Diamond Resorts-is it a scam?

Probe

OK - I've actually done some work for myself for a change!

Discovered the following on the Tenerife tourist board site:

• when buying timeshare you have the right to a 10 day cooling off period. During this time, you can cancel the contract without penalty. (Elsewhere this cooling off period is noted as 14 days. I am using the shorter period which is noted in the OFT leaflet.)
• During this 10 days, sellers are prohibited from asking for or accepting any money from the buyers on their own behalf or anyone elses. (Some scams involve third party fees, bottom line is no money from you to anyone for 10 days.)
• Any credit card agreement to pay can be cancelled within the 10 day cooling off period.

I'll see if I can get the credit card deposit cancelled & hopefully escape a wiser man!

maninthestreet

Probe,

You authorised the payment on your card, unless DR have already breached the contract, you may have trouble persuading the card issuer to issue the chargeback.

Probe

I suspect you are correct.

Sadly, I found a further link on the web site (after jubilently posting my previous comment) which undoes all my optimism, it appears to show the contract has been specifically targeted to fall inside the 3 year period thereby immunising it from the standard european laws regarding cooling-off. Guess we'll be trying to screw two grand's worth of hotel rooms out of them for the next 30 months:

European consumer law only offers the basic rights above where the timeshare contract is for a one or two week period in the same apartment over a minimum of three years. That means should the scumbag who has you hostage in his presentation room be pressuring you to sign a timeshare contract for any period less than 36 months you are not covered by the minimum rights above.
Also not covered are Holiday Clubs, Travel Discount Clubs and the like. There may be any number of permutations but some examples are that you are not protected if:

• The holiday period is for less than one week.
• The holiday accommodation is variable - one of a number of similar types within a resorts grounds as opposed to a specific apartment.
• One of several possible locations - not always within the same resort.

The European Consumer Centre goes as far as to say, 'Avoid All Holiday Clubs!'

BFG_2

maninthestreet wrote: »

Probe,

You authorised the payment on your card, unless DR have already breached the contract, you may have trouble persuading the card issuer to issue the chargeback.

Tell them it's for breach of contract, and that you were materially misled.

Keep pushing for a c/back, threaten them with the banking ombudsman, FSA, OFT etc.

Make it more painful for them to refuse than to simply process the c/back; they do a lot of nice earning business with the timeshare scumbags so they'll just pass it on to the scum.

Daibach_2

lazymummy wrote: »

I have had an unsolicited letter from 'Diamond Resorts' offering me a 2 night break in a luxury apartment in the UK (Devon/Staffs/Lake District) for £69, just for listening to their 90 minute sales pitch (timeshare).

Now, I have NO intention of ever buying a timeshare, but is it worth that 90 minutes for a super-cheap break? My 'too good to be true' radar suggests it probably is a bit rubbish, but has anyone else used them? Any cautionary tales etc?

Thanks!

Ive been a member for a long while, the best move ive made, great hols

Daibach_2

I joined years ago in UK, changed to the US arm the parent company,last year,yes they are trying to sell you the membership, but I stuck out for a good deal and have been enjoying my holidays ever since.

All the hotels are 4 star or above, and you have access via your membership to
over a thousand hotels worldwide, remember there is no such thing as a free lunch, but overall I have more than had my moneys worth.

I am off back to Florida in Feb 2010, cant wait.

CHR15

wow, another genuine poster praising the benefits of this scam.

antenna

Daibach wrote: »

I joined years ago in UK, changed to the US arm the parent company,last year,yes they are trying to sell you the membership, but I stuck out for a good deal and have been enjoying my holidays ever since.

All the hotels are 4 star or above, and you have access via your membership to
over a thousand hotels worldwide, remember there is no such thing as a free lunch, but overall I have more than had my moneys worth.

I am off back to Florida in Feb 2010, cant wait.

And a Sheep in every room.....what more could you ask for

CharlieChap1979

I´m an employee of DRI, one of the dreaded sales reps as we have been portrayed in here and no of course Charlie is not my real name.

