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Some of us never learn I guess.
We have owned a 1 bedroom Holiday week as Gold members since 2004 that cost us $22,000. We have used our week every year except one and have been in Villa Del Palmar, Villa Del Arco and Villa Del Palmar Flamingos.
Overall we had been satisfied with our timeshare. Yes, we quickly realized that it's not the best deal in the world, but since we had spent the money we were forced to make sure we took the vacation, even in years when we would have fizzled out on going anywhere othewise. So far so good.
Maintence fees have gone from $543 in 2004, $610 in 2005 11%, $649 in 2006 6%, $673 in 2007 4.5%, $744 in 2008 9.5%, $767 in 2009 3%, to $777 2%, in 2010. To tell you all the truth, I hadn't even really noticed how much the increases were until I just went back through my records for this post.
This has all come to a head for us because of our experience this year at Villa Del Palmar Flamingos. As usual we went to our owners update on the second full day we were there. At the update we were told that we could expect a yearly increase in our MF from now on of at least 10% a year under our current Gold member program with the 2011 MF projected to be $869 a 10.5% increase. We were then shown that we would be paying over $30,000 in MF over the 24 years left on our contract.
By this time we were pretty well sucked in to the scam that was just starting and this is where we should have known better.
Next we were told that if we would upgrade to the points system we would qualify for a program that would let us rent out our bonus Gold Week, that we have never used. Under this program a third party travel agency would contact us and handle renting out our Gold Week for enough money to cover the Gold Week MF and the MF for our primary week.
We were told a bunch of other stuff about how our current system was being scrapped and that if we didn't upgrade we would be left out in lala land, something about how the developer had decided to allow the rental of Gold Weeks because the weeks are tied up someway and no one is able to benefit, and because so many people were defaulting on their MFs and on and on.
We brought up that last year we had turned down the points upgrade and that it didn't make any more sense this year, but we were told that our sales person last year should have told us all about this rental program and did us a disfavor by not doing so.
And, in spite of everything that we have learned about timeshares, we bought it, hook line and sinker. We agreed to upgrade to the points system as Villa Preferred Access Members with 2550 points for our Holiday 1 Bedroom for a total of $10,595 with $3,095 down payment.
All along we kept asking, is this really legitimate and our sale person Gloria Gomez, said yes, yes, it is legitimate. Even at the closing when we are reading the contract where it says, you can't rent out your gold week, we ask Gloria, is this legitimate and she says, yes, once you request the Gold Week through the travel agency that will be representing you, it is yours and they will contact you at home the week you are back.
Even the next morning, Gloria met with us at breakfast and assured us that the deal was legitimate and that we shouldn't worry.
After we got home, in short order we heard from the Villa Preferred Access people and got set up with a new account number but did not hear from the third party travel agency. I sent an email to Gloria Gomez and to the sales office and this week I received an email saying she would call to personally answer any questions.
Then yesterday I receive a phone call from a Steve Gerard at Enterprise Travel International 1-866-978-6866. Mr. Gerard explained that they are a corporate travel agency that deals only in high end vacations for business people who are willing to pay top dollar for accommodations and that he could guarantee us $2,500 for our Gold Week and $3,300 for our primary holiday week if we decided to rent it out also. He also explained that his agency required a $785 one time fee to set us up.
A little later yesterday I also received a phone call from Gloria, asking if I had talked to the third party travel agency. I said that I had, but that I was concerned about the upfront fee that they were asking for. She said that **now get this** during the sales presentation she had explained that the price for our upgrade was $10,595 plus the $785, plus next years MF and maybe some other stuff, but since we were going to have to pay the $785 directly to the, as yet unnamed third party travel agency, she had given us a discount of $785 and that we should now pass that $785 on to the travel agency.
Now is that, like the most convoluted scam you have ever heard of. My intention is to pursue the matter as far as I can. After all, if this is such a good deal for Mr. Steve Gerard and Enterprise International Travel he should be happy to take the upfront fee out of our first years rent. I will holding my breath for that to happen for sure.
Keep your eyes and ears open fellow timeshare travelers. I will update as this unfolds.
