Interesting call from Interval Int'l?!?!

[hmmerr02]

Hey everyone! I just received a phone call from II that was very interesting. They said that if I was unable to use a week at my resort this year, that they would now be "renting" out the weeks through their company. She said they could get between $2200-2500 for the week. If one week costs 160 points (on average) that would be a lot better than renting out the points for $10 a piece. I'm sure we'll be using our points because we have a smaller contract, but I thought it was interesting. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Anyone else received this phone call?

 

[Doctor P]

Sounds very, very fishy to me, but maybe somebody with more experience with II might know better whether this is on the up and up.

 

[Dean]

II doesn't solicit rental weeks from individuals. They do rent excess inventory and also take in weeks on consignment to rent out. My guess is this is one of the companies that call timeshare owners and promise the moon. Many of these same companies are upfront resale listers and in general you should stay away from them. They usually promise the moon and want you to pay a fee to cover their advertising and the like. The fee is usually between $299 & 499 but I've seen up to $599. Most of these are boiler room type operations and once you give them money, that's the last meaningful discussion you will have with them.

 

[dianeschlicht]

How do you know it was an II representative? Was there anything on the caller ID that would indicate that? I would be VERY skeptical of this one. II has no reason to solicit rentals.

 

[TnRobin]

I too would be cautious of this call. It sounds fishy to me. II is not in the business of renting DVC trades. I would call II directly using a number published on thier website to verify this transaction if you are truely considering it. Also get EVERYTHING in writing. Promises of $2500 are just that promises.

 

[T.E. Yeary]

I got a call night before last from a company named Vacation Time International.

I asked if they had a website and she said it was www.vacationtimerentals.com

We had recently made a trade into Fairfield Glade. We didn't use it because something came up and it went vacant for the week. The young lady kept referring to my being a Fairfield owner and losing rental money.

Even after I told her I didn't own at Fairfield. She asked which weeks I owned, I told her what I actually owned and just let her rattle on, she said her company helped Expedia.com and other travel companies on the internet and that is how they made their money.

They also made money from the airlines and rental car companies. Bottom line she said I could expect $1,800 to $2,000 for a 2 bedroom rental. She also went on to say they could help me sell my week with no out of pocket expense to them. They were associated with Chicago Title Company.

The way they sold the weeks was they tell the renters to take a tour with the resort then call them and they would put the renter in touch with me in order to sell my week. We could do the deal with NO commission.

After hearing about all these wonderful things they could do for me, she finally said it would only cost a one time upfront membership fee of $799.

I told her I would have to talk it over with my wife. She gave me her name and phone number.

The next morning I got another call from her asking if I had decided. I of course told her I was NOT interested.

I proceeded to look the company up on the internet, realized it belonged to someone who has been collecting upfront fees for years, using many different names and corporations to fool the general public.

I proceeded to look up the "do not call list" website and filled out the paperwork to report the violation. Now we think a $10,000 fine for violating the "DO NOT CALL LIST" is alot of money, but when someone is getting $799 for every customer that falls for this, the company is coming out ahead or they wouldn't be doing it.

Please do yourself and anyone else you know a big favor, report these abuses to anyone and everyone who will listen. There are people who fall for these scams everyday and unfortunately it's usually those that can least afford it.

 

[DVCconvert]

Please do yourself and anyone else you know a big favor, report these abuses to anyone and everyone who will listen. There are people who fall for these scams everyday and unfortunately it's usually those that can least afford it.

Thanks Tom!! Good Advice!!