Timeshare Scam

Sell My Timeshare NOW started as a good entrepreneurial idea… that has continued to get better and
better.

Today, Sell My Timeshare NOW is a leader in timeshare resale and rental advertising and with our brokerage arm, Timeshare Broker Services, a leader in brokered timeshare resales. The company is proven and trusted, with our websites averaging more than two million pageviews each month. But SellMyTimeshareNOW.com began seven years ago as nothing more than the vision of entrepreneurs who believed in an idea and were willing to invest energy, personal resources, and genuine sweat equity into seeing it develop.

Timeshare, as a concept, was originally the result of entrepreneurial minds willing to think, pardon the cliché, “outside the box” about new possibilities in vacation ownership. As the industry grew and time passed, companies such as Sell My Timeshare NOW developed because new entrepreneurial minds recognized unmet consumer needs in the timeshare industry and could offer cost effective ways to meet those needs.

But in a struggling global economy, with timeshares taking both deserved and unfounded criticism in the media virtually every day, you have to wonder if there is anything to entice new blood, new ideas, and exuberant entrepreneurs into this business. And if there isn’t, will the current thought leaders of the industry put forth and embrace the kind of new thinking necessary to recharge the concept, making it vibrant and flexible in all the ways it needs to be?

Why Entrepreneurs are Important to Timeshares

Startup companies in any industry (on average) account for more than 60 percent of the new jobs available. Between automation, downsizing, and the fact that more people enter the workforce each year than exit it, new job creation is critical in maintaining (or recreating)a healthy economy.

The timeshare industry began with a basic flaw, that being the absence of a process for reselling timeshare. Imagine the automobile industry without a resale option? What if car dealers offered owners no way to resell their vehicles; it would be like saying we will sell you a new car, but should you ever want to resell it and buy a different car or even get rid of it entirely and go back to riding the bus, well… you are just out of luck. Until Sell My Timeshare NOW began offering affordable, effective, and trustworthy timeshare resale solutions, timeshare owners were left struggling over what to do with a timeshare they no longer wanted to own.

The combination of a very atypical sales model for new timeshares and the lack of a viable plan for timeshare resales has haunted the industry, creating an Achilles heel of vulnerability. With no regulated or structured timeshare resales plans in place, the door was left open for unscrupulous people to jump in trying to make a quick buck off of someone else’s problem. Timeshare resale scams have popped up like a “Whack-a-mole” game, with government agencies wielding a rubber mallet, trying to keep them at bay.

As long as there are lemonade stands operated by pint-size visionaries, there will be another crop of entrepreneurs to charge into the business arena and both shake it up and smooth it out by challenging old ideas and instigating new ones. Let’s hope the timeshare industry closes the door on scammers and at the same time, puts out the welcome mat for the dreamers and doers who have so much to offer for the future.

The office of the Maryland Attorney General, Douglas F. Gansler, has published its latest edition of The Consumer’s Edge, focusing this issue on good advice for buying timeshare. The article, titled, “Timeshares: a Break from Reality?” takes timeshare buyers and prospective buyers through points they should consider before making the decision to become a timeshare owner.

The two-page report is easy-to-read and packed with clear, concise definitions and insights written to help consumers better understand the product they are buying. Here are some of the points made by the Attorney General’s report:

1. Do your homework so that you know what you are buying and that the timeshare or vacation ownership product you select is truly the right one to meet your needs.
2. Look at the total cost of your timeshare purchase, including mortgage payments, travel costs, maintenance fees (that are likely to increase over time) your finance cost, and your taxes if they are not included with your other fees.
3. Visit the timeshare resort where you plan to buy.
4. Learn the differences in timeshare intervals and deeded timeshare. Become knowledgeable about fixed or floating timeshare, timeshare points, vacation clubs, biennial timeshare, fractionals, and lock-offs.
5. And perhaps most important of all, don’t expect your timeshare to appreciate in values, or even to hold its value. Timeshare –like a resale automobile— consistently sells for less on the resale market than when purchased as new timeshare. As Attorney General Gansler, explains, “Timeshares are an expensive purchase and should not be considered an investment. Consumers need to do their homework before signing any contract.”

