Original Message:
Re: PERHAPS IT'S TIME FOR A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT .... (by KC):
Re: >> If you will re-read (comprehend) my previous post you will see that, yes, victims do volunteer to enter into an agreement BECAUSE of the LIES and UNTRUTHS told to them by upfront fee companies and developer salespeople.
Through the years I have read thousands of testimonials of such lies (many here on Redweek) and something needs to be done about it, period. Florida laws evidently aren't strict enough on the entire timeshare industry in stopping their deceptive practices. That's why I mentioned federal regulations being implemented. << ======================================
I fully comprehended your posts and, believe it or not, we don't disagree (although you apparently want to have an argument anyhow). I certainly cannot (and I do not) claim to have read "thousands of testimonials", as you claim to have accomplished, but we would (I hope) nonetheless at least agree that a problem does indeed exist here.
Having had some direct, hands-on experience with the legalities of adopting federal regulations (admittedly in an entirely different and unrelated industry, but the legal process of federal regulation development is still absolutely identical), it's hard for me to imagine a federal level of interest in a matter which, in fact, seems to be very highly localized and limited in its problematic occurrence to just a very few states --- Florida of course being the hands down leader.
Among the "thousands of testimonials" you have allegedly read (that claim is simply not believable to me, frankly, but no matter...), I wonder how many of the upfront fee parasites are located outside of Florida?
In any event, my intended point was (and still remains) that an improvement in Florida state laws on this matter would go far to help solve most of this problem, virtually overnight. Other states could easily follow the template when/if the parasites then closed up shop in Florida, only to emerge from their little holes in the ground in other states. This is largely what happened (successfully) in the development of "right of rescission" laws at state levels, giving consumers a "cooling off" period to cancel a contract (within specified time constraints) when they decide later in the privacy of their own home that they made a bad decision, perhaps in the face of undue influence, salesman pressure, guilt tactics, etc. Good laws, good for consumers --- bad for slick talking salespeople telling assorted lies and half-truths.
I don't disagree that federal regulations *could* solve this problem. However, having previously been personally and directly involved in the legal process of development and implementation of federal regulations (in an entirely unrelated industry) from draft to public hearing to Federal Register publication thereby making the matter "law", I can't personally imagine there being federal interest in timeshare matters that can be (and should be) addressed and corrected at the state level. But as usual, without any actual knowledge or personal experience regarding the details of the subject matter at hand, you'll undoubtedly still want the "last word" anyhow, so please go right ahead and further "enlighten" us.