My RCI Timeshare Horror story – The Grandview Las Vegas
** UPDATED IN 2022 **
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.
We were lead to a R.C.I. conference room of epic proportions and seated at a table with four chairs, our RCI assistant strategically sitting between us. To be perfectly honest, with all the commotion going on and our RCI guide throwing out as many facts and figures as humanly possible (he could have used differential calculus equations to predict the perfect ketchup to hamburger ratio and I would have been none-the-wiser), the events that transpired are somewhat of a blur to us. There are a few disturbing facts I am certain of, I do know that no credit check was ever done on either of us. The RCI salesperson had no regard for our present financial situation and in fact this was used against us to bully us into purchasing the time share because it would be “an investment we would have FOREVER”. When we asked if we could have time to think and possibly come back tomorrow or a later date, we were informed that the timeshare opportunity would have dissipated by then. Somehow R.C.I. convinced two twenty-somethings, in the midst of starting their own business, that it would be in their best interest to have a $500/month timeshare payment and additional fees if they actually decide to take a vacation. So much for no obligation to buy!
After our time share purchase, I realized that an untenable 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 – 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 timeshare community, how can I make this work for me? What benefits can this offer? How can I help other people?
Since this website’s inception in 2007, I have spent over 15 years helping other individuals learn more about their options regarding a timeshare they may have unwittingly agreed to purchase and/or no longer want. This site is designed to help those in all stages of their timeshare experience in hopes to create a more informed buyer, owner, and seller.
If you would like more information on your options, I encourage you to download my free eBook – The Ultimate Guide To Getting Rid Of Your Timeshare. It’s absolutely free, no strings or spam! It includes a wealth of knowledge regarding ways you may choose to release yourself from your timeshare burden.
All the best!
I have read several of the commits posted and can understand what many of you are saying about your experiences with timeshare sales having been to over (20) of them. About 5 years ago I took my wife on a surprise get away weekend and part of the deal was to listen to the pitch for Tihiti Villege. While we were there, we recieved free show tickets for listening to the Grandview. We had never purchased a timeshare before and felt like we were veteran of the process. We bought a timeshare for the first time from the Grandview because of timing and our sales person did not pressure us like so many of them do. She simply sat down and said please let me show you what we have to offer and if you think it is right for you, then lets talk business, if not then lets not waste your time or mine and make the most of the day that is left. THAT WAS IT! I was so relaxed that we ended up buying it and have enjoyed it ever since. We have not been able to go every year, but have let our family members use it when we could not.
One of the fortunite few!
I am glad that you didn't because if you do you make a financial suicede and is forever, we did and we regret but is to late, now we are a group of people from the same resort try to suit them for damages, I would love if anybody before go to this presentation go online anddo some research about this time before you go to a time share presentation, they are just scam all over this country special here in florida so bad that the consumer protection hasn't done anything just advice people, but by the time you look up the contract and everything is very late and you get trap in this situacion forever, hope we can help some fox there before they go in vacation and ended to comited financial suicede, sorry for my english it is not my primary lenguage.
My wife and I went to the Poconos, PA. After receiving a call we decided to go to a presentation with the intention of receiving two free nights. Before going to the presentation I had all the excuses prepared for the salesperson. Ofcourse, I was not planning to buy anything. Before going to the "tour" i was thinking that it was more like a group presentation. However, it was a single salesman that took care of us. After, taking a break my wife and i had a chance to talk. She told me that even though we didn't go with the intention of buying timeshare looked like a great deal and wouldn't get the same deal another day. It was Valentines' weekend another reason to say yes and make her happy. To make the story short, we ended up buying the timeshare. However, I did some research online, did the math and read all the postings and decided to fax and mail a letter to cancel the contract. I want to say thank you to all those people that have posted their experiences with timeshare, their booking experiences, resorts, etc. If you are considering getting timeshare DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON't do it. It doesn't make sense, especially for the all inclusive resorts. You have to pay a daily fee for meals and beverages and ends up being more expensive. you're better of doing the reservation yourself. Please do the math before anything. Please add the maintainance fee, the booking fee, the membership fee, etc. Don't forget that it is very hard to book a resort through RCI. After all vacation suppose to be a time to relax not to stress yourself trying to get place to stay. I faxed my letter today and will mail a copy tomorrow. I will post again once i have received my full refund. i'm still within the cancellation period.
Hello, I have enjoyed reading these comments, and I feel for anyone who bought a timeshare and now has buyer's remorse. My story is similar to everyone else. We did not buy, but we saw the Gradview and saw their tactics first had.
We got accosted at Excalibur upon checkin. The guy said he would take us to the "registration desk". My wife and I thought it was check in, but no it was their desk, and they promised us $50 Show tickets (we wanted to see Lance Burton) and $125 in gambling money. We were tired from our flight and not thinking straight. We decided to pay the money ($50), and after that, they didn't even care to show us the check in desk. They told us it was a short presentation and then we would get show tickets, but would not have to buy.
My wife and I prepared for this, we knew what this was about after the fact. We decided to go and was told the Grandview was "just off the stript" if you think 25 minutes away by bus on the freeway is just off the strip. The place had a bunch of chairs and they called our name. Our sales associate pushed us with ridiculous numbers, telling us why we need to vacation. We had no video presentation. It was numbers and old books, and our guy trying to sell us on the money factor. (BTW our rep contradicted himself many times). We went to the Grandview and it underwhelmed us. It is halfway in the Mojave desert, and the place was average in our opinion. The sales tactics used by the staff were overwhelming, trying at one point to pit my wife against me. We knew this wouldn't work, the price kept going down and down. Finally, they gave up and we got out of there with our tickets. 4 hours of our life we will never get back.
