This week’s Tuesday Slot with Irene has been submitted by Angela Simmons Sandstede, as you will see the story of what her parents have been through is not a happy one, it is another “Nightmare on Timeshare Street”.

First some European timeshare news.

Yesterday, the Court of First Instance Number 3 in Maspalomas announced yet another Anfi Contract null and void, the judge sitting on the trial was new and this was his first ever timeshare case. He awarded the UK clients £11,923 for the purchase price along with £13,248 for double the deposit paid within the cooling off period. The clients have also been awarded their legal fees and legal interest. Again this judge was following the rulings by the Supreme Court.

The case was brought on behalf of these clients by Canarian Legal Alliance, the lawyer representing them is one of their newest and youngest lawyers Eduardo Álamo, who only obtained his law degree in 2014, he then went on to study extra courses in 2015 and became a member of the Las Palmas Bar Association in 2016. Definitely a lawyer to keep an eye on.

Over the past few weeks Inside Timeshare has been receiving enquiries about a company called RSB Legal, these readers have paid this company for relinquishment and to lodge a claim on a no win no fee basis. Unfortunately they are are unable to contact them.

In another twist it has just come to light that another company Stanton Mortimer which we believe are linked to RSB run by Ricky Walker, Kevin Walker, Kevin O’Connor and Matt Lowe have now shut down and seem to have disappeared with many clients making criminal complaints.

RSB have also been the subject of many discussion forums, the one below goes back to late 2016.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5510732#topofpage

If you have dealt with either of these companies contact Inside Timeshare and we will give you information on what you can do.

Now for this weeks article.

March 4 – 10 is NOT Consumer Protection Week for Timeshare Members – Part I

An Extraordinary Diamond Investment Opportunity that Wasn’t

Part II – Friday “Earth to ARDA” by Eron Grant

By Angela Simmons Sandstede on behalf of my parents

Please help my Mom and Dad Diamond Resorts, AARP, ARDA, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, and Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin

March 6, 2018

I am writing this article because my mom and dad had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. When my mom, who is diabetic, started slipping into a diabetic sugar shock during a sales presentation, the Diamond “Hospitality” representative at Mystic Dunes, Randy Siegel, told my parents to sign papers to lock in a price per point. What they really signed October 2017 was a purchase agreement to buy a Sampler (trial) package for $3,995. They already owned 78000 points. Why would they need a trial program? Diamond refunded all but the down payment. For this they had to sign an NDA? But guess what – this was nothing compared to what happened next. If you do the math, there is no alleged about what happened.  

Roy and Lillian Simmons, ages 69 and 70, Minnesota residents

My dad is a Navy Veteran

Our YouTube: You have to listen to the YouTube for this to make sense

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_nca6lMA4U&feature=youtu.be

My parents, Roy and Lillian Simmons, had been loyal and happy Diamond Platinum members for almost 20 years. By 2014 they had purchased three or four US Collection Diamond vacation point packages ending up with 27000 US Collection points. In 2014 they bought 25000 Hawaii points transferring their US Collection points to the Hawaii Collection now owning 52000 Hawaii points. Everything was fine up to this point.  

The horror began in 2015 when they were told they needed to transfer from the Hawaii Collection to the US Collection, buying 25000 more points for $151,192.  Now they owned 77000 US Collection points. Why back to the US Collection?

In Orlando Florida Diamond sales agent Rafael Cabrera told my parents they should not have bought Hawaii points. They were transferred from the Hawaii Collection back to the US Collection. The reasons:

• Maintenance fees will go up because Hawaii is so expensive
• They have hurricanes in Hawaii so they can have special assessments

March 31, 2016 they went to Diamond’s Ka’anapali Beach Resort in Hawaii. There they met with DRI sales agent John Jessup. Mr. Jessup told my parents they should transfer the US Collection points back to the Hawaii Collection to take advantage of a remarkable investment opportunity my dad described on our YouTube. It was remarkable, but it didn’t exist.

Transferring 77000 US Collection points back to the Hawaii Collection involved a weird 1000 Hawaii point purchase and transfer fee costing $32,840 or over $32 per point. You have to buy some points to transfer from one side of the ocean to the other. In other words, they were charged $32,433 for the non-existent investment opportunity. Diamond points, according to member reports, sell for $3 to $4 per point. Sales agents are quick to point out the list price is $9 going up to $11.     

According to my dad, he was told:

“Hawaii real estate is so valuable! Diamond can’t buy any more property. The “shares” are going to split! You can double your profits! You can get $3000 or $4000 a week for renting out your points!” said Mr. Jessup. “Being able to pay for maintenance fees and rent points is what sold us,” explained Mr. Simmons.

“I don’t know anything about Hawaii special assessments?” Mr. Jessup added.  

http://www.poipuowners.org/News.html

YOU CAN’T SELL OR RENT DIAMOND POINTS UNLESS YOU RENT TO FRIENDS OR FAMILY. DIAMOND DOES NOT ALLOW RENTING FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES. THERE IS NO SECONDARY MARKET FOR DIAMOND POINTS.

My parents are about to lose their house over this! Their monthly Diamond loan payment is $2,750 per month.  

My mom and dad live mostly on my dad’s pension from the US Post office plus Social Security. My mom teaches piano part time. My dad works part time as a substitute in a school kitchen. They were able to manage 52000 points before the last fraudulent up-sell but can in no way afford 78000 DRI points.

Three Barclay cards were opened – two in my mom’s name and one in my dad’s name to charge the down payment. The interest rate jumped to 13.9% for the Hawaii points, but was 9% or 10% previously. When filling out the Barclaycard application, the sales agent crossed off with a black marker all their credit card/Diamond loan expense information, I assume so they would qualify. “We don’t need that information. We just need your home mortgage and car,” he said. I just found this out as well. Mr. Jessup also suggested my dad pay off the Diamond loan by taking the money out of his retirement plan. “I worked as a Financial Advisor. This would only be an 8 to 9% penalty,” Mr. Jessup advised. When my dad spoke to a real Financial Advisor, he was told taking money out of his government retirement plan would have cost over 40% in taxes and penalty.  

My mom is so stressed over this pathetic attempt to make them STAY VACATIONED she is losing her health and so upset she could not participate in our You Tube. Her sugar levels are worse, affected by stress.

Through Social Media I have learned this “ping pong” upsell is a common and deceptive false claim – sales agents working for the same company telling members you should not have bought this or that collection, depending on what side of the Pacific Ocean you are on. You don’t have to be a senior citizen to get confused about the back and forth transfer up-sells.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/

Diamond at first acted like they cared. I reached out to Diamond Resorts Consumer Advocacy January 8, 2018. They asked for income verification because of the up-sell dispute. My dad sent income verification three times, but they couldn’t find it even though it was faxed. Each time Diamond’s hospitality agent would say they didn’t receive it, but then would say they did. Then they told my parents they were making over $100,000 a year. My parents did not even make that much money when my dad worked for the US Post Office.

A Better Business Bureau report was filed the end of February. A few days after filing, the Better Business Bureau closed out the complaint because Diamond responded, “They signed a contract.”

The FBI advised a recent Diamond member, those who feel they have been a victim of deceit and bait and switch to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission in addition to filing at IC3.gov and orally through the FBI’s public access line calling your local FBI field office (#4 then prompt #3 white-collar crimes). Contact Inside Timeshare if you have questions.

With all the complaints Inside Timeshare is receiving and passing over to the US team, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Irene and her other volunteers are inundated with formulating complaints ready for filing with the FBI, as we get results we will be informing you on these pages.

Remember, if you don’t know what to do whether it is similar to the above story, or you have been contacted by any company or just found a company on the internet and want to know if they are genuine, then contact Inside Timeshare for the best advice available. It will also help if you let us know if you are US or European based, this way we can point you to right team.

The post The Tuesday Slot with Irene appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

On 5 March, Inside Timeshare published the article about Aspirantco SL, we have been reliably informed of inaccuraccies in this article, which was based on information received from sources we believed reliable.

Inside Timeshare would like to put the record straight. Carl Alan Jenkins and his company Aspirantco SL are nothing to do with Silverpoint or Mark Cushway.

Aspirantco SL are now the official marketing company for Excel Resorts, which is the management company for all the properties in the former Silverpoint portfolio. Excel Resorts cancelled the contract with Silverpoint and Mark Cushway for the sales and marketing of the resorts.

Centaurus Mediations is linked to Mark Cushway and Silverpoint companies.

Carl Jenkins was the former second in command for Mark Cushway, but he resigned as he did not agree with the sales and marketing practices that were being used by Silverpoint. His company Aspirantco Sl are endeavoring to readdress the past mistakes and operate within all legal boundaries.

Inside Timeshare apologises to Carl Jenkins and Aspirantco SL for the misleading information published in the article. Inside Timeshare should have made more stringent checks on the sources. We hope that Carl Jenkins accepts this written apology.

Today’s article is in response to many enquiries that Inside Timeshare receives on an almost daily basis, it centers around the promise of no win no fee claims.

From the many companies now operating in this field, especially since the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that many contracts sold in Spain are illegal, this has become a growth industry.

Firstlly, if you purchased or upgraded an original purchase in Spain since 5 January 1999 and your contract has the following, then you may just have a valid claim:

• The contract is for a duration of more than 50 years, what is usually known as perpetuity;
• You have been sold either floating week or points systems, (in many cases this may include fractional);
• You paid a deposit or even the full amount within the 14 day cooling off period, (in some cases this may be extended to 90 days).

In order to claim it has to be done through the Spanish courts and legal system, this will mean employing a lawyer or law firm with the relevant experience in this field. Not all lawyers will have the correct knowledge of the laws involved.

For example Inside Timeshare knows of one German owner who took on the services of a German Lawyer based in the Canary Islands, to file a claim against Anfi. Unfortunately this particular lawyer wrongly informed his client to stop paying the maintenance fees. Eventually the case went before a judge at the Court of First Instance in Maspalomas, he lost the case. It was deemed that because he had not kept up his maintenance fees he was in breach of contract and his membership had been cancelled.

So what is involved in taking out legal action in Spain?

Once you have found a reputable law firm or lawyer with the correct experience, all contracts will have to be translated into Spanish.

A Power of Attorney will need to be signed to allow the lawyers to act on your behalf. This is not a full Power of Attorney and is only applicable to that case. It can be done either in Spain or at a notary in your own country.

Once this has been done they are then sent to the assigned lawyer for case preparation.

They will then be passed to a Procurador to file at the court along with the relevant court fees and taxes. A judge will then be assigned and the process will start.

For this to be put into place legal fees are required to be paid, these cover all of the above and are payable either in full or can be paid by installments depending on the firm or lawyer you instruct. They do not work on a no win no fee basis.

There are so many companies now that are telling owners that they have a claim and will do this on no win no fee. Then comes the crunch.

In order to do the claim a rather hefty amount of money will need to be paid to cancel the timeshare, or what is known as relinquishment and then the claim can be lodged. In some cases the client also has to buy into another product.

The problem is once a contract has been terminated then no claim can be filed at any Spanish court, so where and how is the claim going to be done?

The most common is through Section 75 of the Credit Consumer Act 1974.

Unfortunately most owners will have purchased more than 6 years previously, which most card companies use as the cutoff point. Also the fact the owners will have most probably used their timeshare in the period since they purchased.

So the timeshare resort or company will quite rightly state that the owner had received the goods or service they had paid for, after all they have taken the holidays.

Section 75 will cover:

• Not receiving the goods or services paid for.
• The company has gone into liquidation.
• Faulty goods or goods not fit for purpose.

It does not cover the fact that you were sold a timeshare product that has been deemed an illegal contract in Spain.

As for timeshares purchased elsewhere, the same would also apply under section 75.

For information on what is involved in a section 75 follow the link to the Martin Lewis website:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases

There are some UK firms that will offer a claim through the Spanish courts on a no win no fee basis, which may be genuine, these will use what are known as litigation funding. In essence these are companies that speculate on the probability of a win and will invest the funds to pay for the legal services. These will result in at least 40% of any funds awarded being taken in commission. Many of these types of litigation funders are used for class actions.

If you are tempted by these type of offers, one thing should be taken into account, an insurance policy should be purchased to cover any costs in the event of losing and being awarded the other sides costs, or you could be in for a bill of thousands.

There are some very basic questions you need to ask, if they are unable to provide any answers then you do need to think very hard in accepting their offers.

1. What type of claim are they doing, is it a section 75 or are they using the courts?
2. If they are using the courts, which jurisdiction are they using?
3. What are the names of the lawyers including bar association membership numbers or the law firms they will be employing?
4. If on a no win no fee basis, how is the court case to be funded?

Remember, not all timeshares sold will be valid to make a claim, off course the company talking to you will tell you that you do have a claim, after all they are sales people after your money.

It is also fair to point out that many law firms only offer no win no fee for injury, accident and medical negligence claims, these are where the client is going for compensation. With timeshare claims you are not getting compensation, but the return of money originally paid for a contract that is deemed illegal.

If you have been contacted by any company offering any of these services and would like to know the truth behind what they are saying, contact Inside Timeshare and we will give you an honest answer.

Want to know if a company or law firm is genuine again contact Inside Timeshare, don’t forget, doing your homework will save you in the end.

The post Timeshare Claims Companies and No Win No Fee appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

Welcome once again to Friday’s Letter from America, this week is Earth to ARDA, it is an open letter to Mr. Clements, Mr. Nusbaum and Mr. Roth, it is jointly written article by Eron Grant and Irene Parker. Inside Timeshare can also report that the US team have had three resolutions this week. Diamond  is Listening. So well done all the US volunteers.

This week has been a rather busy one for the courts in Spain, with three sentences from the Courts of First Instance, two from the High Courts and ruling number 90 from the Spanish Supreme Court.

Anfi have had three judgements against them this week two at the Court of First Instance and one at the High Court. In the first two, Court Number 3 at Maspalomas, GC found for the clients, declaring their contract with Anfi null and void. This case was highlighted in the Tuesday Slot with Irene on 6 March.

The second case, held at Court Number 4, again in Maspalomas, another Anfi member had their contract declared null and void. Ordering the return of over £15,000 plus legal interest.

In the High Court Number 5 in Las Palmas, the judge again declared an Anfi contract null and void, with the return of over £14,000 plus appeal legal fees and interest.

In the same court another timeshare company Airtours has had one of their contracts declared null and void, with the judge ordering the return of over 12,000€ plus legal interest.

At the Court of First Instance Number 4 in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol, Club la Costa has been ordered to return over £19,000 including legal fees and legal interest. The contract was also declared null and void.

In the Spanish Supreme Court in Madrid, another historic ruling, bringing the total number made by the Highest Court to a whopping 90!

This was against the Tenerife operation Silverpoint, again the contract was declared null and void with the return of over £10,000 plus legal fees and interest. There will be full article on this and another Supreme Court ruling next week, so keep an eye on these pages.

All these case have been brought on behalf of the clients by the Arguineguin law firm Canarian Legal Alliance, no doubt the clients and the lawyers will be celebrating this weekend.

In other news, we had an enquiry into another company contacting Club Class members, this call was from a Madeline Swann of Gateway Services, apparently based in Telford. In the call she is telling the client that there is a payment due from the banks for being mis-sold his Club Class membership. All he needs to do is pay a certain amount by bank transfer to a Santander account to have the money released.

Haven’t we heard this one before?

On searching for this supposed company nothing came up, no company house records, nothing. So if you get a call from this Madeline Swann or anyone else saying they are from Gateway Service, do let us know. Remember, there will not be any money waiting for you from the banks or the courts.

Now for this weeks Letter from America.

This photo was posted on a Diamond sponsored member Facebook page, but removed. If you see these members at a resort near you, please send them to:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/

Earth to ARDA: WE GIVE – ARDA ROC – A MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR. BLUEGREEN DOES TOO

TO: Robert Clements, Lobbyist and General Counsel, Regulatory Affairs,

Howard Nusbaum, ARDA CEO,

Peter Roth, media contact

From: American Resort Development Association‘s Code of Ethics:

According to ARDA’s website – “Vacation Ownership is one of the most highly regulated vacation products in today’s consumer marketplace.”

Inside Timeshare will be following Platinum Diamond members Roy and Lillian Simmons as they make their way through Vacation Ownership’s highly regulated industry. Mr. and Mrs. Simmons are worried about losing their home, up-sold at age 69 and 70 to $2,700 a month in timeshare loan payments. They are one of 23 Diamond Platinum members alleging they were fraudulently up-sold into financial disaster. Roy and Lillian Simmons first submitted their demands to Diamond’s Consumer Advocacy Department on January 8. Tuesday’s article describes what happened:

http://insidetimeshare.com/tuesday-slot-irene-13/

Next, they filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau the end of February. The BBB closed their complaint in two days because a Diamond Hospitality agent from the Diamond Consumer Advocacy Department responded, “They signed a contract.” As Mr. Simmons describes on the YouTube, they were told Diamond shares were going to go up and split and they could make $3,000 to $4,000 a week renting Hawaii points because Hawaii points are so valuable. Mrs. Simmons is too devastated to have taken part in the YouTube production. Fortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Simmons have a daughter. On March 6, their daughter Angela filed a complaint with the FBI at IC3.gov against three Diamond sales agents, one in Hawaii and two in Orlando. She also filed a complaint with the FTC. Today she will refile a complaint with the BBB again asking, “What?”

You can file a complaint with the weakened Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but since companies like Diamond and Bluegreen service the timeshare loan, members don’t even know the name of the lender unless the borrower has a lower credit score. Quorum Credit Union handles the lower score people. You have to select a lender from the CFPB drop-down menu. Timeshare companies are not an option.

