Post reply

Re: Class Action Against Diamond Resorts? (by Chris D.):

Hi Susan,

I am happy to provide my contract details. We signed up for the Standard 7,500 point package and within six months were brought to Las Vegas for what I was told would be an orientation program on how to to get the best out of our Diamond membership. When we arrived, there was absolutely no orientation. Instead, we were told how our 7,500 points would not be enough for a nice vacation and that we needed to upgrade to Silver. Unfortunately, we were convinced, through several lies and misrepresentations, and upgraded to Silver. When we actually booked our first Diamond property vacation, I received a call and we were invited to a Luau and dinner, all complimentary if we would agree to attend a meeting the next day. When I asked if this was going to be another sales meeting, the representative said no and that they just wanted to see how our membership was treating us so far. After asking multiple times to confirm that this wasn't going to be a sales presentation, I agreed to attend. After experiencing a very mediocre luau and dinner, we attended the meeting the next day and I was immediately placed with a salesperson who was trying to convince me that I really needed to upgrade to Gold. He said that if I didn't upgrade, my annual maintenance fees could reach 9k over the next 10 years. He even had a laminated chart that showed the increased fees year after year. This was a far cry from what I was originally told about a very nominal 1-2% increase (if any). The salesperson told me that if I upgraded to Gold, I could offset the annual maintenance fees with my points. I declined and when I went back to my room, I called customer service and they told me that I was given bad information and that you can't use points to pay maintenance fees. When I tried to call the salesperson back to inform him, he never picked up the phone. The Diamond membership is terrible and their goal is just to keep upgrading your membership. The salespeople lie and their properties are very low-end. They are not very nice, not the luxury units that I was originally promised. I've discovered that the cost of our annual fee more than pays for the vacation. I would like to know if it's possible to get my money back. I"m certainly not opposed to retaining an attorney, but know this can be a very slippery and costly slope.

kimberlyb569 wrote:

Not sure if you’re still looking for contract information but I’m looking for some help to try to get out of my contract. My husband just retired after 30 years in the military and we bought into this after being told they do adults only all exclusive. We’ve paid into this for a year haven’t used any of it because they do not cater to adults only all exclusive. Any help you have would be greatly appreciated thank you.

susanb1439 wrote:

Help us address concerns about DRI!

Disclaimer: The following is not intended to claim or infer that DRI has done anything wrong.

As some of you know, a group of people have been engaged in a long term private investigation of DRI's business practices. We are nearly finished, but the speed and quality of our work is dependent upon our ability to obtain more copies of DRI purchase documents. We'd like to obtain copies of contracts from every year and every state.

We need as many DRI members as possible to contribute their documents and time is of the essence. We have no need to know who you are and we will not ask you for that information. We encourage you to redact all personal identifiers before sharing your documents with us or anyone else.

The DRI contract is far from "iron clad". Although we do not give legal advice, if we see a specific item of interest in your contract we will certainly bring it to your attention. If we all work together on this we WILL be able to make a huge difference for all consumers.

Regards, Susan, Consumer Activist