Summary: If you want a time share, research and negotiate, you can get a great deal if you hold out. If you are going to Vegas and want Show Tickets, go to the 1/2 price ticket places on the strip, don't let the allure of $50 tickets con you into anything. As for the sales associates of the Grandview, these tactics are deplorable and sleazy in my opinion. Be cautious!!
I was offered a trip that would only cost me $389 (that was 17 years ago)for a vacation of 7 nights and 8 days. They failed to inform me that i needed to pay for one night, they put us up for a 4 day, 3 night cruise to the Bahamas…when we left the boat we had no place to go because here i am in Florida on the 4th day with no plans until the 5th day for which i was to go to another resort for 3 days and 2 nights. Being in Florida i was able to call a relative who arranged for us to stay at a nearby hotel (which we had to pay for that night). I was so annoyed, we finished the trip and i came home and faced with endless phone calls to join RCI for only $89 per year or take a three year fee of $200 so we can call whenever we wanted to use any proper outside of the original one we would have access to anyone. My choice was RED whereas, i can go anywhere in the Europe, Asia, America, Islands anywhere i choose. The first year my daughter went with her girlfriends and enjoyed the sun. The following year i didn't use it, i gave it to my brother and sis-in-law as a Christmas present a trip to Lake Tahoe for a week of skiing. Both of the trips were fine no problems. Then i personally used it myself for my big '50th' birthday, i had a great time, got to go on the facilities Yacht and celebrated on the Yacht with the Captain and a few other people…and haven't used it since then. Was able to take my family to Disney, and haven't used it again because of the difficulty to get the places that i wanted. It is not like i didn't try to use it, when my daughter was planning her wedding i wanted to send her and her new husband away on a vacation, i called 15 months ahead of their wedding and was told it was too early i needed to wait until their date got closer. Again i tried several times from that point up until 8 months prior to the date and was told it was too late to book this place as they needed at least a 12 month in advance notice…..well needless to say i argued but got nowhere. I never used it again and i have had since 1993 and have paid over the years the maintenance fees, RCI fees, and taxes. Two years ago my facility was hit with the hurricane which at that time they needed to do renovations which i understood. That year my taxes went from under $1,000 to $2,700….now after being a homeowner for over 40 years i know that taxes go up every year, that is the nature of the beast of burauarcy…but i felt that was ridiculous. I am awaiting my new tax bill for this year. At this point i can't afford to pay $1,000 in a fee to sell it, i don't have this under my mattress, i live from paycheck to paycheck…i am a single woman. Then on the other hand can you get off that easy to just sell it. I just want to get back the money i put into the purchase. While i was on vacation in Las Vegas, i asked if i could trade my Florida home to the Las Vegas site since i spent a lot of time in Vegas no one could not answer my question unless i went through the whole 2 hour presentation again, because my facility was in Florida and not Las Vegas. To me that was not right, someone should have had the capability of answering the question or at least given me someone to contact who could have replied to my inquiry.
You must as been in the sam group my wife and I when. We also went to vegas in 2006 and ended up buying a time share which we are now tryig to get rid of. Nothing like locking 2 well educated intellegent individuals in a room with non-stop pressure and "this would be a great way to keep your family together with memories that last a life time" for 12 hours. Its like toture, after a long even period of time you will do anything just to get out.
WE purched ours in Las Vegas four years ago and have not used it wewere lied to about being our pets now they tell us no we cant take our pets with they need to do something about these scamers and lires we have paid a thousand dollars in the last two years to sell the timeshare or rent we haven't heard a word from anyone what a bunch of bull these kind need to be put away for the scams we had ten days to cancell and on the day of we told the we wanted our money back we would sell on our own no we could not get out of it.
My husband and I have just come back from Vegas and attended one of these ridiculous time share sales 'events'. We understood exactly what was on offer when we were approched with the offer of free tickets. We reasoned that 2 hours of our time for $120 worth of tickets was worth it and so we went along. We had absolutely no intention of buying a timeshare that day, and told the rep as such at the Excalibur when initially approched. 'No problem' he said, Grandview don't mind if you don't buy today, they just want you to see the fabulous facility. Ok, so off we went with open minds.
It was an experience to say the least! We had quite a lot of fun with the reps, who were prepared to lie and encourage fraud. They had absolutely no idea (we hope) about tax law in the U.S. or Europe. They also didn't understand their own nonsense diagrams!
We stood firm througout the entire thing. Asking relevant questions but refusing to accept that this was a good deal, or that it was appropriate to expect people to make a financial decision like this in three hours.
We finally got our tickets, however the hard sell was unbelievable. One rep remarked on my engagament ring, rudely and bizarrely suggesting that we had money to buy nice jewellery and so they were entitled to sell us a timeshare as they spend $million a day on marketing. When we could take it no longer we thanked them for their time and asked to leave. We were told we were stupid and if our lives were miserable that was our own fault?!
At this point my husband disclosed the fact that he is a solicitor. We were swiftly exited from the building. If you have bought a timeshare and you live in the UK, consult a legal expert. The sales techniques consitute intimidation.
Good luck!
