Tot 5 Frustrations for Timeshare Owners

Top 5 Timeshare Frustrations

April 16th, 2009

As I go throughout the blogs, forums, and other mediums and communicate with timeshare owners, one thing is definitely apparent. Lots of timeshare owners are like many of the citizens of this country that participated in the nationwide Tea-Party gatherings protesting higher taxes and ever expanding government yesterday.Like those participants yesterday, many timeshare owners are frustrated with the shady sales tactics, coercion, and misrepresentation that is happening, at some would say, an alarming rate. As I speak with many of you who are frustrated, there are many issues that are being brought up consistently. Here’s a list of what I feel are the top five timeshare frustrations that are causing timeshare owners to want to cancel their timeshares.

1. Misrepresentation of the companies PIC (personal interval choice) program. I have heard over and over again from timeshare owners that they were told their resort was eligible to be PIC’d only to find out when they are past the rescission period that their resort was never eligible in the first place.
2. There has been a trend of owners being told that a certain timeshare  company will purchase their existing timeshare from them for the amount owed if they make a new timeshare purchase. Again, when they get home and are past the rescission period, they are told that the timeshare company does not buy their timeshares from them, but merely post the timeshares for sale for a period of 150 days. If it is not sold, the owner is stuck with two timeshares.
3. Misrepresenting a timeshare week for exchange. Many are told that their timeshare is a red week only to find out when they try to exchange that it is really a white, or blue week. This has been happening quite often and by the time the owner realizes what has happened, it is too late.
4. I have spoken with many timeshare owners who have owned for quite some time and were told that they should have gotten an invitation to go to a “Dinner Party“, or “Transition Event“. These events were designed to assist the owners in their ownership and educate them on how to maximize their ownership. I too used this tactic as a sales rep myself to increase the timeshare owner’s sense of urgency. The problem is that it is deception and not true. There are Dinner Parties, but they are indeed designed to get the owners to upgrade their ownership. That is right, to buy more points. Remember this the next time you get an invitation.
5. And the fifth timeshare frustration that owners are communicating is that they are told they will be able to rent their timeshare, and find out that although they may be able to rent the timeshare, it is nowheres near the amount that they were told. That is if it rents. The overwhelming majority of owners that have stated this have said that they were never able to rent it at all. I have written articles for owners to increase their odds of renting.

This is not an all inclusive list, nor does this represent all owners, but at Timeshare Advocacy International we take the time to ensure that we fully understand what timeshare owners are going through. We use an extensive list of questions to ensure that we do not leave any stones unturned before we make any recommendations.

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