Diamond Resorts reduces owner benefits again!

My biggest complaint against Diamond International Resorts is that even when I try to book 12 months out there is never anything available. My claim is that they have oversold points and simply do not have enough accommodations available. They flat out deny this and tell me that I'm not planning properly..Since they don't allow bookings sooner that 12 months before I don't know how else I can plan. Any sugesstions?

Bonnies338 Have you tried your home resort? We usually stay in Sedona in the spring. A one bedroom at Los Abrigados is 3000 points We own 10,200 points roughly $2300 in MF Booking com offers a week for late March early April cheapest $1564 for a week. Must be spring break because sounds expensive. We can stay three weeks at Los Ab and have 1,200 points left over for $2070 ($.23 pp x 9000) MF but would cost $4692 Booking com I am probably one of DRIs most outspoken critics due to the lack of secondary market and dramatically rising MF, but I have always maintained we can still find value at our home resort and sometimes other places. Desirable locations like Hilton Head Key West coast of California is another story. While we have available far less than what was promised we stick with the 59 days or less bookings to get 50% off standard point requirements.

Diamond owners should check out RedWeek's latest, and longest, report on Diamond's sales practices and court cases. http://blog.redweek.com/2017/02/diamond-resorts-settlements-and-class-actions.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RedWeekTimeshareBlog+%28The+RedWeek.com+Timeshare+Blog%29

1 Billion, BILLION? Are you sure.

Can you please post the emails you received from the people you contacted. I've never heard back from anyone and can't contact anyone and can't find any of the information about anyone you named. Thanks and where did you get the Billion thing from. I saw $800,000, which is mostly attorney fees. Of course the attorneys made the money. Ridiculous.

I love education but I am sorry, most of this looks like fake news. Please confirm. ASAP.

Please post what you own so we can help you out. Stating claims like that make no sense to people who have owned for a long time. Your guaranteed to book and no they don't hold back inventory. Read your legal trust documents. It's illegal to do so.

I will help you if you can

Please list

What do you own. How many points. Is it a week. Week and unit number. Home resort Are you using Diamond Or using Interval.

If your using this to just vent, then no one wins and misinformation spreads.

On one hand I am about to give up trying to help people out because I just bought 4 great owner ships for almost nothing.

I tried 5 times this year to book a reservation at different places,1 was international,12 months ahead,you guessed,no availability,9 month ahead for Yellowstone,no availability,southern California,you guessed it,Palm Springs,got a weekend ,NOT at the place I preferred,San Luis Obispo,again nothing.This is so ridiculous,and we have Silver status. Every time we complaint,we we advised to buy more points,obviously that's not true.I cannot believe this scam.We have been Diamond owners since 2009,only places that sometimes work out,are Las Vegas.

Hi Linda - my name is Cody Seaman and I am desperately trying to help my aging parents stop paying for their time-share at Los Abrigados. I'm at my whit's end and I saw your post from 2015 and thought I would grasp at straws to see if you still have your time-share or successful of getting rid of it? I greatly appreciate your time!!!

My direct email address is, if you would prefer continuing this convo there and outside of "Red Week".

Thank you! Cody Seaman

lindab618 wrote:

I am an owner of a time-share at Los Abrigados in Sedona, AZ. With the Diamond International takeover of ILX (original timeshare company), my "points" are not enough to use during the peak times, although my original purchase gave me the right to book any one of the 52 weeks of the year, without restriction. DI's response to me about the loss of value, is to buy more points.

I feel your pain. I have no intention of putting any more money into what is already a bad situation (sharply rising annual maintenance fees).

I'm not Linda but I will give you a bit of advice. Firstly, I recommend you remove your email address from a public forum like this because you will start getting inundated with e-mails from scam and questionable companies that claim they will get you out of your time share if you pay them an upfront fee.

If this is Diamond that you own, have you checked out Diamond's deed back program? Contact Diamond and inquire.

I got out of my Los Abrigados time-share by paying DRI $250 in some kind of buy back program. I don't remember the details, but for that one small payment, I am no longer responsible for the constantly escalating maintenance fees for a time-share that lost all value (and reasonable opportunities to use it).

Good luck.

Linda

This is 100% wrong. Read the owners guide from 2010 to 2017.

I give up. This site has so much misinformation I give up. I'm a happy owner and if you read the documents from 2010 it states what the values are.

I honestly think your are posting this info because your work for a resale company because your the only one that would post something like this. open your owners Manuel from 2010 and it clearly states why those values are higher. Nothing has changed.

I'm done trying to help people on here. I'm a glass half full person and it seems everyone like you online is a glass half empty. You have a motive.

I will gladly call you, post it online and make a video and show you on video and show the old owners Manuel from 2010.....what you are referring to. You have a motive and I'm not sure what it is. I think you just use this site to complain and make people sell their timeshare for less then what it's worth. I think that's what you do. Take advantage and buy real estate from them. Because the docs are clear as day.

