Diamond Resorts raises maintenance fees again!

look on internet to donate it, give it away, or stop paying on it. one last option is to join another company that can help you offset all of the maint fee's for both. hope it helps

check my posting

Just because the rep is trying "make money for his family" doesn't mean I should act differently toward his employer. Perhaps he should look for a different line of work... something involving scruples.

Time to look for a different job... in an ethical business.

Did anybody see DRI CEO Steve Cloobeck on the TV show Undercover Boss? They sent me an email letting me know about it and followed up with a survey to see how it improved my attitude about his image. It actually made me feel worse when I saw his Rich and Famous lifestyle and thought about the way my fees have increased since they took over. I am paying for his beach house and private jet!

You are so on point about Mr. Clobeck. I was embarrassed when I watched the segment. One of his opening lines was that he contemplated being a doctor but wanted to make more money. How pathetic! Unfortunately, we as Diamond owners are stuck with him and his greedy ways.

Even his processing of each employee function that he shadowed was poor. We paid extra for a call center in the US, and after 4 years, he was blaming the center for poor training. One of his recommendations was that the employee should urge the owner, who had insufficient points to plan a vacation, to buy more points. The company only allows you to save one years worth of points. Another way for people to lose their money and vacation opportunity.

The fact that employees hadn't received a raise in 4 years, was also his doing. To reward a few employees, who were in the show, showed how really egotistical he is. His rewards were much more than were offered by other bosses in other shows. He also didn't televise any findings or corrections with his staff. Another example of his egotism.

I hope Mr. Clobeck received the many evaluations of the show. He made a major mistake by allowing people to see his lifestyle and listen to his musings.

See my open letter to Steve Cloobeck. He is not responding.

Dear Steve,

I saw your Undercover Boss show. Thank you for sending me and email informing me when it would be shown. I also appreciated the survey you sent about how my image of you had improved after seeing the show. Unfortunately, it did not improve. Seeing your lavish and expensive lifestyle only made me think that I am paying for that with my maintenance fees, which have increased over 40% in the few years since you took over my resort. The fees are now so high that I could rent a week at a comparable or better place for a lot less. If you want me to think better of you, roll back the fees, sell the private jet and take commercial flights like the rest of us.

It also did not help that the show was so obviously contrived. All the employees you worked with had personal or work issues that you were able to solve in the end with a show of generosity. I am sure the intention was to show what a good guy you are. Maybe you are but the fees are killing me. And you missed the point with your maintenance person who did not have a power sander. It is very nice that you bought him this inexpensive tool. But as a leader of the company you should have been thinking how it could occur that he did not have the proper tools to do his job. You should not have to think of that. His supervisor should have thought of that and taken care of it so he was more efficient in his work. The only thing I can think of to explain why your maintenance man did not have a $50 tool needed to do his job is that the organizational culture is focused on reducing operational costs to the extreme. But that contradicts the reason you told me that you needed to increase my fees: to spend it on the improved maintenance and upkeep of my home property.

And now you are marketing the "Undercover Boss Special" on your web site! You seem to be using this to get more unsuspecting prospects to your resorts for the high-pressure sales pitch. I hope to educate people about the realities of timeshare ownership today. I paid ILX a lot of money a few years ago for a week that is now virtually worthless on the market. It was worthless the moment I signed the papers. I actually could pay somebody to take it of my hands. Now DRI is squeezing me for ever increasing "maintenance fees" and I can't do anything about it. You might even hit me with a "special assessment" of thousands of dollars as I hear you have done at one of your other resorts.

Would you buy it back from me, Steve? I understand DRI has no buy-back program but I figure I could ask you personally. I would be happy with half of what I paid for it.

Sincerely,

Bob

P.S. - Your disguise was terrible!

well....ummmm.......

I actually would like to see your letter to Cloo-dreck, but you didn't post a link to it. How lame is that???

THIS IS MY CERTIFIED LETTER SENT TO DRI FOR WHICH, AGAIN, I HAVE YET TO RECEIVE A RESPONSE. SEEING AS HOW I AM SEEKING DRI PROFIT INFORMATION MADE OFF MY PROPERTY, I WONDER WHY! 02/5/2012

Ms. Marilyn Windsor Diamond Resorts International 10600 West Charleston Boulevard Las Vegas, Nevada 89135

Dear Marilyn,

I e-mailed a very similar request for information regarding my Time Share at the Historic Powhatan Plantation Resort in Williamsburg Virginia on 22 December, 2011. I have yet to receive a response. I have modified the request for information, the revised version provided below. I am an owner of a resort property DRI is supposed to be managing for me and I feel I am being put off. As a manger of my property, DRI works for me

I am the owner of a fixed deed lockout in Historic Powhatan Plantation Resorts. We bought in 1992.

