Diamond Resorts-is it a scam?

Jaseball

Yeah, 10% may be too generous. I do believe the time share folks do all they can to convince you it is a good deal with the free stays, discounted trips, attraction tickets, electronics or whatever else. I also believe before you sign they will go out of their way to treat you like a VIP to make you believe it would always be this way once you sign up.

It's far better to keep your money in your pocket and seek out bargain travel deals and those deals are always around.

mpython

roughanready86 wrote: »

mpython i have told you in plain english No you haven't, you have a very poor grasp of english, you don't even know the difference between weather and whether.

they are all independently verified By whom? Deloitte? Andersons? Anyone else registered with IPS?

the gifts but you cant get it in ya head about it. I know they're a con, and you just spout tosh.

like i said weather you sign up or NOT you will get 2 of the gifts even if you dont join, So where is the list of names of winners who didn't sign up?

and the gifts codes are all handed out BEFORE you get to the centre. so that means we have no idea if your going to join or not and aso means we would also still after give you the 2 gifts as there the first thing we gove you when you arrive before we even do the presentation so that way you would be happy and then we do the visual presentation. No, you give out codes so that if someone doesn't sign up you can pretend the code means a smaller prize rather than a bigger prize. If it was truely genuine you would tell people what they have won upfront - that's what's happened with all the prizes I've won from genuine companies.

so you could come down and have no intension on signing up to it and still have your gifts weather it be entertainment system a cruise or whatever else. we are legally bound by law to give you them otherwise we would of been closed down years ago. and dont you think if it wasnt the case the fair trading standards would be involved.

see what you after say now cos that is as plain answer as you can get Let me translate for you - see what you have to say now because that is as plain an answer as I can give.


WE DONT KNOW WEATHER YOU WILL SIGN OR NOT SO HOW CAN WE MAKE IT A FIXbecause you swith the prizes by pretending code 12345 (or whatever) will be a cruise if you sign up but only a stay at DRI for £X if you don't sign up[/QUOTE]

Short hand = Its a Con, plain & simple.

Still waiting to hear how much of your own hard earned (?) money you've spent with DRI and how much it will cost you over the lifetime of your membership.

andycv101

I am not taking sides here but for the sake of clarity:

1. like i said weather you sign up or NOT you will get 2 of the gifts even if you dont join, So where is the list of names of winners who didn't sign up?

I DID NOT SIGN UP. I STILL GOT 2 PRIZES (though quite poor I DID get them)

2. and the gifts codes are all handed out BEFORE you get to the centre. so that means we have no idea if your going to join or not and aso means we would also still after give you the 2 gifts as there the first thing we gove you when you arrive before we even do the presentation so that way you would be happy and then we do the visual presentation. No, you give out codes so that if someone doesn't sign up you can pretend the code means a smaller prize rather than a bigger prize. If it was truely genuine you would tell people what they have won upfront - that's what's happened with all the prizes I've won from genuine companies.

WE DONT KNOW WEATHER YOU WILL SIGN OR NOT SO HOW CAN WE MAKE IT A FIXbecause you swith the prizes by pretending code 12345 (or whatever) will be a cruise if you sign up but only a stay at DRI for £X if you don't sign up

From the codes posted to us our prizes were identified to us before we undertook/endured the presentation. WE DID NOT BUY.

3. Short hand = Its a Con, plain & simple.
Personally I can't see how it can ever work out financially better than booking your your own deals independently but a neighbour of mine is a member, goes to Cyprus every year via this scheme and swears by it.

Certainly not for me but CON is probably not the exact word.

4. It's far better to keep your money in your pocket and seek out bargain travel deals and those deals are always around.
AGREED

mpython

Andy, if you knew that you were only going to get "poor" prizes because they were identified to you before you went and you were not going to sign up - why did you go? CAn you point me to where your name appears on a published list of winners? Can you tell us how much they wanted from you to sign up and how much it would have cost over the entire lifetime of membership?

roughanready86

mpython ....there isnt a list of winners because there not something you have won. they are gifts .
which means every single person will get them.
also the amount of money you pay in is variable ranging from £1500 membership for 3 years for 10000 points which is about 3 high season holidays for 4 people maybe 6.
but there are also people who have signed up for a long term aswell so they can pass on to there families when they have used it.
and as for you judging my english i think you could think of something better to moan at than my spelling. i mean that as nothing to do with what people are asking is it. obviously people are just sceptical which i fully understand why they would be, but like i said every single person get the gifts which are given to you there and then on the day WETHER you sign up or NOT.

andycv101

mpython wrote: »

Andy, if you knew that you were only going to get "poor" prizes because they were identified to you before you went and you were not going to sign up - why did you go? CAn you point me to where your name appears on a published list of winners? Can you tell us how much they wanted from you to sign up and how much it would have cost over the entire lifetime of membership?

