Diamond Resorts - Vacational Internationale billing problems $100 late/collection fee

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

Hi:

Background to the problem

I appologize for the length of the post, but it was necessary to lay out the situation

I am a new member. I own a number of timeshares and they have generallly been a good experience. That is - with the exception of Diamond Resorts(formerly Sunterra). I have owned at Vacation Internationale (VI) since 1988, they were bought by Diamond several years ago. I subsquently stayed at a Diamond resort thru my VI ownership and decided to purchase a small amount of points (2500) because they offered a unique opportunity which allowed me to bring VI reservations into Diamond and vice versa. I also joined Club Sunterra. shortly after I bought, Diamond & VI parted ways. After this, I still could bring Diamond resorts into VI for credit, but I could not do vice versa into Diamond. This made the 2500 points very hard to use. On top of that, I could not book any reservations even for the 2500 points I own at Diamond directly thru Diamond - I was told I have to go through VI. I was told my billing would also be handled thru VI.

Problem

In November I received a bill for the club fees. At 12/31, I paid the bill, I was told I was all up to date and that no other balances were owed. I knew that some time in December or january I should be getting a maintenance bill, but since VI told me nothing else was owed at 12/31 and I did not get a paper bill, I thought it must be that the bill came in January - (I only had paid a maintence fee fdor them once before so i wasn't sure-'07 was paid as part of my purchase agreement).

Fast forward to Feb 20 - I received an invlice from Diamond dated 2/16 for maintenance fees plus $50 late charge and a small amount of interest. I called the number on the invoice listed for billing questions and was connected to Diaomnd (not VI). I explained my situation and I am put on hold so they can see if they can do anything about the late fees. They return and tell me that the supervisor says I have to deal with VI and they can't even take payment. I call VI and the rep that handles Diamond informs me they only take care of Club dues not maintenance fees. I call back Diamond and they maintain that they can't help me. I finally convince Diamond to Call VI and they call me back to tell me that they got the same answer I got. They tell me they will call me back in 1-2 days when they figure something out.

They call back and tell me that because of "high call volumes" they will make this grand exception and agree to take payment. When I ask about waving the late fees the agent puts me on hold and I am eventually told they will put a request in but it will take 15 to 20 days to see if it will be accepted - and they cna't guarantee they will be waved. I agree to pay just the maintenance fees. When I do so the agent starts going over the amount due and mentions "collection fees" of $50 on top of the late fees.

At this point I nearly hit the ceiling. If you can beleive this one - I am told that collection fees are being charged because I haven't yet paid the 2/16 invoice (it is now 2/25, I received the bill on 2/20 and called them to resolve it the same day).

Of course I basically read them the riot act - about how outrageous this is considering that no one at either company will accept payment and that no one seems to even know whatr the correct protocol is. It is also reiterated that I will have to wait the 15 days or so to see if anything is waved.

Please help!!

1. Does anyone know who I could contact at Diamond that would have a sympathetic ear for owners so i could explain my situation and inform them of the unfair treatment I have received.

2. I would love to get rid of the 2500 points, I realize they are almost worthless - does anyone know if there is a way to quit claim or transfer them back to Diamond and how to start this process.

3. If there is anyone out there with this same dual ownership situation please any advice on how best to work this system would be appreciated.


Any help would be greatley appreciated

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

First - DRI NEVER bought VI.

Sunterra moved in as management at VI and started calling it Sunterra Pacific and that's when all the almost irreversible entanglements happened to buyers in those years before VI terminated the Sunterra management. This termination happened well before DRI bought Sunterra.

I wish I had an answer for you, best bet would be to email these POCs at DRI


Patrick Duffy Chief Experience Officer
Jeff Shelton Executive Resolutions

it falls into both their realms in my opinion.

