Membership requirements for potential renters ($9.99 fee)

kathyd122 Dear Randy, As President of Redweek.com I can only guess that you are a busy man. As stated before, I found Redweek to be efficient in matching my needs with renters and very easy to use. However, after reading your statement that "40% of your members do not own a timeshare" brings other questions to mind , how are these numbers calculated (simple survey?), and how many of those people are returning customers? Also, could you share where you found the number of "three times as many people" make inquiries to Redweek as compared to free sites? And what is the percentage of these "inquiries" that actually turn into rentals. How many inquiries turn into successful buyers? I am interested in researching more information about this topic.

I am also, somewhat concerned with the statement that paying members make up a much better community to work with. WOW! I am alarmed that a President of a company would make such a statement. I understand your thought behind the statement, yet am puzzled as to why you would so easily lump everyone who does not want to pay a fee as potential scammers. What a shame - there are millions of people out there who are honest and forthright! Afterall, couldn't this be resolved by allowing the potential renter to at least email the owners and only then, if an agreement is made, require membership from the potential renter? Or, how about not allowing people access to view what is posted for rent or sale until they pay a membership fee? - that way people wouldn't be upset from spending hours researching listings on Redweek only to find they must then pay a fee to get the final contact information. Again, personal time wasted on behalf of a potential customer! After one week, I am still amazed that my one forum question has created such a stir! Maybe the topic requiring people to be a member to even discuss renting options with owners is bigger than Redweek wants to admit!

randy

We actually have data that you don't have.

Yes... "tire-kicking" and fraud are less likely on our site. Most crooks are pretty lazy. They'll go where they can make free contacts too.

{Darlene} I know this is a very old posting but isn't it a shame that nothing has changed.

One of the answers always stated was this fee was for our safety. Even with these fee's we have seen many reports from people on here being scammed. Just last couple days as a example we have Stephanier,Janes and Scottm writing post about being scammed. This list seems to keep growing everyday on here.

Some of these scams have come from renting or buying and have started from members that were able to retrieve the information from rental/sales sites or wishlist site.We have had out right rental scams by members trying to fill their data base with names of owners or possible buyers or renters.We have had these members using Redweek to snag clients to scam.

We were told by Redweek that crooks are pretty lazy and will go where they can make free contact. Seems that these people paid the fee and are not to lazy.

All this talk about safety with Redweek isn't getting your money back. They collected their membership and ad fee and talk of safety is cheap. All you will hear from some on here is sorry and you should have done more to check out the person you were dealing with. This is all true and I think we would all agree. Bottom line is most new members believe they are safe by paying this fee to join and this isn't the fact. You might feel a little more safe but that is it and you need to check the other person and their information out just as if it was off a free site.

I feel for anyone being scammed even though people dealing with upfront companies should know better by now with all the warnings.

There have been many post stating of being scammed off this site because these people will spend the $9.99 to join so honest people will be easier targets because of feeling safe after becoming a member.

Darlene

Darlene- I agree with your sentiments. I joined Redweek thinking it would offer some protection from scams. I tried to do my homework before sending someone money. Redweeks TOS specifies: "we do take special precautions to ensure our users are who they say they are", but when I was scammed the response I got from Redweek was as follows:

"Chances are, this person used a stolen credit card and address to pay for the RedWeek membership. I'm sorry I can't be of more assistance. Best regards, Alisa"

Thanks a lot. If Redweek is such a den of thieves, I'm better off at Craigslist where at least I expect this much and don't have to pay for it. Scott

scottm377 wrote:

Darlene- I agree with your sentiments. I joined Redweek thinking it would offer some protection from scams. I tried to do my homework before sending someone money. Redweeks TOS specifies: "we do take special precautions to ensure our users are who they say they are", but when I was scammed the response I got from Redweek was as follows:

"Chances are, this person used a stolen credit card and address to pay for the RedWeek membership.

I'm sorry I can't be of more assistance.

Best regards, Alisa"

Thanks a lot. If Redweek is such a den of thieves, I'm better off at Craigslist where at least I expect this much and don't have to pay for it. Scott

Redweek is not in the business of policing the entire internet for scammers. They are merely a timeshare ad site for timeshare owners. They can't verify that every member is or is not a scammer as some scammers WILL pay the $10 membership fee to lift email addresses here which numbers total in the million range.

