Diamond Resorts reduces owner benefits again!

Should anyone be interested in joining another group using a lawyer on St Maarten who wrote a book about Timesharing in Netherlands Antilles you could contact me as well. I am a member of the Class Action as well but want to investigate more issues but at $300 per hour I can not pay that alone. either pamelzoe@yahoo.com or nettleb@hotmail.com

I'm in complete agreement with everything everyone is saying above about Diamond and their misleading information. We bought 2 weeks in the the Point of Poipu and feel completely mislead. We did our homework too. Asked for full financials on club status, were assured there's no big anticipated expenses coming up that would raise dues significantly (they went up 50% in our first year of ownership), we were told that we could "surrender our weeks" at the beginning of the year (they neglected to say that it only pays 50% of the dues, and now with the increases only 33%), and were also fed the mis-information about preferred booking. All in all they were all half truths with one purpose, get us to pay the cash!

Once in the system it's impossible to navigate, (even though I'll admit all the points are worth a lot at other places), you can't trade in weeks which makes it impossible to get booking at any other place in demand. This completely takes away the advantage of owning a hawaiian time share.

I'm all for voting Diamond out or even better participating in a class action. If anyone else knows of anything going on to make it right for the 100's of Sunterra/Diamond owners in the Hawaii Collection please let me know!

peterg213 wrote:

we were told that we could "surrender our weeks" at the beginning of the year (they neglected to say that it only pays 50% of the dues, and now with the increases only 33%), and were also fed the mis-information about preferred booking. All in all they were all half truths with one purpose, get us to pay the cash!

Once in the system it's impossible to navigate, (even though I'll admit all the points are worth a lot at other places), you can't trade in weeks which makes it impossible to get booking at any other place in demand.

Please contact the BBB and you can tell them another customer has complained. my complaint number was 8007495. The lady was Carol Dockstader.

I would like to know if there are other owners who would like to join in a case against Diamond using a lawyer who wrote a book on timeshare law in the Netherlands Antilles. The costs could be shared between us all if anyone is interested, she is! The lawyer's name is Nilda Arduin and she lives on St Maarten. Its time! Now the fees have gone up AGAIN and no payments can be made at the resort and only in Las Vegas. We have no proof of what the increase is for. I ask just how much of the maintenance fees collected returns to the island if they are not already being used for other purposes. The Title for the company owning the land has an address in Edinburgh Scotland! Contact nettleb@hotmail.com or pamelzoe@yahoo.com

Go to Redweek Point at Poipu Board of Directors forum. There are some names and e-mail addresses you may want to contact regarding Diamond Resorts.

I am in agreement with your position... We also bought two weeks worth of points, and were lied to repeatedly, misrepresentations were the rule not the exception... I believe it is pure fraud, as witholding information that would be critical to making a decision to purchase anything regarding Real Estate is fraud... There is no 'full disclosure' , and the 100's of pages of legal stuff never covers the lies being told... send me a personal email at migueldd45@aol.com

Wondering if you or anyone else has investigated a class action suit. We had paid our weeks in full ($45,000) and then were hit with exhorbitant increases for maintenance fees. In time, we surrendered our weeks. I agree that it appears they are wanting to exit existing owners and then resell the properties. We are very interested in joining in. Our property was in AZ.

I too gave back my points, but feel scammed by Diamond Resorts and Sunterra. I will be happy to bring action against these theives

How does one "Surrender" their points?

maryp152 wrote:

How does one "Surrender" their points?

Its all in your paperwork. But you have to pay the fees, have an account in good standing, etc. Even to give them up, its not free.

My husband and I are also owners at Flamingo St Maarten. I would like to know if there has been any progress in the Class Action against Diamond International .We are considering joining in the Class Action because of the high maintenance and replacement fees. This yearthe fee went up more than $100. We were there last October. I did not see any major work that warrents the high fees they are charging.We are considering selling the unit. I am not sure if converting to the point system is the way to go at this time. Anyway we can get a copy of the book you reference?

