RCI Points class action - another lawyer sellout / settlement

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

The cover story on the current issue of Timesharing Today magazine tells a sad tale for timesharers that I cannot say was unexpected. Like the RCI Weeks lawsuit, the lawyers allegedly representing the plaintiffs in the RCI Points class action over RCI's rental of exchange inventory to the general public caved for a joke of a settlement, more properly described as a sellout of their clients interests while the lawyers get paid handsomely.

Like the RCI Weeks lawsuit, the lawyers did not bother to even conduct discovery to determine how strong a case they had before waving a white flag. This is just disgusting, and IMHO the lawyers involved are absolutely unethical. The lawyers in this case get paid $835,000, less than the RCI Weeks sell out which was over a million. That money gets paid by RCI, which in effect has purchased a slap on the wrist that allows them to keep screwing their members. There is no injunctive relief whatsoever to stop the fraudulent behavior that gave rise to the lawsuit.

The only thing that the suckers . . .er, plaintiff class. . . gets is $12 if they file a claim that they believe they have been victims of three instances of not getting exchanges due to RCI's rental of exchange inventory they wanted.

The only ray of hope is that there was a seperate class action filed in California on behalf of RCI Points members in that state, and the lawyers in that case have filed a motion to consolidate the cases and to object to the sellout / settlement in the main case. Maybe they will actually fight to accomplish something for their clients if they can block the settlement, or maybe they will just have their own hands out for big ''legal fee'' buyoffs, too, and also then screw their clients. Maybe they will negotiate the meaningless trinket up to $14 or so.

Watching these backstabbing lawyers at work on the RCI class action lawsuits makes me a big advocate of class action reform. One thing I would definitely do is to not allow what amounts to payoffs by the defendants for sellouts by plaintiffs lawyers. I would condition any legal fees paid upon obtaining meaningful injunctive relief against the harm complained of. If that was the standard none of the RCI class action lawyers would have gotten a dime, and none of them deserved to get a dime.

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Proposing or supporting yet another class action will have the exact same outcome as was widely predicted - and that came to fruition - for the previous ones. Total failure to protect the members/owners, big payouts to the shyster lawyer groups and more cost to everyone. It got worse as at least one settlement blessed the very program (renting weeks) that it was proposed to stop!

How many times does this have to be repeated before everyone realizes that talking with your assets - by withholding money and/or deposits of time in these cases - speaks far louder than any scheming law group can with bogus class actions? Put an end to calls for class actions or lawsuits of any kind and stop paying your membership and depositing your valuable time! If enough owners do that the former exchange companies - now full time rental agents with free inventory - will have to make changes. What they've managed so far is, as stated, relatively cheap pay offs to corrupt lawyers and then they charge the members for that too!

Stop dealing with them and watch how quickly it changes.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

The propensity of class action lawyers to represent no one but their own pocketbook is the main reason that, from the beginning I took the position that the legal strategy to stop the rental was a State Attorney General consumer protection lawsuit. Indeed, you don't probably even need to get to the lawsuit stage. State AG's have wide subpoena powers to conduct pre-litigation investigations, and I would bet that would turn up enough to make RCI the one to wave a white flag.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Maybe this explains the reason for the price increase.
We're all paying for this legal circus. What a joke.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Anyone proposing a class action lawsuit can now see that it was a totally wasted effort that served only to line to pockets of scumbag lawyers. Everyone predicted this outcome. It should not surprise anyone.

The only action that serves the public is the self interest of consumers to be well educated and make smart choices with service providers who best meet their needs.

We need to spend more time educating consumers and less time spending money on worthless lawyers.

[skimble Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close skimble]

How many times does this have to be repeated before everyone realizes that talking with your assets - by withholding money and/or deposits of time in these cases - speaks far louder than any scheming law group can with bogus class actions? Put an end to calls for class actions or lawsuits of any kind and stop paying your membership and depositing your valuable time! If enough owners do that the former exchange companies - now full time rental agents with free inventory - will have to make changes. What they've managed so far is, as stated, relatively cheap pay offs to corrupt lawyers and then they charge the members for that too!

Stop dealing with them and watch how quickly it changes.

RCI has negotiated some sweet deals with the mini-systems. I don't know the details of the deals, but I know this much:
1. Memberships are included with many of them. (Automatic revenue.)
2. Some minis are tucking in the extra RCI membership fee into their maintenance fee assessment. If you just pay the bottom line, you will miss the fee (and they've become more clever about how they've presented it on the billing statement.)
3. RCI gets guaranteed deposits (long known.)
4. RCI has negotiated to get a higher proportion of prime deposits. 75/25 split. I went to a board meeting once where they were discussing a transition to Points. The members of the board were offended that RCI wanted a lions share of the primes.
5. They've negotiated RCI Points deals with some high-demand resorts like the Carlsbad Inn (a resort where all weeks and units are fixed ownerships... how do you offer split weeks for Points?) I'm generalizing, but I know this opens the options for renting 3 day weekends and split weeks. Since RCI does not deal in partial week rentals, they need an engine for doing this. Resortime actively rents partial weeks, and they are operated by Grand Pacific. Resortime is a conduit for funneling multiple timeshare rentals out to the general market. I would imagine there are more like it. I'm sure there are ways RCI is helping Grand Pacific, and I'm sure it's a mutually lucrative benefit. I'm also sure that if they are doing this stuff with one mini-system, they're doing it with the others too.
I would imagine the ability to split weeks would be highly profitable... and it would open up more rental possibilities/channels.
6. RCI will stop at nothing to make a profit-- ethical or not (that's a truism.) Push them, and they'll push back. Provoke them, and they'll find better ways to do the same things. Now, they're still renting primes, maybe even worse than before.... only-- they now have partners to launder it through.

I think RCI is fairly bullet proof, and they've made themselves even more secure since the first lawsuit.