My wife and I (recently retired) were hoping to spend a relaxing but exciting 3 day vacation for our first time to Las Vegas during the last week of October. What we ended up with turned into 3 days of horror. After an early breakfast the next morning we began touring the strip and looking for shows that we might like to see. Upon passing through the front doors of the Venetien hotel we were quickly approached by eager salespeople offering us show tickets at half-price. We somehow thought it was being sponsored through the hotel. Although I was skeptical at first, the lady at the desk told us that we were only expected to go on a escorted tour (lunch included)to see a new hotel for a couple hours of our time. We agreed and were told to meet at another location about noon. We ended up being shuttled out to the grandview hotel on the outskirts of town for a time-share presentation. After being groomed in a friendly workshop environment for an hour or so with other recruits (each with their own sales rep),we were taken for a tour of the property. Afterwards we were led up to a another large scale sales floor (with other likley candiadates), which they used to presuade us into purchasing timeshares. Although our saleslady was very decent and friendly, I found the manager to be somewhat pushy. After first refusing the invitation to purchase, I found myself weakening by being bombarded with better offers and rich incentives that I found hard to resist. Now I understand how brainwashing works. It wasn't until after we were rushed into signing the documents and were chauffeured back to our hotel in a hurry so we could catch the early show that I relized our mistake.
I tryed contacting the agent at the grandview the next day to get more info but kept getting a busy signal. That started to spook me. That's when I started to seriously research the contract and first became aware of the 5 day cancellation clause. They even supplied you with the revocation notice. I also discovered that the 5 calendar days would still count as long as the certified letter was mailed on or before day five. I also faxed them at 3 different numbers just to be sure. In the end I finally received my total refund on my credit card within the 15 day time limit set out by the state of Nevada. Although I believe the time-share concept is a good idea, it's their misleading practices and pressure tactics that turn me off.
regards,Rick
My wife and I just listened to their pitch last Thursday. It took us 6 hours to get out of there! What a waste of time and energy! Absolutely noting they say is the truth, they were nothing but a bunch of liars with one common goal…Sell their concept! What a cult!
Good luck to those that are in and stay away if you’re not!
aussy Loz – we used The Owner's Advocate last year (2008) and got all of our money refunded. We had our timeshare for around 3 months before we realized our salesman lied to us on many different things. The Owner's Advocate was great to work with and very professional. They are accredited with the Better Business Bureau – you should check them out.
tom, I have just read your views on the tour of Grandview. My husband and myself have just purchased a one bed room in October and it's good to know that rci do exist and that everything is kosher. You have made me feel a lot better about our purchase because I was feeling a little bit worried when I read all the other feedback.Did your paperwork come through quickly as we are still waiting for ours. Also did you find it easy enough to understand all the jargon when it did arrive with you. Would love to know
I've been offered a package of 4 free nights at the Luxor and 2 Angel tickets for a half-day presentation for the Grandview, I'll have no problem saying no, but is it worth it to sit through this crap for 4 or 5 hours?
Now I want to know about this owner advocacy. Does anyone know if we can use them and if we stand any chance of getting our money back. It's been 7 weeks since we signed.we were high presured in sept on our first night of holiday from australia.told we could have 4 free tickets to fantasy for 2 hours of our time. we were there for 5+ hrs.we paid 24990 for 2 bed that we were told was worth 39000.4 weeks extra free vacation certificate anywhere in world turns out to be 2 weeks for 3 years!No free weeks here in oz!!
My husband and I had just gone through IVF and decided to take a vacation. (several months ago)
We went to Las Vegas and my husband was asked to do a timeshare.
We had a pretty nice younger guy showing us around the place. At the
end of the presentation my husband and I decided that we cannot afford
to make this purchase.
Then this WOMAN.. this large dye blond woman came to talk to us. She
started asking me questions about the pregnancy and then even made fun
of how I was wearing a baggy blouse.. because I was only 4 weeks along.
This upset me because I had gained some weight from taking all of
the hormones and it has been a rough time for me. It did not help to
be insulted by her on my clothing choice and she even acted like she didn’t
believe that we were pregnant! Like it was just some excuse. I almost
broke down crying because that was so insulting after all the trouble we
have been through..
I was too upset to file a complaint against that woman. The manager.. or
whatever he is did talk to us at the end. I just was stunned silent.
She is the absolute most RUDE sales person I’ve encountered.
We just got back from Las Vegas yesterday and within minutes of arriving, we were approached about the discounted tickets deal. We spent $50 and were promised 2 tickets to Lance Burton, 2 tickets to shark reef and $125 in gaming/dining vouchers if we spent 2-3 hours at a sales presentation for the Grand View. I didn’t mind the first half of the presentation – we had nice sandwiches and cookies and the video was semi-entertaining. We stood firm on our “no” decision the whole 4 hours we ended up being there and were subjected to every kind of ridiculous sales technique you can imagine. I was really proud of us for never wavering in our decision, but I felt so emotionally exhausted having been subjected to intense manipulation for hours at a time. Once our sales guy finally understood we weren’t going to buy no matter what, he suddenly became very calloused and almost rude, cutting us off when we tried to speak and making guilt-inducing comments like “I did such a bad job.” Overall it was an interesting experience and for me, the free stuff was worth it. I’m just glad my husband was there because when they offered us the timeshare for $98 a month I was a little tempted to go for it. Of course, that was $98 for 8 years plus yearly maintenance fees AND we could only use it for one week every 3 years or something like that. I don’t regret going through the presentation, as we really enjoyed Lance Burton and Shark Reef and we even won some money from the gaming vouchers we used. I just don’t understand how this could have been a good “investment” for us. You pay thousands of dollars for a property you really don’t even “own.” If I own a property, I want to be able to go and use it when I want, without extra fees. Thanks for starting this site; I liked reading everyone else’s experiences and this was a nice chance to vent 🙂
We just got back from Vegas and were there for 2 weeks, 2 mins after we checked into the Luxor we were pounched on by sales people asking if we wanted cheap show tickets.
