Comments (50)
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Betsy Y.
Oct 15, 2022Diamond Owners need to get together. We attended the presentation by HGV last night in Chandler AZ to learn how the acquisition would affect our interests - we expected a diminuation of our points but no way did we expect Hilton to expect us to pay $60,000 to bring us into the Hilton family - for our timeshare we have owned for nearly 30 years!!! Also strange how they said we missed the "pre-merger" option which was a cost of only $18,000 to move to the Hilton program. All of this is very strange and seems not quite legal - Hilton buys all of Diamond unsold properties and we as owners no longer have access to them unless we buy in plus pay our annual maintenance fees? How is this sane? Also, we thought the hard timeshare sales tactics of badmouthing the competition and making an offer contingent on your accepting it immediately were a thing of the past.! NOT WiTH HILTON! We took a pass and will seek ways to no get out of our ownership - Hiton can cover our maintenance fees themselves! I'm not sure the properties are even worth the annual maintenance fees let alone the additional buy in $ they want1
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Dan H.
Oct 12, 2022We had the displeasure of attending our owners update yesterday here at Polo Towers so we could learn all the wonderful benefits of the Hilton merger. What a joke! Once again they use scare tactics and carefully worded phrases in their attempts to have you pay again for access that we already purchased. They will promote that it’s a “no pressure” friendly meeting to answer any questions when in fact it’s just their opportunity to squeeze more money out of your wallets! I had truly hoped that Hilton would prove to be a more ethical corporation than we experienced with Diamond but unfortunately we’ve found that the greed just changed names!
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Rosalind J.
Oct 05, 2022I got a call from a Diamond person asking me to buy more points so I could opt into HGV max as a premier plus member. I am Gold with Diamond with 39,000 points and he wanted me to purchase up to 54,000. I told him no. Supposedly HGV Max is to launch today (10/5/22). I've been waiting to hear something about opting in. I was told that there would be a fee associated with opting in--more points--who knows? No one gives you any answers. All they want is money. If anyone on this forum hears of a class action, count me in. I'll check back later.
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M A.
Sep 29, 2022Thanks for the comments - I just went to the "update meeting about the merger" tonight (9/29/22) - ....it was just a sales pitch like all of you said below. Yep, they first offered me 4500 points and a cost of $16,000, then 2000 points for a cost of $8,300. I turned both of them down. 1. Because that is a lot of additional money - I already own a deeded week and paid that much for 9000 points. 2. My maintenance fees would go up an additional $870 3. I thought this was going to be an awesome thing, for Diamond and Hilton to merger, in no way did my naive brain think they were going to CHARGE ME MORE!!! I told them no as well and asked if I was going to be the trouble child by not paying an additional $16K and joining the HGV program and how would I access trades without the HGV program (you don't do the upgrade, you don't get HGV). The answer was yes, you no longer can bank with interval (even if you have a membership on your own with interval international, Hilton only uses RCI) and you have to use Diamond's crappy Destination Flex program (which I never use because it is not user friendly). My thought is I am going to just sit tight and see what else they offer - this honestly can't be it. If nobody signs up, then they will be forced to go back to the drawing board. This merger doesn't sound like it was in any owner's favor even the Hilton owners.
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John B.
Sep 10, 2022We are Diamond Gold, Hilton told us last week at the Las Vegas Polo Towers that only 10% of Diamond owners have not upgraded to Max, (I bet not) they offered us $14,900 to upgrade, $1,600 down and $300 a month for 10 years.) and if we did not our $400+ month maintenance fees would increase to $1,000 in January. We told them we'd think about it, and they said the offer was only good for today.
We are going to wait to the beginning of the year and see what they do. I agree with everyone that they are going to try to squeeze us out, but one thing we all have are % deeds in those proprieties, I don't see how they can sell them, if we own them? So if enough of us stand strong they'll have to deal will us to get rid of some of those proprieties in the portfolio.
