RCI Class Action Lawsuit

jayjay and others - most of you are talking BS! we and many owners we speak with bank their weeks and when you try to make a later reservation, you never ever, that's right never ever get a week back in a unit the same size as you banked. Even at the same resort. They have sold it or packaged it with airfare etc. and offer us studios for executive and bigger suite we bank. THAT IS NOT THE WAY WE WERE SOLD THE UNIT. It is either a trade or a postponed use thru banking, for the same or similar unit. Yes there are peak seasons when one cannot expect this, but this method of their operation has been so for years. We try sometimes weekly for months. My wife chats them up in Mexico city HQ with charm, respect and they just flatly say no we only have this studio or nothing! So go take a hike. We must each pay for this lawsuite and get results or we no longer will subscribe to RCI. We will just have to use our weeks when we have them and where we have them. That is not the way it was sold nor how we bought into this rip-off scheme!

yes, yes yes!!!!!!!!!!!! What you say is absolutely TRUE and we and many others we meet on vacations have all experienced this. NEW people, we meet each time! To hell with RCI! But WE get the raw deal. As you say, you cannot even rent these things any more. The package deals including airfare and sometimes food and drinks like from RIO in Cabo San Lucas, are sold for $1000. We cannot even get our homeowners fee back in rental!

oh, have you seen RCI's recent directory? Is is diminishing! yes they are losing resorts. They are bad! You get far less quality resorts in them recently AND far less to choose from. I wish our resort Pueblo Bonito, would or could drop them and contract with one of the far superior ones!

If you want to see what the class action suit is about, check this site out. I'm afraid that Jayjay is not correct on the proof, unless this web information is bogus. http://www.rciclassaction.com/faq.asp

I am a RCI weeks member and this is what I know:

According to the settlement, RCI suppose to change its ways of doing business and that its rentals will not impact the RCI weeks inventory for member's use. I am wondering how they are going to accomplish that if I know that RCI has business contracts with people to rent out its last minute inventory. Below is the company that has been listing and selling RCI last minute inventories online and on ebay for years now.

http://justgottago.com/index.html http://stores.ebay.com/JustGottaGo

The owner of this company has personally confirmed to me that he has a business contract with RCI to sell excess inventory. Look at what he sells, they are all great resorts that you can hardly find on RCI website. Shouldn't these last minute inventories be a RCI member benefit as well becasue one of the benefits that RCI advertise is "Last Call?"

So I think this is something that should be put into consideration. These separate RCI business contracts to sells excess inventories should be stopped as well. If you agree with me, and you are a RCI weeks member, then you need to write to the attorney to object to the settlement by April 6, 2009. Here is the link for the information:

http://www.weeksprogramsettlement.com/faq.htm

Everyone can do that as long as you are the RCI weeks member. So please do if you care about what get from RCI.

Never get a unit equal to the one you banked? I just this week got a 2 bedroom April '09 in New Mexico in exchange for a 1BR early March in Branson. (Somebody beat me to the last 3BR.) The bottom line is always "If it ain't there, you can't get it." The last time we exchanged, we got a 3BR in Spain for a 2BR in Mexico. Before that, the 1BR Branson got a 3(small)bedrooms in Minnesota. And once we got a Studio for a 1BR, but it was plenty big for us 2. Maybe it helps that we always seem to be looking for odd things. MD

does anyone out there know the name of the president of rci? i have been stonewalled by rci at everyturn, one person telling me that they are forbidden to give out his name. one rep said he is in nyc and another says he is in phoenix. any help?

I lived in Brazil and I am really upset with RCI. I´ve tryied to make exchanges here in Brazil with no sucess. I have payed till 2014, for RCI association. Is it possíble to cancell and have the money back? If I stop with RCI, will it possible to rent and exchange with RedWeek or any other? Regarding the lawsuit against RCI, is it possible to know how is it going?

I´m sorry so many questions. By

You think your getting ripped off at RCI try Starwood/Kershner at the Harborside Atlantis, Paradise Island which I own - maint at over $2400 per year - and keeps getting higher.

I have exchanged with RCI for 18 years. Something has changed in the last 2-3 years. Nothing I want is available for exchange. My patterns haven't changed that much. I visit Hilton Head Island frequently by other means and see 50% empty resorts and NO WEEKS are available for exchange until September 09. Doesn't quite add up. I admit that I have not tried to rent through RCI.

I upgraded @ Orange Lake in Oct 2 years ago. The following June was to be my week, RCI told me I did not give them a years notice that I planned on using my week. When I explained I upgraded only 9 months before- they blew it off. Tried to send me 200 miles away in Fla, 1 BR instead of 2. I lost the week. Both Orange Lake and RCI are con-artists. Tried to sell the unit- ended up losing it because of finacial issues. If I won the lottery- I would never buy a timeshare again.

