RCI is a SCAM....cancelation policy

[RCI Scam Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RCI Scam]

RCI is a SCAM with his cancelation policy. RCI dosen't give you back, the weeks or points to exchange or money when you cancel a week.
I payed for to weeks in Colorado for this winter to RCI, I decided to cancel my trip and then they SCAM me. I never recived a exchange for my weeks, points to exchange or nothing. They will sell each week in more than US 1,800 and I wont recive anything. They SCAM. If i new this i would have sold it for US $500 each week or give it away, or leave it empty. BE CAREFUL WITH RCI time share.

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

With RCI when you book you can click on their cancellation policy. If you don't cancel within 24 hrs you exchange fee is gone -even if you cancel later. Cancel within the 24 hr grace period you get your exchange fee and full points back. There is schedule of how many points you receive back based on the date (how close to the exchanged date).

With RCI once you deposit your week is no longer yours to use.

It is confusing from your post. Did you deposit and make a request but receive no exchange and cancel with no match? In that case you get your exchange fee and points for your week back. You do need to request the refund or it will remain as an internal credit.

If you made and exchange and then cancelled after the 24 hr grace period, then you lose the exchange fee and may get all or a portion or no points back based on the timing of the cancellation. You can pay an additional fee for points protection in which you still lose the exchange fee but get the points back even if you cancel up to the day before the exchange.

It isn't very member friendly but it isn't any more a scam than any non refundable or limited refund type travel purchase. If you buy a priceline ticket for 11/30 and don't travel on that date and time your money is gone unless you purchased additional insurance and your cancellation is for a covered reason. RCI doesn't hide the rules but you can't assume you can cancel for a refund. Even worse and it is in the rule, once you make an exchange you can't sell what you exchanged into or bought as a getaway. You do have the option to pay a $89 guest certificate fee and give it to someone but you can't charge for the week and if you do and RCI finds out they can cancel the week, cancel all your current exchanges and suspend your membership all without any compensation.

Like most things in the timeshare world, it is very important to read and know the rules.

Scams are more typically reserved for outfits that take your money and then disappear leaving you with nothing and no recourse. It also goes to organizations which do not follow there own rules. So if you cancelled within the 24 hour grace period and did not get your money back.

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

Sally, I think you're wasting your time with your valuable reply.
RCI - Rents Condos Instead is definitely not Owner friendly!

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

For more user friendly cancellation policies, try one of the independent exchange companies like SFX, HTSE, DAE, or UKRE.

RCI is a hopeless case, which is sad because before their takeover by the present owners, they were a great exchange company.

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For more user friendly cancellation policies, try one of the independent exchange companies like SFX, HTSE, DAE, or UKRE.

RCI is a hopeless case, which is sad because before their takeover by the present owners, they were a great exchange company.

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

Once you know how to work RCI it is by far the best exchange company, imo. I can remember years ago getting burned on a deposit value because I didn't understand the system. I think I lost about $400 in trade value on the deposit because my red week was considered low season in RCI.

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

Once you know how to work RCI it is by far the best exchange company, imo. I can remember years ago getting burned on a deposit value because I didn't understand the system. I think I lost about $400 in trade value on the deposit because my red week was considered low season in RCI.

Their points values, either in the official Points system or Points Lite ("weeks") are very manipulated and often not reflective of supply and demand. Add to that things like that experienced by the OP.

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Once you know how to work RCI it is by far the best exchange company, imo. I can remember years ago getting burned on a deposit value because I didn't understand the system. I think I lost about $400 in trade value on the deposit because my red week was considered low season in RCI.

Their points values, either in the official Points system or Points Lite ("weeks") are very manipulated and often not reflective of supply and demand. Add to that things like that experienced by the OP.

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

Their points values, either in the official Points system or Points Lite ("weeks") are very manipulated and often not reflective of supply and demand. Add to that things like that experienced by the OP.

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Their points values, either in the official Points system or Points Lite ("weeks") are very manipulated and often not reflective of supply and demand. Add to that things like that experienced by the OP.

Even so, once you know how to work RCI it is a very good system. RCI has more inventory than all of the other exchange companies combined, imo.

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Their points values, either in the official Points system or Points Lite ("weeks") are very manipulated and often not reflective of supply and demand. Add to that things like that experienced by the OP.

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Their points values, either in the official Points system or Points Lite ("weeks") are very manipulated and often not reflective of supply and demand. Add to that things like that experienced by the OP.

Even so, once you know how to work RCI it is a very good system. RCI has more inventory than all of the other exchange companies combined, imo.

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

I would really like to see their income statement to see how much they make from exchange fees and rental income.

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

I still get good value from RCI. I have some high-value, low maintenance weeks that get me a couple of exchanges each.

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I still get good value from RCI. I have some high-value, low maintenance weeks that get me a couple of exchanges each.

[AnnaRose79 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close AnnaRose79]

Shameful!!! We need to be careful of these timeshares scams...I had a a terrible experience with mine!!

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

I am sorry for your experience. However, their policies about cancellations and using your weeks are quite clear....

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

The original owners of RCI ran a system designed to work for everybody, the members, the resorts, and RCI and it worked. After RCI was sold, they changed completely and ran it only for themselves. That has hurt both members and resorts.

As a longtime HOA board member, one thing I saw with the change that has hurt resorts is RCI eliminating the last minute window where a blue week would trade into anything available. That helped resorts resell blue weeks, because they still offered exchange value worth owning a cheap blue week. It also gave RCI some exchange fee income they might likely have missed otherwise. Then RCI decided to rent those weeks to the general public instead. Under RCI's old policy, we could actually sell blue weeks for as much as $500 and had little HOA inventory sitting around. Now, the HOA is lucky to give away blue weeks and has a good bit of inventory that is not producing m/f's, and of course that makes m/f's higher for other owners to make up the difference.

IMHO, the RCI changes are bringing a slow death to timesharing. Seeing great resorts I have traded into in Europe go belly up due to RCI's policy changes is handwriting on the wall.

Another new policy that is awful for resorts is their policy on exchange deposits on hurricanes. We went through a bad hurricane in my first stint on our HOA. Then RCI honored deposit credits of members for weeks already deposited that could not actually be used by anyone due to the resort being closed for rebuilding. RCI also gave the HOA a big free stack of deposit certificates to give to members with weeks coming up who had not deposited. These had low exchange value, but could be used for an exchange with the member just paying the exchange fee. DAE went one better and allowed members to deposit weeks that could not be used and then exchange through their system with them, helping build awareness of their company and good PR at the same time. During a more recent temporary closure after a storm, RCI did none of that, but went the other direction, demanding that the HOA give them either deposits that could be used or cash to make RCI whole for weeks members had deposited that could not be used. With the new RCI, I wondered at the time if they had even given anything back to the people who had traded into those weeks.

The change of ownership of RCI is the worst thing that ever happened to timesharing, and they have put timesharing into a slow death spiral. Before all the changes, RCI was a great exchange company, but those days are long over.

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

Also use Platinum Interchange - we get two weeks for every deposit