Class action filed against RCI on rental issue

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

There sure are a lot of Perry Masons.

As I've already said, the important thing is the filing of the suit(s), that someone has the nads to let 'em know that customers are upset.

Yes, the good news is that more people are going to be aware of this problem and may stop depositing weeks to RCI too and not renew their membership either.

The bad news is that fees will keep increasing to pay for all the extra expense the company has with attorney fees but they will simply pass the expense on to us if we choose to stay a member.

We need to let our HOAs know that there are independent companies out there and let them know that we want to affiliate with them so we can use them instead.

Writing an email to your HOA board is really pretty simple for people who are reading this forum but most of us are a little lazy.

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

As I have pointed out before, just putting something in their T&C does NOT
protect a company from consumer protecetion litigation. It just doesn't work that way. Enron could NOT have buried what they did in the bowels of their T&C and been protected from civil (and in their case criminal) legal actions, and neither can RCI.

RCI'S TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

6. PAGE 473 IN THE RCI WISHBOOK

(C) "BY DEPOSITING VACATION OWNERSHIP WITH RCI, YOU RELINQUISH ALL RIGHTS TO USE THAT VACATION OWNERSHIP AND AGREE THAT SUCH DEPOSITED VACATION OWNERSHIP MAY BE USED BY RCI TO CONDUCT EXCHANGES, INSPECTION VISITS, PROMOTIONS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES AT RCI'S DISCRETION".

In other words, they ARE legally covered.

(added footnote: I don't condone the above policy, I am merely pointing out the legalities involved.)

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

I'm very happy to see this happening...

One thing though, there is nothing and I mean nothing on any of the national news sites about this. Try a search in Google News with RCI and lawsuit or class action you get zip. Nothing.... I think this needs a little help in getting out there to the world.

Maybe we could email all of the news organizations that we know of the link

http://www.classcounsel.com/news/rci.html

There are literally hundreds of news sites. I don't think it would hurt if every one of them knew about this suit

Thanks Carolinian for your dogged effort on this over the years.... I know I give you crap for your political choices but I do agree with you wholeheartedly on this one issue.

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

II's rentals fall logically into the realm of ethical. II gets some inventory from developers by contract and buys some weeks. Their rental rates are much higher and the quantity of units rented is much less than RCI, making the program less notable. II does not have a points program to play inventory games with and seems to be servicing members well, based on the lack of complaints.

[4ARedOctober Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close 4ARedOctober]

I would imagine all affected RCI members will be served notice as the case proceeds.

II has taken some heat......but I am not an II member so it does not concern me.

Exactly!

BTW I would guess that 99.9 percent of RCI members know nothing of this lawsuit (and never will) and they will continue to be members and to use RCI services as always. The only RCI members that are aware of this suit are members of internet sites like this one.

II also rents timeshares. How come they haven't come under fire as RCI has? Where do they get their rental inventory?

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

It a long way to notice that may not be effective

They will only get notice if this thing gets certified as a class action. It is a long way away from that and, if it was, they'd have to understand what the notice meant. You know the ones you've got before from some corporate bankruptcy filing or a credit card settlement. The ones you looked at and said "I don't understand this nonsense" and threw out. That notice you ignored. Those aren't exactly going to rally the resistance either.

[4ARedOctober Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close 4ARedOctober]

The fact is when and if the suit gets certified as class action then many more people will take notice. Sure some won't pay attention to the notice....and some will. So what?

As far as trying to rally the resistance.....well that has already been done and when notice goes out more will join. If that 'resistance' had not had some propulsion then a suit would not have been filed.

We are told over and over about how nothing can be done and if we don't like it then we can just give up and don't give any more business to RCI. And RCI took the same attitude. Well wrong on the first count....notice has been given and someone is doing something about it.....we shall see how it goes forward but I would say progress is being made.

And I would like to thank Steve (Carolinian) for continuously putting up the good fight in the face of all the naysayers and whiners who said it could not and would not be done.....A step in the right direction.

Perhaps I should contact Consumers Union to see if they would take an interest in timesharing and the potential class action suit.

They will only get notice if this thing gets certified as a class action. It is a long way away from that and, if it was, they'd have to understand what the notice meant. You know the ones you've got before from some corporate bankruptcy filing or a credit card settlement. The ones you looked at and said "I don't understand this nonsense" and threw out. That notice you ignored. Those aren't exactly going to rally the resistance either.

