to never ever have to see again! Enjoy Las Vegas… on your own terms! You can get great deals on the hotels/casinos by checking online or getting on mailing lists from the casinos for far less than the Grandview charges. I know there are reputable time shares out there, but after spending over 4 hours listening to the sales pitch and having the tour, oh yes and the sandwich (lunch!) they promised… we did get some free show tickets and free food coupons and a cruise that we won’t use anyway. Spend your precious vacation time on the strip, in the casinos, at the pool, seeing a show, having fun… and do not waste it on the Grandview time share presentation!!
November 14th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
My husband and I went to Vegas in September and like most of you say… we were approached constantly by people on the street, people in our hotel, everywhere! We finally gave in after negotiating for $125 cash, two free meals, two free shows. So, we went to the presentation.. it did take a bit over two hours, but the main thing was we told the salesman right from the get-go.. “dont waste your time, find yourself a real buyer, we are not buying anything!” So, he knew this right up front.. he went thru his spiel quickly, turned us to his high-power closer, they tried again, rather quickly.. we made it clear there was no way we would ever buy! they turned us lose, we got our $125 cash and all our meal and show certificates.. so we were happy! It was an easy 2 hrs to recoup some of our gambling losses, and got some great meal tickets!
Just be sure to let them know right from the start, you dont want it, you have no intentions of buying it, and they are not going to change your mind! That makes it a lot faster and less painful!
November 25th, 2008 at 8:04 am
We bought a 1 bedroom unit at the Grandview back in 2005 shortly after we got engaged. We came back home got a lower interest loan from our bank and paid off the RCI loan. We used the timeshare as trading power to go to St. Martin and took our son to Disney World as well. Just this past May we were in Vegas again and were again approached by RCI. We went to check it out since we hadn’t seen the resort since we first purchased our unit. We ended up converting over to the points system and upgraded to a 2 bedroom. We’re going to be using this to go to Mexico in Jan and even put some points towards airfare. For us, this has paid for itself already. We still haven’t actually stayed at our unit in Vegas but it’s come in handy to travel to other places. No complaints here!
November 29th, 2008 at 11:14 am
We just went through the pitch this past week and I was furious for letting these people steal five hours of my time. OK, we “negotiated” for up to three hours of our time and poorly too it seems as we only got one show (which we paid $50 for, and $75 in slot money which can be converted into cash if you like). But those extra two hours cost me my plans for the rest of the day (of a four day vacation). Please take the advice of others here, if you are not going to buy, negotiate for lots of freebies, and be firm right up front about not buying and save yourself the time and grief afterwards. A few things I really found disturbing. The main speaker, Sheryl-Lynn I think her name was, used her deceased mother as part of the sales pitch. How low, trying to use a strong emotional, personal issue to move timeshares. Then the indignation these people show when you say no. They even had a security guard at the exit, watching us! Well screw them, they screwed me. If you are interested in timeshares, research first - don’t be bullied into buying, as is exactly what they end up doing.
December 1st, 2008 at 10:46 am
Hi Abwhitney even i bought the same offer from grandview yesterday…
Should I cancel it?
pls reply @ priya.chib@gmail.com
Thanksssss
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:55 pm
We bought a timeshare at the Grandview back in February. We didn’t realize we had been scammed until May when we were trying to do some things with it. Of course the Grandview had no intention of helping us when we called them regarding the blatant lies told to us by our salesman. We finally called The Owner’s Advocate and they got our contract canceled and 100% refunded!! My experience with the Grandview is that they use deceptive tactics to lure you in and get you to buy.
December 10th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Hi there all, I bought a twin suite timeshare at the Grandview in Dec 2007.
I tried to use all the “wonderful” advantages of RCI’s exchange program, only to discover the painful reality that you all have found, that it sucks and you where lied to.
I am a living outside of the US, I can’t afford to pay the instalments on the instant finance they gave me, never mind the maintenance fees or RCI subscription. So I have stopped paying everything after reading the “What happens if I stop paying my timeshare” post on this website.
They have been contacting me via email, I have explained my dire financial pressure and they seem to not give a damn. I am 131 days overdue on payment today.
I was aiming for them to go the foreclosure and US Bad Credit reporting(shouldn’t affect me being outside of US??)route, which they are now threatening to do soon.
I am very interested about MB’s comment on calling the Owner’s Advocate and getting everything 100% sorted?? Is this something I can do?
Please advise
December 12th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
They can help. You can call them directly and ask them questions
about your specific situation. They are accredited with the Better
Business Bureau so you can also look on there.
December 23rd, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I just got back from Vegas today after staying 4 nights. Yesterday, we went to the Grandview timeshare scam. We left at 1pm and didn’t get back until 6pm. We couldn’t get rid of them…we were even up front about the face we didn’t want to buy one of their damn timeshares…what’s worse, we were supposed to get “Love” cirque tickets, which they gave us “vouchers” for and we had to go pick up…they were suppose to be front row reserved seats…however, when we went to the box office, the Mirage people laughed at us…they said we had been had…apparently, it is a common practice for the Grandview folks to give out vouchers for non-reseved seats…so after 5 hours of hell and bad math presentations, we didn’t have any fucking tickets…when i called the customer service at Grandview, they told me it was MY problem that i didn’t have tickets because i should of reserved them faster (which again, i was told they had reserved my seats)…it was only after begging and pleading with the Mirage that they felt sorry enough for me and let me sit on the very back row, my wife actually sit in an office chair!!!…none the less, i pitty anyone who has any dealings with the Grandview…
December 29th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
I fell into the timeshare trap yesterday. I have sent my revocation document to the Florida Office via FEDEX. I will appreciate if someone lets me know the cancellation office phone no or fax in Grand View Las Vegas to expedite my case.
December 29th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Hi! MB,
Can you give me contact information (Name, Address and phone number) on Owner’s Advocate. I looked for then in BBB and could not find them.
I also got sucking into this and would like to get out ASAP.
Thanks,
December 31st, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Hi DA,
The contact information for The Owner’s Advocate is as follows: The Owner’s Advocate,
3905 State Street, Santa Barbara CA, phone #(866) 644-7776. They are accredited with the
BBB so maybe if you look in the Santa Barbara BBB you will find them. Let me know if
you need anything else.
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:55 am
I am currently using Owner’s Advocate right now to help me get my money back. Thanks MB for supplying the info. I came across this posting the other day and looked into them. They are very helpful and the only way I found in trying getting a refund. It’s essential that those who feel they got scammed to use them ’cause they need more testimonials about the Grandview at Las Vegas. It helps those who want to get their money back!! ** Please do not try to resell your timeshare on those resale websites!!! They don’t work either!!**
These bastards need to know know whats coming to them!!!
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I have owned timeshares for many years, and have been very happy with our purchases. We have bought everything on the secondary market, and have used them extensively for trading, using, etc. We own three marriotts, and can find nothing else that trades as well, and I never worry about the quality of the resorts. We own at Cypress Harbour in Orlando. Though the resort is probably 15 years old, it is still rated in the top 30 in the world. (www.tug2.net)
We just bought at Grandview. We did not do the presentation, as we saw the legions of salespeople, and overheard many lies in their presentations. We had done an exchange, liked the layout, and purchased a resale for about 15% of what some are paying. We purchased with points, as we find great flexibility using them on our vacations.
For those taking vacations, as we do, timeshares offer great value. You only need to understand the system to be able to use it properly.
