So why do you suppose timeshare companies always rush new owners through the signing of sales documents at the end of a lengthy sales pitch.
 
Could it be so the owners will sign without reading the “fine print?”
 
Scroll through the complaints against Hilton Grand Vacations on file with the Better Business Bureau and you’ll find a fair amount that involve owners who were never allowed enough time for a good review of what they were signing.
 
So, we were more than surprised to come across someone who actually DID read the fine print. 
 
Sadly, it didn’t protect them from Hilton’s unethical behavior.
 
“In November 2023, I attended a timeshare sales presentation under the guise of being taken for a tour of a new hotel property. At the time, what was promised with the timeshare option sounded reasonable, so I agreed to purchase the points.”
 
A happy Hilton owner! We don’t see that every day.
 
“I had not used my points, so in February, when I got a call from Hilton Grand Vacations to take a trip on their dream vacation package using my bonus points, I planned to bring my daughter in May.”
 
“The dream vacation was hardly a dream.”
 
Sadly, happiness only lasts so long with Hilton.
 
“In my meeting to ‘show me how the new website worked,’ I was encouraged to ‘refinance’ my initial loan and for doing so, I would receive additional points.”
 
Hmm. We wonder why they keep putting quotation marks around “refinance.”
 
“As part of this process to ‘refinance,’ I was told I had to complete a credit card application for the Hilton AMEX. I did so, thinking I was going to get a better loan rate.”
 
Okay, now we’re wondering what a credit card has to do with the “refinance.”
 
“The more the salesman talked, the clearer it became that this was fishy, so I explained I had a meeting to attend to and asked for documents to be sent to me via email for signing via DocuSign. Then I left.”
 
“Reading the fine print, this was not a refinance at all, it was me purchasing more points at a lower interest rate and putting the balance on the AMEX.”
 
THAT’s why they kept putting “refinance” in quotation marks!
 
Ironic.
 
“I stopped everything and did not submit the DocuSign. I let the salesman know that this was not a refinance and I was not interested in buying additional points.”
 
Reading the fine print really paid off!
 
Well…not exactly.
 
“Then, last week, I got a letter from a title company. I am at a loss for how they sent anything to a title company without me completing the official documents.”
 
“This is fraud.”
 
No irony there.
 
As it happens, we’ve been reading some fine print of our own. It’s called the Code of Ethics for the American Resort Developers Association (ARDA), the timeshare company trade association. And it states, “Verbal representations should be consistent with information contained in sales documents, contracts and written disclosures.”
 
In other words, Hilton agents really shouldn’t be saying something is a “refinance” when the sales documents say it’s actually a purchase of additional points.
 
The Chair of ARDA’s Ethics Committee is Gordon Gurnik, the Chief Operating Officer of Hilton Grand Vacations. Let’s email him at gordon.gurnik@hgv.com to ask whether he thinks his co-workers keep violating the “ethics code” because they know he won’t do anything about it.
 
We could ask Mark Wang, the CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations, the same question by emailing him at mark.wang@hgv.com. He’s on ARDA’s board of directors, so he’s probably pretty happy that “ethics enforcement” is left up to his own COO.
 
Jason Gamel, ARDA’s CEO and President, is also on the Ethics Committee and approves all its members. Email him at jason.gamel@arda.org and ask if “ethics” is really a “thing” at ARDA.
 
Want to ask your timeshare company’s leaders if “timeshare ethics” means anything to them? Use this list of ARDA VIPs to get in touch.
  
Or do you think “timeshare ethics” is more of an oxymoron? Tell us why at info@timesharefacts.com 
  
PS:  Follow us on social media.  Twitter   Facebook   Instagram