Promises made and not kept by sales people

My husband and I purchased 2 timeshare units last October. We had gone through the long,long day of looking at and talking with the resort sales people. We made an offer and the salesperson said "let me check with my manager". When she came back she said that they could not come down on the price, but they would buy us a " lifetime platinum membership with RCI" which usually costs $1995.00. I asked if we still had to pay the yearly fee to RCI and she said "no you don't. The other sales person said I think you do let me check. She came back and said we did indeed have to pay the Platinum RCI yearly fee, $55 a year for the regular membership cost plus $124 a year for the Platinum, a total of $179 a year. With that settled we did agree to buy the units and have paid for them in full. We were not receiving the RCI information, so I e mailed our sales rep and a few days later got a voice mail from the other salesperson saying it can take up to 3 months to receive the RCI packet. In December we did receive a regular membership packet. I called RCI and they told me that is what was requested from the resort. I e mailed our salesperson several times about it and never got a response back. I had a heck of a time finding someone to bring this problem to, than finally found an e mail address and I sent them my plea. I get this e mail back from the director of sales (which I still have) saying "this $1995.00 fee is for enrollment into the RCI points program and not the Platinum membership". I knew this was wrong but I did call RCI and verified that there is no cost for the points. She said that we misunderstood. I e mailed back the sales director on March 22, 2011 and let her know that she was incorrect with the information she sent me. I have never received a response back from her. I do own another timeshare for 8 years now and have knowledge on how it all works. We did not misunderstand anything, it was very clearly stated to us. I guess we have no recourse as when I looked at our contract it was not written anywhere. I know I should of checked that out before we left, but after 5 hours or so there we were very tired and it was 5 o'clock and they wanted to go home, so we rushed to leave. We are going to the resort in October. I just wanted to forget about it, but my husband is very angry about it and is going to confront them when we are there, which is kind of making me uneasy about being able to enjoy our vacation. I was wondering if anyone else has had an experence like this?

darleneg13 wrote:

I guess we have no recourse as when I looked at our contract it was not written anywhere..... I was wondering if anyone else has had an experence like this?

MANY people before you have learned (and many after you will learn) this same difficult and painful lesson about lying timeshare sales weasels. The bottom line, unfortunately, is that "if it isn't expressed in writing within the contract documents, then it quite simply doesn't exist at all in the eyes of the law".

Far too many people fail to bother to read the actual content of the contract before signing it (or even AFTER signing it, for that matter). Many more then also fail to use the "contract rescission" (...so called "cooling off") time period available to them by law, even though they have been advised of that contract cancellation right, in writing, as required by law; information and cancellation instructions having been provided WITH their contract documents RIGHT AT the time of contract execution! It just baffles me, to be blunt and honest.

The verbal utterances and assurances of sales weasels during their song and dance routine (a.k.a. "presentation") is just background noise buzzing around in the air. In the final analysis, only the actual written contract content means anything at all.

My issue is that I bought a timeshare and of course they lied about everything and we didn't find that out till after we visited the resort as guests. I have called to complain and speak with a manager but they won't call me back. I would like to cancel my contract and take the loss on what I already paid; I have not even owned it a year. I know you said that if it wasn't written into the contract it is not anything we can hold them accountable for to get us out of the contract, but after one of my initial complaints the sales person left me a voicemail apologizing for the the misunderstanding and promised to get us free water park passes whenever we wanted. My question is, can I use that as an admission to the lie and therefore cancel my contract based on misrepresentation during the sale?

brandys35 wrote:

but after one of my initial complaints the sales person left me a voicemail apologizing for the the misunderstanding

I really didn't see an admission of guilt by the salesperson unless I'm missing something .... he merely apologized concerning the 'misunderstanding' (whatever the misunderstanding was)?

However, when all is said and done it's what's in the written contract that counts in a court of law. There's a saying by seasoned timeshare owners that "if a timeshare salesperson moves their lips .... they're lying".

Is there anyway for me to just cancel my contract due to misrepresentation and take the hit for what I already paid for? It is not that I cannot afford this, I just do not want to have anything to do with this resort and their lack of customer service.

brandys35 wrote:

Is there anyway for me to just cancel my contract due to misrepresentation and take the hit for what I already paid for? It is not that I cannot afford this, I just do not want to have anything to do with this resort and their lack of customer service.