A word of advise - don’t do the Mayan Palace timeshare presentation. We have turned down $500 cash to go to them, but refuse to sit thru their high pressure tactics.
Hope this helps.
EK
January 4th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Thanks MB. I will also contact the Owner’s Advocate.
I called their Florida office and got hold of a lady by the name Shari Waldrip (Vacation Village Voyages; 1-877-588-8728 / 1-954-660-1603). She send me a confirmation that they have received my Revocation Form and that it will take 15 days to process the cancellation and refund. I called their Las Vegas sales office and they never returned my phone calls.
I checked with my CC bank and the bank confirmed that if I get a confirmation from them I can dispute the deposit charge and then the bank will take over.
I hope to get my refund soon.
January 5th, 2009 at 3:48 am
just wondering who to contact about canceling the contract for grandview.
January 5th, 2009 at 7:54 am
My husband and I attended the same presentation most of you did and decided not to buy. Though we do go to Las Vegas at least once a year for a yearly conference and we only live a few hours drive from there - we thought we were in the perfect position to buy the Grandview Las Vegas timeshare.
So, we’re interested in buying your timeshare. cryptelligencia (atsign) gmail.com
January 6th, 2009 at 8:47 am
I just contacted the cancellation office at the grandview. We lose our deposit; whatever you agreed to put down that is; it was only a small amount for us. I am hoping that they are telling me the truth. i have cancelled all other methods of payment.
you need to ask for the cancellation department - talk to an agent, seemed nice, explained that we are past our 5 day recision period. oh well, lesson learned.
January 7th, 2009 at 2:43 am
Hi-just bought the 1 bedroom deal at grandview.
The first salesman was a great nice person and because the idea is really good I felt for it after the second salesman offered better deals (this one was very pushie and more like the typical salesperson who is not honest)
I do want to cancel my contract now and I just want to make sure I will do it right ( I have 2 days left to cancel).
- Should I just sign and send by fedex that single Revocation Form from the paper work/contract they gave us?
- Also, does anyone have the FAX number from the cancelation office (Florida?).
Any help is welcome. Thank you so much for all the info in this site!
January 8th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Hey JJ,
FAX for eldorado is 425 514 3493
make sure you follow up with a phone call to shari waldrip
877 588 8728
she will tell you that you used the wrong fax, but she’s just bs’ing you.
send an original signed copy postmarked TODAY!!! don’t wait.
send it to the address on your contract in ft lauderdale florida
they will steal your deposit if you don’t do it soon!!!
luckily for us, it was only chump change.
also,
Fax your cancellation to 702 407 7524
call them and make sure they received your cancellation notice.
talk to the notary that you signed with or ask for SUSAn or Karen wald.
January 13th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
We got our full refund today.
Sheri Waldrip is the one you should contact for cancellation. Her fax number is 954-564-4046. I faxed my revocation form to her at this number and confirmed she received it via a phone call. I also requested her to confirm the receipt of the cancellation form via email, which she did. Her phone number is above. Another way to reach her is to call 954-561-5711 and press 0. The call will be directed to a operator. Request the operator to direct the call to Sheri.
I called the Las Vegas sales office many times and left messages for Susan; however she never replied my calls. Finally I received a call from Florida (from a guy named Larry) and he was also trying to force me not to revoke my contract.
I think the key was to act within the 5 day period and follow-up with fax and phone calls.
Thanks to everyone for useful information on this web site.
January 28th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Attended sales pitch and bought timeshare at grandview las vegas. both salesmen and then the woman were very nice and not pushy. we were given 4 weeks and 80,000 points for a two bedroom. sounded like a great idea at the time but now that i am home, well you know. have called and left a message for sheri to call back, will send, by certified return mail, cancellation tomorrow unless i change my mind again. any ideas??
January 28th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Stephanie,
SEND YOUR CANCEL NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
don’t rethink this.
CANCEL CANCEL CANCEL.
GET your letter postmaster stamped and ask them for a duplicate receipt.
send it registered mail.
send it by fax as well.
send it by email.
JUST SEND IT!!!!!!!
January 31st, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Hey everyone, thank you so much for this website. I think it will be a lifesaver. I am another one who fell in the Grandview trap. We bought a 1BDR alternating year timeshare on Thursday 29th. By that evening I had found this site and drafted a rescinding letter. Friday morning, I faxed to the number above and sent out a certified letter to FL. I’m well within the revocation period. Those who canceled in time, did you get your money back? Does anyone have an corp. email I can send it to? I just want to make sure ALL my bases are covered.
February 1st, 2009 at 1:51 am
For those interested, here is a direct copy of the Nevada Code Regarding Timeshare Cancellation:
NRS 119A.410 Right to cancel contract of sale.
1. The purchaser of a time share may cancel, by written notice, the contract of sale until midnight of the fifth calendar day following the date of execution of the contract. The contract of sale must include a statement of this right.
2. The right of cancellation may not be waived. Any attempt by the developer to obtain a waiver results in a contract which is voidable by the purchaser.
3. The notice of cancellation may be delivered personally to the developer or sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the business address of the developer.
4. The developer shall, within 15 days after receipt of the notice of cancellation, return all payments made by the purchaser.
(Added to NRS by 1983, 982; A 1985, 1141; 1987, 894; 2003, 984; 2007, 1549)
February 8th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
I brought a time share in 2006 at Grandview and I have to say although initially it is a lot of money as long as you use it it is really good. November last year I did an exchange to the desert rose resort and for £150 we had a two bedroom appartment for a week it was lovely. Plus this year have exchanged for a villa in Orlanda have two weeks for £300 in a 8 person villa. I also have the extra weeks you just phone up and activate the certificate for those two weeks. You just have to use it!
March 2nd, 2009 at 9:55 pm
eheh we bought a timeshare in las vegas at christmas 2008, they gave us 3 weeks instead of 1. we are trying to rent it, for 2 weeks, and then use the other week for us.
i will let you know how it goes…anyways, we could pay the full amount withing the 45 days, so we dont have mortgage. it was 14k USD..with the rent one day we will get all the money back..even if it took 10 years..but i think i will enjoy to travel the world now..and have discount on plane tickets..i fly every year to italy..i need to save some $$$!
March 9th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Here are several phone numbers that will prove useful during your revocation process:
(954) 563-2444 Phone
(954) 561-5711 Alt
(954) 564-0264 Alt
(954) 564-4046 Fax
(954) 561-8594 Alt Fax
(800) 454-4771 Toll-free
You will need all these numbers as some numbers are busy at times. I ended up talking to Kathy and sent my cancellation via Fax. She said I did not need to send the certified original copy via mail but I am sending it anyway since it says so on the revocation contract. I just made it by the skin of my teeth as my 5 day period was up today!
I did not know you could cancel until I talked to another timeshare place on the strip. I said no thanks I have a timeshare but they said you know you have 5 days to cancel. Well lo and behold in my paperwork is the revocation contract. We will see what transpires next but they indicated to me I should receive my refund in 15 days. I thought it was a good deal until the company they told me to refinance through at 9% turned me down in a matter of seconds. Sorry but the 18% they offer you is way too much to finance. I thought to myself if they lied about this what else are they lying about. That is when I looked at this site and decided to cancel. I thought my 13,990 with 2 extra weeks was a great deal but it turns out it is the typical offer given to people despite the fact this was the 4th offer we received. I wonder who in their right mind takes the first offer. I want to thank those on this website for opening my eyes!