The prize codes we had in advance, the relative prizes were only identified to us on arrival but before the presentation.
* I have found out a little more about The Traveller prize/gift (4 nights accommodation at a resort) which I initially thought would be worthless and it may be a little easier to use than I first thought

We went for a cheap night away
- we would have gone anyway without the lure of prizes/gifts
- we quite fancied the place as we have driven past it may times on our way to The Lakes and were prepared to give them 2 hours of our time as much out of cusriosity as anything else
- we went with no intention of buying onto "The Club"

As I recall it was £10,300 for a basic 5,000 points which didn't seem to get you much. On top of the up front payment, the annual cost was 480.50 (membership) plus £60 per 1,000 points so basic 480.50 + 300.00 = 780.50
** WE DID NOT BUY **

roughanready86

andycv101 wrote: »

As I recall it was £10,300 for a basic 5,000 points which didn't seem to get you much. On top of the up front payment, the annual cost was 480.50 (membership) plus £60 per 1,000 points so basic 480.50 + 300.00 = 780.50
** WE DID NOT BUY **

hi andy can i just ask you did you mean £1,300 not £10,300 as the club is only £2500 for 10,000 points on average.
by the way im glad you enjoyed your stay there

bikemoon

In my humble opinion; most definitely. But I have to say, it was only recently that I found this out, while on a two month job posting to Santa Cruz in Tenerife. I am a fairly shrewd person by nature and when it comes to big money, I'm nobody's fool, but when they offered me a week in a hotel in the south of Tenerife for a song, I accepted and went along to their presentation. I wouldn't describe these people as particularly hard sellers, but they try anything and everything to get your money on the day of the presentation, and they do not give up easily. I just kept saying "no thankyou" politely. I had to give up the best part of a morning and part of the afternoon, but it was obvious to me from the very beginning it was a scam. They try to make you out to be a special customer and they tell you that they will drop the price of the points because they think you're so special and they really want you to be a member of their club.. etc. etc. Ha!! It was funny, in fact; I laughed all the way back to my hotel room. Their tans all looked fake, even if they weren't, their clothes all looked cheap and tacky, even if they weren't, and the flashy Rolexes and gold rings they wore just made me want to puke. Instead of looking elegant, poised, educated and monied, they just looked cheap. I kept telling them I didn't have the money and that I wasn't interested, but they kept offering me more sandwiches and orange juice, and then insisted on showing me more brochures and computer images. Even when the guy gave me a lift back to the hotel room he still couldn't let it go - and kept going on about how I was missing a wonderful welcome party that evening where there was going to be champagne and gorgeous food etc. Look, I don't want to be too hard on these people, after all, everyone's got to make a living, but if the maintenance fees are as high as people say they are, and people are in real financial difficulties because of signing up with them, then I think it's a scam. However, I would still advise anyone to take their cheap holidays because the resorts and hotels are fantastic - just don't sign anything or give them any of your financial details on the day of the presentation. Smile a lot and tell them you how much of a good idea it all is, but that you just don't have the money, thank you, bye bye. If they continue to badger you, just stare at the table and look bored, but don't say anything - they'll soon get the message. I got a week's holiday in a lovely hotel for a fraction of the normal cost. So.. from this point of view it is worth it but just, please please please ENJOY THE WEEK HOLIDAY BUT DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING AND LEAVE YOUR CREDIT CARDS/DEBIT CARDS AT HOME

chris.s_5

roughanready86 wrote: »

by the way im glad you enjoyed your stay there

Where exactly does he say he enjoyed his stay? I can see no statement to this effect. Maybe he did enjoy it but you seem to be jumping to conclusions in your eagerness to promote this awful company. Perhaps we would be better informed to examine the experience of an unfortunate member as reported this week on the Mirror Blog site
QUOTE:
We have just spent the first week of June at Alpen Club, Schliersee. This is a hotel and resort. DRI have some rooms in the hotel (we had a huge one with fantastic views) and they have all the appartments.We used 5,500 points for the priviledge. That is about £780 worth of maintenance fees. We were told by staff that if we had booked online at the hotel, as non members we could have had the same room for 60euros per night including breakfast!!!
Scam ot what?
UNQUOTE

The £780 they mention does not even take account of the huge upfront cost of 5500 points which must now be getting on for £10k and given the time value of money pushes the cost of their week in Austria to well into 4 figures. This is pure extortion and bears no relation to the market value of the holiday they took. No wonder DRI can afford such fantastic 'gifts' (NOT). If that isn't a scam I don't know what is!

andycv101

in the interest of fairness,

chris.s wrote: »

Where exactly does he say he enjoyed his stay? I can see no statement to this effect...

my first post started with the following:
Just back from very pleasant one night "preview" stay at the Diamond Resorts site of Pine Lake Resort Carnforth.

roughanready86 wrote: »

hi andy can i just ask you did you mean £1,300 not £10,300 as the club is only £2500 for 10,000 points on average.
by the way im glad you enjoyed your stay there

sorry but definitely £10,300 for a basic 5,000 points