HELP! Have10 days to changeour minds...

We have just put 10% down on a platinum floating week on a Marriott timeshare in Ft. Lauderdale at the Beach Place Towers. Anyone else an owner here? Please share plusses and minuses of what we are abou to do.

Thanks in advance!

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61762

Check out this thread. I think you'll resind once you read it. There are better places to buy especially if you plan to vacation at your home resort, so it sounds from this thread.

I know nothing about the resort where you bought, but since you say you have 10 days to decide if you want to go through with this purchase, I assume you have signed a sales contract with the developer. The most common TUG advice in this situation would be to rescind while you have the chance. Once the ten days have passed, you won't have the opportunity.

Take time to do more research. In most cases you can buy timeshare resale and save thousands of dollars. Check out Ebay. Google "timeshare for sale" and research the many hits you'll get. Read and ask questions on TUG.

The deal you got when you signed will be available again if and when you want it, no matter what the salesman told you. You have only this one opportunity to rescind. Take it!

We recently attended a Marriott sales presentation in Orlando, and I can honestly tell you that we were lied to at least 3 times, possibly four, by our salesperson.

The guy can deny all over the place and say that he didn't lie, but he did, and I am relatively certain that you were told some untruths during this presentation, because it seems to me that Marriott salespeople are getting hungrier than they used to be.

I am hinting here that you probably didn't get the straight skinny on the timeshare you purchased, so hanging around here for answers might be just the thing to help you with a resale somewhere.

Others have given you some great advice. You should rescind immediately, and send your rescission via registered mail, return signature required.

Fortunately for us, Rick and I are very knowledgable about timeshare and how things work, so when this person lied to us, we recognized two of the lies. Only one item was I unsure about, until I asked here.

You can also check out websited like redweek.com and the classifieds here for timeshare resale. Read these forums for a couple of months (read lots of past posts from the "newbies" section too, then after you know exactly what is right for you at a good price, you can make a confident purchase. We originally purchased Marriott from developer and although we have been very happy owners and get a lot out of our week, we could have bought it at half the price had we known about TUG and resales.

Best of luck.
Janna

Rescinda-Sinda-Sinda.

Get out of it while you can.

Then -- if you really want a timeshare, that 1 or some other mox nix -- buy resale & save thousands.

While you are mulling it over, here are 2 semi-inconvenient truths about timeshares I betcha the sales guy didn't mention . . .

(A). There is no such thing as a new timeshare. Buy the time you show up & check in, all timeshares are used-used-used no matter how much you pay. Since none are new, why ever pay new prices for 1 ?

(B). Buying a timeshare is not the same as buying prepaid vacations -- no way. Even if you got your timeshare free -- as in zero dollars & zero cents -- you still have to pony up those mandatory annual maintenance fees & taxes & reserve payments every year, year after year, forevermore-amen. Those recurring annual costs are the real cost of timeshare vacationing. (But if you save thousands -- as you can by buying resale -- you can cover many years of annual timeshare fees & still be way ahead of the game compared with paying full freight for a "new" timeshare that's no such thing.)

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

The fact that you are asking this ? would lead me to believe you have a good idea you should get out of the contract. The "deal of a lifetime" will always be there.

Take time and research here and then buy resale.

JMHO,
Cindy

Don't wait 10 days to change your mind. Change it today.

nann52 said:

We have just put 10% down on a platinum floating week on a Marriott timeshare in Ft. Lauderdale at the Beach Place Towers. Anyone else an owner here? Please share plusses and minuses of what we are abou to do.

Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

I own at BeachPlace Towers. Bought pre-construction in '97 for $16,900. What is the current price Marriott charged you? The resort has been sold out for years--they must have had a repo, trade-in, or a week they acquired as part of ROFR (right of first refusal) to had have inventory to sell to you.

Other than the high taxes ($200+ for a Platinum week) in South Florida, we've been happy with our purchase there. The Platinum season is an excellent trader--we've gotten some great trades by reserving holiday weeks and putting in exchange requests 1 year in advance (including Hawaii 2 bedroom units, 3 times now--including coveted President's Week). If you like Ft. Lauderdale and want to stay at the resort periodically, even better.

The Homeowner's Association has voted to do a major overhaul of furnishings starting this May (so far without the need for a special assessment), so the units should be in tip-top shape by the end of the year.

If you don't want the option of Marriott Rewards points (some say they're great, some say it's not worth the added cost), you could easily save yourself 50% I'm guessing (assuming you paid in the high 20's for your week) by buying on the resale market. When you buy from an existing owner (as oposed to Marriott) you lose the option to exchange for Rewards points, but everything else is the same as having bought from Marriott. Depends if you want to spend @ $13k for Platinum week on the resale market vs. what you paid Marriott directly.

There is a Marriott-specific board on TUG--you may want to visit that board as well for any Marriott specific questions.

David

I'm going to agree with the others who suggest that you get out while you can, then research. If you want to buy the same thing later, go ahead, this time with a good knowledge base..good luck.
Connie

Thanks for the replies

DL, you answered one question I had if we were to cancel the contract and look to buy a resale, because as the one pser pointed ot, there is no such thing as a new timeshare.

From what I have read, there seemed to have been quite a bit of controversey between the MBP HOA & Marriott. This conflict seems to have been amicably resolved.

The point you made about losing the opportunity to accumulate Marriott points is a big consideration for us. We actually would probably not spend that much time at MBP but would use the "lock out" feature ( am I right there?) to use to get an extra week; also, to exchange our week for points. We would then use them for stays at other Marriott time share resorts or other Marriott properties near places we want to travel where no MVCI properties are located. We also liked the feature of being able to trade with II, also.

Am I correct in understanding that if we purchased from someone else, if we wanted to exchange our platinum week for Marriott points, we would not be able to do so?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Cancel

8 out of 9 responses gave you great advice. Use it. Cancel now.

Yoour right if you buy resale you give up the opportunity to get ripped off and get points in exchange. Let's see you get to pay your Maintenance fee, give them you 2 bedroom timeshare or one or both of the one bedrooms good for a week on exchange to stay in a hotel room for a few days. Every year Marriott increases the amount of points to stay in their Hotels so in about 10 yrs you a stay over night. They don't increase the number of points they give for your timeshare- a losing deal.

Also you will find you can buy Marriotts for 60% of the developer's asking price on average. Furthermore if you are buying to trade why not buy where the maintenance fees are alot cheaper then Fl and you can get a better trades then Beach Place. I would suggest you rescind do some research on tug then decide. Read the Marriott board and ask all the owners there, some who bought resale and others who bought from developer and those that did both.

Rescind

i purchased my marriott with the intention of trading in for points every couple years and in the beginning that was great. then the points to stay at the different hotlels kept going up and where i use to be able to stay for 7 days now i can only stay about 5 days AND i became very use to staying in a lovely villa when vacationing and the hotel rooms just don't cut it any more. so IMO rescind ans purchase resale.

Thanks for the feedback

My husband and I returned home from FLL this afternoon and I just finished composing the letter canceling our contract. I am not sure timeshares are for us given the type of traveling we enjoy. I do appreaciate the feedback and look forward to staying on & learning more. Maybe once I learn more, TS will be the way for us to go.

Thanks again for the quick responses. Y'all saved us quite a few pennies!