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RCI & a class action lawsuit
lee144 states /asks, quoted verbatim in entirety: >> During a timeshare sales presentation, a salesperson stated there is a lawsuit against RCI for holding back weeks,for rental inventory, rather than making them available for exchanges. Anyone know anything about this?<< =====================================
I have addressed this matter on RedWeek in great detail in numerous, separate posts in recent months (ad nauseum, from my own perspective, and probably from the perspective of others too). Jayjay has pointed you to some of those numerous posts, although there may be many more. The RedWeek "search" function is new and quite primitive, requiring the user to identify the particular forum to be searched (i.e, no option to "search for all posts containing XYZ", except by going through each one of the numerous forum categories one by one. Topics tend to "drift" within a forum sometimes, so the same subject often comes up in some form in multiple forums. I for one hope for a FAR more sophisticated "search" capability on RedWeek in the future.
Anyway, what I personally find VERY interesting is the timing of a few very recent events potentially pertaining directly to this RCI lawsuit matter:
1. A court decision on the class certification issue is due (literally) any day now. To be very clear about this, this is NOT a decision on the merits of the case itself (Murillo vs. RCI) , which hasn't even really gotten off the ground yet. The decision pending right now is only a decision on the validity (certification) of the "class" which filed the suit against RCI, said "certification" having been challenged by RCI (a completely frivolous and petty challenge, some seem to believe). It's very, very hard to believe that folks with no legal "standing" in the matter would ever file suit against RCI in the first place.
2. Lo and behold, right on the threshold of the above mentioned imminent class certification decision due from the court, RCI has now created a brand new company, apparently for the primary (maybe even the sole) purpose of renting out timeshares. The new entity is called "SnapTravel", if you're interested.
So, a cynic might theorize that RCI has just been stalling for more time by ever challenging the class certification in the first place, perhaps while getting ready to "settle" the case out of court just as soon they lose the certification challenge (assuming that they WILL lose it, just for the sake of discussion). And lo and behold again, the new rental comany (SnapTravel) will then already be up and running, basically doing exactly the same thing that RCI was doing, but no longer doing so under the RCI moniker or "flag". So, folks new to timeshare or otherwise "outside the loop" of all these legal maneuvers may never actually make any connection whatsoever between RCI and and "SnapTravel" in the future. Could this be by purposeful design? I don't claim to know...
KC
Last edited by ken1193 on Sep 26, 2007 05:24 PM
I can personally vouch that RCI does have one set of inventory that is available as a rental pool and another set that is available to owners. We were told that RCI cannot allow an owner to "use" a week that another owner placed for rent. I am not sure how their system works, but I can tell you a little about both sides..One, many wholesale companies have a contract with RCI for rental inventory. We can turn to those companies and get vacation weeks for wholesale cost where as an owner myself with RCI, I can't get those weeks on deposit or exchange. Snap Travel has been around for several years. I have actually rented the units from them when I could not exchange or use a deposit through RCI. RCI is making plenty of money either way but with people becoming more educated about the ups and downs of timeshare ownership, I think things could spiral downhill for their company. Hopefully it will work out to everyone's advantage somewhat...
Tonya W.
