Timeshare Relief is defending their company on TUG.

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

Now the question of whether it is ethical or more ethical for us to take the timeshare off his hands if it is of realizable value.

Yes, it is ethical if you deal ethically with the seller.

When you ask these types of questions, you get into the gray area of how much profit is too much profit. My philosophy is that the market determines a fair profit. If someone is getting too much profit, competitors will jump in and serve to squeeze their margins. In the case of Timeshare Relief, I don't want to turn them in to their state's Real Estate Commission. I just want to offer a superior value proposition to their sellers. I'll take your timeshare for free rather than charge you $3000. Others can jump in and offer to pay them for their timeshare. That's the competitive element. If the market is allowed to work openly, then ultimately, the price that a timeshare sells for will be fair market price.

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

What bothers me is that so many HOA's will simply take deedbacks. These companies do not tell timeshare owners that. I am aware of summer owners at the beach who fell on hard times, and paid one of these companies to take their weeks. The HOA's would have taken simple deedbacks.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Why not make a sticky of this possibility here?

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Now the question of whether it is ethical or more ethical for us to take the timeshare off his hands if it is of realizable value.

Ethical to me is paying them what a similar timeshare has sold for recently on the re-sale market but you have to charge them for your expenses and your time, of course. A person is in business to make money and that is the same for a small home-based business too. Some here have made a business of buying and selling or renting timeshares.

Only you can decide how much your time is worth. Doctors, CPAs and lawyers or other professions are expensive but they have gone to graduate school many years which was very expensive plus they didn't work at the age when most people were working already. The more benefits the buyer gets with your services, the more your time is worth. JMHO.

Today, I heard a fantastic real estate ad on our radio station. In our area, many brokers charge a standard real estate fee for selling your house and it is outrageous what people pay in commissions today. It is not that hard to sell your own home when the market is strong. An escrow company does all the work in the States we have done business with. Here is the web page.

He advertises another web page too for legal forms and I believe that something similar could be done too for the timeshare resale market together with appraisal and/or escrow service too countrywide or does this exist already? If not, it may be worth looking into. I admire entrepreneurs but ethical ones.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Hello. I'm new to the forum but saw this thread and wanted to ask a question about Timeshare Relief.

snip snip

Here's the link to who we're meeting with: http://www.timesharerelief.com/

Thanks

Just now, I was reading another thread about the same company. It started in July and I read one of the posts there that your family could try also. It is post #95.

It is up to you what you want to do but I hope that you and your family don't get taken advantage of if it is not necessary. We were victims too of a timeshare fraud scam but we were lucky to get all our money back because we took them to task.

There are a lot of unethical companies out there in the timeshare industry.

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

While I'm not particularly fond of these companies, it's not clear to me that any of them are bound by ethics any more than any party to a real estate transaction.

So far, for every house I've purchased, I've discovered deficiencies after purchase that the seller did not disclose, but also was not required by law to disclose. Had I done a bit more research, I might have found these things out, but I didn't. Then again, the time and effort in learning these deficiencies pre-sale may well have been more costly than correcting the deficiencies myself.

I'm not sure that this isn't any different. It would probably take an uninformed seller days---at least---to learn about the market well enough to sell some random timeshare deed. Depending on one's value-of-time, just paying someone to take care of it might well be the most cost effective option.

The Seller's Property Disclosure is supposed to be absolutely honest and should not be taken as a fictional piece of literature. This concerns me as a Realtor, always, and when I have listed RE for sale, I have always stressed to my sellers just how important honesty is in this document. You are basically swearing that all of the items on that list work and that no leaks or drainage problems occur regularly. If you do not disclose something that a neighbor knows about or a plumber you happen to call knows was a problem before for the old owners, you could be sued so easily. Honesty is always best.

Rick and I have pretty much accepted the fact that our house is worth far more to us than it would be to any stranger walking in to buy it. On the outside and inside, it is beautiful, having been remodeled completely to match current trends, including two whirlpool bathtubs and gorgeous kitchen and bathrooms. Rick even added a garage in the back with storage above and a gorgeous brick wall patio with keyhole pavers. But if anyone really had to deal with our basement floor drain on a regular basis, as we have from day one, they would never pay our price for the house. Our kitchen sink and dishwasher drain into that drain, which floods several times a year (if we do not watch it closely) because there is an obstruction somewhere in the line leading to the water main. Sewer water is not a pleasant thing to clean up after, so Rick regularly snakes the drain himself to avoid the hassle. He has considered breaking out the concrete and replacing the entire drain, that is how serious the problem is. But we have used preventative maintenance for 27 1/2 years with few flooding problems in recent years. It is something you just live with because it is your home. Many people would not admit to such a problem, but an inspector can see the concrete and may be able to catch it. I would never not disclose that one.