In hindsight the free tickets and gambling money is not worth a full day of my life to these people. I will tell anyone who will listen that anyone who offers free anything is offering a timeshare and to steer way clear of anyone offering this. I would gladly pay full price for a show than go through another one of these meetings!
March 10th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Thank-you all for all of your informative advice. I have been stressing about this decision since I made it. I thought it was a good idea at the time. As we were sitting there deciding, my wife was to the point that after 5 hours being grilled and (although not as much pressure as I thought there was going to be) the 20k didn’t matter she just wanted the hell out of there! We signed up for a 2 bedroom for 1 week plus 4 additional weeks. We had friends down with us who went to the tahiti village tour, so I had been grilling them as to what they were offered for the rest of the trip. I figured I had five business days to decide, since that is what we were told when we were signing the papers (which they did not bring up - I was reading my copy and spotted it - I said outloud ‘oh thats good you get 5 days to cancel if you want’ that’s when the girl doing the paperwork got really snotty and rude about it - then explained it to us. I think its something that you are not supposed to see or ask about!!) I finally decided to look online and see what they are going for resale, and most are close to what we paid, but some are much cheaper. They make everything so confusing, you cannot clearly compare apples to apples. Now here I am, I just faxed in my copies of the revocation form to every fax number I could find on this site before midnight. I still am not sure about what day equals five days after, I think I still have 1 day to go but I thought I had better be safe than sorry! So I am going to phone this Sheri tommorrow and see what she has to say, as well get my copy notorized by my lawyer and sent off. This maybe a little overboard, but there is a lot riding on it! I am also going to send my copy of my fax confirmation with the time and date??
This experience ruined the better part of our vacation, starting on day 1! There were three couples who didn’t know anything about this, all we new is that we could get cheap tickets by going to this short seminar. Well we spent 2-3 hrs trying to figure out how it all worked, the first lady had no clue what she was doing, she offered us all of these tickets. As it turned out that was false. Long story short it consumed a lot of time and caused a lot of unnecesary stress (all to save about $120 - looking back, a bad investment). Now I have to hope that I get my deposit back, and my name of this crap! I guess, it was a learning experience, but I will certainly let everyone I know, know about this and what to look out for etc… It is unfortunate that we have to experience this, and not know about it before hand! I will let you know how this turns out for me.
Thanks again for the posts, it really helped me to decide my timeshare fate!
March 11th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Dman,
You have 5 Calendar days after you signed not 5 Business days! Read post 112 which states the Nevada law. I hope you canceled in time!
March 11th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Yes I did cancel in time, thanks. I started reading the fine print, as well as this website and faxed in my revocation. I just talked to the cancellation dept, talked to susan - very nice, no problems (yet). I also sent origional via ups to main office and vegas office just in case. Susan said that there was no need to send contract doc’s back to her. They have fifteen days to refund money. We will see what happens.
March 13th, 2009 at 6:53 am
My experience was unique to all these i read here. My wife and I just moved to the vegas area. We still had our SD drivers liscense. We told the guy who walked up to us at the Excalibur that we were not out of state, he didnt mind. He said just tell them you are on vacation. We picked our tickets and planned to listen to the presentation and declice for the goodies.
We took the shuttle (DONT USE IT IF YOU DONT HAVE TO). All of us were filed into a room with chairs (reminded me of DMV). A loud, overweight, roucus man made his enterence. (my wife and I whispered please dont let him be our agent). He called our names and we moved into a room with 100+ 4 person round tables, music playing louder than normal ambiance music. “Big Jim” immediatly started his shpeal with a blue colored booklet. In 30 minutes, it was full of numbers, and illegible. He was filling our head with information that “sounded too good to be true”. My wife thought it all made sense, but I never let up my guard. Also, a side note, I noticed that the salespeople there use emotional back stories to persuade. Get this, “Big Jim” was all the following and dared us to ask anyone else there to disprove:
1)a Vietnam Vet
2)A POW-for 2 years
3)A Silver Star recipient
–I guess my military haircut keyed him in. I didnt buy it. I told him after 5 hours and him mentioning it again and again, “I hope someone would never use that horrible story as a ploy to gain trust…” He went white as a ghost. I mean other salepeople would see us passing them and say stuff like;” Hey POW, Silver Star…” to us as to back it up.
Back to the cherry on top:
He offered us FOUR 2 bdrm’s, yes FOUR. That was 4 deeds to 4 seperate doors from the main hallway…equalled 8 single units…
For the price of 12000…
He told us he runs a side business and he would take over the job of finding renters for them. He would wheel and deal, and send us checks (cashier checks that we “should not claim as income for taxes”. He promised us we could have it all paid off in 45 days…He said he has been making 100’s of thousands doing this. I kept asking him, “then why are you here doing this on a Sunday morning and not enjoying the income…?” He said “Because I have a higher calling as a Christian to share this with others…” Ok, SUNDAY MORNING, CHRISTIAN, why arnt you at church then?! Oh, bad play there Jim. He offered to pay the 10% down, all we needed was the 283 for NV tax and paperwork. My wife was sold, I was close to caving. I stood my ground and didnt piss off my wife while remaining polite and interested…By the end of the 5 hours, I was wiped out mentally. We told Jim we would come back, he knew we were not.
He failed to mention the point system with RCI, said FULL airfare/hotel/rental car was ours for a week ANWHERE for 183 dollars. He would cover up the point numbers in the RCI Book he showed us.
I almost wished we had gotten someone less animated, less experienced. Someone like other folks were done dealing with in 2 hrs.
Ugh, mind you the units are nice and spacious, and I am doing research on the resale market.
However, in all the dealings on this site, did I miss out on a deal with the 8 units, handing them over to this guy -they stay in my name- for the profit? Insight would be appreciated…
March 13th, 2009 at 7:41 am
hey p89115,
just CANCEL.
CANCEL CANCEL CANCEL!
FAX in your CANCEL.
CANCEL CANCEL CANCEL!!!!!
NOW!!!!
DO IT !!!!
CANCELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
March 13th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
If it was truly 4 Deeds I think that was a smokin deal….it is very unlikely, if he failed to mention the rci system, i think he was pulling your chain. I was offered 1 deed for 1 week for a two bedroom plus 4 additional weeks I believe in a 1 bedroom (could have been 2) all for a low today only price of 19,990. It was a greuling experience, and I fell for it. But got out in the nic of time!!….too much money, plus the exchange from usd to cad is a killer right now. If you do the math on 20,000 a week times 52 (not counting the fact that holidays are more) that is per unit and there are how many units? per building, some people pay more some pay less. That is a crazy amount of money that someone is making!! That is not including the 600 per year for maintainance, my fee was 641/year for a 1601 sq. ft. 2bedroom for 1 week a year, that is (if everyone paid the same amount) for that unit $33,332 per year, just for maintainance!…. no wonder they can afford new furniture every 3-5yrs. I was excited about the new furniture part. Every 5 years they would have 166,660 minus a percentage for upkeep. I don’t want a timeshare anymore I want to buy in to a building!!!
