Timeshare owners getting hosed on exchanged units!

phill12: I apparently misinterpreted your initial post to have been about the "exchange" process itself. Accordingly, I responded by pointing out how much exchanging has changed over the years, including lots of changes very recently, missing your intended point in the process.

Out of the blue, darlenep30 apparently chose to take offense on your behalf (although you seem quite capable of speaking for yourself). I won't flatter her unwarranted hostility with further acknowledgement, but I do extend my apology directly to you if YOU regarded my reply in any way other than as I intended --- simply stating the many (and ongoing) changes occurring in "exchanging" in recent years.

Ken to be honest I had not really noticed and when I did I tried to clean up my post! I have older computer and key board so have errors mostly in typing.

I try and go back and fix errors on my post. Should buy new computer but as my wife can retire anytime after Nov 2009 and we have been following homes in Lake Tahoe that we have loved for years and want to retire and move to the lake area. I hope to not buy computer until we move!

As far as Darlene I do think she is very nice lady but has a history with jayjay. She goes by Betterhalf on TripAdvisor She has sent me e-mails and does seem very nice.

PHILL12

Phil:

As long as you and I are "square" on the fact that I intended no ill will or criticism of any kind in responding to your post, I frankly couldn't care less who / what / where darlenep50 might be. Whatever ax she has to grind is of no concern or interest to me whatsoever. My one and only concern was that YOU may have taken my reply to your post as being critical or negative in some way, an interpretation which darlenep50 apparently chose to make (entirely incorrectly and inappropriately, it now seems) on your behalf.

I understand about typing difficulties. When I re-read my own posts after completion, I nearly always find errors which I then need to go back and correct by edit.

Anyway, be well, best regards --- and keep on posting. Forums are generally a better source of learning and information than ANY book I've seen or read so far during my 20+ years of timeshare ownership.

phil, you have just unknowingly informed me of who darlenep is. I won't reveal her screen name (would serve no purpose) but she's not from North Carolina, she's from Colorado and her screen name starts with a C, on Tug and previously here (evidently darlenep is a new screen name here). I never knew this woman until she came on Redweek.

I HAVE read her posts on Tug, especially those concerning postcard companies, but I didn't know her in the past nor have I had any sort of confrontation with her (she joined there after I was long gone). I don't know where she's coming from by spouting in her post above that I had been mean to her on another forum previously. She simply wasn't there then and I have had absolutely no previous history with the woman.

From what I've read of her posts on Tug, the lady is strung a little too tight, and she has caused controversy there on occasion. I sincerely hope that she gets some help for her anger problem.

She lives in N Carolina and reason I know is we just had a friend I worked with retire and move to Statesville Carolina area and bought a great home near Lake Norman Golf coarse. This was one of our talks about the area they moved into and she seem to have information of the area. Getting information to help Doug @ Sandy in their move is how I found that her and her husband work for the police or highway patrol.

I first had dealings with her when she talk to me on TripAdvisor. They own a timeshare in North Shore, The Hyatt which is a great five star resort by Lake Tahoe.

PHILL12

phill12 wrote:

Hate to have you start jumping wrong person!.

phil, no need to worry as I have no intention of jumping anybody :o)! That's her forte, not mine. I can't imagine anybody from North Carolina that I ever had a confrontation with on another forum. BTW, who is Doug?

phill12 wrote:

To be fair I went back to post to Ken1193 and changed statement that the user name is two names together and hope this helps you. .

The person I was referring to in my initial post has a screen name combination of she and her husband (R&C) on Tug. I don't know of anyone from North Carolina on Tug who has such a combined screen name.

The reason she may know about North Carolina is because she's a (supposed) real estate agent, but she's actually from Colorado (or so it states under her screen name on Tug).

She and I did have a mild confrontatin on Redweek after she first came here, but it was nothing to get all upset about. It seems this person can dish it out (as she has done many times on Tug) but she can't take it in return.

Deleted by Phil

phill12 wrote:

I'm still confuse because you stated you read her post on Tug and the chip on her shoulder so I figured you know her handle to keep reading her post.

Oh well, so it's not R&C. I have never noticed a screen name such as 'betterhalf' on Tug much less had a confrontation with her. Anyway, I'm gonna close this chapter now.

