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A differing point of view...

First, thanks to jayjay for making the effort to relay the post of specific FL contacts, which will help those seeking to do research and/or file complaints. I personally believe that the BBB is a waste of time, but that's just my opinion. Finding the correct and applicable statutes is rarely an easy task --- even for someone with a law degree. Second, my own experience (encompassing 27 years now) with a number of different FL timeshare ownerships (all of them coastal) has actually been quite satisfactory and considerably different from that of larryj32. In the course of several decades, I've encountered only a few (always unwelcome) special assessments (all of them were hurricane damage related), and each was under $500. Repairs and maintenance are never free --- and insurance has big deductibles in coastal locations. Third, I have NO illusions about the likelihood of successfully "exchanging". I believe that "exchanging" is increasingly just a long-odds "crap shoot" and, for that reason, I have never purchased anything except what I would be happy to use myself (and have, in fact, been happy using myself) and that is waht I always recommend to others. Buying just to "exchange" is a fool's errand; "exchanging" is, by definition, ALWAYS strictly based upon availability --- not just upon someone's desire to go somewhere. You can't "exchange" into what isn't available to begin with... Fourth, Florida (where I am NOT a year round resident) is by far the most proactive state in going after timeshare industry scammers. They also have one of the longest timeshare contract recission (cancellation) periods available anywhere in the U.S. (10 days in FL, where some states have as few as 3 days and the national average is 5-7 days). Finally, developer sales weasels are generally hungry, lying, decepetive and /or ill informed; that much is certainly beyond dispute. This has ALWAYS been true of developer-direct sales --- and it's true regardless of geography. It's true in Las Vegas, in Branson, in Williamsburg and everywhere else. It is certainly not a phenomenon unique to Florida. Do you blame your FL state government that sales weasels EVERYWHERE routinely lie and people STILL choose to believe them --- even though the false verbal claims by the sales weasels are not actually reflected within the contract ( the contract which many buyers don't even bother to read or try to understand until later --when it's often much too late to do anything about it)? There are certainly flaws and scammers in and around the timeshare industry, but with all due respect Larry, your observations and views certainly don't reflect mine. Different strokes for different folks... We can probably at least agree on CAVEAT EMPTOR (Buyer Beware)...