So RCI has done it again

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

When I said, "That pretty well sums it ups, and explains the disconnect," I originally had said "disconnect/disrespect", because there has been a lot of that last couple of years towards the veterans who have been involved with helping folks on these forums for 10-15-almost 20 years.

I dropped the disrespect to temper it, to not be disrespectful myself.

I should have left it, because with a few here, that is what it's been since they arrived.

What were we talking about again?

[Ridewithme38 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ridewithme38]

When I said, "That pretty well sums it ups, and explains the disconnect," I originally had said "disconnect/disrespect", because there has been a lot of that last couple of years towards the veterans who have been involved with helping folks on these forums for 10-15-almost 20 years.

I dropped the disrespect to temper it, to not be disrespectful myself.

I should have left it, because with a few here, that is what it's been since they arrived.

What were we talking about again?

With all due respect....It's not disrespectful to tell someone they are wrong when it's obvious to everyone else how wrong they are....Really, i'd understand you getting upset if you had posed a valid response and i had just stuck out my tongue and said you were wrong, but that's not what happened....That was the response i got from you...No valid points, just attacks because my points were valid and you had no counter points

It's ok to stick with the old outdated ways and wish and prey that it was still like that, but when people ask advice about the modern system....Posting about how your horse doesn't need oil changes and how you wish they'd never invented the automobile isn't helpful...i'm sure there are other things you have knowledge on and can be helpful with....but this may not be that topic for you

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

The real key is that RCI was once honest. They did not steal weeks deposited for exchange and rent them out to outsiders, and that especially happens to the best weeks. Their trading power assignments generally made sense, and even if we did not know an exact number after you used the system a bit you had a pretty good idea of the range of things your week would trade for. Trading power now is clearly bent with some things being clearly overpointed and others underpointed. The new RCI is not honest.

Even if indepedents do not have as many weeks as RCI, they are honest in their dealings, and in my book that makes them better to deal with.

Also from talking with resort managers on the OBX and in the UK, many members are complaining about RCI, as it has gone far downhill from what it was, and many are no longer using it. The word is spreading.

I'll ask you the same question i was unable to get an answer to above....Can you name one single exchange company with the sheer enormous number of weeks available for exchange as RCI? Or even one with as simple an interface as search, click, travel?

RCI WAS once much much better then it is now, that is undeniable, but even in the sad state it is now, no other Exchange company can even compare, heck, i'm willing to bet(don't know for sure) if you combined EVERY SINGLE OTHER exchange company out there, they still wouldn't have as many exchange possibilities as RCI

So, Sure its sad, RCI isn't as great as it once was, but its still the greatest option out there, hands down

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

Trading power now is clearly bent with some things being clearly overpointed and others underpointed.

I suspect that's always been true, at least in the sense that you could trade in one thing for something totally different. With Bluegreen, at any rate, people were getting tremendous deals that I would have been happy to have, but really made no sense to me. I think RCI has always tried to weight the most popular resorts, but that's not an exact science. Especially when you have as many offerings as RCI does, what people think they're willing to pay and what they're actually willing to pay aren't always the same -- even if the price doesn't go up to what they said they were willing to pay, they may pay more attention to other options or otherwise move away from that choice.

RCI is trying to aim for thousands of constantly changing targets that shift every time they make a move. It's not surprising they get some weird outliers, and it's also not surprising the there are fewer great deals as their efforts get more sophisticated. I also wonder what kind of impact the Internet has had, in that there are now more people trying to trade who're much more informed than they once were. There is a sense where websites like this one are informing our "competition" -- every time I tell a new owner or prospective owner how best to use the system, I'm basically adding to the competition I myself will face for BG units.

That happens, to a lesser extent, with RCI as well. More informed people working the system probably means it's going to be harder to get the most popular units. It isn't just RCI that has changed -- it's the people using it.

That said, I can totally understand the refusing to deal with RCI over the "renting out units deposited to trade" part. I wouldn't want to deal with someone I felt had lied to me, either. But at this point, the fact that RCI rents out units is well established, and I don't think new people are going to feel that sense of betrayal. As soon as I heard about the whole "Extra Vacations" and "Last Call" concepts, I figured they were renting out units handed in for trade, so for me that was part of it from the git go,

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

If I could edit what may be interpreted by some to be personal criticism, I would. It was intended to be a comment on the biz model that so many companies seem to be operating on today, that of recruiting and appealing to new customers (one is born every minute), at lower levels of expectation than long-term customers. We have experienced that from a number of companies . . . Comcast, CenturyLink, RCI, the health care industry, insurance companies, some of the major banks, rewards programs, airlines . . .