I think a class action will probably come, but still a little early right now, maybe next year.
I am interested, if those Diamond owners who did upgrade to Max, I wonder if Hilton got them to sign over their deeds in the Diamond properties? Does anyone know?
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James V.
Sep 02, 2022Both Hilton and Diamond are trying to screw the owners out of another $20K.
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James V.
Sep 02, 2022What's funny is the crooks running this timeshare want $20K from HGVC owners to use Diamond Properties, but then they also want $20K for Diamond owners to use HGVC properties. This merger should have just expanded the placed you could go, but instead turned into a money grab from the timeshare crooks.
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James V.
Sep 02, 2022HGVC Owner here. To get access to use Diamond properties, they want another $20K membership. I'm thoroughly pissed off at HGVC.
The HGV Max program will fail. No one will buy something they should get for free.
Now I'm selling my HGVC property. Terrible decision makers at HGVC.
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William W.
Aug 21, 2022Need to find attorney to represent Diamond clients, Diamond got a billion dollars in the buy out, we are owners, where is our buy out.
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James W.
Jul 27, 2022Had my owner's update in Feb 22. I'm a gold member in diamond. At the update I was told that I only had 3 choices with the merger. #1, continue as is, but diamond would increase my maintenance fees by $800 per year going forward starting in 2024. #2, request a transition out of ownership, but my cost would be 2 years of maintenance fee ($13K), plus $1K for every contract where we bought extra points (5). So my total to walk away would be $18K. Option 3, was buy an extra 4500 points for $20K to be grandfathered into the unknown HGV plan. The so called plus for option 3 was, if we called into a special diamond department during a specified window of time and booked 20K of our 30K points at a non-diamond resort, then diamond would apply a credit of $6500 towards our maintenance fees. Our current maintenance fees for the gold level our $6500. So option 3 was the only viable option at the time for me. I feel like I was sucker punched during my owner's update. Now my question is, how long will it take HGV to throw the BS diamond told me out the back door, then try to force me to spend more $$$??? I spoke to my buddy tonight and he owns a Wyndham timeshare. He's at their Silver level and his maintenance fees are $2300. Why are diamond fees more than double that? In the near future, I'm guessing that HGV will only drag us diamond owners thru the mud a few more times before it's all said and done!!!
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Brad L.
Jul 25, 2022Recently was told that Diamond properties would be refurbished by Hilton. How can you excess maintenance fees on properties that are no longer associated with the agreement? Being denied the right of use in any contract is a breach of the original contract . Maintenance should also be lowered because the community of properties are a smaller selection. I would advise everyone to seek counsel and start a lawsuit. In biblical terms, hire a David to slay these Goliaths who don't care about consumers.
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Lisa E.
Jul 25, 2022We are in the same boat. My only question is can we legally do something about this? They are pressuring us to buy as well and I’m refusing. There has to be something we can do legally. We’re platinum members and pay outrageous yearly maintenance fees. Worse move we ever made.
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Gerard C.
Jun 18, 2022I am Diamond member since 2007 and last year even upgraded to a platinum membership status. Now that HGV purchased Diamond we are being told by their sales staff that we now have to upgrade to Hilton HGV Max by paying an additional $20k in order to access to Hilton properties are else we will be only limited to Diamond's diminishing properties under their US collection. This is a very unfair deal and we were all kept in the dark by Diamond resorts and now Hilton's grand scam is being unveiled. I am sure a lot of you are affected by this and wondering if there is a legal action against Diamond/Hilton is in the offing. If so please reach out to me as I too would like to seek legal justice in this matter.
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Nancy C.
Jun 15, 2022 (edited)We got suckered into these timeshares as well. The presentation is just a sales pitch so they can get paid. I bought into Diamond Resort and then the Hilton because the salesperson said we could sell it and or rent it out. I don't know if he spoke the truth. Any ideas from anyone on how to let this timeshare go? We don't travel as much and our financial situation has changed. We are new to this and I have no clue what to do. Once we pay off the loan can we sell it back. Is it even worth paying for it or letting it go, the maintenance fees is no joke.
