Ripoff - Marriott Vacation Club Destinations Program - New Point System

Just signed up with MCVDP four months ago. We walked out of the sales office with a 15K mortgage for 1500 points a year before we knew what hit us. I realize we have been ripped off and my husband and I have extreme buyers remorse. This is so unlike us. We know never to buy directly from the property. We have a couple other timeshares that are deeded weeks all purchased on the resale market years ago at locations that we actually go to every year. Now we are really having buyers remorse as we feel we were lied to about the value of the points and the product. I have looked at all of the Marriott properties that I have traded to through II with my deeded timeshares that we already own (not Marriott) and I can not believe how much more it will cost us use these Marriott points to go on an equivilent weeks vacation at the locations we like. Not only can we not afford to go anywhere in the next few years but we also can not pay a 15K mortgage right now. My husband just received a 50% pay cut due to the effects of Covid on the company and there is no relief in sight. I really just want to get out of this mortgage that was in my feelings a conspirousy to steel money from the vunerable and make Marriott richer. We even expressed in the meeting that we were concerened about making a decision during this time of Covid as you never know how jobs will be affected. Not sure what even happened but here we are and now we just would like help. What is the best exit plan from a Marriott mortgage? Really, 10 dollars a point? Did anyone pay that? Any help to get out of this mess would be appreciated. I know there several Timeshare Exit companies but do not know which ones have a good reputation. Unfortunatly you cannot go on what you read or hear online. Appreciate any and all help.

You should have checked the rental costs for the villa . You have a choice to change to another rental and the choice to a week you freely choose. With some popular locations as the date gets closer and not yet rented the renter may lower the price. Say you rent a week for $2,000. To start off as opposed to the $15, 000 cost plus $1,300 maintenance per year you can rent for at least 15 years . Also most of your $15,000. Stays in your pocket. Your cost with no additional assessments and Booking fees for 15 years is at least $30,000.. Also the resale value of your purchase, well very little.

Did they tell you you had a 30 day right of rescission? Last year I backed out of buying additional MVCI points after I left and realized I didn't need more points or the added expense. Don't get me wrong the program weeks and points have worked for us going back to 2000 but enough was enough. After I cooled down I faxed a document they gave me to cancel. If they didn't give you that document you m3ught have a case. Good luck!

Think there is a 3 day "kick-out" clause in most states....

Notice no release/relief for not being able to use due to covid!! Least they could have done is lower mai tenancy fees as places were closed and only skeleton staff! As. Canadian we STILL are not supposed to travel, only those ignoring government did

sgarcher wrote:

Any help to get out of this mess would be appreciated. I know there several Timeshare Exit companies but do not know which ones have a good reputation.

Do not use any of these exit or cancel companies. They are either scams or will, at best, charge you thousands of dollars to do something you can do yourself.

Your situation is admittedly not a very good one. Your best bet, based on the information you've provided, is to just stop paying maintenance fees and mortgage payments. You will face a bunch of collection calls and letters. You will probably face a hit on your credit score and rating but you will at least stop the financial bleeding.

Marriott (MVCI) has an Exit program, it’s legit and at no charge unless you owe one last maintenance fee .. after 17 years of ownership, I gave back (3) weeks .. just wanted out .. got nothing for them but was able to unload without the fear of being ripped off .. JB

JackW - I suspect you overlooked the $15,000 debt which MVC would want repaid before taking back the points. So, the MVC Exit program might be an impossible option for these folks.

Like all MVCI deals, you suffer the immediate loss of whatever you paid and borrowed up front. There is no material residual value to these assets after purchase. These are high pressure sales to the uninformed and are not in the public interest.

Why doesn't MVCI take a credit application and a financial statement and determine whether the target buyer can afford the purchase? Isn't this a form of predatory lending.

jackw140 wrote:

Marriott (MVCI) has an Exit program, it’s legit and at no charge unless you owe one last maintenance fee .. after 17 years of ownership, I gave back (3) weeks .. just wanted out .. got nothing for them but was able to unload without the fear of being ripped off .. JB

i dont agree with you.

Dennis .. to be honest, I had 3 legacy weeks and although I participated in the destination points program, I never bought points nor accumulated .. so I’m not too familiar with if there’s an opportunity to exit .. but I do know points are expensive .. a reason I never went further into the program .. I can’t say I wasn’t pressured into purchasing additional points .. I was .. and when you refused, they wanted nothing to do with and you just walked out .. no one showed you the door after the presentation .. Don’t know how you would (if you could) get out with just owning points .. I put a lot of $$$ into MVCI and feel I got my money’s worth but it was time to unload .. didn’t want/need $4,000. in annual MF and other fees .. Unfortunately I got nothing for giving them back .. but, my choice .. JB

jenniem47 wrote:

i dont agree with you.

Ok - Marriott Vacation Club and Marriott sales personnel don't agree with me either. They too, don't want to discuss the points I raised.

totally off topic but not sure where to put this..I am looking at buying eoy resale at ko'olina. Do you happen to know what the hoa is yearly for an eoy over there?

Thanks for any info!

Kathy

On this website, from drop down menu find a timeshare, type where your looking to purchase, sell, etc. and it will tell you the annual maintenance fees .. JB

Kathy,

HOA/yearly mtn fees are VERY high for all of Hawaii due to high local property taxes and other costs (we think $2,500 to $3,000). Our friends from NC say they were surprised at how high they have gotten. I believe Marriott can supply accurate figures for a given resort. Our yearly fees on Hilton Head are higher than our fees in Orlando, but half of Hawaii per our friends. Be very careful of any resale not with Marriott UNLESS you investigate carefully.

kathyv185 wrote:

totally off topic but not sure where to put this..I am looking at buying eoy resale at ko'olina. Do you happen to know what the hoa is yearly for an eoy over there?

