A Holiday Spirit Look at the Industry
By Charles Thomas and Irene Parker
December 19, 2016
In the Spirit of the Season, Charles Thomas and Irene Parker would like to thank all our readers. Charles is a former timeshare sales agent and I am a veteran timeshare owner. We each have our stories about timeshare to tell.
Charles:
We have both over the past few weeks written numerous articles about the woes timeshare owners have been facing, some have been out and out horror stories. The story of Mrs Price and MacDonald Resorts has featured prominently over the past few months, this has still not been concluded. Other stories have highlighted the minefield of resales or as they say in the States the secondary market, another aspect has been the bogus law firms and claims companies that prey on those who wish to get out of their timeshares. Another theme has been about the sales agents and the methods employed to secure “the sale”.
I have personally been involved in sales side of the industry, having worked for several companies in the past, I was aware of the pressure that many sales staff are under to get the sale. The misinformation they are forced to give, if they didn’t hit their targets, they lost their job. In some cases if they were in company accommodation that meant they were on the street and homeless, usually in a foreign country.
But it is not all doom and gloom, there are some owners who are very happy with what they have, for them it works well, a case in point are friends of mine, Kim and Andy. They very kindly wrote their story on their timeshare experience for publication. There is also a Facebook page called International Timeshare Appreciation Day, which is held on 1 November. (see links)
There are also some very good timeshare companies out there, who do sell with ethics and morals. They also put their members first, with excellent customer service. These are the ones we never hear about. Two in Europe are Hapimag of Switzerland, whose members are predominantly Swiss and German, the other, is one that you tend not to associate with timeshare, Butlins, who have their Blue Skies membership. In all the research I have done, I have never come across a single complaint about either of them. Maybe others need to change to their model.
http://insidetimeshare.com/happy-owners/
https://www.facebook.com/InternationalTimeshareAppreciationDay/?fref=ts
Irene’s story: One day, in 1984, my fiancée told me he bought a timeshare. Little did he know it was owned by the Mafia. Timeshare owners always receive notices of annual meetings, but shortly after his purchase, we received an invitation to Holiday Shore’s annual meeting encouraging us to attend because our deeded fixed week timeshare was scheduled to be auctioned off on Tuesday at 3:30 PM on the step of the Sheriff’s office.
It was the first and last timeshare annual meeting we ever attended. Holiday Shores is located in the Missouri Ozarks and was a popular vacation spot for the Mafia.
There was not enough room for all of us at the scheduled location, so we all moved to the church where we managed to get a seat in the rafters. The resort’s timeshare attorney dramatically rolled out a scroll that flew out about 20 feet as he explained the Bennett family of New York was putting a lien on the property as the construction company had not been paid by their cousins who owned the resort property.
Fortunately for us, Jim Marshall of Marshall Missouri was an owner and a state representative.
The story has a happy ending because, thanks to Mr. Marshall, our timeshare was taken over by the owners and the resort lived happily ever after. It’s still there.
The moral of the story is that owners can make a difference.
Timeshares are not all bad. Twice we exchanged our timeshare through RCI and did not return home because we bought a house at the exchange location. We moved to Hawaii because of that every year trip to our Maui Hill timeshare and my stumbling onto a job opening the first Edward Jones office on the Big Island called Hawaii.
After nine years in Hawaii, we exchanged our Port Elsewhere week in the Ozarks for Petoskey Michigan and bought a house while on vacation. It worked until we realized moving from Honolulu to northern Michigan wasn’t all that smart, but the place is really pretty in August. Tired of white out roads, we exchanged Port Elsewhere for Cave City, Kentucky at Diamond Caverns (no relation) at Mammoth Cave. Again we bought a house.
This prompts our kids to pause when we tell them we are going on vacation and ask, “Are you coming back?” We’ve become known as the Prodigal Parents.
We look forward to continue our battle fighting for timeshare reform; a better secondary market, less deceptive and less aggressive sales practices, but for now we wish you a
Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season.
A Christmas Present Complement to Disney from Timeshare Attorney Mike Finn
He’s never had a Disney timeshare client.
The End
Both Myself and Irene wish all our readers in Europe, The United States and beyond and very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
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