Open Letter to Steve Cloobeck, Diamond Resorts International CEO

My husband and I are happy Diamond owners, We use it and have for 15 yrs (Sunterra Owners before Diamond). We raised four kids using Diamond Resorts for our vacations. We have enjoyed them all!. I feel that we have always gotten our money's worth by going to more places and more vacations then we ever would have without timeshare. We could have spent less but we would vacation less too. We own 50000 pts and with the kids grown we have enough pts for airfare, car rentals, etc. We love our timeshare - sorry so many don't .

charless345 wrote:

lindaw642 wrote:

mark531 wrote:

I own three timeshares and Diamond is by far the best. It is more flexible, there are more options, there is better availability and more value for the maintenance fee dollar. Buck up little camper!

So if I offered you all of my points for $1, you would jump at the opportunity?

Linda, I would most certainly buy them from you for $1. However, just like I wanted to buy a flat screen television, I will wait until I need them.

I have 30,000 points. That is more than enough for my current needs along with my Marriott points. Thus, with these two I pay over $5000 in maintenance fees each year. However, even if I were a newbie coming into the system, I would not pick up your points unless i could get DRI to allow them to become Club points. I would want total flexibility and not be handcuffed to only a portion of the DRI repertoire. Now I have heard that they do allow you to bring in resale points as long as you buy a certain amount of developer points.

Because I am a happy owner, it does not make me go beyond my piggybank to make a foolish owner. :-)

Charles your arrogance jumps off the page here and on Facebook. Why do you think we are all foolish if we don't like Diamond? I have a timeshare with Shell (now Wyndham) that I do like. They don't restrict me to just a portion of their properties. Even when I joined the Club, Diamond still restricted me to a limited number of properties, just more than the original ILX group. I bought with ILX. It was not my fault that they went bankrupt and Diamond has restricted my choices. I too will give you my 6000 points allowing you to vacation in Sedona and Scottsdale to your hearts content. I'll even pay the closing costs. If not you, how about one of your other buddies?

No one says you are foolish because you don't like DRI. Let's not get it twisted. However, I am not foolish because I happen to like DRI. Why do I have to be arrogant because I feel differently. If I along with others happen to get value from our membership, that should be fine too. There are other timeshare developers that put restrictions on you if you buy resale. Marriott is one unless you pay additional fees to them on your resale points.

My point is that DRI is not unique in the industry as it pertains to their practices.

Q=bethm199] Charles your arrogance jumps off the page here and on Facebook. Why do you think we are all foolish if we don't like Diamond? I have a timeshare with Shell (now Wyndham) that I do like. They don't restrict me to just a portion of their properties. Even when I joined the Club, Diamond still restricted me to a limited number of properties, just more than the original ILX group. I bought with ILX. It was not my fault that they went bankrupt and Diamond has restricted my choices. I too will give you my 6000 points allowing you to vacation in Sedona and Scottsdale to your hearts content. I'll even pay the closing costs. If not you, how about one of your other buddies?

Is there anyone here who can answer this question:

If I paid $11,000 for my timeshare 21 years ago, and I currently pay more in annual fees than it would cost me for similar lodging booked via the likes of Hotels.com, then what did I get for my $11,000?

This is the basic question some of us have regarding the value of timeshares.

davidk689 wrote:

Is there anyone here who can answer this question:

If I paid $11,000 for my timeshare 21 years ago, and I currently pay more in annual fees than it would cost me for similar lodging booked via the likes of Hotels.com, then what did I get for my $11,000?

This is the basic question some of us have regarding the value of timeshares.

Where is your timeshare?

Sedona, AZ -- Los Abrigados Resort

davidk689 wrote:

Is there anyone here who can answer this question:

If I paid $11,000 for my timeshare 21 years ago, and I currently pay more in annual fees than it would cost me for similar lodging booked via the likes of Hotels.com, then what did I get for my $11,000?

This is the basic question some of us have regarding the value of timeshares.

I am there too and I paid a similar amount. It seemed that I knew what I was getting when I signed with ILX, at least I think I did after about six hours of sales pressure. But I think the way that Diamond Resorts International interprets that deal is that the $11,000 you paid gives you the right to be squeezed by DRI for ever increasing fees for the rest of your life.

