Has anyone ever been scammed using redweek?

davidg1131- Just to clarify, you can get your posting verified and opt out of payment protection. You are able to switch the payment protection off for one posting or all your postings. As you mentioned, the owner receives 50% if the rental is canceled outside of 60 days, and 100% if canceled less than 60 days. Payment is sent to the owner by email two days after the check-in date.

We have considered ratings or dates associated with each member, but felt it might put any new member at a big disadvantage, so we have opted to provide ways to guarantee a safe transaction with payment protection or the escrow service.

Hi Tracey, I am using RedWeek for the first time. I have tried other sites and was unsuccessful. When I try to ask questions RW says they can't advise me...

The Westin Nanea Ocean Villas Rental Posting R789713

We originally book this for our use (it's a 2 bedroom) but couldn't find anyone able to go with us. It is booked for 9 nights as that's how long we have for the local school mid-winter break.

Tracy in Washington

I haven't been scammed by RW but haven't had much success renting my timeshare on this site. I've had better success on AirBnB. Maybe not as high as what some claim they get on RW but at least I'm getting bookings. Three bookings in 3 months with AirBnb, 0 in 18 months with RW (despite lowering price several times).

Horrible, Horrible dealing with Red Week. I found a timeshare on Maui on the Red Week site. It was a Full Service Red Week deal. I offered/paid the owners full price, entered all the AMEX info and received a response from Red Week confirming but indicated “ do not make airplane reservations until we advise”. Three days later airfares are up $500 and I try repeatedly to get in touch with Red Week to get status on timeshare rental. I sent at least 6 emails ( internet company) but no response. No phone number on their website. Finally got their phone number and called and no one available. Had to leave messages several times. Finally, the Full Service Manager at Red Week sent an email that indicated they had just followed up with the owner but the response did not meet their requirements. The Full Service Manager indicated the owner may not have been computer literate and did not indicate “ acceptance “ of the full asking price required. The Full Service Manager then called the owner and left a message. No response received. I have cancelled the offer.

If you use Red Week understand they are an internet company. I sent at least 6 emails outlining the problem and asking them to respond. In response I received standard emails indicating they would be in touch with me. Eventually Ifound their phone number and called multiple times and had to leave a message wherein the tape recording stated they would be in touch within 48 hours. Remember they are an internet company and really don’t want to talk with you. Finally ,The Full Service Manager Lorna Quinjaro called me to discuss the matter. She indicated the owner has 48 hours to respond to an offer ( even a full offer ) . Although the 48 hours had expired Red Week would not proceed with the reservation.

My lesson learned:

We wanted to go to Maui but we experienced an unresponsive owner who must “accept “ the offer in an environment of rising airfare. I don't believe Red Week did anything more than the minimum to facilitate this rental. It didn’t matter to them. It was like talking to the DMV.

It’s an internet company. They really don’t want to talk to you and recommend you send them an email.

Red Week has many owners advertising their timesh rentals. In the future I will deal only with owners. Red Week is a beaucracy.

Tfvarley@aol.com

We have looked at all the events with your booking and please know that we do absolutely regret that it didn't work out. Our goal is to have all our Verified and Protected rentals successfully completed, however we do realize that there may be occasions where that just doesn't happen.

We don’t hide the fact that we’re an internet-based company, as are many companies and this has been our model since our start in 2002. We have a very limited telephone staff and while we don’t have many urgent situations arise, our staff is trained to direct any urgent issues to the appropriate manager.

It’s important to clarify that every rental on our site, both Verified and Protected and DIY is 'owned' by a private individual. In either case, there may be communication delays, because the immediate inventory that hotels bookings systems have access to. So with timeshare rentals, most guests are saving a good amount of money from what the resorts charge. One of the trade-offs for that savings in limited inventory that can’t usually be confirmed instantly.

The reason why we advise that travelers wait to purchase airfare is because we have seen cases, particularly with Do-It-Yourself rental bookings where a prospective renter will inquire about a rental posting and immediately purchase airfare. They assume that they will have accommodations, and when they learn that there isn’t availability, they are left with non-refundable tickets.

With Verified and Protected specifically, the timeshare owner must accept the booking on their own and must digitally sign the agreement. Because that rental agreement is a legal document, neither RedWeek or our staff will ever accept the terms for a renter or accept a booking on behalf of the owner. In your booking, the owner unfortunately did not either accept or decline the booking in a timely manner, despite us reaching out to them numerous times. Under normal circumstances, after the owner’s acceptance deadline arrives, the booking would automatically cancel, however in this matter, we took an extra step and continued to try contact the owner to see if they needed assistance in completing the booking acceptance.

We can certainly understand your disappointment. Yesterday, we had four of our team members working on this and while we work very hard to prevent rental bookings from failing, there may be rare times when a booking will fail regardless of our efforts.

I have brought a rental property from them. I liked it very smooth transaction with the owner of the property.

Has anyone sold their timeshare on the Redweek site if so I would like to know if it was successful and worth my while even trying. There are so many scammers out there today a person does not know whether to trust the site or not, any advice would be helpful.

Thank you.

Normally our experiences with Redweek.com are fairly positive but I ran into a really frustrating problem yesterday while attempting to rent a week that they had listed.

The week we were after was in Hawaii and it was being handled by Redweek.com for the owner. We had several questions that were handled by the Redweek’s staff. We offered a lower price and the owner accepted. Rather than giving us the opportunity to book at the lower agreed upon price Redweek lowered the price on the website and emailed me and told me to go to the link and book the reservation. They even said “congratulations“.