Hi:

Background to the problem

I appologize for the length of the post, but it was necessary to lay out the situation

I am a new member. I own a number of timeshares and they have generallly been a good experience. That is - with the exception of Diamond Resorts(formerly Sunterra). I have owned at Vacation Internationale (VI) since 1988, they were bought by Diamond several years ago. I subsquently stayed at a Diamond resort thru my VI ownership and decided to purchase a small amount of points (2500) because they offered a unique opportunity which allowed me to bring VI reservations into Diamond and vice versa. I also joined Club Sunterra. shortly after I bought, Diamond & VI parted ways. After this, I still could bring Diamond resorts into VI for credit, but I could not do vice versa into Diamond. This made the 2500 points very hard to use. On top of that, I could not book any reservations even for the 2500 points I own at Diamond directly thru Diamond - I was told I have to go through VI. I was told my billing would also be handled thru VI.

Problem

In November I received a bill for the club fees. At 12/31, I paid the bill, I was told I was all up to date and that no other balances were owed. I knew that some time in December or january I should be getting a maintenance bill, but since VI told me nothing else was owed at 12/31 and I did not get a paper bill, I thought it must be that the bill came in January - (I only had paid a maintence fee fdor them once before so i wasn't sure-'07 was paid as part of my purchase agreement).

Fast forward to Feb 20 - I received an invlice from Diamond dated 2/16 for maintenance fees plus $50 late charge and a small amount of interest. I called the number on the invoice listed for billing questions and was connected to Diaomnd (not VI). I explained my situation and I am put on hold so they can see if they can do anything about the late fees. They return and tell me that the supervisor says I have to deal with VI and they can't even take payment. I call VI and the rep that handles Diamond informs me they only take care of Club dues not maintenance fees. I call back Diamond and they maintain that they can't help me. I finally convince Diamond to Call VI and they call me back to tell me that they got the same answer I got. They tell me they will call me back in 1-2 days when they figure something out.

They call back and tell me that because of "high call volumes" they will make this grand exception and agree to take payment. When I ask about waving the late fees the agent puts me on hold and I am eventually told they will put a request in but it will take 15 to 20 days to see if it will be accepted - and they cna't guarantee they will be waved. I agree to pay just the maintenance fees. When I do so the agent starts going over the amount due and mentions "collection fees" of $50 on top of the late fees.

At this point I nearly hit the ceiling. If you can beleive this one - I am told that collection fees are being charged because I haven't yet paid the 2/16 invoice (it is now 2/25, I received the bill on 2/20 and called them to resolve it the same day).

Of course I basically read them the riot act - about how outrageous this is considering that no one at either company will accept payment and that no one seems to even know whatr the correct protocol is. It is also reiterated that I will have to wait the 15 days or so to see if anything is waved.

Please help!!

1. Does anyone know who I could contact at Diamond that would have a sympathetic ear for owners so i could explain my situation and inform them of the unfair treatment I have received.

2. I would love to get rid of the 2500 points, I realize they are almost worthless - does anyone know if there is a way to quit claim or transfer them back to Diamond and how to start this process.

3. If there is anyone out there with this same dual ownership situation please any advice on how best to work this system would be appreciated.


Any help would be greatley appreciated

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

Thanks for responding Spence and for the contact info. I didn't mean to imply DRI bought VI. I referred in my missive to Diamond whether it was Sunterra or Diamond; sorry if that was misleading. At any rate the entaglements as you noted still exist and result in a high degree of confusion.

Do you have any info on how to transfer this back to them and if so how to start the process?

thanks again and best regards,

John

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

Thanks for responding Spence and for the contact info. I didn't mean to imply DRI bought VI. I referred in my missive to Diamond whether it was Sunterra or Diamond; sorry if that was misleading. At any rate the entaglements as you noted still exist and result in a high degree of confusion.

Do you have any info on how to transfer this back to them and if so how to start the process?

thanks again and best regards,

John

If you just want them to take it with all fees paid to date, their has been some talk that they may do this on an individual basis. That would be a subject to talk to those two guys about.

