Today we hear from a Guest Blogger describing her experiences at a DRI resort and her follow up with ARDA as to alleged violations of their Code of Ethics.
My husband and I feel we have been deceived by Diamond Resorts International, and ask for your assistance in getting justice for our victimization.
In November of 2016 we stayed in one of DRI's timeshare resorts in Sedona, AZ through our Interval International membership. While there we attended a DRI sales presentation. The hotel concierge gave our family of 4 a $150 gift card to a local restaurant for our thanksgiving meal, and in return we were to attend a 90-minute sales presentation. The presentation ended up lasting 6 hours, with our sales agent becoming agitated when we said we needed to leave due to my husband's golf tee time. This violates ARDA's Code of Ethics of "Information".
The sales agent, Karen Calvano, empathized with us about our inability to stay in resorts unless located close to home which is in Houston, TX. She said she knew Interval International did not have many resorts in our area, but that DRI had many resorts, and we would certainly be able to find resorts in Texas, New Mexico, and Louisiana. As it turned out, DRI's resorts in our area are owned by affiliate resorts rather than DRI and costs approximately more points than we were sold. This violates ARDA's "Exchange Program" in which we were over promised on the likely hood to exchange for Diamond’s inventory in our area.
When I looked on the Diamond member website recently, Diamond’s Great Wolf Lodge affiliate property in Texas was available for 26,911 to 66,467 points. If we multiply 26,911 by 20 cents which is the typical cost of maintenance fees, it would cost $5,382 for a one week stay. Booking.com had the same Family Suite available for the same week for $1,700. This is not an unusual scenario. I have searched various times throughout the year.
We attended DRI's "Event of a Lifetime" in January, 2017 which we were told was our member orientation. The “orientation” turned into a high pressure sales presentation quickly with misleading information regarding redeeming our points for 30 cents per point if we paid to upgrade our membership to platinum. When my husband, Dr. Mark Grant, asked to see the price per point in writing, the sales agent pointed to his own written notes to show us that it was legitimate. My husband pointed out the documented literature which showed the amount at 10 cents per point, and the salesman quickly dismissed us to the next sales agent.
According to the ARDA Code of Ethics, this sales agent violated the ethics standard of "Avoidance of False and Deceptive Statements".
Mr. Clements, as you can tell from the brief account I have written, we are in a rough situation with devious minded people who have not followed ARDA's Code of Ethics, and should therefore be forced to let us out of our contractual agreement.
We appreciate your consideration, and assistance!
Sincerely,
Eron Grant
Response from Diamond
I am responding to your concerns regarding availability in Texas and Louisiana. While Diamond Resorts does not own or manage any properties in these states, we do have affiliate agreements with several resorts. These properties offer us limited inventory each year to offer to our members to book with their points. Inventory is typically limited, and prices are set by the properties themselves, and not by Diamond Resorts. These properties are offered on a first come, first served basis in addition to the Diamond Resorts properties covered under your contract.
Diamond Resorts does offer a property in New Mexico, the Villas de Santa Fe. If you would like assistance booking at this property, please let me know and I will be happy to assist.
My Response
My concerns with Karen Calvano stating "DRI has several resorts in TX, LA, and NM" is that when we asked her to show us the properties she said, "Oh we can't do that right now, but we can do that later." After 6 hours of being with her, we were exhausted and never did see the properties.
We explained that we are owners with Marriott and members of Interval International already, so affiliate properties through DRI really don't help us. Plus, the value of your affiliate properties is ridiculous. How does this help us?
What's telling is that the consumer never even heard back from Mt. Clements personally, nor from ARDA as an organization. As a matter of fact, there are close to 100 complaints that I know of personally that have been sent to ARDA and have not been acknowledged, much less addressed
Let me be clear, this is not merely a DRI issue. It's s much larger one. If there is indeed an ARDA code of Ethics and if indeed issues and concerns are brought to the Committee's attention but ignored, what's the point?
As always, constructive comments are welcome.
1 comment:
This is another example of why DRI is violating ARDA's Code of Ethics. The first Monarch complaint from over a year ago and they have not stopped since. It's why we need our Advocacy group. "I am at the Cancun resort in Las Vegas and went to a breakfast where they said they would simply update me about the changeover to Diamond. I was told that I should have been invited to a dinner where I would have been given options, decided by a judge in a legal ruling against Monarch due to their bankruptcy. They proceeded to show me a print out that said when my current term expires in August. I would have to pay $573 per quarter to Monarch. They said that due to the bankruptcy, I would have no equity. That was option one. Pay more, have nothing. The other option they said was to transfer into Diamond at a cost of $12,000 plus and pay a yearly maintenance fee of $1,700. Less than the $2,292 I would soon be giving Monarch. They also told me that I would then have equity of $41,000 that I could sell. I was in tears. I do not have any extra money. In fact I have been looking for ways to get out of Monarch for over a year now. They said that was not an option and that as an owner, I was now proportionally responsible for their debt. I felt trapped and signed all the papers to transfer, with no idea how I can pay. After reading the comments above I am even more scared. I am trying to start my own business and am already in severe debt. They claimed when they ran my credit though that it looked better than most and assured me I qualified for financing. I would have to pay off, basically transfer to credit cards, which I can barely make my payments on now before I could look to sell. One of the reps assured me that she would put me in touch with someone who could help me sell my points. She even gave me her cell phone number to call after the sale/transfer is finalized. I am really scared though. Please help! We have to do something. It seems as though they have no qualms about lying to and robbing people for their own benefit."
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