Tuesday 28 February 2012
Wednesday 22 February 2012
RDO ACTIVITIES & SALICIOUS TIMESHARE WEBSITES
Who are the RDO?
The RDO are the Resort Developers Organisation, www.rdo.org originally based in Brussels and who have recently moved to a small office London. Their main sponsor is RCI who use them as a controlled credibility vehicle to protect their members resorts by alleging that everyone who is not one of their members is a crook.
Their “enforcement officer” is an ex Spanish policeman called Alberto Garcia, who has on their behalf launched a salacious site called www.mindtimeshare.me . If you look at their websites you will note that they are running an attack campaign against mainly ITRA in an attempt to discredit us to scare and dissuade potential claimants from dealing with us. This is inspiring because it shows how worried RCI are by our actions. We have launched a new website www.mindtimeshare.co.uk with only one page as a way of hitting back. Please read it and you see a challenge that we made to the RDO nearly two years ago to which we are still awaiting a reply. This will open your eyes and amuse you.
Timeshare Complaints –Timeshare Does Not Die With You!
The following letter was published by the Guardian together with their comprehensive reply. This story is sadly typical of the situation Owners Action hear from many disgruntled timeshare owners.
My wife's mother died recently and included in her estate was a week at a timeshare property in Scotland that she and her late husband had bought in 1988. When my wife informed the company, Macdonald Hotels, the owner had died she was told that her parents had bought the timeshare in perpetuity and that she and her two sisters were now liable to pay the annual maintenance fee, currently £450. Not only do they have to pay this ever-increasing annual amount but our children would become liable to pay them when we die and so on for time ever more. BL, High Wycombe, Bucks
Macdonald Hotels admitted that selling timeshare is difficult and it might take some time to sell this out-of-season week. Occasionally, some go at auction for almost nothing but that does at least free you from the annual charge.
I wondered if it is possible for a timeshare owner to avoid passing on the liability to beneficiaries. You can't simply leave the timeshare out of your will because it is still part of your estate. Nor can you choose to leave it to "no one". Executors are responsible for administering the estate and also for paying the liabilities, which includes ongoing annual fees. They do not have to use their own money but would have to liquidise other assets in the estate to pay fees until the timeshare is sold.
Your wife and her sisters could refuse to accept the timeshare but they would have to renounce their entire inheritance. They can't cherry pick the assets they want.
Another thought is donating the timeshare to someone with whom you have no connection, perhaps the supreme leader of North Korea. Some owners had managed to leave their timeshare to dubious characters in eastern Europe, through a PO Box number, but this idea is flawed. Macdonald charges an annual amount split between the owners – so the fewer who pay, the more it costs the others. To complicate matters further, the constitution says you can only sell your timeshare to approved people.
Macdonald has told you it is considering whether to accept back the weeks, paying you nothing in return, but first every owner, possibly 52 people, would have to agree to surrender their ownership or switch to a different property.
source: www.guardian.co.uk
One of the commonest timeshare complaints is that contracts pass to timeshare owners’ heirs when they die, who are then obliged to keep up the maintenance fees, which often increase at a much higher rate than inflation.
At Owners Action, we seek to support the consumer in timeshare disputes. To learn more about our services, visit www.ownersaction.com
Timeshare Fraud! Timeshare rep Claims Timeshare can Cure Cancer
The following article, published by www.moneysavingexpert.com, struck such a chord with us at International Timeshare Refund Action (ITRA) that we’ve reproduced most of it here.
Timeshare rep claimed: timeshare = no cancer
Pushy timeshare reps often use bribes to lure unsuspecting holidaymakers into parting with their life savings. But unfortunately for them, they’d picked up a MoneySaver…
Little did I know I was in for a three-and-a-half-hour sales ordeal that would use my own cash to hold me to ransom. They even claimed timeshares prevent cancer.
As I told them quite frankly at the outset, I had absolutely no intention of buying anything and was purely in it for the freebie. They were magnanimous – “That’s fine! There’s absolutely no pressure.” Considering the Rambo-esque sales tactics that followed, I’ve since decided they don’t consider anything short of a punch in the face as ‘pressure’.
Before I was allowed to attend, they checked I had all the ingredients for a mammoth impulse buy: earning above a threshold, partner in tow, and carrying an approved payment method. We were cheerfully packed into a minibus with a dozen other couples and told to enjoy our ‘free treat’ (final check: “Did you all say you have Mastercard? Good.”)