Back to the OP, Timeshare Relief sells the idea that timeshare is a burden, a waste of money and the problems never end. That makes them disgusting.

When Spence went to the meeting with this company, they told him that resellers take the weeks, which he assumed were given to the resellers basically free, who sell them on ebay and they close with Timeshare Closing Services. So there is an insinuation that Timeshare Relief does not sell the weeks themselves or make any money off of that resale. I would say that is probably not true. If Timeshare Relief takes a GC or Five Star Hawaii week, do you really think they make nothing off of the resale? I am sure they do. I just cannot believe they convince owners of Marriotts, Hiltons and other quality resorts that the value is zero, but they sure do.

They are terrible!

[Arline Member Find all posts View Profile Close Arline]

I copied the letter from these "rip-off" artists and will email it to everyone I know who owns timeshare. I am considered the "expert" among my friends, and realize I still have alot to learn

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

Hi everyone,

I signed up on here because I found this thread while googling for timeshare relief. My deal is already done, and just out of curiosity I went searching for what others were saying about the company. I thought I'd sign up here because there seem to be a lot of people who are talking about this company, but few who have actual experience with them. So hopefully my input here is valuable.

Let me start with my timeshare experience. My ex and I got suckered (excuse the terminology, but it's true) into one of these things, and we really should have read the fine print a lot closer. This was a unit in the Fl Keys, and it was nothing like what we were told it would be -- shoddy and unmaintained facilities, undrinkable water, an inconvenient location, etc. We went about attempting to resell it. Yes, we tried ebay for a dollar and didn't get a single bid. Yes, we tried donating it to charity and we were told that that would be fine, except we'd still have to pay all the fees until the charity could sell it. But of course the fees were why we were selling it in the first place.

Fast forward a couple years. My wife and I are divorced (for a variety of reasons, but you can bet we fought about finances a lot), and I'm granted full ownership of our timeshare weeks. I/we haven't been there in over a year, and don't plan on going back. I tried trading weeks with others, but the few offers I got were pretty undesirable, and I'm pretty disillusioned about the whole process, anyway, because I've paid thousands in fees over the years for, basically, nothing.

I understand that my experience is not the norm. I understand that we got hustled into a very bad deal. There's no way I'd tell people that all timeshares are like this. I attended a TimeShare Relief presentation, where they *did not* say that all timeshares are worthless. But I looked at their fine print, crunched all the numbers, and concluded that it was better to cut my losses all at once than to keep eking out payments on something I didn't want and couldn't seem to get rid of. Maybe there was another way out, but I just didn't see one. Maybe divorce and financial losses make you philosophical about these things, and I'm sorry if I'm getting abstract at this point, but life does just hand you some pretty bad deals sometimes, and there are lawyers and companies out there that capitalize on people who have undergone hard times -- I don't begrudge them for it, it's a service like any other. It's no fun but I'm glad I could get out of it by any means necessary.

Jim

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

Jim,

"TimeShare Relief not a complete fraud", you have the exact situation which make that statement true. You may have had a truely worthless TS and getting rid of it thru TR may have been a good move for you. But, we have heard many stories here of TS which could easily sell for many thousands of dollars being turned over to TR paying TR the $3000- $4000.

The fact that every once in a while they are not a complete fraud doesn't mean that they are not unethical scammers. If they were ethical, they would offer people a change to get rid of their TS at a fair price. (For Jim's TS maybe fair was paying TR $3000.) But for most people, TR should pay them or at least take it for free!!.

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

A detailed account of their presentation was given here in post #23. Nowhere did I say that they said all TS are worthless, shopgirl keeps interjecting that for some reason.

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

Spence, look at their postcard and their website. There are subtle statements about timeshare not being "the slice of paradise you thought it would be," and many others. At least they changed the horrid pictures of the ugly people that were on their site. That was also very negative. They work hard to discourage people from their timeshare ownerships. The postcard is a very negative piece of mail. Look at it compared to any other piece of mail you get.

How do we know that this new person is not another one of the company's plants, posting about the company in a positive way? Anyone doing a Google search can come up with Timeshare Relief and be turned off by this company because of the negatives we have posted about THEM! Plus, we are working against them in that we tell people that timeshare is pretty great.