If you read them and I am wrong. Post a picture. I am reading them now. Prove me wrong. Don't say anything. Post a picture of the documents.

Best of luck Brad

Owner's Guide? I never got any such thing. A timeshare is the only costly thing people buy that is worthless on the resale market before the ink dries on the contract. It is amazing to me that there are people who are content paying maintenance fees that are far more than the value received.

My advice to Linda is to tell Diamond that your parents are aged, cannot use the property, and can no longer pay the maintenance fees. Offer to relinquish the membership but don't pay them anything. They can sell it to somebody else. Don't pay anybody to get rid of it.

Thank you so much for great advice!

Thank you Linda!!!!

You are 100% wrong.

Look up there public reports, they buy $8,000,000 a quarter back. If you own something they don't want than it's worth nothing. Hawaii or Daytona Beach your set. Orlando. Worthless.

Go read the reports. It's public information. The CEO stated it on the 3rd page of their 2016 earnings call.

Again, this site just annoys me. It's a lot of people trying to steal TImeShare from others for a dollar when a lot of it is worth 20,000. This site is weird. I post truths and they get taken down. Just watch. This will be taken off in 24 hours. But look it up. It's online. FACTS.

Bradford I just read your post from three months ago re the billion dollar class action and the $800,000 AZ AG settlement. Jeff Weir has written about the billion dollar class action previously posted filed by one of the oldest law firms in Nevada, Albright Stoddard Warnick & Albright in federal court. It is for US Collection only and the plaintiffs had to be 60 years old or older at the time of signing. The 55 page complaint is linked in our article http://insidetimeshare.com/1billion-law-suit-diamond-resorts-international/

The billion dollar class action has nothing to do with the $800,000 you mentioned of which $150,000 in fees went to the AZ AG. The AG issued an Assurance of Discontinuance 37 pages as a result of over 400 complaints filed with the AZ AG alleging Diamond violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act. As a result of the AOD, Diamond has launched a program called CLARITY offering better disclosure. The AOD states sales representatives cannot deviate from written sales materials but it doesn't seem to be very strictly enforced according to comments our Advocacy group has received.

Bradford: Below from Diamond's CLARITY document in response to the Arizona Attorney General Assurance of Discontinuance. According to National Mortgage News, DRI is expected to have the highest foreclosure rate in the industry this year - 18%. They have one of the longest foreclosure periods 180 days so if their foreclosure period were more in line with their competitors at 60 to 90 days the foreclosure rate would be much higher. What you are referring to is not a buy back program. When people foreclose or surrender it's called recycling inventory because points taken back are resold for full value as stated in the 2016 annual report. In the annual report this was explained as a benefit to stock investors when the company was public. This is the official statement from CLARITY:

DIAMOND DOES NOT OFFER A BUYBACK PROGRAM AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATION REGARDING TAX DEDUCTIONS, REFINANCING OPPORTUNITIES, OR THAT THERE WILL BE A SECONDARY MARKET FOR THE SALE OF POINTS. POINTS DO NOT TYPICALLY APPRECIATE IN VALUE. (form 31827.0117)

The 64 members of the Licensed Timeshare Resale Broker Association will list any major timeshare except Diamond due to their restrictions on use of seconary points. You can contact any of the members to verify. Some will list deeded weeks but I'm told even that market is weak.

It's not as hard to get out of these contracts as consumers think. Most companies are putting it in their budget to pay for cancellations now. I know my old site budgeted for a few million because they know there are MANY companies now that are assisting with cancellations.

The reason many companies often collect fees upfront is because no one wants to pay someone to get them out of their contract...... a lot of people feel as though they lost twice if they have to pay ANOTHER fee just to cancel something they have paid a ton of money into. Once the consumer is free and clear of their deed or contract they fail to pay the company that helped cancel their contract. Just being honest of how it works and why some companies ask to be paid upfront.

Whats even more sad is when we get calls that people want help SELLING their timeshare. That's like selling someone a lemon car. Many timeshares are for list for sale for $1 on eBay because they just want relief from MF.

Timeshares aren't necessarily bad, it's just people aren't properly taught how to purchase them.

i would also like to know who,you used and DEFINATELY want in on the lawsuit!!!

I was reading some of the messages posted to this site. Seems I have fallen victim to Diamond Resorts also. Could you please tell me the name of the company you used to take the timeshare off your hands. I have found one but there are so many uncertainties out there I am very sceptical. Can you please help.

Stephanie Kearney

Stephanie there are many unhappy and uninformed people on this site. I would advise you to go to tug2.net and get more objective information and guidance. There is a plethora of information about timeshares and a section dedicated to Diamond alone with owner input. This site typically has many owners who are unhappy and don’t often know how Diamond works. Now saying that, I want you to know that I know salesman with Diamond can be misleading, but there can be value gained from ownership.