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

Walt has helped too bringing it to our attention again and again but Carolian has fought it as long as I have read these forums.

I sometimes wonder how the founders of RCI feel about this?

They had a system that members really liked for many years. We always had good exchanges. We may have been trading down but we didn't feel that way because we got what we wanted. If we traded down, someone else traded up.

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

I sometimes wonder how the founders of RCI feel about this?

John is probably bitter about a lot of things. Crystal shouldn't be bitter about anything. Cendant took care of her and she is busy with her philanthropies.

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

Has anyone found out any more on the Hanley Conroy lawsuit? I see that it is not yet on their website.

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

May/June issue of Timesharing Today

Has anyone found out any more on the Hanley Conroy lawsuit? I see that it is not yet on their website.

The May/June issue of Timesharing Today has a front page write up about the RCI Class Action Suits. I get Timeshare Today and the Article and Editorial makes for some very interesting reading. It is too bad that this information is not more available to all of the timeshare forums readers.

There made several points about the Class Action Suits.

1) The One for One exchanges exclusively among RCI members is RCI's bedrock marketing principle. Yet, Prime Weeks are being rented to the general public.

2) RCI also used these weeks for promotional purposes and as fringe benefits for its employees.

3) RCI secretly entered into agreements with third party vendors to rent weeks while having the third party vendors conceal any relationship with RCI.

4) RCI's misrepresentation about it's rental program constitutes a viotation of New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act, entitling triple damages.

5) If they win the case they they will also stop RCI from continuing to rent Prime weeks out of the Exchange pool.

6) RCI has filed a motion to have the case moved from the State of New Jersey's court to the Federal Court.

7) The Editorial stated that since Class Action attorneys need to invest a large amount of money into these cases, they usually take only the cases that have a good chance of winning.



http://www.tstoday.com/

You do need to have a log in and password to read the article on line.


Walt

[4ARedOctober Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close 4ARedOctober]

Thanks for the update Walt. The following is on the home page of their web site so I guess it is ok to print....if you want the meat of the article then you need to be a subscriber...

Class action suits against RCI-

Two separate class action Complaints, co-incidentally both filed on March 14, 2006 in New Jersey, charge RCI with fraudulently marketing its exchange programs because weeks that are spacebanked or converted to points by its members are rented to the general public instead of remaining available for exchange by Weeks and Points members. The suits allege that RCI makes more money from renting the weeks than it makes from the exchange fees, and that rentals of prime weeks are made to non-members through a variety of websites having secret agreements with RCI. Read More...

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

The idea that there are secret agreements with RCI is laughable, as many have reported that the reservations they receive from Skyauction and the like contain the RCI Confirmation form.

We recently bought a last call guest cert for a friend. When we got the form, it was not written that it was a "last call rental" but it stated that it was an internal exchange. We did not exchange...we bought a last call. I believe that is how RCI is fudging the so-called "satisfied exchanges" numbers.

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

Did RCI charge you sales and local Taxes on the Rental?

The idea that there are secret agreements with RCI is laughable, as many have reported that the reservations they receive from Skyauction and the like contain the RCI Confirmation form.

We recently bought a last call guest cert for a friend. When we got the form, it was not written that it was a "last call rental" but it stated that it was an internal exchange. We did not exchange...we bought a last call. I believe that is how RCI is fudging the so-called "satisfied exchanges" numbers.

I know that paying taxes on these rentals is just another cost to the person renting but the point is "How many rentals have RCI done without paying the tax that is due to the Local and State Government?"

I asked this question on Tug. I can not believe that anyone renting, much less RCI, would not show the cost of the tax in the breakdown of the rental fee. I rented also from RCI and they called it an exchange, without listing any taxes in the cost.

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthr...highlight=Walt

Just maybe, the State of Wisconsin is about to pass a tax law that all timeshare users (not just renter)will have to pay a tax on the value of the week used because of the way RCI has been renting without paying the local and State taxes."

Walt

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

One thing is sure and that is death and taxes.

Hawaii seems to go that way too as it doesn't look that this new tax proposal is going to be defeated and then all States will follow suit.