| Now there’s an email subject line that grabs your attention. Elder abuse is a pretty serious charge. But it seems justified after we read the full message from Marie in Vermilion, Ohio that was found among the 2,170 pages of complaints filed against Diamond in the Florida Attorney General’s office. “My husband, John, and I own a timeshare at Diamond Resorts. It is paid off completely.” “During our Florida vacation…we attended an update meeting. After the meeting, we were taken to an office where a representative suggested we pay our maintenance fees monthly.” That sounds helpful. “He asked for our bank account routing numbers and also suggested that we freeze our points to make it more affordable if we wanted to sell our timeshare. For $349, he had us sign a paper for a two year freeze for our points.” A fee to make something more affordable? Hmmm. Watch out… “We charged this to our Discover credit card. He handed us a packet of papers and we got back to our vacation.” Okay, maybe we were overly suspicious. But then…Marie and John got home. “We looked at our Diamond Resorts information online. We noticed that a Sampler Vacation was billed to us for $3995 plus $12.99 per interest to be paid over a 4 year period ($173.32/month) = $4000 plus interest.” Suspicions confirmed! “We immediately looked at the packet that was given to us at our meeting in Florida. Inside was a contract that we never saw or signed.” How did that happen? “Our signatures were computer generated.” Without their permission? There’s a word for that kind of activity. Actually…Marie thought of two. “We consider this quite fraudulent and illegal.” “We called Diamond Resorts and the people we talked to would not consider our position in the matter.” “We are 73 and 75 years old. We do NOT travel very much. We would never have agreed to buy a Sampler Vacation.” “We have been scammed.” Scammed…AND abused! Diamond should be ashamed of abusing seniors like Marie and John…but is it? Let’s ask Mark Wang. He’s the CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations, which purchased Diamond Resorts in 2021. Mark’s email is mark.wang@hgv.com And what does Jason Gamel think? He’s the President and CEO of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), the national trade association of the timeshare industry and Diamond is one of ARDA’s most prominent members. Let’s email Jason at jgamel@arda.org and ask whether ARDA is proud of Diamond’s behavior. Use this list of ARDA VIPs to contact your timeshare company’s leaders and ask what policies they have in place to prevent elder abuse like Marie and John experienced. If you or someone you know has been abused by a timeshare company, email us your story at info@timesharefacts.com PS: Follow us on social media. Twitter Facebook Instagram |
