Welcome to the first Tuesday Slot of 2019, first thank you to Irene Parker for taking the time to get this weeks article to us, all our readers thoughts are with you at this time. As the planet rotated and the New Year dawned across the globe, the messages wishing Inside Timeshare a Happy New Year never stopped, so thank you to all our readers for your thoughts and Inside Timeshare also wishes you a very happy and prosperous New Year.
Timeshare Accountability Group![™]()
A New Name – a New Year
By Irene Parker
New Year’s Day 2019
TAG begins the New Year with a new name. Accountability is a better word than advocacy so now we are Timeshare Accountability Group
as we shift our focus more towards media, legislative and regulatory outreach. We will maintain our teams consisting of 44 supporters to answer questions about regulatory and law enforcement filings. Some websites are not that easy to navigate and some members express technological challenges.
We changed to Accountability for four reasons:
As mentioned, we will focus more on media, legislative and regulatory outreach.
Second, some outfit is using our key words running internet ads charging upfront money to get you out of your timeshare.
Third, a number of individuals and organizations that use the words advocate and consumer have nothing to do with advocating for a consumer. A lot of the criminals on this 15 page Department of Justice Report timeshare scam report called themselves advocates. We don’t want to be lumped in with those masquerading as advocates.
https://search.justice.gov/search?query=timeshare+scam+report&op=Search&affiliate=justice
Fourth, I’m tired of being described by Diamond Resorts as a “self-styled, ‘advocate’ a third party, not a lawyer, not a professional journalist.” I have never described myself as a professional journalist. I describe myself as an amateur scribbler. Diamond’s point I believe is that I don’t have the liability protection afforded professional journalists.
I was a professional court report writer. As a CASA supervisor (Court Appointed Special Advocates), I wrote court reports for Family Court judges and interested parties in an effort to determine the best outcome for a child or children in foster care. The despair in the voices of some angry timeshare members is similar to the despair of a parent whose child has been removed from their home.
“Irene Parker purports to get her ‘clients’ out of their legally binding contracts,” Diamond explains. I have readers. The definition of purport: “appear or claim to be or do something, especially falsely” What our team members do is empower the timeshare member with the support needed to file regulatory and, if necessary, law enforcement complaints. It is every citizen’s right to file complaints if they feel they have been harmed.
The foreclosure process can be demeaning and demoralizing. It means a lot to know you are not alone. It is especially difficult for seniors who may have lost a spouse, or for those with 800 or better credit scores, left with no choice but to foreclose due to little or no secondary market. Timeshares are not like a house that can be easily sold with a loan outstanding, yet we are greeted “Welcome Home!” when we check in and we are told to think of our timeshare as a second home.
Last year we reported Timeshare Accountability Group ended 2017 with a total of 207 timeshare members reaching out to us for help, all but a handful contacting us about unfair and deceptive timeshare sales practices.
We ended 2018 with 432 members contacting us. More than double!
Our goals for 2019 remain the same:
⦁ Boost our media outreach group
⦁ Boost our legislative outreach
⦁ Boost our active duty and veteran/retired military outreach
Timeshare developers are beginning to listen. A few timeshare companies have listened to the merits of a complaint and responded when we send a draft of a member submitted article. At times I have agreed with the company.
Members appreciate voluntary surrender programs. Unfortunately, the majority of our readers are not eligible for voluntary surrender programs because they are saddled with high interest rate loans and higher interest rate credit cards. A credit card company, like a home equity loan, doesn’t care what you charged. You owe the balance. It’s important to remember – transferring to a lower interest rate loan through a third party lender is not advised. Transferring to any third party lender, including a credit card, means you are asking the timeshare company for a refund as opposed to a loan cancellation. As timeshare attorney Mike Finn advised in a previously published article,
I think the one major, major admonition I have for anyone, client or not, who has purchased a timeshare with developer financing and may want to reconsider the merits of the purchase (and, of course, assuming the rescission period has passed), do not, I repeat, do not under any circumstances, attempt to re-finance the purchase via a home equity line or a transfer to a lower interest credit card, or, for that matter any other methodology that has as its objective, re-paying the developer with other third party money.
http://insidetimeshare.com/the-tuesday-slot-2/
It’s easy to get discouraged, but Inside Timeshare and self-help member groups have made remarkable progress since our twelve founders launched our volunteer effort February of 2017. We soldier on into 2019.
As always, contact Inside Timeshare or one of these U.S. member supported self-help groups if you have a timeshare concern. We’re here to listen and act, going a step beyond helpful posts.
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://everythingabouttimeshares.com/consider-exchange-options/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/180578055325962/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/465692163568779/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1639958046252175/
Once again thank you Irene for you efforts over the past year, there are many out there who have been helped by the efforts of yourself and all our volunteer advocates, let us hope that this year will be the one that the industry takes notice and changes its approach to how it operates.
Inside Timeshare is not here to destroy the industry, it is here to give consumers the facts of what is going on. To highlight the rogue operators, be they timeshare sales, resale companies or bogus law firms, we will publish your antics no matter who you think you are, no threats will stop the truth from being published. As the old saying goes
“THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD”.
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