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Timeshare Resale
How to Get Your Money Back
eBook
Why Timeshare Resale Scams Don’t Deliver
Have You Fallen For A Timeshare Resale Scam?
Ed Hastry (President of National Timeshare Owners Association) estimates that there are nearly 3 million
timeshares for sale on the resale market. That's 1 out of 3 timeshare owners that have actually paid a
fraudulent timeshare resale company to sell their unit without any results in the United States. Owners
have spent as much or more than the timeshare is even worth. Timeshares just do not sell on the resale
market. The Attorney General and the Department of Agriculture Trading Consumer Protection stated
that due to the developers and resale scams they warn consumers "never consider the purchase of a
timeshare an investment."
In this eBook I will be taking you through the ins and outs of these resale programs. I will be clarifying
why this timeshare related scam will cost you thousands like it did for me. So if you are looking to sell
your timeshare or if you have already worked with a resale company and are trying to understand what
has happened to you and what options are available to you as a consumer……. Read on!
What is a Timeshare Resale Company?
A timeshare resale company is basically a listing site that advertises you timeshare on their network, for a
fee of course. There are a lot of different “sales pitches” they will use to pull you in. These pitches range
from they will advertise your timeshare on the internet all the way to they hold a sales presentation where
they gift potential buyers in to speak with them or they speak with corporate representatives for business
that use the timeshare business needs. However since over 3 million owners have been scammed by resale
companies, the resale companies have now turned to saying they have buyers waiting. Buyers that just
happen to be sitting next to these sales agents, wanting to buy your timeshare for 30 thousand dollars. The
dirtiest part about these companies is that no matter how creative they get to signing you to do business
with them they all do the same thing; make you an ad on their website with a couple lines and a picture,
and they get you the buyer to sign a non-exclusive advertising agreement with them, even if they make
you believe they are about to get the timeshare sold in the next 30 days.
How do they do this? Well they will say this is one of many documents you are going to receive, and the
other documents will follow after you sign off on letting them advertise the timeshare on your behalf.
Back over a few years ago, I was desperate to sell my timeshare. Then one day I heard an ad on the radio
talking about a Timeshares Resale Company. So I called and talked to them about selling my timeshare.
They informed me that the fee would be $1,600. It was a bit high, but after long consideration I decided to
do it anyways.
My Results With Signing Up To Timeshare Resale Company
After signing up I figured within 3 to 6 months I would easily have my timeshare sold or at least a few
offers on the table. After 6 months I didn’t even have so much as a phone call. I hadn’t heard a word out
of them.
So I decided to call and get some answers. This was a task in itself. The company explained to me that
they just advertised my timeshare in their database and were not actually real estate agents. They did
nothing to help sell my timeshare property.
Why Timeshare Resale Companies Are A Scam
The reason why timeshare resale companies are a scam is because once they get you to pay their big
upfront fee they don’t have any kind of reason to deliver a result you. Think about it. If a real estate
agent was selling your home and he couldn’t sell it would he get paid? Not a chance, but with timeshare
resale companies they collect the fee upfront because even they know that they can’t even sell your
property. This is a lesson I learned only after I fell for this scam a second time.
Another reason timeshare resale is a scam is because they give you a fair market value for a timeshare
when on the secondary market there is no value. Timeshares are sold at the resort, and the sales agents
sell these unit with inflated prices, the more talented the sales agent you sit with to talk about buying a
timeshare, the higher starting will be on the timeshare you are looking to buy. You could walk out of your
resort with a timeshare that you spent 15 thousand dollars on, when the guy next to you could have
bought the exact same timeshare for 8 thousand. It’s all about getting you to sign on the dotted line. Since
people do not have access to these resort presentations, the fair market value of a timeshare on the
secondary market have plummeted below 70 to 90 percent under the original purchase price.
This article Timeshare Prices Plummet to $1 - Yahoo! Finance
(http://finance.yahoo.com/news/timeshare-prices-plummet-to--1.html ) Explains in much more detail
about how timeshares on the secondary market have made them completely valueless as far as a financial
asset.
Why is selling a timeshare so tough?
The main reason is supply and demand. The supply of timeshare resale greatly exceeds the demand for
resale. This has always been the case in the timeshare industry due to the fact that so few people even
realize you can buy a timeshare resale! The vast majority of owners only discover (or even think about)
selling a timeshare on the resale market, when they are ready to sell! As a buyer it is common knowledge
that you can buy a used car, but for some reason people fail to discover that you can do the exact same
thing with timeshares!