The last three or so years is when I have noticed most of the problems. Perhaps it was happening before that with regularity, but I was probably trading my weeks for very low demand/off season locations like inland Texas in January. However, now that I am retired and wanting to travel further away for some longer trips, I am really discovering the difficulties in getting a trade, especially of equal quality. Each time the staff hits me up to extend my RCI membership another 5 or 10 years, I keep saying I'm not sure if I like the way things are going with the rental vs. trade issues, and I have resisted upping my membership. I really don't think they care what I do, but just want my money. I also hear that there may be some claus in any new extended memberships that would excuse them from playing with our weeks and rentals. I keep saying that I believe they are competing with the very business they started so many years ago that we really liked at the expense of the actual timeshare owners.

Since Marty has not jumped in to answer the question from Brazil, I'll try. You can certainly rent offerings on the RedWeek rental site or offer what you have for rent. However, currency differences might make it complicated. Have you looked at RedWeek's new Exchange feature? Is your own timeshare in Brazil or somewhere else? The cost of getting there might discourage many who would otherwise be interested. Do you vacation in the US? MD

I am looking for a reputable organization to sell my two red weeks at Marriott Desert Resorts. I happened into RCI and spoke to a really good salesperson. Apparently ,according to this person the RCI rental and sales group is not affiliated with RCI exchange company.I have to deal with Interval International and also cannot get a week when I want it.. If anyone has successfully dealt with a good, honest resale agent, please let me know. murphymac@prodigy.net

William the president mentioned on the Vacation Guide for 2008 is Ricardo Montaudon, entitled "Manager Director and President" for RCI Group Americas (?) To contact him try the RCI site.

I have traded with RCI only twice because I want to use the units I own. I have been able to get equal value and exact location in both cases. My most recent trade I had to wait for months but I got the resort I wanted in the Cayman Islands and the two bedrooms I wanted. The units I own in NYC and in Hawaii are very highly rated so this may play into the results. Also I am retired and can give RCI time flexibility. In Hawaii I meet RCI owners who are very pleased with their trades. Actually I have met people who bought a unit to trade which I certainly wouldn't suggest but they told stories of all their wonderful trades. I have met as many as 50 people who have bragged about their trades and how happy they were with RCI. I have met no one expressing what I am reading on this website. I know one thing I have wound up in a number of class action lawsuits which provide the lawyers millions and less than $50 to me.

As I have said before, I have owned since 1984 and had three timeshares in different resorts. One of them is with II and the other two with RCI. I have enjoyed the many years of use in trades through RCI and still would like to continue their use, but I have noticed that I no longer can get the same type of trade requests as was the case a few years ago. During the last four or five years I have commented to the people that I didn't understand how it was getting so difficult to acquire the correct weeks. They said I had to put in the request further ahead (I had space banked way ahead) but I was still unable to get anything in the complete northwest area of Oregon, Washington, Canada during the summers. I was flexible to go throughout the entire summers, because I am also retired. I couldn't trade my two bedroom red week in Branson Missouri for a one bedroom in the northwest. Even a year out. Since then I have looked into getting rid of my weeks. Have any of you been looking into that? It seems without a clause in the contract, you are obligated for ever. Can't give them away, can't sell them for $1.

I will never trust RCI again as long as they still engage in a conflict of interest; that is, the vacation for pay industry. What if we all dropped RCI, got Redwwek or any company ro do the same without getting into the vacation rental business too. What assurances do we have that this will not happen again? RCI and Endless Vacations means Deadends Vacations. Jane

We are having the same problem.

RCI NEVER gets us a trade -- even a year or two out!

This seems to be a SCAM!!!

We have banked our timeshare at least 2-3 years out, and STILL CAN't GET A TRADE.

Now we are LOSING our weeks.

We hear there may be a class action lawsuit out there.

How can we find out more about this?

These guys MUST BE PUNISHED for what appears to be unethical and illegal business practises!

petep27 wrote:

We hear there may be a class action lawsuit out there.

How can we find out more about this?

These guys MUST BE PUNISHED for what appears to be unethical and illegal business practises!

There is plenty of information here and on the TUG Forum. Unfortunately, based on the proposed settlement, RCI is not going to get much of a punishment and members will receive a token amount for compensation (i.e. approx $20 value). As with all class action suits, the lawyers will win BIG TIME.

Being at the mercy of exchange companies is exactly why many TS owners advocate buying where you want to vacation and use exchanges as the "icing on the cake"