Diamond Resorts-is it a scam?

lesp wrote: »

ANTENA,
when my father in law bought into lsi his management fees would of only been a couple of hundred pounds a year, it was over 20 years ago when he signed up.
how could anyone know what the fees would be in 20 years time.

the more points you have the more fees you pay,simple.

Simple, you must have money to burn.:rotfl:

Anyone had any luck selling a fixed week at a DRI resort? Am I optimistic in thinking a fixed week would be easier to sell than points??

We bought the sampler package when we checked out a DRI presentation in Lake Tahoe several months ago. The package was for $890 for 7 nights in one of their time shares. The only reason we went for that was because Maui Hawaii was a destination. The salesman this time told us Maui is no longer part of the sampler, but I can't see a $900 trip to Arizona, Las Vegas, Missouri, Virginia, etc., would be very tempting for anyone because the list of places for the sampler is horrible. Besides Hawaii, Florida was the next best option.

We got a suite with a side ocean view. 8% of the rooms were not refurbished yet, so we had CRT TV's and the chairs, tables, beds, desks, sofa-bed, etc., were old and dated, but things were clean and the mini kitchen with a decent sized fridge was nice to have.

While on vacation we rarely stay in the room. We had a few small breakfasts, had cold beer in the fridge and other drinks, but were only in the room to clean up and sleep for the most part.

Our forced timeshare sales event was set before we arrived and was in the morning. This forced us to change some of our activities timing/planning. We were also paired with a very smooth and experienced sales person. This guy was slick, but I think he knew I did a ton of research before arriving and he knew we would be a hard to near impossible sale, but his tactics and presentation were tweaked to take this into account.

First he said other timeshares in Maui started at $70K. Our special price was $29K. I told him this was the upfront cost and I was more concerned with the special assessments, monthly/yearly fees, and other costs. He dropped the upfront costs down to $19K and said this was an excellent, once in a lifetime offer. I told him getting locked into a timeshare I couldn't even sell at a loss wasn't really an offer I'd be upset in passing on.

He knew the more he talked and the more I countered the less we were inclined to buy anything. I flat out told him he had used up the 1.5 hours and was eating into our precious vacation time.

The last move was him going to check for 'foreclosed,' memberships and what do you know? There was one for $9K. I told the guy that even if there was no upfront costs and just yearly and special fees for the rest of my life I wouldn't lock myself into a worthless timeshare and would rather use Priceline to set up packages to wherever I wanted, whenever without being committed to a single company. He finally took the hint and we went about the rest of our vacation.

So, the sampler worked for us because we really had no intention of locking ourselves into signing up into a timeshare. We also told them up front they had 1.5 hours and then we were done with them, which is something we did not do in Tahoe and wasted 3 hours of our vacation time.

Diamond service and the people at the resort, on the telephone lines, and other staff are rude as well. I kept asking myself if I wasn't even locked in and they treated us this poorly I could only imagine what it would be like if we were locked in full members without any real options.

Timeshares are treated as 'property,' but only for the legality and the negative aspects. You have to pay taxes, upkeep, maintenance, upgrades, salaries, and other expenses and hope/pray you get the destination/day and accommodations.

They strongly try to make folks believe they 'own,' 'property,' but you are just far better off to plan your own vacations, especially with the internet.

With the timeshare you also only have one aspect of the trip covered - lodging. Airfare, car rental, food/drink, other transportation, vacation activities, and all these other costs are still up to you to handle or DRI will be happy to help plan things - for an additional cost.

You are far better off buying a vacation package where transportation/lodging/car is already included and discounted.

Still, we did enjoy our stay with DRI on the sampler because it was just like a booked vacation lodging without ongoing bills and costs. Our next vacation doesn't have to be on a DRI property, we don't have to use their booking system, and we no longer have any legal ties with this company.

It would be a different matter if we came back and were now 'timeshare owners,' aka suckers.

I WONDER HOW MR DIAMOND RESORTS OWNER FEELS WHEN I SEND THIS MSG,


."Those on the moral code of altruism have to view all businessmen as guilty, guilty by nature, since their life's work is to seek selfish gain. The current legislative frenzy is just the latest manifestation of the altruist premise: the attempt to cage "the beast" that is selfish greed."

by Harry Binswanger


.A greedy man will always find himself in the shackles of humility.