| You have to hand it to Douglas, a sales agent from Diamond. Other Diamond agents spend a lot of time and effort imploring customers to overlook the questionable finances of a timeshare purchase with pie in the sky promises of… …“book anywhere” convenience… …complicated upgrade schemes… …and high-pressure pitches. But Douglas actually leans into the speculative finances of timeshares to make his sales. And he leans in hard. Definitely too hard for Carol from Clearwater, Florida. In fact, Douglas leaned in so hard that Carol was compelled to add her grievance to the 2,170 pages of complaints against Diamond Resorts on file in the Florida Attorney General’s office. Carol was already a Diamond owner when Douglas was assigned to her at a “required meeting” in Hawaii. “He spent approximately 5 hours trying the big sell.” Okay, maybe Douglas has that in common with his Diamond colleagues. “He told us that since we had purchased originally so long ago (in the 90’s), our ‘Points’ were available for purchase at the original price, or $3.65, for points that were now worth $11.00.” Of course, we all know timeshare points are more like Monopoly money than real dollars, but let’s see where this goes. “He told us that Hawaii allowed only a fixed amount of Commercial Resort Properties to exist on the Island, and that the one currently being built, Marriot Property nearby, was the last one. So, since there would be no more property available after that, within a year, two at max, Diamond would be coming back to us wanting to buy our Property back.” Of course, they would! “He used this to sell us that in the ‘year or two at max’ the ‘points’ that were now worth $11.00 each, would be worth at least $15.00 each. And since we would be purchasing them now at $3.65, we would be ‘sitting on a fortune.’” Of course, they would be! “He recommended if we could afford it, we should buy up to Platinum, prefacing the above ‘sitting on a fortune.’” Of course, they should! And they did. “So now, 18 months later, when we contacted Diamond Resorts for information on a ‘Buy Back’ we are told Diamond Resorts has no intention of buying back our Property.” Of course, they…DON’T! And, of course, Douglas knew that from the start. Maybe Douglas ought to lean in less and rein in more when it comes to promising returns. We hope Mark Wang would agree. He’s the CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations, which purchased Diamond Resorts in 2021. Let’s email Mark at mark.wang@hgv.com and find out. We hope Jason Gamel agrees, too. Jason’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 and see if he can help rein in speculative pitches. Does your timeshare lean in too hard when trying to sell you more? Use the contact information in this list of ARDA VIPs to tell its leaders to stop. If a timeshare agent promised you’d be sitting on a fortune but just left you hanging, we want to hear about it at info@timesharefacts.com. PS: Follow us on social media. Twitter Facebook Instagram |