We have owned a 1 bedroom Holiday week as Gold members since 2004 that cost us $22,000. We have used our week every year except one and have been in Villa Del Palmar, Villa Del Arco and Villa Del Palmar Flamingos.
Overall we had been satisfied with our timeshare. Yes, we quickly realized that it's not the best deal in the world, but since we had spent the money we were forced to make sure we took the vacation, even in years when we would have fizzled out on going anywhere othewise. So far so good.
Maintence fees have gone from $543 in 2004, $610 in 2005 11%, $649 in 2006 6%, $673 in 2007 4.5%, $744 in 2008 9.5%, $767 in 2009 3%, to $777 2%, in 2010. To tell you all the truth, I hadn't even really noticed how much the increases were until I just went back through my records for this post.
This has all come to a head for us because of our experience this year at Villa Del Palmar Flamingos. As usual we went to our owners update on the second full day we were there. At the update we were told that we could expect a yearly increase in our MF from now on of at least 10% a year under our current Gold member program with the 2011 MF projected to be $869 a 10.5% increase. We were then shown that we would be paying over $30,000 in MF over the 24 years left on our contract.
By this time we were pretty well sucked in to the scam that was just starting and this is where we should have known better.
Next we were told that if we would upgrade to the points system we would qualify for a program that would let us rent out our bonus Gold Week, that we have never used. Under this program a third party travel agency would contact us and handle renting out our Gold Week for enough money to cover the Gold Week MF and the MF for our primary week.
We were told a bunch of other stuff about how our current system was being scrapped and that if we didn't upgrade we would be left out in lala land, something about how the developer had decided to allow the rental of Gold Weeks because the weeks are tied up someway and no one is able to benefit, and because so many people were defaulting on their MFs and on and on.
We brought up that last year we had turned down the points upgrade and that it didn't make any more sense this year, but we were told that our sales person last year should have told us all about this rental program and did us a disfavor by not doing so.
And, in spite of everything that we have learned about timeshares, we bought it, hook line and sinker. We agreed to upgrade to the points system as Villa Preferred Access Members with 2550 points for our Holiday 1 Bedroom for a total of $10,595 with $3,095 down payment.
All along we kept asking, is this really legitimate and our sale person Gloria Gomez, said yes, yes, it is legitimate. Even at the closing when we are reading the contract where it says, you can't rent out your gold week, we ask Gloria, is this legitimate and she says, yes, once you request the Gold Week through the travel agency that will be representing you, it is yours and they will contact you at home the week you are back.
Even the next morning, Gloria met with us at breakfast and assured us that the deal was legitimate and that we shouldn't worry.
After we got home, in short order we heard from the Villa Preferred Access people and got set up with a new account number but did not hear from the third party travel agency. I sent an email to Gloria Gomez and to the sales office and this week I received an email saying she would call to personally answer any questions.
Then yesterday I receive a phone call from a Steve Gerard at Enterprise Travel International 1-866-978-6866. Mr. Gerard explained that they are a corporate travel agency that deals only in high end vacations for business people who are willing to pay top dollar for accommodations and that he could guarantee us $2,500 for our Gold Week and $3,300 for our primary holiday week if we decided to rent it out also. He also explained that his agency required a $785 one time fee to set us up.
A little later yesterday I also received a phone call from Gloria, asking if I had talked to the third party travel agency. I said that I had, but that I was concerned about the upfront fee that they were asking for. She said that **now get this** during the sales presentation she had explained that the price for our upgrade was $10,595 plus the $785, plus next years MF and maybe some other stuff, but since we were going to have to pay the $785 directly to the, as yet unnamed third party travel agency, she had given us a discount of $785 and that we should now pass that $785 on to the travel agency.
Now is that, like the most convoluted scam you have ever heard of. My intention is to pursue the matter as far as I can. After all, if this is such a good deal for Mr. Steve Gerard and Enterprise International Travel he should be happy to take the upfront fee out of our first years rent. I will holding my breath for that to happen for sure.
Keep your eyes and ears open fellow timeshare travelers. I will update as this unfolds.
Puppymom in MO
JMHO. Rents are very reasonable right now at most resorts in Mexico.
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