| There are two truths about timeshare sales agents: 1. No matter your “club” level, or how many points you have, it’s never enough. 2. There’s no limit to how low they will go to convince you to buy more. Too harsh? You be the judge after hearing from Mavis and Leslie from Queens, New York, about how Diamond took advantage of their young children to make a sale. That’s right, young children! We came across a copy of their letter to Diamond in the Florida Attorney General’s office. That’s where there are 2,170 pages of complaints about Diamond Resorts. It all started when Mavis, Leslie and their five children checked in for their stay at a Diamond property in Orlando, Florida. “We were advised that we had to attend a 90 minute presentation which we did. That was first red flag. This ‘90 minute presentation’ took up our entire day!” “At noon, my teenage daughter escorted my four smaller children to the presentation. The staff immediately fell in love with the kids, making sure they were fed and making sweet comments such as: ‘We want to take care of this family. They have such lovely children!’” Mavis writes, “I felt so at ease once I saw the wonderful attention and care received by our children.” But maybe that should have been the second red flag. “The sales people presented us with numerous offers demonstrating how many points would be purchased at which rates and that they were trying to help us…There were multiple supervisors in the room with us along with their supervisors which we were told was necessary to close our deal.” So…sales agents and supervisors set Mavis and Leslie up with a deal that was supposed to take care of their family. But…during Mavis and Leslie’s first stay as timeshare owners: “On the day of our ‘orientation’, someone came in to inform us that the package we had was impossible and they ‘weren’t sure who could have given us something so abysmally small that was essentially not enough’ and we would need to upgrade.” That’s because at Diamond, it’s never enough. “My husband tried to explain that we do not want to pay more and that we had believed the original sales people set us up for success and that is why it was on the lower end but these people wouldn’t take no for an answer.” “They called the credit card company to increase our limits and once again, we were paying off another loan plus club dues. We were sinking, but they did not care.” And it didn’t stop there. Trying to make their next reservation, “I was told that I did not have sufficient points to book a vacation so I had to pay for more points which totaled an extra $1,200 which included a mandatory presentation again where we were told to upgrade … again.” “At this point, I’m overwhelmed in paying back a credit card I never wanted, along with a monthly mortgage I never wanted.” “In retrospect, I am appalled at the way Diamond Resorts has treated us. We feel manipulated for having had children with us and you all used that against us as our weakness.” “Of course, that is our weakness. We love our children.” “That is a low move.” It sure is. We would even say the lowest. Tired of Diamond’s “how low can we go” tactics? Let Mark Wang know. He’s the CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations, which purchased Diamond Resorts in 2021. Mark’s email is mark.wang@hgv.com The American Resort Development Association (ARDA) represents timeshare companies in Washington, DC. Jason Gamel is the President and CEO of ARDA. Let’s let him know that overly creative financing is a bad look for the industry. You can email him at jgamel@arda.org. Or… if you’ve heard the “good investment” sales pitch from another timeshare company, and want to let their top brass know, here is a list ARDA published of its VIPs across all its member companies. Maybe you can find your timeshare company executive and tell them about the consequences of deceitful sales practices. And if your timeshare company won’t keep its promises, you can always let us know at info@timesharefacts.com. PS: Follow us on social media. Twitter Facebook Instagram |