Obv we wanted to see lots of shows so agreed to talk to them, for $360 we got (2 x KA tickets, 2 x Criss Angel tickets, 2 x Menopause tickets, 2 x Shark reef tickets, 2 x tournement of kings tickets – not a bad deal considering KA tickets are were $120 each, criss angels tickets $100 each, Menopause tickets are about $50 each, tournement of kings tickets are $60 each and shark reef are $20 each) all we had to do was go to the Grandview and have them talk to us about it, we were told it was ‘no pressure sales’, ‘its only 2-3 hours, blah blah blah.
So on our second day we went to this Grandview thing where everyone is given there own personal sales person, we got a lovely lady called Debs.
we played there games and watched the movie thing they made showing all the ‘happy’ customers etc then we went around with Deb to show the apartments (and yes they looked amazing) then finally we went upstairs to a room with loads of people where they try to sell you the apartments.
We were there for over 5 hours telling them we do not want the deal and they would not take no for an answer, there selling techniques are terrible its very very pushy and they make it out like your missing the deal of a lifetime and letting yourself down.
They didnt understand that we are 26 and 24 and are saving for our own home so why would we buy an apartment in vegas (to which we were told ‘it doesnt matter its a private deal so wont affect you buying in the UK) it wasnt that that we were bothered about it was that were trying to buy a house and clearly wouldnt want to be paying for a apartment in vegas let alone somewhere we can only stay 3 weeks out of a year.
Debs manager then came over and tried over and over to push the apatment on us (im sure you all know who this lady is coz she never gives up and is the pushist person i have ever met.
Anyway after being there 5 hours we had had enough and polietly but firmly told them we do not want the apartment and they finally got that into there heads, then we went downstairs to get our show tickets (coz you have to stay the whole time and cant leave otherwise you dont get the tickets and we didnt pay $360 and 5 hours out of our holiday for nothing).
Anyway thats our story and thank god we didnt buy it coz now reading all of these horror stories we got off lightly.
Several weeks ago I found this site after my wife and I had bought a timeshare and extra weeks from grandview. Needless to say, you all worried me. I knew it was too late to revoke it, so I decided to not overreact until I knew exactly what I got myself in to.
A week ago, I called and got my RCI points membership number and started asking some questions. The more I asked questions, the more I learned. The sales people at grandview do use some questionable techniques and they do lie at times during their presentation. However, the people at RCI are extremely patient in helping you understand how everything works when you get your membership number.
I was able to set up a large trip with my points for about 25 family members. They also helped explain to me the Extra Vacations and the availability (which is more than the certificate suggests). I think that people that can afford a timeshare, should definitely look into it. If you cannot, be really careful about getting involved with this sort of thing….especially at Grandview (from the looks of these postings). It will definitely cost a lot more than what they lead on.
hello,
i just got back from my honeymoon where on our second day with bad jetlag we bought 2 apartments with all the additional weeks.
essentially we didnt know what we were walking into, we did it partly because of the excitement, sales technique, the severe pressure put on us and the fact that we were lied to. the last point is comepletely unnaceptable, obviosuly we were aware that the area might not be ‘the new vegas strip’ in a couple of years, but we were explicitly told that if we wanted to sell it on because we found we werent using it or it wasnt making as much money as we had hoped it wouldnt be a problem and it would DEFINATELY be worth as much or probably more and the company we were buying from (i dont know if its grandview, vacation village or rci we were buying from – they all seem to meld into one) would buy it back from us, so we wouldnt loose any money.
stupidly, no matter how much i told the 2nd salesperson we needed to go away and do research on the area/property/everything we still ended up buying.
luckily, i found this site hours after we signed and i immediately realised although we had a good deal compared to some people, in terms of selling on – our main reason for buying – we had been conned. i quickly ran through all the contracts to figure how to cancel. not knowing all i had found out and researched, my wife woke up completely horrified about what we had done – we both had a moment where the sales technique wore off and it just seemed crazy of us to do such a thing.
i phoned thorugh the next morning and as warned by previosu posts on this site, i was run in a few circles as to how to revoke, i eventually sorted it out, quite scared by now of somewthing going wrong i was recording all of the converstions just in case i was being lied to.
I’ve been told that the fax was recieved and i should wai 15 days for my refund, i was told to send back the rci book but we were on our way to hawaii so didnt have time for much other than a fax so i didnt – whihc didnt seem to matter.
so basically all ive done is faxed through the revocation form and called a few times to make sure it was all correct, i hope it is all good and i hope to recieve some confirmation of the cancellation soon, and the deposit back in the next couple of days.
if i dont post here again, assume it went all as hoped.
i really feel for the people on here who didnt realise about the 5 day window, its really awful what your put through when you go to the grandview and like some people have said, its a good thing if you know what youre doing, if you get a good price (although youd get the best price from a private sale or accredited reseller), but the methods used both in the grandview AND the casinos is just creating one big slippery slope, from a polite hello in a casino and being offered cheaper tickets to buying 2 apartments with 2 extra weeks hours later.
i hope this site can help other either in my position or before they make a choice.
jon
My boyfirend and I just got back from Vegas on Sunday night. We purchased a timeshare through Grandview on Tuesday of last week so we are already out of our 5 day window to cancel. Up until this morning when I started reading all these HORRIFYING comments, we were both feeling REALLY GREAT about making this purchase. We were told that the Vegas location is considered a high demand area so we would not have any problems going anywhere else in the world. We were given a book of participating hotels/properties and we can’t wait to go on our first “timeshare” vacation. I am now concerned that Vegas is not considered a high demand area as far as RCI is concerned and that we will not be able to go anywhere from that book at no additional cost (except for the $189 exchange fee that is). Were we lied to about that part? HELP PLEASE!!!