In fact, there is no such thing as a "new" timeshare, unless you are the absolute very first person to stay in
that room at that resort, someone has been there before you!
Fact is, with this information, combined with the struggling economy here the past years and ever
increasing maintenance fees, sellers outnumber buyers by a huge margin. This has driven the prices of
resale down to levels never before seen in this industry. Some timeshares have depreciated over 99%,
and it is more and more common for individuals to actually list their timeshares for a single dollar in
hopes that someone will take it over for them! While we are not saying this is the case for all timeshares,
it is certainly a much different message than you would read on other resale websites that want nothing
more than for you to pay them money in the hopes your timeshare will get sold.
The fact remains that if you do NOT do your research and obtain an accurate and REASONABLE resale
price for your timeshare, it simply won’t sell...PERIOD. If someone tells you differently, they are lying
to you...and are just about to ask you to pay them money.
Remember, telling you the TRUTH is not going to get you to part with your money, as who would pay
knowing their timeshare has zero chance of selling at a price anywhere near what you paid for it new
from the developer!
Remember how you got involved in timeshares?
It was probably in response to a promotional offering with some type of free gifts or vacations. Then, you
were probably only informed about the developer's property and prices. Nothing at all about resale; even
if they were available at the same resort. The developer spends between 40% and 60% of the selling price
of the timeshare just to MARKET each unit at a new resort. Then because of their over inflated prices and
high pressure sales tactics, many people buy without really knowing what they are getting involved in.
Being shown a book full of 1,000's of resorts and being told they could trade to any of them they wanted.
No wonder so many timeshare owners get discouraged and want out……….. creating the glut of supply.
When you buy a timeshare, you are not given instructions on how to use it. You are not told that you can
rent it out vs leaving it unused, you are not explained how the exchanging process works in detail. Its like
being handed the controls to an airplane and being told to figure it out on your own! It’s no wonder so
many people just give up in frustration! I know TUGGERS who have been doing this for 20 years and
still don’t know all the ins and outs, so to expect someone to just know everything right after they
purchase is absurd!
The Demand Side
Unfortunately, the demand side is just as bad for timeshare resellers. Most people don't even know there
is a timeshare market available until after they buy from the developer. Those who do know about the
resale market are usually the more experienced timeshare owners and are only looking for real bargains.
This is furthered by an industry who has zero desire or benefit to promote resales!
Why would anyone buy new if they could get the exact same week, at the exact same resort, for pennies
on the dollar from an existing owner?
What I Learn About Timeshare Resale Companies
•
Never pay upfront fees. Altogether I paid around $2,100 to fees to these companies and have seen
nothing in return. You could say that Timeshare Resale Companies are the biggest legal scam that I know
of.
•
Don’t believe what they tell you. These companies will tell you anything just to get you to sign
up. As with the Timeshare Market Pro Scam I was told I would see several bids within a month. They
also promised a bunch of extra free stuff just for signing up. I never saw either of these.
•
They use hard selling tactics to get you to buy. Most of these companies will also use hard selling
tactics to get you to buy. They will keep you on the phone as long as it takes to get you to buy. Don’t fall
for it, tell them you sold the timeshare and hang up the phone. This way they won’t call you back.
•
Timeshare resale companies don’t really sell your timeshare for you; they just list it like an ad.
Why I Made This Ebook
After considering the fact I didn’t want to pay any more maintenance fees anymore I paid their fee. Then
I waited and I waited. I waited over 2 years and didn’t get even just an inquiry about my timeshare. I
called the timeshare selling company and they claimed to have several buyers on the line. So I waited and
waited and still nothing happened.
So after a couple of years and no replies and no answers I learned that almost all timeshare resale
companies are nothing more than a timeshare sales scam. This then prompted me to help others from
being caught up in this timeshare selling scam so I wrote an eBook.
How To Get Your Money Back
There are several different ways depending on the time frame in which you signed up, paid the company,
and realized you made a bad decision. We will review all these strategies with you in this eBook today.
