refund listing fees from fraud sellmytimesharenow.com

KC

Horrible company and staff...should be locked up...

michaeljm2 wrote:

Horrible company and staff...should be locked up...

I have nothing but disdain for SMTN, but there is nothing illegal about their upfront fee listing "service", so no one from SMTN will ever be "locked up". On the contrary, SMTN will continue to thrive, as they have for years already. The only way to starve unscrupulous and sleazy SMTN is for people to simply smarten up and STOP SENDING THEM MONEY!

I eneded up giving back to bluegreen so I am done with it now :) Lesson learned! DON'T BUY A TIMESHARE AGAIN EVER!

Business is booming at SMTN. You pay to publish on this site: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sellmytimesharenowcom-q1-buyer-activity-beats-pre-pandemic-levels-301286628.html I have a contact in the legal department at SMTN. They have been giving partial refunds. In Florida, it violates a state statute if one of their agents suggests a listing price or agrees with an over-inflated listing price. Only those holding a real estate license can do that. I can be reached through Inside Timeshare, published in Spain if you would like to be referred to my contact. What happened, is when I was manager of Seniors Vs Crime, a Special Project of the Office of the Florida Attorney General, a few submitted SMTN complaints. They were pretty nice about giving a partial refund, so I told them I would forward those submitting complaints directly to them to see if they could work out the dispute before filing a complaint with the Florida Attorney General.

I learned at SVC, that if some work is done (running the ad), then a negotiated refund should be reached, taking into account work performed. They did at first give full refunds to a few, but it took longer so fewer could be helped. They told me they do have on their dashboard now actual resale prices, which is what is needed. I could not evaluate this as it looked like I needed to be a client to log in. If someone is still active I would appreciate checking this out to see if this is the case. When you list your house for sale, the first thing the agent does is show you the "comps" which in timeshare would sometimes be $0. Florida is awful. If a contractor takes my deposit and disappears, it's a crime. If the contractor took out his tape measure and measured one window, it's an economic dispute. My office was at the Sheriff's Substation so we would refer back and forth.

Surprised that this co. is still in business.

williams1391 wrote:

Surprised that this co. is still in business.

Why on earth are you surprised? SMTN will continue to thrive, making money hand over fist, for as long as people keep voluntarily sending them a thousand dollars (or more) for a nearly useless web site "listing" that costs SMTN nothing beyond the inexpensive cost of maintaining their useless and obscure web site.

Somehow, against all logic, people remain ready and willing to believe that an obscure web site will magically get their timeshare sold at a (much too high) price that no one is likely ever willing to consider paying. Perhaps some folks are just desperate, or maybe some are drawn in by the misleading suggestion of immediacy created by the use of the word NOW in the SMTN company name. Unfortunately, any such belief is completely unfounded and just wishful thinking.

But....."hope springs eternal", as the saying goes.

Given that BBB gives "Sell My Timeshare Now" a C- rating, why would anybody give them any money up front, before they actually did anything? When you google, "Do you give money upfront to a realtor to sell a house?", the answer is "not upfront". Hindsight is always perfect.

I am still in their owners portal. I’d like to help and be helped at the same time. If it is illegal for them to be giving advice on the prices of the timeshares then their website soliciting message:” Owners: how much is your timeshare worth? Find out for free” would be an evidence of them breaking the law, wouldn’t it?

They also use malware to pop up their evaluate your timeshare window even if you are on the website of your timeshare company to give the impression that they are somewhow affiliated. Then people will let down their guard and fall into their trap. I did. :(

leiaw2 wrote:

If it is illegal for them to be giving advice on the prices of the timeshares then their website soliciting message:” Owners: how much is your timeshare worth? Find out for free” would be an evidence of them breaking the law, wouldn’t it?

No, not by a long shot.

It is "illegal" to engage in real estate practices without a real estate license (a license which SMTN does not have). However, If SMTN simply shares price information regarding other existing listings for the same "product", or provides price information on transactions already closed, SMTN would merely be sharing information which is actually readily available to anyone willing to do the research. This is distinctly different from specifically "recommending" a listing price to a SMTN customer, which would be crossing the line as pertains to real estate licensure requirements.

I have no use for SMTN and I believe that it's just a crying shame that people willingly (and continuously) fork over such big bucks to place a listing on an obscure (and nearly useless) web site that will rarely yield any results at all, but what SMTN does is not illegal. If what SMTN does was "illegal", they would have been put out of business years ago. Not only are they still in business, but their business is clearly thriving.

SMTN...give us some money and we will advertise your timeshare for sale and...you will get no response, no offers, nothing. If you wonder what your timeshare is worth, use the web and search for sale your timeshare. Literally hundreds and thousands of timeshares for sale. Some offering to give them away, or maybe one dollar. Definitely a buyers market, if you can even find a buyer.

Thanks for explaining it, even though it is disappointing. Just realized this thread is over ten years long. People keep falling into the same **** hole again and again including me. Any way to make these scammers pay in some other way? Can somebody summon Hackers Anonymous? :))

leiaw3 wrote:

Just realized this thread is over ten years long. People keep falling into the same **** hole again and again including me. Any way to make these scammers pay in some other way?

If people would simply do a little bit of Internet research on SMTN BEFORE voluntarily choosing to pony up a thousand dollars or more for a nearly useless "listing" on an obscure web site, people would promptly learn that it's an expensive (and ultimately fruitless) endeavor to send big bucks off to SMTN only to likely achieve absolutely zero results. Soon enough, money would stop flowing into the SMTN coffers and SMTN would subsequently be starved out of existence.

However, I won't be holding my breath waiting for desperate people to just STOP FEEDING the hungry SMTN beast.