Within a few minutes of receiving the email from the Redweek person I went to book the week and it was gone. After many emails and a discussion with a supervisor they said that’s just how it works and we have no recourse.

I can’t tell you how frustrating it was to get through the process of getting questions answered by the owner and coming up with an agreed upon price that was basically offered up to the whole world to rent at before I even had a chance to book it. Has anyone ever experienced this with Redweek.com?

I haved used Redweek many times and never been scammed.

I agree with your assessment of the full service team. I negotiated through them with the owner of a unit in Maui. We agreed on a price and before I could book it they lowered the price on the website and somebody else took it ahead of me even though they offered their “congratulations” to me and It was less than an hour after they told me I had it. I tried repeatedly to talk to someone as well and finally got a call from Lorna but all she could say was “I’m sorry” and will try to change their procedures. Needless to say I’m still not happy working with those guys. Their mistake cost us hundreds of dollars since we were not able to get another unit at that price.

Be Carefull.

The agreement says they collect your money now but they don't give the money to the rentee until the space is used. In my case, they collected the money and won't give it to me for 9 months.

They have all kinds of BS reasons, but, the fact is you wont get you money until the rented date come due.

I have found better ways to rent my time share.

Be careful

I agree ! Add should be change

Appreciate your time putting us in alert great information

jayjay wrote:

This is why, if it is possible, to rent from the same owners every year that's given you what you asked for in the past .... and book that week very early in the year (I'd say at least 6 months earlier than your check-in date, especially for a prime holiday week).

I'm surprised Redweek would allow someone to post an ad with wrong information (or unclear information). They should, at least, make him correct the ad.

I agree Airbnb Brvo Renter pays them , (no risk to you) Airbnb puts my money in my acc 3-5 days later even if my week is 2-3 months away .

RW don’t mention senior discount when Signing , make sure to ask

Hello, My name is Lorna and I'm The Full Service Manager for RedWeek.com. Our terms are stated on the rental agreement as follow: Section 10.3-"RedWeek will collect the total rental funds from the Renter and will disburse the Owner's share of the rental funds to the Owner within two business days after check-in, subject to the resolution of any disputes in accordance with this Agreement." RedWeek holds the funds to ensure the renter receives the unit they paid for (ie. unit type, view etc). Also we need ensure the reservation remains in renter's name or it doesn't get canceled after funds are paid. Hope this clarifies your concerns. If you haver further questions or concerns, you can email us at rentals@redweek.com. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Lorna

Redweek is a scam. I paid them to GIVE AWAY FREE my timeshare points based out of Hawaii, that's how (un)valuable Diamond points and their thick as thieves partner Redweek are.

My name is Lorna and I'm The Full Service Manager for RedWeek.com.

We are sorry you feel our Full Service Resale option is a scam, but it’s important to know there are a very large number of point owners who are also trying to give their ownerships away, so the market is saturated.

We currently have eight Diamond owners giving away their points and the point packages on those eight range from 3000 points up to 51,500 points.

Unfortunately, Diamond is not taking the point packages back, so they are hard to dispose of and we can absolutely understand your disappointment. Because your posting expires in November, there is still hope. We will absolutely continue to market them and if an offer to purchase comes in, we will certainly let you know.

Dont buy Diamond Resorts International Timeshare Points in the first place, it's a lifetime of being a paying hostage! You can't even GIVE these points away after you realize you've been scammed! I'm looking to join a mass lawsuit to get out of this lifetime prison sentence. Anyone want these worthless free points now?

We both know I'll be dead or part of a lawsuit before any points get 'sold' by you for me. I am trying to give them away for free, and you can't even do that.

deborahr363 wrote:

We both know I'll be dead or part of a lawsuit before any points get 'sold' by you for me. I am trying to give them away for free, and you can't even do that.

Whatefferts have you made to give your points away? Have you tried advertising them for sale/giveaway? You can try listing them on E-Bay, Craigslist, My Resort Network, or Timeshare Users Group (aka "TUG"; tugbbs.com) where there's a Bargain Deals section that allows owners to advertise for free that they want to give away their unit or, in your case, points package. Also, on Tugbbs, there is a forum dedicated to Diamond Resorts. Some posters on there might be able to offer you some help for your situation. You might want to offer some sort of a perk to the taker such as paying the closing costs and maybe even the next maintenance fee.

Another option, as distasteful as it sounds, would be to just stop paying any maintenance fees and allow what you have to go into foreclosure. You would probably face a hit on your credit rating and a bunch of annoying collection calls and letters but those will eventually cease.

I would never use Redweek.com if I were a seller. I came at this from a different angle... as a buyer attempting to buy several timeshares. Redweek.com posted three timeshares for sale. I made the faulty assumption of thinking that when I made the inquiry, someone woudl call me back. How wrong I was!!! Tried as I might to get these folks to talk to me and get a deal going, none of the sales reps would return my phone calls or emails. I can't even begin to explain how bad this company is. Thankfullly there are other companies out there that actually like customers and believe in engaging in conversations. I was able to move on and purchase the timeshares I wanted from a different real estate agent who was knowledgable and cared! She did a great job of representing the sellers and helping me to get the price I was looking for.

The deal with Redweek.com is that they don't like people and only like email transactions. For most of us spending thousands on timeshares, we actually want to talk to a real person and ask some questions before closing a deal. Redweek.com does not like that. They just want you to buy online and forget the details. Because of this, Redweek.com is a terrible place to list your timeshare. Most buyers are not interested in putting thousands on their credit card on a wing and a prayer.