Diamond Resorts-is it a scam?

antenna

Of couse you can minus the resale value of your points...................this wont even be enough to buy a fag packet to do your calculations on

SpammyTheSpammer

I had paid £7800 for (1 week per year)
+ for the 9 year period 2002-2010,I have paid £4431 in fees,
averaging £492 annually.

From the "average" of £492/year I assume that maintenance costs are now in the region of £1,000 per week- this would tally with others reports of costs and you can get a decent room for that price WITHOUT the £7,800 that you have chucked away/stuffed up someones nose 10 years ago.

You still have flights, food/drink to add in to that cost, I would suggest to all that they keep well away from this "bargain" and stick to last minute bookings.

crits

SpammyTheSpammer wrote: »

I had paid £7800 for (1 week per year)
+ for the 9 year period 2002-2010,I have paid £4431 in fees,
averaging £492 annually.

From the "average" of £492/year I assume that maintenance costs are now in the region of £1,000 per week- this would tally with others reports of costs and you can get a decent room for that price WITHOUT the £7,800 that you have chucked away/stuffed up someones nose 10 years ago.

You still have flights, food/drink to add in to that cost, I would suggest to all that they keep well away from this "bargain" and stick to last minute bookings.

A few more calculations to help SpammyTheSpammer & terryw:-
Assuming a yearly cost of STG 1359 (taking into consideration previously quoted figures of STG7800 in respect of inital outlay+ STG4431 paid for fees over the 9 year period) maybe it is pertinent to point out that over the same period, I have been to 12 weekly holidays: 5 wks/4pax;5 wks/6pax;1wk/8pax & 1wk/10pax.,averaging a cost of stg436.82 per person for 28 pax., equivalent to approximately stg62 per night,per person.........not too bad considering the resorts.
The crux of the matter is - what really happens if one stops paying the annual fees therby opting to give up ones Membership? I don't think I've seen one case of any negative action by the Timeshare Company other than endeavouring to collect the unpaid fees thru,maybe, some threatining letter.
Regards,
CRITS
6/6/2010
PS:- By the way, blondie Spammer, I'm not in any way made out of money:-)

antenna

If you send them a nice letter explaining that redundancy forces you to give your timeshare back to them free of charge,thanking them for the lovely holidays you have had in the past,they will either offer to sell your week for an upfront charge of around £750.........If they wont take it off your hands free then you must ask yourself is it really worth anything.
Failing this,you will get threatening letters asking for the unpaid annual charge.
Many hundreds of people continue to pay these charges even though they no longer want or use their timeshare.
But even more people just walk away,ignore the threats and after 2 or three years the letters stop.
No One has ever been taken to court over unpaid annual charges..........if anyone can show different then i will eat my shorts......I wont hold my breath...........

antenna

Just looked on Ebay.
4000 + 4000 holiday points with Diamond.......top bid 1 penny......Plus £399 transfer charge,then plus annual charges around £900 and rising every year.........if this is a bargain then i will get me clogs.......................
Edit to explain that only Diamond members can register these points once bought............idiots only then!

chris.s_5

antenna wrote: »

Just looked on Ebay.
4000 + 4000 holiday points with Diamond.......top bid 1 penny......Plus £399 transfer charge,then plus annual charges around £900 and rising every year.........if this is a bargain then i will get me clogs.......................
Edit to explain that only Diamond members can register these points once bought............idiots only then!

One reason they only will allow sales to existing DRI idiots (of which I WAS unfortunately one) is that they still hope to find other virgin idiots to lure into their web of deceit and lies. I just hope that as many people as possible log in to this site and the Daily Mirror blog so that these criminals can no longer peddle their discredited product. Our institutions there to protect the public (Citizens Advice, Consumer Councils, MP's, MEP's etc.) seem to point their fingers at each other but no-one in authority seems to want to take this industry to task. I just hope DRI try to take us to court so that the whole scam can be exposed and the market will then cease to exist.