Thanks for any info!

Kathy

You're so right. We have a one week stay about an hour from our home. We rented it easily the past two years because of the golf and beach nearby.

I'll never, ever, ever buy another timeshare as long as there's Red Week where we can rent anywhere in the world.

The salesman at Marriott said, You're going to have a hard time trading. But we don't try to trade. We either use it or rent it.

Excellent use of glasses for your purposes. If you have at least 10 weeks of vacation, then paying $ 1900 per week multiplied by 10 for a two-bedroom timeshare seems like a daunting task. Florida water rentals for 10 weeks can be obtained for as little as $ 1000 per week. You also don't have to plan a lot if you take one three-month vacation.

Marriott Selling Vacation Club Points thru Ownership Services -

I was advised today that Owner Services personnel are now selling Vacation Club Points. It seems they refer you to a special section that it not manned on Friday. Has anyone had any experience with this and how it compares to on-site sales?

What happened after you faxed the cancellation document? I emailed it yesterday, and the loan specialist confirmed the email. I would expect a document verifying the cancellation. I also want to know when I get my deposit back.

This report is intended to just be factual -- and you decide whether it was helpful. Example To go to 'Grande Ocean in the Gold Season (April, May, Sept, Oct) in an Oceanfront unit it would take 4,000 points If a point owner, the maintenance fee would be 61 cents per point for a total of 2,440. If you owned the week, the maintenance fee would be 1,550.

If you purchased the points for the above, the cost would be 15,40 per point or 61.600 (minus a promotional discount.) You can probably purchase the week on redweek.com for12,000.

You decide which makes the most sense.

dang209 wrote:

This is an extremely interesting thread, and somewhat helpful. I, unlike some of the other folks here, am not a previous owner. I purchased recently because friends of mine have a timeshare in Maui on the old system. They are fortunate in that they have the most in-demand timeshare Marriott has, so they have no difficulty trading out for points giving up their week in Maui. Since my purchase, I've done my research online. It's only been a few days, and after reading various comments and complaints throughout the social media space, am ready to cancel the whole thing. (Yes...I still have a few days on my seven day window to cancel it all.)

I'm a total newbie, but a few things seem to jump out at me:

1. The points system is definitely more flexible than the previous system set in place. It also gives you the opportunity to stay at a variety of resorts through the Marriott chain. At 2000 points (what I could afford to purchase), without doing some serious banking from year to year, my options are somewhat limited though. It would work well in the beginning, as you start out with a bonus points, and the ability to bank your first years points to feed off of. However, at some point after four or five years I'd likely have to purchase more points to keep up.

2. Marriott clearly wants to push people towards off-season schedules depending on location, and to leave Fridays and Saturdays open, as they double, triple and sometimes quadruple the points required to stay those days. This is definitely a way for them to control their most lucrative days and have a better grasp of their inventory.

3. Marriott does not supply you with any literature or paperwork stating how long the current points requirements for locations will remain intact past the year 2012. This is a bit of a red flag to me. They assign the point values based off of specific weeks of demand at a given resort. When I inquired from the salesperson as to what guarantee I have that Marriott wont increase the points at various locations as time goes on, and thus devaluing my timeshare purchase, her response was Marriott needs to have that flexibility to be able to control the supply should a new holiday or other demand arise. Also, the points being asked for in the various buckets would remain the same, but the weeks may change from bucket to bucket depending on demand. In other words, the range Marriott puts in is from a low to a high. There may be 26 weeks in the low-end and 26 in the high-end for points. This doesn't prevent them from in the future of making 2 weeks in the low-end and 50 in the high-end.

I get why they need to have this kind of flexibility. At the same time this is risky for the timeshare holder, as Marriott could easily choose to inflate point requirements at any time, at any resort. This doesn't sit well with me. (Kind of reminds of me of "Disney dollars.")

4. I also see a supply issue here. The "old-system" is based off of a physical location. In theory, if you have a unit, let's say in Maui, they can't sell (or shouldn't sell) that physical unit more than 52 times for a given year. (They probably oversell it a bit, but you get my point.) You can't sell more than the supply you have.

Points, however, are different. These are not tied to any physical locale in particular, nor do we know the size of the points pool itself. Am I purchasing 2,000 points from a pool of 1,000,000, or 5,000,000...or maybe 100,000,000? I don't know. The supply is technically limitless. What does this mean? It means when you go and try to book a higher demand location, you won't be able to because the pool of point holders (the demand) is so much larger than the supply (the physical locations.) Now this may not be the case, but again...there's no paperwork anywhere that identifies this and no one appears to know the answer. (This may explain some other folks complaints as to why everything seems to book up 12 months in advance.)

5. One of my chief concerns is how Marriott has handled their "old" system customers that have had issues with the new system, their outward communication about the new program, and their response in the social media space. This is not indicative of a company that has their act together, treats their current customers with value, or frankly, understands the importance of responding in a public forum. (See Marriott's own blog from June of 2010 where people complained, and got zero responses back for the rest of us to see.) There was a responder here that did a great job at answering people's questions, and they didn't even work for Marriott. Marriott should themselves be finding and responding to these complaints openly in a public forum. (It didn't take me all of about 20 minutes to find this, and I don't work for Marriott either.)

My fear here is though I'm not a dissatisfied customer, if I ever was, Marriott will not be there to take care of me. I don't know if I'm prepared to do business with a company that doesn't seem to back-up their valued customers of the past.

It does sound like other folks have a wonderful experience, and I would love to be one of those people. (So would my wife and kids.) Let me know if I sound like I'm off base here, or if someone would like to convince me to keep my points rather than cancel the whole thing. What should I do?

Question for you: What did you end up doing? Did you keep your timeshare?