“Timeshares: a Break from Reality?” is a strong, informative report that is bound to be helpful to any consumer who is considering buying timeshare and even to many timeshare owners who don’t fully understand the product they have purchased. Best of all, the Attorney General’s report doesn’t represent that timeshares themselves are inherently a bad buy nor does it attempt to paint the entire industry with a single brush.

Following up on yesterday’s post on The Timeshare Authority, I want to share more with you about this past week’s ARDA New England Regional Meeting held in Providence, Rhode Island.

Howard Nusbaum, President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Resort Development Association, was the keynote speaker, discussing ARDA’s key issues for 2010. Point one, along with my thoughts, appeared yesterday in The Timeshare Authority, so you will want to check out that post, if you missed it.

And now here’s a look at the next four important areas of focus for ARDA and the timeshare industry as a whole:

2. Working to foster growth in the secondary marketplace:
This point is part of an overriding and significant theme for the timeshare industry. Timeshare fraud is the exception, but to any degree, it cannot be tolerated. Laws must be adhered to and the timeshare industry on all levels, including timeshare sales and timeshare resales, must be able to show itself to the world with transparency and creditability.

3. Nurturing and supporting timeshare owners:
The timeshare industry is not, and never can be, solely about new timeshare sales and timeshare resale. Instead, we must all be about nurturing and supporting customers and honoring the dream that customers purchased in becoming timeshare owners. Timeshare ownership products must be maintained as strong, vibrant, and fulfilling products.

4. Utilizing social media technology:

It is no longer acceptable for any business or any industry to rely on drawing consumers into the store or onto a webpage. Instead, through the power of social media, the timeshare industry must reach out to timeshare owners, timeshare buyers, timeshare renters, and prospective clients, connecting with them in the online locations they already frequent. Embracing social media marketing is one of the most timely and relevant sales and marketing strategies for spreading the message of what a great product timeshares really are.

5. Changing business models:
ARDA is working to help the timeshare industry explore new business models and evolve old business models. Thought leaders of timesharing and vacation ownership are addressing how products can be revised to better suit consumer buying profiles and vacation patterns. One of many points in question is that of ownership in perpetuity, which may no longer have the desirability factor it once did. In response to that, new products that offer short-term ownership opportunities are being explored.

It’s all good, isn’t it? When the goal of any industry is to work together to make its products more consumer-focused and more desirable, under an umbrella of forthrightness and complete transparency, then only good things can come of that effort. Timeshares are a great product, getting better all the time, and frankly, I am proud to part of an industry that focuses on bringing affordable vacation opportunities to individuals and families in ways that are relevant, timely, and flexible.

Posted on the Disney Vacation Club website you will find a warning to everyone who may have received a letter saying that they have won a “Travel Passport Cash Giveaway. The letter, according to Disney Vacation Club timeshare, is fraudulent.

Not only are some people receiving letters, but many are receiving telephone calls as well from an individual who represents him or herself to be a Disney Vacation Club Cast Member (Cast Member being the term the Disney Parks use for all of their employees).

The Disney Vacation Club advises those who receive the letter or the phone call to report it to their State Attorney General and to the Federal Trade Commission. As an added control measure, Disney Vacation Club timeshare is recommending that any timeshare owner or vacationer who receives a phone call from a Disney employee to validate the authenticity of the call and to refrain from giving out any personal or financial information until the caller’s identity is confirmed. The number to call to verify an employee of Disney is 888-727-4880.

Difficult times seem to give rise to more scammers in every industry. Be smart, play it safe and be wary about the information you share with anyone, whether it is by phone, email, or postal mail.
The link for more information on the Disney Vacation Club timeshare website is located near the bottom of the page and asks you to click-through to a pop-up page. You must have pop-ups enabled in order to read the full text of the warning. http://dvc.disney.go.com/dvc

And to learn more about safe, reliable opportunities to buy Disney Vacation Club timeshare resales or rent Disney Vacation Club timeshare, visit Sell My Timeshare NOW.