Original Message:
Re: SUNCHASER VACATION (formerly FAIRMONT RESORT VILLAS) (by Bob K.):
Good luck, today my wife called in and as we had paid our maintenance fee for the year, were able to deposit our weeks with II. I had thought we would have been required to pay the assessment as that is what it sounded like in the letter they mailed us. We have four weeks left to use and plan to use them soon.
. WE have decided to let Fairmont go as we don't feel the expense of the restoration fee is appropriate, and somewhere on another website, someone mentioned that this has happened before and the company took all the $ and then went "bankrupt" and everyone lost their money and their time share. I am not going to put any more money down the rabbit hole. We have learned an expensive lesson, have had the time share for about 15 years and with all the costs, original fees, maintenance fees, II dues and exchange fees, feel we basically paid retail dollar for what we did use. I could get my calculator out and crunch the numbers, but it may be too painful. There is a time in life to let go of things and this is one. We are both 66 and letting go feels right for us. They will ding our credit, but that is not an issue for us. I emailed the lawyers and got a reply " If we take on any more clients, we will contact you"
The time share business is a ponzi scheme of the slickest order. The salesmen are pros. WE almost lost more money last year. A year ago after being promised 400 Pesos for just going, we went to a timeshare presentation in Mazatlan, Mexico. They promised to buy our Fairmont timeshare, also, "because of our age" waive all maintenance fees in the future and a few other goodies. We were ecstatic, too good of a deal to pass up. The salesman reminded me of my son, so "sweet" and ingratiating, he had us exactly where he wanted. At the beginning of the presentation we said we were tired of Fairmont, and all the maintenance fees. They had a PROGRAM for US!!
I had to sign a statement that this decision was final, no backing out, credit card could not be cancelled and I HAD TO waive my 5 day grace period to back out. (Against the law) After signing that and putting $10,500 on my credit card. They said they would have an escrow agent in Seattle do the paper work and they'd buy our time share for $10,000. I thought it was a done deal. WRONG.
When we got home we Googled the time share and read that it was a TOTAL SCAM. ONe newly wed couple had paid $26,000 for their unit. We called Capitol One and they referred us to their Time Share Scam dept., REALLY, they have one. They said, "Oh, yea, we know the guy who sold you that, Miguel, does it all the time. Two weeks was the grace period to contest it with Cap One, the 5 day waiver we signed was meaningless to them. We had ONE day to submit our "we don't want it letter" to the time share company and to Capital One. WE sent them registered return receipt mail, and then had to complete a 5 page questionaire. That was sent in and then we had to wait for the timeshare to refute it. It is apparently easier to keep selling to new people than to refute. Anyway after 6 weeks of stress wondering what would happen, we got our credit card cleared of the $10,000/ Old adage : If it sounds too good to be true, it likely is. Buyer beware. May the time share gods be with you and you get all you want from staying with the program. Do the math, first and see if this is really a deal that will work for you. We live in USA and bought ours when the US dollar was greater value than the Canadian so I think we paid around $10K US for it, + - a few K.??? Cheers