RCI Stealing Dad's Vacation Village at Weston Confirmation

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

Don't Call Back!

Let them fuss with others who join in the game - you have a reservation for the 23rd and you should just stick where you are and insist that the reservation be honoured.

Jeez Louise - What an outfit RCI is turning out to be!

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

RCI Rep here on site made some sense

Well, I can not call back and then be nowhere! That happened to people down here in January...and why do that?

I am willing to play the game, if it works! trying our best

Before talking to the RCI VC (at the URGENT phone # office in Indy) we wanted to know more info. Sure enough ,the RCI rep here at the Vacation Villages resorts here in Weston FL did know that there were problems going on with hundreds of people And she looked up our account, and there was NOT a reservation for the 23rd of Feb. She said the new updated lists had not been sent to resorts yet, and so what we had, was not valid, not being on the new list. She said she had worked for RCI for 6 years and never had this number of problems before. She said it was a computer glitch on BOTH sides - communication with the Vacation Villages resorts had broken down with an error in the system.

So we are waiting to see what will be offered.

At least we are not up in snowy Ohio!!! 1200 accidents just yesterday??

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

WOW! This is my home resort-- And its HUGE-- I find it hard to beleive it is ever full!! (But I must say I like hearing that someone wants to go there-- gotta be a help to me when I exchange) Sounds like one heck of a computer glitch!!! surely someone would notice that 1200 extra people were booked???? VERY INTERESTING--

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

Here's what happened

The RCI Supervisor said that 1 ½ years ago, the Berkeley Group accidentally sent in a double listing or available resorts weeks in the Vacation Villages complexes. Ths,the overbooking for apparently several months, since this happened in Jan and maybe Dec too.

So to solve the problem of getting people relocated , RCI has rented units at Suite hotels to put people into. When we finally got connected with the gal on Friday, she had us booked into the Staybridge Suites, a 1 bedroom unit in Plantation, FL close to Weston for the whole week. We said fine, in fact, we were in Plantation at that moment, looking for the AAA office.

We mentioned then we were on our way to Ft Lauderdale Beach Club and then she saw it on our account and said Oh Yes. We drove down to Staybridge Suites to look it over on the way to Ft Lauderdale and it looked fine, a lot like Homewood Suites, including complimentary continental breakfasts like they do, and 3 evenings of treats. But before we could get to Ft L, she called back and said she had found a unit at Ft L Beach Club if we would like to stay there a second week. Of course, we said Yes,

So, imagine what RCI had to do – renting all those hotels…..

So, although we do not have the paperwork yet – and I always hold my breath until we do – we’ll be here for 2 weeks instead of elsewhere.

We do hope to be able to stay at Mizner next year – my husband loved it there.

It is real nice here at the Ft Lauderdale Beach resort. ! We are not on the ocean side, but have a beautiful view of the city and the lights at night from the 9th floor – a 1 BD. Very pretty. One block from beach, state park across the street.

Would be nice to return here too!

[Sydney Contributor - Bronze Find all posts View Profile Close Sydney]

Joan and Ron, so glad it's worked out to your liking.

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

I'm new in the timeshare industry (inherited my dad's ts), and have been looking around online for information b/c I hate not being educated about things that directly my life. I can't believe after all the reading I've done online, that anyone still books/banks/exchanges etc with RCI. My god, how that company still lures people in is beyond me. The threads here about RCI and these horror stories just prove it even more that RCI is a disgusting greedy company, and from what I can tell, the people here know a ton about timesharing. I don't know where the class action suit against RCI is these days (but I'll definitely be looking it up)....but in terms of timeshare usage, what a relief it'll be if they actually have to do what they promise to do? What are the chances of that happening though, eh? Corporate greed seems to rule all huh. Sick, just sick.

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

While I don't agree with all of RCI's business practices, I have been a relatively happy member since 1996. This year I have RCI exchanges in Orlando, Scotland, England and Vermont. I am also an II member and have booked nothing with them for this year.

RCI wins out because of sheer volume of weeks they have available. They also have a lot of members, which means they will have dissatisfied customers as well. We could argue about how well they take care of those customers at length, but overall they don't seem to do too badly.

If they stop meeting my needs, I'll move on, but right now they're the best game in town for me personally.

Sheila

[swit29 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close swit29]

While I don't agree with all of RCI's business practices, I have been a relatively happy member since 1996. This year I have RCI exchanges in Orlando, Scotland, England and Vermont. I am also an II member and have booked nothing with them for this year.

RCI wins out because of sheer volume of weeks they have available. They also have a lot of members, which means they will have dissatisfied customers as well. We could argue about how well they take care of those customers at length, but overall they don't seem to do too badly.

If they stop meeting my needs, I'll move on, but right now they're the best game in town for me personally.

Sheila

After about ten years with RCI I dropped them about 2000 and switched to II and independents. Sure, my RCI exchanges also included England, France and Spain as well as Cancun, Nassau and, of course, a multiple of resort in Florida, Ca, Pa, etc. After gaining more experience in using the exchange rules to my advantage I have become much more selective in terms of what may be acceptable to me for the maintenance and tax fees I pay at my resorts plus the ever escallating RCI exchange rates and annual fees. Overall, I felt that RCI fails to meet my standards and that II offers better quality for my money even though some restrictions apply.

As to the sheer number of RCI affiliated esorts, for me this is largely an irrelevant argument because:
A) some 50% of RCI listings are in locations of no interest to me whatsoever
B) up to 50% of the so-called RCI affiliated "resorts" don't deserve to be known as resorts, - they are converted motels that would otherwise go out of business or limited units set aside in city hotels as tmeshares on a trial basis.
C) RCI has tried hard to sell many of their surplus and/or "unwanted" weeks as "escapes", or "Sky auctions" or what not. Anybody can buy them on auctions in off season for peanuts. Like the two bdr. units I bought in Florida and other locations for the whole week at little more than $200 !
D) realistically speaking, depending on your age and vacation frequency, you have a chance of visiting in your lifetime no more than a maximum of 200 resorts. This is stretching a reality but, assuming for the sake of simplicity that you would never visit the same resort twice, it would take you 40 years x 5 weeks/year to visit 200 resorts. Anything over that would require you to remain very active and healthy long after your retirement as well as to stretch your life expectancy well past 100 years ! In reality, the avarage T/S owner would not get a chance to visit more than 100 resorts in his/her lifetime. Why should anyone talk about 3500 RCI resorts ?

The conclusion: forget about the quantity of RCI affiliated resorts, their numbers are being tossed around mainly as promotional propaganda !
Focus on quality resorts that you can realistically access given your personal preferences and family or time constraints.

That's my opinion. Yours may be different.

Swit29

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

This will probably be the first time VV has ever been full, what's next Lehigh ?