This is a great article that was posted on Yahoo.com about timeshares. Below you will see my response, feel free to comment on it as well.

“Please Call Back and Claim Your Prize”

It was one of those messages left on our voicemail that I would usually ignore. But I couldn’t quite: “This is not a sales call. You have entered a drawing and been selected to win one of three prizes. This is time-sensitive. Please call back and claim your prize.”

Against my better judgment, I called the toll-free number. A guy named Dan explained it to me. My husband had filled out a form to win a car. We were guaranteed to win a Ford Explorer, a television or a vacation. If we showed up at a hotel not far from our house later that week, we could claim our prize.

Now, I know you’re rolling your collective eyes out there. In my defense, my ever-optimistic younger son likes to enter raffles and drawings, convinced that one day he will win the tricked-out truck or trip around the world. So I thought Gabriel might actually have hit the jackpot. But the phone call, as many of you probably guessed, was in reality an effort to get my husband and me to show up to hear a sales presentation about vacation clubs.

While I was leaning away from spending an hour at a high-pressure sales talk, I still kind of wanted that television — until I read on the company’s website that the odds of getting the 27-inch TV were 48 in 12,000. The likelihood of winning the car? 1 in 12,000. The $900 to $1,000 in travel certificates (with who knows what restrictions)? 11,951 in 12,000.

At that point, my husband and I agreed that we were not going to spend a Saturday afternoon listening to someone try to persuade us to buy something we couldn’t afford. But my curiosity was piqued. Was it ever worth it to attend these vacation club/timeshare pitches for a free trip or tickets to a theme park? Are they scams or legitimate?

“Understanding Timeshares” 

First, what is a vacation club? It sounded a lot like a timeshare. According to the Federal Trade Commission, there is a difference. With a timeshare, you buy a specific unit at a specific time every year, and you can trade or sell it. With a vacation club or vacation interval option, a developer owns the resort, and each unit or condominium is divided into time intervals. You buy the right to use an interval at the resort for a certain number of years — typically 10 to 50 years. The specific condominium may not be same each year. In both timeshares and vacation clubs, there is often an additional annual maintenance fee.

“Timeshare Insights” 

Lisa Ann Schreier, who runs Timeshare Insights, a consumer consulting website for timeshare owners, said there were many legitimate timeshare and vacation clubs, but consumers should be skeptical about the giveaways being offered to hear a pitch. “You’re not going to be put up at the Ritz-Carlton,” Ms. Schreier said. In Orlando, Florida, where many of these timeshare presentations take place, “You’re not going to be on Disney property — you’ll be staying several miles away. They’re not scams, but they’re taking advantage of people’s naiveté and ignorance.”

“Timeshares and the Federal Trade Commission” 

There are no federal laws governing timeshare presentations, said Lois C. Greisman, Associate Director of the Division of Marketing Practices for the Federal Trade Commission, although individual states may have their own regulations.

Of course, outright fraud — like lying about what is being offered — is illegal in any situation. “A softer problem is deception,” Ms. Greisman said. That is being promised a nice room in a nice hotel and ending up in one the size of a closet. Or you may have a view of a brick wall instead of the ocean view you were promised. “I would argue it’s illegal to misrepresent what goes to the core of what you expected,” she said.

Also, if you are a part of the Do Not Call registry, unsolicited calls from companies like the one I received do violate the law, Ms. Greisman said. While certain exemptions are allowed — if, for instance, you have previously done business with a company — simply filling out a sweepstakes form does not give a company permission to call you if you are on the registry.

“The Ginzberg’s Story” 

Issamar Ginzberg of Brooklyn said he agreed to go to a timeshare pitch when visiting Orlando in exchange for two tickets to Disney World. At times, he said, the presentation felt like a religious revival. A representative spoke to him and his wife in one part of a large room and “every time one or another couple would sign a contract, a guy with a microphone would announce it and everyone would applaud. Eventually I found myself applauding because I felt guilty if I didn’t.”

At one point, he became convinced that they should buy a timeshare, even though they never intended to. His wife talked him out of it. “Then my wife was convinced, and I had to talk her out of it,” Mr. Ginzberg said. The presentation stretched to two and half hours, longer than the hour they had been promised. When he got home, Mr. Ginzberg said, he found a similar unit with the same company on eBay at one-third the price he was being offered. Even so, he has not bought a timeshare.

“Timeshares From A Salesman” 

Andy LaPointe of Mancelona, Mich., used to sell timeshares for a Northern Michigan resort. He still owns a timeshare there, and said he believed he offered a good product at a good price. He estimated that at least “75 percent of people who showed up just wanted the freebies,” like the golf and skiing that was offered, but he nonetheless managed to sell one to three units on average every week.

Mr. LaPointe said he did not mind if people decided not to buy, but felt “they should hold up their end of the deal — listen with an open mind.” And they should not try to walk off in the middle, as some of his customers did. Although he had a lot of satisfied clients, he said, sometimes people didn’t hear what they didn’t want to — that they had to pay a $450 annual maintenance fee, for instance, whether they used their timeshare that year or not.

If you are tempted to take the vacation or collect the prize that goes with attending a timeshare presentation, do your homework. If it is a company that has a history of being deceptive, most likely others have written about it on the Web. And negotiate.

“How to Negotiate For A Timeshare” 

Sally Kane, a lawyer who lives in Pittsburgh, had a great experience with a timeshare company-sponsored trip to Disney World for her family, but she spent a lot of time making sure she got what she wanted. “I asked for transportation from the airport to the hotel and back,” she said. “They offered $100 in Disney credit and I got them to raise it to $200. Everything’s negotiable.” Ms. Kane also requested everything in writing before agreeing. “At first they wouldn’t, but I said we wouldn’t go then. They sent it to me and I found discrepancies in what they promised and what was in writing, which I made them fix.”

Like Ms. Kane, some people have had great experiences. But do your research, and just as important, know yourself. If you succumb to impulsive buys or, like me, find it hard to say no, stay away. A discounted vacation isn’t much of a deal if you end up spending thousands of dollars you never intended to.

“Our Response” 

This article really hits home with what our company, Timeshare Advocacy International, LLC is trying to do. We help consumers who have been victim of deceptive sales practices within the timeshare industry. As a former timeshare sales rep, I can attest to the deception that occurs on a daily basis.

Our company has been in business since January of 2009 and the stories that we have heard still blow my mind. Elderly couples spending their lifetime savings and retirement on promises that never happen. The promise that the timeshare is an investment and that it will increase in value over the years. The promise to be able to make money and even pay for the timeshare by renting your weeks. The promise to be able to sell for a profit once you are finished with it. Then when you check EBay and see the thousands of timeshares that are listed for $1.00. I could go on and on.

Timeshare Advocacy International was founded because of this very article and we speak to hundreds of owners on a weekly basis who are in desperation due to the ever rising cost of the maintenance fees that they were told would never go up. For a detailed list of the misrepresentations that are frequently used please visit our site at www.timeshareaide.com.

Do not fall for the scams of resale either.

If you do any research at all, you will find that there is no market whatsoever for timeshares and the overwhelming majority of the resale companies will quickly take your money to simply put your timeshare on a “list”.

The writer of this article is absolutely correct that there are no federal regulations governing timeshares and some states do have some regulations.

Beware of Nevada! If you buy a timeshare in Nevada consumers have no protection at all. The Real Estate Commission and the State’s Consumer Affairs will not intervene. There are other states that go out of their way to protect their consumers.

Unfortunately, the timeshare industry is a very powerful and rich industry that needs to have some form of oversight. Too many hard working people have been wronged and thousands continue to get scammed daily.