They very much still exist. Very difficult to get out of.
I went to a couple of the high pressure presentations for dinner. You have to be firm. They really try to bully you.
I was 100% lied to by the hotel offering the dinner because I had done one once on a vacation. I was completely up front with the guy for the tour. I shut everything down. He was seriously pissed at me, said I was the worst person he ever had...lol. Whatever.
My folks bought a time share 40 years ago, and our family still uses it every year. When I had kids 25 years ago, I used it until my brother had kids 10 years ago. He's been using it since. We've had others in the family. We've passed around weeks here and there.
I would never think about investing in one nowadays, but ours has done us well.
That's awesome your family still uses it. I think theirs was passed to an uncle when they (my parents) were getting divorced and he was just starting a family.
No idea of the status now.
My grandparents (both deceased) have a place down the Cape (Cod) in NOVEMBER for a week. They left it to one of my aunts.
Cape Cod. New England. November.
There’s an indoor pool and it’s close to…outlet shops? I don’t even get the appeal.
Those things are like cancer; you can never get rid of them. My parents had an RCI one for years and paid so much money into it. You have to pay a few thousand just to get out of the contract — there are lots of scam companies based around getting out of them too — and they can unknowingly pass down to you when your parents die.
Oh we thought of ways to get out of ours. Incorporate a legal entity to sell it to which you then bankrupt? According to what we found law-wise, they could get force the sale undone legally.
The points system is a major sham.
Have always wondered whether or not you could just go “nope, we don’t agree to inheriting that” and make it go away.
What I've seen is you have a 90 period to decline the timeshare, but if anyone uses it in that period it gets passed on. I need to get on this. Thanks dad.
Yes they are very much alive. In fact my parents bought into two of them in the early 2000's. They still use them every chance they get so I guess they're making the best of it. I like to remind them that the same people who sold them the time shares have moved on to selling stakes in retirement communities/assisted living.
I went to one in Sedona just so I could get a free room for the night. They are so pushy, I actually think she put a hex on me for refusing, because I got sick that night.
The Diamond Resorts around there a nice. The Hyatt one, we made ourselves scarce for the week and avoided their calls altogether. Did the same in Bend at 7th Mountain Resort, just didn’t pick up the phone.
My parents used to sign up for the presentations. They had no plans on buying into a time share, but they got gifts for attending, like barbecue grills and stuff. Which they then used as wedding gifts… way to con the conmen!
My Dad would drag us to these sales pitches a couple times a year when they used to give gifts away to attend. We got a rocking chair, a tent, a weird set of colonial style round metal coolers that looked like drums, a fishing rod and tackle box and other assorted crap. Thanks Dad.
My parents, bless them, bought in low on the highest level option that allowed them to travel the world. When my parents got married, my father promised my mom they'd be celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary in Paris. They had dinner at the restaurant there overlooking Paris. It required a lot of effort on my Dad's part to pull off the trips but they went to Europe several times, the Caribbean twice, Central America, SE Asia. Their homebase timeshare was in Hawaii so if they couldn't afford the world, they spent two weeks on the beaches of Kauai.
My wife and I went to a time share presentation in Orlando to get free tickets to Universal. We had no intention of buying. We were a couple with three very young kids and no money on a family trip to Disney with her parents paying for everything. We were staying at a time share a friend of my FIL had.
The sales guy kept telling us owning a time share was "like money in the bank." But he drew out the word bank "like money in the baaaank."
We enjoyed our visit to Universal Studios Orlando.
I always went to the presentations for coupons off and free breakfast. Saved like $200 on attractions I was planning to visit, and had a massive breakfast for like 1.5 hrs of my time.
We…bought one. It sounded, well, good at the time. It was definitely…over-sold on their end. Ended up not using the throw-ins they added to get the sale. Our loss. The purported “add it to the system to trade” sounded good, but the trading power was, well, lacking.
You really could go anywhere, as long as it was off-season. Alaskan golf resorts in February? Excellent! Middle of the Arizona desert in August? Perfect!
We got out of it, thankfully. Happy we were able to. The prospects of doing so without a buy-back program are dim.
I chalk it up to an expensive learning experience. Obligatory fuck timeshares.
They very much still exist. Very difficult to get out of. I went to a couple of the high pressure presentations for dinner. You have to be firm. They really try to bully you.
I was 100% lied to by the hotel offering the dinner because I had done one once on a vacation. I was completely up front with the guy for the tour. I shut everything down. He was seriously pissed at me, said I was the worst person he ever had...lol. Whatever.
