Unconfigured Ad Widget

Collapse

Unconfigured Ad Widget

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Growing discontent with RCI

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Growing discontent with RCI

    It seems like every time I turn around, I run into someone who was once happy with their exchange experience with RCI who is now wanting to run for cover.

    Today, a colleague from a nearby city and I were talking before court. He has owned a mix of red, white, and blue weeks on the OBX and in Willaimsburg for quite a few years and until last year was tickled with the exchanges he had gotten through RCI, many to England but also to the US and other European destinations. Last year about this time, I had also run into him in court and he had expressed concern that in previous years he had confirmed exchanges by then, but RCI seemed to be coming up with an empty bag for that summer. He was looking for two back to back weeks in his favorite destination, England, to take his new girlfriend. I mentioned to him about the RCI rentals and pointed out a few of the rental sites. He later told me that he had checked them out, then called RCI in a fury, demanded to speak to a supervisor, and told them he now knew why he couldn't get exchanges anymore and it was because RCI was renting the inventory, and he was going to take the issue to his HOA's. It must have been some conversation, because the supervisor ended up finding him two back to back weeks in England before he got off the phone.

    Today, he said he was just going to let his RCI membership run out. He had just got back from an RCI spring break exchange, but said this year was the same as last year and a far cry from what RCI exchanging used to be. He did not want to keep having to go through what he did last year to get a decent exchange. He asked me for info on the independent exchange companies I had told him about last year. He has mentioned before about how easy and profitable it was to rent one of his red weeks a few years ago, so I suspect he might also go that route. But he had clearly given up on RCI.

    This is an all too common attitude among timesharers these days, but with luck maybe success for timesharers in the class actions against RCI rentals will turn things back around.

  • #2
    I feel the same way as your friend. When RCI calls about membership renewal I tell them how unhappy I am with the services. I am paid thru 2012, but they still call with offers.

    Comment


    • #3
      We are in total agreement.

      Comment


      • #4
        You can quit RCI now and get a refund.

        Originally posted by funtime2
        I feel the same way as your friend. When RCI calls about membership renewal I tell them how unhappy I am with the services. I am paid thru 2012, but they still call with offers.
        It is not nessary for your membership to run out to quit RCI. If you cancel your RCI membership they will refund you your remaining years of dues.
        Bill

        Comment


        • #5
          I believe it is a refund that is prorated....I don't think you get the full value you might expect to get back.
          Life is short, live it with this awareness.

          Comment


          • #6
            Should we all start posting

            I have run into plenty of owners happy with RCI (yes, within the past two months) and disillusioned with II. Should we start posting each anedote as a separate thread? Or perhaps it is safe to say that some people are not happy with trades (interestingly almost always weeks trades) and may leave the company they have used? (By 2012? - that will hurt for sure!) How about all the happy, new points owners - does each get a thread? The BBS may be overwelmed if we do that.

            This type of post does nothing to add to the wealth of knowledge. We already know some owners dislike RCI now and that they most likely talk them down any chance they get. It is no surprise that one person may leave RCI some day. We really don't need to read about it on the rare occasion one actually may follow through.

            Comment


            • #7
              Correct.

              A membership going until 2012 would have a substantial per year discount. To figure the refund RCI would recompute the years that have been used at the full one-year price, subtract that from the amount paid for the long-term membership, and then refund the difference. We just had this discussion not long ago.
              - - - - - -
              As for unsatisfactory exchanges, I just did a search for someone Over Yonder this morning, someone interested in buying where we own, for trading purposes. Both are better-trading and our mediocre-trading weeks did just fine, saw what he would use them for.

              I've been contacted by the Classaction folks, two of them, and it's hard to take one side or the other. I simply can't fully side with one or the other, period.

              Do I agree with some of the things RCI is doing? No.

              Do I see all the resorts I used to see in my daily searches? No.

              But, are we getting at least like-for-like exchanges (or better)? Yes. Frankly, exchanging would have to deteriorate substantially more before we are not getting like-for-like.

              Are we getting a great value for our money? Yes. At the very least we are still getting $1000 accomodations for under $400, and in some cases $2000 and $3000 accomodations.

              Perhaps those folks who bought high-dollar upper end resorts with high annual fees have a beef, but not us beer, BBQ and hot tub folks.

              A year ago my neighbors tried to extort money from us by harassing and intimidating us to try to get us to approve a contract they had entered us into without our knowledge or consent. When I asked the Sheriff's Chief Deputy if I could file charges, he asked what our loss had been. Since we did not give them any money, we had no loss, so we could not file charges.

              So, I said to those who contacted me about the classaction suits, "If I am suing someone, I have to have had a loss, and then ask for that amount of money. What is it that I have lost?

              Neither have contacted me since.

              PS--I see a post snuck in on me. If someone wants to post something, let 'em. If it strikes interest, others will join, and if doesn't, it will just sit there like my threads!

