Want Out? It’s Not As Easy As The Scammers Make It Sound

There are some good reasons to purchase a timeshare. However, these are contracts in perpetuity for many thousands of dollars that should not be entered into lightly. 

What happens when you purchase a timeshare without asking the right questions and not doing research? You decide you want out. And since you did no research getting in, you’re far more likely to fall prey to scammers who take your money and promise to get you out of your timeshare contract but do nothing but empty your bank account for many thousands of dollars. 

These are NOT legitimate grounds for getting you out of your timeshare:

• You’re not using your timeshare as much as you intended to

• You’re frustrated by unexpected “special assessments” and increasing annual maintenance fees

• You can’t afford those maintenance fees and special assessments

• You find out that selling your timeshare isn’t nearly as easy as the salesperson said it would be

• You have concerns about your children inheriting your timeshare and then consequently becoming financially responsible for it

• You discover that you can’t vacation where you want, when you want

• You’re tired of going to the same place every year

• You’re aggravated with the exchange companies

• You (finally) realize that there are more ways to go on vacation that cost less than your timeshare 

Don’t get me wrong; if your timeshare salesperson lied to you about any of these items, it’s wrong and they and their developers need to be dealt with appropriately and not continue to be tolerated and worse, encouraged. 

What I am saying is that the old adage ‘buyer beware’ holds true. Asking the right questions and understanding what you’re buying into, which increasingly is nothing more than the ability to access a reservation system that is open to people like you that have paid tens of thousands of dollars and to Joe Average who didn’t, is a must. 

Sadly, increasingly there is no value proposition for the timeshare product. 

Knowing that, I have no logical explanation for the millions of people who willingly sit through one or more high pressure sales pitches each year and the thousands that buy into a system they neither understand, can afford or can use.