“To cause to accept what is false, especially by trickery or misrepresentation:”
Roget's II: New Thesaurus, Third Edition

 “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle.  Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
~ Carl Sagan ~

The September/October edition TimeSharing Today contained an article by my friend Ray Jacobs titled: Does it ever make sense for the seller to pay?  The article dealt with an entity by the name of Timeshare Relief, LLC.

There are several other entities using different names: Timeshare Acquisitions, LLC., Time No More, Inc., Vacation Solutions, LLC, Solutions in Time LLC, and/or Timeshare Collectors, LLC. Given the time to do the research one may discover that these names are interchangeable. Regardless, their message is all the same… For a fee ranging somewhere between three and four thousand dollars, they will relieve bamboozled timeshare owners of their deeded timeshare interval. Their conditions for doing this wonderful service are few. The timeshare interval must be fully paid for, there must be no outstanding annual assessments (maintenance fees) and the owner must sign a power of attorney (grant legal authority) thus providing the tool necessary to change the title to the property. Sounds simple enough!

The November/December edition of TimeSharing Today contained the following quote from one of its subscribers: “Contributors to your magazine have sent in letters calling the way this company charged timeshare owners to take their properties away from them as a scam. I’m writing to say this is not really true. I know it sounds and feels wrong but for some owners it is the only way left to get out from under a timeshare.”

The writer of the above quote went on to state: “My husband and I no longer care for timeshare vacationing for many reasons. Our children do not want the weeks, charities refused it when they learned of the expenses involved and it has been impossible to sell these weeks. During the last three years we have tried every avenue available to us to rid ourselves of the timeshares.”

There are thousands of timeshare owners, such as the couple indicated above, who have exhausted every method that they are aware of, to dispose of an unwanted timeshare interest. Many have previously fallen prey to other bamboozler’s currently operating in the Resale or Secondary timeshare market. These entities are what we refer to as ‘up-front fee” scammers who typically require a ‘listing fee’, ‘marketing fee’, or ‘appraisal fee’ of several hundred dollars from an owner by providing some vague hope that a sale of the timeshare interest will be achieved. To these bamboozled owners, the one time fee of 3-4 thousand, offering finality for what they see as an albatross, may be relief.

I recently participated in a Think Tank held by the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), concerning the Resale or Secondary Market and have committed to fully cover that happening in this Column in the very near future. However, one of the main areas of discussion was the need for a major educational effort directed toward existing owners of timeshare/vacation ownership plans as well as the general public. The reality… if the facts about ownership of a deeded timeshare interest were known, the bamboozlers would be out of business.

FINAL THOUGHT

Sometimes it is easier to get the point across using humor. Almost every night David Letterman provides such humor in his Top Ten lists. It is my thought to use that method on this very serious subject, so here I go…..

Jerry’s Top Ten ways to deal with an Unwanted Timeshare* 
(* Paid off and current on Maintenance Fees)

#10. Contact your home resort Developer, Management Firm or Owners Association and ask for assistance or recommendations on how you could effectively sell your Interval Interest. [Code 5]

#9. List the Interval Interest for sale with a legitimate resale firm that receives the overwhelming amount of its income from commission on the SALE of a timeshare plan. [Code 5]

#8. Take out a classified add on TimeShare Classified within the TimeSharing Today monthly magazine, thus reaching other consumers in a For Sale By Owner environment. [Code 5]

#7.  List the Interval Interest for sale on E-Bay. [Code 4]

#6. Go online and find a timeshare Auction House whose terms are satisfactory to you, then list the Interval Interest without any reserve. [Code 4]

#5. Contact your home resort Owners Association and ask if they will accept a Quit Claim Deed from you, if you pay the closing cost*. (*Usually less than $500) [Code 5]

#4. Stop paying your maintenance fee and wait until your Owners Association turns your account over to a third party collection firm. After the collection firm has used up all their typical methods, they will usually advise you that your home resort will accept a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure.  [Code 5]

#3. Search around until you find some charity that will accept ownership and donate the Interval Interest to them. [Code 3]

#2. Keep giving, 4-5 hundred dollars at a time, to one of the advance fee resale outfits until one of them actually does something to assist you dispose of the Interval Interest. [Code 2]

#1. Give 3-4 thousand dollars to a firm such as Timeshare Relief, LLC and let them find which of the other methods works for them in disposing of the Interval Interest you paid them to take from you. They can now afford to pay an advance listing fee and several years’ worth of annual assessments (maintenance fees) [Code 1]

Code 1 – You may not feel bamboozled but you were…

Code 2 – After 5 or 6 times paying these advanced fees you may have been bamboozled,  consider #1

Code 3 – No recommendation is made but look online at Donate for a Cause.

Code 4 – No recommendation is made but look online at other major sites such as Bidshares.

Code 5 – Contact me (as indicated below) if I can be of assistance.

I’m not sure that my Top Ten list above could be considered as the beginning of consumer education about the disposal issue pertaining to timeshare/vacation ownership plans, however, if just one reader gets it, then the time used to put it together was well spent.

On second thought, I’m not sure that there is any humor to be found in these situations.

JS 11/06