If you have been victimized by either a timeshare resale firm or a timeshare resort, add your complaint below.
Timeshare Scams and Fraud
Diamond Resorts Ripoff - Diamond Resorts International
I am a retired nurse with Multiple Sclerosis and a disabled child. My husband and I bought a timeshare with Embassy Resorts in 2001 and we had some difficulties at first but for the most part it was OK. In 2004, Embassy was bought out by Diamond Resorts and that is when everything went from bad to worse as we could never book a vacation due to lack of availability.
Over the next 15 years, they kept calling us for owner’s updates, which they proceeded to upgrade our contracts to fix our availability issues and give us higher status, so we had priority bookings. One time they took our drivers licenses and held us hostage until we upgraded again! Our last upgrade in 2016 was done so we could have an “exit plan” so our disabled child wouldn’t inherit the financial burden. Our salesperson became our “go to guy”, but when we reached out, he disappeared. In 2021, Hilton bought Diamond. We thought, finally a reputable company that we can work with, boy were we wrong. A salesman named Todd from Diamond tried to get us to upgrade again, telling us for $10,000 they would turn our 15-year loan into a 10-year loan, and we could refinance with a bank. They offered to open a Diamond credit card for us to handle the deposit, but we were so fed up with all the lies over the last 2 decades we walked out. A few days later these Hilton characters had opened a credit card under our names without our knowledge, consent, or permission!
We pay $14,500 a year towards the mortgage and $6,500 a year on the maintenance fees, which totals $21,000 a year for a timeshare we can’t use! The stress of this financial burden could cause me to relapse and I would have to go to the hospital frequently. After all the lies and manipulation and broken promises, we asked to be let out of our contract because of our financial hardship, Hilton had the nerve to tell us that our only options are to either keep paying or keep upgrading.