Diamond Resorts reduces owner benefits again!

Same thing happened to me at Mystic Dunes. Their deceptive sales practices knows no bounds. This is surely a violation of Florida's fair practices act?

michaeld414 wrote:

It is important to keep the pressure up on Diamond, and to inform those who might be sucked into their scams... They will continue to use their deceptive sales tactics, their failure to disclose vital information about these facilities as well as the structure of how they work "availability vs the number of members... It was hidden from us that there were any actual "Deeded Owners" other than a points system... Had I known that there were other forms of ownership, we would have walked away... We were assured that Sunterra / Diamond as they were merging owned the entire facility outright, and there were no other entities... That the number of actual points members that could be sold were limited to the number of units multiplied by the weeks available, and that was set by Hawaiian Real Estate Law... In my opinion DRI is a dishonest organization...

Now, How about a Lawsuit update David

A few days after I posted this message regarding the upcoming Board elections, the message disappeared and my alerts were turned off. I asked Redweek to investigate and the message was restored but it was too late for the elections. I've been wondering why this previously active thread has become so quiet. Perhaps the tampering has been more widespread. Has anyone else had problems with messages or alerts?

susana277 wrote:

A few days after I posted this message regarding the upcoming Board elections, the message disappeared and my alerts were turned off. I asked Redweek to investigate and the message was restored but it was too late for the elections. I've been wondering why this previously active thread has become so quiet. Perhaps the tampering has been more widespread. Has anyone else had problems with messages or alerts?

It is curious why this topic is quiet, but they have started others, and DRI operatives have invested them as well... They set out to tell those who might read them how great DRI is and how easy it was to reserve the best place, and how wonderful it was... I try to keep up and challenge those who constantly advocate on DRI's behalf, but like in politics these days the Truth & Facts DO NOT MATTER... The "Dumb ing Down of Society" is what I call it, so Corporate Giants can say and do anything in their quest for profits...

Michael, that's why I am waiting for that lawsuit so that everyone has their day in court and fact can be separated from fiction.

It may be that people are just plain tired of all the mess.

forum testing....

charless345 wrote:

Michael, that's why I am waiting for that lawsuit so that everyone has their day in court and fact can be separated from fiction.

It may be that people are just plain tired of all the mess.

The way Civil Court cases go, DRI can challenge and appeal at each phase of the case... Each phase can take several years to process, and DRI will make sure they are very slow... This case could talk 10 Years to see the light of an actual court room... You get only the Justice you can afford to pay for in Civil Court... I know, I have been there against a very deep pocket celebrity, and simple cases can last like the energizer bunny

Or it could be that a lot of unhappy, fed-up people have have accepted DRI's offer to let them out of their membership (no return of monies of course) in exchange for signing the big gag order.

susana277 wrote:

Or it could be that a lot of unhappy, fed-up people have have accepted DRI's offer to let them out of their membership (no return of monies of course) in exchange for signing the big gag order.

So DRI offered outs to the Poipu Owners?

charless345 wrote:

susana277 wrote:

Or it could be that a lot of unhappy, fed-up people have have accepted DRI's offer to let them out of their membership (no return of monies of course) in exchange for signing the big gag order.

So DRI offered outs to the Poipu Owners?

Yes they did... I am not happy to say this but we took an out... After paying upwards of $ 54,000 cash for 31,000 points, we walked away from our membership... The gag agreement is about the specifics of our deal, but does not stop me from talking about the points system in general or DRI's integrity unrelated to our deal... The whole points system is a bigger scam than a Ponzi Scheme... They are selling air, they have sold far beyond their capacity to accommodate the members.. They give special deals to folks they want to sell new memberships too, at a rate far cheaper than the members pay in annual per day maintenance fee's.. Screw the members, they want new membership fee's and could care less about you and your old membership... Of course all of this is my opinion, but its bases on my experiences...

ssdd

michaeld414 wrote:

charless345 wrote:

susana277 wrote:

Or it could be that a lot of unhappy, fed-up people have have accepted DRI's offer to let them out of their membership (no return of monies of course) in exchange for signing the big gag order.

So DRI offered outs to the Poipu Owners?

Yes they did... I am not happy to say this but we took an out... After paying upwards of $ 54,000 cash for 31,000 points, we walked away from our membership... The gag agreement is about the specifics of our deal, but does not stop me from talking about the points system in general or DRI's integrity unrelated to our deal... The whole points system is a bigger scam than a Ponzi Scheme... They are selling air, they have sold far beyond their capacity to accommodate the members.. They give special deals to folks they want to sell new memberships too, at a rate far cheaper than the members pay in annual per day maintenance fee's.. Screw the members, they want new membership fee's and could care less about you and your old membership... Of course all of this is my opinion, but its bases on my experiences...

I could see why you have your opinion if you were treated this way. This has not been my experience. I will say that when DRI has those specials with their units and I see them for less than maintenance fees, it gets my attention, but we can do that as well to defray our maintenance fees as well and I have done that.

I don't believe it's a Ponzi scheme though. There are some guidelines that the developers have to follow. Now that Marriott has started their points program, I have really come to have a better understanding of the guidelines. DRI's are quite similar. Marriott's points are a whole lot more expensive than DRI's and I often stay at Marriott properties using my DRI points.

In any case I am eagerly but patiently waiting for the results of the lawsuit. I believe it has the potential to be most interesting.