Again I will ask, why post on this thread and look for information on the company in question after the deed is done. Forget the pun! Why seek out this board to convince us that you made the best decision for your timeshare. I just think you are nuts! Why come here, where all of us love timeshare and what it does for us? You appeared when the thread was brought back to life after being done for a while. How odd.

The motive here is for these people is to post positive information on their company so that when possible "customers" find this thread on a Google search, they ill find some good information along with the bad. It is obvious to me that this person is probably of the same bunch, no offense intended if you really are being honest. If you really thought this was your only way out of your timeshare, then you didn't give it enough of a chance. What resort was it? What were your maintenance fees? What season? Never any specifics, just a bunch of negative information about a supposed bad experience.

But IT IS ALL BAD! THIS COMPANY IS BAD NEWS. GET RID OF YOUR TIMESHARE YOURSELF! TRY EVERY MEANS POSSIBLE AND DO NOT PAY $3,495 TO THESE GUYS! Call your resort, contact the HOA board, advertise on the good resale sites, but don't pay these guys! You can do a lot of advertising for $3,495.

Even though Spence feels that a bad timeshare is just that, I believe that any timeshare, no matter how blue or green it is will trade to Orlando (summer as well) and will get you to Hawaii at the last minute.

No kidding, no lies, nothing for me to gain by saying it. I can take a blue week and pull a Gold Crown Hawaii resort tonight for this month, whale watching season. I pull Sunterra Poipu Point and Sunterra Kaanapali two or three times a week with a blue trader. Airfare is cheaper from Denver for last-minute travel, too. So I think people are nuts who think blue weeks are garbage because they do have value. Our blue week that Kimeul uses just pulled a three-bedroom Hilton Grand Vacation Club Seaworld for September 23rd. Yes, that is off season, but that unit is bigger than our unit and it is a HILTON. And it is when he and his college friends wanted to go. There is value with any timeshare.

I am going to start taking advantage of the system and pull those last-minute Hawaii weeks with a timeshare that costs $212 in maintenance fees. I just inquired on a purchase of another BLUE week with those low fees. I am glad to buy a week that will get us a Sunterra or PAHIO for that price, even at the last minute.

I LOVE TIMESHARE. If this person is going to come back and argue, then you will know the truth of the motive.

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

A detailed account of their presentation was given here in post #23. Nowhere did I say that they said all TS are worthless, shopgirl keeps interjecting that for some reason.

Emmy got the impression that they were saying timeshare was a terrible mistake that they will correct for $3,495.

I also should add that Timeshare Relief has a summary of the Timesharing Today article on their website, but they did not include the fact that when the writer wanted to take the documents with him, they would not let him. They were also very defensive with him, if you read the article. So they let a sprinkling of the article on the website but not the entire article. That is very DECEPTIVE.

Yes, I do feel strongly about this thing, but you should all be outraged that uninformed timeshare owners are being scammed by these guys. I don't feel nearly as creepy around timeshare salesmen as I would feel around these guys. Slimy snakes! They laugh all the way to the bank, you can bet on it.

I noticed you did not pay them to take your timeshare, Spence. Not only that, but your posts on TUG were leading them to believe you were in favor of their business practices, so bsteigner posted that "finally someone was making sense" or some such thing, which was in reference to your posts. Let's not help them with the lies and the scam!

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

Jimel you are a shill for Timeshare Relief

Hi everyone,

I signed up on here because I found this thread while googling for timeshare relief. My deal is already done, and just out of curiosity I went searching for what others were saying about the company. I thought I'd sign up here because there seem to be a lot of people who are talking about this company, but few who have actual experience with them. So hopefully my input here is valuable.

Let me start with my timeshare experience. My ex and I got suckered (excuse the terminology, but it's true) into one of these things, and we really should have read the fine print a lot closer. This was a unit in the Fl Keys, and it was nothing like what we were told it would be -- shoddy and unmaintained facilities, undrinkable water, an inconvenient location, etc. We went about attempting to resell it. Yes, we tried ebay for a dollar and didn't get a single bid. Yes, we tried donating it to charity and we were told that that would be fine, except we'd still have to pay all the fees until the charity could sell it. But of course the fees were why we were selling it in the first place.

