Sunterra - Avoid At All Costs!!!

[dhill67 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dhill67]

We purchased a timeshare at Powhatan Plantation many years ago before Sunterra bought them out. The unit had free firewood, live plants, beatufiul decor and was well maintained. Since Sunterra has taken over maintenance fees have doubled, the free firewood is gone, plants have been taken out of the units and the free "activities" have dwindled to nothing. Our unit still has knife marks in the wall from five years ago when an exchange family allowed their child to stab the kitchen wall about 50 times with a steak knife. DO NOT buy into anything Sunterra owns!!! Powhatan was a Gold Crown resort when we purchased. I don't think it's even rates as a Resort of Distinction any more. Sunterra does not look out for owners. They've tried (high pressure) techniques to get us to buy into the points system so they can "inflate" my cost of using my week each year. They are working hard to get more and give less to owners. SUNTERRA should be SOLD to a responsible company that can MANAGE a property soundly for their owners!!!

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

Current 'activities'

Have you personally alerted the manager to you knife stabbing and other problems?
General Manager Randy Gritts e-mail: rgritts@sunterra.com

Have you complained to the Regional Sunterra manager about 'high pressure' techniques?
Regional Manager and Board of Directors President Laurie Radney,

e-mail: lradney@sunterra.com

P.S. there's no such thing as Resort of International Distinction - RID, it's now called Silver Crown. There's a lower rating than Silver Crown called Hospitality and Powhatan doesn't even have that as of now.

[dhill67 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dhill67]

Problems with Powhatan

Thanks for your reply. Yes, we sent photos and a letter to Sunterra's Corporate office. They promised to "take care" of the problems. When we returned the following year the same holes were there. Every locally is helpful in "fixing" the problems. The problem is that the same problems exist year after year. We spend at least two days every trip calling in work orders and waiting for maintenance to fix them. It's not really a local issue. I believe its the corporate "environment" that creates the problem - charge them more, give them less. We're selling our unit (Thanksgiving week) because of the issues we've had. I'm starting legal proceedings against Sunterra for tacking on additional charges to our maintenance fees. We own several other timeshares (non-Sunterra) and enjoy them all.

Dhill67

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

Good luck with any legal proceedings, I'm sure they have plenty of lawyers and have all their bases covered!!!

You need to find someone that is about to convert their unit to Club Sunterra to sell your unit to as Wk47 Thanksgiving is one of the holiday weeks that gets MAX SunOptions for the same MF for the week!

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

Dhill67 -- You're far from alone in your complaints about Sunterra. Quality has degraded so badly in the past 18 months (by my count) that we decided to sell. Well, it's been 6 months and we haven't had a single offer -- and still we're paying fees like crazy. If things don't improve soon then we've decided we'll just get rid of it through Timeshare Relief. Even if it's like admitting defeat, it would be better than paying for nothing forever and ever.

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

The Europeans have been out in front on the legal issues.

see:

www.sunterrafied.co.uk

www.vogas.org

www.scambustersuk.com

www.crimeshare.org/21.html

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

Before using scam artists like TImeshare Relief or TImeshare Solutions, you should put it up for auction with a starting price of $1 and no reserve on www.bidshares.com or ebay.

Dhill67 -- You're far from alone in your complaints about Sunterra. Quality has degraded so badly in the past 18 months (by my count) that we decided to sell. Well, it's been 6 months and we haven't had a single offer -- and still we're paying fees like crazy. If things don't improve soon then we've decided we'll just get rid of it through Timeshare Relief. Even if it's like admitting defeat, it would be better than paying for nothing forever and ever.

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

Before using scam artists like TImeshare Relief or TImeshare Solutions, you should put it up for auction with a starting price of $1 and no reserve on www.bidshares.com or ebay.

I agree with Calolinian and would suggest to you reading this thread. Post #29 may be the most helpful but you could do the same in this forum too. I also quickly searched for Timeshare Relief OY and a lot of threads popped up.

