Let’s Start Holding People Responsible

For my last blog post of 2018, I’d like to talk about holding people responsible for their actions. 

Part of this is directed at consumers. It’s long past time to stop blaming timeshare salespeople for supposedly keeping you in a four hour sales pitch, “making” you buy something or holding your credit card and drivers license hostage. 

While these horrible practices are still widely employed, they can be easily stopped by consumers knowing and using their power. 

The second part of this is also directed at consumers, albeit in a different way. It’s way past time to use company names for something that happened, good or bad. You need to name names. 

Not everyone at a company or a resort is good or bad. The good ones need to be acknowledged and the bad ones stopped. 

Collectively, we need to find out who is responsible for the outdated marketing and sales tactics that too many resorts still use. Encounter a good salesperson?  Let’s hear their name. Your salesperson mislead you about the fact the timeshare was an investment that would appreciate?  Let’s hear their name. 

This goes for the people at the top as well. Wyndham doesn’t exist as an entity except in the legal sense. There’s a CEO, Director of Sales, etc.  Diamond Resorts doesn’t ‘do’ anything. Someone within the organization does and someone sanctions it. We need to hold these people responsible. 

Wishing all of you a safe, happy, healthy and scam free 2019. 

Big Changes Proposed for “A Broken Industry “

After an 18 month investigation into timeshare practices in South Africa, the National Consumer Commission has released its report, containing their recommendations for what they call ‘a broken industry.’  

Here’s a link to an article which sums up the investigation. It’s well worth your time:  

https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/289698/5-big-changes-proposed-for-south-africas-broken-timeshare-industry/

Among the recommendations:

The practice of enticing or seducing consumers through purported freebies e.g. holiday vouchers, motor vehicles, free flights and similar items should be discontinued

All presentations made to consumers in the course of marketing should be recorded (visual/audio) and copies be kept and archived, in accordance with the Archives Act

The practice of requiring consumers to bring along credit cards to venues for marketing presentations should be outlawed and discontinued

The practice of inducing consumers into signing contracts under pressure, using ‘offers are valid for only today’ type threats  should be discontinued

At the point of sale, the seller should provide a clear and concise statement as part of its standard disclosures of the points’ value and the calculation behind it

In instances where a consumer could not secure holiday accommodation during any year, the consumer should pay a reduced levy/management fee

A platform should be created for cashing in, exchange and resale of points

Mind you, these are only recommendations but it seems to me that someone has been paying attention to the timeshare industry’s practices quite carefully. We can only hope that someone in this country does the same. It’s long overdue. 

Maintenance Fee Gone Up? Here’s Why

Ah, the end of the year. The time when many of you are receiving your annual bill for your timeshare maintenance fees. Some of you are in for a nasty surprise.

Many of you are seeing a steep increase in your fees and may be asking why. For now, I’ll resist the impulse to ask you if you inquired about what the annual increase was capped at before you purchased, because I know full well only a tiny fraction of you did. 

Some of you may see an increase in fees for legitimate reasons such as improvements made to the property or the individual units. Some of you may see an increase in fees because the management company raised their fees. 

Many more of you may be seeing an increase in fees because too many of your fellow owners paid some self-proclaimed ‘exit company’ upwards of $5,000 to get out of their timeshare. 

These companies do irreparable harm to you, and all the other remaining owners. They may be successful in removing the owner off the deed, but the interest then sits unused and without maintenance fees paid on it. The more interests that aren’t being paid on, the more the resort increases the fees on the remaining interests. 

Don’t get me wrong; I still blame the industry for the very existence of these ‘exit’ companies. They continue to push contracts in perpetuity, the vast majority of the developers don’t offer a viable exit strategy and they do their best to suppress the secondary market. 

But the issue is that these ‘exit’ companies aren’t doing direct harm to the developers or the board of directors. They are doing direct harm to you and all the other owners. 

I have no respect for these ‘exit’ companies which are springing up at an astronomical rate. The fees that they charge are also rising. I just heard from someone who paid $12,000 to avoid paying a $954 annual fee on a fully paid timeshare. These companies and the people who work for, consult for and endorse these companies need to be stopped. 

History has clearly shown that the industry won’t shut these guys down, nor will state regulators. You and your fellow owners need to shut them down. Stop giving them your money and stop causing more harm to your fellow owners.