Right of Rescission
The most basic way to get your money back is to realize you made a decision to pay one of these
companies impulsively, and you now know you were scammed. Depending on what state the company is
located in there are different rules and regulations for rescission periods, below breaks down each state’s
requirements:
Arkansas – 5 days
Arizona – 7 days
California – 7 days
Colorado – 5 days
Connecticut- 72 hours
Florida – 10 days
Georgia – 7 days, excluding weekends and holidays
Hawaii – 7 days
Iowa – 5 days
Illinois – 5 days
Louisiana – 7 days
Massachusetts – 3 days
Maryland – 10 days
Maine – 10 days
Missouri – 5 days
New Hampshire – 5 days
New Jersey – 7 days
New Mexico – 7 days
Nevada – 5 days
New York – 7 days
Oregon – 5 days
Pennsylvania – 5 days
Rhode Island – 5 business days
South Carolina – 5 days
South Dakota – 7 days
Tennessee – 10 days
Texas - 5 days
Utah - 5 days
Virginia - 7 days
Washington - 7 days
Wisconsin - 5 business days
If you’ve paid a company and you are within your rescission period, call the company
immediately and explain that you want out of your agreement with them and want your
money back. Also be sure to send them a fax with the contract they sent you, X out every
page of the contract and write I want my money back I no longer want to proceed with
services with you.
Disputing with a Major Credit Card
How to dispute a credit card bill with a merchant
The law provides some protection, 'charge-backs' another
So now one day you get home and the resale agent who eagerly took the down your payment
doesn't call back.
Sooner or later, almost every consumer has a dispute period with a merchant over goods or
services.
In such cases, you can and should gripe directly to the merchant, but consumers who use credit
cards to make purchases have an added layer of protection when disputes arise -- if they know
how to use it.
Here's how it works:
The players and their roles:
When a dispute arises, consumer can take steps to resolve it, but the complex landscape means
success is not guaranteed. Six players are involved, all with different motivations. When a credit
card is used in a disputed purchase, the six parties to a dispute are:
•
The consumer: You bought it, but you don't like it.
•
The consumer's card issuer: This is the financial institution that issued the credit card to the
consumer. Many issuers offer protection to the consumer beyond the minimums set under federal
law, and an issuer may offer help or mediation in a dispute.
•
The merchant: Its return policies, its desire to keep you as a customer and its level of fear of the
credit card giants will set the initial playing field.
•
The merchant bank: This is the bank the merchant uses to accept credit cards for transactions.
Disputes are a hassle to the merchant bank.
•
The law: Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, credit card purchases get some protection.
•
The transaction processor: Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express all have giant
networks that pass money along to make credit card transactions work. Each has its own rules for
participating merchants, merchant banks and card issuers.
The interplay between all six players will determine whether you actually can return your down
payment back. But in general, paying by credit card gives consumers an advantage in the game.
That's because consumers may enlist their credit card issuers to help mediate or resolve disputes.
"A dispute right may potentially be available if the cardholder can document and support with
corroborating documentation, a mischaracterization of the described goods or services or dispute
concerning the established quality of goods or services provided to the cardholder," says
MasterCard spokeswoman Joanne Trout.
What federal law does, doesn't cover
Let's start with consumers' legal rights.
The Fair Credit Billing Act was passed in 1975 as an amendment to the Truth in Lending Act.
True to its name, the billing act's primary goal is to establish consumers' rights when goofs occur
on the bill -- unauthorized charges, fraudulent charges, math errors, billing addressing mistakes
and the like. The Federal Trade Commission website lays out those rights in detail, and includes
a sample letter people can use to object formally to mistakes on billing statements.
One section of the act (Section 170) covers disputes about the quality of goods or services. The
first thing to understand about it is it bestows no rights to consumers in regard to merchants, so if
you're dissatisfied with a purchase, don't wave the act in a merchant's face like a magic refund
wand.
The act instead allows consumers to take action against credit card companies, under restricted
circumstances.
The act:
•
Allows consumers, when dissatisfied, to sue or assert other defenses against their credit card
companies.
•
Requires consumers to make a "good faith attempt to obtain satisfactory resolution of a
disagreement or problem relative to the transaction" from merchants.
•
Restricts these rights to transactions exceeding $50.
Card issuers' additional protection
Because the law lets consumers sue them, and because they want their customers to like them,
the larger credit card issuers have voluntarily waived the act's $50 and geographic limits and will
help in any dispute.
So if you have already made a good faith attempt to resolve the issue with a merchant, and you're
still dissatisfied, it's time to escalate the issue, enlist your credit card issuer's help and seek a
"charge-back."
What is a charge-back?
A charge-back, in essence, reverses a credit card sales transaction. The Visa merchant agreement
defines it as "a transaction that a card issuer returns to a merchant bank as a financial liability
and which, in turn, a merchant bank may return to a merchant." Got it? The debt for the
purchased item gets pushed back up the line: from you, to your card issuer, to the merchant's
bank and back to the merchant, all through the transaction processors network. It removes a
charge from a cardholder's bill and -- through the middlemen -- "charges back" the amount to the
merchant.