Cassia

BE WARNED: SCAM

My husband and I were invited to a 'free' minibreak (4th - 6th June 2010) at Woodford Bridge Country Club, owned by Diamond International, in Devon. We were obliged to attend a 'presentation' where we were encouraged to buy a full holiday club membership. This presentation moved between two rooms and included a short visit to a 'typical' hotel room. When it became clear to the saleswomen, 'Tammy Hymer' that the package was not suitable for us, she instead introduced us to 'The Sampler'. We had clearly told her that we are only able to take short breaks e.g long weekends and that we do not fly, therefore we were only interested in short breaks at hotels in the UK, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Scandinavia which we can drive/ferry to quite easily from our home in Kent. She informed us at length that 'The Sampler' would really suit us as it contained only the company's European hotels. She said that we would be able to have short breaks at our nearest hotel, Broome Park Country Club in Kent and also use their facilities as often as we wished. She also suggested that we could enjoy short breaks in Paris. We were shown the European section of the brochure - where many hotels in many countries were detailed. She explained the points system used and that Sampler members receive a free initial week's holiday (she believed this could be used as two mini breaks) plus 10,000 points to use after this during an eighteen month period. We asked several questions and were happy that 'The Sampler' would indeed meet our wishes to take a number of minibreaks within an accessible distance from Kent and particularly at Broome Park. We agreed to pay £1995 which we felt was reasonable. A salesman, who had been dealing with another couple for most of the time we were present (in just one of the rooms we received the presentation in) was introduced to us. I queried whether we could split the initial week into two minibreaks - and he informed us that we couldn't (this differed from Tammy's information). I read all the small print of the contract and signed and agreed to pay by debit card. At no point was it mentioned that there was a completely separate Sampler brochure or that only a very few hotels are available to 'The Sampler' members and that these are only in Spain, Portugal and the North of England. Having signed the paperwork, we were then handed a folder containing 'The Sampler' brochure as we were leaving.
My husband and I looked excitedly at 'The Sampler' brochure that afternoon planning to choose where we would take our short breaks. We were appalled to discover that we were limited to four hotels in the north of England, one in Portugal and seventeen in Spain. We do not fly, would not dream of staying at any of these Spanish resorts and would find it difficult to take minibreaks in the north of England which is an unrealistic drive, for a weekend's break, from Kent.
We went straight back to see the sales team regarding our concerns, but they had left for the day and we were advised to return the following morning, which I did. The sale team were not present, but a receptionist was able to contact Mr Paul Greenwood by telephone. He listened to my concerns and said he would phone me the following evening, after 6.30pm, on my home phone number. He actually phoned me at work at about 2.45pm - which was extremely awkward for me. He basically accused me of 'lying' or at least misunderstanding the information given by Tammy and asked whether I wanted to get her sacked by making my complaint. I replied that of course I had no wish to have anyone sacked, but that I had clearly been deliberately mislead. Tammy was quite aware of what we wanted and 'The Sampler' clearly is not suitable for us. I assume that she had deliberately told us 'untruths' to convince us to sign the contract, in the knowledge that once we had signed the contract there was no cooling off or cancellation period and that her colleagues would support her in denying that any dishonesty had taken place. I also spoke to the salesman who said that he had overheard everything Tammy had said and that it was all correct (he clearly hadn't as we had spent much of the time in a different room from him and whilst in the same room he was speaking to another couple) - which is exactly what has happened.
I have asked to cancel the agreement and have been told that it is non-cancelleable and that the information I was given was correct. I have searched for information on the internet regarding cancelling membership of holiday clubs and it appears there is nothing one can do. I cannot believe that a company can lie so blatantly and get away with it.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

If you signed in the UK, you should have a set amount of "cooling off" time for any contract- 14 days I think. Others on this forum can advise, or contact Trading Standards or your local CAB.

CHR15

Why would you NOT want this woman sacked???

Not that she would be anyway of course, sounds like she is born for that line of work, one of their best salaspeople by the sounds of things.

Don't try to reason with them, you can read 25 pages of what these people are like, go for the 7 day cooling off period refund, and don't be fobbed off with their silly delays and hold ups, it only there to string it out longer then the 7 days.

Dicko1126

Common sense -
It seems to me the reason we get fuzzy advice from some institutions is because of the gray area of timeshare and life. The timeshare salesman (hyenas) know they have to sell using false lies (crap). The timeshare organisations (tw*ts who feed off babies and the elderly) know the independent salesmen tell lies (crap) and allow it to happen because they end up talking money from you (theft). You sign a contract not knowing you are signing your hard-earned money away for the next 54 years because they didn't inform you of it. Once you realise you have been conned it's well beyond the cooling off (joke) period.
Diamond know their contracts are not worth the paper they are written on but will hassle its owners to pay the increasing management fees anyway. A large percentage of the owners will feel trapped by their contract (con-trap) and will pay up rather than face perceived debt collectors or the courts.
The reality is DRI would not dare follow the court route because they know their cons and scams would be brought to the surface - away from the gray area into the light (sorry). You visit a solicitor and he sees one person in front of him with a signed contract and follows his instinct. Advice black = you must pay. Reality is there are thousands of owners who were conned into signing which would come to light in the courts and would not be in Diamond's interests to reveal their sickening methods (con-artists) of doing business.
Thus we all have one common-sense route to follow - don't pay the demands to these cancerous scum!
(Just reflecting on the above and it's like when you get regularly bullied in the play-ground. But one day instead of paying up you kick the bully in the nuts, and bullies being bullies they cry and go away. That will be DRI in about 2 years when nobody has paid them)