March 15th, 2009 at 7:15 am
You know, time share isn’t for everyone. If you don’t like traveling much, its not for you.. This type of vacationing was meant for people who want to invest their money in vacations for a LIFETIME for themselves and their family. This is deeded property that you can pass on to your children and grandchildren, or whomever you want. When you calculate the cost of taking two weeks of vacations every year, you acutually do end up spending more money renting your vacations with a hotel each time you go anywhere over time. Time share make dream vacations a reality. Some people try to save up for years and years to go to Europe, Hawaii, Alaska or where ever else. YOu can literally put that money into your time share and start traveling wherever you want and with whomever you want!!!! THe key is WHERE YOU OWN. THis will determine your value for value excahnge. So please educate yourselves before bashing the idea. My family has owned for the last 10 years. We are all still traveling on that initial investment. Now I have children. They will also be using it. SO IT IS AWSOME TO HAVE!!!! So please people, stop advising people to cancel. You might be the one that is helping to crush that family’s opportunity to see the world. The best way to use it is to exchange to all the places you want to go. If that’s something you want to do, Time Share is the best way to do it!
March 26th, 2009 at 8:51 am
like so many of you, my wife and I were suckered too. not too much to say but if these are such great deals, then why is it an on the spot decision? if it is a good decision then you can go check the internet on details on the property, on RCI, and on Eldorado Resorts. That is the problem. and i know there is probably good things about timesharing, and people who know about it feel good about their decisions, BUT for us who were basically bullied, and you are not giving the same deal as the person next to you is WRONG!!!!
I purchased two - one bedroom units at the Grandview for $15,990(probably good price) with the $640 yearly fee with the $89 rci yearly membership. After I left signing the papers, I had a sick feeling to my gut and couldn’t sleep at night for the rest of my vacation (nice vacation) only to come home and read other horror stories.
So at Midnight on my first night home I started getting Revocation forms ready to go.
That morning I fedex to both sites(Florida and Vegas), faxed non-stop for two hours, and scanned and emailed the revocation to all sites.
Like others I talked to Susan at the Grandview, she did receive my fax with the revocation forms and said it will be cancelled with all payments returned within 15 days. Once that is done, I am cancelling my CC, so no other payments can be made on it. Yes, I got in on the five day out (THANK GOD!!) maybe I can start sleeping at night again once credit is returned.
I should have stuck to my guns when I walked in there, I guess I was takin’ in like so many others.
But, if you can afford what you are getting into and travel alot, then go for it, but in today’s economy, you would have a hard time reselling your timeshare. Other people I have talked to say go with the points system instead of the weeks, but all I know, is that I never want to go through that experience again.
March 27th, 2009 at 8:51 am
You are in for a lot of sleepless nights then Knotsmart. They wait the full 15 days if not longer to give you the refund. Then you get a call from the person who sold you the property in the first place asking why you canceled. I sent mine in on the 9th and am still waiting for my refund to arrive. The good news is they say it is on the way :-p. I would be leary about FedEx since it says on the forms to send certified mail. I always make sure to follow the instructions to the letter and there could be issues with FedEx instead of certified mail. I know what you mean about it ruining your vacation…next time I am in Vegas I will know better and I am telling anyone and everyone I know to steer clear of anyone offering free tickets. They got us by actually being in the hotel and looking like they worked for the hotel. They must have paid the hotels a lot of money to be there since anyone who is bothered by these people will likely not stay in that hotel again.
March 27th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Phil, you are right about the hotels, I won’t stay at the Excalibur again for that reason. Everytime my wife and I were together they jumped on us big time. But if we were alone, they left us alone. The only reason I sent it fedex, is that I live in a rural area, and certified mail would not reach them the next day, fedex was the only way to get it there the next day, but I have the signatures from whom signed them. But I was told by Susan at the cancellation department at the Grandview that she received it in time and the cancellation process will begin. MAN I HOPE.
Next time I’m going to the Orleans, nice place, and NO HOUNDS!!!!
I would think that the way the economy is and the slumping visitors at Vegas they would want you to come to the city, but it makes you want to stay away because of those experiences.
But the only person I have to blame is me, because I should have said was NO!!
March 31st, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Boy I am sorry to hear that SO many people have gotten “sucked” into buying something they couldnt use or really need… I (we) on the other hand Had a very nice time during our nearly 3 hour time with the folks from The Grandview in Las Vegas… Which I’d like to reput is NOT part of RCI… grandview is a separate company as is Pizza hut is from mc Donalds. We bought a 2 bedroom with 4 extra weeks a year in addition to our standard 1 week each year… we pushed back until we got what we wanted…like a used car center. BUT, we got what we wanted… a top notch rental trading property!! That rents for over a $1000 a week in most cases. Good luck to all who didnt need or want a time share…
~ Rob
April 5th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
oh my! too bad i found this site after i got bought it (i’m just a natural born sucker - especially with the gymnast with the accent telling stories of family time, value and all that other mush). I’m already past my cancellation period so I’ll make do … I figure I have to at least give it a try before I cancel. I love to travel so when i did the math while I was there, I figured I would start to break even and save money by the 7th year of owning my timeshare. And just for kicks because I’m a numbers cruncher, I put it on excel sheet just now and by year 20 I would have saved more than $10,000 (I’m in my 20’s so this is totally do-able)! I love to travel and get 4 weeks of vacation with my job so I figured I could sell my 5th week and I will get good use out of this thing (fingers crossed - not too sure after I’m reading all these horror stories!). Few things I have questions on - if anyone can help clue me in since I’m new to all this …
(1) My sales rep totally sold me when he said we get discounts on airfare, car rentals and activities … anyone know if this is true???
(2) Selling your weeks - is it really that hard??
(3) RCI.com - why can’t I bank my weeks on their website? Am I totally missing something? I thought I could bank & book trips on the rci site, but I’m not able to??
Thanks in advance …
Good luck to everyone … I’m still hopeful that this will work … but I haven’t booked a vacation just yet, so I’ll post after I actually put my timeshare to use!! haha
April 8th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Rob,I bought the same package the one you got can you tell me how many points you got and how much you paid for. I have week 26 two bedroom with four extra weeks and 98,000
points Ipaid 22,990, do you think it’s agood deal
April 9th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Clarification for post #74. My relative just found out that he was misled to believe that his timeshare at Grandview was for annual usage, as the Sales person kept emphasizing that he could come every year for a One-bed room condo for only $5000. In fact, it is only for triennial usage. he is told now (while trying to make reservation via RCI) that for the 2nd and 3rd year, he has to pay $164 for the usage, then the 4th year free (once every 3 years). The Sales person was very tricky. Unfortunately my relative didn’t pay enough attention to the contract before signing it.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
my brother wants to buy time share at lasvegas but he is looking one bedroom with two free weeks with 50,000 rci points.how much i can get for?
April 11th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
My husband and I bought a two bedroom suite with 4 extra weeks at the grandview for like $15,000…for week 2…I had a sick feeling after leaving…But felt like my husband really wanted it so I agreed…This was on April 8th, 2009…Got home last night and started researching right away and I freaked out and called my credit card to stop payment on the $1,000 deposit and the bank wanted to cancel my card altogether and issue another one to be safe…So I did…But we put the remainder of the doposit on our debit and it has already been posted…so needless to say, I’m hoping we get it refunded and I’m hoping my bank cancelling my credit card altogether is not going to mess anything up…..We faxed revocation letter to Las Vegas this morning from fed ex and I followed up with 2 phone calls to confirm they recieved it….Then We sent a revocation via certified mail to both las vegas and Ft. lauderdale early this morning since our 5 days will be up monday and it is Saturday and mail doesn’t run tomorrow…I called Ft. Lauderdale and she confirmed that as long as it’s postmarked by the 5th day that we will be fine….I know I already had faxed las vegas and they had confirmed they recieved it, I just don’t feel like I can trust them…I’m still worried…I couldn’t sleep at all last night and don’t think I’ll feel any better until we get our other $996.60 refunded and we cancel that card as well…I don’t think I’ll ever go on a timeshare presentation again!!! Besides the guy with the gold ring on his pinky finger with the slicked back hair really creeped me out…EWWE!
