Diamond Resorts raises maintenance fees again!

When DRI purchases a distressed timeshare company the maintenance fees tend to increase sharply. My opinion is that this is a huge cash cow as they can squeeze the members until they bleed and if they don't pay they can shift that debt to the remaining members and raise the fees still higher. Get more cash, buy more companies, squeeze and repeat. The members are just individuals and cannot stand against the sort of corporate legal firepower they can muster. Lobbyists are employed by the industry to keep these predatory business practices legal. Meanwhile the expert, highly skilled sales staffs continue to get new suckers through highly refined high pressure presentations.

I participated in a mall raffle for a vacation and or car, diamond resorts contacted me telling me i won and that i dont have to pay anything and have no obligation for claiming my prize, my question is, can i just claim my prize, leave, enjoy my vacation and not deal with or pay any suprise fees or obligations?

neila54 wrote:

my question is, can i just claim my prize, leave, enjoy my vacation and not deal with or pay any suprise fees or obligations?

Highly doubtful. Make sure you read all the fine print before accepting such a prize.

You have a better chance of collecting on your winning Nigerian Lottery ticket.

under no circumstances buy anything or sign any contract with DRI. You will regret it for the rest of your life and your heirs will curse your memory after you are gone.

If you don't sign anything and know how to say, "No!", go ahead and enjoy. We will expect you to report back here on how it went.

My husband is 73 with a lot of serious health problems. We can not afford to pay maintenance fees. We are willing to give our timeshare back to DR. Husband bought a timeshare in Carriage House Resort in Las Vegas from ILX. Now, since DRI took over they are trying to force us into the point system. Plus fees are skyrocketing to the point where to can't pay them. What can we do? We never agreed to any point system. What kind of company can force you to continue paying for something that you can't afford and no longer want? Help!!

I believe, all disgruntled timeshare owners should get together and file a class action law suit against diamond resorts. Together we stand divided we fall.

janicer143 wrote:

I believe, all disgruntled timeshare owners should get together and file a class action law suit against diamond resorts. Together we stand divided we fall.

Yes I agree we should (and not just against Diamond), but the real question is HOW ? Where do we get lists of other owners; who is going to pay for the postage or make the phone calls for those who we can't find email addresses on; what attorney is going to want to take on this entrenched and politically powerful special interest ???

janicer143 wrote:

My husband is 73 with a lot of serious health problems. We can not afford to pay maintenance fees. We are willing to give our timeshare back to DR. Husband bought a timeshare in Carriage House Resort in Las Vegas from ILX. Now, since DRI took over they are trying to force us into the point system. Plus fees are skyrocketing to the point where to can't pay them. What can we do? We never agreed to any point system. What kind of company can force you to continue paying for something that you can't afford and no longer want? Help!!

For one thing, they cannot make you convert from weeks to points. Don't pay them a dime to do so.

If you want to get rid of your timeshare, call or write to the resort explaining your situation. Ask if they will accept the deed back instead of a costly foreclosure procedure.

If that does not work, try advertising it on resale sites such as here on RedWeek, Bidshares, My Resort Network, etc. But do not pay anyone or any party a large, upfront fee to sell, rent out, market, or "cancel" your timeshare. Those are always scams.

Because people are disgruntled, it is not a base for a lawsuit. Every timeshare owner would have a case then. There are owners in every system who do not appreciate the increases in maintenance fees, so should every timeshare developer be sued. Each of these developers increase their maintenance fees. I cannot say that I like them either. I belong to two systems including DRI and they both go up each year. However, I enjoy them each year as well. In fact, although we hear a lot from the disgruntled, there are also many, many happy DRI owners as well. I speak with many of them daily on a DRI facebook site. Yes, they would like to see some changes in things like maintenance fees hike, but they love their vacations and make the most of their membership. These are folks who are DRI owners from across the WORLD and even England where there are also disgruntled and happy owners.

We own at two timeshare resorts. At one resort the owner's board employs a manager. The manager runs the property. The maintenance fees have remained low and the property receives upgrades on an annual basis. There are NO maintenance issues. It is beautifully manicured at all times, impeccable clean with a very happy resort staff. Three miles away we own at a property on which DRI has the management contract. The fees are ridiculously high! The property is a portrait of deferred maintenance! The help is miserable. DRI has turned the resort into a "cash-cow" by bleeding the owners while taking back deeds and re-selling the resort again, but now as points. That pretty much says it all!

davidl712 wrote:

DRI has turned the resort into a "cash-cow" by bleeding the owners while taking back deeds and re-selling the resort again, but now as points.

This is a very clever ploy for them. They get both more money out of you and by obtaining your deed they get an even bigger share of the actual ownership of the property -- thus allowing them to gain and/or maintain control over the HOA.

Timeshare developers and management companies = License to Steal, protected by the full faith and credit of your state's real estate code.

DRI converted my ILX week to points without my approval. I did not pay to convert them. Of course my MF has also more than doubled. I was hoping there was some way to get out of it due to the conversion without my approval but doubt it. I have always been a believer in TS and have had many awesome vacations but DRI has now changed that. I just stayed @ a DRI resort (free week because they charged my credit card twice for last MF). I did attend the talk so find out about all the changes. They actually wanted me to trade in another week I own with a $250 MF for their outrageous priced points ($1276).

clatrn wrote:

DRI converted my ILX week to points without my approval. I did not pay to convert them. Of course my MF has also more than doubled. I was hoping there was some way to get out of it due to the conversion without my approval but doubt it. I have always been a believer in TS and have had many awesome vacations but DRI has now changed that. I just stayed @ a DRI resort (free week because they charged my credit card twice for last MF). I did attend the talk so find out about all the changes. They actually wanted me to trade in another week I own with a $250 MF for their outrageous priced points ($1276).

First,

DRI cannot convert your property to points unless you sign paperwork agreeing to do so. What you may have seen is your unit's worth in points. However, that does not mean you are a member of DRI's Club. So unless you have signed someting acknowledging a conversion, you still have your unit as you did before as a weeks owner.

Secondly, I read on TUG (tug2.net) that DRI had mistakenly charged owners who had prepaid their MF before January 1st twice in error. So I would suggest you check to see if that happened to you and call DRI to fix it.

I have deposited my week with Interval and it is a point value. So if I didn't sign anything how do I get it to appear as a deeded week to exchange?

It sounds as if you have not contacted DRI. You need to do so ASAP and ask for an explanation. Let us know the response if it is satisfactory or not.

I don't understand how they could have converted you to points, since that requires joining "The Club," for which there is a fee, plus membership dues every year that are separate from your maintenance fees. Back in the 90s, when it was still Sunterra, I paid $2000 to belong to the Club and convert to points. Seemed like a good idea to be able to split weeks when I wanted to, although I have never done that. The annual dues were $139. Since DRI took over, the dues have gone up. They are now at almost $300 a year! When I thought of quitting the club and going back to weeks, I was told that I would only be able to use my weeks at the home resort, as they would no longer pay my Interval International membership. In order to exchange, I would need to separately join Interval International. So I kept my club membership. However, since the dues are now so high for The Club, I may look into doing that. Does anyone know what the cost of Interval membership is?

The exchange companies typically range from $99-$149 per year for membership. The exchanges are typically $79-$149. From what I have seen.

Thanks. Even though The Club pays my Interval membership, I still have to pay the exchange fees if the resort is not a DRI resort. So it may be cheaper to quit the club and just join Interval or RCI on my own.