An Open Letter to Dave Ramsey and Laura Ingraham

Dear Dave and Laura:

It’s come to my attention that both of you have endorsed separate timeshare related companies.  Both of these companies specialize in offering one or more so-called “relief” solutions to timeshare owners.

You may have done a cursory “investigation” into these companies; you may not have. You may have received a hefty compensation from these companies who will pay handsomely for someone who wields so much influence with consumers.

But it’s obvious that neither of you know the whole sordid, sad and extremely harmful story behind these companies.  It’s even more obvious that neither of you know that you are being “duped”, "just like all of the media that brought Donate for a Cause on their programs...creating unqualified credibility to their less than transparent programs.

Sure, timeshare owners may have had their names removed off of the timeshare deed.  Is that enough for you to endorse them?  Here’s some other questions you should have asked before granting your influential stamp of approval:

 

·        How much money did these companies charge these timeshare owners for their services?
·        How did these companies obtain the names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of these timeshare owners?
·        How many of these timeshare owners have now fallen prey to scam vacation clubs which were pitched as an alternative to timeshare?
·        What happens to these thousands, or millions of timeshare properties once these companies “remove” the names from the deeds?
·        What are the long-term implications to the timeshare resorts and the remaining millions of owners there?
·        Are you even aware of the regulatory activity in this sector of the timeshare industry?

Let me guess…you didn’t bother asking these “pesky” questions, did you?

Well, let me assist you here with some answers:

·        Some of these timeshare owners were charged over $6,000 to get their name off a timeshare deed.  Seems a bit outrageous doesn’t it, when a name change can be done by a notary public for less than $300 in most cases.

·        Where indeed did these lists come from?  Did you know that most of these companies obtain stolen or misappropriated lists?
·         Many of these vacation clubs require a buy in of up to $10,000 and provide no better vacation deals that an average consumer can find with an Internet connection.
·        Did the timeshares go back to the resort or the HOA in question?  No they did not.  They ended up in the names of LLC companies that have no intention of ever paying the annual maintenance fees that are needed by resorts to effectively maintain the resort’s upkeep for the millions of owners and exchangers that happily use them each year.
·        Timeshare resorts that provide quality vacation experiences for millions of consumers are forced to increase annual fees to remaining owners.  Those remaining owners find it harder and harder to afford their vacations each year and fall prey to these companies that you endorse who operate on scare tactics.  Once a resort reaches 35% of inventory with unpaid fees, the so-called tipping point, they are faced with the very real probability of having to cease operations.
·        There are many people who operated these countless schemes of "cancel/transfer" who are serving time in federal prison and will never pay back millions in court ordered restitution. 

I’ve been writing about timeshare and assisting timeshare owners and potential owners for 16 years.  No one has been more outspoken than I have about the need for the industry to change and improve.  However, these companies that you willfully choose to endorse, leading to untold numbers of consumers to trust your judgement and throw their hard earned dollars at are doing incalculable and permanent damage to timeshare resorts, the people that work there and the people that own there and continue to receive the many benefits of owning a timeshare from.

What will happen to YOU, Dave and Laura, when these companies who have used you as a public speaking pawn ultimately stop operating or get shut down, which they will?  How will you face those consumers who put their blind trust in you and used these companies, creating disaster in their wake?  Who are YOU going to turn to for advice when you realize you have been victimized by these nefarious companies?  Or are you simply going to take the compensation money and go on vacation?