Onward with complaints, they will file with the Florida, Hawaii, Minnesota and Nevada Attorneys General. The Florida Timeshare Division only acted on 110 out of 2,360 timeshare complaints from April 2012 to April 2014. Then there’s the state real estate division in Florida and Hawaii against Diamond’s Hawaii sales agent John Jessup and Florida sales agent Rafael Carerra.

If Diamond won’t help them, it’s possible the Simmons will lose not only their vacation points, but also their home, according to their daughter Angela. Angela said the $2,700 a month Diamond loan is a significant portion of their retirement income. It’s doubtful any of the filings will have an effect. Angela is surprised all of this is like a ten hour a week part time job.

Like Kevin and Brenda Hopkins, the Simmons are supported by Whistleblowers of America, an organization dedicated to seeking justice for military and government workers.

https://whistleblowersofamerica.org/

Kevin and Brenda Hopkins describe their extraordinary sales pitch:

http://insidetimeshare.com/fridays-letter-america-39/

Some Peasants Revolt

By Eron Grant and Irene Parker

Friday March 9, 2018

Mr. Clements, Mr. Nusbaum and Mr. Roth,

We are educated professionals, two among thousands demanding accountability, transparency and respect. Two of 44 Timeshare Advocacy Group™ advocates who have listened to 326 Diamond members allege predatory sales tactics that has caused financial disaster for hundreds of families, the possible loss of Military Security Clearances, ruined vacations, ruined honeymoons, damaged credit reports, members alleging they were over promised and oversold on availability, the ability to sell points, pay maintenance fees with programs that do not exist, the ability to rent points and the ability to lower interest rates, as in the case of Active Duty Navy members Amanda and George Jones. http://insidetimeshare.com/tuesday-slot-irene-3/

Lawmakers are beginning to listen, a few Attorneys Generals are listening (not Florida or Nevada), regulators are listening, and the FBI is listening. ARDA is not listening.     

Sure, there are 9 million happy timeshare owners who own and enjoy their timeshare. They might not have been affected by a life crisis, only to learn their timeshare has no secondary market, or been sold or up-sold by a deceitful bait and switch. By your own accounting, 83% of timeshare owners are happy. That leaves 1,530,000 members that are not happy. Over 900 Diamond members complained to the Arizona Attorney General’s office accusing Diamond and their sales agents of violating Arizona’s Consumer Fraud Act. Complaints to our Advocacy Group have not diminished since Arizona Mark Brnovich issued an Assurance of Discontinuance. The AOD is linked at the bottom of the press release.

https://www.azag.gov/press-release/attorney-general-brnovich-announces-800000-settlement-diamond-resorts

Early complainers consisted of over 1,000 British Diamond members crying foul.

DRIP Enjin: http://drip.enjin.com/

Our Diamond Resorts Owners Advocacy Facebook launched by an economics professor has over 1,000 members. It’s hard to find Disney Vacation Club complaints.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/

Here’s what happened to Mark and Eron   

YouTube produced by Doctor and Ms. Mark Grant

Our Timeshare Nightmare of a Lifetime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FMk_45zRzk&feature=youtu.be

My husband Mark and I have kids. We are working professionals. We said we need to travel close to home. Our Diamond sales agents said, “No problem!” Grapevine, Texas Great Wolf Lodge sounded great! It was a bait and switch….

Most people don’t pull their kids out of school to take them to Great Wolf Lodge, so we searched Friday to Monday three nights:

April 6 – 9 Family Suite (6)

19,700 DRI points required @ $.22.5 maintenance fee $ = $4,432 for three nights.

As opposed to Booking.com April 6 – 9 Family Suite

 $819.97

101.67 ($33.89 per night service fee)

106.59 (13% tax)

$1,028.23 for three nights

This is not an ARDA’s Code of Ethics concern? I ask again:    

What ARDA Code of Ethics?

The ARDA Code of Ethics was designed to encourage an honest and fair competitive landscape for the vacation ownership industry, while upholding the highest forms of integrity, dignity and propriety.

Let’s review this Code. I actually read it.

Code of Ethics: Frequently Asked Questions

Question:  Why does ARDA have a Code of Ethics?

Answer:  ARDA and its members are committed to the highest standards and ethical behavior in vacation ownership. To demonstrate that commitment, all ARDA members as a condition of membership must agree to comply with the ARDA Code of Ethics. The Code consists of not only general conduct requirements, but also specific requirements for members to adhere to when transacting with consumers, standards for disclosure of information to the public, rules regarding resort management, base guidelines for resale activities, as well as administrative procedures for interpretation and enforcement of the Code.

Note from Eron and Irene: Diamond points have no resale activity. We think this is something a consumer might like to know before signing a perpetual contract.

Question:

What can be done to a (an ARDA) member whose actions are in violation of the Code?

Answer:  If a member is determined to be in violation of the Code (of Ethics), ARDA may take the following actions:

• Privately or Publicly Admonish the Member
• Prepare a Letter of Censure
• Place the Member on Probation
• Suspend the Member from ARDA Membership
• Terminate the Member from ARDA Membership

Note from Eron: In addition to Diamond members giving ARDA ROC a million dollars a year, Diamond President Ken Siegel sits on ARDA’s Board of Directors. Diamond members are billed $7 for a “voluntary opt-out” donation from members who in all likelihood cannot even tell you what ARDA ROC stands for. I know I had no clue what the letters ARDA ROC stand for.    

Question:  Who do I contact if I have questions about the Code?

Answer: After reviewing the provisions of the ARDA Ethics Code, if you have questions, please call 407-245-7601 and ask to speak to the ARDA Ethics Administrator, or e-mail customerservice@arda.org.

Note from Eron: After waiting 4 months for a response from Julie Schwartz (not Lobbyist and General Counsel Robert Clements because he would not take my call), I’m not feeling optimistic about making a phone call to ARDA’s Ethics Administrator. The fact you have to email customer service is not a good sign.

Note from Advocate Irene: I have sent ARDA about 100 of our most grievous complaints from Diamond Resorts members, seniors in fear of losing their home, military members in fear of losing their Security Clearance, alleging they were victims of fraud for profit. Not a word other than through the timeshare grapevine, “She’s writing articles for people.” No I’m not. I edit articles submitted to Inside Timeshare.

Inside Timeshare has received 340 reader complaints, 78 since January 1. Our Diamond Advocacy Facebook page has over 1,000 members, Bluegreen members’ Facebook 800 (they are trying to keep their membership below 800).

Question: Does ARDA support the consumer?

In our opinion, only when the issue at stake is in line with developer’s wishes. One Advocacy Group banned ARDA from attending their meetings after a 2015 Florida bill was passed making it more difficult to get out of timeshare contracts due to nonmaterial errors.  

https://www.redweek.com/resources/ask-redweek/arda-roc-donation-in-maintenance-bill

If the wishes diverge, lobby dollars go to work:

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/us/lobbyists-bearing-gifts-pursue-attorneys-general.html

Question:  What does ARDA do with the information it receives from the general public regarding the potentially unethical conduct of its members?

Note from Eron: Nothing – My non-response from Julie Schwartz, ARDA-ROC Consumer Support representative serves as an example:

Answer:  ARDA does not mediate or arbitrate individual disputes between consumers and ARDA member companies. When we receive information regarding a potential violation of the Code we forward those complaints to the company for their consideration and resolution.

Note from Eron:  Who sits on your board and gives you a million dollars a year.

It is then up to the respective parties to resolve any potential dispute. Information submitted by the public may be used by ARDA to act against members when there is a consistent pattern of business practices that are in violation of the code.

Note from Eron: What about the 900 Diamond members who complained to the Arizona Attorney General? Better Business Bureau lists over 1,000 complaints.

Don and Irene Parker’s Diamond experience:

Like Eron, we purchased points for a specific location, New York City. Our daughter lives there. Like Eron, we learned it would cost approximately $8,500 in  Diamond maintenance fee dollars to stay one week at the same hotel, same time for $950 through an online booking service. I checked year round.

Next, we attended a predatory sales presentation at Diamond’s Grand Beach in Orlando. I spent three decades in sales selling everything from pianos to stocks and bonds. I know a predatory sales agent when I meet one. Thoroughly disgusted, we went back to our room at Mystic Dunes, turned on the television, and saw the Queen of Versailles, a FOX News Property Man segment about Jackie and David Siegel, the owners of Westgate timeshare building their 90,000 square foot home. We were in the process of moving from Kentucky to Venice Florida, so it just seemed natural to write an article called “The peasant of Venice and the Queen of Versailles” describing wealth out of touch with reality.

http://insidetimeshare.com/peasant-venice-queen-versailles/

One true benefit of owning Diamond points has been developing relationships with other professionals, over 1,000 of us, who have bonded together like a band of brothers and sisters, to fight widespread timeshare corruption we feel is so ingrained in the timeshare industry, it is accepted and considered normal, kind of like #metoo or sexual abuse, as happened at Michigan State. Look how long that went on.

At least timeshare members are finding each other now, no longer silenced and isolated. When timeshare members need a voice, they can contact Inside Timeshare. We can help.

We seek to provide timeshare members a way to proactively address membership concerns; to advocate for timeshare reform; to obtain greater disclosure from the company; to advocate for a viable secondary market; and to educate prospective buyers.

https://www.facebook.com/timeshareadvocategroup/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/

https://tug2.com/Home.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/groups/180578055325962/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/465692163568779/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1639958046252175/

If you need any information about this or any other article, company that contacts you or you have found on the internet or advertising in the press, then contact Inside Timeshare and we will point you in the right direction.

It pays to do your homework and due diligence before engaging with any company, not all are what the say.

Have a great weekend and join us next week.

The post Friday’s Letter from America appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

For a long time Silverpoint which was formerly known as Resort Properties has been misleading clients into purchasing multiple weeks of timeshare, with the promise of a return on their so-called “investment”.

The pitch was very simple, the clients were offered to buy 8 weeks of timeshare which the sales staff termed as “distressed”, these weeks were supposedly those that had been taken back from clients unable to meet their maintenance fees.

During the presentation the rep would explain that the package will cost £20,000, it will then be sold for £25,000 with  Silverpoint taking £2,000 in commission and pay the client £3,000, this represented a 15% return on their purchase. Sounds good, the problem is this was only the beginning of a very costly cycle of purchases which has seen many people losing a great deal of money.

Around a year later the client would return only to find they now faced huge maintenance bills, they also end up at another presentation with a new rep, this one would tell them that the previous rep had sold them the wrong apartments. These studios are not selling and the client needs to purchase one or two bedroom apartments as it is these that people want.

They are talked into changing their “portfolio” to the better one, for a further cost of £10,000 plus, with the maintenance fee being waived for another year.

Again as time goes by, they are told that nothing is selling and that they need to upgrade their “portfolio” yet again. This rep would now say they can trade in their previous purchases and for a further cost of between £17,000 and £25,000, they can buy into the Paradiso Membership. The maintenance fees will only be £500 p.a. They are also promised that when the resales start in 2 to 3 years time they will double their initial outlay.

There is also another twist to this tale, in order to get around the timeshare laws, Mark Cushaway and his team came up with another scheme, The Company Participation package. This is where the clients are transferred from the Paradiso membership and sold “shares” in the company Club Paradiso. These sales are also now subject to legal action, so it is only a matter of time before we see these cases coming before the courts.

This not only happened in Tenerife, Silverpoints Malta based operation, Azure Resorts did exactly the same thing.

Many of these sales were also financed by loan agreements with Barclay Partner Finance, all conveniently arranged by the sales staff. These are also subject to legal action in the UK, most notably by Edwin Coe LLP a leading law firm based in London.

In the following video one client taken in first by Resort Properties and then Silverpoint, recorded his meeting with the then sales manager David Taylor and posted it on youtube, in this recording you can clearly hear the promises being made, with what can only be described as a plea to stop the court action this client was taking. Just listen to the garbage that Taylor spouts about the Data Protection act and that Silverpoint are a different company, yet the CEO is still Mark Cushway and David Taylor is still the Sales Manager.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oNdi4NT4O8

Many of these clients are now involved in court cases to get their money back, these are now proving to be very successful. In the past year alone, there have been around 42 rulings made by the Supreme Court against Silverpoint.

The Lower courts in Tenerife are also finding for the clients on an almost daily basis, yet the industry still insists that these cases are not happening. Only last week there were two more sentences from the Supreme Court. (PDF files of the cases below).

Silverpoint Supreme CourtSentence 106-2018

Silverpoint Supreme Court Sentence 108-2018 Silverpoint Supreme CourtSentence 106-2018

Once again these cases were brought by the Lawyers Miguel Rodriguez Ceballos [Nº 2814 ICALPA] and Eva Gutiérrez [Nº 4350 ICALPA] of Canarian Legal Alliance, both very experienced lawyers in the field of timeshare law.

Both clients had their contracts declared null and void with the return of all their purchase prices with double the amount of the deposit taken within the cooling off period.

The timeshare law was put into place to protect you the consumer, the timeshare companies have for years been flouting them and it is now that the tide is turning in favour of the consumer. You have the full protection of the law and the courts are proving this by finding in favour of the clients and this is costing the industry dearly.

If you have had dealings with this or any other timeshare company and want to know if your contract is illegal, or if you have a valid claim then contact Inside Timeshare and get it confirmed one way or the other. There are many companies springing up that will say that you do have a case, even if you don’t.

The post Silverpoint: A Costly Experience for Some appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

Welcome to the Tuesday Slot with Irene, this weeks article has been submitted by Sheilah Brust and her complaint to the FBI regarding her dealings with Diamond sales agents. Inside Timeshare has passed on many complaints to the US team, who are also helping people to file similar complaints.

Now for our usual look at some of the European news.

Another contract has been declared null and void by the Supreme Court in Madrid, this time against Palm Oasis / Tasolan. According to the judgement the contract was once again in breach of the timeshare law in regards to the contract being for an indefinite period, or for more than the stipulated period and the taking of deposits within the cooling off period.

The UK couple (pictured below) have been awarded over £12,000 plus the legal fees and legal interest. The case was brought by the lawyers Miguel Rodriguez Ceballos and Eva Maria Gutiérrez, both from Canarian Legal Alliance.

PDF for the Supreme Court Sentence

Palm Oasis Tasolan Supreme Court Sentence 114-2016

It has also just been announced that CLA have received Supreme Court ruling number 95, this was against the Tenerife based company Silverpoint.

The court again declared the contract null and void and has awarded £99,504 to the client, the court increased the amount by an incredible £26,652 in way of a fine against Silverpoint for taking an illegal deposit at the point of sale during the cooling off period. The client will also received back the legal fees and legal interest.

So far there is no news on the sentencing of Dominic O’Reilly or Stephanie O’Reilly of EZE Group, they pleaded guilty at Birmingham Magistrates last year, with the magistrates referring the case to Birmingham Crown Court for sentencing. The delay may just be due to waiting for reports from the probation service which is a normal procedure, especially if a custodial sentence is possibly involved. When we find out we will let you know.

There is also still no news of the investigation of the South West Police ROCU investigation into some of the Mark Rowe companies, this is likely to be a long drawn out investigation which will be covering these companies activities over a number of year. Obviously there will be many consumers with complaints and all these will need to be interviewed. So don’t expect a speedy conclusion.

Now on with our FBI article from Sheilah edited by Irene Parker.

FBI Talking Points – “Just the Facts, Ma’am,” Joe Friday

By Sheilah Brust

March 13, 2018

For timeshare members too young to remember, “Just the Facts, Ma’am”

The show (Dragnet) was the result of an extraordinarily close collaboration between (Jack) Webb (Sgt. Joe Friday) and LAPD Chief William H. Parker, who had quickly built a reputation for eliminating corruption. (Timeline June 20, 2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3Xh4f8lOjU&list=PL_72IjwCotIQgQAe2WPvR2mPwEPVl-1FB

It was hard to believe I was on hold, waiting to talk to an FBI agent about my vacation plan. I am so disappointed at having to resort to this, but what we were told was not true. We have owned this timeshare since before it was acquired by Diamond Resorts. We had traded in our deeded timeshare into non-deeded Diamond vacation points and had accumulated 50,000 points, enough to become Platinum Diamond members. We had hoped to leave something nice for our children and grandchildren. After experiencing what I believe to be fraudulent bait and switch tactics, we don’t have enough money to travel. Like so many other complaints, we were told if we purchased additional points, we would not have to pay maintenance fees.  My husband and I had to get part time jobs to pay for the fees. I used to work for the New York State Governor’s office of Employee Relations, so I knew to start filing regulatory complaints, which is so time consuming it’s like having two part time jobs!

50,000 points I owned prior to the presentation

15,000 additional points in dispute

65,000 x 2 (double points) = 130,000

Our annual maintenance fee on 50,000 DRI points is $8,631. The additional 65,000 points redeemed at $.10 a point would have paid for $6,500 of the $8,631. It’s a great program. Too bad it doesn’t exit.

There is no such program allowing double points, but “Hospitality” agents at Diamond Resorts “Consumer” Advocacy department are trained to be detectives themselves, searching through the member’s contract to be able to email you back your initials on the fine print, in essence saying, it doesn’t matter what a sales agent says. All that matters is you signed a contract.      

According to lawyers our advocacy group has talked to, it is not legal to hide behind fine print, encouraging sales agents to lie. I found this online:

In case after case, scandal after scandal, American federal law enforcement officials have clearly shown by their indictments and prosecutions that there is no confusion in their minds—lying is a crime. Businesspersons need to clearly understand those rules and what prosecutors define as lying.

