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| Subject: cash rebates? is it true? | |
Author: Kong | [ Next Thread |
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] Date Posted: Thu, Oct 27 2005, 18:05:51 i have an ATC membership when i upgraded from a timeshare with RCI. I got the ATC before i read abt all these timeshare scams. I regretted it but i treated it as a failed investment. Im still paying the installments which will be completed by end of this yr. But I would like to share my experience in reselling my membership since I fell victim to timeshare 4 yrs ago. Since the start of this yr, i keep getting calls from different companies telling me that i shd sell off the timeshare as its useless and that ATC does not fulfil anything that it promises. I also get offers of cash back systems etc. One of those companies that called me was ProBiz. The consultant claimed that she can sell off at prices as high as 80% of the amount i paid. But she want me to pay some fees lst. I do not like the idea of paying more money to get rid of my unwanted ATC membership. Also, by then, i have already read abt the reselling scams, so i refused. having checked this forum, im glad i didnt sign up I already feel cheated for my 20k paid to ATC so far and really dont wish to be cheated further. More recently another company called me up. It was the same person who assisted me when i was upgrading from my RCI to ATC. She claimed that she can help me recover the amount i paid to ATC (ard 20k so far). Anyway, I cant really remember the company name, its some company run by a foreign. Eager to get rid of my membership, I went to the office with a fren. There, the same person whom i signed the upgrade with (at IRN) greeted me. Apparently she has left IRN due to the bad management who dont take care of consumers like us. She reassured me that their company (the one she is representing now) isnt a timeshare company, but a company dealing with overseas property dealings. she claimed that her company wants to buy over certain memberships that fits their requirements as freebies for their overseas property customers. My membership type happens to fit in the requirements and the company is ready to buy the membership from me via a cash rebates system. I was assured that I will receive 90% of the amount i paid to ATC at the end of 3 yrs. I was assured that i will receive a certificate from a foreign trustee for the amount that i will be paid for surrendering the membership to them. I will only surrender my membership once I get the full amount and I get to enjoy the club membership during those 3 yrs before my rebates comes in. I was also informed of a ~{!.~}secret~{!/~}, ie, ATC will increase the subscription fee drastically and hundreds of ATC members already joined them for this rebate system. They claimed that the moment I fully paid my upgrade, I will be contacted for another upgrade that~{!/~}s going to cause 12k more. Promises were made that shd I have any disputed with ATC over bookings etc, the company~{!/~}s lawyers will stand for me etc Everything seems perfect until she mention that my 20k ATC membership is lower than their minimum amount. She explained that their company deals with a foreign club and they are sorta 'exchanging' their club for my ATC which they feel are more valuable. This foreign club membership has a minimum value of 30k. So in order to help me recover my hard-earned money, im supposed to pay this company another 10k to make up the difference. Then she also told me abt the exact procedure to make sure i get the money back 3 yrs later. It sounds very attractive to me to get 90% of my 20k paid back. But the 10k is something that i do not want to fork out. The lady kept asking if we really keen, and the moment i mentioned its the 10k that is stopping me, i was offered a couple of alternative payment schemes. She enquired abt my credit limit, and when its obvious I do not have the means to pay the 50% upfront as required by her company, I was offered a interbank GIRO scheme. As the conversation proceeds, I was told I can neg. a lower top-up fee. From the 10k, I was told I can pay just 6k with 50% via credit card on the spot and another 50% via installments. She claimed that she can neg. with her boss to allow us to top up only 6k while the company will pay the other 4k for us in exchange for our unused weeks. I was ready to take up the offer when my fren stopped me. My fren was concerned that I have to fork out another sizable sum of money. I gave the lady the reason that I may not be able to repay the amount even though they allow installments and want to reconsider, so the lady spent more time trying to neg. a repayment method that suits me. I asked if I could return at a later date if I really wanted to join, she told me I cant do so since there are a lot of members waiting to sign up and its only cos im her old customer and that she really want to help me out. Suggestions of using my credit card to swipe and see how much my credit card can allow to go thru, placing a deposit lst and very flexible repayment methods etc were mentioned. Eventually, my fren advised me not to proceed with the agreement and we leave without signing anything. Since I left the office, I started having a lot of qns on the things that was being discussed during that 2hrs meeting. This company offered me something that~{!/~}s different. I did research on the web since I came back from that encounter but I haven~{!/~}t seen anyone commenting on that company or anything close. Right now im wondering I had missed out on a gd opportunity to be rid of my ATC or am I lucky to avoid another scam. Part of the reason I didn~{!/~}t signed up is cos, while the lady was condemning IRN for making us sign for something that we aren~{!/~}t sure of, she seems to be using the same tactics used to make me sign the initial RCI timeshare. I wasn~{!/~}t given too much of a choice. Either I miss out on this golden opportunity or I pay more money. And she was like so eager to swipe/check my credit card limit. It made me think twice. Im wondering why a real estate property company will have all sorts of credit cards and banking facilities for installment payments for membership payments. I don~{!/~}t invest in property so im not sure if its common. Anyway, the entire feeling is weird. I was made to feel that the lady was really trying to help me. But in helping me to take back the 20k I spent, I have to fork out another 10k. Sounds absurd to me now but at that moment, I actually thought its worth the money. Also, I read that membership like ATC usually cos 20%-40% of the original value on the resale market. So now, I got a HUGE ? on why this company choose to pay me 20k for 1 membership when they could get at least 5 more membership from the resale markets for the same amt of money. Im starting to feel that the encounter was a failed attempt to cheat me of more money. But im wondering if im just too skeptical after paying 20k for ATC. Sorry it~{!/~}s a long post but I just want to share my experience. Are there anyone who has similar experience?? I didnt get a namecard from the lady so i couldnt check out on the company to see if its really as gd as the lady claimed. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| [> Subject: Re: cash rebates? is it true? | |