Can you please send me information on this case. Deanm@trimaxsystems.com

davidl712 wrote:

Here is the announcement for which we have all been waiting! The lawsuit has been filed! It was filed Friday in Federal District Court in Hawaii. COPP will be mailing out a note with the lawsuit attached. It will also be going up on our website. I think that we will have DRI's attention now! What did Mr. C say? Yes, that's right, there are "10" unhappy customers. We'll see

There are several of us (Platinum members) that were sold on miss- truths... We were told that the Hawaii property was 98%++ sold out and that we could not only get out, but could do rather well! Because the price per point was going up up up The truth is this...We can't. If we told the truth no one on the planet would purchase what we have, and we have the Platinum cream of the crop. Plus a 40% increase in fees over the last few years is not a big selling point! We were told that if we did not use our points/time we could book time and have others (people) use it and make a few $$ Thats not true either! Today I was told we would loose our membership if we did. So, Cant sell, Cant rent..Now the only option....walk away.

There are 100's if not 1,000's of us out there..

Has there been a lawsuit against Diamond resort in Maui?

Hi my name is Raymond Gonzalez Jr. and I have seen all your under cover shows. And I want to tell you that you did a Amazing Job. You were Out standing OMG I saw all the Under cover bosses show and you were the Best . Hi FIVE IT LOL Well any way me and my Girl friend will love to come work for you. We would like to go to one of the resorts and get the proper Training, Because we know you real strict on that LOL. I would not mind working the Rest of my life for man like you. I live in NYC Brooklyn NY and I Lived a real ruff life I am seeking a change in that because I was a Commercial truck driver and now I am unemployed because of my child Support issue. They revoked my license this has me so stressed I have been working on and off at dead end jobs here in NYC I always dreamed of becoming a General manger some day. I worked for Chapel Sales Inc. I was one of the top ten sales men out of 200 people I have proper customer service skills well I have the gift to gab. I PRAY TO GOD THAT YOU READ THIS LETTER PERSONALLY. I Admire what you did and it touched my heart God bless you and your Family. PS. I will be looking forward on hearing from you. Sincerely RAYMOND GONZALEZ MY EMAIL IS hifiveit2014@gmail.com oh by the way if you ever need someone to go under cover for u let me know it feel of charge lol

I don't think Steve Cloobeck is reading this message or frequenting this forum. At least I never had a response from him. Good luck.

Try Timeshare Advocates.

Nothing found in messages.

My other timeshare, which we like, offered to help. They offered to take the Los Abrigados timeshare for a $20,000 credit (we pay about $900 in fees) and for only $14,500 more we could get basically an upgrade. That is of course an incredibly bad deal. But we like that property because the maintenance fees are about one third of our comparable DRI property.

Poor, deluded Raymond Gonzalez Jr. I pray that he finds a way to get a grip on reality if he really thinks SC is an admirable businessman who will gove him a job, read this forum, or send him a personal email response to his posting here. We should all pray for him, bit it would probably be as much an exercise in futility as expecting to be treated honestly and ethically by anyone in the timeshare business...

davidk689 wrote:

Poor, deluded Raymond Gonzalez Jr. I pray that he finds a way to get a grip on reality if he really thinks SC is an admirable businessman who will gove him a job, read this forum, or send him a personal email response to his posting here. We should all pray for him, bit it would probably be as much an exercise in futility as expecting to be treated honestly and ethically by anyone in the timeshare business...

Come on David, did you not see Steve's episode of Undercover Boss? ;-)

NEVER pay an attorney who claims they can get you our of your timeshare. It's the newest SCAM !! All they want is your upfront money and then they will tell you that they tried and there goes your hard earned money.

If anyone has the info on how to be included in the class action lawsuit I would appreciate sending it to me

Hello, to best our knowledge at RedWeek.com, there is no current class action lawsuit pending against Diamond. There was one several years ago, but it was settled in 2012 regarding a dispute at their Poipu Point resort over a severe increase in maintenance fees (more than $5000 per owner) that was designed to cover repairs due to water intrusion on many buildings at the resort. The settlement papers are readily available online for that case.

If there is a new action about or against Diamond, please let us know.

Good Afternoon,

Dear Mr. Cloobeck I am a time share owner with Mystic Dunes for over ten years. In my last stay I was over charged 105.00 for supposedly leaving the place dirty. I have never encountered such accusations. I did not leave the place filthy and I have been trying to resolve this issue. I have left several messages time after time and no manager ever returns my call. I am very disappointed and feel the need to bring this to your attention.

Thank you, Maria Baltazar