Diamond Resorts-is it a scam?

simmo29

I have been a member since 2000. I have 6000 points. Equivalent to 1 weeks holiday. You cannot get anywhere in Europe it is always fully booked. My management fees payment for next year arrived today. £800. I will leave it to you to make out wether it is worth it or not.

simmo29

Does anybody out there know how to get rid of these points?
Diamond wont take them back, if i don't pay the extortionate management fees ( £780.50 ) before the 30th Jan 09 i will then be charged interest of 1% per month on the outstanding balance. If i pay by 12 monthly instalments it goes up to £839.04. If i don't pay at all they will take legal action against me for the outstanding balance.
Is there a legal eagle out there willing to give me some advice?
Yes i have had some decent holidays in faraway destinations but, i also had a very nasty experience in Spain (Benal beach club ). In 2007 the management fees were £499 thats an annual membership fee of £271 and £3.80 per 100 points owned.
This year it is annual membership fee of £420.50 plus £6 per 100 points owned.
Thats an increase of 55% in annual membership fee and 58% increase in points owned payments in just 2 years.
Thank god i only have 6000 points. Remember just enough for one week.
PLEASE HELP !!!

sophielou83

simmo29 wrote: »

I have been a member since 2000. I have 6000 points. Equivalent to 1 weeks holiday. You cannot get anywhere in Europe it is always fully booked. My management fees payment for next year arrived today. £800. I will leave it to you to make out wether it is worth it or not.

:mad: Im also a member and im shocked at what Diamond are doing to us all. Sunterra were great and i was always pleased with the service. If all members refuse to pay the fees this year then Diamond wont have any money to work with. That would show them that we are more important than they think we are.
Do they not realise we are in a credit crunch?
Someone, somewhere is laughing at us all. We all need to unite!
I have e-mailed watch dog and i advise all others to do the same if they want something doing about the situation.:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

simmo29

sophielou83 wrote: »

:mad: Im also a member and im shocked at what Diamond are doing to us all. Sunterra were great and i was always pleased with the service. If all members refuse to pay the fees this year then Diamond wont have any money to work with. That would show them that we are more important than they think we are.
Do they not realise we are in a credit crunch?
Someone, somewhere is laughing at us all. We all need to unite!
I have e-mailed watch dog and i advise all others to do the same if they want something doing about the situation.:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

OK i have done that now.
Please will anyone in this horrible club that is thinking along the same lines please also mail watchdog.
I am also thinking of not paying any more money to these people but, i have to say i am concerned about how much money it could cost me in the long run by taking this action.
Please can anyone give some sound advice?

Cybi

This company is appalling. Anything they do is a rip off and the sales people who work for them are all scammers and liars - anyone with any integrity would leave the company straight away. Stay well away from them - they are currently raising management fees beyond all reason, and their members (of which I am unfortunately one) are just helpless and being ripped off.

Sageypie

We were in the same situation with the 6000 points which we found could barely give us one week a year at school holiday times and with the management fee rising so rapidly we took the decision to cut our losses and get out. The best option for us was ebay. We sold the points for only just over £500, but just think we did not receive the massive management fee bill this month! What a relief. It was just our typical bad luck that the week the points were on ebay we then received that sneaky supplementary management fee bill of £75! I had to pay that as well. I acn assure you this was the best decision as they seem to be increasing the fees so much and for what a load of hassle trying to get a week somewhere and then when you get there they are always trying to sell you more. Hope this helps.

Sageypie

Sell them on ebay, you won't get much (we got just over £500 for the same amount of points earlier this year) but it means you can get shot of the certifacte to someone else and you won't then get billed every christmas for management fees and have a load of hassle trying to find a hiliday when you want one. So glad we did it now. Good luck.

archiemaidment

We have just been to one of these resorts with Diamond and they convinced us to buy a trial period of 10 000 points which need to be taken over an 18month period for £1345.00 with a free holiday added as well as an insentive. We signed the agreement and then after were reminded that we could not cancell this agreement as stated on the document we signed.

Can anyone tell me if this is legal and whether we can get out of what we have signed for. Since signing for this deal we have been told by others that to get availability in their resorts is very difficult. I can cancel the finance agreement we have signed for but it seems that we are not able to cancel the trial we have signed for and will have to pay for it regardless. Please help if you can!!

Regards

Archie

Xendar

I thought there was a 'cooling off' period for any type of finance agreement. Surely you have the right to cancel within something like a two week period?

benny3_2

I think you'll find you have no problems getting a booking whereever and whenever you want. Untill of course you finish the trail period and take up full membership.
When alls said and done, their going to give you everything you want to convince you what a great deal it is.