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Imari A.
Jun 11, 2022 (edited)What they are not telling you amidst all those marketing marveling and chanting of how great Hilton is, and how much they “did a study” looking at all the problems and complaints that diamond owners had worn their vacation packages, is that they are effectively FORCING diamond owners to buy Hilton points and convert over to the new HVG system. On the surface they say, “oh we let you guys have a grandfather clause and if you want to remain in diamond, you can… BUT, the caveat is, they are going to strip all the diamond resorts locations except for about 16 that are in the trust OUT of your diamond resorts system… with the proclamation that even those resorts are subject to change at any time… thusfor diamond owners who already spent thousands and thousands to own and are comfortable with the system and properties they have access to, must either spend a minimum of between 20 and 40 thousand dollars to purchase the minimum point allocation of 4500 points to convert their diamond ownership to hiltons HVG brand, or have their diamond ownership devalued down to 16 resorts, most of them the crappiest in the diamond portfolio save 4 or 5. So in other words, Hilton acquired diamond to take all its resorts to feed to their members, while locking diamond owners out of them, and forcing all the diamond owners to buy their more expensive project. It’s typical big business take over bs… and it’s the equivalent of Elon musk coming to your home and showing you a video of how great Teslas are and encouraging you to test drive one… then as soon as you do, confiscating the car you already own and paid for, and making you buy the Tesla… or just sit in the driveway because they took out your engine. Well I’m not playing along. The customer is still right, and we still have choices. Hilton will never see a dime of my money with this strong arm tactic.
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Chris F.
May 24, 2022Javier - that is my question as well. It seems unless we spend more money we will have less to choose from. If they rebrand a Diamond property it becomes a Hilton therefore no longer being available to us.
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Javier M.
May 06, 2022I am a Diamond silver owner and I just went through a ‘Hilton Update’ presentation. Of course it was nothing but a sales pitch. The main point was that i had to buy into Hilton Max. Otherwise i will not have access to Hilton properties and some Diamond properties that do not meet Hilton standards will be closed. Well I refused. I have paid enough to this timeshare crap. Plus I asked if there will be reduced number of resorts for Diamond members then what was sold to us is no longer valid. Should not our contacts be canceled and money returned?
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Robert H.
Apr 05, 2022 (edited)So HGVC and Diamond will still technically be separate until enough owners upgrade to HGVC MAX... And/or HGVC sells enough new "points packages in the HGVC MAX trust.... Very disappointed that HGVC was selling the Diamond acquisition as growth i properties that owners will have access to yet, even those that upgraded last year are being required to upgrade again if you want to participate in the MAX program opening up the soon to be rebranded Diamond properties.... I imagine that Diamond owners will have some expenses to bring many of the resorts up to Hilton standards.... I told them to suck wind during my presentation. They sold the Diamond acquisition as something we would have access to last year. But. NOOOO.... Only of you give us more money.... Even at HGVC Elite status.... Even after upgrading less than a year ago.... HGVC and Diamond owners alike should push back hard on this.... Tell them what you think!!!!!
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Deborah L.
Feb 26, 2022As Diamond owner, we were told today if we do not spend about $20,000 to move to Hilton we could loose most resorts be were promised when buying! And they are still trying to sell new membership when the sales staff clearly have no clue what is happening! OR the sales staff is just using a high pressure scare tactic! We walked out of "update" today and so did others. I would hope Hilton is large enough they are not trying to do this to previous owners.
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Vera T.
Feb 11, 2022owning time share properties is very stressful. When you learn the answers they change the questions and we are always in limbo. I dread the day that I have to make a reservation. It is always stressful. Now are asking me to buy into Hilton and I thought I have already bought into a time share that says I can travel the world and now I have limits. Too bad they are so greedy.
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