It may have started with the Carolinians of the timeshare forum world, warning of what was to be, but now these forums are filled with former satisfied customers upset about many aspects of today's timeshare industry. Exchange companies, resale companies, post card companies, outright lying in sales, nickel and diming for things that used to be covered by annual fees, escalating fees, special assessments, threats of litigation . . .

Timeshare has never had a noble reputation, but recent years have lowered the lowness. Of course, on non-timeshare forums, when timeshare comes up, wow!, duck for cover, because it is merciless.

What I'm trying to say is those who experienced a fairer industry recognize the unfairness now, which I take to be the case with the OP here, and those who did not do not. So, it takes new customers to keep going. On these forums it's pretty easy to tell the new ones from the veterans.

If the new customers are happy with less, that's fine, for them.

I recently read about similar dissatisfaction with Comcast (which we are now experiencing), that dissatisfied customers are quitting at a rate twice as fast as new customers are signing up.

For us, me and mine, we have decided that life is too short to subject ourselves to abusive companies who do not provide what they promise. There seem to be sooooo many any more. I have learned that the first sign of what is to be is evasive, stonewalling responses from customer service, designed to wear down most people. We have been getting that from Comcast since we started service two weeks ago. Yesterday I told them what I am saying here, that life is too short to continue to put up with what is obviously to be, so if they can't provide what they promised at the price they promised, just come get our equipment. With that they bumped it up to someone higher to review.

Just this morning, CenturyLink told me to pay more than we owe them, and they will give us a credit for next month, and I said wouldn't it make more sense for us to pay what we owe, rather than more and hoping for a refund. Why, yes, she said. That was after I have been asking nthem the same thing by their email customer disservice system, repeatedly, for more than a week, and they finally said I had to call and talk to someone. Funny things happen, though. After repeating myself several time via email, the rep today said, "You don't have to repeat yourself, I understtod the first time." I just thought to myself, "Yes I do."

The same goes for abusive people, we have decided that life is too short to put up with them.

Sadly, what that means for us, and many others, timeshare-wise, is about $3000 in annual fees for something that has no further use or value, and no exit strategy. Every timeshare owner, some day, for some reason, will face that. Even those happiest today will face that some day. That is another glaring shortcoming of the industry. That is another aspect of timesharing which is worthy of mention on timeshare forums, for those seeking knowledge and advice for their decision-making.

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

Is it me or is a lot of RCI's inventory just rentals. Many of the resorts listed have
No exchange inventory only rentals.

The positive spin that RCI would put on that is that by offering rentals they are making available accomodations that would not otherwise be available.

A good thing about being a longtime member, and having done a specific search every day for more than ten years, and recording/documenting the results, is that I know firsthand that inventory used to be available, and began dwindling away as RCI ramped up their rental business.

In my many years of searching for a reason for the disappearance of the inventory, none has been offered and the only difference in the biz model was getting into rentals.

In SW FL in January I used to be able to choose from 16-20 resorts, that max coming pretty far out, like 16-20 months. We used to get Gold Crowns on the beach. Now, as those who know know, there is zip, or, if we subscribers are lucky enough to be thrown a crumb, it is one of the low-rated resorts not on the beach, like Marco Resort and Club.

There is no longer a question as to whether you get better than you deserve, because no one gets anything. Sorta like the old definition of communism . . . the even distribution of nothing.

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

The positive spin that RCI would put on that is that by offering rentals they are making available accomodations that would not otherwise be available.

A good thing about being a longtime member, and having done a specific search every day for more than ten years, and recording/documenting the results, is that I know firsthand that inventory used to be available, and began dwindling away as RCI ramped up their rental business.

In my many years of searching for a reason for the disappearance of the inventory, none has been offered and the only difference in the biz model was getting into rentals.

In SW FL in January I used to be able to choose from 16-20 resorts, that max coming pretty far out, like 16-20 months. We used to get Gold Crowns on the beach. Now, as those who know know, there is zip, or, if we subscribers are lucky enough to be thrown a crumb, it is one of the low-rated resorts not on the beach, like Marco Resort and Club.

There is no longer a question as to whether you get better than you deserve, because no one gets anything. Sorta like the old definition of communism . . . the even distribution of nothing.

Marco Resort and Club (#1861)
1 Bedroom 4 (2) Full Sat 18-Jan-2014 Sat 25-Jan-2014 Exchange Fee 27

PS:

Deposit Trading Power
Maximum Trading Power 25
Current Trading Power 25