Welcome to another Tuesday Slot, this week we have a new contributor, the Walency family with their own “Nightmare on Timeshare Street”, this time it is Hilton Grand Vacations that are in the frame. It is just amazing that even a company with a prestigious reputation as Hilton allows their sales agents to mislead and lie to prospective clients in order to line their own pockets. As we have said before, the timeshare product is not a bad concept, it is the behaviour and underhand tactics of sales agents with the complicity of their managers that are bringing the industry into disrepute. The CEO’s of these companies must take full responsibility for this, they are after all in charge!
Our Eternal Hilton Vacation Nightmare
By the Walency Family
November 27, 2018
This article was sent to Hilton for comment November 5. There was no response and at the time of publishing no response has been received.
We don’t understand how a huge company like Hilton Grand Vacations can allow their sales agents to say anything at a timeshare presentation and then lay claim to the contents of our wallet from now until we die. We have unchecked corporations picking on small fish while lawmakers and big government agencies sit back watching the show and timeshare sales agents and executives rake in millions at our expense.
Something is very wrong when a product, so often sold as an asset, forces buyers no choice but to foreclose if they don’t want it. If you buy a house, and you have an outstanding loan, you can still sell it. Timeshare buyers like me have no choice but to foreclose, due to the lack of a secondary market, ruining our credit, and I’m sure the credit of thousands. Change will only happen through the cumulative voices of everyday people who have had their financial lives wrecked by this timeshare industry. We need to keep shouting until we can’t be ignored. If Hilton won’t listen, we hope others timeshare companies will.
Consumers need to think twice about buying any timeshare, as you can find yourself held financial hostage buying something that cannot be sold and is accompanied by rising maintenance fees. The timeshare industry is leaving buyers with ruined credit scores and the anguish that goes along with foreclosure.
We received our closing documents well after the rescission date which prevented us from cancelling the contract. We feel we experienced deceptive sales, but the difference in what we bought and what Hilton sales agent Bruce K sold us did not become apparent until long after the rescission period. We feel we experienced a bait and switch.
We purchased the Hilton Grand Vacations timeshare in New York City, New York, 2016 for $13,390. We no longer intend to pay for this contract. Bruce K misled us about the total cost of the timeshare. He did not mention property taxes, increased maintenance fees, or yearly assessments. We have had to pay $150 in yearly club dues, $335 for club inventory activation fee and $690.52 for annual assessment fees that he did not mention at the presentation.
We have been trying to communicate with Hilton since June 2018. To date, we have received only one letter with a copy of our contract and little else. In other words, they got us because we signed a contract, despite what the sales agent told us to get us to sign.
Bruce K told us he wasn’t a salesman, just there to help timeshare owners find buyers. Two lies in one. He was a salesman. Hilton does not have a resale department. We have tried to find his real estate license number, unsuccessfully, and wonder whether he was licensed to sell us the timeshare in the first place.
Bruce K told us it would be a good investment because it was real estate that this would be great to pass on to my daughters. He said it already had equity. This was the third lie as timeshares are a liability to be passed on to your kids.
He said we could book wherever we wanted, easily. We wanted to book Florida on the east coast. We were told it was not available, but could be booked through the next year or so.
In this day and age of easy online booking, we have to wait a year?
We asked for Cape Canaveral and Panama City Beach Resorts and Galveston, but ended up in Vegas as a last resort. We were never able to book with the ease that Bruce K told us we would be able to book.
What we were told:
- Bruce K said the Hilton timeshare was just like any other property where you can claim the interest paid on your taxes each year and it would pay for itself by renting it out and that he would help us do that. When I called to see if I could rent out my week, I was told Hilton does not allow renting the timeshare.
- Bruce K said there was a market to sell the timeshare if we needed to sell. We entered that market and were scammed the same way Hilton scammed us. Hilton Grand Vacations doesn’t have a buyback program.
- Bruce K stated several times how this would change the way we took vacations for the rest of our lives and how we could get reduced prices on airfare and ground travel in Europe and be able to book exotic vacations anywhere in the world. Booking vacations during our week is impossible because it was never available during week 31 of our agreement.
The New York and Texas Attorney Generals were useless and provided no help whatsoever, but I understand the New York Attorney General was able to help The Manhattan Club timeshare members get back $6.5 million. I found this on the internet:
So is their hope for the rest of us?
Self-help groups:
https://www.facebook.com/timeshareadvocategroup/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/
https://everythingabouttimeshares.com/consider-exchange-options/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/180578055325962/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/465692163568779/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1639958046252175/
Thank you to the Walency family for their contribution, if you have had a similar experience with any timeshare company and would like to share this on our “Nightmare on Timeshare Street”, use our contact page and we will get back to you.
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