              Originally posted by katiemack
              I believe it is a refund that is prorated....I don't think you get the full value you might expect to get back.
              RCI Member Since 24-Aug-1989/150-plus Exchanges***THE TIMESHARE GRIM REAPER~~~Exchanging/Searching/SW Florida/MO/AR/IA/Consumer Advocacy/Estate Planning/Sports/Boating/Fishing/Golf/Lake-living/Retirement****Sometimes ya just gotta be a dick

              Comment


              • #8
                Actually, anecdotes are quite interesting to read...keep any and all of them coming.

                We each have our "version" of how we like a timeshare company and each of us is welcome to share our stories....pro con and slanted or not...what is wrong with sharing?

                Our feelings about RCI are not favorable, and we have shared that on numerous occasions...we agree in part with JLB's post...but when a person buys a timeshare and they want to exchange it thru RCI they had better be ready for a rocky road to "success"....even when someone has made an exchange, they have gotten the news that RCI has canceled it on them....so why shouldn't we talk about these things here....and yes, if it means separate threads ad infinitum, why not....after all it is called Timeshare Forums....
                Life is short, live it with this awareness.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by JLB
                  Correct.

                  A membership going until 2012 would have a substantial per year discount. To figure the refund RCI would recompute the years that have been used at the full one-year price, subtract that from the amount paid for the long-term membership, and then refund the difference. We just had this discussion not long ago.
                  - - - - - -
                  As for unsatisfactory exchanges, I just did a search for someone Over Yonder this morning, someone interested in buying where we own, for trading purposes. Both are better-trading and our mediocre-trading weeks did just fine, saw what he would use them for.

                  I've been contacted by the Classaction folks, two of them, and it's hard to take one side or the other. I simply can't fully side with one or the other, period.

                  Do I agree with some of the things RCI is doing? No.

                  Do I see all the resorts I used to see in my daily searches? No.

                  But, are we getting at least like-for-like exchanges (or better)? Yes. Frankly, exchanging would have to deteriorate substantially more before we are not getting like-for-like.

                  Are we getting a great value for our money? Yes. At the very least we are still getting $1000 accomodations for under $400, and in some cases $2000 and $3000 accomodations.

                  Perhaps those folks who bought high-dollar upper end resorts with high annual fees have a beef, but not us beer, BBQ and hot tub folks.

                  A year ago my neighbors tried to extort money from us by harassing and intimidating us to try to get us to approve a contract they had entered us into without our knowledge or consent. When I asked the Sheriff's Chief Deputy if I could file charges, he asked what our loss had been. Since we did not give them any money, we had no loss, so we could not file charges.

                  So, I said to those who contacted me about the classaction suits, "If I am suing someone, I have to have had a loss, and then ask for that amount of money. What is it that I have lost?

                  Neither have contacted me since.

                  PS--I see a post snuck in on me. If someone wants to post something, let 'em. If it strikes interest, others will join, and if doesn't, it will just sit there like my threads!
                  Jim,

                  Nice post. It is more reflective of reality than what the RCI critics would want the general timesharing population to know.

                  That you have taken out more than your fair share just helps to reinforce how patently unfair the weeks exchange system is and always was.

                  Anyone can learn how to timeshare the way you have. I've learned enough to take more than my fair share as well.

                  I believe a lot of what is happening is people need someone to blame for their bad trades. RCI is an easy target. I think they should consider that perhaps it's their timesharing strategy that is at fault and not RCI.
                  My Rental Site
                  My Resale Site

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Boca - Are you then condoning RCI's skimming of exchange deposits for rental to non-members, which obviously diminishes the exchange pool? It seems you are trying to blame the victim.

                    In any market based system, like RCI Weeks, there will be times when a week that might normally have more demand and less supply has those factors skewed by either more deposits than normal or a temporary fall off in demand.
                    The market then operates to reduce the trading power needed. That dynamic pricing, where the system self corrects for changes in supply and demand is what results in a Weeks based system for the ''trades up''. The alternative to letting the market adjust price due to the realities of everchanging supply and demand factors is to arbitrarily rig prices, but when that is done, inventory in oversupply goes unused OR is shunted off somewhere else - like exchange company rentals. The question is whether the members or the exchange company should get the benefit of these quirks in supply and demand. The Christel deHahn model at RCI said it was the members. Now that Cendant has taken over RCI, they say RCI should get the benefit through rentals. That is one of the reasons why longtime RCI members are becoming dissatisfied. They may not know why it is happening but they can see the results, and they don't like it.

                    The real problem with trades up is in the RCI Points system where they are institutionalized. Overbuilt areas are systematically overpointed. Resorts in developer sales are systematically overpointed while sold out resorts are shortchanged on points. Weeks resorts are ripped off through the unfair generic crossover grids.