Graziadio Business Review

https://gbr.pepperdine.edu/2010/08/businesspersons-beware-lying-is-a-crime/

The reason timeshare agents get away with it is because there is virtually no enforcement. Timeshare buyers usually buy timeshares in states other than the state they live in (usually a state that sells lots of timeshares and brings in lots of tourist dollars), so when you file a complaint, the elected officials of the state, in which you are not a resident, may not take you seriously.

The weakened Consumer Financial Protection Bureau doesn’t even allow you to select a timeshare company from their menu when filing and the timeshare borrower usually doesn’t even know the name of the actual lender. The timeshare company services the loan, so we picked Barclays from the menu, but when you talk to Barclays they usually say, according to our Facebook members, “That’s too bad but we didn’t directly sell you the points or commit the alleged crime.”

So, here we are asking the FBI for help. This is what I learned reporting an online white-collar crime complaint through IC3.gov and orally through the FBI field office nearest to where we bought our timeshare. Any timeshare member who feels they have been victimized by “deceit, concealment, violation of trust, and bait and switch” of a serious nature, like ours, needs to file a complaint with the following law enforcement agencies in addition to filing regulatory complaints:

• The FBI at IC3.gov online using the FBI’s Complaint Referral Form,
• The FBI orally through the FBI field office nearest where you signed your contract.
• When you call, select the prompt for “Submit a Tip” then #3, White Collar Crime. Have your facts ready and contract handy. It’s a good idea to write your facts down so that you have good facts in front of you. Even the thought of calling the FBI is a little intimidating, but the agent I spoke to was a nice man who seemed very interested in what I had to say.
• The Federal Trade Commission – find the “Timeshare Sales” option. https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/GettingStarted#crnt
• The Secret Service – FBI agent #1234 I spoke with (I don’t want to use his real number) said we should also file with the Secret Service if it involved credit card fraud. We’re looking into that. www.secretservice.gov

In our case, we were not told two Diamond Barclay credit cards were going to be opened. We were not even aware of the amount of the down payment. The down payment was $26,000! We would have for sure used a credit card that would have earned us reward points. I was infuriated when our DRI salesman Brad Leslie came back and said “Barclay loves you guys! They gave you $26,000 credit!” We thought the form we filled out was to check our credit for the down payment. We already had two Barclaycards, one issued by Diamond and other personal. Now we have four Barclaycards!! We did not dispute it because Brad said he would transfer it to our existing Diamond loan. That never happened.  

Don’t be afraid to talk to the FBI. The agent I spoke with did not rush me. We spoke for over an hour. https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/

Some of the things they will want to know include:

• When you purchased your timeshare?
• Where you purchased your timeshare?
• Who sold you the timeshare?
• What did you purchase?
• How much did it cost?
• Why do you feel it was fraud for profit?

Fraud for profit: Those who commit this type of mortgage fraud are often industry insiders using their specialized knowledge or authority to commit or facilitate the fraud. Current investigations and widespread reporting indicate a high percentage of mortgage fraud involves collusion by industry insiders, such as bank officers, appraisers, mortgage brokers, attorneys, loan originators, and other professionals engaged in the industry. Fraud for profit aims not to secure housing, but rather to misuse the mortgage lending process to steal cash and equity from lenders or homeowners. The FBI prioritizes fraud for profit cases. https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/white-collar-crime/mortgage-fraud

I have read so many sad stories on our advocacy Facebook page. It tears me up inside to think a company that was good until about 3 years ago can do this to people. It’s gotten worse in the last few years. I guess I always want to believe in the best in people, but after this – $60,000 later, that is hard to do. We have asked Diamond to give us our money back for the last purchase that we believe meets the definition of fraud for profit. It takes a day to buy a timeshare, but weeks, days and sometimes years to get out of one.

Whatever you do, don’t pay anyone you don’t know money upfront to get you out of your timeshare. Check with our advocacy group before retaining an attorney or a “get you out of your timeshare” exit company.

With no secondary market, consumers are completely at the mercy of the timeshare company, but I hope we can turn this around and make the public and Diamond aware that some of their sales agents exhibit questionable business practices.

Diamond, make this a good company again!

There may be other timeshare members who feel they have been victimized by the same sales agent. If so, you can give the name and phone number of that member to the FBI agent so they can look up the other member’s complaint, linking your complaint to theirs. It’s a sophisticated system.   

Timeshare members nationwide want to thank the FBI for their efforts. Without them, we would have no federal enforcement – only members helping members.

These are timeshare advocacy groups Inside Timeshare believes are pro-consumer, non-industry influenced, seeking to provide members a way to proactively address membership concerns; to advocate for timeshare reform; to obtain greater disclosure from the company; to advocate for a viable secondary market; and to educate prospective buyers.

https://www.facebook.com/timeshareadvocategroup/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/

https://tug2.com/Home.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/groups/180578055325962/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/465692163568779/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1639958046252175/

Thank you Sheilah for your contribution, we are sure it will give others the confidence to undertake this task themselves.

As always, if you have any questions or comments on any article published or are just wanting information on any company that has contacted you or you have found on the internet, contact Inside Timeshare and we will point you in the right direction.

Remember doing your homework and checks before engaging with any company will save you in the end.

The post The Tuesday Slot with Irene appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

As we know the Regional Organised Crime Unit of the Avon and Somerset Police is investigating several companies which are part of the Mark Rowe group, these are:

• Monster Travel (also known as Monster Group/Monster Rewards)
• SellMyTimeshare
• Complete Internet Solutions
• Hollywood Marketing

In the letter they have been sending to clients they state that evidence has been provided by TESS Ltd, Financial Institutions and Hotels, they are also following up on reports that have been made to the Action Fraud website.

We know this is going to be a long drawn out investigation as it will be covering many clients and many years, so we do not expect a conclusion soon.

But another strange fact has just emerged, this revolves around the TESS website, Inside Timeshare was checking the site for some information and tried to find the postings related to all the Mark Rowe companies. Nothing came up, yet they had many postings about their involvement in providing information to the authorities and the fact they were encouraging clients to contact them to be included.

There were also many posts condemning the practices of these companies, which have been going online for months.

So why have these posts suddenly been removed?

Inside Timeshare has also been asked this question by some of our regular readers, one stated they are “totally “Gobsmacked” as they were particularly vicious in their attacks on Mark Rowe and his companies and Involved the police”.

Even all the posts regarding the Timeshare Consumer Association (TCA) have also disappeared, yet not too long ago there were some rather bitter remarks posted on the TESS website about them.

It is also interesting that the TCA website also has no mention of TESS, again we wonder why?

Now we do know that at one time TESS was working with Mark Rowe, taking on his clients to relinquish their contracts, then they had that severe falling out, which resulted in the war of words and TESS announcing they were filing complaints on behalf of clients.

So again what is the reason that now no one can find anything on either website?

Unfortunately we can only speculate, is this investigation going deeper than we first thought?

We leave it to you the reader to decide what you think the answer to this little conundrum is.

When we do get some answers they will be published on these pages.

If you have had any dealings with the companies under investigation and would like to know where you stand, then contact the Regional Organised Crime Unit at the following:

MGUpdates@avonandsomerset.pnn.police.uk

Telephone: 01278 647117

South West Police ROCU. DC 4624 Katie Andrews. PO Box 37, Valley Rd, Portishead,Bristol. BS20 8QJ

We are sure they will want to hear from you.

Inside Timeshare would also like to hear from you if you have had any dealings with any company which you have paid and have not delivered on their promises or even just disappeared. Use the contact page on the website and we will get back to you.

The post TESS Vs Mark Rowe: Where Have All The Posts Gone? appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

Once again welcome to Friday’s Letter from America, this week Irene Parker interviews yet another military veteran family about their experience with Diamond. Joshua and Nichole Parker are just another couple in a long line that have reached out to Inside Timeshare in the past few months, we do not expect them to be the last.

First we have a quick look at Europe, we begin with a warning about a company cold calling Diamond owners in the UK.

One of our regular readers who is a member of one of the Diamond facebook pages, received a call from a company claiming to be called Scottish Heritage. It seems that the caller knew our reader is a member with Diamond Resorts, the offer was for a stay at a choice of hotels in Scotland for 5 nights for the knockdown price of £99.

This sounds like the old “flybuy” offers that we have warned about in the past, cheap stays along with the obligation to attend a presentation usually to purchase either a timeshare or holiday club package.

When we searched for any company called Scottish heritage we drew a blank other than the official Scottish organisations, which we very much doubt would be making these type of calls.

The number used for the call is:

01244470152

Which is a Chester number, when we did a check on this number it did show some rather interesting results, on Who Called Me,

https://who-called.co.uk/Number/01244470152

there were many entries about this number, including the name Scottish Heritage. It also belongs to a website called

http://loyaltyweeks.com/

In their About section they go on to say:

“As a guest of Loyalty Breaks, you would receive heavily discounted accommodation in a selection of leading hotels and resorts around the world that would otherwise cost a considerable amount of money.  All that is required from the guest is that during their stay, they take a morning or afternoon of their time to learn about the benefits of the resort in a relaxed environment, and donate valuable feedback to improve customer care and satisfaction.

The developers will heavily subsidies the accommodation for up to 7 nights, with the intention on enlightening their visitors on the benefits and perks of their exclusive residences in some of the most sought after destinations around the world.”

Which does confirm what we expected, discounted breaks with a presentation. Unfortunately we can find no company registration for either Loyalty Weeks or Loyalty Breaks, and the website does not give a name of who is behind it, although it was only registered on 29 July 2017, so it is only around 8 months old.

The question now is who is behind it and how did they get the information, especially as they knew they were Diamond owners. Could it be that some unscrupulous sales staff who knew that they were going to be laid off, got hold of the members data either selling it on or starting their own little enterprise?

It has also been a busy week with sentences from the Supreme Court in Madrid being issued against Silverpoint, Palm Oasis and Puerto Calma, a good week for the lawyers and their clients.

Now on with this weeks Letter.

A Veteran’s Family Bought Diamond Points

Dismissed by Diamond Hospitality Consumer Advocates because,

“You signed a contract”  

An Interview with Joshua and Nichole Parker

By Irene Parker

March 16, 2018

Joshua “Josh” and Nichole Parker attended a timeshare sales presentation that lasted from 8AM in the morning until 8PM at night at Diamond Resorts Mystic Dunes resort in Orlando on November 8, 2017 after attending a Diamond’s Event of a Lifetime. “Why didn’t you just leave?” the critics ask. Joshua explains why on his YouTube. They purchased 4,000 Diamond timeshare points. Joshua and Nichole say they were told their points would go up in value. Now, expecting twins, they do not have enough points for a family of five to vacation and have learned, not only did their timeshare points not increase in value – there is virtually no secondary market for Diamond timeshare points. Josh’s YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezkJ7GlJN4U&feature=youtu.be

Josh suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Josh is the second 90% disabled, PTSD diagnosed, Iraqi veteran Inside Timeshare has assisted this year. The other veteran and his wife had been subjected to a five hour predatory and fraudulent timeshare hard sell. They recorded an hour of their ordeal which has been turned over to law enforcement. After listening to the recording, I can firmly say there was no alleged about it. Their timeshare dispute was quickly resolved after a copy of their YouTube interview was sent to the timeshare company. Others who allege fraud, but did not record their alleged fraudulent timeshare sale, face an uphill battle of repeated denials and dismissals. Timeshare companies often respond, “You signed a contract.”

The FBI disagrees with this reasoning, and has advised timeshare members to file complaints with the FBI at IC3.gov and orally through the FBI field office nearest to where the timeshare contract was signed, if their allegations meet the FBI definition of white-collar crime, “deceit, concealment, violation of trust, bait and switch.” The FBI agent Josh spoke with advised Josh to also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (option other – timeshare sales).

Post-traumatic stress disorder

The tragic events that took place at the Veteran Home in Yountville, California, Friday, March 9, a formerly safe place for Veterans suffering from the effects of PTSD, reminds us that the effects of war or a traumatic event can live long after the event or the battlefield. It’s not an easy topic, but one timeshare companies and timeshare sales agents should be aware of, if they care.

My interview with Josh and Nichole

Irene: Josh, tell us about your military service.

Josh: I joined the army in 2005, partly for the health benefits, and because joining the army was what I always wanted to do. I became a military police officer. In Iraqi I was part of a Police Transition Team. We taught Iraqi police how to be police because they lacked training. I was part of Operation Iron Maiden in 2006 when an attempt was made to catch Ayman-al-Zawahiri. We knew there were weapon caches and hostiles. We performed an outer cordon searching for hostiles. We were out there three days. I hurt my lower back from a fall while on this mission. The weight I was carrying made the injury worse. It is considered a combat injury because it was in reaction to incoming rounds.

Irene: You suffer from PTSD. Explain how that has affected your life.

Josh: The experience of combat changes the way you think from that time forward. During those three days, at one point I came to the realization that I was going to die. That moment changed me for the rest of my life. I have a high priority for security. Most people get up in the morning and think about what they are going to do that day, food, work, entertainment and security. For me it is food and security. The first thing I ask myself when I wake up in the morning is if what I am going to do today is safe.        

Irene: I too suffer from PTSD, so interested in the subject from a personal perspective. I followed the role model of John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted channeling my anger and grief into advocacy. Mr. Walsh lost his six year old son Adam, a victim of a homicide. I revisited the topic again and found this symptom:

You may be jittery, or always alert and on the lookout for danger. You might suddenly become angry or irritable. This is known as hyperarousal.

https://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/PTSD-overview/basics/symptoms_of_ptsd.asp

It’s hard enough for anyone to endure an eight hour hard sell timeshare presentation, but PTSD, combined with a high risk pregnancy carrying twins, obviously made your experience even worse.

Josh: Nichole has had several miscarriages, and has gone through eight years of fertility treatments. So expecting twins, we are in a constant state of worry. In addition, they forced us to leave our crying 4 year old in the kids club because they could not proceed with the sales presentation with her there. Our daughter was born with a genetic disorder called Klippel-Feil syndrome, a bone disorder that also affects her heart and kidneys. She also has many food allergies. It was unfair to leave a child in the play area for hours, told by our sales person Tiffany that she would only be there two hours.

Nichole: They don’t really feed the children. They only offer snacks and our daughter Vanessa could not have some of what they offered. Had I not have almost passed out from low blood sugar due to my pregnancy, they would of expected us to leave our child there thru lunchtime.

Josh: We didn’t leave because they would not return our credit card and driver’s license, even to leave for lunch, telling us to just drive to the restaurant on property. The reality is, you ask and they say yes, I’m going to get it from so and so. Then 10 minutes later someone else arrives and they start over saying, “I let him know and he’s going to bring them.”  There is a constant push off to delay getting the IDs and credit card. It’s relentless.

It was like being tortured, being held hostage, and they did the same to our child. When the sales people were talking, they refused to let us check on our kids saying, “If there was a problem someone would come get you.  Meanwhile, you hear kids screaming.”

Irene: As mentioned earlier, those with PTSD are jittery and on the lookout for danger. You are prone to be angry or irritable.

Josh: Yes, and around 5 PM I went out to the car to get something. I have handicap parking, but the handicap parking had been blocked off with cones. I rolled my ankle stepping between the cone and the cement block.

Nichole: This was why we did not get the papers signed until 8 PM. We reported the incident at the front desk. They called security to file an incident report. While waiting for security, Robert, the sales manager and Omar, the sales center manager, continued to pressure us to buy points even though Josh was in visible pain, with ice on his ankle.

Josh: We kept saying we could not afford the points, even though I was visually in pain. My ankle was starting to swell right before we signed the documents. We were not even on the sales floor. They kept saying, sign this and this, including the Barclaycard that we did not want in the first place.

Irene: So, after all this, why did you buy?

Nichole: The same children’s hospital I know that my four year daughter old goes to, to see maternal fetal medicine they said we could stay by. So they really got us when they were saying we would be able to be closer to the hospital. But the fact remains, at the time of purchase, even if this is an option, we can’t afford this timeshare and were told it was an investment and could be easily sold.

Irene: When are the Parker twins due?

Nichole: July 18 is 40 weeks but twins are full term at 37 so June.

Irene: I love babies! We would love to visit after they arrive.

Irene: Back to timeshare – Some have asked why you did not just call 911 when they refused to return your driver’s licenses and credit cards.

Josh: The biggest thing was to get it over with. We knew we could not afford it but they kept saying it was an investment and it was good for our children, and they said if we purchase it now we would be assured our children could always take vacations. As an investment, we thought we would not lose money on it. I didn’t count, but I am sure I said 100 times, “I can’t afford this.”

The next up-sell attempt at Polo Towers:

Josh: Next, we were told we had to attend a new member orientation. We had told our sales agent Robert we did not want to attend any more presentations. Robert said we would not have to. When we went to Diamond Polo Towers November 2017 we were told we had to attend a new member orientation to learn how to use the tablet and how to navigate the Diamond website. My wife lost her mind. They called Robert and their demand to attend was dropped.

Irene: When did you realize the hopelessness of your situation?

Josh: We started to question the legitimacy of what we had experienced December 2017.  We know 4,000 points are not enough points to travel with a family of five. We will be struggling with the double expense of two newborns instead of one. The answer for us is not to buy more timeshare points, only to get deeper in debt.  We would have never bought Diamond points if we thought we were obligated to pay maintenance fees for the rest of our lives for a timeshare that could not be sold.   

Nichole: We are stressed beyond endurance over what Diamond Resorts has done to our family.

Josh: We have filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. There has been no response. We have filed a complaint with Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. We did receive an email today with further instructions.