OK folks, enough about this person named Darlene. Let's get back to talking about timeshares.

Thank you, Marty

marty8084 wrote:

OK folks, enough about this person named Darlene. Let's get back to talking about timeshares.

Thank you, Marty

No offense gentlemen, but I am getting several emails telling me about new discussion on this topic only to find u 2 bantering back and forth again. I usually respect your opinions and appreciate your comments but you need to move an here! I know your intention is to help ppl and I beleive you do..... but you have lost your focus here! Stick to what is relevent to helping our fellow timesharers Please!

chris460 wrote:

No offense gentlemen, but I am getting several emails telling me about new discussion on this topic only to find u 2 bantering back and forth again. I usually respect your opinions and appreciate your comments but you need to move an here! I know your intention is to help ppl and I beleive you do..... but you have lost your focus here! Stick to what is relevent to helping our fellow timesharers Please!

cris, you are indeed correct. Too much time was spent on such a frivilous topic.

However, when someone posts on a forum degrading, ranting, raving, character assasinating and stating unsubstantiated allegations concerning some of it's regular members, then that post should be deleted by management. It should not have gone as far as it did.

We are all here to help and having such a disrespectful person posting in the forums is not aiding our goal of educating Redweek members on the subject of timesharing.

You're right. It happened to us last year in Aruba at the Renaissance Aruba but it wasn't near as bad as a couple of weeks ago at the Pelican in St. Maarten. We had an ocean view unit that we got in an exchange and ended up in a basement unit facing a wall. Half the living area lights didn't work and never got fixed while we were there. Neither time did we get the unit we exchanged for.

ken1193 wrote:

phill12 asks the timely and relevant question:

>> What happened to fair exchange?<< =====================================

A number of factors have changed the "exchange" world quite radically over the past decade. Foremost among these changes has been RCI (the biggest exchange company by far) openly deciding to make a priority of renting out the better deposited (or acquired from developers) weeks. This is why RCI is currently the defendant in a class action lawsuit (Murillo vs. RCI). Every week which is rented out to the general public by an exchange company is obviously a week which never becomes available to exchange company members. Interval International is guilty of the same thing, but on a smaller scale being a smaller company.

In a domino effect, owners have increasingly become more and more reluctant to deposit with these major "exchange" entities at all, knowing that they may get little or nothing of comparable value in return. Direct owner rentals are now far more common than formerly, when owners choose not to actually use their own weeks. The Internet makes this extremely easy to do.

I don't personally believe that actions at the resorts have anything to do with this deteriorating exchange situation at all. While resorts may make "swaps" in available rentals which have voluntarily put under their control by the unit owners for rental purposes (as is the resorts' prerogative), these practices really have nothing at all to do with the overall picture of diminishing numbers and quality of available exchanges.

The major exchange companies prefer to collect the much bigger profits associated with renting out of weeks, as opposed to just charging exchange fees to their members. Although I'm certainly not defending them, it's important to try to remember that the exchange companies are businesses (not "clubs") and their primary focus and motive is PROFIT. Rentals are far more profitable than exchange fees.

In recent weeks and months, RCI has actually bought into two separate, additional commercial rental mechanisms (Snap Travel and LeisureLink). Make no mistake about it --- the quality and availability of "exchanges" through RCI (and probably regardless of the outcome of the current lawsuit against them) is in a downward tailspin which can and will only become steadily and progressively worse. RCI could actually decide (maybe even publicly announce) that being an exchange company is now their LAST priority, when it was actually their ONLY activity when the company was started. Things have changed --- and not for the better. Sad, but indisputably true.

ken1193 wrote:

phill12 asks the timely and relevant question:

>> What happened to fair exchange?<< =====================================

A number of factors have changed the "exchange" world quite radically over the past decade. Foremost among these changes has been RCI (the biggest exchange company by far) openly deciding to make a priority of renting out the better deposited (or acquired from developers) weeks. This is why RCI is currently the defendant in a class action lawsuit (Murillo vs. RCI). Every week which is rented out to the general public by an exchange company is obviously a week which never becomes available to exchange company members. Interval International is guilty of the same thing, but on a smaller scale being a smaller company.

