I assume there is a factual answer, so here goes. I occasionally watch network TV during the daytime and I noticed that the ads are very different than the ones they run at night. Some of them are about refurbishing your roof, others about life alert devices, and many are about purchasing life insurance, but the one that caught my eye was about how they will get me out of my timeshare obligation.
I’m guessing they will give me a low-ball offer to buy my timeshare and then turnaround and sell it on the open market, but is that what’s going on? If that’s what it is, why don’t they just come out and say it? During the commercial they don’t even hint at how they are going to accomplish what they are promising. Can someone enlighten me on how this supposedly works?
For the record, I don’t now, and have never owned a timeshare, but I know a lot of people who do and are always complaining about how much they have to pay each year in maintenance fees etc.
Well, yeah. The business model only makes sense if those same companies that are getting you out of timeshares are themselves timeshare-selling companies. Is it a surprise that a business that’s slimy on one side of the business is also slimy on the other side?
Unfortunately I have WAY too much experience with this. My mother has called me numerous times over the last 30 years to ask me to dissuade my father from sending money to a timeshare exit company.
They have paid $25,000 over the last 35 years for the timeshare itself. And numerous times have paid $150/$300/$500 to timeshare exit companies for an “appraisal fee” who then either are completely unresponsive or ask for more money for “marketing” or “legal fees”.
It was bad enough when these solicitations came via the mail. Now they are coming from endorsements buried in the religious and political videos they watch all day.
There are consumer protection laws and intricacies of contract law that could invalidate a poorly written[1] or fraudulently induced timeshare contract, or at least create enough risk that a threatened lawsuit will persuade partners to buy out your share. Sometimes lawyering up is enough leverage to get the resort or whoever to buy back your deed. Bankruptcy is another option of last resort.
~Max
[1] You think sleazy timeshare operators pay top dollar for good contract drafting?
There is an timeshare exit company that advertises in the radio locally (& I presume on local stations in many markets) how they were one of the first TSE companies & have been doing this for decades, yada, yada, yada. He speaks a line that the TSE co is not a law firm & he, the founder/speaker is “most definitely not a lawyer”
Not only do I not now or have I ever owned one, I have never even considered it but I wonder what type of firm they are. Anyone have a clue
Yes. I do think that they do. Their entire business model collapses if they have poorly written contracts. I think they have very good lawyers on retainer both to make sure that the contracts are air tight and that they don’t let people out of them outside of death or bankruptcy law. Spend even a few minutes on timeshare reselling websites, and you’ll find plenty of people taking huge losses to try to get out of their contracts. If they were poorly written, that wouldn’t be the case.
No, but the humungoid companies they work for most certainly do. If you can find examples of someone “lawyering” their way out of a timeshare contract, please present it.
Hey, I’ll admit when I’m wrong. I did not realize most timeshares are now the big resort type (hence partners buying out shares), and I did not know the TV ads were for sketchy “exit companies” (I don’t watch much television and assumed they were law firm ads).
In which case no, the resorts are not sleazy operators, the contracts are probably written by lawyers, and the TV advertisement does not correspond to real legal services I mentioned. I suspect big resorts have some terms for buyback, for a fee that is probably less than what you would pay a lawyer.
That being said, I can back up my other claims - which go to the title question. Even those well-written timeshare contracts are not necessarily legally airtight. A meritorious lawsuit would be settled or arbitrated, so the judgments are rarely made public. It would never go to trial with a public judgment. Which is a feature, especially for resorts that need to avoid bad PR. But you asked for an example:
(This is from a case where there was a settlement, then a second lawsuit over a second timeshare, and Wyndham is arguing the second lawsuit is either barred by or invalidates the earlier settlement.)
From what I’ve heard, it’s common for time share exit companies to offer little more than what consumers can do by themselves, as noted in this BBB complaint by someone who paid a well-known and heavily advertised time share firm. Ironically, there are BBB complaints from people who haven’t been able to get out of their contract…with the time share exit company.
I have some familiarity with timeshare companies. First off, my stepfather tried to foist his timeshare off on me some 30 years ago. I declined.
Then my stepson was heavily involved in selling them for Wyndham for about 15 years or so, actually getting into a management role. A few years later, I was bemused to find out that a coworker bought into Wyndham and was later convinced to “upgrade” their membership to a resort in Kauai. (Now how often is a person living in New England going to fly to Kauai?) I hate to ask him how his timeshare is working out for him…
But then about 20 years ago, my family and I got obsessed with Disney and ended up going there every year or two, which gets expensive. I saw the ads and ultimately went to a Disney Vacation Club (DVC) presentation, which is their version of a timeshare for various Disney resorts. I’d heard that they were not high-pressure, but ours was…and we actually signed on the dotted line. I then promptly cancelled within the rescission period after I’d done some more research.
A few months later, we bought resale for less than half the price of buying directly from Disney. And 16 years later, I’m glad I got it. We still go to Disney every year or two, and my calculations show that we are saving about 70% off rack rate. Plus there is a robust market for DVC memberships, and if I wanted to, I could actually sell mine for more than I paid for it.
So in this very narrow case, it’s worked out well for me. Plus my membership has an expiration date. It doesn’t last forever, and I have no intention of foisting it on my heirs.
Finally, I will say that after watching the John Oliver video and seeing all the people who got scammed, it’s very important to know exactly what you are getting into. I leverage mine to the hilt; I know exactly how it works, and I’ve never lost so much as a point. I expect my family and I will eventually tire of Disney, but it hasn’t happed yet. But I’m sure it will at some point.