Please answer the following questions for me in writing: 1. How many members are on the Board of Directors? 2. What percentage of them are salaried by DRI? 3. How do I get a copy or what is URL for the Time Share Instrument for Powhatan? 4. What percentage of Historic Powhatan Plantation Resort unit weeks are owned by a. Fixed Deed Owners? b. Diamond Club Trust? c. Diamond Resort International, the company? d. Some other shared Time Share club arrangement? 5. How many Time Share Units are now within the Historic Powhatan Plantation Resort? 6. What are the categories of these Time Share Units if there are varying maintenance costs for each unit? 7. If more than one category, how many units are in each category? 8. What is the total annual maintenance cost assessed cumulatively for a unit within each category? 9. What percentage of the Powhatan Plantation Resort annual budget is passed back to Diamond Resorts as overhead, a tax on other budget expenses or profits. If aggregated, what line of the annual Historic Powhatan Plantation Resort budget does it fit?

Sincerely,

OK, I'm unfamiliar with Virginia real estate law pertaining to timeshares, but I will reply based on what I know about the law here in AZ.

Your mistake is writing to DRI. Unless they are the developer you originally purchased your TS from, you legal relationship with them is only indirect --> through your homeowner association. DRI would not be obligated to respond to you.

On the other hand, you do have a direct legal relationship with your homeowner association, of which you are a member. They should be legally obligated to answer any questions regarding the bylaws and regulations of the hoa, the contracts they enter into (such as with DRI for managing the property), the composition of the board, the qualifications of board members, and any relationship those board members may have with any contractors.

I suggest you get as much information as possible about your hoa from the state in which it is incorporated and then send them a letter by certified mail asking whatever questions you need answered. Then, if they do not respond, file a complaint with the corporation commission against them requesting that they be compelled to comply with the law and answer your questions.

Thanks. I will follow your advice. I have tried to contact the HOA Members of the Board who too have not responded. I have also since learned that 3 of the 5 Members of the HOA board are DRI employees.

With control of the boards of each property they "manage" DRI might as well be the owner and can do whatever they want; and we all know that means extracting as much $ out of the rightful owners as possible... and still using high pressure tactics to sell "promises" to unsuspecting Joe Sixpack.

I have asked DRI for information regarding taxes in the past. It took some time, but they did finally answer me.

Here is the announcement for which we have all been waiting! The lawsuit has been filed! It was filed Friday in Federal District Court in Hawaii. COPP will be mailing out a note with the lawsuit attached. It will also be going up on our website. I think that we will have DRI's attention now! What did Mr. C say? Yes, that's right, there are "10" unhappy customers. We'll see...

Do you have more info on the law suit. How do we get involved?

The suit seeks "class action" status. Once that is granted ALL owners will be contacted re: eligibility by the court. To see the complaint click http://poipuowners.org/uploads/Lawsuit.pdf

We were invited to a presentation with DRI - the salesperson was extremely good – it sounded as the various fees associated with this timeshare was much less and we thought at the time we would enjoy the savings. They also offered to take one of our Canadian deeded time share as trade in, so we made the purchase on May 2012 in Las Vegas. We sent them a copy of our registered deed and about two weeks later we received a letter (dated May 31, 2012) from DRI that our Canadian Time Share is on their forbidden list of resorts and the trade-in transaction is cancelled but our contract with DRI remains in full. Upon receipt of the letter, we made several attempts to speak to someone and left voice mail messages (note: their voice mail greetings offer first name only or no name) at DRI. We finally received a voicemail message on June 7th which stated that they are not able to do the trade-in since our Canadian Resort is a third party and that our Canadian Resort is refusing to work with them. Further, they will ignore the trade-in and take it as a loss. We found out from our Canadian Resort that they were never contacted and that trade-ins, because the timeshare is registered and of Canadian laws, are a long legal process. We further understand that DRI inflated the cost of their timeshare to be equivalent to what they offered for our time share (yes we are stupid). Since the agreement between us and DRI has changed, we wrote to Stephen J. Cloobeck, advising him that we are withdrawing from this transaction as we cannot afford both. Well, they are refusing to release us and we have decided to walk away. It there anyone in this forum with similar experiences??

Welcome to the world of doing business with DRI!

I was also impressed with the quality of the DRI sales presentation when we went in for an update. They hone their skills daily. I went in there wanting them to take it back because the maintenance fees have become so high, and they actually convinced us to buy more! But we backed out at the signing. There is no cooling off period. Once they get you they don't want to let go. Get a lawyer. Timeshares are not an ethical business.

I just received my Premiere Vacation Collection Owners Association annual meeting notice and proxy ballot with the Board of Directors election. I can't recall having the opportunity to vote for the Board. It is surprising how many of the candidates are employees of Diamond Resorts International, including all three incumbents! I am voting for candidates that are independent! How are DRI employees going to represent me?