The offer I got to terminate my membership includes the following gag order: " Owner agrees not to make any statements, written or verbal, or cause or encourage others to make any staements, written or verbal, that defame, disparage or in any way criticize the personal or business reputation, practices or conduct of Diamond or Association, its employees, directors and officers. Owner acknowledges and agrees that this prohibition extends to statements, written or verbal, made to anyone, including but not limited to, the news media, investors, potential investors, any board of directors or advisory board of directors, industry analysts, competitors, strategic partners, vendors, employees (past and present) and clients."

susana277 wrote:

The offer I got to terminate my membership includes the following gag order: " Owner agrees not to make any statements, written or verbal, or cause or encourage others to make any staements, written or verbal, that defame, disparage or in any way criticize the personal or business reputation, practices or conduct of Diamond or Association, its employees, directors and officers. Owner acknowledges and agrees that this prohibition extends to statements, written or verbal, made to anyone, including but not limited to, the news media, investors, potential investors, any board of directors or advisory board of directors, industry analysts, competitors, strategic partners, vendors, employees (past and present) and clients."

This is a pretty comprehensive gag order. It sounds like DRI does not want you to even THINK about them, never mind talk about them.

Hi Michael- If your points were paid for and your maintenance fees up to date, you could always walk away from your membership with DRI. It's written in their handbook that termination happens when you quit. The only reason they could come after you would be for unpaid loan(s).

The gag requirement sounds manipulative on their part when it is your legal right to walk away.

sherik43 wrote:

Hi Michael- If your points were paid for and your maintenance fees up to date, you could always walk away from your membership with DRI. It's written in their handbook that termination happens when you quit. The only reason they could come after you would be for unpaid loan(s).

The gag requirement sounds manipulative on their part when it is your legal right to walk away.

That is most certainly not correct! DRI will not let anyone just walk away. They will continue to bill maintenance fees, and interest on unpaid balances. They will report you to credit agencies if you do not pay. They won't let me quit. That's not in my contract. I can't walk away. I would gladly do so because they have raised the fees so high that it is not a good value any more. I asked them to let me go and the answer was no.

Hi Robert- Do you own points or a deed? Did you try to stop paying your maintenance fee?

robertr558 wrote:

sherik43 wrote:

Hi Michael- If your points were paid for and your maintenance fees up to date, you could always walk away from your membership with DRI. It's written in their handbook that termination happens when you quit. The only reason they could come after you would be for unpaid loan(s).

The gag requirement sounds manipulative on their part when it is your legal right to walk away.

That is most certainly not correct! DRI will not let anyone just walk away. They will continue to bill maintenance fees, and interest on unpaid balances. They will report you to credit agencies if you do not pay. They won't let me quit. That's not in my contract. I can't walk away. I would gladly do so because they have raised the fees so high that it is not a good value any more. I asked them to let me go and the answer was no.

We owned points that were paid for, and had a full years points accrued when we walked away... We were sick of the DRI attitude and manipulative process... We plan to sue for fraud when the class action gets into the discovery process, as they knew about the water intrusion damage before we bought into DRI... As I believe any one who bought memberships before the Damage was disclosed, and discovery shows the date the damage was known, if they failed to disclose that damage and its potential costs, its a clear case of fraud... We choose to walk away rather than pay the damage assessment and the rising annual costs, that as of our last paid fee was over $ 300 per day.. The entire Points System is an ongoing fraud in my opinion, as most of these operators are selling far more memberships (periods of use) than their resorts can provide... How can the annual fee's @ $ 300 per day, equal to @ $110,000 a year per unit and rising...

Hi - I assume you owned a week at Mystic Dunes and a year ago decided not to continue to pay maintenance fees. I am going to do the same thing. Can you tell me what action they have taken one year on? I live in the |United Kingdom and wonder how they will beable to chase me for the outstanding fees. A quick email to me at Wharfavon@aol.com would be appreciated

sherik43 wrote:

Hi Phil,

Since the maintenance bill comes from the Assessment Dept., that is who the letter will go to:

Assessment Fee Department Attention: Supervisor 10600 West Charleston Blvd. Las Vegas, NV 89135-1014

RE: Membership xxxxxx- Allen and Sheri xxxxxxx

cc Collections Dept., Supervisor, Ricky cc Billing Dept. cc Financial Services

The letter is for DRI internal depts. in response to the maintenance bill. I will send the letter with my payment stub. It explains that we will not be paying our maintenance fees now or ever with a full explanation as to why.

I also may send a copy to other persons or groups of interest simply to share our timeshare testimony.

I am just happy to have paid a timeshare company to take over my timeshare!!! It may have cost me some money but at least I am done with them. They also told me that I could not just sot paying my maintenance fee or they would take it to the credit agencies.

They are a fraud!!!

Hi Steve, I sent a response to your query to Wharfavon@aol.com. I hope it helps. Again, I believe that the timeshare management won't come out and tell you if you can walk away, but they should- it's written in the rulebook. I kept pressing for information and explanations until I had two DRI employees tell me that I could walk away. They wouldn't put it in writing since it was in the rulebook.

The rulebook says they "may" pursue collections but that can't apply to points (and i think deeds too) that are paid in full-no outstanding debt.

Maintenance fees are accrued annually and you cannot use your points unless these fees are paid. So don't pay them and they will terminate you-according to the rulebook.

To pay an intermediary company to do this for you is more of the same deception by yet another entity to take advantage of the member. Shameful.

I owned the floating time with another resort who eventually was taken over by Diamond. My time was paid for in full and maintenance up to date. Tried for YEARS to sell and even doing the buy back thing --to which DRI finally declared was no such thing. In the end, I did a Quit Claim Deed which means I just disassociated myself from the resort. It was well worth it to be out from under those snakes. You do have to file a copy of the quit claim deed with the county that the property is located to make it legal. This removes the property from your name and you are legally free from it. Don't trust a buy back program...you don't get squat from them--but you will be stress free forever. It was well worth it to be out from under sorry dealings as they do. Good luck .