You really must hand it to Diamond Resorts International.
It is a company that knows no limits…at least that seems to be the case when it comes to harassing potential customers.
Sure, we’ve shared lots of stories about all the high-pressure tactics Diamond sales agents employ during soul-draining, multi-hour sales presentations:
…creating a “you can’t leave until you buy” environment…
…promising a “just like real estate” investment, that is just false…
…or rushing new owners to sign, without time to read the fine print.
But then we read Vincent’s story, which we found in the 2,170 pages of complaints against Diamond in the Florida Attorney General’s office.
Until Vincent shared his experience, we thought Diamond restricted its bullying behavior only to people who had been actually lured into sales pitches.
Vincent’s from West Palm Beach, Florida. He never even attended a sales presentation – and he still got the Diamond treatment!
“I stayed at a Diamond Resort hotel (Orbit One Vacation Villas) in Orlando for a few nights to visit Disney World. I never signed up for time share marketing or attended their sales pitch seminars.”
A wise move on Vincent’s part – but apparently not enough to escape Diamond’s radar.
“I have been continually harassed by Diamond International on my cell phone and emails since I stayed months ago. I have made several phone calls to tell them I am not interested and please stop calling and emailing.”
But surely, there must be a way to get off Diamond’s marketing list!
Apparently not.
“Tonight, I got another email and went to the contact page of the website I provided you and in order to contact them by email you must check a disclaimer stating they may contact you regardless of any previous requests not to contact...”
Well, that’s a classic Catch-22.
“I cannot contact them by email to ask them to stop without giving them permission to continue to harass me.”
That is flat out next-level high-pressure sales tactics!
But not surprising, given all we know about Diamond.
Seems that’s how it goes when Mark Wang runs things. He’s the CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations, which purchased Diamond Resorts in 2021.
Want to find out how Mark responds to frequent, unsolicited communications? Let’s email him mark.wang@hgv.com and see what happens.
It would be interesting to see how Jason Gamel responds too. He’s the President and CEO of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), the national trade association of the timeshare industry.
Let’s give Jason a bit of the Diamond treatment by emailing him at jgamel@arda.org
Run into a timeshare Catch-22 of your own? Use this list of ARDA VIPs to contact its leaders and let them know you don’t appreciate it.
Or share your Catch-22 with us with us by emailing info@timesharefacts.com
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