I’ve just come back from the Grandview after my 5th visit in 2 years. We bought a 2 bed unit in 2007 on honeymoon and then another 1 bed in march of this year. I’m looking for another 2 bed on September and only wish I knew they could be bought cheaper elsewhere than from the site sales. We still got a great deal at $24000 when we paid $250 a night in New York New York for a spa room and our 2 bed unit has 2 jacuzzies, 2 kitchens, 2 lounges and loads of space. Noone is forced to purchase something they don’t want and can’t afford. The sales tecnique is no different to any other product. You just have to be able to decide what you do and don’t want.
I’m a surveyor and understand property anyway but one thing all purchasers have to realise as this is an investment in terms of quality holidays for the rest of your life, and not a monetary investment. Taking in the maintenance fee, you may get a cheaper holiday elsewhere, but not this quality of holiday. Grandview is fantastic, and maintenance fee;s are low because most of the amenities are right next door at the South Point. In 5 weeks in Vegas we have not seen a fraction of what is to see and hardly eaten in the same place twice.
We will probably not even try to trade our weeks because we love the resort and the town sooo much. We have a huge qeue of friends and family waiting to go and we have taken someone most times so far. All of us would NEVER have got that quality accommodation for that price. Last week we came back from a 2 week trip because we tagged on one of our bonus weeks (we got 5 with our purchases)giving us an extra week for only $150. We will use other bonus weeks in march to get another unit for some friends.
Bad press about timeshare is coming from people who are buying something they don’t want or cant afford at the time, not because there is anything wrong with the product. If you use it, it’s fantastic.
If you do decide to experience the Grandview, make sure you hire a car (before you travel is cheaper) to widen your horizons. Visit the Grand Canyon and Hoover Damn, do the shopping thing and for a speail dinner, you cant beat the Stratosphere, Top of the World restaraunt.
Ignore all the bad press about this place it isn’t justified!There arre clearly lots of people who have purchased for the wrong reasons.
Happy for anyone to email me at jills.candles@yahoo.co.uk
Hello All,
My wife and I just came back from a 3 days vacation in Vegas. First day in the morning, a hotel (Venetian) staff stopped us and offered us a “TOUR” and discounted tickets because they appreciated us as valuable customers (how igonic!)and wanted us to stay with them next time (Ya, RIGHT!!!). As per above comments, I guess I don’t need to repeat the “horrible experience”. I was so upset that I wasted 4 hours of my 3 days vacation to listen to their garbage. Their sales techniques are really disgusting! I feel sorry for who has bought anything. They seem so nice but you don’t know what they are thinking inside. I told them it was not my intention to go through all these but they just didn’t care and kept trying to push me products. All they want is your $$$$$$. End up I went back to Venetain and fired at the hotel staff. Their manager apoloized (They don’t mean it since they purposely put people through these scams). She offered me a free dinner and free show. I declined her offers since it is just unethical for them to run something like this.
Grandville MUST gives Venetian a cut so they can hire a team of staff for this scam network.
Good luck to people who have purchased their “products”. All I know is the followings:
1) They want your CASH up front! More “shareholders” are better and they don’t care if they have the capacity.
2) Who knows what they really do with your CASH! They can pay their CEO and directors $1000k/year then declare bankrupt later.
3) Don’t tell me you believe “investment oppourtunites” fall from the sky.
4) That just reminds me on what was happening on Wall Street. It is just getting too complicated. Why bother to read fine prints???
One day the whole scam thing will be busted. They can delcare bankrupcy then start another scam with another name. I am just so surprised why U.S. still allows this sale practice. I guess they will do something only when it goes busted.
It is actually a very good lesson for me: People will do disgusting things to run a scam.
My husband and I just purchased a 2-bedroom unit at the Grandview this weekend with four RCI weeks. We got home yesterday evening (Monday)to started reading and I just faxed my recission and sent it overnight as well. We feel we were misled, if not flat out lied to. The pressure was enormous. By 2:30 in the afternoon we were exhausted after having left out hotel at 9:00 a.m.
The two most important selling point to us were (1) we could use out rime (including the RCI weeks) a day here, a day there; and (2)we could rent out our extra weeks because we don’t vacation 6 weeks a year. We are motorcycle riders and want to vacation staying one night and then traveling on. We were told that is not a problem. When we read the paperwork we could not see anything allowing us to spread out our time, either at the Grandview or through RCI. Also, when we looked at the RCI extra week certificate, on the back there were block out weeks where you couldn’t book, which weeks meant that you basically couldn’t use the time during the summer. We were told we could vacation almost anywhere, any time. Not true. We are very disappointed.
We hope that we’ve done the revocation correctly. The disclosure statement says to send it to Fort Lauderdale, but when I called (not easy to find the number!) the person said send it to the LV sales office. I wound up faxing to the sales office in keeping with the 5-day cancellation form saying either certified mail or “telegraph” (I’m assuming that means faxing–they can’t possibly mean a telegram!)and overnighting to Florida. Our state statute (on the disclosure statement) says we have 7 days, but I was worried about the 5 day conflicting time on the Revocation form, so I’m covering my bases. I’ll pretty much come unglued if they don’t accept the revocation and send us our money promply. My husband and I are both attorneys, so if they try to jack us around, in the immortal words of Bugs Bunny, “of course you know this means war!”