The minibus pulled up at a new hotel building, where we were herded upstairs to a windowless, low-ceiling conference room crammed with sales staff. Here are the tricks used in the sales pitches that followed, and more importantly, the survival strategies we used to grab the freebie and run.
The tactics they used:
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The show ain’t over till they say so. On arrival, we had to put down a refundable cash deposit of about $50 and sign a form saying we would forfeit this, and the promised gift card, if we left before the timeshare pitch was finished (which had no specified end time – eek). There was no mention of this when we signed up, so we had no choice but to pay up or leave.
Incidentally, I say ‘about $50′, as bizarrely, neither myself or my partner can remember exactly how much it was. I can only assume it’s because a) it was sprung on us with absolutely no warning or b) the ensuing sales onslaught triggered a mild form of retrograde amnesia.
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Wear ‘em down. The sales pitch started late in the morning and lasted several hours into the afternoon. We were greeted with tea and coffee at the start, but there were no further refreshments, nowhere to get lunch – and if you didn’t want to forfeit your freebie and deposit, no way to leave without their approval.
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Divide and conquer. There were two parts to the pitch, starting with a presentation. Each couple was instantly assigned their own sales rep, who followed them throughout (more on this delightful practice later), and insisted on sitting with them during the presentation. Maximum sales patter, minimum privacy.
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Share the love. Having stated only couples could attend the day, we were all made to publicly declare our love – one couple at a time, moving around the room – followed by a kiss. I’m not joking. Each was accompanied by loud, satisfied ‘aaaaahs’ from the sales staff, and immediately used for the “if you love them, you’ll buy them a timeshare” tactic.
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Free chocolate. All at MSE Towers know this is my Achilles heel, and I must admit being pressured into spending tens of thousands on a holiday apartment is far more appealing when you add free chocs (incidentally, it was a Hershey’s kiss, woven into the presentation as reinforcement of the “love = timeshare” message).
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Buy a holiday home and you won’t get cancer. Stay with me a moment here. Yes, that’s what they said in the presentation. The equation was: your own holiday home = more holidays = less stress = stress causes cancer (?) Therefore timeshare = no cancer. I’m not being figurative, they literally spent several minutes arguing this bizarre equation.
I have since decided that, compared to what followed, the presentation was the ‘carrot’. What came next can only be described as a large number of sticks used to metaphorically beat us into parting with all our savings.
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Tell a sad story. The second part of the pitch was a face-to-face ‘chat’ with our allocated sales rep. I braced myself for the hard sell, but our saleslady started by casually flipping through a photo album. And pointing out all the people in it who were now dead. There were a lot.
The entire episode was incredibly odd – I presume they were her friends, but I can’t say for certain. They could have been people who had refused to buy timeshares. Either way, I can only assume this was meant as a reminder to seize the day, but it made us feel pretty uncomfortable.
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Call in the ‘bad cop’. The face-to-face hard sell started. When I disagreed with the (frankly ludicrous) ‘savings’ they’d argued we’d make – which amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars – our sales rep called over what can only be described as the head sales-bully.
With all the charm and tact of a Rottweiler with a machete, he snapped at me for not “understanding the value”. I was then barked the ‘savings’ again at twice the volume. He shouted at me for so long, I literally had to stare passively at my lap until he went away. Our persistent, human saleslady seemed a godsend by comparison.
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No solo bathroom breaks. After two hours of constant sales pressure, I excused myself to pop to the loo. My other half said he needed to go too. The timeshare saleslady insisted on ‘coming along’, and immediately wedged herself between us until my partner departed for the gents.
When we got into the ladies’ bathroom, she stuck her head round a cubicle, flushed immediately, and walked straight back outside to wait for my other half, ensuring there was no conferring.
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The non-sequitur is king. If you aren’t going to buy property for a number of sensible reasons, why not ignore logic altogether? We had some real gems thrown at us by the sales staff. Me: “No thank you, I’m really not interested.” Saleslady: “Why don’t you think you deserve nice things?”
To read about how the author coped with this onslaught, continue reading here
Over the years of operating, ITRA has entered into dialogue with thousands of timeshare owners from which we have discovered a pattern of abuse, deception and even fraudulent issues that have been systematically perpetrated by many of the major timeshare industry players to the detriment of owners.