We filed a Better Business Bureau complaint. There has been no response. We will file a complaint with the Nevada Attorney General. We intended to file a complaint against our sales agent Tiffany with the Florida Real Estate Division, but when I called Diamond, they would not tell me her last name. We do have the names of Robert Gonzales, Director of Sales and Mario Hernandez, the highest person there.

I have joined a group of 34 members of active duty and retired military/law enforcement claiming they were defrauded by timeshare sales agents, seemingly targeting the military. We have reached out to Whistleblowers of America, an organization that seeks justice for military and government workers, active duty and retired.  

We contacted Irene Parker at Inside Timeshare because we were going to sign up with Primo Management Group and had a conference call scheduled for February 15. Below are the documents PMG provided, including a Diamond release from Eric and Angela Wood, as a testimonial and an illustration of our Diamond liability projected out 40 years.  Irene told us to cancel the conference call and not sign up with PMG. She advised us to contact Diamond Resorts Consumer Advocacy. She said she felt confident DRI Advocates would be able to help us. She explained the Diamond program CLARITY about transparency, accountability and respect for the customer.

The history of our vacation nightmare:

Sampler purchased 20,000 points for $4000 Parkway International Celebration Area 7/2017

4000 annual points were purchased at Mystic Dune November 8, 2017 Event of a Lifetime. We were told our Sampler points and money paid would be credited towards the purchase of annual points but it wasn’t.

Purchase price $15,133

Amount financed $12,636

Sales agent Tiffany

Robert Gonzales, Director of Sales

Mario Hernandez was the highest person there

Javier was QA

We were told the new thing is that all your points are worth money.  It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it because the points are worth money. We were told points can be converted to dollars to pay maintenance fees because fees will go up 10% every year and the inflation on the fees won’t match our fixed income.

The Timeshare Exit Company we contacted to get us out of this nightmare:

PMG (Primo Management Group, Inc.) quoted us $3,000 to $6,000 to get us out of our Diamond timeshare.

Thank you for considering PMG, the country’s most respected timeshare relief agency, for assistance in completely cancelling your timeshare obligation.

We have a 100% success rate.  Your deed cancellation is backed by our 100% guarantee and we guarantee to protect your credit throughout the entire process.

Our program includes:

• Timeshare Contract Cancellation
• Immediate Cancellation of Payments
• Cancellation of Maintenance Fees
• Mortgage Balance Cancellation
• Protection from Harassment
• Credit Protection/Correction

 Subject: *PMG Consultation Email

Your Financial Obligation to Diamond

ILLUSTRATION WAS PROVIDED SHOWING A 40 YEAR PROJECTION OF $95,710 BEGINNING WITH OUR $243 MORTGAGE PAYMENT

Please feel free to ask your Consumer Advocate any and all questions you may have.  Best wishes and again, thank you.

Grand Lodge_Michael & Barbara Wagner.pdf

Holiday Inn-Orange Lk_Vanessa Pena

Summer Bay_Shovan Anwar & Aniva Zaman.pdf

Wyndham_Tiwuanda Howard.pdf

Diamond_Eric & Angela Wood.pdf

Best Regards,

Ken Crawford

Sr. Consumer Advocate

Irene: What a mess! Will timeshare companies that do not allow a secondary market ever realize they are causing the problem? Never pay anyone or any company money upfront to get you out of your timeshare. If you are contacted by such a company contact one of the groups listed here.  

These are US self-help, member supported groups we feel are not industry influenced:

https://www.facebook.com/timeshareadvocategroup/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/

https://tug2.com/Home.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/groups/180578055325962/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/465692163568779/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1639958046252175/

Thank you Joshua and Nichole for sharing your story, also thanks to Irene all the volunteers for all the hard work they are doing to help those such as the veterans and the elderly.

If you have any questions, comments or need advice on any article published, contact Inside Timeshare from our contact page, please state if you are US or European based.

That’s it for this week, it’s Friday and the weekend is calling, have a good one and join us again on Monday.

The post Friday’s Letter from America appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

As usual nothing really surprises us when it comes to Silverpoint, so it was only time before they announced they would not be offering a resale service for their Club Paradiso members. Many of these people have bought into this club via the ever upgrading of the “investment weeks” peddled by Resort Properties and then Silverpoint. Inside Timeshare explained this in the 12 March article “Silverpoint a Costly Experience for Some”.

http://insidetimeshare.com/silverpoint-costly-experience/

This practise has been going on for years, with many losing out on thousands of pounds, in these so-called investments, many funded through finance agreements arranged by Silverpoint sales staff with Barclays Partner Finance. There have been and still are ongoing class actions by clients of Silverpoint against Barclays in the UK, these have been brought by two law firms, Stewarts Law and Edwin Coe.

Considering Silverpoint announced in April last year it had withdrawn its membership from the industry trade body the RDO (Resorts Development Organisation), along with the announcement that it was no longer going to be selling “timeshare”, it comes as no surprise that they have stopped the resale program, if it even existed in the first place!

So the questions that many are now asking including the enquiries received from our readers are very simple ones:

What is now going to happen to all that money we paid for these so-called investments?

Now that we know there is no resale market, what other “investments” are they going to offer us to save what we have already paid?

Are they going to ask for even more money?

Well we do know that many have been coerced into paying and transferring to what is being termed the “Company Participation Scheme”, sounds good doesn’t it?

But what is this scheme?

Well, all we can say is that it is just another way for them to get your money, according to some of the evidence we have seen, and we are still going through it as it is all wrapped up in jargon, the basics of it appear to be that you now buy shares in a company, with the contract being signed at the notary.

The thing is if you are now a shareholder in a company, what are the implications if anything should happen, are you then going to be liable for any costs if the company goes into liquidation or fails to pay taxes?

So there we have it, Silverpoint have finally admitted that all those with their weeks listed on the resale programme for Club Paradiso, are not going to get them sold. These were originally sold to them with the promise of a return on their outlay when they are sold, a promise that we have seen is full of hot air.

The final part of Silverpoints email reminds these members that they “can still use your membership, even if listed for resale, to enjoy great holidays around the world”. Signed Silverpoint Vacations SL.

Hang on, they have stated in the same email they “will no longer be able to offer this service”, so how can it still be listed for resale?

As usual Silverpoint can’t seem to get their own story straight, do they actually know what they are doing, somehow we think not!

If you are a member of Club Paradiso with these investments and had them listed for sale and are worried by this latest development, contact Inside Timeshare and we will point you in the right direction.

The post Silverpoint Announcement to Club Paradiso Members appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

Although this is the Tuesday Slot with Irene, we welcome a new contributor, Greg Jennings with his “Nightmare on Timeshare Street”, once again Irene Parker was the editor. As usual we will have a quick roundup of some of the news in Europe.

Yesterday we published the article on Silverpoint and their announcement that they had stopped the resale programme of Club Paradiso, today we received another Newsletter. This one is from Club Paradiso and is slightly different from the last in that they now claim they are looking at alternative “Marketing Agencies” to begin the “Resale Programme” for Club Paradiso members.

The question is now, will this be a company set up by Silverpoint, or will it be an already existing company?

The other question is regarding the resale market itself, where is it?

That question we leave you the reader to answer.

Last week Canarian Legal Alliance announced their 96th and 97th Supreme Court victories, this is an amazing achievement, making yet again Spanish legal history. These cases were against Puerto Rico SA (Puerto Calma) and Silverpoint respectively. Both contracts being declared null and void and the total awarded in both cases 56,600€ plus legal fees and legal interest.

CLA also published in their news section a letter from one of their clients, Mr Rolf Ingvar Høyer, (Professor Emeritus (BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo). In this letter he explains his dealings with CLA in the long running case against Anfi.

This began in 2009 and ended up with the case being heard at the Supreme Court, with 131,000€ being transferred to his bank account at the end of last year. For his full story follow the link to the CLA website.

https://www.canarianlegalalliance.com/celebrating-victory-mr-hoeyer/

With all the negative spin being put out by Anfi against CLA, this should leave you the reader in no doubt that timeshare companies cannot be trusted with the truth.

So on we go with another readers experience at the hands of Diamond sales agents.

My Name is Recycled Inventory

By Greg Jennings

Diamond complaint #58 out of 94 Inside Timeshare received since January 1

March 20, 2018

How I became a victim of Diamond Resorts

The first year: They said that there was a meeting I should have been invited to, but if I wrote a note to the sales manager stating that I was not aware of this meeting, I could buy additional points at the reduced sale price.

2017:  I attended yet another Owner Update, unhappy with my Diamond ownership.  I was in way too deep and my employment situation was not secure. During this meeting, Las Vegas DRI sales agent Jeff Regier asked why I was unhappy, and then proceeded to tailor his sales pitch accordingly. I told Jeff that the outstanding loan was unaffordable, and that without full time work, my savings had been depleted in order to keep my Diamond loan current.

That’s when he offered what appeared to be the perfectly tailored pitch:

If I purchased 4000 additional points, I would be at a level where I could use the points to pay maintenance fees, would qualify for a lower interest rate on the mortgage, and most importantly, if I was unable to continue, I could pursue the “Exit Strategy”, where Diamond would buy back my ownership at a reduced rate. Jeff said these benefits wouldn’t be accessible until after January 1, 2018. This is how they dodge the rescission period.

The following link and comments are from a Ripoff Report against Jeff Regier written by Jonathan Brown, July 8, 2016:

https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/diamond-resorts/nationwide/diamond-resorts-diamond-resorts-international-timeshare-scam-hostage-liar-las-vegas-n-1315868

If you want to actually take a vacation and enjoy it without being forced to sit in an office for 7 hours then AVOID DIAMOND INTERNATIONAL. I had 2 specifically bad Sales reps here Andrew Fernando, wouldn’t let us leave even when my Son needed food. Went and got food so that we could STAY. My son needed a Nap, he said, go give him a nap and then COME BACK!

Right, because that’s what I want to do on vacation, spend time with Andrew Fernando all day. Then Jeff Regier got involved. He actually corrected Andrew 4 times in front of me for not clearly explaining what was going on. Once I figured out that they wanted me to spend 30K More, I was out.

Back to my nightmare

My story begins 2006 or 2007. I was in a bad place in life. Most of my records had been lost. Talking about this is uncomfortable, because I feel stupid for falling for the scam I now understand this timeshare sale was. I’m embarrassed and ashamed. I only hope my story helps others understand the predatory nature of this industry and just how worthless the product is in relation to what it cost me.

I had originally purchased a timeshare from Monarch Grand Vacations believing I had purchased a retirement travel lifestyle for just under $10, 000. The sales pitch was impressive. Monarch owned eight premier resorts in the western United States and was affiliated with Interval International. In addition, Monarch owners could enjoy “unlimited Day Use” at any Monarch property, without using points.

My grandmother had recently died, leaving me with a small inheritance. I was drinking and gambling. In my depression I think I just wanted to secure some part of normalcy. I attend a convention in Las Vegas every year so assumed this ownership would make that more affordable. I had been suffering with a disability due to a chronic back injury. With no support base, dependent on narcotic pain medication, I was an easy mark for the timeshare sales team.

The first year was pleasant enough. I was able to travel to Las Vegas using the points, but was disappointed to learn Monarch would be going through bankruptcy.

The second year I exchanged my points through Interval International.

The third year in Las Vegas, I attended a Diamond “Owner Update” where I encountered the hard sale. They said due to bankruptcy, Monarch inventory was being transferred to creditors. With inventory dwindling to zero, there would eventually be no availability so my only option to preserve the value of my investment was to purchase into the Diamond Resorts family, as DRI was the largest creditor. This was accomplished with a separate loan, monthly payments, and an increase in maintenance fees.

Over the next few years, the owner updates were roughly the same. Apollo Global Management acquired Diamond and point values had been adjusted. I was told that in order to continue to attend my annual conference I would need to purchase additional points in order to find available inventory. These updates often exceeded three or four hours. My need for pain medication made me susceptible to doing whatever I could to end the updates. I panicked thinking everything I had been paying for would be valueless as Diamond reduced inventory in order to escalate demand for DRI points.

In 2016, I made what I thought would be my final purchase. I had just made Silver Level, but DRI sales agent Paul said that I was not financially viable unless I became Gold. I left with a new $374 monthly payment on a 15 year loan. I had been struggling to make the prior loan since my second accident that happened in 2011. I had lost my home to foreclosure while on temporary disability.

In 2017, I attended yet another Owner Update now seriously unhappy with Diamond. I was in way too deep and my employment situation wasn’t secure. I told Jeff  the loan was unaffordable and that my savings had been depleted. I had been trying to sell my timeshare on the secondary market but there was no demand for Diamond points. The $3000 maintenance fee cost more than 10 days in many hotels. The only way I had been able to secure DRI availability was in response to marketing emails which required another sales meeting.

During this update, DRI sales Jeff Regier asked why I was unhappy, and then proceeded to tailor his sales pitch accordingly: If I purchased 4000 additional points, I would be at a level where I could use the points to pay maintenance fees, would qualify for a lower interest rate on the mortgage, and most importantly, if I was simply unable to continue, I could pursue the “Exit Strategy” – Diamond would buy back my ownership at a reduced rate. These new benefits wouldn’t be accessible until after January 1, 2018. This is how they dodge the rescission period.

This “exit Strategy” was what I believed would be my way out. I of course didn’t need or want more points. Jeff Reiger knew I couldn’t afford more points. I only bought points because I was desperate to end my relationship with DRI. He used that to hook me. He also said he would act as my point of contact for all future DRI dealings, getting me discounted bookings and that I wouldn’t have to deal with any more sales people. After almost 4 hours, I needed to be done.

As it turned out, the interest rate was essentially the same, the loan was now 10 years, and part of the balance needed to be on a Diamond branded Barclays credit card offered at 0% interest. Jeff said if I called him in January he would get the 0% extended, and that I could use the card to pay down principal on the note. The loan required direct access to my checking account for approximately $560 per month. I went online in January with the tablet I had been given as instructed by Jeff, but could find no promised, “Exit strategy”, the ability to pay maintenance fees with points, or any form of buyback program. I had been duped.

I called Jeff in January and asked him to extend the zero percent interest on the credit card, and transfer some of the loan balance to the Barclaycard. He said I needed to call the credit card issuer myself, because he couldn’t do it without my personal information. He said if they would not extend it I could apply for a new card with a promotional interest rate. He then said he would be unavailable because he was going on vacation. This was the final straw. This was when I realized what a fool I had been to believe anything these people told me.

With my remaining 2017 points, I booked a trip to Hawaii by responding to a promotional email for Kona Village Resort. During the mandatory update, I refused to buy more points. I was then accused of illegally recording the meeting. The sales manager demanded I sign a blank form. When I refused, he said he’d “take care of it” adding that I’d never get a discount booking again. They also refused the promised resort vouchers for attending the presentation. This was a breach of the timeshare practice offering compensation for attending promotional meetings without obligation to purchase.

Sales agents claim points have value. They told me to preserve value I had to buy more points. They told me they would make ownership more affordable. They told me I could use points to pay maintenance fees. They told me if I couldn’t continue, they would buy back my ownership – LIES – every one of them. When I sent a letter to Diamond requesting information on the promised “Exit Strategy” I received an email stating no such strategy exists.

I have run out of money. The automatic payments have drained my account. I have come to terms with the fact that I have wasted over $60,000 over the last ten years trying to preserve what I was told was an investment in retirement travel.

As I sit here today, I am unemployed, struggling with a disability, and financially devastated. Diamond collection agents call every day. When they call, I ask if they are offering me employment. At first, they told me I needed to confirm my contact information for security purposes. When I refused, they told me they couldn’t discuss my account, so I ended the phone calls. They still call but no longer ask for verification. When I ask about the exit strategy, or if they are aware of promises made by their sales staff, they tell me they are only going to discuss my account. So I end the call.

I have no idea how to proceed, but I cannot pay with money I don’t have. I am sure they will find many ways to ruin what was left of my credit having bled me of my finances. They don’t care. I see them as predators. They will move on to new victims, and the cycle will continue. But I will no longer participate.

I am recycled inventory.

Comments from Irene: Greg is not stupid. We have heard from doctors, lawyers, a contract specialist for Consolidated Edison, professors, 34 active duty and retired military including Raymond Mori, recipient of two Purple Hearts. His daughter Teresa Laird submitted an article for this coming Friday’s Letter from America. I have an MBA and a CFP. We all signed DRI contracts. We all say we were told things that were not true. With 338 Diamond Inside Timeshare reader complaints received since late 2016, Greg is not alone. Unresolved complaints:

Josh Parker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezkJ7GlJN4U&feature=youtu.be

Eron Grant

https://youtu.be/-FMk_45zRzk

Roy Simmons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_nca6lMA4U&feature=youtu.be

Kevin Hopkins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAkBlfyhVYQ&feature=youtu.be

We seek to provide Diamond Resort members a way to proactively address membership concerns; to advocate for timeshare reform; to obtain greater disclosure from the company; to advocate for a viable secondary market; and to educate prospective buyers.

https://www.facebook.com/timeshareadvocategroup/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/

We’re here for Greg

Thank you Greg, your story is truly up there with the worst of “Nightmare on Timeshare Street”. Also thanks to Irene and all the volunteers who are helping people like Greg. These stories are becoming all too familiar at Inside Timeshare, with readers contacting us on an almost daily basis.

If you have any questions or comments about anything in this article or previous one published, contact Inside Timeshare, using our contact form for a private message or post a comment on the relevant article.

Have you been contacted by a company offering you a service such as resale, claims or relinquishment, or are searching the net for one, then remember to do your homework before engaging with them. If you require any help in checking their validity, then use the contact form with your questions, we will then get back to you and point you in the right direction.