I am leaving my feedback from the perspective of a potential buyer: I am interested in a specific resort in Las Vegas, weeks 1-8 or floating. I put in an inquiry at SMTN. I inquired on buyer and seller splitting the cost of closing fees, which were in excess of $1500. I got an immediate reply that the seller had a better offer, someone who was going to pay all closing. It is now 6 months later and the listing is still up, so I sent in another inquiry in case the sale did not go through, there has been no rely to that inquiry. I also put in another offer on the same timeshare/weeks from a different seller. Again, I also proposed splitting the closing costs with the seller. I got a reply from SMTN that decreasing or sharing of closing costs was not an option. In the second listing, there was a statement that a "2016 banked week is included with the sale". It is now 2021, and it is hard for me to believe that someone who has listed their TS for 5 years would not be amenable to sharing the closing costs which would be around $750 for each party.

Sellers beware that not only will you be paying very hefty upfront fees to SMTN you likely be led to believe that your timeshare is worth more that it really is. I also believe that SMTN does not communicate with sellers that a buyer has requested splitting the closing fees and that a seller may think a buyer wasn't serious or that an offer wasn't credible when in fact it is SMTN not being willing to negotiate on closing costs that is the real reason some sales aren't happening.

If you purchase from SMTN, there is simply no option other than to use their closing process and pay their (inflated and overpriced) closing fees. Period. There is no “negotiating” that indisputable fact. SMTN makes even more money on the closing process and they certainly are not going to give up that gravy train.

The only real alternative is to just accept that as a potential SMTN buyer you must pay their exorbitant closing fees --- so just reduce your offered price accordingly. Your offer may or may not be accepted, but it may be worth a shot if this particular timeshare is one that you really want and cannot find elsewhere (that seems highly unlikely to me, quite frankly, but I suppose it’s possible).

To expect an owner who listed on SMTN for big bucks to pay even MORE money to SMTN toward closing costs, on top of the hefty amount they already paid to place the listing in the first place, is simply not a realistic or reasonable expectation. SMTN would never consider presenting such a request to a seller they have already gouged for big bucks.

I fell for it back in 3/2019 (I have posts way up this thread). I paid about $1800, I think. I threatened them that I would report them to the BBB because of negative feedback I've been reading on them. They offered to return $1K, which I accepted, and served as a settlement to stop any actions against them. I am just thinking that I lost the $800 in gambling.

We have been timeshare renters for over 20 years, mostly in CA, Las Vegas, and AZ. When we are in Vegas we usually stay 2-3 weeks at a time. I am looking for a 2 BR in a specific resort over superbowl weekend, we have rented there several times but availability has been scarce for the last couple years. Rather than get too locked into a mindset over it, there is an over abundance of others to rent from, which we have done.

I have been a member of TUG for about 10 years, keep an eye on ebay, and used to watch Redweek but recently got back on it. I am going into a purchase as a relatively informed buyer. I don't want to take advantage of a seller, trying to squeeze every last drop out of a sale ( as if there is much left after SMTN is done with them). I do know, however, that sellers have been known to sell for $1, cover closing, and even offer other incentives to encourage a purchase. In my offers with SMTN, the purchase price was agreed on and I also agreed to pre-pay 2022 MF if that was required for the sale to proceed. The roadblock came when I proposed splitting the closing costs with the seller because they were shockingly high. At no time was I ever in direct contact with a seller, it always went through a SMTN agent. My complaint/concern is that I believe that SMTN is not passing along my proposals of splitting the closing costs and that they are declining this on behalf of the owners. The full closing costs are going to get paid even if it is shared between buyer and seller, so I don't know why SMTN would balk at that. The only thing I can think of is if partial pre-payment of closing was included in the original listing contract, so SMTN cannot ask a seller to pay more even if it is at the request of a buyer. I am certain that there are sellers who would agree to cover half of closing ( approx $750) when the purchase price and 2022 MF have already been negotiated. It seems these sellers are not getting the option to agree, or decline, to do this because SMTN is not presenting this request to them. I suspect that the sellers are given some other kind of explanation on why a sale didn't proceed instead of the truth that SMTN will not negotiate closing fees or communicate to sellers a buyers request of shared payment. At the time of signing a listing contract sellers should be made aware that closing costs are fixed and that any offers from buyers to share or negotiate those costs will be declined and that will effectively end some the the few offers that actually occur.

I have soured on putting in any more offers with SMTN, even though I originally felt I was dealing fairly with sellers who already had been taken advantage of, and perhaps could give them some relief with a purchase, although I am not going to allow myself to be taken advantage of by the SMTN excessive closing fees in order to do that. I could revert to an "all in" offer but that sits wrong with me too in that it is going to come out of the sellers proceeds by default instead of by their choice in cost sharing.

I have a contact at SMTN. Since they refunded two people who reached out to me after I advised them to file a complaint with the Florida Attorney General and they did, I promised that I would send those reaching out to my contact in their legal department before they filed with the Florida Attorney General to see if they could resolve their dispute before filing. You don't need me to do that. Just tell them you want a refund or you will be filing with the Florida AG. The last thing SMTN needs is 500 people filing with the FL AG. If one of their agents said a listing price sounded good, then they have violated a Florida statute because you have to have a real estate license to do that. Full refunds took some time, so I suggested partial refunds. They have given several partial refunds because they did post ads. However, they are not Ebay or Craig's List. They hold themselves out to be timeshare experts. They know Westgate and Diamond have no resale value, among others. They told me they are now providing "comps" or actual resale prices but you have to log in I think to see them. When you want to sell your house, that's the first thing a real estate agent does. I would not advise paying anyone to get your money back.