April 11th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
KT,I bought the same package but week 26 for 24,990 last week. how come i paid 24990 and you paid 15,000.
April 12th, 2009 at 8:21 am
joe, I’m guessing because you bought week 26 and I bought week 2…Week 2 probably sucks compared to week 26…being that mine is in January and yours would be june or july…I’m guessing less people are vacationing in January…but we were thinking more along the lines of trading because of the “high demand” of las vegas and was told we needed to only look at it as deed purposes because we could use it as high trade value since it is gold crown or whatever…BLAH! They said we could always trade it for a different week and pay the $139.00 or something…It was alot to take in at one time…all these numbers being thrown at us along with lies that the extra weeks would be so easy to get whatever we wanted to the same value as the gold crown…who knows…I just know that I’d rather buy on the resale market and save a ton of money…I’m hoping my revocation goes through just fine…I’m still freaked out…that’s the reason why I’m still researching today…I’m calling vegas and ft. lauderdale again tomorrow since tomorrow is my 5th day…I want to find out about sending the breifcase thing back or whatever….I don’t want to be charged for that…and I want to speak to the cancellation lady myself since they said she’s not in on the weekends…I can’t wait for this to be done and behind me! One good thing is I’ve learned a lot about timeshare… I will not feel better until I get my letter saying it was revoked and my refund….I’m praying everything goes fine with it!!!
April 17th, 2009 at 3:23 am
We just got back from 10 days in Vegas and had a Grandview experience ourselves.
Being a few days in to our ‘holiday’ (we’re British) we decided we really should see some shows and, staying at the Luxor, were particularly interested in seeing the much-hyped Criss Angel show. When we were on our way to the Luxor box office we were grabbed by a lady asking if we were interested in show tickets and we said yes, initially believing this to be an official Luxor box office clerk (they want to sell tickets to their own shows after all, right?). She also asked if we were both over 25 and we said yes (I am 30, the girlfriend is 23 and this was proven by our ID but ignored).
The very friendly rep on the desk advised us to see 2 shows at the Luxor - Fantasy and Criss Angel and that he could get us both tickets to the 7pm showing of Criss Angel the following night and the 10.30pm showing of Fantasy the night after for $50 (around $150 off the standard ticket price). We jumped at the chance, gave details and knew this would be a great deal, regardless of catches. He then also said he would give us a free lunch tomorrow because they needed feedback on a new hotel which we would have a brief tour of, all we needed to do was turn up at 1.45pm tomorrow, we’d be given a tour of the hotel, asked if we were interested in investing, we just had to say no and we’d get our show tickets. We also had to tell them we’d been living together for 2 years (we’d actually been living together for about 3 months and he knew this but said we had to tell a white lie). He categiorically stated that we would be back at the Luxor before 5pm.
After leaving the desk we knew it was going to be a timeshare presentation but that 2-3 hours would be worth it (we would have spent an hour over lunch anyway plus $30 on a buffet so to us this was 2hrs lost for nearly $200 in benefits). We then booked tables for dinner and sorted out our plans for the next few days based on the facts we were given.
The next day we turn up at 1.45pm as requested, signed a form that had the 2-3hrs in bold lettering and stating ‘no refunds’ and sat around for half an hour with other people. These other people included another young couple who had also been given the impression they were touring a new hotel and a family (the kids were bored before we even got on the coach). It was gone 2.30pm by the time we got to the sales centre and our rep took one look at us and knew we were there purely for the benefits. He was perfectly polite and friendly, and at one point even said ‘I won’t waste your time, if this isn’t for you, just let me know’. The opening presentation was from a very charismatic lady who claimed to be ex-military. The whole emphasis of the presentation was on vacations being about spending quality time with your family. The video, even by the standard gut-wrenching American sales standards we see in the UK, was so over the top. Elderly people breaking down in tears at how wonderful vacations are etc… This took about an hour.
At that point, we expected to be taken to the site and given a tour but no, we were given about an hour of one-on-one pitch. Our rep told us about the new ‘London’ casino that was being built next door and would be complete by 2011 (this is complete crap as we discovered through a simple google search - 2 London themed casinos have been rejected in the last 10 years and there are none planned).
We were then taken on a tour, lasting about another hour before we got back to the sales centre. The place seemed very desolate but the apartments incredibly nice. There was no denying the location was miles from the strip and the bus was only twice a day. We were far more interested in the abundance of wild rosemary (which is apparently a weed in Nevada but to us Brits it’s an expensive herb!). By now our patience was going but we were told we’d go back to the sales centre, be told about prices and that would be it.
On returning, we sat down again and were then given well over an hour of repetitive sales speak. Our rep went into his folder to tell us about things over and over again. Everytime we thought it was over, he found another excuse to go back to his folder. The price came out ($24,995) and we said it was too much. He then went to get his ‘manager’ who took a straightforward approach and dropped it down to $11,995. He then took it down to $9,995 and only stopped when we said that our priorities had to be a house in the UK, weddings, babies etc…
We were then shown through to the next room where we had an even more straightforward lady who surveyed us on the sales tactics of the previous reps “because we don’t want people being too pushy or agressive”. She also told us that because we’d be getting on a coach with others, she wanted to know what the lowest offer we’d had was, and she wrote down if they’d gone as low as $4,995 and if that would have changed our minds. I told her it was an offer that was, on the face of it, impossible to refuse, but that even if they offered it to us for free, we were not willing to make any such committment. She then showed us through to the next room.
Some on here have described the ‘reject room’ as being like the DMV, in the UK, it would be best likened to a Doctor’s waiting room. There were at least 20 people in there being seen to at a rate of about 1 every 10 minutes with virtually no staff and one security guard. At this stage, people were at breaking point. It now being 5.30pm, we realised there was no way we were going to get back for a 7pm show, let alone 5pm. Other groups were overheard telling the staff about mis-selling over the show tickets (it now came to light that we were not booked in for anything at all, we just had vouchers - a far bigger problems for other couples who were heading home the following morning). When we were finally seen (there was no sense of urgency at all) we were told that we would never have got to Criss Angel at 7pm because the vouchers had to be redeemed by 5pm at the box office. We hastily re-arranged the next two nights, shifting dinners and plans and got it sorted. It also came to light at this stage that Grandview was nothing to do with the Luxor or the MGM Mirage Group.
We thought we had just been unlucky in terms of the now over 5hrs of time we’d spent but back on the bus were many of the same people, all looking thoroughly suicidal with no energy left at all. The kids had gone beyond boredom and were, quite rightly, in full-on whinge and terrorise mode. Even then, we still waited 15 minutes for the coach to leave. Bear in mind that we were miles from the main part of the strip - stranded.
