| “There are three types of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.” Some attribute this quote to Mark Twain, but whoever it was who first uttered these words …well, they never met George. If they had, they might have added a fourth type of lie; those made at Diamond sales presentations. You see, George is a Diamond Resorts representative. George promised Bridget and her husband that the Diamond points they bought could be used to cover the complete costs of their hotel stays. Turns out, that was a pretty blatant lie! The Charlottesville, Virginia couple’s story is all there in the 2,170 pages of complaints against Diamond Resorts that hundreds of people have filed with the Florida Attorney General’s office. Here’s what happened when the couple met George at a Diamond “information” presentation. “We quickly discovered that it wasn’t an informative presentation so much as a sales pitch. After the initial group presentation, a man named George greeted us and started talking to us about Diamond Resorts memberships.” “From the start, we told George that we weren’t interested in a membership because we had no use for staying in a resort, the reason being we almost always strictly use hotels for travel.” “We had a lengthy discussion with George about our two sons who are on soccer teams that travel frequently. Their soccer clubs require numerous stays in hotels per season.” “George’s manager overheard this and stopped to join the conversation. He told us we could use membership points for hotel stays.” So, well, it’s not just George – it’s his manager too! “George then told us that we could use the points to cover the full cost of hotel stays…he worked out calculations with us that displayed…how quickly we could make up the costs of membership by using our points to pay for the full cost of hotel stays…” “We asked again if one Diamond membership point equaled to one US dollar in regard to hotel stays, and again George said yes, they do.” “After all of this, according to what we had been shown with the written calculations and the assurance that we could use our points to pay for the full cost of any hotel stays, we agreed to purchase.” But when Bridget and her husband called Diamond to make reservations for their first hotel stay… “The Diamond reservations staff told us that we could only use our points to pay for 20% of the cost of a hotel stay.” 20 PERCENT! That’s not even close to “full cost.” In other words, according to Diamond, George and the manager had lied… damn lied… and used statistics to do it! “We were shocked and stunned to find that we had been so clearly lied to and manipulated by the Diamond Resorts sales staff.” “We were sold the membership and we signed the contract with the explicit verbal agreements with the Diamond sales staff that we would be able to use our points to pay for 100% of hotel stays…” “These statements have proven to be lies.” Diamond’s lies would seem to put its deceit in a class by itself, even for the timeshare industry. You would think that Mark Wang, the CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations, which purchased Diamond Resorts in 2021, would be bothered by that distinction. Let’s find out by emailing him at mark.wang@hgv.com. Jason Gamel might also be concerned. He’s the President and CEO of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), which represents timeshare companies in Washington, DC. Let’s email Jason at jgamel@arda.org to see if Diamond really is in a category by itself. Maybe your own timeshare company can tell you. You can find the contact information for its leaders in this list of ARDA VIPs. Is there a George in the ranks of your timeshare company? Let us know at info@timesharefacts.com. PS: Follow us on social media. Twitter Facebook Instagram |