It pays to be diligent so do your homework and save your money!

The post The Tuesday Slot with Irene appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

What a strange world we live in, David Cox seems to be getting a little full of himself, first he starts attacking his old partner Mark Rowe, encouraging people to file complaints with the police, then goes on a spree against the Timeshare Consumer Association, which he ran alongside TESS.

Then over the past few months he has been publishing attacks against Praetorian Legal, now it is the turn of Inside Timeshare, with what can only be called ridiculous comments. Yes, I did work for Tony Muldoon around 20 years ago, for around 6 months until it became apparent that it was all a scam. That fact was never hidden, it was the subject of an article called “Toni Muldoon: Duping the Innocent” published on 26 May 2016,

http://insidetimeshare.com/toni-muldoon-duping-innocent/

He also then takes out of context what is published in the About section on the website:

“My next experience in timeshare was as a sales rep on a deck. Now I was going to find out what happens on the “Tour”. Over the years I have worked for several companies within timeshare, selling weeks, points and holiday clubs. I must admit I didn’t do very well as I found it difficult to stretch the truth. Needless to say I was never at the top of the tree.”

So one thing is for sure, it has never been hidden that I have worked in timeshare, unlike the past of Mr Cox himself, what do we know about him?

Very little, except he did use the TCA as a platform to increase business for his company TESS, he did have agreements with Mark Rowe to take on his relinquishment contracts from Mr Rowe’s companies which Mr Cox has then vilified and attacked. Then all of a sudden all posts written (we must point out badly written) about the Rowe Companies and the TCA have disappeared from the TESS news section.

Has anyone got an explanation for this, has Mr Cox decided that he could be implicating himself and his company, with his attacks and “evidence” to the Police?

Has he decided to let bygones be bygones and gone back into bed with Mr Rowe?

Legitimate questions one would say, unfortunately no one has an answer, except Mr Cox himself.

When doing a search on Mr Cox it is surprising what you find, first there is http://www.tess-timeshare.com/tess/

Although its author is not identified it is well written and has a great deal of information about Mr Cox and his past dealings.

Then we have https://tesstimesharefacts.com/

Again the author is not identified, but in the world of timeshare none of this is unusual. It is well written (unlike those from Mr Cox), even attaching a letter from Trading Standards voicing their concerns on several points.

This website also asks the question ‘what was it that made it NOT a scam, when he was taking Mark Rowe’s money, to it now being a grand SCAM?’

A valid point don’t you think?

Also according to this website, they understand that David Cox and TESS are also being investigated by the same police unit that is investigating Mark Rowe’s companies

The other website is Praetorian Legal, which has a press release from November 2017, in this they ask the question why has Mr Cox and TESS  suddenly changed his opinion of Praetorian Legal, considering the article he wrote and published in February 2015 on the TCA website which he then owned?

https://www.timeshareconsumerassociation.org.uk/2015/02/05/oh-nooh-no-rdo/

Again another very valid question.

Mr Cox has also attacked the Canarian law firm Canarian Legal Alliance, asking if the court cases being won are real or not?

It is a matter of public record, not just from the official court records but also in many European newspapers and mainstream Spanish television. Surely those institutions would not publish “fake” cases?

If what he writes (albeit very badly) has any inkling of truth where is his evidence?

Is Mr Cox just trying to use attacks on others as smoke screen to divert attention away from himself and his company?

Is he and TESS under investigation?

All questions that will be answered in time, but for now we can only guess, we leave it to you the reader to decide.

This is by far not the last article we shall be publishing, it is just the start, as more information comes to light it will be published here, and a personal message to Mr Cox, you have threatened legal action against myself and Inside Timeshare in the past, it fell on deaf ears. Your time is coming!

If you have had any dealings with David Cox and his company TESS and feel that you were a victim, then contact Inside Timeshare, we will point you in the right direction and people to file a complaint.

Tomorrow we publish our Usual Fridays Letter from America, with another “Nightmare on Timeshare Street” article featuring yet another Veteran, this one a Purple Heart holder. Join us tomorrow, for reality and truth.

The post David Cox of TESS Attacking All and Sundry appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

Welcome to this week’s Letter from America, it is another “Nightmare on Timeshare Street” story involving yet another Veteran Raymond Mori, who is also a Double Purple Heart Recipient, his story is written by his daughter Teresa Laird, who is also a Veteran.

This story along with others we have been publishing with similar stories from the elderly, seems to point to one thing, these groups are being deliberately targeted by Diamond Sales Agents. It can only be described as totally despicable behaviour, Diamond needs to get their house in order and be rid of these practices with the sales agents losing their licences and jobs.

Diamond is not only to blame in this matter, Barclays is also culpable, after all they are the ones providing the finance through their BarclayCards, which in many cases the clients did not know that one had been taken out in their name, until it is too late.

In Europe we have seen similar problems with Barclays, allowing sales agents to arrange loan agreements on the day with only a cursory credit check. None of the consumers who have contacted Inside Timeshare on this matter have ever had to provide an income and expenditure report, to show that they can actually afford the loan. This is something that would normally be done when taking out any sizable loan.

Usually we report on the week in Europe, suffice it to say it has been rather quiet, with only one court sentence reported this week. It involves the Puerto Calma Group, the Court of First Instance in Maspalomas found the contract illegal and declared it null and void, the clients in this case have been awarded 19,000€ with plus a further 3,600€ as a sanction for the illegal taking of a deposit within the cooling off period.

The only other major news was addressed in yesterday’s article about TESS, which has prompted many readers sending messages of support. One reader, even went on to say that Mr Cox is one deranged man and is obviously very ill, well, that is something we can well believe going by what he has been doing over the past months. There will be more to come on that story.

Now for this weeks “Nightmare on Timeshare Street” article.

Another Veteran, Raymond Mori, Alleges Timeshare Fraud

Retired Marine and Purple Hearts Recipient

Supported by Josh Parker, Army Veteran, Kevin and Brenda Hopkins, Air Force Retired, Roy Simmons, Navy Veteran

Exclusive: ILG explores merger with Apollo’s Diamond Resorts Timeshare Math – $3.5 Billion minus $2.2 Billion = $1.2 Billion

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ilg-m-a-diamondresorts-exclusive/exclusive-ilg-explores-merger-with-apollos-diamond-resorts-sources-idUSKBN1GX2XJ

By Teresa Laird, Raymond and Teresa Mori’s daughter

Friday March 23, 2018

I am writing this article on behalf of my parents, Raymond and Teresa Mori, ages 83 and 79. My dad is a Marine veteran having served 23 years. He is 100% disabled. My dad earned two Purple Hearts. I too am a Veteran, an Army medic.     

Had I not been at the last Diamond Resorts “Update” March 13, 2018, I am convinced my parents, at age 83 and 79, would have purchased 30,000 additional Diamond vacation points for $234,295. This offer required a down payment of $69,993. I kept the paper of these terms under the table because members are not allowed to walk out with handwritten notes. My dad was not feeling well. He falls asleep in his wheelchair and had spent six months in the hospital after a heart attack. The stress over this expense has caused their health to deteriorate further. Thank you to Whistleblowers of America for advocating on behalf of Veterans. Please consider a donation to WoA if you are not drowning in timeshare loan payments, Barclaycard payments and annual timeshare maintenance fees.

https://whistleblowersofamerica.org/

 The sales agent we met with in Las Vegas did not even know how many points my parents already owned. The maintenance fees for 30,000 additional points would have been $4,466 on top of the maintenance fees for the 27,000 points they already owned. I’ve learned my mom’s entire Social Security check goes to pay the Diamond expense. I am beyond angry.

I have joined forces with Angela Simmons Sandstede, Josh and Nichole Parker, Josh a combat veteran, Kevin and Brenda Hopkins, Air Force, battling Diamond.

Angela says her parents were upsold to $2,750 a month in Diamond mortgage payments and are facing bankruptcy because of the up-sells. Angela’s parents live on her dad’s US Postal Service Letter Carrier’s pension.

Angela says her parents owned 52,000 DRI points before being pressured into further up-sells we both feel were fraudulent and criminal. We believe our parents. Angela and I have partnered to become advocates helping seniors needing assistance making a YouTube so the public can see what harm we feel is being done to the elderly, although there are many complaints from those younger as well. Mr. Simmons is also a veteran. He served in the Navy. Angela and Mr. Simmons, Josh Parker and Kevin Brenda’s YouTube:

Roy Simmons and Angela Sandstede Simmons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_nca6lMA4U&feature=youtu.be

Kevin and Brenda Hopkins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAkBlfyhVYQ&feature=youtu.be

Josh Parker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezkJ7GlJN4U&feature=youtu.be

Inside Timeshare has been asked to submit an article to a military down trace that will be distributed to 7,000 active duty army, three divisions, a Buyer Beware PSA announcement, given we have now nine active duty Navy, Homeland Security, Air Force, and a member who works for a defense contractor worried about their Security Clearance alleging they were defrauded by timeshare sales agents.

Teresa & Raymond Mori’s Nightmare on Timeshare Street

Like many, my parents used their Monarch Grand Vacation timeshare for years without complaint. In reviewing their documents, I feel there was deception from the moment they encountered Diamond Resorts. Like many, they were told they had to give up their Monarch deed and buy points. I’ve learned they did not have to do that. Since Diamond acquired Monarch, their annual maintenance fees have increased from $2,600 to $4,600. Like Angela’s mom, my mom is also so stressed over this I can’t ask her to participate in a YouTube. I am in college, now facing filing a barrage of regulatory and law enforcement complaints on top of writing my archeology thesis. My parents have not used their Diamond points. They give their points away.     

My mom told me they had purchased an investment, I called Diamond Resorts when my dad said they wanted to sell some points. My dad is so angry he doesn’t want to talk about it. When I asked how to go about selling points, the DRI hospitality agent laughed at me and said you can’t sell back points, but you can use them towards merchandise purchased through Diamond Resorts. When I looked into the value of doing this, it was no help to my parents. This needs to end. The elderly need to be protected.

According to what my parents reported, they have been lied to at each up-sell. They told me they were told they were investing in property. They were not allowed to take the contracts to their room to go over them. The agents would not allow my parents to call me to discuss the transaction. They have described high pressure tactics, constant messages to their room, phone calls, increasing gift values when they said no to “Updates”, any tactic to get them onto the sales floor.  Once they got them there, they were told they would not get their gifts if they left.

Here’s what happened

4,000 Diamond points purchased 3/12/2013 converting from Monarch to DRI

9,300 points were provided as “equity”   

Purchase price: $20,416 now owning 13,300 points

2500 Diamond points were purchased 6/25/2013 at Palm Canyon Resort

Purchase price: $8,325 now owning 15,800 points

2500 Diamond points were purchased 7/29/2013 at Polo Towers Las Vegas

Purchase price: $8,616 now owning 18,300 points

At ages 79 and 75 they were sold a Sampler product. This is a trial program. Why did they need a trial program if they bought points several times?

5000 Sampler points purchased 5/4/2014 in Sedona

Purchase price: $2,995

This was when I realized the predatory nature of timeshare sales. I called Diamond corporate and told them they needed to take back this last Sampler purchase at the very least. They said they would work with us. Instead, they sold my parents 17,000 more points! They said they would attach the Sampler points to another program. I could not believe it. Think how easy it would be to misrepresent or confuse them by selling points by phone. I am infuriated.

17,000 points were purchased at ages 79 and 73, after spending six months in a hospital after a heart attack, now owning 27,000 points

Purchase price: $49,492 told $13,991 was equity from their prior contracts

Amount financed: $47,138

New maintenance fees: $4,780

My mom and dad are good people who worked hard all their lives. My mom worked as an interpreter for the Ontario CA school district. She speaks Spanish. My dad is diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s. To think their lives have been ruined by this company, in my opinion, speaks of unspeakable evil. Angela and I vow to stop. We are advocates now.

From what Angela told me, I will be told by a Diamond Resorts Hospitality agent, working for Diamond Resorts Consumer Advocacy Department, “Sorry, you signed a contract.”

There seems to be no regulation, no enforcement and no one cares.

Elder financial abuse is a type of elder abuse in which misappropriation of financial resources or abusive use of financial control, in the context of a relationship where there is an expectation of trust, causes harm to an older person. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elder_financial_abuse

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/

Thank you Teresa Laird for writing your parents story, also once again a very big thank you to Irene Parker and the army of volunteers who are doing a fantastic job in highlighting and help all those who are turning to Inside Timeshare for help.

If you have been contacted by or are thinking of doing business with any company and are not sure if they are genuine, contact Inside Timeshare, we will help you find the information.

Remember, many of these companies are very professional at getting you to believe what they say, they know what you want to hear and will target that.

So that’s it for this week, another Friday is upon us and the weekend beckons, we hope you have a very relaxing and enjoyable weekend, join us next week for more news and information on the seedy world of timeshare.

The post Friday’s Letter from America appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

Over the past few weeks Inside Timeshare has been getting enquiries about another firm timeshare owners have paid to cancel their contracts and pursue “no win no fee” claims against their timeshare resorts, RSB Legal Ltd.

Company number 09751995

Office 110h Ground Floor Adamson House Towers Business Park, Wilmslow Road, Didsbury, Manchester, M20 2YY

Although they have been a registered company since 27 August 2015, there is an active proposal to strike the company off the register and have it dissolved, this was on 13 March 2018. Since then, the Compulsory Action to strike off has been suspended, as of 21 March 2018.

Many of the enquiries we have been receiving are all very similar, no contact from the company and the clients have not been able to get them on the telephone. Another firm which these clients have had their “cases” passed to are Taylor Marshall Associates, with one reader being told by them that their contract with Club la Costa has been terminated.

Company number 09458294

1st Floor 2 Woodberry Grove, Finchley, London, England, N12 0DR

It turns out that this is not the case as CLC have told them they are still liable for the maintenance fees. CLC have also stated the following in an email to our reader:

“Over the last 2 years, CLC has consistently advised Taylor Marshall and their associated company RSB Legal that we will NOT accept their correspondence as correct notification to “TERMINATE” any CLC World membership. CLC World has an established free of charge exit strategy in place for all CLC Members and we do NOT accept Surrender or Relinquishment notices from third party claims companies. Despite this, Taylor Marshall (RSB Legal) continue to falsely claim that they are successful in somehow ‘forcing’ CLC World to release members from their contracts. This is simply untrue.”

“CLC will only complete a Surrender Request when processed direct with the CLC Member.”

So it looks like RSB Legal and Taylor Marshall have been taking peoples money knowing full well that CLC will not recognise them or their termination notices.

Last week we published the article on David Cox and his company TESS, along with his association with the Mark Rowe companies currently under investigation.

http://insidetimeshare.com/david-cox-tess-attacking-sundry/

Inside Timeshare has been receiving many comments not just of support, but enquiries as to what they can do to get their money back, we have looked into this and are currently exploring what options are open to you.

One option that has been mentioned is to collect as many disgruntled clients together and explore a group / class action through the courts.

If you have been a victim of any of the following companies, Inside Timeshare would like to hear from you, contact us via our contact form, we will then reply privately. Inside Timeshare will only be acting as a coordinator, researcher and contact point, if a group or class action is feasible you will then be informed which law firm is recommended and the decision will be ultimately yours.

The companies involved are:

TESS Paralegal Services Ltd (Formerly Timeshare Exit & Support Services Ltd)

Monster Travel (also known as Monster Group/Monster Rewards)

SellMyTimeshare

Complete Internet Solutions

Hollywood Marketing

http://insidetimeshare.com/police-investigation/

More on this subject will be published in the near future.

It has also been noticed that the TESS website is not reachable today, nor is the TCA website, very strange indeed.

The post Start the Week appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

Welcome to the Tuesday Slot with our very own Irene Parker, this week Irene explains the Diamond Resorts Owners Advocacy Facebook and what it stands for. Since its inception it has been growing its membership base on a daily basis, it is also becoming an influential force in US timeshare. But first a quick look at some news in Europe.

The UK news has been dominated recently by the death of a former Russian double agent and links to the murder of another Russian Businessman, but what has this to do with timeshare I hear you ask?

Well, according to the Daily Express and a story they published on Friday 23 March, police are also re-examining the murder of John “Goldfinger” Palmer, who many of you will remember from the Brinks Mat bullion robbery, but most of all for his timeshare empire in Tenerife.

John Palmer was found dead at his Essex home in June 2015, but it was not until around a week later they discovered he had been shot. According to the Express police are looking into his international associates, especially his connection with money laundering for a former associate of the Russian President. So the story of John Palmer continues, see link below for the Express story.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/936107/Russians-kill-John-Palmer-British-gangster-linked-Boris-Berezovsky-death-re-examined#

Once again Inside Timeshare warns readers of the fake law firms and claims companies that keep springing up. As always the call tells the owner their timeshare resort / company has been taken to court or are about to be taken to court, that there is a significant amount of money being held and just waiting to be paid out to them.

The next step is to have this money released, there is usually a tax that has to be paid to the court, or even that you need to get a Spanish NIE number, which they can get for you, obviously for a fee. Most of the time the money has to be paid by bank transfer to an account of a named individual. Don’t pay it!

If you are paying “tax” or costs for a service, you would not be paying into the account of a named person, would it not be the tax office, court or a named company?

Remember, once you have paid by bank transfer, the money will have disappeared and you will never get it back. Now for this weeks article from Irene.

What is the Diamond Resorts Owners Advocacy Facebook About?