We made it back to the Luxor at 7pm (the Grandview staff had all vanished, presumably to hospital to get treatment from the black eyes dished out by previous returning coaches), I went ot the box office and finally got back to my room at 7.15pm - FIVE AND A HALF HOURS after it started. The others standing in line at the box office with Grandview vouchers all gave each other a knowing look when handing over the vouchers. We got the back row for Criss Angel but good tickets for Fantasy.
Angel was very underwhelming (go see David Copperfield for magic, go see any other Cirque show for cirque stuff) and Fantasy was good.
For the next few days we desparately wanted to be harassed again (an excuse to launch into a tirade of abuse) but we weren’t, perhaps we had that look about us!
Was it worth it? No. I’d rather have paid the money for the show tickets and sat watching TV all afternoon. Had we been back by 5pm as promised and got the seats we were promised, it would have been ok, but this was complete mis-selling and unacceptable.
Don’t forget that they pitch this to you on virtue of spending quality family time on vacation. They also, with retrospect, make fallacious comparisons between the cost of the timeshare vs the cost of your own hotel bills. Their pitch that it will save you money is based on a one week timeshare vs 3-4 weeks of hotel bills. Complete crap.
Quite why MGM Mirage allow this to take place in their hotels is beyond belief. It puts their otherwise good hotels in a very bad light as people are led to believe the timeshare is connected to the hotel, which it is not. The number of Luxor reviews with negative comments about timeshare salesmen is single-handedly damaging the hotel’s reputation.
Finally, I see there are some on here who come out with almost the exact line on ‘great for those who travel’ as given in the presentation - give me a break. Australians and New Zealanders travel the world more than anyone, and I have never met an Aussie or a Kiwi with a timeshare. Ever.
April 27th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Hey there,
My better half and I have never been to any sort of timeshare thing and had only heard very little about them in my short time on this planet.
The whole experience was masterful from the inception. We were staying at the Excalibur and had just finished check in, looking through the very crowded lobby for little signs that pointed to the tower numbers. A very cleanly cut person in a very nice suit and official looking nametag saw us and our current lost predicament, asked us where we were looking for. We stated “Tower II” and he said, “This direction, oh here, let me show you.” and shuffled us toward their desk. This was exceptionally brilliant, not missing a beat, the man behind the desk, equally in a nice suit began his spiel about if we were looking to see a show, etc. Of course, we were planning on it due to our interest in being there and stated there were five of us. We were given the option of getting these five tickets for a small fee. A huge felt tipped pen, writing upside down, and a lot of blurry numbers showed us the bargain we would be getting for the only catch of getting a walkthrough of a new casino built by MGM and Disney. Sure, why not. A whole point of going to vegas is seeing the amazing hotels, right? He advised it will be a two hour walk through of the hotel, breakfast and lunch will be provided and it is only about two blocks away. (Basically saying that the hotel is just beyond Mandalay Bay).
So I accepted this and he asks me to pay 90$ for five tickets. This is of course a deal, even with the “2 hour” walk through we would have to take. So I pull out my card and everything gets funny. He says they only take cash. I am about to giggle at this point, but I’m going to lose money anyway in gambling. I go to a nearby ATM, give him the money, and chalk it up to a loss if it doesn’t pan out. We don’t have anything to prove we were getting the tickets other than some weird little paper. I agree to go to the absolute earliest showing they have, 8:30 AM the next day so that I still will have a large amount of time to do whatever with my friends.
Luckily my better half is just as skeptical of things as I am and very supportive of whatever I choose to do so we decide we will actually show up the next day as we said we would. Especially if it means getting some free tickets for our friends. However we agree we will not buy anything. If it is something overly aggressive or weird, we will just walk back since we both could use the excersize.
The next morning, we stagger down to the meeting area and fill out a small bit of paper, reading it very carefully for anything that might be dangerous for our wellbeing but finding nothing of the sort. It just requests our personal information and promises it will not be sold. We are given lovely little name tags and told to wait for the bus.
It comes rather quickly and we head into it, again making the promise to each other that we will not buy anything if we are asked. We still fully think we are going to look at a new hotel, but with some sort of catch (Maybe becoming an investor, or something? Even though I doubted Disney or MGM would need that sort of thing from average joe me.)
The bus drive takes us straight down Las Vegas Blvd, or whatever that major strip street is for approximate ten or fifteen minutes. We both are very aware that we may be calling a taxi to get out if needed at this point. We end up pulling into a brand new strip mall with very little in it. Most of the buildings are empty, but it is a nice enough looking mall. We end up being directed into a building with a few seats as the salesmen are sent out one by one to find us.
We were both really impressed with ours, he was nice, friendly, and very good at what he does. He also answered every question we had, which were pretty sparse in our inexperience in this section. Neither of us have any complaints about him at all. He was very funny, very calm, and non-threatening.
The food was a few doughnuts and such, which neither of us were really interested in. We wanted to find out what we were there for. The room we were moved in, just as described, was a series of very close together round tables with four seats to each one. Oddly, one seat at each table had a balloon on it. I figured this was for kids, or something.
He did the whole blue-booklet explaination writing upside-down thing which, before my Vegas trip I had never seen and now I had seen it two days in a row. There was a lot of focus on money and our particular interests for travel. Neither of us knowing a thing about timeshares let him continue talking, soaking in as much as we could. He advised us of the changing location, the new hotels being built, the proximity to existing hotels (M and South Pointe) and new expansion happening around the area as far as it being a soon-to-be part of the strip that will force the property value up. We were taken to the location and, what we were shown, was very nice. The rooms were absolutely lovely, although I could easily hear sounds from upstairs. (To be expected in hotels and timeshares, I guess.) The possibilities of what I could do with this sort of thing were very interesting to me and even though I had come in with thoughts of not wanting to buy anything, was getting very persuaded to do so on my own.
I did notice that every empty lot nearby, however, had for sale signs on them. My brain began telling me to put on the brakes fast. The location was still easily within distance of the strip which I liked, but the fact that a possible hole in the sales spiel made me a bit more cautious. We went back and he very patiently gave us a few moments to talk after iterating his upside-down writing display of money and such and my better half and I were both exceptionally interested in something we had no interest or no inkling of walking in. However, we decided that we were going to take it slow. We decided we would not buy anything today, we would put together our finanical plan over the next month or two and then plan on obtaining something like this if it fit into our life plans. Based on what we heard, we were pretty sure this property would likely not be available when we made our decision, but perhaps the company would have other things we could look at.
So, our sales representitive came back and showed us the “everyday price” which, in my mind based on location and such sounded reasonable and easily feasable based on my financial situtation at the time. Then we were shown the “Today price” that was several thousand dollars lower with the additional incentive of having less money down. I frankly and politely told him I was not interested in the today price, even with the value, in that I am interested in looking at my financials and such to plan out this sort of venture as well as doing my own research. He was receptive but attempted to tantalize me with another sales person who was going to show me a better deal.
This new deal was able to cut the amount in half which seemed generous, but being something that was just pulled out of a “book of things that were just placed on the market by people who had sold or upgraded their timeshares, and that we would only be paying the balance left from what they left” I decided it was also not something I should look at and that I should plan on the “Everyday price.”
