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Re: Marriott Going to Point Syst (by Beck):

thomasn15 wrote:

...I personally would hate to see a lawsuit that destroys the Marriott timeshare brand (and essentially only benefits attorneys)...

Since there hasn't been a lawsuit yet against any developer or exchange company which I'd call successful (OK I think there have been maybe two or three in cases of very extreme developer/management abuse/neglect) and to date there have been no discernable effects on the reputation of developers/exchange companies, I sadly take the position we owners are getting shafted by developers, exchange companies, scammers, lawyers, DA's and politicians.

Who's at fault for this? We are. Or maybe I should take a less popular position and say most of you are. Even with education, or as I understand in some of your cases personal experience, too many of you buy into the lies told to you and buy direct, or pay scammers $500-$3,000 because you want to believe what they say so much you don't exercise your common sense and decide things like: - Since I don't see it in writing, what they are telling me is probably untrue - They lied to me before, they are probably lying to me now. - My god, that amount of money is so huge I could stay in some pretty nice timeshares renting instead for the next 10-15 years. - Holy begeezers, that timeshare they want me to pay $20k for is only worth $2k on the resale market. I don't care what they provide when I buy direct, it's just not worth it.

I conceed the sales people are very convincing. I admit my first resale purchase what not exactly what I thought I was buying. I've bought direct from one company three times. And that same company, after providing documents with contract language in simple form giving me full rights to rent "my" timeshares later suspended my accounts because I rented units out, and after almost two yesrs we are near an agreement where I don't lose money on my units but since I bought most on the resale market it is very dissappointing I'm not making any either.

But in my case I learned from my first mistake. Every timeshare I bought after that first one I only bought if I could verify the details of ownership. I bought direct from the developer thrice because for the cost of $12,000, $8,000 and $6,000 I was able to not only add a small amount of additional ownership to my portfolio, I was also able to convert over 20 resale purchases back into the full club membership. And as for the final issue, technically I had the contract allowing me to rent my units but of course when you are an individual it's a tough decision to spend $60k-$200k in legal fees to fight a fight when just letting it be over with without loss is a lot less risky.