SFX has anyone any experience of using them.

[Doc Holiday Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Doc Holiday]

I am considering using SFX and recommending them. Has anyone any experience of SFX? Does anyone find any benefit from their bonus weeks?

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

If you do a search of "SFX" you will find lots and lots of information.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

There are plus and minuses to all exchange companies, the poster JWC will only give you pluses.

[joycapecod Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close joycapecod]

I have had very little luck with them. I had a deposit expire without being able to find anything. I did get an exchange to Club Donetello San Francisco that was ok. I felt the room was one given to exchangers and was rather unhappy about it, but it was where I wanted to be when I wanted to be there. I got another exchange to Scotland during a school holiday week that I felt was a basic resort, but it was clean and again when and where I wanted to be. I have given away bankings because I could not get anything I wanted when I wanted to go. I live on the east coast and it seems most of their available resorts are on the west coast.

Yes, KWC will sign their praises. He seems to have excellent luck with them. Kudos to him.

Joy

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

I've had pretty good luck with them. As far as the bonus weeks go, I am always on the lookout for something to pop up close to home on short notice. I haven't seen anything in a while. That would make for a reasonable weekend getaway. Booking the bonus weeks much further out ends up costing more than what I can get from my minisystem's bonus weeks.

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

SFX always draws strong opinions on both sides: some people love them, others are very much not impressed. There seem to be two factors to this. One: it's a "person to person" sort of business. Many people report being assigned a particular agent, and working with that agent directly for a reasonably long term. Some agents appear to be more proactive than others in helping their "clients" get what they want. Two: if you read between the lines of the official representative's posts, it seems that SFX has a strong internal notion of what they value in terms of deposits. If you are depositing something they really want, that seems to help a lot. If you are not, well....

I've not personally used them. I've been told by the SFX rep that some of my fixed weeks are acceptable, but that they are of "limited regional demand". (Which I took to mean: "We don't really want them, so don't bother.") I have Wyndham points that I could use to book and deposit something that SFX might really want, but I haven't been in a position to need/want to.

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

I have deposited two HGVC weeks with them in the last 4 years, and have been generally satisfied. With HGVC, I can deposit a lower-point week and still receive good trades, as long as you reserve a "prime" week (as defined by SFX).

For my two 1BR HGVC deposits (using 6800 total HGVC points), I have received:

• 2BR Mayan Palace Riviera Maya Thanksgiving week ($130 exchange fee)
• 2BR VI Village at Steamboat, January ski week (~$300 bonus week)
• 2BR Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta, Spring Break week ($150 exchange fee)
• 2BR Grand Timber Lodge in Breckenridge, CO, January ski week ($540 bonus week)

I believe I paid $199 for a Platinum membership for part of that time, which gave me discounts on exchange fees and bonus week fees, and free upgrades to a 2BR for my exchange weeks.

For reference, 6800 points in the HGVC system will not even get you one 2BR HGVC week during prime season (that would cost 7000 points).

With SFX, if you are flexible on your dates and place, you will be much more successful. For example, my ski weeks were requests for any Colorado ski resort for Jan-Mar, and they both matched within a few weeks of the request. SFX has lots of inventory in Mexico, so that is a fairly easy trade.

Kurt

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

There are plus and minuses to all exchange companies, the poster JWC will only give you pluses.

Full disclosure, Tony: Have you ever used SFX?

Everyone else who has replied have disclosed if they have used SFX, but it is not clear if you have (I don't recall seeing you post in the SFX forum as a customer of SFX.).

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

I have used them once, 2009. It worked out well.
I tried to use them in 2011, they were not able to help me out with my request.

What I am not fond of is the calls I have received of the past month or two. They call and if I can't answer, they hang up. When they do reach me, it is to try to sell me an expensive ($1500) membership. They don't understand Bluegreen or how their program works, so SFX feels I have only one resort (the one I exchanged) and they always reference that resort and that I should exchange more rather than just use that resort.

I will be looking for an exchange for summer 2014 to Washington area and I will check to see what they have before I would use RCI.

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

I had a 1 br hhi deposit for mid October that I deposited 90 days prior last year. It was a freebie with purchase and not one I could use. I deposited to try out SFX and am afraid it will expire before I can find something that I can use. I should have deposited with II but wanted to give SFX a chance.

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

I have received exchanges for Palm Desert, Phoenix/Scottsdale, Las Vegas, Hawaii and Mexico over the past several years. I always deal with the same agent. I will continue to use them as well as RCI Points and the other exchange companies.

Lynn

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

No I do not use them. An on-line friend of mind had a problem with them releasing some personal information about him, and you can guess who came to their defense in a thread that went on for weeks OY.

Full disclosure, Tony: Have you ever used SFX?

Everyone else who has replied have disclosed if they have used SFX, but it is not clear if you have (I don't recall seeing you post in the SFX forum as a customer of SFX.).

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

SFX always draws strong opinions on both sides: some people love them, others are very much not impressed. There seem to be two factors to this. One: it's a "person to person" sort of business. Many people report being assigned a particular agent, and working with that agent directly for a reasonably long term. Some agents appear to be more proactive than others in helping their "clients" get what they want. Two: if you read between the lines of the official representative's posts, it seems that SFX has a strong internal notion of what they value in terms of deposits. If you are depositing something they really want, that seems to help a lot. If you are not, well....

I've not personally used them. I've been told by the SFX rep that some of my fixed weeks are acceptable, but that they are of "limited regional demand". (Which I took to mean: "We don't really want them, so don't bother.") I have Wyndham points that I could use to book and deposit something that SFX might really want, but I haven't been in a position to need/want to.

I find bnoble's assessment to be accurate of my experience with SFX. I felt it took a lot of work to get exchanges, but I did get them. I worked with a couple of agents who were very good; I know at least one has since left. SFX no longer finds my resort/week acceptable - in spite of the fact that it is gold crown/holiday week and RCI gives me 54 TPUs for it. But I stopped using SFX years ago, once I had used up the weeks I had deposited. You should get input from people with recent experience.

[Tfish Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tfish]

I used my Waterside at Spinnaker with SFX a couple of years ago and got two weeks at Grand Mayan Riviera Maya, Mexico. I was quite pleased and will use them again.

Mike

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

I have deposited two weeks with them. The first one, they got me a 2BR in London exchange for it with SFX. I have since been offered another London week. RCI never seems to get London trades, but here is SFX, offereing me two!

Between SFX, DAE, and UKRE, who needs RCI?