I advised of this and the second salesman left. I advised again of the generosity but the interest in protecting my money with responsible shopping and research and again, he was receptive but advised me that if I did not buy from him today, I would not be able to again for six months. At this point my brain started yelling at me. The fact that a company attempting to sell real estate did not have brokers or salesman you could call at any time to do business just seemed very bizarre, especially since the only way to get in to buy one was to go through this sales pitch once every six months. I explained to our salesman that we were not going to spend any amount of money today and he respectfully took us to the next room, asking how close we were to making him a sale. Truthfully, we told him that if we had known more about timeshares and what we were getting into, we may have been very interested if everything he was telling us was true. (Taking the word only of the person who is trying to sell to you is never something I do.) He taught us a ton about timeshares and their particular system of weeks and all and we were overly happy with the experience.
The next part, however, was what got under my skin. After our nice sales rep left us, we had a new one who asked us about numbers that we were offered and how our sales representitive treated us. We advised how much we liked him and then he started talking… and talking… and talking… and still more talking. He did not care about us or our situation, he just kept throwing out numbers and regurgitating things that our sales represensitive had advised us of much more eloquently. This guy was just obnoxious. I attempted to explain, politely, that I was not going to buy anything today without looking into it, to which he advised me of the 5 days to cancel with no obligation or strings at all. I explained twice more before he finally took us to a final room, where we sat a good five minutes before a very nice, quiet and to the point lady finalized the vouchers and the experience, asking us through a form of our experience again. We boarded the bus and realized the whole thing had taken us four hours.
Again, this was a good learning experience. Learning what I know now, I do not believe I would ever do anything like this again, even for free items. I would much rather just spend the money and utilize my time for other things.
In conclusion, this was a decent experience. We were both happy we did it. We got our five tickets and turned them into the box office early enough to get good seats for our 8:30 PM show, and learned a lot.
Thanks for reading, be careful and keep a level head.
J in AZ.
April 27th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
please help me.
I bought mine two weeks ago and 5 days time period is over what should i do??
April 29th, 2009 at 6:50 am
I am currently using Owner’s Advocate right now to help me get my money back. I came across this posting the other day and looked into them. They are very helpful and the only way I found in trying getting a refund. It’s essential that those who feel they got scammed to use them ’cause they need more testimonials about the Grandview at Las Vegas. It helps those who want to get their money back!! ** Please do not try to resell your timeshare on those resale websites!!! They don’t work either!!**
April 29th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
RM, I know you hired owner’s advocate back in jan 09.what’s your case status right now?are they too expensive? please advice.
Thanks
April 30th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Comments on this post have been continued on our forum @ RCI VIP Timeshare Help Forum
April 30th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Nimco, they are not expensive i have called them today they charge $1000 and your contract will be terminated if not you will get 100% money back. I don’t know if they have ressolved anybody’s case yet.
May 1st, 2009 at 7:11 am
I feel its better than trying to resell this on the market… Trust me, I’ve tried to resell (on one of those popular timeshare websites)but when I heard doing that isn’t good either, I pulled out right away and got my money back. I think Owner’s Advocate is a lonng process, don’t think you’re going to get your money right away ’cause you won’t BUT at least I know there is a company willing to help with my case. TOA really needs more testimonials… having ALOT of testimonials for the Grandview WILL make it ALOT easier for them to have a case. So if it takes a year for my contract to end and get my money back so be it… I’ll wait for whatever it takes.
May 1st, 2009 at 7:19 am
My case is still pending but TOA definitely gives me updates about it so I am at least in the loop about what is going on… they are great! Trust me, I was scared too to use them but they were very concerned about why these people have lied to us and they want justice done.
So go ahead and give them a call, at least. Talk to them about your case, sit on it, talk to them again and really ask them alot of questions… they DON’T pressure you to use them… but they are there to help you when you do.
May 4th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I posted my initial comment on December 3, 2008 regarding The Owner’s Advocate. Just to reassure those who are working with them, we did get our contract cancelled and 100% refunded from the Grandview. It took us about 6-8 weeks but that was last June. TOA was great to work with too! I actually spoke with them several times before I gave them any personal information or committed to them. They never pressured me - they just answered my questions. Good luck to all of you - the Grandview needs to know that they cannot use deceptive tactics to get people to buy!!
May 7th, 2009 at 5:43 am
WOW MB! That was fast… My case has been pending for longer than that but you know, at least someone has gotten their contract cancelled and money refunded using TOA.
May 14th, 2009 at 9:03 am
I love to read about how people get so upset when they succumb to a salesman’s pitch. They actually blame the salesman, and not themselves for signing on the dotted line. What’s unfair about their business practice? Do you seriously believe that you aren’t guilty of an ethical breach if you go to their presentation for free tickets just for the free tickets with no interest whatsoever in purchasing a timeshare? What does it say about a person who will take things for free without any regard to the offering attached to those free items? You went there to get something for free, and then get upset when the salesman does his job and sells you a timeshare? Do you see where a trhinking person would get confused about your being so angry?
This is classic entitlement theory. “Big business owes me something, and heaven help them if they end up making some money off me.” You gave them permission to pitch you. Where you failed was that you walked into a sales meeting with no plan - which a potential customer should never do. You and your husband/partner/whatever should have agreed beforehand that you were not in any way shape or form going to cave in, and that after the two hour presentation, you would both agree, in unison, to leave the premises.
I hate that you bought something that you didn’t want, but bear in mind that this is the salesperson’s job. He isn’t a fiduciary for you - that’s what financial planers are for. He isn’t there to counsel you on your financial condition. You showed up there to get free stuff, and by doing so, you agreed to hear a sales pitch. You knew what was coming. By showing up, you essentially say to him, “Hello, Mr. Salesperson, I am a potential customer. Please sell me something.” Do you see what I’m talking about? If you weren’t in the financial condition to purchase a timeshare, you had zero business being there - even if free stuff was being offered.
I don’t sell anything. I get in the middle of the customer and the seller in my business, to help the buyer get the best price possible for his/her dollar. I see people about to make mistakes all the time on these so-called “relationship buys”, with things like construction equipment, street and highway repair, building renovation and construction , etc. where, through personality and guile, the seller somehow convinces the buyer that he actually has the buyer’s best interests at heart, and so the buyer should only be speaking to him. This is similar to what happened to you. The timeshare salesperson’s environment is designed to be chaotic to throw off your thinking process. He wants to make you wait, so that you are impatient to leave. He wants to crunch numbers 36 different ways to impress his knowledge of financial matters upon you, so that he appears the expert. You simply fell for it. These guys rely on the “No, you can’t think about it - this offer is only good today.” Ask why the offer is only good for that day. Ask if the people who come in tomorrow are going to get a deal not as good as yours, and if the deal you are being offered isn’t as good as the deal was yesterday. Ask why there is no consistency in the deals being made. These kinds of questions throw monkey wrenches in the canned pitch of a salesperson, and can help to slow things down in an environment like that, which is what you need. You need breathing room, and attacking back with questions like these can give you that breathing room. You should also be very wary of anyone who won’t honor a deal a week or two from the time they offer it, and demands that you sign on the dotted line “right here, right now”.
Best of luck next time, but know this - that a salesperson always has a plan. Always. A customer who walks into a sales meeting without a plan is the same as a general who fields his army into unknown terrain in the backyard of his enemy. He was doomed to failure before he ever woke up that morning.
May 14th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Boogra, whatever you wrote I 100% agree with that.Thanks for making me understand.
May 25th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
If you cancel do you get your closing costs back?
