Here is my timeshare nightmare story

[Goldy1]

First of all before I begin, I didn't buy it! I almost did! ok almost twice!

Ok so my phone rings and I am invited to a "presentation given by a travel club with no obligation that takes an hour or so and JUST for attending I will receive a free digital camera, $30 Walmart gift card"

I am intrigued. I have heard of timeshares and the like, but didn't know anything about them but was "100%" positive I wasn't interested but I told dh we should go for the free stuff.

WE show up. The company just opened in this huge shopping center. WE have to watch a video on the travel club, some dude sings a song about dreams and stuff, and then hundreds of folks are seated at tables. EAch table has a few people and a sales rep. Lots of folks bought it and each time one did they announced it over the microphone.

They were so convincing to buy this crap claiming how it will SAVE you so much money and how you can pass this on to your kids.

I said no thanks. DH was neutral. He is more gullable so I have to be the balls at times. They went down on the price twice and I was still shaking my head. I was literally the last person left in the joint. I was about to leave. They went down on the price a third time and I SIGNED UP FOR THE DARN TIME SHARE! EEKS.

So I take my free digial camera(it was worth about $5 and purple plastic junk, not a real camera, it sucked) walmart gift card, and they threw in an Outback Steakhouse gift certificate to me since I signed.

I spent half the next day reading about the club by browsing thier huge travel book. I realized I had bought a set amount of "points" which I would use to buy a week in different locales. I realized the amount of points I had would get me to FLorida in July or at a ski resort in summer

I went into the joint that day to cancel (since you have so many days by law)
They went down on the price again and I resigned a new contract for the same thing.
I started researching time shares online and went back the next day to cancel the second contract.
This was 6 years ago. I thank God I never signed. IT was a rip off with high fees.

The word time share gives me the heebie jeebies. I am not stupid. I have never paid a cent of inteest to a credit card for example. They can get anyone under thier spell.

[disneysteve]

The sad thing is that buying a timeshare can actually be a decent deal, but only if you buy it on the resale market, not from the resort itself. Kind of like the difference between buying a new car (waste) and a used car (smart purchase). In each case, you let someone else take the big depreciation hit and you swoop in and get the item, whether it be a timeshare or a vehicle, at a markedly lower price. If you buy a timeshare for $10,000, you'll never see that money again. If, however, you buy the exact same timeshare for $2,000, you can use it for a few years and probably turn around and sell it for close to what you paid.

[jeffrey]

After hearing nightmare story after nightmare story (from our timesharetrap website), I have to disagree that timeshares can be a decent deal. I'm not saying that it never happens (people do win the lottery), but for 99% it doesn't make sense for the basic reason that you can rent a timeshare in the same location in the same week at the same resort you want for less than it costs to own it from someone who for whatever reason can't stay. This voids all the risk which can be considerable -- right now I'm seeing a large increase in complaints that people can't pay the higher maintenance fees being instituted. What has happened with the bad economy is that people are defaulting on their timeshares which means that the timeshare company has to raise fees on the others who don't default to maintain the resort....causing more people to have problems meeting the payments...

[disneysteve]

Oh, I totally agree, jeffrey. I, personally, would never buy a timeshare. I don't think it is a good deal and it doesn't fit the way we like to vacation. But I do know people for whom it works very nicely. They bought REALLY cheap on the resale market, like under $1,000 cheap. Is it saving them money? No, probably not. But it also isn't costing them a whole lot more than they'd spend on a vacation anyway.

I'm with you, though. We've used SkyAuction.com to rent timeshare units 3 times, paying as little as $37/night for a 2-bed, 2-bath rental near Disney World. We couldn't stay at Motel 6 for that price.

Good point about how the economy is affecting things. I hadn't heard about that but it makes perfect sense. Certainly, if maintenance fees shoot up, what might have been at least a acceptable deal becomes a lousy one.

[Goldy1]

I read a lot about time shares when this happened to me. I was young, about 26 at the time, and the economy was better(this must have been just shy of 9-11)
I just got turned off by thier lack of scruples. They said they were building a full service travel agengy in that same building as the seminars were. The place was empty a mere few months later after they "hit" this area.

I read a story in Reader's Digest about a couple who bought a timeshare, and about a day later the husband lost his job and they went to cancel it. Turns out they went to eat at a restaurant with the freebie gift certificate they were also given. They were not able to cancel b/c they can't cancel per the contract "if they used the vacation club services" and using the gift certificate counted!!!!!! eeks.
The story went out to say the couple lost thier battle in court to get out of it due to this fact.

I know a couple people who like thier time shares. Good for them, but it doesn't mean they are a good value.

I err on the side of comitment phobe.

It was common sense;the yearly fees coul dmore than buy me a nice vacation stay.

I have had success with priceline.com although it's been a year or so since I bid on a hotel.

[Like2Plan]

Goldy1,
DH and I went to a timeshare presentation in Las Vegas about 25+ years ago. Neither one of us were impressed and at the time, I don't think either one of us thought we would ever buy into any timeshare....

But, we did. We bought into Disney Vacation Club (DVC) about 7 years ago. It took us about 10 years to decide to buy and it took the right property to come along, too.

I won't say it saves us any money, but it does allow us to stay in nicer accomodations for the money.

