Rund Abdelfatah
By James Bryce
HUNDREDS of timeshare salesmen are back on the streets, putting both sellers and buyers at risk.
Holidaymakers are being warned to watch out for unscrupulous timeshare touts, both on the phone and in person.
In the past 12 months, organisation Timeshare Owners and Committees has seen a 180 per cent surge in complaints about law firms and a 67 per cent increase in complaints about resale companies.
Dubious law firms and resale companies are targeting sellers trying to get rid of thousands of timeshares they can no longer afford.
They claim they can recoup the initial investment or sell the property, in exchange for a large fee.
They are also giving the hard-sell to unsuspecting first-time buyers, often trying to offload unwanted timeshares onto them.
Timeshare became popular in the 90s when around 600,000 people paid an upfront fee plus annual charges to use a room or apartment for set weeks each year.
Many found themselves burdened with contracts they couldn’t get out of and spiralling maintenance costs which in some cases were as much as €2,000 a year.
The dreaded timeshare it rearing it’s ugly head again uhhu it’s old hat and people should know this…
If you get conned by a time share salesman you obviously can’t read or listen and deserve all you get, anybody who goes on holiday and buys a property on the spur of the moment is an idiot. Now my house is for sale and 100 of you lucky punters can each buy a share for 10k and fight over the weeks yourself:)
I own a timeshare (2 weeks in fact) and it is the best thing i ever did. I holiday all over the place and know i´m not going to end up in a hotel overrun by chavs, union jack shorts and cockroaches.
obviously there are people that have been scammed in the past and i feel bad for them. but if it seemed to good to be true then it obviously was and BUYER BEWARE.
If i was told i could swap a week in benidorm for a disney resort for example i´d have been dubious or that i would make money on a holiday week. but people still fall for it all the time.
These touts out to con you are NOT part of the timeshare industry but prey on timeshare owners and persuade them to buy products and services they never really wanted in the first place.
The industry trade body, RDO, has been working hard to protect timeshare owners and have fraudulent companies closed down & its enforcement team works closely with the police & other enforcement bodies around Europe.
If you’re not sure, always check with RDO about the legitimacy of a company. RDO members are bound by the European Timeshare Directive and sign up to a code of conduct – it’s a good, legitimate industry, certainly not the one described by James Bryce!