May 27th, 2009 at 7:15 am
Boogra - you’re totally correct except that if you read many of the tales above, you’ll see that a large number of people were not told this was a timeshare presentation to begin with, were fooled into thinking this was organised by the hotel they were staying in and were made to believe they had tickets etc… secured for specific performances.
To many people, this is not an issue of timeshare sales tactics, this is an issue of misrepresentation and downright lying. Had, in my case, we been away for the 2-3hrs as we signed for and had been given the tickets we had been promised by the salesman in the Luxor, we would not have had any complaints.
Please re-read my account above and please tell me all the areas we made mistakes given the information we had at the time! It’s not the sale I have an issue with, it’s the dishonest tactics employed.
May 31st, 2009 at 4:03 pm
My husband and I just got back from Vegas. We had never attended a timeshare presentation before. But decide to try it so we could get tickets to a show. That is the last time I would do that. Time is money, right? Well after wasting my 3.5 hours with those clowns, I would have just paid the full price for the ticket. But we did have fun, we really ticked off our sales lady, she was young and was dressed for a nightclub. She had only been living in the area for 2 years, she was from Israel. But she had it down pat, at least if you have someone to push over. It took 3 hours to do the drive over, the presentation, the walk through and then the final room for re-presenting. We still did not have a number to go with yet. Finally my husband asked to see the manager. And a few short minutes later we were on our way down to do a survey and then get our vouchers and on the bus. Our sales lady was rude and pushy. But she will make a good story for now on. What a joke this place was.
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Hi. My husband and I purchased at the Grandview back in February. We thought everything was good with it until now. We’re buying a house and looking to cut extra cost. I was researching on how to sell the timeshare and came across this site. WOW! I can’t believe how bad this is! It’s been a few months, is it still possible to get the money back? Does this Advocate place charge up front or once it’s settled. We’re just a little worried about paying more money to another place we don’t know. Bad enough getting scammed once. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
June 6th, 2009 at 10:19 am
jw - the Owner’s Advocate charges $999 up front but nothing else until the case is settled. We used them last June and they got us out of our contract and all of our money back. We were skeptical at first just like you but am SO thankful we went ahead and used them. I have posted several other things earlier that details our situation - sounds very similar to yours. Good luck. Let me know if you have any other questions.
June 11th, 2009 at 11:05 am
We are using our timeshare for a week starting 06/12/2009. We enjoyed it very much last year and will this year as well. The sales people were VERY pushy but it was already something we wanted to do. The problem we’re having now is people calling us to sales our timeshare. They call EVERYDAY without fail! On the positive end, we really enjoy having our timeshare and look forward to using it for a long time!
June 14th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Gareth, you said that after you left the desk, you knew you would be going to a timeshare presentation. So come on now, don’t sell me the babe in the wood routine here. You knew where this was going. You get upset about the company’s dishonest practices, yet you admit that you lied in order to qualify for the presentation.
Seems to me that there are a lot of people here who are regretful that they don’t have the ability to say no. With the entitlement mentality most of the world is infected with these days, it doesn’t surprise me that free stuff can make people do almost anything. I’m glad I don’t live my life that way.
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Purchased at the Grandview also and was told that first year’s maintenance fees were included in the purchase price. Within a few weeks I called the contact phone number and advised them of new mailing address due to moving. Few months later, I called again because I was not receiving the magazine. Found out address was never changed. Gave them the info again. Few months later I received a statement from a collections agency in FL that deals in timeshares only stating my account for unpaid maintenance fees PLUS their tacked on fees and interest. I have written multiple times to Eldorado/Grandview and collection agency and BBB in South Fl. No help from anyone. I am now getting everything together to hand off to an attorney. Anyone else told same thing about maintenance fees being included in purchase price? Can’t find anything in all the paperwork that informed me that maintenance fees would be due in year purchased. Also it seems from various sites that maintenance fees seem to vary from person to person. I understand that it will vary based on what was purchased, for me an every other year time share, 1 unit but the fees seem to be all over the place. Are these not set by the association and should be the same amount for everyone that purchased like kind timeshare?
June 26th, 2009 at 6:30 am
Boogra - the point is that we didn’t think that until we LEFT the desk, by which time we’d handed money over.
This is what I said: “When we were on our way to the Luxor box office we were grabbed by a lady asking if we were interested in show tickets and we said yes, initially believing this to be an official Luxor box office clerk (they want to sell tickets to their own shows after all, right?). She also asked if we were both over 25 and we said yes (I am 30, the girlfriend is 23 and this was proven by our ID but ignored).
The very friendly rep on the desk advised us to see 2 shows at the Luxor - Fantasy and Criss Angel and that he could get us both tickets to the 7pm showing of Criss Angel the following night and the 10.30pm showing of Fantasy the night after for $50 (around $150 off the standard ticket price). We jumped at the chance, gave details and knew this would be a great deal, regardless of catches. He then also said he would give us a free lunch tomorrow because they needed feedback on a new hotel which we would have a brief tour of, all we needed to do was turn up at 1.45pm tomorrow, we’d be given a tour of the hotel, asked if we were interested in investing, we just had to say no and we’d get our show tickets. We also had to tell them we’d been living together for 2 years (we’d actually been living together for about 3 months and he knew this but said we had to tell a white lie). He categiorically stated that we would be back at the Luxor before 5pm.
After leaving the desk we knew it was going to be a timeshare presentation but that 2-3 hours would be worth it (we would have spent an hour over lunch anyway plus $30 on a buffet so to us this was 2hrs lost for nearly $200 in benefits). We then booked tables for dinner and sorted out our plans for the next few days based on the facts we were given.”
We were explicitly told to lie! Whatever your view on that, one wrong by us and dozens of wrongs by them do not in any way make a right! Even if we actually wanted to go on a timeshare presentation (and there’s enough people out there who do), we would still have been lied to about the tickets and the time we’d be away.
You cannot attack the likes of us for dishonesty and defend their dishonesty at the same time. If you went to the supermarket and you were told it was buy one, get one free on bacon and when you get to the aisle it turns out to be ten cents off yoghurt and there is no bacon promotion, you’ve been lied to. By your mentality if you complain about that then you’re a naive idiot and the store has done no wrong.
Cynical, negative, hypocritical and an apologist for liars. I’m glad I don’t live my life that way.
June 28th, 2009 at 11:43 am
I JUST TRADED A TRIENNIAL AT VAC VILL AT WESTON (WEEKS) FOR A BIENNIAL VAC VILL. AT PARKWAY (POINTS) FOR $11,900. THEY USED MY TRIENNIAL AS A TRADE $5,900.00. I GAVE A $600.00 DOWN PAYMENT. I WAS ALSO GIVEN TWO LARGE UNITS A AND C; WITH 74,000 POINTS EVERY OTHER YEAR.
DO YOU GUYS THINK THIS IS GOOD?????????
June 30th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
JRG ITS A GOOD DEAL……
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Just a short note to say “thank you” for this site. My husband and I got the Grandview timeshare when we were in Las Vegas (we both are kinda suckers, and the salespersons are really pushy), but my gut feeling doesn’t seem right. The first thing I went home was to check on line and found this site. I was lucky that I was in that 5 days window so I faxed them the revoke form immediately. After about 15 days waiting I got my deposit back. I have to say the sales person we met was nice, but the timeshare thing is not really what we need and we don’t really understand this. Now we regreted that we went for the presentation because we spent 6 hours there.
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:25 pm
YC, you are lucky you got your deposit back.