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I have been actively associated with timeshares for over 35 years now as a timeshare owner and, in more recent years, as an elected member of a timeshare Board of Directors. Unlike the OP in this thread (mindyl48), I certainly do not and will not claim to have "spoke to thousands of people", but I will honestly and very simply state that in 35+ years I have NEVER heard of ANYONE ever getting any money BACK from ANY upfront fee resale outfit. NOT ONCE! There is a very simple and straightforward reason for this fact and observation. The unwelcome truth is that the upfront fee operations, although utterly useless, are not really "scams" in the literal sense of that word, because what they do is LEGAL --- even if expensive, misleading and unproductive, as well as a complete waste of time and money. The "upfront fee resale" parasites are essentially just "LISTING services", even though they don't openly disclose or admit that fact and might even imply otherwise. Any "guarantees" (for either results OR refunds) are either non-existent or very carefully couched within a laundry list of onerous conditions and / or impossible time constraints. They have NO intentions of EVER returning ANY money to ANYONE --- that is NOT their model or intent. Once they collect the upfront money (their "listing fee") all they really have to do next is to "list" the timeshare on some obscure web site that few people will ever see. Voila --- by posting the "listing", they have now "fulfilled" their ONE AND ONLY actual obligation. The timeshare is likely grossly overpriced in that listing and the owner will likely never hear from the "listing service" again. After all, their job is DONE once they have their upfront money and post the "listing". You can almost hear the "Ka Ching" as their cash registers ring. The solution is simply to NEVER pay upfront fee money to any such "listing service" in the first place. If you do so, you can just kiss that money goodbye --- it ain't EVER coming back. My belief is that anyone (very likely including mindyl48 above) claiming to provide "refund / recovery / retrieval" services is probably someone currently or formerly directly associated with a useless "listing service" themselves, now "double dipping" on another tier and likely working from a "sucker list" of previous "upfront fee donors" and contacting them directly. "A fool and his money are soon parted", as that old saying goes. Don't be a fool! Do not ever pay ANY upfront fee resale parasite big chunks of your hard earned money in the first place! There is clearly a world of difference between legitimate timeshare sites that charge a reasonable fee for owners to place their own resale or rental ads (such as RedWeek, et al) and those obscure "upfront fee listing services" that demand HUNDREDS of dollars (or more) just to place a useless "listing" on some obscure web site. Don't confuse these two very different models with one another, as they are truly as different as night and day.