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Re: Diamond Resorts reduces owner benefits again! (by Cynthia L.):

Irene, I'm not sure if this pertains to the subject in your article. This is a rough draft of a letter I'm in the process of sending. I have been a DRI owner for 5 years. I have never filed a complaint before now but my last upgrade sent me over the edge. It wasn't just pushy sales tactics it was outright lies. I've been reading about a Relinquish Remedy Program that is probably bogus but my thought was to try that first. My first mailing was going to be sent to DRI and CC to Rick Casper. If you could please read the letter and give me some pointers on where to start it would be greatly appreciated.

January 27, 2017 To whom this concerns.

On 10-30-16 while on vacation in Las Vegas, Nevada while staying at Polo Towers we went to the required owners update meeting for using our Diamond Dream Holiday package. Instead of sitting us in the normal group meeting as they usually do Rick Casper took us directly to a private office and started talking about an Owner Update Dinner that we had missed with important updates that we needed to be aware of. He handed me a paper and told me what to write so I could verify I had not been contacted and had not attended the dinner. He said they needed this letter to be able to discuss the updates that we missed at the Owners Dinner. Rick Casper went on for about two hours talking in circles about how there had been major changes in the system telling us our maintenance fees would increase significantly if we did not change over to the new system and once the change took place we would be able to sell our points if we were ever in a position that we needed to. He proceeded to tell us that Diamond was partnering with Amazon and we would be able to use our points to purchase anything you could buy through Amazon. He was asking my husband how much he spent per year with purchases through his business. Through all of this he never mentioned any dollar amount. Finally, after 3 or 4 hours I started asking how much this would cost to upgrade to the new system thinking probably another $10,000 that I did not want to spend. When he finally came in and put the numbers in front of us there was still no price but a breakdown on how much it would cost monthly saying that this was less than the amount my husband told him he was spending on business anyway and that we could purchase all the items through Amazon and it would work out to our advantage. When I finally figured out the dollar amount ($75,000) I said no way was I going to make that decision and that I wanted no part of it. I had just paid off my loan that I had from my Gold membership and was perfectly happy with Gold. He went on to tell us basically that what we had was worthless and we would never be able to sell it if we did not upgrade and our maintenance fees would continue to rise. By this time, we were about 5 hours in. I told my husband I would not make the decision to buy into this because it was too much money. The cost for this was more than double the amount we already had into Diamond. I made it very clear to Rick Casper that I did not want to go into that kind of debt because my husband had some serious health issues. My husband looked at Rick Casper and agreed and Rick Casper said more reason to upgrade because we would be able to sell for 3 to 4 dollars per point. He told us that he was a Real Estate Broker and if we called him after the first of the year he would handle the sale for us so we could go back to where we were GOLD but still have the option to sell later if we chose to do so. He said HE WOULD HANDLE THE SALE BUT NOT TO TELL THE OTHER GUY THAT HAD BEEN SITTING IN ON THE MEETING WHEN HE CAME BACK IN THE ROOM. THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY RED FLAG TO SAY NO AND WALK OUT. Rick Casper knew I did not want to sign. THE ONLY reason I agreed to sign the papers was because he offered to sell our points for us. Rick Casper also said the maintenance fees would be rolled into the financing. Once he wore us down as usual the paperwork started rolling in and of course both of our names (mine and my husbands) were already on everything. Before we left the office, Rick Casper shook our hands and looked me in the eyes and said call me after the first of the year. I emailed him twice before the first of the year, once to ask some questions about Amazon not having anything except for travel brochures for sale and he told me none of that would be available for me until after my Platinum points clicked in. The second email was to ask why I had over $8000 in maintenance fees due by January 1st? The answer to that was they would not allow him to add the fees to the financing. The third email was sent after the first of the year to discuss how to start the process to sell enough points to pay off the new loan. My husband is diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer and it’s necessary to get out from under this new debt that I did not want to take on. I got no response so I sent a message to his other email address and he sends me an email back telling me Dan will take care of it. I don’t know who Dan is but Dan was very informative with telling me about the Legacy Program that I could go through to sell or pass down to friends and family that will be starting sometime this year or if I want to sell points myself I can list them on EBay and if I find a buyer they (Diamond Resorts) will help close the sale. I had never even heard of the Legacy program until Dan mentioned it to me. If he would have told me how the resale of my points had to be done I would have never signed the contract. RICK CASPER flat out lied to us to get the signatures. I was fine with being a Gold Member that was more than enough points for me. Now I am $75,000 in debt and I have over $8000 in annual fees. Rick Casper set me up to fail.

NONE OF THE ABOVE IS LISTED ANYWHERE IN THE 2017 OWNERS BENEFIT MANUAL. The request I am making is not to opt out completely from Diamond but to Relinquish the NEW UPDATE I was told I needed. I do not need to be a Platinum Member with another $75,000 debt to pay. I never wanted to be Platinum but Rick Casper convinced my husband he was doing the right thing and he would take care of the sale to put us back where we started. I have already paid for my Gold Membership. Hopefully one day my husband and I will be able to travel again and I will be able to access this. But the “New System” we were scammed into buying I do not want and cannot afford. If I was not Lied to I would not have NEVER signed this Contract. I read about the Relinquishment Remedy Program and would like information on how to access it. I wish to cancel the Contract that was signed on October 30, 2016.

Thank you, Cynthia Lashley