Fast forward a couple years. My wife and I are divorced (for a variety of reasons, but you can bet we fought about finances a lot), and I'm granted full ownership of our timeshare weeks. I/we haven't been there in over a year, and don't plan on going back. I tried trading weeks with others, but the few offers I got were pretty undesirable, and I'm pretty disillusioned about the whole process, anyway, because I've paid thousands in fees over the years for, basically, nothing.

I understand that my experience is not the norm. I understand that we got hustled into a very bad deal. There's no way I'd tell people that all timeshares are like this. I attended a TimeShare Relief presentation, where they *did not* say that all timeshares are worthless. But I looked at their fine print, crunched all the numbers, and concluded that it was better to cut my losses all at once than to keep eking out payments on something I didn't want and couldn't seem to get rid of. Maybe there was another way out, but I just didn't see one. Maybe divorce and financial losses make you philosophical about these things, and I'm sorry if I'm getting abstract at this point, but life does just hand you some pretty bad deals sometimes, and there are lawyers and companies out there that capitalize on people who have undergone hard times -- I don't begrudge them for it, it's a service like any other. It's no fun but I'm glad I could get out of it by any means necessary.

Jim

Jimel,

You must think we are as gullible as the victims you steal from. We are the ones that figured out the timeshare scams and yours is simply another one of them.

Give me a break. 1st post and you come out with that post? It just doesn't happen. I am a member of several boards and whenever someone comes out with a first post like yours, they are outed instantly. They have a hidden agenda. Yours is clear. Try to lure in other victims to your scam.

I did a google search myself of Timeshare Relief. Timeshare forums doesn't come up in the first 6 pages or so.

But, on the 2nd hit, right after the Timeshare Relief Website, TUG is right there. You would have certainly posted there first. But, you were outed there as a shill. There is no Jimel post there. That is the first place you would have posted.

Anyone who isn't saavy enough to find the resale market and how to sell in it certainly isn't going to do a post transactional due diligence on the company helping them rid themselves of a boat anchor. If you did, you would have found out exactly how to unload it yourself without having to pay their exhorbitant fees.

So, save us some time and get out of here. You didn't find us via Google. You found us via TUG where many of us post and you followed the trail here.

Interestingly in the google search, I found several first posts that are very similar to yours. You are clearly trying to lure some other lambs to your slaughter house by falsely representing yourself.

Here are some of your aliases:

You are "jbagwell" on traveller's point.

You are "rorinator" on doityourself.com.

You are "hectorchavez" on doityourself.com. That's funny you use the same name here. But, your stories don't match you effin, scumbag, azzbyte, loser. You say on doityourself that you got rid of your timeshare a year ago. Here, you say you brother is helping you to unload your sick mother's timeshare. Get lost you effing loser.

You are "weasel" on my3cents.com.

You are "gigi24" on suite 101

You are "Mario" on ablog.com

You are "Saida" on moneymaker.blogspot.com

I'm sick of looking through the google hits. What we ought to do is post the TUG thread and the TS4Ms thread on each and everyone one of these google hits that I found and help to spread the word about your BS ripoff scheme.

Anyone want to join in the campaign?

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

Boca, you are smarter than me if you found this guy on all these other sites. I just know that his motive is to make Timeshare Relief look like a reasonable solution for getting rid of a timeshare, which is the reason he seeks out these forums. I know people fall for the scam, because there are dozens of timeshares out there for sale right now, with Timeshare Closing Services listed as the closer. I am tired of reading this garbage on these forums by these terrible people.

How can I sign up with you?

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

Boca, you are smarter than me if you found this guy on all these other sites. I just know that his motive is to make Timeshare Relief look like a reasonable solution for getting rid of a timeshare, which is the reason he seeks out these forums. I know people fall for the scam, because there are dozens of timeshares out there for sale right now, with Timeshare Closing Services listed as the closer. I am tired of reading this garbage on these forums by these terrible people.

How can I sign up with you?

Cindy,

You were the one to first find out about these people. You took a lot of heat for it because these guys are clever in trying to seem reasonable. But, you stuck to your guns. Thank you.

Spence is still playing Switzerland on them. I hope these most recent engagements helps change his mind. I know he went to one of their pitches. But, didn't he say that they knew he was coming and that he was a timeshare expert? How easy would that be to cater the pitch to him?

Don't consider me a smart sleuth or anything. This Jimel character suggested the exact method for outing them. He said he did a Google search and found us here. I did the Google search he claims to have made and found the smoking gun. This guy is as dumb as Scott Peterson. He gave us the exact information we needed to out him.