| “Respect your elders.” It’s one of the first lessons we teach our children. And yet…somehow it is a lesson that the adults at Diamond Resorts seem to have forgotten. Or don’t care about … In fact, it’s stunning how many stories we’ve found among the more than 2,170 pages of complaints against Diamond Resorts in the Florida Attorney General’s office that involve seniors who are just trying to do right by their children but can’t…because of Diamond’s disregard for the elderly. Take Joan and Bruce, from Pasadena, Maryland. She’s 76 years old, he’s 80. After being Diamond timeshare owners since 2010, they had enough. As they recounted to the Attorney General, they told a sales representative at their last Diamond “owners update”, “we were sick of the presentation pressures and that our primary concern was that we did not want our children to be held responsible for our yearly maintenance fees.” “We wanted out of the program. We didn’t want to continue with Diamond Resorts.” “We were told no problem, that there were a lot of people, elderly like ourselves, that just wanted out. They informed us there was an insurance policy that they offered that would do just that.” Well, that sounds promising. “All we had to do was sign up for one more ‘Sampler Package’…for $4,000 and we would not need to worry any longer about our children being held responsible for the yearly maintenance fees.” “They said the insurance forms would arrive in several weeks, (conveniently after the ·contract could be voided by us).” Turns out the so-called “insurance policy” was just an empty promise. “After a few weeks passed and we didn’t receive anything from them, we immediately called Diamond Resorts and we were told they didn’t know anything about an insurance policy.” “We were just signed up for another Sampler Package.” UNBELIEVABLE… …well, except this was Diamond, after all. “We contacted DRI Sampler Department, read them the line in our Sampler package that said we could cash out within 30 days if we had paid what was due. We confirmed with AmEx that payment was scheduled within 30 days.” “We sent a registered letter to the DRI Sampler Dept. requesting full payment be returned. Now, a month later they have not responded, expect to have an agent call to schedule vacations using the Sampler Package which we are disputing and not using.” Ignoring their letter…then browbeating them to book more stays? How disrespectful! “This large company is behaving no better than the phone scammers who target the elderly.” Let’s tell Mark Wang it’s time Diamond started showing seniors some respect. He’s the CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations, which purchased Diamond Resorts in 2021. His email is mark.wang@hgv.com. Maybe Jason Gamel should hear that too. He’s the President and CEO of ARDA, the American Resort Development Association, which represents timeshare companies in Washington, DC. His email is jgamel@arda.org. Want to encourage your own timeshare company’s leaders to respect their elders? You can find their contact information in this list of ARDA VIPs. And, of course, if you know of any timeshare companies that need to treat seniors better, share what you know with us at info@timesharefacts.com. PS: Follow us on social media. Twitter Facebook Instagram |