We seek to provide Diamond Resort members a way to proactively address membership concerns; to advocate for timeshare reform; to obtain greater disclosure from the company; to advocate for a viable secondary market; and to educate prospective buyers.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/

By Irene Parker

March 27, 2018

A Comment on gun violence in America

There were a lot of voices being heard throughout America this past weekend, teens voicing their feelings about gun violence. Whether you are for or against their position, one can’t help but admire their courage, determination and persistence.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/march-for-our-lives-huge-crowds-gather-for-rally-against-gun-violence-in-nations-capital/2018/03/24/4121b100-2f7d-11e8-b0b0-f706877db618_story.html?utm_term=.6143e61d44d4

You can succumb to being a victim or you can use your experience to foster a greater good. Charles Thomas and I have listened to 366 US timeshare members express their anger since we began counting late 2016. We have received 101 US Diamond member complaints since January 1. Many of the families are outraged alleging they were sold by sales agents employing deceitful bait and switch tactics. Many members have been helped, but only after endless rebuttals, regulatory and law enforcement filings, and media outreach. Still, any timeshare company can just say no, knowing there is little timeshare regulation or enforcement.    

Inside Timeshare supports families through the 180 day foreclosure process. The vast majority of those going through this painful process are responsible citizens who have rarely been late paying a bill. The timeshare contract is perpetual, there is virtually no secondary market. There are DRI Facebooks that have some exchange of Diamond points from member to member. Families in foreclosure:

Deneice Vargas: http://insidetimeshare.com/fridays-letter-america-21/

Amanda and George Jones: http://insidetimeshare.com/tuesday-slot-irene-3/

Scotty Black: http://insidetimeshare.com/fridays-letter-america-36/

Greg Jennings: http://insidetimeshare.com/tuesday-slot-irene-15/

Roy Simmons: http://insidetimeshare.com/tuesday-slot-irene-13/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_nca6lMA4U&feature=youtu.be

Ramond Mori: http://insidetimeshare.com/fridays-letter-america-42/

Josh Parker: http://insidetimeshare.com/fridays-letter-america-41/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezkJ7GlJN4U&feature=youtu.be

There are several others facing foreclosure who have not published an article. Three of the above are concerned about losing their Military/Law Enforcement Security Clearance. Four are disabled veterans, two 90% to 100% disabled.

Diamond Resorts has been responding to member complaints. About 100 of the 345 DRI complaints have been resolved through relinquishment, loan cancellation, refund or foreclosure. http://insidetimeshare.com/fridays-letter-america-37/

One advocacy silver lining is that members foreclosed do not have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Like America’s teens raising their voices demanding change, foreclosed members can remain outfront and vocal advocates.

What the Diamond Resort Owners Advocacy Facebook is not:

The Diamond Resorts Owners Advocacy Facebook is not a complaint site. If members join only to express displeasure, they are better served by posting on Trustpilot or Tripadvisor. While venting may make a person feel better, ranting on a complaint site will do nothing to change what we feel are predatory and criminal business practices, as defined by the FBI. Sheilah Brust wrote this article about her experience reporting her complaint to the FBI. Sheilah can now advise others. Sheila has not signed a non-disclosure agreement. http://insidetimeshare.com/tuesday-slot-irene-14/

There has been no response from ARDA challenging their Code of Ethics. Timeshare members need to research what the “Voluntary ARDA ROC” “donation” is doing on their maintenance fee invoice.

https://www.redweek.com/resources/ask-redweek/arda-roc-donation-in-maintenance-bill

Timeshare Advocacy Group™

https://www.facebook.com/timeshareadvocategroup/

Timeshare Advocacy Group™ was launched by a small group of advocates that has grown to a solid group of 44 advocates concerned about the volume of timeshare complaints found on the internet directed against Wyndham, Bluegreen, Diamond Resorts, Vacation Village and a few others. The only timeshare that seems to have almost no complaints is Disney Vacation Club. TAG feels timeshare members should have a safe place to get straight answers about their timeshare concerns and be provided with assistance when regulatory and law enforcement fillings are called for.  

We hope lessons learned by consumers who purchased a timeshare product they did not understand will reach the general public so  prospective timeshare buyers know what questions to ask before buying or upgrading a timeshare.

http://insidetimeshare.com/fridays-letter-america-16/

Our Advocates are here for support. The only reasons for removing a member from our Diamond Resorts Advocacy Facebook are:

1. A member will be removed if they are insulting or disrespectful to another member.
2. If a transfer, listing agent, or “get you out of your timeshare guaranteed” company solicits a member, they will be immediately removed. Karen Krokosh wrote this article about her experience with Sell My Timeshare Now and is now researching member complaints of this nature. http://insidetimeshare.com/tuesday-slot-irene-5/

Members need to be aware that there have been reports of timeshare members being charged thousands of dollars for a guaranteed exit, only to learn the exit company considers foreclosure a guarantee. No one should sign up with anyone demanding upfront money, even an attorney, without checking with us because we have learned there are some lawyers with questionable business practices.

http://insidetimeshare.com/legal-news-us-castle-law-group-pc-v-timeshare-developers/

We support our members from their first Facebook post through resolution. This is our complaint form: http://insidetimeshare.com/file-timeshare-complaint-revised/

Inside Timeshare is part and parcel of the Diamond Resorts Owners Advocacy Facebook. Timeshare Advocacy Group™  was formed hoping timeshare members will look beyond just their own timeshare company concerns. We feel there are some deceitful and predatory timeshare business practices so ingrained; they are endorsed and encouraged from the top levels of the management down to the person who responds with, “Sorry you signed a contract.” Checking with the FBI we have learned many of the complaints reported to Inside Timeshare meet the FBI’s definition of White Collar Crime – deceit, concealment, violation of trust and bait and switch. See Sheilah’s article for more information about the FBI.

Other self-help Timeshare Support Groups, in our opinion, not industry influenced,

https://tug2.com/Home.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/groups/180578055325962/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/465692163568779/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1639958046252175/

We don’t mind if industry insiders or Diamond employees join our Facebook as long as they are respectful. In fact, we encourage this hoping they will confront the serious problems we have uncovered. It would be great if we could all just get along. I have always said, “Half a problem goes away when confronted.”

Thank you Irene and also a big thank you to all the volunteers who give up their time to help others, between us we are changing the face of timeshare.

If you have any comments or questions about this or any other article published, or just need information about any company that has contacted you or you are thinking of doing business with, contact Inside Timeshare and we will point you in the right direction.

The post The Tuesday Slot with Irene appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

It was only a matter of time before another new name appeared in the “fake” lawyers family of Litigious Abogados, this one is called Manuel Hidualdo Abogados.

The website apart from a new logo is exactly the same as all the others, although they did seem to get the opening line wrong on this one, it states that  “Our company was founded Monday 26th July 1990 by Manuel Selando Hidualdo”, that date in 1990 was in fact a Thursday, not quite attention to detail there!

On the website which was registered 16 January 2018, only a few months ago, they still maintain they have had 15 years presence on the internet, strange how we have never come across them before?

It also shows some new photographs of the lawyers with new names, which once again are very strange names indeed, with a play on some of the older ones. Obviously the photographs of the lawyers are just downloaded from the internet, which you find when searching images of lawyers.

The address is one we have seen before on the website for Abogados Canarias:

4 Calle de S. Francisco, Santa Cruz, 38002, Tenerife

Again a search on Google street view shows the address is genuine but again, according to the two plaques on the wall for the Abogados that reside there are not this one. So do those genuine lawyers know their address is once again being used by this fake firm?

They give two telephone numbers:

Freephone: 0800 802 1746

Tenerife Tel: 0034 822 685 013

The email addresses given are again not linked to the website but are for consultant.com, which as we know is just another free email address provider.

email: manuel-hidualdo@consultant.com

email: hidualdo-uk-claimants@consultant.com

Obviously the scenario is going to be the same as before, timeshare owners will be cold called with the wonderful news that their timeshare resort / company is about to be taken to court, and for a small fee, probably around £1000 they can be part of the court case. This money will probably have to be paid to another fake Procurador via bank transfer. As yet we don’t have a name for this individual, but no doubt another great name will emerge.

Then in a few weeks, the lucky owner will receive notification that the director of the resort / company has once again pleaded guilty, with the court now holding many thousands of pounds just waiting to be sent to them. Obviously, there will be a tax and fees to be paid before this can be released. Along with this good news, the owner will receive a forged court document and a photocopy of the cheque with their name and the amount they will receive. We wonder if it will be on a Banesto cheque?

Once again Inside Timeshare warns its readers this is an elaborate and sophisticated fraud, designed to strip you out of thousands of pounds. Do not be taken in by this, you did not instigate these legal proceedings so you have not got any money being held by the court.

If you are contacted by this firm or any other with a similar story, then contact Inside Timeshare, all your information will go to help others.

Returning to the TESS, David Cox and Mark Rowe story, Praetorian Legal have published a warning about Mark Rowe on their website. As we reported recently Praetorian Legal have been subjected to many attacks by TESS and Mark Rowe’s TCA (Timeshare Consumer Association).

These two organisations have been vehemently attacking anyone who speaks out about them, Inside Timeshare and Canarian Legal Alliance have also been attacked. Obviously these attacks are to take the heat away from them, we know that Mark Rowe and his companies are being investigated by the Regional Organised Crime Unit of Avon & Somerset Police. Must be very serious for this unit to be involved. The question is are TESS and David Cox also being investigated, after all Cox did have a contract with Rowe?

Read the Praetorian Legal post below:

https://www.praetorianlegal.com/warning-mark-rowe-owner-timeshare-consumer-association-monster-rewards-companies/

Just to rub it in to David Cox, who believes that the “victories” Canarian Legal Alliance have had in the Supreme Court are not “real”, CLA announced another two rulings from Spain’s Highest Court along with another 9 from the Courts of First Instance and High Courts.

First we start with the two Supreme Court rulings, these are numbers 98 and 99, they involve two timeshare operations, Silverpoint in Tenerife and Tasolan in Gran Canaria.

Once again both contracts declared null and void, with over 165,000€ being returned to the clients by the court.

There were four First Instance rulings against ANFI Del Mar and Silverpoint, resulting in over 114,000€ being returned along with the contracts being declared null and void.

The five High Court sentences were once again against Anfi and Silverpoint, with over 145,000€ having to be returned, contracts were also declared null and void.

So Mr Cox, if you still believe these are not real, show your evidence.

Just to finish, one of our regular readers and internet searchers sent us a link which is rather comical, it is from Timeshare.lawyer, another Mark Rowe company linked with ABC Lawyers. In this piece titled “The Scandal Around Loans for Timeshare Purchases”, it goes on about the loan agreements arranged by timeshare sales staff for the purchase of timeshares.

It is the third paragraph which made us laugh,

“What’s even more disturbing is that, in many cases, those unscrupulous timeshare sales staff have provided false information on the finance documents in order to get them approved. When assessing the finance documents, people have found that their income had been entered incorrectly, and furthermore, the loan had been granted for ‘home improvements’ – not timeshare! This is fraud, committed by the sales staff and inculcating the signees without their knowledge.”

https://www.timeshare.lawyer/loans-for-timeshare-purchases/

Hang on a minute, did this not happen to hundreds of Resort Properties / Silverpoint clients during Mark Rowe’s watch as “Sales Director”?

Well we know it did as there are High Court (London) actions against Barclays Partner Finance brought by Stewarts Law and Edwin Coe, for loan agreements arranged by sales staff on behalf of Resort Properties / Silverpoint clients.

Now it would appear his company is going after the banks, in the article they go on about Shawbrook Bank setting aside £9 million for loans which have been incorrectly approved, with the Finance Director resigning after the news broke, this is a little out of date as Inside Timeshare published that story in July 2016 within days of it being made public:

http://insidetimeshare.com/shawbrook-bank-announce-irregularities-timeshare-loans-similar-activities-usa/

So there we have it, nothing surprises us in the world of timeshare, there is always something going on.

If you have any questions on this article or just need some information about any company that has contacted you, get in touch with Inside Timeshare through our contact page and we will provide you with details on how to check them.

The post Thursday Roundup appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

Welcome to the Easter edition of Friday’s Letter from America, by Joshua Parker, Sheila Brust and Richard Sokolowski, edited by Irene Parker.

Just as we were getting this ready to publish, Josh has been informed by the Florida Timeshare Division, they will be initiating a new investigation into his complaint. Josh and Nicole’s first complaint that they were told their Diamond points are an investment and easily sold, had been closed. They are now expecting twins and cannot afford the timeshare, Josh is a combat veteran who has seen service in Iraq. So at least some good news before we start.

Normally we have a roundup of news from Europe, but that was published yesterday, so straight on with our Letter from America.

Timeshare is a Highly Regulated Product?

Earth to ARDA Part II

Another Open Letter to ARDA CEO Howard Nusbaum

Robert Clements, Lobbyist and General Counsel

Peter Roth, ARDA media

By Joshua Parker, Sheilah Brust and Richard Sokolowski

March 30, 2018  

From: American Resort Development Association’s Code of Ethics:

According to ARDA’s website – “Vacation Ownership is one of the most highly regulated vacation products in today’s consumer marketplace.”  

Diamond Resort members Sheilah Brust, Joshua Parker, and Richard Sokolowski have learned there is no timeshare regulation and there is no timeshare enforcement for us. We have been filing complaints with every regulatory agency known to an American citizen and all we get is a passing of the buck to another department or agency. In addition, we have been given some ludicrous advice from regulators that are clearly out of touch with timeshare consumer reality.

Sadly, we agree with Eron and Irene. We think ARDA’s Code of Ethics is meaningless. Like Eron and Irene, we are professionals.

Sheilah Brust: Worked for the New York Governor’s Office of Employee Relations

My experience speaking with an FBI agent and what I learned about the process    

http://insidetimeshare.com/tuesday-slot-irene-14/

Josh Parker: Army combat veteran, Sergeant

http://insidetimeshare.com/fridays-letter-america-41/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezkJ7GlJN4U&feature=youtu.be

Richard Sokolowski: Arizona Real Estate

Earth to ARDA by Eron Grant and Irene Parker – Part I

http://insidetimeshare.com/fridays-letter-america-40/

Eron’s YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FMk_45zRzk&feature=youtu.be

Sheilah Brust: So far the only light on the horizon is the FBI. Through Social Media members are talking to other members. No one doubts there are those who use and enjoy their Diamond points. I enjoyed my Diamond points as a Platinum member until we were pitched a program that does not exist. We weren’t confused. The numbers were easy to understand. Gad and Noreen Liebmann are enjoying their retirement by protesting outside Diamond’s Daytona Beach Regency Resort. We were both up-sold by the same Diamond sales agent, Brad Leslie, the same program that does not exist, and still Diamond will not listen.

According to Facebook postings, the FBI has been responsive and agrees our allegations constitute fraud – deceit, concealment, violation of trust, bait and switch. In our opinion, Diamond, in effect, endorses and approves of these tactics by maintaining the position the customer is always wrong. Hospitality agents from the Diamond Resorts Consumer Advocacy Department automatically respond, “Sorry you signed a contract” and the emailing of your initials on fine print rewards bad behavior with a commission check.  

Josh: I was advised by Hector Tapininge at the Florida Department of Business Practice and Regulation DBPR to call a member of the Licensed Timeshare Resale Broker Association.

http://www.licensedtimeshareresalebrokers.org/

Like Sheilah, I learned licensed timeshare resale agents won’t even accept a Diamond listing feeling the resale market for Diamond points is non-existent. I almost signed up with a scam until finding our Advocacy Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/

When I informed my reviewer that licensed resale brokers won’t accept a Diamond listing; he said he was aware of this. In other words, send the consumer on a wild goose chase that often leads Diamond members into the nets of scams.

How many timeshare buyers knew they were buying a lifelong timeshare product that could not be sold? As a veteran, I can tell you no service member would ever buy an unsellable asset. The Diamond contract states you can sell your points. Since you are dealing with a licensed real estate agent, it is logical to assume the timeshare can be sold, especially since we were told Diamond points are an investment.

Given so little enforcement and regulation, our mission is to reach the general public to make sure they know they are spending thousands of dollars, signing a perpetual contract, with rising maintenances fees and no secondary market.

Veterans, Active Duty military and law enforcement and government workers are encouraged to support Whistleblowers of America, a nonprofit in Washington DC that seeks justice.

https://whistleblowersofamerica.org/

Sheilah: I was contacted by Mr. Alan Parkinson, Bureau Chief for the Bureau of Mediation & Enforcement, Division of Consumer Services.

Mr. Parkinson recommended I contact DBPR, the same Florida Department of Business Practices and Regulation Josh contacted. We saw how much good that did with the response Josh received. I will follow up and we will all continue to report on our progress or lack of. I too spoke with licensed resale brokers. I was told even timeshare companies that do allow a secondary market; the net to the consumer is often negative after commission. I was told I could list a deeded week I own, but it would end up costing me money to get rid of it. Consumers defrauded, are left with a perpetual contract, rising maintenance fees and no secondary market. It’s a recipe for disaster.

Richard Sokolowski: I tried to file a complaint against Diamond Resorts with the Nevada Attorney General’s office. They won’t do anything if I did not buy from a Nevada sales agent. I can’t believe a consumer complaint can’t be filed against a company headquartered in Nevada.

I was also told to contact an attorney. Diamond is the only major timeshare with a class action ban, forcing arbitration. Arbitration is known to be pro-industry. Diamond hires the arbitrator. If the arbitrator rules against the member, the member can be ordered to pay Diamond’s legal fees; and that amount can be higher than the disputed amount. Besides, Diamond has armies of lawyers and outside law firms. They can outspend the average citizen. I’ve talked to lawyers. Getting a lawyer will do nothing to stop predatory and criminal business practices.

