Original Message:
Villa Trader (by Phil L.):
We owners on many forums have been warning others of these scams for years and still people like yourself come on these forums telling your sad stories of being taken.
The word is finally getting out to many new people to at least do your home work before donating your money to these parasites.
One of main problems is some owners can be talked into anything and probably why they bought from a developer in first place.
When the heat gets to hot these companies just pack up and move down the street and change their name and back to scamming.
Good news is you seem to have learned a lesson the first time. You would be shocked how many people come on these sites and ask for opinions and then give their money away because they would rather believe the listing companies and not the timeshare owners.
Some come back and complain about losing their money then jump back in with another company with same game plan.
If you want to sell with help you need to sign on with a realtor that sells timeshares and takes their commission after sale. These companies charge 20-30% for their services and for many it is well worth it because you pay nothing until sold. These companies work just like a resales dept at many resorts and it cost to sell but your dealing with honest ( or as honest as you can find in timeshare sales) companies that sell your timeshare and get paid for their services after sale.
When I get one of these calls and have time I love to jerk their chain!
Not knowing I bought resale this company called me up and stated that my timeshare has really gone up in value and the price I paided of $18000 is a low number now. Now I can get about $26000 and they have a buyer wanting my unit. Funny since we only paid $5500 resale three years ago and we are not trying to sell. I guess we are the only people to own at our resort. Why else could he have a buyer for just our unit. I guess my weeks July3,2009 and Sept 3,2010 gives my unit more value.
I told him that was great news even though we were not trying to sell and just don't have the time to deal with it. I told him I would sell it to him for my $18000 and he could make a fast $8000 from this buyer he has. He went into his act of by law he can not sell and needs the money upfront by law again. He explained this was cost to list my timeshare for sale and I said why do we need to list when you have the buyer already? LMAO
I then ask why he was calling with a buyer if he can not make the sale and I guess this knocked him off his game plan. I have to guess this question wasn't on his print out of answers to use.
At this point I told him this isn't against the law because he is buying my unit for $18000 and then as owner can sell to this buyer for quick profit and this legal.
When I told him I am a lawyer for State of California and would be glad to handle all the forms he was gone.Not even a goodbye! HOW RUDE NOT TO SAY GOODBYE!
I wanted to tell him I never went to law school but did spend three days at a Holiday Inn so I know the law and next month I'm going back for couple days to become a doctor!
PHILL12