As already stated in clear and specific detail in a previous post yesterday within this same thread, ONLY the actual, written sales CONTRACT CONTENT matters AT ALL in the eyes of the law. If your assertion of "misrepresentation" pertains to the utterly meaningless, verbal assurances and babble offered by the lying sales weasel, then you are just plain out of luck, since that verbal noise means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING unless also clearly reflected and represented, in writing, within the actual sales contract.

The timeshare sales people made many untrue statements and false promises during the sales presentations concerning how the end of life cycle for a timeshare works when we are no longer able to use it.

The sales people stated that when we are no longer able to use our timeshares we could sell the timeshares back to them. I asked how much the timeshares would depreciate over time, anticipating that I probably would not recover the full amount of the purchase price. The timeshare sales people stated that timeshares do not depreciate over time, and that they actually appreciate in value over time. So then I asked if that meant that I could sell it back to them for the appreciated value of my initial purchase price and the sales people said probably not, but that I could always get back the amount that I paid.

This was many years ago, and over the years my wife and I have purchased several timeshares, and I always asked the same question to the sales people about the end of life cycle for the timeshare, and I always got the same answer that I could always sell it back to them.

It is now many years later and my wife and I are close to retirement, our kids are grown up, and we are not able to use the timeshares like we used to. So I have inquired about selling the timeshares back to the timeshare companies who sold them to us originally. What I have been told by the timeshare companies is that they do not buy the timeshares back, and it is up to me to find a buyer. The timeshare companies are not interested in getting involved in this end of life cycle process even though the sales people always said they would. This is extremely fraudulent in my opinion.

The timeshare companies are only interested in maintaining their revenue stream from the constantly increasing maintenance fees. This is made evident by the fact that the maintenance fees include a line item for bad debt expense from other timeshare owners who have defaulted on their maintenance fees, but the timeshare companies are ensuring they still get that revenue by passing the bad debt expense to the other timeshare owners who are still able to pay the maintenance fees.

At the timeshare sales presentations they described the maintenance fees as being directed toward the maintenance and upkeep of the buildings and furnishings in the buildings, but they never mentioned that the maintenance fees were intended to maintain their revenue stream in the event of defaulting timeshare owners by passing the bad dept on to the other timeshare owners. This is also extremely fraudulent in my opinion.

I would never have purchased our first timeshare if the sales people had been honest about the end of life cycle process on timeshares for timeshare owners. Instead, my wife and I now have several timeshares that we want to sell back to the timeshare companies, and these companies refuse to honor what the sales people said to us. And to make matters worse, the timeshare companies won't even take back timeshares for free, because they enjoy the easy-money of maintenance fees going on into perpetuity.

I think everyone who is unhappy about the fraudulent things told to them by timeshare salespeople should file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Maybe if enough people complain, then some laws will be enacted to stop the fraudulent sales pitches. I would like to see the FTC step in and fix the timeshare industry to be the way the sales people advertise it to be. That is, you can sell it back, or at least give it back with out having to pay any legal fees, or otherwise.

The way the timeshare industry is right now is more like a fitness club or country club with a huge non-refundable "initiation fee", and an "annual dues" that goes on into perpetuity. The industry gets to raise the amount of the "annual dues" at will so as to maintain the revenue stream to which they have become accustomed.

What timeshare salespeople TELL you and what's in the written CONTRACT are two different things. The only thing legally binding is what's in the written contract ..... that's how salespeople get you ..... they KNOW what they tell you is not binding in a court of law .... only what's written in the contract.

When we purchased a second year at Hacienda del Mar, we were told that the Junior suite now went for $29,000.00 for every other year. We told them we weren't interested, that it was too much money. The salesperson asked if we had any timeshares we no longer wanted, which he would apply to the cost of the suite. We offered one other one we had in Cabo, but he wanted our Marriott in Hawaii. He said he could get $22,000.00 for it, which he would credit towards the cost of the Hacienda unit. We ultimately agreed. Imagine our surprise when we went back to the resort last month and discovered the amount we had paid out of our pockets was the entire cost of the unit-$7, 500.00, not $29,000.00. The contract we signed for the credit of the Marriott was not included in their packet. When we returned home we found the contract, with only our signatures on it-not the salesman's. It did indicate that we were to be given credit for $22,000.00. I have been trying to track down what to do with this since that time.The company which handled the transfer is no longer in business. Hacienda says they aren't liable, since they have dismissed this employee. The title has gone to another person, there is a record of one person receiving money from the sale, but so far we haven't been able to get ahold of the title company to see if the original salesperson also got money from this sale. The only money we got out of it was a refund of our maintenance fees. We feel like they have stolen our time share, and we don't know where to go from here...Help!