                    Let me give you an example of one of those designed in trade up situations within RCI Points (you don't even have to go to the crossover grids for this one!):

                    Let's say you own a BLUE March week 12, 2BR, at inland resort Sandcastle Village II in New Bern, NC, which gives you 44,000 RCI points. You decide you want to go to an oceanfront resort within the RCI Points system, so you take a RED August week 33, 2BR, at oceanfront BIS Ocean Pines in Duck, NC, which only costs 42,500 points. You get a trade up and even have 1,500 points ''change'' left over! It is extremely unlikely that supply and demand factors would EVER be skewed enough in RCI Weeks to allow someone to make such a trade up, but the numbers racket of RCI Points allows members there to do it every day!

                    The real ''trade up'' problem is in RCI Points, not RCI Weeks.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I beg to differ with the weeks trading up. I am one of the people you Merryotters love to hate. I bought one week for $500 which was recently bought by MROP and another week for $200. I have had the pleasure of unbelieveable trades, mainly because I am flexible. Examples are Smuggs, HGVC Las Vegas, Peek n Peek, Sheraton Broadway, Greensprings, Mayan Riviera, and on and on.

                      I don't do ongoing searches with RCI. (It would drive me crazy) I do my own searches. I rarely keep anything in the bank because I find something I truly want within a week, usually only 2 or 3 days.

                      My gripe is not with the exchanges but with the fees. At the rate they are going up I am not sure how much longer I can enjoy my hobby, which is seeing how good of a trade I can do with my cheapie weeks. shaggy

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Points and rent work as a market force

                        And if you look at the comments about those two resorts you'll find that the Ocean Pines is nearly a dump on the beach while the Sandcastle is a silver crown. I know you hate the fact that quality can play into the value of exchange or points value but this appears to be a case where that is exactly what is happening. As you often try to say the quantity of resorts in some areas automatically discounts the value of any resort in that area therefore allowing poor traders to end up as an "equal" trade. The same idea would apply to this. The better resort in a potentially lesser location gets more points while the resort in the potentially better location, but lacking in quality and features, is worth less. Nothing wrong with that. If the location resort improves the units they would get a higher point value - as it should be. It is the fact that we can see what is going on vs the unknown of weeks that means everything. How anyone can defend weeks as being more market driven, when the market has no idea what is happening behind the scenes, is a mystery to me.

                        Points may not be perfect but every user knows going in what they own, what other resorts get and if that is satisfactory to them. If weeks were that open no one would have ever purchased white or blue time and that would have caused the collaspe of most timeshares before anyone ever had a chance to use or exchange them. The artificial buffer of "exclusivity" couldn't last the minute an owner rented a timeshare to a non-owner. Points and rentals - to the benefit of the owners - can save timesharing for those that didn't buy to use. Weeks trades have led to the glut of poor time and dissappointed owners you see today.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Too bad we can't setup our "Ignore" list to include moderators!!!!!!!!!!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by shaggy
                            I beg to differ with the weeks trading up. I am one of the people you Merryotters love to hate. I bought one week for $500 which was recently bought by MROP and another week for $200. I have had the pleasure of unbelieveable trades, mainly because I am flexible. Examples are Smuggs, HGVC Las Vegas, Peek n Peek, Sheraton Broadway, Greensprings, Mayan Riviera, and on and on.

                            I don't do ongoing searches with RCI. (It would drive me crazy) I do my own searches. I rarely keep anything in the bank because I find something I truly want within a week, usually only 2 or 3 days.

                            My gripe is not with the exchanges but with the fees. At the rate they are going up I am not sure how much longer I can enjoy my hobby, which is seeing how good of a trade I can do with my cheapie weeks. shaggy
                            Shaggy,

                            You are the epitome of weeks exchange. Everyone should aspire to your level of competency. You are all about trading up. You are depositing cheap weeks and taking out prime weeks. As long as the trade up is greater than the RCI fees, you are in the black.

                            You shouldn't be hated. She should be beloved.
                            My Rental Site
                            My Resale Site

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Carolinian
                              Boca - Are you then condoning RCI's skimming of exchange deposits for rental to non-members, which obviously diminishes the exchange pool? It seems you are trying to blame the victim.
                              No, I am not condoning renting spacebank weeks by RCI although I believe renting of spacebank weeks should be allowed by depositers.

                              I am an advocate for personal accountability. If a person cannot get good trades, it's their fault for not leaving RCI.

                              I do not believe it is the governments responsibility to protect people in these matters. We should leave that up to the socialist republics who have double digit unemployment because nobody wants to hire or start a business there.

                              Once again, you bring up points into this discussion. I don't know why. I am simply saying that weeks based systems are unfair, are based on trade ups, prime week owner trade downs and unexchange weeks by many depositers. Points are not relevant to that discussion. Weeks systems are severely flawed with or without point systems.

                              Weeks exchange is like Pro Wrestling. Both are pretending to be something they are not. Weeks is pretending to be "market-based" and Pro Wrestling is pretending to be a competitive sport. Neither are true.
                              My Rental Site
                              My Resale Site

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X