My grilfriend and I purchased a one bedroom with a deed week every even year and a bonus week every year at the grandview. I hate reading all the negitive comments. I understand how they get you and lie to you. But if you travel a lot and want a nice place to stay and can afford it, isnt it worth it??? We are paying two hundred bucks a month which seems like a lot but in the long run… I think of it has saving for our next vacation that I now KNOW we will take. And it seems like Vegas is a good place to own because I will always love going back and have a lot of people who would come with me every other year. Hopefuly I fully understand how it all works as this is my first. I guess my only question is… When its paid off, Its ours forever, correct? Im not too sure how easy it will be to sell some bonus weeks or even our deed week but Im sure its doable? any luck there?
I posted some time ago inquiring if others were told their first year’s maintenance fees were included in their Grandview purchase. I am also curious why the maintenance fees seem to vary from purchase to purchase. Seems the maintenance fee should be the same for all who purchase a yearly 1 bedroom, etc. but it seems to vary just as the purchase price does. We were not told, and I confess, I did not read all the small print to find I had 5 days to recend. Grandview will not waiver in their demand for the maintenance fee even though a coworker was with my husband and I when the saleswoman told us of the inclusion in the price. Personally I would love to see a class action against Eldorado Resorts/Grandview. But just some additional ammunition from others promised the same thing will allow us to help one another in getting Eldorado/Grandview to stand behind what they are allowing these salespeople to promise.
Any help will be appreciated. I know I am not talking a lot of money but these people are dishonest and are being allowed to get away with it.
My husband and I own a week at the Grandview for every odd year. I was wondering if someone can clarify for me, if I have to be a member of RCI or another timeshare group to use our week? We have the deed to our timeshare and cannot imagine having to pay the RCI membership each year for something that we own. The RCI members book is horrible to read through with the small font and legal jargon. Assistance with a page number or reference material would be greatly appreciated
Six months after my Grandview presentation experience, I was back in Vegas last week staying at the Excalibur rather than the Luxor, and the tactics at the hotels are even worse now than before!
First, the number of agents in the resorts seems to have shot up. You couldn’t move in Excalibur without being accosted by someone – even as we walked up to the desk to check-in, a lady came up to us and offered to get us drinks to welcome us to Excalibur – thank God they wear Grandview badges! We then seemed to be running a gauntlet of Grandview agents shouting ‘you want free show tickets?’ at us from all angles. When my fiancee replied, ‘no thanks’ one even shouted back ‘fine, you just keep on paying full price and being ripped off then’.
In the Luxor, I stood next to a Grandview agent waiting for the other half to come out the restroom and took a look at their stall, flyers etc… Absolutely no mention of that stall being anything other than a discounted show ticket booth. The small print on one leafet hints that to qualify for dicounts you ‘may need to attend a short timeshare presentation of 2-3 hours’ (the print is so small you cannot possibly read it under the usually dim casino lights and as we all know, the presentation is never less than 5hrs from door to door). My fiance did a similar thing and told me that she overheard an agent promising a couple tickets for the next night (and their last night)’s Kriss Angel show (not possible as they’ll not only not be back in time, they’re not given tickets at all – just vouchers for tickets).
Timeshare is not a rip-off, given honest information it is worth whatever someone will pay for it, but the tactics used, especially at the hotels, are dreadful, misleading and infuriating. The agents in the resorts lie, the ones on the presentation may exaggerate things and mislead a little to get a sale but it’s the resort agents that actively and knowingly lie to people.
Fundamentally, MGM Mirage are responsible for what happens in their casinos and they must stop this taking place as it’s highly damaging to their brand.
Hi R P,
As I have revoked my contract and got the deposit back, here is fome info that may useful for you:
1) You don’t need to send a letter/notice to them if you don’t want to. But you have to send the revocation form you received in the package when you sign the contract with them. There’s a case number for your account on the form. I would suggest you to call Sheri (or Sherry, please check her name and contact from other post in this website) to confirm they got the fax.
2) I faxed the Reovcation form and sent a certified letter. When I called to follow up, they said they received the fax and start to process the refund, so seems the certified letter is not necessary, but why not to be safe and send it anyway. I got the refund wihtout any problem (Thanks a lot for this website).
3)They will refund to your account, but please check with Sheri when you call.
4) You don’t have to to return the RCI Booklet. Well, I didn’t.
Hope above will be helpful to you, good luck.
thanks a lot for your nice articles! I’ll recommend your blog to my friends. Can you answer few my questions in ICQ or MSN? I can pay.
We were in Vegas@ Excalibur and went to see the ‘Resort Tour’ presentation at Grandview and were introduced to Timeshare. Eventually me and my wife also got pulled/lured/sucked into this whole timeshare business and after saying NO for 4 hours finally signed up for a 1 br for $9990, $320 maintenance biennial with 49,000 rci points. We signed up only after realizing that we can cancel the contract after 5 days and after doing research for past 2 days I’m going to send the revocation form tomorrow i.e the 4th day in the 5 day window.
I’m sure timeshare as a concept and practice are really advantageous to people who genuinely want to vacation every year but I totally am appalled by the way this industry is trying to sell and make profits by not showing the right picture and by providing half baked information making people sign the agreements the same day without giving any time for research.
I’d highly appreciate answers to my following queries –
1) Can anyone please tell me if I’d need to send any other letter/notice etc along with the revocation notice and if ‘yes’ then is there any specific legal language needed ?