Sheilah: According to Josh, this response from the Florida Bureau of Mediation & Enforcement is useless.

Ms. Brust,

By way of introduction, my name is Alan Parkinson and I am the Bureau Chief for the Bureau of Mediation & Enforcement, Division of Consumer Services.  I have received your concerns and would like to take a minute to respond.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation has a Timeshare and Condominium division that can likely address many of your concerns regarding the sales practices and issues you have with Diamond Resorts.  If your issue is with the purchase and contract for the timeshare, they would be the appropriate agency to speak with. You can contact them through the link below:

http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/  

If your issue is outside of those parameters then you may consider filing a complaint with us so that we can reach out to them and asked that they address your concerns.

www.floridaconsumerhelp.com  

If you any questions please feel free to contact me directly.

Alan Parkinson

Comment from Irene

The Florida timeshare division only acted on 110 out of 2,360 timeshare complaints filed from April 2012 to April 2014, in contrast with the Arizona Attorney General’s office that opened an investigation after receiving 400 DRI complaints and, according to a source, received 500 additional complaints after the press release. The AZ AG has issued an Assurance of Discontinuance, accusing the company of violating the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act. Diamond did not admit wrongdoing.

From Eron’s March 9 article:

Inside Timeshare will be following Platinum Diamond members Roy and Lillian Simmons as they make their way through Vacation Ownership’s highly regulated industry. Mr. and Mrs. Simmons are worried about losing their home, up-sold at age 69 and 70 to $2,700 a month in timeshare loan payments. They live on Mr. Simmons letter carrier pension.   

Roy and Teresa Mori, Mr. Mori a recipient of two Purple Hearts, remains devastated. Based on the response daughter Teresa Laird reported to us from a hospitality agent working for Diamond Resorts Consumer Advocacy Department, the company doesn’t care if sales agents have allegedly ruined their lives. “Sorry, you signed a contract” after being sold 17,000 MORE points over the phone by a Las Vegas company representative after daughter Teresa called to explain the Sampler or trial product should be cancelled. In the middle of her archeology thesis, she is making signs to protest outside Diamond’s Polo Towers.  

In response to a draft sent for comment, Josh received this response from DBPR:

Josh’s responses to Ahmed Y. Kassoo  are in bold

Thank you for contacting the division regarding your concerns. Please note that the division is not authorized to comment on or give its opinion of or approve any articles written by any individual which he or she intends to publish in any form including at various websites or in other publications.

I understand.

Since the division does not regulate the operations of real estate brokers, we are not aware of their criteria with regards to offering real estate listing and marketing services.  As a courtesy and for information purposes only, we provide the web site information of licensed real estate brokers (LTRBA) who specialize in selling timeshare interests and vacation club membership in Florida.  We neither recommend nor endorse a particular broker.

I understand, but why is nothing done about Diamond sales agents allegedly selling vacation points as an investment, yet the points are worthless the moment the contract is signed, should the buyer need to sell. LTRBA members will accept a listing for any major timeshare EXCEPT Diamond Resort, so not only is there no resale value when they are selling the points as an investment, they are the only major timeshare company that can’t be listed with them. Our Diamond Advocacy Facebook of over 1,100 members is flooded with similar complaints, the BBB has over 1,000 complaints and the AZ AG received over 900 complaints, yet the Florida AG timeshare division sends you to LTRBA? Can you see how frustrating this is? Not only is there no regulation or enforcement, Diamond victims are sent on a wild goose chase.     

Please note that it is always safe to employ a licensed real estate broker who are prohibited from collecting advance fee for listing the timeshare for rent or sale, except when permitted by law, and who are strictly regulated by the state.

What does this have to do with Diamond members if the LTRBA members won’t list their points? They feel Diamond has restricted the use of points purchased on the secondary market to the point it does not exist; it’s a hamster wheel 1. Lie to sell 2. Force foreclosure (I know of over 30 active duty and retired military and law enforcement alleging they were defrauded by Diamond, Bluegreen and Vacation Village, seven are concerned they are going to lose their Security Clearance, one lost his air unit command) 3. Take back the points 4. Resell to the next victim. With so little enforcement or regulation, there is nothing to stop timeshare sales agents from using and abusing the oral representation clause.    

If they cannot help the owners, they will let them know upfront and will not waste their time and money to advertise their properties which they know are not marketable. They will not give a false hope unless they are sure they can sell the timeshare.  Despite your statement that “resale market is nonexistent”, please note that timeshare interests do sell in the secondary market, however, buyers are selective and only buy those timeshares which they consider to be in high demand at choice locations. Therefore, it is not true that the timeshare resale market is non-existent.  If it was, these brokers won’t be able to survive.

One of them told Shielah they survive because they get paid a commission even when the seller ends up with a net loss. We don’t hold that against them, but that’s how they survive.  

An owner is free to select any entity to market his/her timeshare interest or club membership.  However, based on the history of complaints we have received, we have learned that many owners have been burned by the individual and entities who take their money and run without providing the promised services based on false and misleading claims.

Exactly, I rest my case. The industry is the cause of the scams because desperate consumers who feel, know, they were defrauded, are easy prey for professional liars.  

I hope this information was helpful

No, I’m sorry. It was of no help. It is my opinion the reason there is so little enforcement and regulation is because Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is influenced by the timeshare PAC ARDA. I will be researching through FOIA how much money she has received in campaign contributions and other means.    

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/us/lobbyists-bearing-gifts-pursue-attorneys-general.html

If you have any other question or concern, feel free to contact us at your convenience. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to address your concerns.

Thank you. I would like to speak with you. My wife and I have been defrauded. I am a combat veteran, 90% disabled. My wife is pregnant with twins. We bought this because we were told it was an investment and that the points could be easily sold. I know many other members who would appreciate your help, like Eron, Sheila Richard and Gad mentioned in the article.

How many consumers need to contact DBPR to convince DBPR some timeshare sales agents in Florida are engaging in criminal practices?  Irene said Bluegreen has as many complaints as Diamond, but they have their own Advocacy Facebook.

Josh Parker

If you are having a timeshare nightmare, contact our Facebook or one of the non-industry influenced, self-help Facebooks and website listed below.

https://www.facebook.com/timeshareadvocategroup/

https://tug2.com/Home.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/groups/180578055325962/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/465692163568779/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1639958046252175/

Thank you to all our contributors and we hope we see more positive results in the weeks ahead. If you would like to share your story with others, contact Inside Timeshare.

We wish you all a very Happy Easter and don’t eat all the eggs in one go!

The post Friday’s Letter from America appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

Welcome back, we hope you all had a good Easter Weekend, this week’s Tuesday Slot is from a new contributor Greg Guisti, edited as usual by Irene Parker. But first a little news from Europe.

As you know TESS and the proverbial diatribe writings of David Cox have been having a knock at Inside Timeshare and also Canarian Legal Alliance, well he’s at it again with even more of his malicious and unproven statements.

Also Inside Timeshare is proud to have a good working relationship with CLA, they continually provide updates on court proceedings, Inside Timeshare also provides them with the evidence to help their clients who have dealt with fraudulent companies. A very good case in point is Litigious Abogados, the fake law firms in Tenerife, it is the evidence provided by Inside Timeshare that resulted in CLA issuing the decuncia to the authorities in February 2017.

This time he is taking it to a new level, in fact it has now become one that he has left himself completely proven a liar, yes I did say LIAR!

In his recent rantings he has attributed two quotes to myself, which he obviously has made up as they were never been written by me. We would love to know where he found it, obviously it must be his medication making him hallucinate!

“I was a ‘cold caller’ who made uninvited and intrusive calls to consumers for the purposes of getting them to engage with what I now know to be, criminal timeshare salesman”.

“Having served my time roping in clients who faced aggressive selling practices and unethical practices I was happy to move up the corporate ladder to become a Front-line timeshare salesman in what I know to be a criminal timeshare selling scam”.

Well for those of you who know my writing style, it is definitely not mine.

To be honest, it looks like a script for a new Netflix series, or is he changing career (yet again), this time as the speech writer and “FAKE NEWS” editor for a politician in an upcoming election?

Anyway, these pages must be doing a good job if it is upsetting him so much, our readers Mr Cox, (the name is apt), are still behind us because they know what we have published is the truth. Many of them have been helped to get out of their timeshares, to get their money back through section 75 and just to let you know, unlike you and your company Inside Timeshare has never charged any of them. In fact it has even refused donations from grateful readers!

More on this to come, but back to matters that actually are more important, our article from our latest US contributor.

St. Maarten, Board Elections and Resort Reconstruction

Diamond Resorts

Diamond International will hold their Annual Meeting for the Flamingo Beach Resort owners on Thursday, April 19, 2018 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time at Mystic Dunes Resort and Golf Club

  Flamingo Beach Resort Board Candidate Gregory (Greg) Guisti

April 3, 2018

By Greg Guisti

I, Greg Guisti, age 67, am a Connecticut resident and a board candidate for the Flamingo Beach Resort in St. Maarten. I retired in 2016 having worked for IBM 21 years, ending my career as an account executive. I had total responsibility for technical service which was provided by service areas all over the world. In addition, my responsibilities also included meeting budget, sales and customer satisfaction targets. My success stems from my drive for excellence, listening to client needs. Having been an IBM customer for years, I understood customer expectations.

Timeshare members and owners have an expectation of what a good timeshare should be. I want to share my knowledge and experience as a timeshare owner of five difference resorts, while bringing my professional background to the table. Given the damage done to the island, members are entitled to good communication and feedback as to how repair efforts are proceeding. St. Maarten will take some time to rebuild, so now more than ever timeshare members need a customer orientated member to serve as your pipeline for communication.

Diamond International will hold their Annual Meeting for the Flamingo Beach Resort owners on Thursday, April 19, 2018 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time at Mystic Dunes Resort and Golf Club, 7600 Mystic Dunes Lane, Celebration, Florida. At this time voting for a member on the Board of Directors will be held. If you cannot attend you can cast your ballot thru the online proxy voting website they provide. All proxies must be submitted by Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 5 p.m. Eastern Time.

I encourage Flamingo Beach Club Timeshare Owners to cast their vote. Obviously I would appreciate your consideration of my qualifications by casting your vote for me, but more importantly, let your voice be heard by voting, rather than leave your interest in the hands and discretion of an existing board.

There is only one opening. Other candidates include:

Incumbent Dorothy Albero

Dee Dee Metzcher Carr

Jerry Luby

Christiane Marie-Catherine

Mike Skillingstad

Dr. Basil Vareldzis

Scott Williams

The timeshare industry is evolving towards the points based product, but I am not alone in treasuring my deeded week at St. Maarten, a week that I know will not be an annual battle for availability. It is important for deeded week owners to have their voice heard as we protect the real estate investment we own. We can say we are owners, not just members.  

As to the effects of hurricane damage, rebuilding is going to be a difficult process. It is tough getting workers and materials. I own at Simpson Bay Resort and Mullet Towers on the Dutch side of the island. Restoration is underway at both resorts but the hurricane damage was so bad at Simpson Bay Resort, they have to tear down a couple of their buildings and are not going to rebuild. All owners at those buildings were given the option to walk away or accept points.

I am currently in St. Maarten, wanting to show my support by coming to the island to support their economy. While here I spoke with Mervin LeBlanc, General Manager of the Flamingo and Royal Palm. The Flamingo has multiple buildings. Mr. LeBlanc said they are in the stages of gutting all units, a necessary step to prevent mold. Mr. LeBlanc said it’s going to take a couple years, but I see it happening. Members and owners are going to get their St. Maarten vacation back.  

Diamond has waived maintenance fees at the Flamingo for 2018 but Mr. LeBlanc did not comment on Royal Palm maintenance fees. I am not certain if Royal Palm members will have to pay maintenance fees. There will be no bookings at either resort until 2020.

Diamond provided this update:

March 2018: The initial demolition phase is underway and moving along smoothly. Crews are removing debris and content from each unit, and wire fencing has been installed around the resort to secure the property as a construction site.

https://www.diamondresorts.com/destinations/property/Flamingo-Beach-Resort

For more information, contact:

Gregory Guisti

guisti@comcast.net

203-519-8258

Thank you Greg and also to Irene for her usual hard work in getting contributors articles ready for publication.

Remember, do your homework before engaging with any company, not all are genuine, if you require any help in making these checks contact Inside Timeshare and we will point you in the right direction.

The post The Tuesday Slot with Irene appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

As we mentioned yesterday, TESS and David Cox are at it again, bringing false allegations against Inside Timeshare and Canarian Legal Alliance. Using allegations made by a very dubious and discredited source called Alberto Garcia. He even uses links to the Daily Mail to corroborate his allegations, the information given to the Daily Mail was supplied by Garcia himself.

Alberto Garcia was at one time employed as head of the enforcement program for the RDO (Resorts Development Organisation), he ran a blog site purporting to be a consumer association called Mindtimeshare. This was funded by the RDO and Alberto Garcia had the task of destroying any company that was not a member of the RDO, or who threatened the industry financially.

It is well documented that Garcia himself had a personal vendetta against Eugen Kaiser and any company he had dealings with. This did culminate in a raid by the Policia Nacional on Club Puerto Atlantico and other offices in 2013. This raid was in organised and instigated by Garcia, using his old contacts at the Policia Nacional, where he was once an inspector.

Eighteen lawyers were accused of being part of a criminal gang, within days of the arrests it was up before a judge at the court in Las Palmas. This judge ruled that the warrants for the raid, which incidentally did not appear until hours after the raid took place, were illegal and so the raid, arrests and seizure of property was also illegal.

It is also fact that this judge had also sat on cases brought by the lawyers of CLA against the timeshare industry. He ordered a full investigation into the facts of the raid and Garcia disappeared. Eventually, several senior police officers faced charges for collaborating with Garcia on an illegal operation.

No charges were ever brought against Eugen Kaiser, Paula Beatson the lawyers or any of the staff that were detained. In fact they all made official denuncias against Garcia, Mindtimeshare and the authorities. Alberto Garcia was forced to step down as director of Mindtimeshare and the enforcement program in early 2017, the RDO did not renew funding for Mindtimeshare in April 2017.

As for David Cox’s allegations that all the cases are false, below are links to the Jurisprudencia website, where you will see the official sentences for 5 of the 99 Supreme Court rulings brought by lawyers of Canarian Legal Alliance on behalf of their clients: (Note: to use these links you will need to register free on the website, right click open in new window, go to Usario in top right and register, this can be done either through Google + Facebook or linkedin, you can also register with a user name and add password).

Silverpoint Supreme Court link

https://www.iberley.es/jurisprudencia/sentencia-civil-n-431-2017-ts-sala-civil-sec-1-rec-2634-2015-10-07-2017-47716369?term=431%2F2017&year=&tipo_sentencia=&query=431%2F2017+AND+%28club+la+costa%29&filtrar%5B0%5D=club+la+costa&noIndex

https://www.iberley.es/jurisprudencia/sentencia-civil-n-133-2018-ts-sala-civil-sec-1-rec-2670-2016-07-03-2018-47813194?term=tribunal+supremo+sala+la+civil+133%2F2018&query=tribunal+supremo+sala+la+civil+133%2F2018&noIndex

https://www.iberley.es/jurisprudencia/sentencia-civil-n-121-2018-ts-sala-civil-sec-1-rec-1192-2016-07-03-2018-47813261?term=tribunal+supremo+sala+la+civil+121%2F2018&query=tribunal+supremo+sala+la+civil+121%2F2018&noIndex

Puerto Calma Supreme Court link

https://www.iberley.es/jurisprudencia/sentencia-civil-n-131-2018-ts-sala-civil-sec-1-rec-382-2016-07-03-2018-47813179?term=tribunal+supremo+sala+la+civil+131%2F2018&query=tribunal+supremo+sala+la+civil+131%2F2018&noIndex

Anfi

https://www.iberley.es/jurisprudencia/sentencia-civil-n-633-2016-ts-sala-civil-sec-1-rec-2627-2014-25-10-2016-47624792?term=tribunal+supremo+sala+la+civil+633%2F2016&query=tribunal+supremo+sala+la+civil+633%2F2016&noIndex

Below are three PDF’s of sentence reports sent to the lawyers and clients from the Supreme Court.

98.2 data protected Silverpoint (sea)

99.2 data protected Silverpoint (pau)

100.2 data protected Puerto Calma (rus)

You will see the names of three lawyers on these documents:

MIGUEL ÁNGEL MELIÁN SANTANA [Nº3552 ICALPA ]

ÓSCAR SALVADOR SANTANA GONZÁLEZ [Nº 3563 ICALPA]

MIGUEL RODRIGUEZ CEBALLOS [Nº 2814 ICALPA]

All three can be found on the CLA website under lawyers.

https://www.canarianlegalalliance.com/lawyers/

By using the link below you can check on the official register of lawyers by using their ICALPA number and selecting Las Palmas as the Collegio, the press BUSCAR. This will bring up the lawyers name, by clicking on the name, you will then find address, telephone number, date of admittance to the college or Alata Colegiación and the date of renewal.

http://www.abogacia.es/servicios-abogacia/censo-de-letrados/

This should leave you in no doubt that David Cox’s allegations are false.

As for myself and my website Inside Timeshare, I did state yesterday that I do have a very good working relationship with Canarian Legal Alliance, in fact one of the lawyers is dealing with a legal dispute with a bank for my partner.

I do undertake work for them on behalf of their clients, this usually involves finding the information on companies they have paid to carry out services such as relinquishments, resales, fraudulent claims companies and bogus holiday clubs. This then helps them to instigate section 75 claims for their clients, on many occasions this has been done by Inside Timeshare free of any charge, not even a success fee! Can TESS say the same?