I would hate to see anyone part with so much money to get rid of a timeshare. A Thanksgiving week especially, should be worth some money as that week must be a good trader. Buying timeshares is very easy but selling some of them is a lot harder to do.

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

This is a report from a fellow timeshare owner/TUGger who was just at the resort:

The unit wasn’t refurbished, but was very clean. I can’t quite figure out what all the bitching is about this place. It reminded me of furnishings you might find in a beach house at the Outer Banks. Nothing fancy, but everything worked. The bed linens are lousy, but again, they were clean. Plenty of furniture, kitchen appliances, etc. Nice deck, plenty of space.

The resort itself has a ton of potential. I really liked it. It had most of what you would want (restaurants, pool, market place, etc.). The location was great. The common areas were well maintained. The location relative to Ukrops, Starbucks, and route 199 was terrific. I think that if Sunterra would want to make it nicer, it wouldn’t be very difficult given what they already have.

All in all, I’d give it a solid 7.5 or 8 on the TUG scale. I’m sure the new and refurbished units are really nice and would move the score up.

I own at Manor Club, and Powhatan isn’t as nice, but they aren’t that different either. I would return and recommend it to others.

They obviously weren't in dhill67's unit with the knife holes. $200 total for the week probably helped the evaluation also, cheaper than MFs or Last Calls/Getaways. I've been complaining about the linens there for a while.

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

I suppose I should have mentioned that I already tried the one dollar starting bid on ebay. I took it down after about a week of no action on it -- and after looking at dozens of other timeshares also starting at one dollar each (during this week I didn't see a single one of those move, either). Timeshares just don't resell. The only time they get sold is through high pressure "presentations." I'm so close to going with timeshare relief -- I checked them out at the BBB and they have a good record, so I'm not worried.

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

I dont think this timeshare relief is all its cracked up to be. I read somewhere that you pay them to take the timeshare off your hands, and they will take over the maintenance fees. If this is true then watch out, because it sounds very much like a con to me.

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

I suppose I should have mentioned that I already tried the one dollar starting bid on ebay. I took it down after about a week of no action on it -- and after looking at dozens of other timeshares also starting at one dollar each (during this week I didn't see a single one of those move, either). Timeshares just don't resell. The only time they get sold is through high pressure "presentations." I'm so close to going with timeshare relief -- I checked them out at the BBB and they have a good record, so I'm not worried.

What week do you own?

[Ryne08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryne08]

Spence, what do you think will happen to Club Sunterra ?

The problem will Powhatan Plantation is that it was over built using inferior materials by the original owners and builder.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

I suppose I should have mentioned that I already tried the one dollar starting bid on ebay. I took it down after about a week of no action on it -- and after looking at dozens of other timeshares also starting at one dollar each (during this week I didn't see a single one of those move, either). Timeshares just don't resell. The only time they get sold is through high pressure "presentations." I'm so close to going with timeshare relief -- I checked them out at the BBB and they have a good record, so I'm not worried.

Questions:

• Did you list it with no reserve?
  
• Did you haver a good, accurate and complete ad description? (see the questions on the Timeshare Purchasers checklist in the TUG advice area for questions that you should address in your listing)
  
• Did you have an ad that was easy to read?
  
• Did you address how transfer would be made?
  
• Did you list it for auction or as a classified? If it was for auction, why did you take it down before the auction ended? (I assume you are aware that most people who are serious bidders generally don't place their bids until the last few minutes of an auction?

If you listed it at $1 opening bid, no reserve, reasonable closing costs, and not expecting the buyer to assume any outstanding loans, you should have gotten action if you let the auction run its course.

If you didn't get action, then there most likely was a problem with your listing that caused interested bidders to ignore it. Most often that means a descirption that is unclear, incomplete, or inaccurate.

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

Spence, what do you think will happen to Club Sunterra ?

No ideas.