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

I'm also furious with DRI

I also had a problem with my payment of fees. I never received my 2009 billings in the mail. I called in late December and they practically called me a liar and then emailed me the billings. To be honest, I forgot to pay and I was in Hawaii when the notorious 2/16 notification came in the mail adding a $50 late fee and $10 for interest on my maintenance fees. I just called to pay all of my fees (including the ridiculously high membership for "The Club") and was told that my total had increased by an additional $165 because my account was sent to collections! Now although they send me 15 emails a week for marketing purposes, they didn't have the common courtesy to send an email reminder for payment of fees. Why not? To generate additional fees, of course. In this economic environment piling additional fees on owners when they are just 45 days late is ridiculous. I am furious with these people. They make it just as difficult and unpleasant as possible to use their points, require membership in a useless "Club", and are totally unresponsive to their owners. I used to enjoy my timeshare ownership, but not anymore. DRI stinks.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

I also had a problem with my payment of fees. I never received my 2009 billings in the mail. I called in late December and they practically called me a liar and then emailed me the billings. To be honest, I forgot to pay and I was in Hawaii when the notorious 2/16 notification came in the mail adding a $50 late fee and $10 for interest on my maintenance fees. I just called to pay all of my fees (including the ridiculously high membership for "The Club") and was told that my total had increased by an additional $165 because my account was sent to collections! Now although they send me 15 emails a week for marketing purposes, they didn't have the common courtesy to send an email reminder for payment of fees. Why not? To generate additional fees, of course. In this economic environment piling additional fees on owners when they are just 45 days late is ridiculous. I am furious with these people. They make it just as difficult and unpleasant as possible to use their points, require membership in a useless "Club", and are totally unresponsive to their owners. I used to enjoy my timeshare ownership, but not anymore. DRI stinks.

I almost forgot to pay one of my MF's with another company this year. Mostly because it's due the end of Febuary and I put it off. They didn't send me any reminders either. The only billing I was sent was the official MF bill that I received sometime the end of December. You know, around the holiday's when everything that's not related to the holiday is likely to get pushed aside.

At any rate, it's not just DRI that doesn't waste money billing reminders. I suspect it's almost every HOA out there. IMO that may be penny wise and pound foolish (saving a stamp when trying to collect several hundred) but, that's the way things are budgeted. Remember the owners mantra of keep MF's lower. Saving a couple of thousand on having to re-bill people who put things off probably looks like a good idea.

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

I almost forgot to pay one of my MF's with another company this year. Mostly because it's due the end of Febuary and I put it off. They didn't send me any reminders either. The only billing I was sent was the official MF bill that I received sometime the end of December. You know, around the holiday's when everything that's not related to the holiday is likely to get pushed aside.

At any rate, it's not just DRI that doesn't waste money billing reminders. I suspect it's almost every HOA out there. IMO that may be penny wise and pound foolish (saving a stamp when trying to collect several hundred) but, that's the way things are budgeted. Remember the owners mantra of keep MF's lower. Saving a couple of thousand on having to re-bill people who put things off probably looks like a good idea.

I would think it would be very easy to just email a generic reminder to everyone every 15 days or so. I think they just want to generate the fees - what a way to operate a timeshare company. Happy owners are the key!

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

I would think it would be very easy to just email a generic reminder to everyone every 15 days or so. I think they just want to generate the fees - what a way to operate a timeshare company. Happy owners are the key!

In that case, it's not just DRI. None of the HOA's at the timeshare's I own at do this. Billing is up to the timeshares HOA/BOD unless you're in one of the DRI trust based ownerships. This is an issue you might want to take up at that level.

While it's true happy owners are the key, if they sent a bill or billing reminder frequently, I'm sure we'd see posts about all those billing notices. They'd make one group happy but upset another.

In the end, it's up to the owner to know when they're payments are due. Try telling you car insurance company that you "forgot" to pay your bill and it's their fault for not sending you a reminder.