It's a big stick for the consumer. With a charge-back, the merchant loses a sale and eats the costs
of processing the charge-back. In addition, a merchant who has too many charge-backs faces
additional charges from card processing companies.
Card issuer as ally
Consumers whose good faith attempts with merchants have failed should contact their credit card
issuers to seek a charge-back.
At that point, card issuers can turn into valuable allies.
For example, Chase says it becomes an advocate for its customers.
"We try to make the dispute process clear and simple for our customers and provide a variety of
ways to initiate a purchase dispute through the service channel the customer most prefers," says
Chase spokeswoman Elaine Franck.
Chase customers can call the bank to file a dispute with a specially trained dispute advocate, or
go to Chase.com and submit a dispute real-time online or submit a dispute in writing.
"We can even conference in the merchant with the customer on the line to expedite the process.
If further review is necessary, we remove the purchase amount in question from the customer's
balance while we investigate," Franck says
Two-way process
Some card issuers will remove a charge from a bill while it is under dispute, but it is a two-way
process. Merchants can assert they were correct in a dispute, in which case the card processing
company makes a decision. Both Visa and MasterCard have arbitration procedures that may
result in a disputed charge being finally dismissed -- or reinstated on a consumer's bill.
If a consumer still isn't satisfied, its time to move to the next step.
The Power of Social Media
So how does writing an article get your money back from a timeshare scam. It’s actually very simple, the
key is to apply leverage against this company so they will give you your money back. So I wrote an
article an about this timeshare resale company and shared my story with others all over the internet.
I then began to work with that article to get in to rank well in the search engines. Sharing this article on
Google and other search engines drew a lot of attention, in fact it drew so much attention that this
company finally called me and asked me to take the article down.
I agreed to take the article down as long as they would refund me the $1,600 I originally paid them. They
agreed but I also had to sign a waiver saying I would never write anything about this company on my
website again. However it did work.
The Step By Step Process
Now that I’ve given you the long version of how I got my money back for timeshare sales scams I’m
going to give you the step by step instructions so you can do this yourself.
1.
Create a Website. You don’t have to make it anything fancy. In fact it won’t even cost you any
money to do this. Just go to WordPress.com and they will walk through the process.
2.
Write The Article. Once you have the website up and running write an article talking about your
experience with the timeshare sales scam. The point of the article is to share your story. Don’t come
claiming the company is a scam without any proof to hold it up, finally don’t mention your doing this get
your money back. This might sound contradicting but asking for money is not the point of doing all of
this. In fact when I wrote the article about the company that ripped me off I had no intentions of getting
any money back from them.
3.
Build Up Your Ranking. In order to get the attention of this company you will have to rank well
in the search engines, this means being in at least the top ten search results. To do this you will have to
first include the name of the timeshare scam company in the title of your article and in the URL of the
site. On top of that you will also need to build links. To do this you will have to submit guest post back
to other sites build up ranking. There are tons of sites you can submit guest post articles to like Ezine
Articles, Go Articles, and even my site Zoom Articles.
Finally, I must reiterate before you do this that the point of doing all this is to prevent others from getting
hit up by this scam and if this is all that ever happens with it I would consider it a success. However if the
company calls you I would consider it an added bonus.
I must also remind you that this process is not very fast either you can expect this to take anywhere from
3 months to year or longer before your message starts getting heard over the internet. On top of that there
is also no guarantee it will work for you but it’s worth a shot at the very least.
Getting Your Name off The Timeshare Title
In the United States for any timeshare resale company to operate and do business they have to accept the
responsibility that if anyone other than by the means of their services is able to sell, rent, or get your name
off your timeshare title before they do, they are legally bound to refund your money by full.
So if you are able to give the timeshare away, or are able to work with a company that provides a contract
bailout, once your name is removed from the title these advocacy firms can have your back in this
situation and recoup these lost funds.
One of the benefits of doing this with a company that works in the title transfer industry they are very
knowledgeable with the rules and regulations for different states, and also handle business with lenders in
different states and countries. So since they would have such a strong knowledge base they are able to
handle the dispute for you and their reputation alone, along with the protection of your credit card
(assuming you used a credit card when you did business) would create a lot more leverage then if you
were to act alone.
