A reader poses an interesting question he wanted to share with our readers:
Why is the government doing nothing about timeshare scams?
Time shares are not real estate or investments, they are nothing but empty space.
In addition to my first question, how many time share owners does it take to keep up the maintenance of a two bedroom apartment?
This is outrageous.
If I ever go back to Florida and are approached by a time share salesman I will sit next to the salesman and take my sweet time reading all the pages of the contract. …and if they have a problem with that, I will tell them…”just want to know what I am getting into before I sign the dotted line”.
Below is an account from a Canadian reader whose parents were solicited by Lando Resorts Corporation:
My parents, who live in Canada, were scammed by Lando Resorts Corporation, who is under the Berkley Group umbrella. In February 2011, they were sold a vacation package over the phone which did not mention that they were required to sit through 8 hrs of deceptive sales methods, which were really high pressure and other forms of fraud. My parents kept refusing to purchase, but were then told that they can buy the unit cheaper “right now” because of “built-in equity”, something which they apparently tell lots of people and is false. They were also told that they would have to attend another sales presentation if they did not purchase, otherwise, they would not get their vouchers for the rest of their vacation spots.
To make a long story short, there are several inconsistencies in the contractual agreement for the timeshare, which make it non binding, according to the lawyer that they hired. Currently we are in the process of getting them to reply to a letter that the lawyer has sent them, but as you can guess, there have been not attempts made on their part to contact either the lawyer or my parents regarding the letter. However, harassing phone calls have been made to my parents that they owe money and that they will be forwarded to a collections agency, which according to other testimonials I found on the web, are also under the Berkley Group.
Read the rest of this entry »
The following short message was sent to us via the Submit Your Timeshare Story form on our site.
A reminder that a “FREE” magic show in Las Vegas isn’t always worth the trouble…
“Same pitch (at The Grandview at Las Vegas) but we caved on 2nd intervention offer, but a sleepless night brought me to this site. I submitted my cancellation of this business deal the very next day and hopefully there will be no problems with it. Nevada has a 5-day cooling off period. Will let you know if there was a problem. Everyone is right, if it is such a good deal why can’t we have a chance to think about it. I enjoyed our sales person but not the pressure overall. We have learned a lesson, that a good ticket deal is not worth the hassle!”
Read the rest of this entry »
A friend of my recently came across a company called IBD Marketing and was in contact with them regarding selling an RCI affiliated timeshare unit in Orlando, Florida. After offering them a sum about 3k higher than what they had assumed they would be able to sell their timeshare for, they called me for assistance. I was unfamiliar with their organization and decided to do some investigating before giving my friend the go ahead to try to list and sell with them. My first search was a simple Google query for “IBD Marketing”, and I have to say I was mildly shocked when I realized that the first 10 listings were all negative commentary on the company, and not one of the links was to the actual company website itself! That was only the beginning of the bad omens…
Read the rest of this entry »
Despite the fact that timeshare has been gaining a more respectable reputation as a result of major resorts such as Marriott and Hilton now offering timeshare packages, there are still some resort companies that use deceptive tactics to secure a sale. There are still incidents of resort companies using hard-sell intimidation or illegal sales tactics in selling timeshares. It is because of the existence of these dishonest resort companies that rescission regulations exist. Victims of illegal timeshare sales practices need to be aware of their rescission rights in order to get out of their contract without penalty.
Read the rest of this entry »
Design SEO Hosting