RCI Weeks to offer value transparency - Finally!

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

So 7 months of living in limbo

When you talk about it being rolled out in November, are you talking about it being operational and implemented, or just officially communicated ?

Thanks,

Chris

Operational.

[logan115 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close logan115]

Thanks

[rapmarks Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close rapmarks]

will it apply to weeks already spacebanked?

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

++++++

For myself I look at it this way.

When I buy steaks, what interests me are the prices the store has for its steak. I really don't care that the "mechanism for setting them [isn't] totally transparent". And I'm pretty sure that almost everyone else who is out shopping for steaks feels the same way.

Not only that, I'm certain that none of us gives a damn if the grocery store has cut some back-alley deal with an outfit such as the Black Angus Stockmens Trading Association of the Roanoke Delta that results in the store overpricing steaks produced by from cattle raised by BASTARDs.

If that BASTARD steak is overpriced, I don't buy it. I simply get my steaks someplace else. Others who feel as I do will do the same. Some folks who think BASTARDs are cool will pay the premium, but if the price for being a BASTARD is too high, the store is going to be stuck trying to figure out what to with a bunch of rotten BASTARDs

I utterly fail to see how it's any different with RCI. I utterly fail to see how knowing what a unit is worth before you deposit it with RCI in an way, shape, or fashion is a disservice to owners.
.

BIG difference. You have a choice of grocery stores, which gives competition. RCI on the other hand is a quasi-monopoly because many resorts are not dual affiliated and not enough of the market is aware of the services of the independents. How a monopoly sets its prices is a VERY different thing than where there is a free market. Indeed that's why government often regulates monopoly prices as in utilities. Utilities usually have to justify to regulators why they set the prices they do. There is not yet a free market between exchange companies in timesharing. Treating RCI like it operates within a free market is simply incorrect.

Second a grocery store uses its capital to purchase its own goods. RCI takes deposits of customers goods, more like a consignment shop, rather than producing its own. Unlike a grocery store, RCI members have to be concerned both about the price going in and the price coming out. A grocery store might be an analogy if you found one where members, say, brought in and deposited carrots or tomatoes and took out steaks. But again a customer at such a grocery store would be much more concerned about the value set for his carrots and how it was derived.

[2caribbeantravelers Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 2caribbeantravelers]

But what if you have a good week that's undervalued? Since RCI is determining the value....ughhhh. I just about had a system worked out.

And let me ask this. Somehow I'm suspecting there will be a way to pay money for an "upgrade," and over time those upgrades will cost more and more and more, and pretty soon everything will be an upgrade, no matter what you deposit.

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

If we end up with ''pay for upgrades'' combined with skewing the numbers from what we all know from experience is an even trade now, this system will add up to a huge ripoff by RCI of its customers and just another way to squeeze money out of us. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

The key will be to watch for significant differences in trade values from those which exist now. The overbuilt areas will be a key place to watch. If they end up being valued at more than what we can see by the current market they are really worth, we will smell a particularly large rat at RCI. Again, let's hope such hanky panky does not happen.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

If we end up with ''pay for upgrades'' combined with skewing the numbers from what we all know from experience is an even trade now, this system will add up to a huge ripoff by RCI of its customers and just another way to squeeze money out of us.

Two deposits to get the exchange we used to get for one would not be as bad as the $1200 they wanted for it this year.

Yes, it is a far cry from what many of us bought into. Some say boo hoo to us, that thing progress and move on, but I say the promises made to us to get us involved in timesharing didn't have anything to do with what's going on now. RCI had been around for almost 20 years and no one had any reason to believe it would not be anything more than an exchange company.

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

I understand it will be announced within two months.

Anyone hearing anything more about this? We're nearing that "two months" date...

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

I guess that means if you have any RCI deposits left, get your trades confirmed now. If RCI screws you on value in this change once they reveal their numbers racket, demand your week back from them so you can give it to another exchange company.

Of course, other sources say November for a rollout, so you may have a little more time.

[jmbklj Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jmbklj]

If we end up with ''pay for upgrades'' combined with skewing the numbers from what we all know from experience is an even trade now, this system will add up to a huge ripoff by RCI of its customers and just another way to squeeze money out of us. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

Maybe they're taking lessons from Delta, Carolinian, and we can expect devaluations, "pay for upgrades" & more fees to contribute to their revenue enhancement.

I'm very much a newbie to timeshares, but this is a bit of deja vu, based on what other travel related industries (hotels, airlines) are doing in the marketplace.