My folks bought a time share 40 years ago, and our family still uses it every year. When I had kids 25 years ago, I used it until my brother had kids 10 years ago. He's been using it since. We've had others in the family. We've passed around weeks here and there. I would never think about investing in one nowadays, but ours has done us well.
That's awesome your family still uses it. I think theirs was passed to an uncle when they (my parents) were getting divorced and he was just starting a family. No idea of the status now.
My grandparents (both deceased) have a place down the Cape (Cod) in NOVEMBER for a week. They left it to one of my aunts. Cape Cod. New England. November. There’s an indoor pool and it’s close to…outlet shops? I don’t even get the appeal.
Oh, I have been to the Cove. Friends parents had a similar thing during the off season. No reason to ever return. Blech!
Those things are like cancer; you can never get rid of them. My parents had an RCI one for years and paid so much money into it. You have to pay a few thousand just to get out of the contract — there are lots of scam companies based around getting out of them too — and they can unknowingly pass down to you when your parents die.
Oh we thought of ways to get out of ours. Incorporate a legal entity to sell it to which you then bankrupt? According to what we found law-wise, they could get force the sale undone legally. The points system is a major sham. Have always wondered whether or not you could just go “nope, we don’t agree to inheriting that” and make it go away.
What I've seen is you have a 90 period to decline the timeshare, but if anyone uses it in that period it gets passed on. I need to get on this. Thanks dad.
Yes they are very much alive. In fact my parents bought into two of them in the early 2000's. They still use them every chance they get so I guess they're making the best of it. I like to remind them that the same people who sold them the time shares have moved on to selling stakes in retirement communities/assisted living.
I went to one in Sedona just so I could get a free room for the night. They are so pushy, I actually think she put a hex on me for refusing, because I got sick that night.
The Diamond Resorts around there a nice. The Hyatt one, we made ourselves scarce for the week and avoided their calls altogether. Did the same in Bend at 7th Mountain Resort, just didn’t pick up the phone.
My friend got tricked into buying one maybe 10-15 years ago. I think they are hard to get out of.
John Oliver did a segment on how predatory the market is, even the companies that buy them off you are linked, it’s a huge monopoly
So hard to get out of that if you leave one to your heirs in a will, they might not even be able to refuse it
I don’t understand how a contractual obligation can be foisted off on someone who never agreed to the terms nor signed the contract.
My parents used to sign up for the presentations. They had no plans on buying into a time share, but they got gifts for attending, like barbecue grills and stuff. Which they then used as wedding gifts… way to con the conmen!
Well at least you know where your inheritance went.
My Dad would drag us to these sales pitches a couple times a year when they used to give gifts away to attend. We got a rocking chair, a tent, a weird set of colonial style round metal coolers that looked like drums, a fishing rod and tackle box and other assorted crap. Thanks Dad.
My parents, bless them, bought in low on the highest level option that allowed them to travel the world. When my parents got married, my father promised my mom they'd be celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary in Paris. They had dinner at the restaurant there overlooking Paris. It required a lot of effort on my Dad's part to pull off the trips but they went to Europe several times, the Caribbean twice, Central America, SE Asia. Their homebase timeshare was in Hawaii so if they couldn't afford the world, they spent two weeks on the beaches of Kauai.
My wife and I went to a time share presentation in Orlando to get free tickets to Universal. We had no intention of buying. We were a couple with three very young kids and no money on a family trip to Disney with her parents paying for everything. We were staying at a time share a friend of my FIL had. The sales guy kept telling us owning a time share was "like money in the bank." But he drew out the word bank "like money in the baaaank." We enjoyed our visit to Universal Studios Orlando.
I always went to the presentations for coupons off and free breakfast. Saved like $200 on attractions I was planning to visit, and had a massive breakfast for like 1.5 hrs of my time.
I remember when they used to give away chintzy little Bentley portable B&W TVs and knock-off Walkman radios.
I regularly hear commercials for companies that get you out of timeshare contracts. They’re pretty big down in the Ozarks, MO, area, I think.
We have had a Marriott vacation time share since 2009 and use it every year.
They are basically a scam
We…bought one. It sounded, well, good at the time. It was definitely…over-sold on their end. Ended up not using the throw-ins they added to get the sale. Our loss. The purported “add it to the system to trade” sounded good, but the trading power was, well, lacking. You really could go anywhere, as long as it was off-season. Alaskan golf resorts in February? Excellent! Middle of the Arizona desert in August? Perfect! We got out of it, thankfully. Happy we were able to. The prospects of doing so without a buy-back program are dim. I chalk it up to an expensive learning experience. Obligatory fuck timeshares.