Original Message:
You may be able to get some money back from DRI. I did and here is how... (by Justin S.):
Thank you Marks. I bought my first set of Diamond Points in Scottsdale, which was my home resort. I actually built up a portfolio of 96,500 points. I was recently served with a 'Cease and Desist' order from Diamond, and they have seized approx $11,000 in my stock (at maintenance fee value), gave me a one year suspension, and I was given a set of rules. The offence was advertising for renting my timeshare to a third party. Now when I was in Scottsdale, I was specific about the fact that I would be purchasing this for joint personal usage and also for investment. For half an hour of the presentation, we discussed all this, they asked where I rent my points out, and suggested stock for the best rentals. Of course, they also got me to sign a form before I left that stated that 'nothing has induced me to purchase the timeshare, and that the legal documents are the basis' for this purchase etc (something to that effect). I questioned them on this, and they shrugged it off, saying it was just a legal requirement that they had to have, and that the purchase conversion from my Scottsdale deed to Diamond points could not proceed without my signature. So I signed this warranty to them. Over the last 10 years, they have stripped many of the benefits I purchased for, and I feel have changed the rules significantly, though I am not sure exactly when they made this non-rental restriction into their programme, but even in 2009 when I purchased again in Florida, they were still encouraging investment rentals of their product. Anyway, I am glad to see your post because I will be contacting the AZ State Attorney and pursuing this. Diamond recently stated that the total replacement cost of my 96,500 points (plus the other 34,500 points I own) was somewhere well in excess of $600,000...I think that Diamond are about to try and steal this from me, and they are saying that I still need to pay maintenance fees etc whilst under suspension....even though I cannot use them for one year i.e. pay $20,000+ for the right to book next year in the low season where I couldn't even use 130,000 points in 2.5 months. I would be interested in learning of your experience, if you could spare a little time for this. You seem to have been successful in this against Diamond, and that is a rare experience. I thank you for your post...it has just made me feel much better, and at least now I feel that I have a hope of some recourse before Diamond do their thing again, and try and heavy me as per usual. Thank you so much.
PS. I even question how legal Diamond Resort's whole structure is... even though not every country requires registration as a travel agent, many of them require a foreign entity to register as a business when 'doing business' in a jurisdiction. I quickly researched a few countries and found that Diamond Resorts International has no business registrations, no tax records (at least not in my country registration), and no presence whatsoever, and yet, if one looks ta how much they charge for some of the Australasian region, the cost in points can be more than 6-8 times retail price...so much for the 'hedge against inflation' argument basis for timeshare that they also sold me upon.