In a domino effect, owners have increasingly become more and more reluctant to deposit with these major "exchange" entities at all, knowing that they may get little or nothing of comparable value in return. Direct owner rentals are now far more common than formerly, when owners choose not to actually use their own weeks. The Internet makes this extremely easy to do.

I don't personally believe that actions at the resorts have anything to do with this deteriorating exchange situation at all. While resorts may make "swaps" in available rentals which have voluntarily put under their control by the unit owners for rental purposes (as is the resorts' prerogative), these practices really have nothing at all to do with the overall picture of diminishing numbers and quality of available exchanges.

The major exchange companies prefer to collect the much bigger profits associated with renting out of weeks, as opposed to just charging exchange fees to their members. Although I'm certainly not defending them, it's important to try to remember that the exchange companies are businesses (not "clubs") and their primary focus and motive is PROFIT. Rentals are far more profitable than exchange fees.

In recent weeks and months, RCI has actually bought into two separate, additional commercial rental mechanisms (Snap Travel and LeisureLink). Make no mistake about it --- the quality and availability of "exchanges" through RCI (and probably regardless of the outcome of the current lawsuit against them) is in a downward tailspin which can and will only become steadily and progressively worse. RCI could actually decide (maybe even publicly announce) that being an exchange company is now their LAST priority, when it was actually their ONLY activity when the company was started. Things have changed --- and not for the better. Sad, but indisputably true.

RCI had an high availability list for the fall & winter which was helpful in eliminating the fruitless efforts to book hard to trade resorts.

We have a Gold Crown red week, which we deposit two years before the use date, and we still get excuses including you can not trade a winter for a summer or a mountain for the beach.

sam57 stated in part about RCI: >> we still get excuses including you can not trade a winter for a summer or a mountain for the beach. << ====================================

Personally, I think it has become crystal clear in recent years that RCI's first priority is now renting out their best inventory --- not making it available to members for exchange. It's simply much more profitable for RCI to rent out the weeks instead. Phone reps may offer assorted unconvincing excuses why exchanges which were quite easily accomplished previously can't be accomplished at all now, but the phone reps may never actually even "see" the best deposits at all, since they are never placed into the "exchange pot" in the first place. There is a REASON why RCI now finds itself being the defendant in a lawsuit on this very issue......

pamb21 wrote:

You're right. It happened to us last year in Aruba at the Renaissance Aruba but it wasn't near as bad as a couple of weeks ago at the Pelican in St. Maarten. We had an ocean view unit that we got in an exchange and ended up in a basement unit facing a wall. Half the living area lights didn't work and never got fixed while we were there. Neither time did we get the unit we exchanged for.

We were told by our resort that because of owning two units we pick our weeks one month ahead of all single unit owners. We always get our first choice of weeks, view and building and the resort can change the room if we rented or deposit into II.

Their thoughts are other owners that would want to move up to better choice should have this right as a owner.

Under these rules they can change units as other resorts do so as stated in my opinion renters /exchangers can and many times get Hosed(screwed ) by the resort at check-in!

We are not happy with RCI or their exchange program. We own Mayan Palace--4 weeks a year. For the past two years we have banked 2 of those weeks with RCI. We give them a two bedroom, with kitchette, dining and living area (approximately 800 to 1000 sqare foot units) at a choice of any Mayan Resort. In exchange RCI promised two bonus weeks. When we deposited in March 2007 we ask for choices anywhere in the Carribean, Costa Rica or Florida for March of 2008. When we checked back in August (to enter additional choices) they had no record of our request, which was made at the time of deposit. What we ended up with were motel units (very, very small 1 bedroom 1 week and studio 2nd week) in Florida, a remodeled motel unit in Michigan and an aging resort in Whistler with a postage stamp size pool. We have yet to receive anything that remotely compares with what we exchange. For this reason we are letting our RCI membership expire. If we can't use our time share weeks, we'll rent them ourselves and use the money to rent what we want, where we want to go. When we were told there were no available properties where we wanted to go, we checked RCI on-line and found units available to rent in all the locations for less money than we were paying. I figure we paid $504 a week for units that were renting for $350 or less. We have not used any other exchange company, so we have no comparison. The exchange process is certainly not what we were told it would be, or what it is marketed to be.