As for David Cox, well below is a PDF of all the companies he has been involved with, this has been taken from Company House Records:

David Andrew COX – Personal Appointments

It should also be remembered that when he was running the TCA, that website even recommended CLA as one of the best law firms to engage. This all went by the board the moment he asked CLA to pay him for the recommendation. It was obvious that he needed money, as the TCA website at the time was even asking people to make donations!

It is also understood he even went to Gran Canaria to meet with CLA and was put up in the Club Puerto Atlantico Hotel, as guest with no charge to himself. This meeting was to try and do a deal for TESS to pass on clients to CLA regarding claims for Spanish Timeshares. From reports by those that saw him, he seemed to spend most of the time inebriated!

Although I do personally undertake work for CLA, Inside Timeshare is an independent voice for timeshare owners, CLA has no influence on the articles published, they are either from my research or are personal opinions. All the articles published from Canada, The Philippines, Australia and most importantly from America are submitted by readers in those countries, bringing the timeshare community worldwide together.

So Mr Cox, your time is coming, my lawyer is preparing a case against you and no doubt so is CLA.

Our regular readers are those we have helped, again free of any charge, they know the truth. Inside Timeshare is still being asked for help from desperate owners not knowing who to trust, With your allegations you have shown that you and your company TESS are in the category of not to be trusted.

Hope to see you in court soon.

The post TESS Allegations: Here are the Facts appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

Today another company has come to our attention which is cold calling timeshare owners, this one is called Timesure Solutions Limited. According to Company House records they are based at:

Suite 7, The Business Centre, Edward Street, Redditch, Worcestershire, England, B97 6HA

Which is a familiar address from the past.

They have the company number 10022303, they were registered on 23 February 2016. The director is one Brian Carr, a name which is very familiar from previous posts, but it is just coincidence as this one is 60 years old not 31 like the Brian Andrew Carr who has just been jailed for fraud.

The interesting fact is that he also has 2 other companies:

Convert a Garage Ltd (10470650) registered in November 2016, with the address:

The Business Centre, Edward Street, Redditch, England, B97 6HA it also has an active proposal to strike off.

Then there is:

Ownership Release Services Ltd (10033676) registered 1 March 2016 with the address:

Suite 8, The Business Centre, Edward Street, Redditch, Worcestershire, England, B97 6HA

According to Company House records their confirmation statement is overdue.

They do have a website www.timesure.co.uk but this cannot be accessed as it is suspended, they also have a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TimeSureSolutions/ which also shows post with a link to a contact page.

It must also be said that David Cox of TESS published an article headed “Timesure Solutions Jailed For Fraud” on 26 February 2018, the unfortunate thing is he actually got it wrong, it was actually “Simple Property Marketing Solutions”, The wrong company and the wrong Brian Carr!

So once again we have a company contacting owners regarding cancellation and claims, remember do your homework first.

Now for some news from the courts in Gran canaria.

There have been 4 sentences issued at the Court of First Instance in Maspalomas, all involve Anfi del Mar. All contracts have been declared null and void with the courts awarding in total 137,988€

There has also been news of another client receiving a massive 37,979€ into their bank account, this payout is from Anfi, who still insist that these claims do not exist.

News just arrived from the Court of First Instance number 1, again in Maspalomas, the judge has declared another Anfi contract null and void, awarding the the sum of 32,980€ plus legal interest back to the client.

Contrary to what David Cox and his company TESS want you to believe, these cases are real, yesterday we showed you where they can be found. These cases are a matter of public record, so what would be the point in making them up. Mr Cox, you are deluded if you think you can convince people you are telling the truth, all you are doing is destroying yourself and that can’t come soon enough!

Join us tomorrow for Fridays Letter from America, have a good evening.

The post Thursday News and Updates appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

Welcome to this week’s Letter from America, in this article by Irene Parker with a contribution from Mike Finn of Finn Law Group, we look at the Timeshare Tax Trap.

The Orlando Sentinel has also published an article about Diamond and Orange Lake Resorts sueing Mike Finn, they accuse him of using  “false and misleading” claims in his ads. The article also mentions that Mike is cited by many publications as a successful cancellation attorney who along with other groups monitor timeshare companies, they go on to name the National Timeshare Owners Association and also Inside Timeshare. Mike is a regular contributor and offers valuable insights into the law for Inside Timeshare.  For the full article click on the link below.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/brinkmann-on-business/os-bz-orange-lake-timeshare-finn-20180404-story.html

But first a new warning from Europe, one of our long standing regulars has been contacted by a new “law Firm”, yes you guessed it, another new name in the Litigious Abogados family from Tenerife.

The new name is Legalidades Abogados, using the same address we have seen before:

4, Calle de S. Francisco, Santa Cruz, 38002, Tenerife

Freephone: 0800 862 0995

Tenerife Tel: 0034 822 250 502

email: abogadosgalvera@consultant.com

email: galvera-uk-claimants@consultant.com

Once again the address is genuine and shows 2 lawyers plaques on the wall, neither are this one. The email addresses are also not linked to the website, but are ones you can register for free at consultant.com.

According to their website http://legalidades-abogados.com/ they were founded by  Alberto Kalimro Galvera, on Monday 19th July 1990. Again this date in 1990 was actually a Thursday, so once again not very much attention to detail there. They also still insist they have over 15 years presence on the internet, not bad since the website was only registered on 15 March 2018 with the registrant hidden by a privacy company.

After the initial call they send an email which is signed by Angelica Imolintos Lesterno from Departmento Legal. Also attached is a letter of 3 pages with many official looking logos, it is signed by another new name Pablo Ibernas Cavosa.

Here are the new lawyers names and photos, once again probably downloaded from the internet, without the knowledge of the actual persons.

From left to right: Alberto Kalimro Galver, Luciano Emanca Domeras, Pedro Arenolde Verandel, Pablo Ibernas Cavosa.

In this long winded letter, they go on to say that it is a “no win no fee” arrangement, but as we know from past experience the next stage will be a fee is required for the Procurador. After this there will be a fee to pay “tax” to release the money from the court.

Once again we remind you to be very wary on companies that make these wonderful claims, especially with a “no win no fee” arrangement. Do your homework, you know it makes sense.

Now for this week’s Letter from America.

The Timeshare Tax Trap – A 1099 Loan Forgiveness Tax Liability

$170,000 Diamond Timeshare Points Purchased for no Reason

Timeshare Attorney Mike Finn, a former C.P.A., weighs in

By Irene Parker

April 6, 2018

Two Inside Timeshare readers contacted us alarmed, because they received an IRS 1099 form, informing them of a timeshare tax liability. For one family, this meant possibly an additional $170,000 in income. This would have been bad enough, but the already Platinum Diamond Resort member said they purchased the points to participate in a program that did not exist.

Timeshare members have learned there is little to no timeshare enforcement of timeshare regulations in some states, so by relying on the oral representation clause, timeshare sales agents are allowed to say anything to sell vacation points. The Nevada Real Estate Division has routinely replied to timeshare buyers, “You have no proof,” according to member reports. Today’s family is one of eleven families complaining about the same sales Las Vegas sales agent.

A reminder no one should pay upfront money without checking with us or one of the advocacy self-help Facebooks and websites listed below. Lack of a secondary market for timeshare points gives rise to a flourishing community of scam artists.

This former Diamond member says DRI sales agent Rick Casper, working out of Polo Towers in Las Vegas, told him to buy more Diamond vacation points to eliminate maintenance fees. He and his wife wanted to talk to someone at DRI because they were struggling to pay maintenance fees on the 50,000 DRI points they already owned. This member is a 100% disabled Vietnam veteran, having been exposed to Agent Orange. The former member did not contact us to complain about Diamond Resorts. He wanted to know if there was anything that could be done about the 1099. I did ask why he purchased additional timeshare points from Rick Casper, given Inside Timeshare has received 11 identical complaints about the same Las Vegas sales agent over an 18 month period.    

In 2016 we went to Las Vegas and stayed at Diamond’s Cancun resort and met with Rick Casper. Mr. Casper said if we upgraded, we would be able to cover maintenance fees. However, maintenance fees increased after the upgrade to $16,000 a year. After five hours, my blood sugar was at 400. I was recovering from congestive heart failure. Rick Casper said it would cost us $198,000, $2500 a month in payments for the next 10 years but after ten years we would have no maintenance fees and no loan payment. Rick Casper said, “Then the little people will be paying for your vacation.” He said it would take a year to a year and a half to set up but he would personally handle it. He said since we were only paying $3, he had a guy that could sell points for much more than that and the proceeds would pay for the maintenance fees. I ended up paying a company in Branson MO $1500 to get out of this; but now the IRS has issued us a 1099 which has to be claimed as income. It’s for around $170,000. I’m now 71 years old. I would have been better off foreclosing.

Inside Timeshare has heard from 114 Diamond Resorts members since January 1. By publishing these accounts we hope to inform new timeshare buyers, and existing members upgrading, that the timeshare contract is perpetual, maintenance fees increase, and in most cases there is little or no secondary market.

 Active Duty military and law enforcements are especially affected by a bad timeshare purchase. We are assisting seven in fear of losing their Security Clearance. The ages and branch of military service of the 11 Rick Casper customers, who report being financially devastated as a result of their Polo Tower purchase, include:

1. Age 69, Army, retired, 21 years
2. Age 70, 100% disabled, Army, Agent Orange
3. Age 68, Coast Guard veteran
4. A stage 4 cancer patient, age 40s
5. Age 60
6. Age 69, Gulf War veteran, on 25 meds
7. Age 61
8. Age 66
9. Age 56
10. Mary Pfeifer, age 72, new complaint not unresolved
11. Denise Hodgkins, age 56, new complaint, unresolved

I asked my CPA about the 1099. She said they would have referred the tax filer to a tax attorney, so the problem is not that simple. As usual, we went to timeshare attorney Mike Finn of the Finn Law Group. Mike provided an article about this important topic on his Learning Center.

https://www.finnlawgroup.com/learning-center/tax-time-contract-cancellation-timeshare-developer

An excerpt from Mike’s article:

Loan forgiveness

The 1099 form is referencing a large amount which may very well be taxable income! Unlike a mortgage balance forgiven, which would have been spread out over the life of the loan, this possibly taxable sum has been reported to the IRS in one lump sum! Say the amount reported is about $25,000. Say further that your tax bracket is 20%. Your new added tax bill is $5,000, and it’s due April 15th!

So, does this tax form receipt mean that the recipient is stuck with the tax bill for the so-called income? Well, possibly.

Consult with a tax professional before you assume that your receipt of a 1099 form from a timeshare developer automatically means you’re staring down significant tax liability. Understand we are not providing tax advice, merely a possible position that we believe is quite tenable and worth exploring with your own tax advisor. Although it’s accurate for me to state that I was a Certified Public Accountant, it is much more important to note that my C.P.A. licensure has long ago lapsed (because I didn’t choose to keep up with the annual professional education courses necessary to retain my certification). Please take your tax preparation advice solely from your own qualified tax return preparer.

Every tax filer is unique, with differing facts and circumstances. I am not offering, nor should you interpret my comments, as tax advice.

Historically, over the past half dozen years or so, hundreds and hundreds of Finn Law Group clients have received IRS 1099 forms, both 1099A’s and 1099C’s.  The receipt of these forms creates confusion.

I point you to IRS form #982. This is the form that the IRS advises should be filed along with the income tax return itself as a form of supporting schedule, which provides notification to the IRS that the amount presented to them via a 1099 is being acknowledged, but further, that the amount listed should be excluded from the taxpayer’s gross income. The myriad of possible reasons provided on the 982 Form are in and of themselves confusing and difficult to understand. I’m therefore providing my readers what I suggest may be appropriate reasoning in concluding that, in many cases, there should be no “income tax penalty” imposed after successfully negotiating a release of contract with your timeshare resort.

Allow me to provide my argument as to why some forms of debt forgiveness may well be construed as taxable income, and then differentiate the negotiated act of cancelling a timeshare contract and why this transaction therefore logically should be treated differently.

Since “income” generally means a measure of accretion of wealth or value added to your worth, then the cancellation of a debt, when that debt was incurred when you received something of value, should be counted as income because the elimination of the debt liability plus the retention of the item acquired when the debt was incurred increases your net worth. Under this definition of added wealth, the taxing of same would be quite logical.

Applying this argument to the cancellation of a timeshare contractual obligation and its related underlying indebtedness, it’s immediately evident that the cancelled owner has retained absolutely nothing of value. They’ve surrendered their interest in exchange for a debt and/or contract cancellation, but after the transaction they have absolutely no accretion of net worth.

Indeed, they’ve lost anything previously paid on an ‘asset’ they no longer own, so any argument that they’ve achieved and retained income or anything of value because of the contract cancellation is simply not accurate.

In terms of taxpayer reporting requirements, the issue becomes murkier when you apply it to timeshare transactions. Whether or not the industry will ever acknowledge that the resale value of a timeshare interest is minimal at best, what we can establish is that it would be extremely unusual for anyone other than the resort developer to acquire the timeshare interest at foreclosure, and therefore the liquidated basis of the interest will nearly always be zero, or at best a nominal value at foreclosure. Also making the timeshare transaction more complex in terms of following the instructions of either IRS form 982 and/or publication 4681 relating to this issue is determining whether the underlying debt should be viewed as “recourse” or “non-recourse,” given the propensity of the developers to utilize non-recourse based non-judicial foreclosures to recover the interest the greatest majority of the time.

I’ve attempted to avoid becoming overly technical in terms of specifically advising of taxpayer reporting other than to suggest very generally that the filing of the IRS form 982 will most probably be required. Lastly, I do strongly recommend utilizing a professional tax return preparer, as these forms are not at all intuitive.

I earnestly wish that I could offer something less complex to help provide absolute answers to this prominent issue, but I do feel that this is important because the financial ramifications are potentially high.

Respectfully provided,

Michael D. Finn, Esq.

Thank you, Mike, for the timeshare accounting lesson. One question I had is,

What is the difference between a 1099 A and a 1099 C?

http://www.koontzassociates.com/pages/know-the-difference-between-a-1099-a-and-1099-c/

Contact Inside Timeshare or one of these self-help groups if you have a timeshare nightmare. We know there are many that use and enjoy their timeshare, some having not faced a need to sell it, or were lucky to purchase from a sales agent that sold the product as the product is intended.

https://www.facebook.com/timeshareadvocategroup/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/

https://tug2.com/Home.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/groups/180578055325962/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/465692163568779/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1639958046252175/

Elder Abuse:

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/elder-fraud-charges-announced

All of the schemes have one goal: to trick and deceive senior citizens into turning over their hard-earned savings. Last year, the FBI opened more than 200 financial crime cases that involved elderly victims, Bowdich said. The investigations covered a range of crimes, from investment frauds to reverse mortgage scams.

Thank you Irene for this weeks article and also a very big thank you to Mike Finn for his contribution.

Inside Timeshare welcomes your comments on this or any article published, also if you need any information about your ownership or any company that has contacted you or you are thinking of doing business with, contact Inside Timeshare and we will point you in the right direction.

Friday is upon us the weekend beckons, we hope you have a great and relaxing one. See you next week.

The post Friday’s Letter from America appeared first on Inside Timeshare.

In last Friday’s Letter from America, we began with another new name in the family of “fake” law firms that started with Litigious Abogados, this one is called Legalidades Abogados.

Friday’s Letter from America

Civil Law

Over the weekend one of our regular readers informed Inside Timeshare that one of the photographs of the new lawyers was familiar to him, he also provided a name. On investigating the name provided it turns out the pictured lawyer is one:

Dr DR. ABELARDO ENCINAS SILVA, an eminent lawyer in Peru on Constitutional law, sitting on the CÁTEDRA DE DERECHO CONSTITUCIONAL GENERAL, (CHAIR OF GENERAL CONSTITUTIONAL LAW).

Below are a couple of links showing Dr Abelardo:

http://drencinascatedra.blogspot.com.es/2015/12/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n93jdSQTO80

Since finding this out Inside Timeshare has identified the other photographs that Legalidades Abogados have downloaded from the internet and posted in their website with new fictitious names.

The next one is a Chilean lawyer Gabriel Palma Cruzat is a member of Palma Abogados.

http://www.elmercurio.com/legal/noticias/opinion/2018/01/09/prevencion-de-delitos-en-las-empresas.aspx?disp=1

http://www.capital.cl/capital-legal/2018/01/04/146883/el-balance-de-la-ley-de-responsabilidad-de-personas-juridicas/

As you can see from the links above he is also a prominent lawyer.

Last but by no means least we have these three lawyers all from the Law firm Bufete Rodreguez-Monsalve, with offices at the following locations:

Madrid, Valladolid and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and abroad, with offices in Miami, Warsaw, Bogota, Lima, Kiev and Moscow.

Below are links to their website and a newspaper article about their new office published in El Norte de Castilla:

http://www.rodriguez-monsalve.com/es/

http://www.elnortedecastilla.es/valladolid/201703/23/resuelve-dudas-juridicas-nuevo-20170323125458.html

This leaves us in no doubt that Legalidades Abogados are truly a “fake law firm” not only forging legal court documents, illegally using official logos, but also using the photographs of some prominent lawyers.

It now makes us wonder what other lawyers have had their photographs used in this way on the other websites involved with this fraudulent outfit, Inside Timeshare will obviously now be continuing with the research and trying to identify those on the other websites. We will keep you informed.

If you have been contacted by this firm or one of those we have previously highlighted, do not take any notice of anything they say, do not pay them any money, you will only lose it. For further information contact Inside Timeshare.

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