To find out more about what we do, visit www.itra.net
British Timeshare Operator Arrested by Hungarian Authorities
Accused of Timeshare fraud, a British businessman faces charges in Hungary
A Hungarian timeshare operation run by Britons Michael Turner and Jason McGoldrick collapsed in 2005. Hungarian prosecutors used European Arrest Warrants to detain the pair, saying the company's creditors were the victims of fraud, but both men have denied any wrongdoing.
Now Mr Turner, who has already spent four months without charge in a Hungarian jail, is claiming British judges should be given more power to test the evidence in cases before Britons are extradited under the European Arrest Warrant.
The 29-year-old businessman from Corfe Castle, Dorset, must return to Budapest next week to answer allegations over a failed timeshare company which collapsed in 2005.
read more: www.granthamjournal.co.uk
At ITRA, we have discovered a pattern of abuse, deception and even fraudulent issues that have been systematically perpetrated by many of the major timeshare industry players to the detriment of owners.
Our objective is to support the consumer in timeshare disputes.
Find out more at www.itra.net
Friday 17 February 2012
ITRA – How to avoid being caught in a Timeshare Scam
5 minute video with lots of tips on how to avoid being caught in a Timeshare scam.
ITRA
Our objective is to support the consumer in timeshare disputes. We have discovered a pattern of abuse, deception and even fraudulent issues that have been systematically perpetrated by many of the major timeshare industry players to the detriment of owners.
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ITRA
International Timeshare Refund Action
Comments can be left at the end of this post, if you want to follow the original thread on YouTube click here
For more advice in video format follow ITRA on our YouTube channel by clicking here
To find out more about the International Timeshare Refund Action ITRA visit our website www.itra.net
Wednesday 15 February 2012
ITRA - New laws introduced to protect consumers of timeshare and holiday clubs
New laws have been introduced to protect people from timeshare and holiday club scams - but Shropshire solicitors are urging people to continue to seek advice before they get involved.
International Timeshare Refund Action – ITRA
On February 23 2011 a new law came into action to protect consumers of timeshare and holiday clubs as the existing Timeshare directive only applied to certain products and had a number of loopholes.
These loopholes were exploited by unscrupulous companies and individuals in the Timeshare industry; leaving consumers as the potential victims of numerous scams.
Linder Myers Solicitors, based in High Street, Shrewsbury, is in the process of raising a group action for all those who have been affected by issues with their timeshare or holiday club. The firm is assisting consumers in disputes with Club La Costa and the Petchey Group of Companies.
Solicitor Stephen Boyd today said: "Holiday Clubs fell outside of the protection afforded to customers by the Timeshare Act 1992 (later amended in 2003 and 2007). This means that if someone purchased a Holiday Club, they would not have the right to a cooling-off period that would have automatically applied if purchasing a traditional timeshare.
"There have been similar developments in relation to products described as "fractional ownership" or in products which are in reality timeshares, but which relate to boats, cruise ships, or aeroplanes.
"In 2008 a new European Timeshare directive was adopted and it was a requirement that all European Member States should bring this into law by February 23, 2011. The purpose of the directive was to clearly give consumers greater protection."
Key features of the directive are that holiday clubs are covered in the cooling off period, shorter Timeshare contracts are allowed, all types of holiday accommodation are covered including caravans or cruise ships, Timeshare can be resold by the consumers and the introduction of exchange services.
"Another issue that has been addressed by the new Directive relates to the resale industry," added Stephen. "In recent years there have been a number of complaints received by Linder Myers regarding individuals who have contracted with companies offering to assist them with the resale of their Timeshare.
"Unfortunately in the past this has been another 'scam'. This will change under the new directive to help to eradicate this issue for consumers.
"The new regulations will be enforced by the Office of Fair Trading and Local Authority Trading Standards Officers in the UK. Failure to comply with the directive could allow for consumers to bring a civil claim against the trader.
Consumers now have the time to take away any contracts to do with Timeshares and holiday clubs before parting with any money. We strongly advise that you take legal advice before signing anything."
Source: Midlands Business News
To comment on the original article click here
International Timeshare Refund Action – ITRA
To find out more about the International Timeshare Refund Action visit our website www.itra.net
Related ITRA links
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Tuesday 14 February 2012
Timeshare Points Class Action Settlement
Owners Action report that a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of RCI Points members is moving towards a possible settlement.
Owners Action are a firm of specialist consultants who deal with disputes within the timeshare industry.
Owners Action have been appointed as European marketing agents by International Timeshare Refund Action (ITRA) to generate and promote consumer awareness regarding a proposed Group Litigation against RCI Europe and others.
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