Thanks, Helen

Are there any Point of Poi-Pu owners interested in getting together as a group, and taking action. (Or have some of you already formed a group) I'm not sure what the action would be yet but if we could get a group of people I'm sure it'll make it more effective. Let me know. Email me at gmav20@hotmail.com

Even though your points are not worth near what you paid for them, they should have some value on the secondary market. I would be happy to try and help you. If you are interested, please send me an e-mail.

If you would like to contact me do so please pamelzoe@yahoo.com or nettleb@hotmail.com Thanks!

The lady who is selling and who wrote the book is Drs NILDA ARDUIN and her site is burofocus.com She is a lawyer here on St Martin. She suggested collecting some people to get together and she would pursue the case. I have felt neglected by the class action suit and don't hear the latest news unless I ask. I feel that as Dr ARDUIN wrote the book she should know more. You can purchase the book from her Thanks Pamela

We have been talking about suing these Diamond Resort thieves for a year now. Why don't we get started?

Did someone contact the layer who wrote the book? What does she need to get started?

Please note that some of us like what we have with DRI and not looking to sue them. I know that many of owners are concerned about the maintenance fees increases. I don't like them either. However, I have been reading in other forums how prices have increased drastically in other timeshare companies as well. Starwood comes to mind right away as an example. With this economy ever so slowly trying to recover, we are seeing some of that fallout. Also, I have seen improvements in many of properties as well.

I am just hoping that with everyone looking to sue DRI that it will not negatively affect us all as our administrative and maintenance fees increase because of the increase in legal fees for DRI.

I have read many posts on this forum of people who either did not read what they signed or have not figured out how to use their membership to their advantage. To me these are not other owners' issues, but their own. The paperwork has not changed. You have over a week to READ the paperwork and RECIND if you don't like what you read. I see many of these folks as similar to those who blaming everyone else for their bad loans that they signed.

Forget what the salesman told you. If you did not research or read before you bought, that is your own fault. I don't think the other owners should have to pay for your unhappiness and now you want out. The rules are very, very clear. Learn how to use it or sell it. It is just that simple. (I know selling isn't easy right now.)

I just get tired of reading what in my opinion are whiners on this forum. It is interesting on both TUG and Timeshare Forums that there are not half the complaints that I see on this sight. Maybe it's because more of them are more sophisticated at using the system.

Thanks Charles for insulting everyone. While I agree there is a lot of complaining and little action, I welcome the complaining. I just like to see more action. If you're tired of reading all the complaining you have an excelent option to stop reading. Allowing rate hikes implemented by HOA board members who aren't proper non-developer affiliated owners is not the solution. Advising owners how to take control of their HOA and support owners on the board who are not affiliated with the developer is a solution. Taking steps to control costs while maintaining the resorts is a solution.

Please don't accept what the developer hands you and tell everyone they are at fault for the developers' actions. Victims of fraud do have some responsibility in some cases because they wanted to believe what they were told. That doesn't mean they are responsible for the fraud perpetuated on them so they should accept getting taken advantage of. The entity committing the fraud is responsible and there should be repercusions for that.

I for one, if presented with the option to pay more maintenance because the developer has another convenient excuse vs paying more maintenance because the developer is fighting owners who are unhappy with the unacceptable and questionable implementation of fees - I for one will choose the later and not the former. I choose the latter because over time I will pay less, not more by choosing this option.

I want to again get into contact with all of you who have "Points memberships in Diamonds Resorts" The Point at Poipu... Especially all of you who have bought in during 2008 to present day... Yes we are organizing, and whether we file a lawsuit, or class action, or seek a criminal complaint from the Hawaii Attorney General's office or the United States Attorney, will depend on the information that is developed... I am becoming convinced that Diamond is running a "Ponzi Style" scam on all new members, and hiding the information that is actually needed to make an informed choice to purchase into their "Points Program"... Diamond owns less than 10 % of the actual "Room Weeks" of the "Point at Poipu"... Get back to me... migueldd45@aol.com Michael

Man am I glad I dumped Diamond Resorts! I could not get a room at any time I needed it and there was always some reason that they couldnt comply.