But the key here is to get your name off the title of your timeshare because when that happens, you have a
lot more options that play in your favor which in return would make it a whole lot easier to recoup your
funds.
Working with an Advocacy Company That Specializes in Timeshare Resale operations.
An advocacy department will gladly walk you through the steps it will take to encourage refunds from
rental/resale/marketing/ advertising companies. We’ve found through our experiences over the years that
these kinds of companies do a fairly good job at hiding behind their contracts. When you call, they try to
make you feel stupid, or at least uninformed. They want you to believe that they have covered themselves
in an iron clad contract that you and a boatful of lawyers could never break. They will even try to
humiliate you by making you out to be a filing an unjustified complaint. They are offended, because after
all, they did everything that their carefully written contact said they would do. You are just whining. You
have late-blooming “buyer’s remorse.” You are not to be taken seriously. You need to simply go quickly
and quietly down the road and stop with you silly complaints. They want to paint themselves as the
victims and you as the person trying to cheat them out of their hard earned fees.
Don’t let them get away with that! You are the victim and they are the villains. You are the host and they
are the parasites, living (and living very well in most cases) off of your hard earned money.
Scare Tactic
First things first! Make sure that you have made every reasonable effort to contact the company and make
them aware of your intentions to pursue a refund.
Keep a record of your contacts
Make a long that includes the date, the time and the name given by the person that you speak with (you
can be almost certain that this is not their real name, but get the name anyhow.)
If you do not already have their email, get it.
2) Hang in there! If you are working with a good advocacy company they will guide you every step of the
way to ensure your success. As you may already know they will always find some reason or some excuse
for you not to receive any refund.
When you no longer are the owner of your timeshare
Now this is really important.
You will get a certificate of authenticity for filling purposed to show you no longer the owner of the
timeshare. What you are going to do is write a letter where the contents will explain that you understand
your writes as it relates to the general information about the resale industry, their practices, their
violations, etc.
This letter is a tool! It is to be attached to your certificate of authenticity of the transfer of your timeshare
ownership. They are to be sent to the resale company in order to confirm not only has the timeshare been
transferred out of your name but also to make them believe that you are well acquainted with the state and
federal government regulations in regard to timeshare resale companies, and you understand that your
monies are owed to you.
Now if you are working with a legitimate title transfer company, they will handle these steps for you, and
send this out on your behalf because not only are deserved this money, but the timeshare industry and a
black eye, and us as prior timeshare owners are responsible to clean up this part of the timeshare industry
for the next family that wants to get out and move on with their life.
New state laws aims at timeshare resale fraud
A bill that seeks to eliminate a loophole exploited by scam artists was
ceremonially signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott at the University of
Central Florida Rosen School of Hospitality on Friday.
“This legislation will cut down on timeshare fraud and protect owners
from unscrupulous resale companies,” Scott stated in a release. “As we
fight this fraud, integrity will come back into the system, and people can
feel more confident investing in Florida, and in the timeshare market.”
The bill, HB 1001, targets people and companies who contact timeshare
owners, claim to have a buyer available if the timeshare owner wants to
sell, but the timeshare owner must pay a set amount of money upfront.
“By strengthening Florida’s timeshare resale laws and focusing on
marketing and advertising practices, we can protect timeshare owners
from unscrupulous companies that may try to scam them during the
resale process,” Attorney General Pam Bondi stated in a release.
Complaints about timeshares -- Bondi’s office fielded 12,000 complaints
on the topic in 2010 -- have dominated complaint calls to the attorney
general’s office.
According to the law, which goes into effect July 1:
• A timeshare resale advertiser may not misrepresent a pre-existing
interest in the owner’s timeshare.
• A timeshare resale advertiser may not mislead a customer as to the
success rate of the advertiser’s sales.
• A timeshare resale advertiser may not provide brokerage or direct sale
services.
• A timeshare resale advertiser must honor a cancellation request made
within seven days following a signed agreement.
• A timeshare resale advertiser must provide a full refund by a timeshare
owner within 20 days of a valid cancellation request.
• A timeshare resale advertiser must not collect any payment or engage
in any resale advertising activities until the timeshare owner delivers a
signed, written agreement for the services.
• A timeshare resale advertiser must also provide a full disclosure
statement printed in bold type, with no smaller than a 12-point font, and
printed immediately preceding the space provided for the timeshare
owner’s signature.
• A timeshare advertising agreement must be put in writing.
• A company that violates these provisions has committed a violation of
the Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act with a penalty not to
exceed $15,000 per violation.