DVC has been a good fit for us because we go to WDW multiple times a year. (It is my intention to keep going even if I need a walker and an oxygen tank to get around. ) We always stay on property and we prize a resort that is within walking distance to one of the parks. So far it has worked out very well for us..

[Goldy1]

WEll I admit it's not always black and white At least you get Disney (know you like it)and don't have to worry about "points" to buy into a week somewhere at a good time not being enough.

[minnie1928]

We bought into Disney Vacation Club (DVC) about 7 years ago. It took us about 10 years to decide to buy and it took the right property to come along, too.

I won't say it saves us any money, but it does allow us to stay in nicer accomodations for the money.

DVC has been a good fit for us because we go to WDW multiple times a year. (It is my intention to keep going even if I need a walker and an oxygen tank to get around. ) We always stay on property and we prize a resort that is within walking distance to one of the parks. So far it has worked out very well for us..

We bought our DVC contract in 2005. We've been annual passholders for years, but now we get great discounts on the passes because of DVC. We are able to take friends/family with us, stay in better accommodations and go more often. We too will always stay on property (had 1 bad experience off property, that was all it took).

I will also always be at WDW, but I'll be tooling around in a scooter!

[shaggy]

I'm a commitment phobe. It's kept me out of bad decisions like timeshares, car leases, and second marriages.

[cardtrick]

I've never been to a presentation but I don't fall for those sales tactics. I never buy anything on the spot anyway. I go back, run the numbers and think about it for a few days. One of these days, I'll give it a try. I can guarantee that I will come out of the presentation without buying anything.

[MonkeyMama]

I can guarantee that I will come out of the presentation without buying anything.

We've gone to a few timeshare presentations. I agree with your assessment. Absolutely nothing enticing in the least about the ones we went to.

My experience has been that we are always the first ones to exit the room. I feel like they shuffle us out before anyone else notices our complete lack of enthusiasm. I suppose we aren't wired like most people. *shrugs* Of note, we only pay cash for things, and I don't have $50,000 laying around for vacation. Plus I may have only been to Las Vegas timeshare presentations, and $50,000 for a week in Vegas every year is obviously a tremendous ripoff. It's a tough sell for some "middle of the desert" hotel that isn't even on the strip. If it was prime property in Hawaii though, I'd feel the same.

[cardtrick]

We've gone to a few timeshare presentations. I agree with your assessment. Absolutely nothing enticing in the least about the ones we went to.

My experience has been that we are always the first ones to exit the room. I feel like they shuffle us out before anyone else notices our complete lack of enthusiasm. I suppose we aren't wired like most people. *shrugs*

Besides, my idea of a vacation is exploring new places, food and culture. We'd never make full use of those resort amenities anyway. We usually stay at hostels or rooms costing less than $40 per night.

[MonkeyMama]

We usually stay at hostels or rooms costing less than $40 per night.

Ditto. The math on timeshares is a VERY tough sell when you don't spend a lot of money on hotels.

[disneysteve]

The math on timeshares is a VERY tough sell when you don't spend a lot of money on hotels.

I am certainly no fan of timeshares. The math is always a tough sell because the numbers never add up. As I've said many times when the topic has come up, if you ever want to stay in a timeshare unit, rent it for the week. It is very easy to do and typically costs no more than what an owner would pay for the annual maintenance fee and sometimes even less than that.

Many timeshare resorts are absolutely beautiful properties with great amenities. We stayed at Marriott Cypress Harbor in Orlando a couple of years ago and have vacation 3 times at Orbit One in Kissimmmee, FL. We loved staying in these places but what we loved even more was that we could do that with no commitment and pretty modest cost. We stayed in Orbit One for $37/night for a wonderful 2-bedroom, 2-bath poolside unit. Why would we ever consider buying?

[Like2Plan]

This thread is like a time capsule! It is interesting to see what I posted 4.5 years ago.
We still have our DVC--now into our 12th year of membership. But we have had some life changes. (I've read somewhere that the average Timeshare ownership is about 8 years due to life events). In our case, our DS has graduated college, moved away and has a job now (it is much harder for him to join us). DH is still working (he plans to work for a few more years), but he thinks once every year (or two) is enough Disney for him. So, we don't need as many points. I have retired and have been doing things to reduce our expenses (such as the membership fees).

I have also been focused on simplifying our portfolio. I have also given some thought to a predicament a friend had in dealing with her parents estate. Her parents estate had timeshares which none of the heirs wanted to use. It has taken a couple of years to get it all sorted out. They tried to sell their timeshares with no success so, they filed a form with the resorts (I'm thinking something like a quit-claim) and basically wrote it off so the estate wouldn't have to keep paying the maint. fees.

While I still adore Disney, I decided to cut our exposure somewhat. We sold about 25% of our points last year and we are in the process of selling another 22% of our points this year. I consider the points to depreciate every year as we use them (the points have a limited contract length), so with the sale(s) I figure we will break even after expenses (commission) have been deducted from the sale price.

I'm thinking about selling more points since it has recently become a sellers market for DVC points. We could sell some of our remaining points (Disney in California) at a price higher than what we originally paid. (I don't know how long it will be a sellers market, though. ) Trouble is I still like using the points, so lots to think about.