However, Redweek will go beyond other timeshare ad sites to investigate scammers, and if need be, ban them IF they are reported to Redweek.

No internet site is 100% safe from scammers and Craig's List is the number one scam site on the internet. Just place your FREE ad there, and you'll see for yourself.

jayjay Redweek is not in the business of policing the entire internet for scammers.

You always preached safety as factor for the fee and now because of scams on Redweek your changing your reason or I would hope your thinking about the reason for fee.

What good does it do anyone that gets scam that Redweek bans them. How does this in anyway get them their money back,"It doesn't".

Craigslist is a free and very good site but as on all forums you must be careful while using it! I sold our daughter's car in 2006 when for graduation we gave her a new car. Sold it in one week for $16500 to a family in Henderson Nevada. I sold one timeshare in 2004 off CL in couple weeks and have rented twice when we stopped owning timeshares. We sold full bedroom set 2008 for $400 and it only took one day and never had a scam problem. You list free and have all e-mails go through Craigslist so you choose who you deal with and scammers don't have your information unless you give it to one just like on Redweek.

PHILL12

phill12 wrote:

What good does it do anyone that gets scammed that Redweek bans them. How does this in anyway get them their money back,it doesn't!

If Redweek is notified of a scammer then they will ban them. They can't police EVERY poster here unless they're notified just as no internet site can.

Quote:

I sold our daughter's car in 2006 when for graduation we gave her a new car. Sold it in one week for $16500 to a family outside of Las Vegas. I sold one timeshare in 2004 off CL in couple weeks and have rented twice when we stopped owning timeshares. We sold full bedroom set 2008 for $400 and it only took one day and never had a scam problem.

Cars and bedroom suites are not timeshares and just because you weren't scammed doesn't mean it can't happen. Does craiglist intervene when scammers are reported?

I like Redweek BECAUSE I had more success selling my 9 timeshares here than any other place on the internet and I like their ease of surfing and placing ads, simple as that. I don't mind paying fees for success.

"They can't police EVERY poster here unless they're notified just as no internet site can."

There are a number of ways they could provide some assurance. How about a feedback score like eBay, or so many bulletin boards use (something like "JayJay, member since 2001, 270000 posts, 12 positive reviews from renters"). That would at least make people take extra caution if someone had just joined the site and had a zero feedback score.

Without something like that, I would never use this site again. Burn me once, shame on you...

scottm377 wrote:

"They can't police EVERY poster here unless they're notified just as no internet site can."

There are a number of ways they could provide some assurance. How about a feedback score like eBay, or so many bulletin boards use (something like "JayJay, member since 2001, 270000 posts, 12 positive reviews from renters"). That would at least make people take extra caution if someone had just joined the site and had a zero feedback score.

Without something like that, I would never use this site again. Burn me once, shame on you...

Scott,

The feedback such as on ebay works because the turn around is much quicker. The scammers that hit RedWeek usually are hitting the RedWishes and by the time people discover that there is a problem (which seems to take months) and would have feedback we have already shut down the scammer's account and have done what we can. When we are notified of any problems with anyone from other members we always add notes on their account. If someone is wanting to do business with an individual and wants to know if we have heard of any problems we can definitely provide a yes or no. But again, that doesn't necessarily mean that the person is going honest, it just means that we haven't been notified of anything "yet". The only way to completely protect yourself is to use a Vacation Escrow Company. We have warnings on the RedWishes pages to be cautious of potential scammers. If there was more we could do, we would.

Thanks, Marty

This response is totally untimely....I've been a member for 10+ years and given "anyone" for $14.00 can sign up to surf looking for a rental is not protecting our interests. I understand if they don't find what they are looking for they get refunded from RedWeek? How ridiculous is that? I have had inquiries with promises to follow through and then I wait and wait and wait...Now I look like the bad "guy" saying this is a no go. Redweek really needs to better qualify and keep the $$$ on someone one randomly looking for a site to maybe rent.