I´m dumfounded. Genuinely. 16 pages of just a few people having had a bad experience of a company and a whole load of people who are actually members of DRI singing its praises. Judging by the tone and repeated revisiting I should suggest that the folks bringing disrepute to the company are themselves the ones feeling conned, and not the ones who make use of the points. Good points have been made by the offending persons, but their negativity is in regard to their own experiences with DRI for which of course I´m sure DRI could have helped. Afterall, it´s likely that it´s the customer expecting to move the goal posts in these occasions, not the company (AND, we do try to help when we have been made aware of an issue even when contractually we don´t have to, we do value our members and want to keep them). Name calling, which what this thread has degraded to is indicative of their own character more than the reputation of the company, afterall, how many members do we have??? And how many negative reports do we have??? I came across this site by accident, and feel personally saddened. I do not use a "hard sell" myself. I don´t need to. People expect a hard sell, they instead get all the advice they ASK for. Something eliquently put to me once regarding sales, a person feeling hungry walks into a fish n chip shop, sees the pictures on the wall, the smell of the fryer and buys take away fish n chips. He´s happy, got lots of really good food. Proprieter made some cash, so he´s happy, but he didn´t actually ´sell´ anything. What us sales reps do is, when someone walks in of their own free will, to look at buying our fish n chips, we present the fish n chips, we demonstrate the fish n chips by itself, with curry, with peas, with gravy, we explain the price, and the responsibilties on both parts, the customer´s to pay into the agreement, ours to spend tremendous sums of money each year upgrading our resorts so they´re ALWAYS and without a doubt THE VERY BEST that we can offer along with the staff and many other features of the Diamond Resorts resorts, so that the customer is more than satisfied with the holiday. The customer very often walks out with fish n chips, maybe even fish n chips with curry sauce, but every year during the many holidays in fabulous accomodation, they eat the things and love them, then they go home and start getting excited about the next time they can have fish n chips (or maybe a kebab this time?? Or sausage n chips, or a salad, or Pizza, or Fajitas, or Curry... It´s all available out our fish n chip shop). Never having to worry about, will my balcony overlook a waste disposal site?? NO OF COURSE IT WON¨T. Will the staff be rude or unattentive. NO OF COURSE THEY WON¨T. Will the paint be peeling? Will the pool be clean and warm? If the boiler breaks, will it be repaired instantly, and is the boiler so good in the first place it´s less likely to break at our resorts than most other places?? YES!!!
Some people as they do outside the metaphor, will buy the fish n chips knowing they´re allergic to fish, or at least suspecting they might be. Guaranteed holidays, aren´t for everyone. If you don´t want the security, the kudos of having spare points to gift to children, or family. If you don´t want to just ¨know¨ how good your vacation will be then don´t buy the package. No one holds a pen in your hand and says hand over your cash or else. Or else what?? I would not recommend a single person who can only vacate during peak periods hand over a few thousand pounds to any organisation like ours, if you can eat only at 5am, don't buy fish n chips. You can't get them fresh at that time and they won't re-heat very well. You know, it's not brain surgery. People are expected to know what's right for them.

Don´t know what else to say.

Bit sad really that I found this. Glad I know how some people feel, it has enlightened me somewhat, and it feels good to see both sides of the fence. On the other hand. I know the holidays are sooooo good, I just won´t be swung into not believing in them. I did once work for a call centre in the UK and I had to tell people why their phone line wasn´t working. It broke my heart that I couldn´t do more for them due to beaurocracy and it made we want to leave the company, the company was not behaving how I would given free choice. That´s a crucial thing for me, and I LOVE working for Diamond Resorts International. We offer such a good product, I´d buy it if I could afford to.

I look forward to reading your replies.

CharlieChap1979

Ha, I´ve just spotted a thing. The people with the probs spend loads of time on here hence the serious money saving expert ratings slandering all the products known to man.... How bloody pathetic. All the responses by people with points are here, cos they care about money, want to be good with money, but haven´t the time or experience (prob like one or two of the non-believers) to research and get involved with everything on the internet. Oh my God I can´t believe this you lot made me angry now!! Money experts, what a laugh, bet you never even SEEN a Diamond Resort. HAHA