2) I’m going to fax the revocation form tomorrow and also send a certified letter, is there a way they can deny accepting the letter and later claim that they never got it?
3) I’ve given my debit card instead of a credit card, does that make any difference?
4) There is a whole package of RCI booklet given to me, do I need to send that with the revocation notice?
Thanks a lot for this forum and everyone’s experiences.
Takecare –
R P
To start off with, this response is solely about the presentation at the Grandview – I’m not trying to criticize the “vacation ownerships” that they offer.
My family and I were staying at Exalibur when a Grandview agent approached us with an offer. Over $200 worth of tickets to a show for only $50. The catch of course was to spend time at a timeshare presentation at the Grandview. I have family who have timeshares so I knew what it was all about. I was planning to purchase those tickets anyways so I didn’t mind attending the presentation. You’re supposed to attend the presentation if you’re a couple living together and committed. However, the agent told us that since my brother and I share the same address and last name, that we should pretend that we’re married and attend the presentation. He said, “No one will find out, you’ll still get your ticket vouchers after the presentation is over.” Right off the bat, I knew it wasn’t worth investing in a business if their own employees tell customers to lie. But it didn’t matter, I wasn’t interested in purchasing a timeshare at all…just the gift vouchers.
Anyways, we paid the $50 cash and attended the presentation the next day. This is what the presentation was composed of:
-Prior to getting aboard the shuttle, a short form needed to be filled out ~10 minutes
-Approx. 15-20 minute drive to the Grandview resort
-Wait in a waiting room until your ’assigned agent’ calls for you, couple by couple
-Attend a powerpoint presentation (that’s hosted by a complete paid actor). This presentation lasts about 1 1/2 hours. Try not to talk/discuss/participate much. If you do, you’ll just end up spending more time in this room. Before attending this, you’re offered food (this just included cookies, sandwiches and various beverages)
-Your agent takes you to another room filled with other couples and their assigned agent. Note: the room is large, noisy and the music is blaring. even if you try to evasdrop, you won’t be successful. You’re offered food again – same menu. The agent talks about what the grandview is offering – “vacation ownerships”
-Your agent takes you on a tour of the grandview
-Your agent takes you back to the same large room with other couples and begins to talk about packages and prices. Initial offer is an extremely large package set roughly around $42,000. Just learn to say no
-No matter how many times you say, ’no thanks’ the agent will not stop talking. you have to understand that its his job to try and presuade you. he has to fill his entire workbook before he could call his manager.
-Once his work book is complete and you decline his offers, he’ll call a manager. The manager will arrive and negotiate better packages. Learn to say no again. The manager also has to fill out paperwork to make sure she’s doing her job correctly. No matter how many times you say no here, she’ll keep going until she’s done with her part.
-Finally after you say no to these two people, you’re taken to another room with a third person.
-The third person will offer you more packages and better deals. The last package for us was offered at $4,000.
-As long as you decline, the third person will then take you to the last room.
-The last room is where you fill out a short survey and feedback. I thought it was funny how every person that I met, from the initial Grandview agent at Exalibur, to the person who handed me the feedback form was listed on the survey. Once this is done, you’re free to go! The shuttles will take you back to where you were picked up.
All in all, the presentation took us 4 hours and we got our gift vouchers and attended the shows we wanted with no problems : )
I say its definitely worth it to attend the presentation for the gifts. Just keep saying no and don’t purchase any packages. Unless you truly want the “ownership vacations” that they offer. If that’s the case, wait till you speak to the third person – for this person will offer you the best packages at the best rate.
We bought the week of August 18 in Las Vegas. No pressure from our sales rep. Prices started for two units at $41,000 and two weeks. We settled on two units for $19,900 and six weeks (four bonus). Our week to use is considered Valentines weekend.
We compared buying to purchasing a truck and a nice travel trailer. This was much cheaper. Yes, they take a credit card and therefore no credit checks. We have brick credit scores (800+ each)and no debt other than our mortgage. We will get our own financing and avoid the 21% the contract specifies. We'll learn how to use program and make it work for us. We already know where we want to go in November. When we get the info from Flordia, we'll book a weekend.
Pixie,Its too late now only way you can getout of the contract is call owner's advocate.
Good luck
hi, i need some help and advice please. i live in the UK. i purchased a 1 bed at grand view for $13990 about 17 days ago and have realised that i shouldn't have as it seems i've been ripped off and to be honest can't really afford it. i paid a deposit of $299 on the day and a downpayment of $1488 is due to be paid on 23rd august. it seems that i have gone well over the cancellation period of 5 days so just wondering if anyone has any advice to give? i don't want to get a bad credit rating by not paying but just wonder if there is anything that can be done before the 23rd when further money is due to be paid? thanks in advance.
One more thing .. the “bonus” weeks that the grandview and other resorts will give you work better for OFF PEAK times of year/places. i.e. beach space in fall. RCI can’t give you prime space for bonus weeks because they’re not getting anything in exchange. Use your actual trades to get high peak vacations and use bonus time as just that …. Bonus time.
If you use RCI the right way … it works great. If you fall into the habit of not booking early enough and not keeping up with the account, it loses its value. For all perspective buyers of timeshare, keep common sense ideals while dealing with salesmen. If it sounds too good to be true, it may be. If they make promises on things RCI can do, why not call RCI directly and ask them? The RCI reps won’t lie or mislead you because they don’t make money from your timeshare purchase.
