SECTION 4: What Not to DO
5) Negotiate
In all of our discussions with previous owners we have found NO RHYME OR REASON to the way these people finally decide to give up and reimburse at least A PART of your money.
To some extent, it seems two factors are consistently key for you to get your money back:
HOW RECENT your purchase was, and HOW MUCH NOISE you make.
What this means is that NEGOTIATING is useless. Trying to come to an agreement directly with the person they send to interact with you is JUST ALLOWING THEM TO TIRE YOU DOWN SO YOU GO AWAY. Trying to reason with them, telling them of the LIES and PRESSURE the Salespeople put on you MEANS NOTHING.
I have PERSONALLY SEEN pieces of paper written by the salespeople and PERSONALLY HEARD recordings of their sales pitch, ALL LIES -- and these still go COMPLETELY ignored.
Negotiating with them goes NOWHERE. They will make you feel ridiculous (“seems like you should have read the contract before signing! That was stupid of you to do!”), and say anything or simply IGNORE YOU until you go away.
Follow this book’s steps as the ONLY THINGS we have seen that work, short of breaking into their company vault and taking your money yourself (not recommended).
6) Lawyering Up
This is a very natural instinct - you have been screwed over, illegally. You will therefore bring someone who KNOWS the law on YOUR side, and get the law to work for YOU, so you can get MY MONEY BACK.
The problem with this is that, for legal reasons both fair and unfair, your lawyer in your home country cannot do much. Even if they can, your case and the amount of money invested in it does not represent much.
9 times out of 100 (yes, one hundred, not ten), in our former Club member interviews, LAWYERS WILL CHARGE YOU HUNDREDS OR THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS, JUST TO TELL YOU TO SIGN THE CLUB’S VOLUNTARY RELEASE FORM AND GO AWAY.
In other words, going to the lawyer, for the VAST majority of buyers, turns into a futile effort where they pay somebody hundreds or THOUSANDS MORE, just to be back in the same spot the Club enforcers will put you in.
Save your money. You do whatever you feel like doing, but frankly, save your money when it comes to lawyers. Try our steps here first. If THIS doesn’t work, then sure, consider going to your big shot lawyer. But if what we told you won’t work, NOTHING in our research says a lawyer will either-- and it will cost you more.
7) Reselling
It is possible that you have come across, been offered, or even suggested by the Privilege Club to resell your account. You might have been explained by the Club representatives that, since they cannot give you any money back, you can find a reseller out there or a direct buyer, and get some cash for your investment. Maybe 4K for 10k you paid, but hey, it’s “something.”
You will go online and find that, actually, yes, there are DOZENS of resellers out there. You may even be SO lucky to find a resellers that tells you THEY FOUND A BUYER, a GUARANTEED ONE, who is willing to pay 5x the price YOU paid, and they are ready to sign a contract! They SHOW you the contract, send you their company’s incorporation records and even their perfect BBB grade, and all that needs to happen now… is for YOU to PAY THEM a few thousand dollars for administrative fees, and the big jackpot is yours.
This, my friend, is simply ANOTHER LIE. Since soured timeshare salespeople have been kicked out for many possible reasons, they have opened this little side business LYING more (see a pattern?), in presenting themselves as reputable resellers.
The truth is there is NO buyer. The ONLY money that will change hands is the money YOU pay them, a little or a lot. Once you START paying, they will find a reason to ask for MORE. They will say taxes must be paid to the state. Then the buyer will want MORE weeks, so your fees increase. Then a little extra for currency exchange.
The reasons are endless, but the goal is the same -- milking YOU of additional money. After all that effort, they will disappear, leaving you thousands of dollars less rich, with the same contract you started with, and no buyer, right where you started.
The TRUTH is that the market is FLOODED. There are TENS OF THOUSANDS of timeshare or vacation club members, just like YOU, trying to sell their programs online. There may be ONE serious buyer for 100 thousand sellers. The balance is COMPLETELY off, and your chances of finding a reputable buyer are INFINITESIMAL.
Your best chance is to resell your account to someone you know. That is, IF you believe ANYONE can actually benefit from it. But be careful not to be trying to get rid of something you think is bad, just to present it as good to someone else because you want to sell it. This would make you the same as the timeshare salespeople, and that would defeat the purpose, no?