From Contract to Debt Collection-A Guest Post From John Collick

Today’s post is from John Collick  John is running for Congress in Virginia and to my knowledge, the only candidate anywhere who is including timeshare on their platform.  I’ve included John’s rather illustrious background at the conclusion of his Guest Post.  

From Contract to Debt Collection

By John Collick

If you walked into a new car showroom and saw a company’s motto, “We will say whatever it takes to make a sale” what would you do?  

Although there are rules of ethics for most occupations, we all understand that salespeopleoften exaggerate to make a sale; however,consumers can generally depend on salespeople to provide accurate information on which to make informed decisions. 

To fully understand the timeshare industry and its ability (and desire) to continue selling its memberships, you must understand the Timeshare Consumer Lifecycle, which has been explained as, “From initial contact through debt collection $$”  during a timeshare industry conference in Las Vegas, Nevada last year.

Now, knowing this, would you attend a timeshare presentation?

Over the past four years, I have met several coupleswho have purchased timeshare points – not deeded timeshares – after listening to salespeople who provided inaccurate, misleading, and sometimes complete fabrications to make a sale. These salespeople seemed honest, especially since they all made similar points.

Unfortunately, several of these couples have been financially devastated by timeshare developers.  Most, who have points, not a deeded interest, have experienced massive increases in maintenance fees every year, often as high as 25%.  They pay maintenance fees, although they own nothing that needs to be maintained. They are basically paying the salaries of the developer’s staff with these fees. To make matters worse, most could never make reservations for the vacations they wanted – although there’s plenty of availability if they were to make reservations with cash, rather than their points. 

When they can make reservations, members are often told they need to attend a meeting this week; it’s not an invitation but a demand. Many don’trealize it’s a sales presentation, since they’re told it’s an update. It always takes at least one day away from their vacation and rather than having a relaxing vacation, causes anxiety.

When a family purchases a timeshare, based on deception, it’s almost impossible to rescind the contract. When attempting to do so, the standard response from the developer is, “it doesn’t matter what the salesperson told you or wrote down…. You signed the contract.” Another common phrase is “You have no proof” when the customer accuses a salesperson of unethical or illegal sales tactics. 

There is no enforced ethical code for timeshare developers or salespeople to follow.  Potential customers must understand that timeshare contracts are not entered into in good faith by every developer.  Do not believe the sales staff; they will say whatever they need to make the sale. If they don’t let you have 24 hours to read the contract, simply walk away – it’s not going to be worth the fight.  

If elected to Congress, I will propose the following:

1. A 24 hour “cooling off” period offered before signing a timeshare contract. Timeshare sales presentations can last six hours or more. The buyer is told they must buy the same day. A rescission period is the time a buyer has to rescind a contract after signing. The rescission period varies by state.

2. If the signing of a timeshare contract is recorded, there needs to be a mandatory recording of the sales presentation, with copies provided to the customer. Sales agents often coach buyers on how to “pass” the closing session.

3. Eliminate perpetual contracts – no person should be allowed, wittingly or unwittingly, to agree to a perpetual contract with no secondary market.

4. Buyer to be provided with a single complete and understandable summary disclosure document and the reviewing of the document should be on the recording. Presentation of the Public Offering Statement should also be presented on the audio recording so that it is not buried in a stack of documents with the dismissal, “You can review these when you get home” or “No one reads this.” Despite initials acknowledging receipt and review, given the high pressure and long sales presentation, adequate time to review complex and lengthy documents is not provided. Buyers unknowingly initial that they have read and reviewed the POS when they have not. Most consumers don’tknow of its existence until asked to look for it. 

5. To alleviate buyers of timeshare paying more than those booking the same property at the same time online, units available for rent at timeshare properties should not be rented below 5% of the cost of the highest amount paid for timeshare ownership plus applicable maintenance fees. E.g. Week at Fun Times Timeshare cost $22,000 for 1 week of annual usage and maintenance fees are $1,000 per year, the cost per week is $1,100 + $1,000 for a total of $2,200 per week. This will encourage Timeshare Developers to ensure there are ample units available for members and an incentive to keep maintenance fees as low as possible. 

For more information about John Collick and the campaign, visit 

www.collickforcongress.com

Biography:

Mr. John W. Collick Jr. is a retired Marine First Sergeant, a retired Counterterrorism Expert and Immigration Officer and is currently a candidate for the United States House of Representatives.  He has over 35 years of Intelligence experience in SIGINT collection; Analysis and Reporting; HUMINT Collection Management; HUMINT Analysis and Reporting; IMINT Analysis; All-Source Analysis and Reporting;  Management of Intelligence Collection and Source Operations; and the duties of an Immigration Services Officer.

Mr. Collick has deployed onboard ships to places including Beirut (1984), Kosovo (1999), East Africa (1994), and the Caribbean on many occasions and has served as the Noncommissioned Officer-in-Charge of detachments with as many as 40 Marines and later, as an infantry company First Sergeant, with 225 Marines under his charge.

In 1997, Mr. Collick was personally selected by the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps for Intelligence to serve as the Cryptologic Training Chief and Foreign Language Chief for the Marine Corps, where he served one year before being reassigned due to being promoted to First Sergeant.

His personal awards from military service include the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, Armed Forces Service Medal, Arctic Service Medal, Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, and Combat Action Ribbon.  He was also awarded the Navy’s Civilian Commendation Medal, for his role in translating documents and identifying previously unknown terrorists in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

During his tenure in the federal service, he served as the Senior Threat Analyst for the U.S. Coast Guard, Atlantic Area Command; as a Senior Intelligence Analyst and Watch Supervisor for the Department of Homeland Security, Indications, Watch, & Warning Branch; as the Supervisory Senior Intelligence Analyst for the Illicit Travel Section at Homeland Security Investigation, U.S. Immigrations & Customs Enforcement; as a Senior Intelligence Specialist at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS); and as an Immigration Officer at USCIS.

Mr. Collick’s last consulting position was with the Department of Defense, working for the Celestar Corporation, as the HUMINT Issues Manager for Yemen. In this position, he was responsible for coordinating all classified activities concerning Yemen and U.S. interests in Yemen.

Mr. Collick graduated from Campbell University with honors (Magna Cum Laude) and from Northcentral University, where he earned a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) in Homeland Security, with a concentration in transnational terrorism.

Mr. Collick was born in Weymouth, MA and raised in Abington, MA.  He is married to Lisa Marie Collick, originally from Lorain, OH; they have four children and two grandchildren.  They have resided in Hampton Roads for over 18 years and intend to reside there permanently.