The first line of Bill’s email to Timeshare Facts let us know from the get-go we had a real humdinger to read!!
“Liars and thieves is the best way to classify the timeshare industry,” Bill declared.
Wow. That got even our attention!
We had to keep reading to see what would come next.
Bill explained he had enjoyed his Diamond timeshare in Hawaii for several years but…
“Then as we got older and couldn’t travel as much we decided to get rid of it.”
“We were in Palm Springs and had to sit through another meeting, told the agent we wanted out. He said, ‘Oh, I’ll help you get out, for another $4,000 we’ll give you a week anywhere you want, and after you use that week you’re done.’”
Simple.
A little pricey, but at least it seemed like they were offering Bill a way out.
Or not.
“Lie, Lie,” writes Bill.
“When we tried to tell Diamond that we did what we were told, they said ‘No, that’s not true, the agent should not have promised you that.’”
What????
“They wouldn’t abide by what their agent told us.”
“Next year, used our week and went to Williamsburg Virginia, had to sit through another meeting, again we said we are getting older and want to cancel our deeds.”
A Diamond agent told them, “‘Oh we have a great program for you,’ we will take your deeds and give you 36,000 points, you can renew the points every year by paying a certain amount of dollars, then if you want to cancel, just don’t pay the maintenance fees.’”
Complicated…and, again, pricey. But still a possible way out.
“LIE AGAIN!”
“We were threatened with a suit if we didn’t pay the following year,” Bill wrote.
Long story short, Bill and his wife had to hire someone to help convince Diamond to cancel the contract.
But that’s not the end of Bill’s story.
“At the end of the year [Diamond] sent us a 1099 for almost $26,000 which is the amount they wrote off as a default in which we had to pay tax on that amount at 38% which was another cost of $9,880.”
A nearly $10,000 surprise to Bill.
Not so much to us.
“If I treated the customers in my profession like the timeshare industry does, I’d have been in jail long time ago.”
That goes for the rest of us, too. Except maybe the sales team at Diamond.
But it should. And we should tell Mark Wang that. He’s the CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations, which purchased Diamond Resorts in 2021.
Mark’s email is mark.wang@hgv.com
Someone else who should hear that message is Jason Gamel, President and CEO of ARDA, the American Resort Development Association. He represents timeshare companies in Washington, DC.
Let’s email Jason at jgamel@arda.org and ask what he’s doing to make sure that “liars and thieves” isn’t the best way to classify the timeshare industry.
Have your own story about liars and thieves in the timeshare business? Contact us at info@timesharefacts.com.
PS: Follow us on social media. Twitter Facebook Instagram