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

Once known owners get to "vote" with their weeks

If we end up with ''pay for upgrades'' combined with skewing the numbers from what we all know from experience is an even trade now, this system will add up to a huge ripoff by RCI of its customers and just another way to squeeze money out of us. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

Because I say dog blue and white times are over valued while you say Orlando and amenity filled resorts are over valued does that mean everyone else now knows from "experience" (who's?) they are in fact an even trade? Of course not.

There has to be a third party - one that stands to lose if they get it wrong - to look and say what in fact makes up an even trade. In this case it's RCI. We are not likely to agree with every valuation they make but I'll hazard a guess that they will be closer to break even overall than you, me or any other individual that tackles the WHOLE TIMESHARE WORLD.

Again we hold the key. If we don't like it either way then do not use it. If enough see it "isn't fair" the inventory will be withheld and RCI will have to adjust or lose out. If the members speak with informed decisions (based on the value number skillfully kept hidden from them in the past - it has always been there!) then that will tell us it really IS even & fair. Again WE may not like it but the majority of owners/members will have spoken with their weeks & dollars. THAT is proof things are right - lack of deposits & trades (lower money) will show that things got assigned wrong.


We do finally have a way to prove how well RCI did valuations that current, hidden valuations could never provide. I look forward to it.

[2caribbeantravelers Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 2caribbeantravelers]

When will we know the value of our weeks? Will there be a value for bonus weeks (certificates)? How will those be used in the new system?

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

Lets look at what RCI's real gambit is with all of their numbers rackets, and that is to try to trap members into their system as much as possible. The way they first rolled out GPN / RCI Points was really awful. Once in, you could only escape at long intervals (8 or 10 years if memory serves) and then only if you very precisedly followed their escape mechanism. Fail to touch a base or miss a key date and you had to wait another 8-10 years to try again. Fortunately, Blackwell Brogden of the NC Real Estate Commission came down on them like a ton of bricks for that heavy handed crap and told them they would be classified as a developer rather than an exchange program if they did not shorten the time commitment to 3 years or less and simplify the escape mechanism. Brogden was also campaigning hard with other state real estate commissions to take a similar stance, when RCI caved in.

With an exact number system, the deterant to leaving their system that they are trying to create is leaving value on the table. Those with leftover ''hanging points'' (sort of like a hanging chad) and those who have stripped points from an upcoming year are forced to leave value on the table if they leave RCI. With a clean week-for-week trade, there is no control mechanism over members of leaving value on the table.

As to values of weeks, it is supply and demand that set these, and ignoring the way supply is impacted by overbuilding in certain areas is just whistling past the graveyard. And while not scientific, every thread on every t/s site that I have seen on the subject shows that timesharers overwhelmingly value location over bells and whistles (amenities).

Because I say dog blue and white times are over valued while you say Orlando and amenity filled resorts are over valued does that mean everyone else now knows from "experience" (who's?) they are in fact an even trade? Of course not.

There has to be a third party - one that stands to lose if they get it wrong - to look and say what in fact makes up an even trade. In this case it's RCI. We are not likely to agree with every valuation they make but I'll hazard a guess that they will be closer to break even overall than you, me or any other individual that tackles the WHOLE TIMESHARE WORLD.

Again we hold the key. If we don't like it either way then do not use it. If enough see it "isn't fair" the inventory will be withheld and RCI will have to adjust or lose out. If the members speak with informed decisions (based on the value number skillfully kept hidden from them in the past - it has always been there!) then that will tell us it really IS even & fair. Again WE may not like it but the majority of owners/members will have spoken with their weeks & dollars. THAT is proof things are right - lack of deposits & trades (lower money) will show that things got assigned wrong.


We do finally have a way to prove how well RCI did valuations that current, hidden valuations could never provide. I look forward to it.

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

Is There Any Update In What RCI is Planning?

And when RCI will start this program?

Walt

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

All I know is that some resorts seem to have been briefed in various levels of detail on this while others have not been told a thing. That is not an honest way for RCI to be dealing with its member resorts, but it probably shows who is going to get hosed when their flim-flam numbers racket is announced.

The most dangerous thing about this, though, is that it will happen just about the time many m/f bills are going out. They are really screwing their member resorts with their timing. Many owners who exchange are going to be real unhappy campers just at the time they get their m/f bill, and I suspect that will trigger a tsunami of bailouts, all caused by RCI. If the pirates running RCI had any concern about their member resorts, they would time this for about when most m/f's had been paid, say about February. But then who knows what RCI's full agenda is on this gambit.

And when RCI will start this program?

Walt