Complaints and Possible Scams

Complaints and Possible Scams

Some of the complaints that I have read, state that they use misleading and/or false statements and high-pressure tactics to lure victims to attend sales presentations.  They misrepresent the character of the agreements that are offered and fail to fulfill promises that are made at the time of the sale.  Here are just a few of these complaints:

• “Not only did the sales people use common, sleazy, high-pressure sales tactics, but they became rude and insulting towards me personally when I stood my ground.  Beware, they will attempt to turn a couple against each other in order to get their sale and believe me, that's all they care about.”
• “Timeshares have got to be the all time ripoff companies ever.  We own a deeded red week, in Myrtle Beach, that will be supposedly passed on to our children.  God forbid!  I wouldn't want them to have to deal with all that we have had to deal with since we bought this.  We used it when we could, or when we couldn't we exchanged it (when I could finally get the information on how to do this), paid an exchange fee, paid 15% interest, banked and lost most of our weeks.  We don't even get information anymore, except for our annual maintenance fee bill, which has doubled!”
• “We were told we had flexibility regarding our weeks and we do not.  We were offered free vacations that do not exist.  We are being charged continuous amounts of fees for things we were never told we would have to pay.  They raise Home Owner's Association fees without informing us they’re being raised.  They misrepresented the timeshare.”

Pretty scary I agree, but that is why I am writing this....to make you aware!  If you are still not convinced, ask yourself these questions:

• Are the promised incentives that they offer you available?

• Are they telling you that this is an “investment?”

• Are there any hidden Fees?

• Do they demand that you sign the contract immediately?

These are red flags that should be warning you that you possibly are in the presence of a scam artist.  If they are really honest and professional, then they will encourage you to check them out first, before you sign.  Oh and speaking of, before you sign, think about this.  I read an article on MarketWatch.com that says, “timeshares are generally marketed and sold to people who really can't afford them.”  So if you are thinking that maybe you can afford one, you probably can't.  And even those of you that really think that you can, you can save more money in a piggy bank.

Spending money on a timeshare is not an investment and will not generate money for you.  An investment implies that you can eventually sell it and make money.  With timeshares, you're just throwing your hard earned money away.  The average cost of a timeshare in the U.S. is $14,500.  If you put that money in a mutual fund that averages 12% over 10 years, you would have almost $48,000.  In 20 years, you would have over $178,000.  In 40 years, you would have over $1.7 million!  Wow!  Now that's a lot of money!  And I didn't even include the maintenance fees, but I'll let you do the math for that.  Do you still think it's worth it to own an over glorified hotel room.  All you're really doing, when owning a timeshare, is prepaying your hotel bill, whether you use it or not, for the next 20 plus years and you're not accumulating any interest.