Tips:
Plan vacations early. If you travel with kids that are still in school, get their schedules for the following school year early and book early. The majority of timeshare owners like to travel during school vacations *making it hard for you to find options if you wait*
Study rci.com under the Help tab to research the different fees for each transaction. The fees are all reasonable but if you’re blindsided by them they seem worse than they are.
It’s a good idea to buy a timeshare at a property/time of year that you would generally want to go to. RCI gives you the opportunity to trade but it’s a good idea to like what you own in case you decide RCI doesn’t work for you.
Be open minded … Everyone wants a beach front property during summer dates. If you own something less valuable *think supply vs demand* then lower your expectations on what you can trade. If you call 2 months before a summer vacation and expect to find beach front space still available, you will be disappointed.
Above all else, ask questions. Timeshare SALESMEN will do/say just about anything to make a sale. I can’t stress enough how much help RCI will be in helping sort through the possible and impossible.
My wife and I had the same problem thinking we get free tickets to see criss angels went to this presentation. never told we had to buy anything just told they will give us free brekfast show us the propety and listen to a presentation the lady told me we can play a little and then leave with our tikets.i now realize she lie there is not even a casino to play there. we end up with a package of two bedroom 98,000 points and 6 weeks to use.
we paid 24,990 and put 3,052 down do you think i got rip off?
we are sending our cancelation notice we bougth this on 08/04/2009. please anyone help me i freak out after reading all this.
My wife and I just returned from a 4 day trip to Las Vegas through a package deal at the Luxor. Like other folks here, we fell for the free exhibit and $125 in gambling money for “simply a few hours to tour our new hotel” and “all we ask in exchange is to advertise for us by word of mouth”. Of course nothing was further from the truth. Nothing was said that it was going to be a timeshare pitch but I figured it out in a few minutes of getting to the Grandview site. The exesive form filling and continued checks of our id should have sent us a warning. Live and learn. Regardless, once we got hooked and transported to the grandview site, miles from the strip, we were given a very slick presentation that tugged at your heart about the wonders of vacations and how timeshares are such a good deal…why we even had happy owners tell us that. The presenter was a very nice lady who was a graduate of acting and even spent time in LA doing acting. It was a nicely polished and rehursed presentation. The so called no pressure pitch was anything but. The sales rep that we had was pushy, bragging about how much money he made playing professional poker in the past and insisted that disney was going to build a 300mph express train to vegas and they were just about ready to turn the ground for two resorts just next door and how it was a no brainer to get into the deal…yada yada. The pressure to buy was heavy and he really put on the screws and started by trying to sell us the two bedroon suite for $41,000 and then after some reluctance on my part it dropped to $27,000 and finally to $17000 for the single side. After me still putting up resistance our sales rep said “my poker instincts tells me your wife really wants this so why don’t you go for it and make her happy”. Well I thought, what a complete wanker. He then brought in a “manager” who dropped the price to $9,990 if we didn’t use if for a year. We asked for some alone time and 10 minutes later when our sales rep came back I told him it was a no go. It was obvious that he was pissed off with me and was barely civil for “wasting his valuable time”. I guess our time was less valuable. Regardless we where ushered out with just about the speed of a bums rush to sign some more forms with some “executive representative” who dropped the price to $4999. A last chance offer. I said no. With warp seed we were shown the door and a fella with the look and demenour of a mortician gave us our vouchers without a word and showed us the way out. We had to roust up a driver for the shuttle and returned to our hotel 5 hours after starting on this adventure.
Fortunately for us, I had recently read a fabulous book called “Sway” about the psychology of how intelligent people can be swayed to make stupid or dangerous decisions and how one can avoid this. Once I had figured out what was going on and that it was not what we wanted, no matter what the price, I simply stood firm with my “NO” decision and refused to be swayed by their techniques. What I should have also done in hindsite, is called them on their “contract” of no more than 3 hours, and insisted on being taken back to the hotel after that time. It is what we signed for and they committed to. I suspect that a credit check was done as at one point someone came over and I overheard her tell our sales rep that we were “good”. One item in the forms we filled out was what our household income was. As I believe that it is no ones business what that is, I simply marked the lowest box. It was interesting to see that even clicking the lowest income box on their form ($30k I believe) they still tried to sell us a timeshare for more than that.
I hope that anyone visiting vegas and is not interested in a timeshare ( which may be a good thing for some folks ) learns to avoid these things by doing a little check before going. I will certainly warn everybody I know to avoid this one of many traps that one can fall into in vagas 🙂
Love this page – thanks so much for creating it. I bought a 1br when I was in town on July 11th but read this site later in the day. I’d caved on the second round of offers for about $14k, and was surprised to see the differences in price on here. I revoked on Monday when I got home and have already talked to them today about the refund. They even tried to give me the $4k offer on the phone. Going to try my hand on the secondary market even though I think it was a good deal.
For people ripping on the sales people, i don’t think that this is a scam at all, they just try to get as much money for the property as they can. At 14k I had myself believing it was a good deal, but if I can get it for under $3 second hand it is a no brainer.
I still dont understand the points vs weeks options though.
Yes, AK, we are lucky. But I did asked them what happened if I regret, the salesperson told me that I have 5 days to revoke. That’s why I checked this on line frist thing when I came home. Good luck to you all.
Has anyone had any experience purchasing RCI points through E-bay? If so, how has it gone, and what things would one have to look for in such a transaction? I’ve seen what appear to be some good deals on there, but as with any other E-bay business, you have to keep your eyes open. Any advice or experience out there?
YC, you are lucky you got your deposit back.
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.
JRG ITS A GOOD DEAL……
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?????????
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.
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?
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.
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!
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.