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Author: George [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: Fri, Oct 28 2005, 18:04:12 My dear friend, you are not too late to realize that when u get involved with timeshare and holiday clubs you are opening yourself into a lot of problems. For one when u realise that u have been cheated or conned and try to back out they will throw the contract at you and threaten to sue u. If and when u keep paying your instalments u will realise that other people had paid much lesser sum of money than what u paid for the same membership with the same company. And then u realise u can't actually start using the membership until u have completely paid up the membership. And after paying up fully and start using u realise that u can't actually get the resort or hotel u booked for. Then u realize that the maintenance fees has gone up and will keep going up at the whims and fancies of the marketing company or club. And then u decide to rid the membership and advertise for sale. And u realise that no one will buy the membership because there is no fixed price and so no market value for it. And u get crooks calling u (u wonder how they got your number, little realizing there is a syndicate out there giving your personal particulars to people in the industry) and advising u that u can trade in your membership for a hefty sum but u have to join this new membership with no maintenance fees and hey presto - there is also a cashback! U will be promised nearly 90 to 100% cashback with some caveat which u don't really understand. So my friends the moral of the story is - Never get involved with timeshare or holiday clubs if u value your peace of mind and want to save your money..... Caveat Emptor! [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> Subject: Re: cash rebates? is it true? | |
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Author: sim [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: Sat, Oct 29 2005, 3:57:37 I think you are lucky to have walked away from another scam. Looks like they are using all kinds of tactics to lure people into their scheme, they include, exchanging, swapping, cash top-up, lawyer assisted termination, all of which involves a substantial amount of money. The trick is you lure you into paying out a sum of money by working on your desperation to dispose of your useless timeshare membership. Once they get hold of your hard earn money, they will cook up all kinds of reasons for not being able to sell off your membership. You might want to read up on this posting on “Resale of Timeshare Membership” http://www.voy.com/161450/1191.html . You should really consider forgoing that useless membership. Just let it rot. The more you hold on to it in the hope of recouping loses, the more you will be desperate to recover any cost that might be presented to you by any 3rd party. Thus, you will be exposed to the danger of being manipulated by them with “tempting” schemes again. Thanks for sharing your experience with us with such a detailed report. Reports like yours are really helpful as they expose all the little details that they did which we might have overlooked. Lets us all get informed so that those money sucking leeches will not get a chance to trick more people. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> Subject: Re: cash rebates? is it true? | |
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Author: George [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: Sat, Oct 29 2005, 12:39:07 Hello my friend, i don't blame u for not knowing the difference btw ATC and RCI. After attending a 3 to 4 hrs presentation with the marketing company it is normal for a person to loose their wits and be confused. That is what these companies do to u if u succumb to the temptation of agreeing to listen to their so-called 'obligation-free' presentation to collect your free gift and offers. Now let me enlighten u... ATC or Asian Travel Club is a time-share membership marketed currently by IRN - Interval Resorts Network. U pay a certain sum of money for a Studio/1BD/2BD membership and get 1 week accomodation per year or alternate year (depending on what u sign up for). U will be given a choice of several resorts or hotels affiliated with the club. U also pay a Maintenance Fee annually or alternate year (depending whether yours is a Full or Alternate membership). The Maintenance Fee may rise without much warning and u have to keep on paying if u want to retain your membership (which u paid thousands for). Then you will be invited to be a member of a holiday exchange company - RCI (Resorts Condominium International) or II (Interval International) so that you can trade your free week and holiday in another resort or country where RCI or II is affiliated. For this there is an annual membership fee (currently S$150) and when u book the exchange u have to pay an exchange fee of another few hundred dollars depending on where u want to go. What people don't realise is that your exchange or ability to exchange is not guaranteed; there is some pre-conditions or rules associated with the exchange company before u can make an exchange (and this is seldom emphasised to the potential member during the timeshare presentation. So there u are : To be a timeshare member u have to pay a joining fee; an annual maintenance fee; an annual subscription with an exchange company; and if u make an exchange pay an exchange fee. Then u realise that your membership is worthless (there is no market value as the same membership is sold to many people at different prices. And if u have been paying by instalments and stop payments or tell your bank to cancel the advance credit card payment slips u get a threatening letter from the company for breach of contract terms. And say u have fully paid up and advertise for resale u get all kinds of crooks calling u up and making promises to help u sell but with some advance payments of course. And u get cheated again. Then the same marketing company can call u up and tell u they have another kind of membership which does not require annual maintenance fees and u can trade in your membership for this new kind of membership which also gives u 'cashback'(U won't have time to realise why they never showed this to u earlier). And u jump for joy and quickly sign up. Then the same thing happens - disappointment, disappointment and more disappointment - then the cycle starts again. CAVEAT EMPTOR, my friends........ [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> Subject: Re: cash rebates? is it true? | |
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Author: kong [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: Mon, Oct 31 2005, 1:39:30 thanx for the replies. Im certainly more careful now when i deal with the worthless ATC membership that i still hold. But surely there are ways to end this right? I mean, this helpless situation and constantly being told to pay more and more into something that we were being misled into buying. I really want to terminate the membership to stop all these. As for all the calls that im getting from various resale agents, i think someone is selling timeshare buyers' details. Im quite shocked that all these timeshares and memberships are actually legal after all the tactics and tricks they seems to come up with to make us pay more money. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |