BLT Ebay Sale

So I attempted to purchase a BLT contract from a private seller on Ebay earlier this month. The seller lives in Fla and was going to do the transfer himself. I signed the contract and provided my credit card information for payment on 6/7/15. The seller was to keep us in the loop with the progress of the transfer. This included the contract after he signed it and the ROFR paperwork. I also requested the deed information as proof of his ownership. I did not receive the promised/requested documents. I sent a few reminders and also decided to search the Orange County Comptrollers website for the deed. I was unable to locate a Disney timeshare in his name, only four non-Disney timeshares.

Naturally with the lack of communication and the inability to confirm Disney ownership, I contacted my credit card company and put the transaction on hold. I then informed the seller of the hold and agreed to continue the transaction after he proved ownership and presented me with the signed contract as promised. The seller responded negatively and cancelled the Ebay transaction. In his email response, the seller threatened to report me to DVC when he cancelled the transfer so I would be banned from buying DVC in the future.

So my questions...

Can a seller report a buyer to DVC and the buyer suffer any consequences?

Is there a way to know if the transfer was ever submitted to DVC in the first place?

There was too much money at risk to let this play out and I felt I needed to put the transaction on hold to learn if the seller was real and serious.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Management companies are do not get involved in private sales.

The terms you agreed to were very risky - I would never send money without doing my due diligence first, nor would I agree to let a private seller handle the the transfer themselves, nor would I give a private seller my credit card number. Using a reputable title company gives you a lot of protection, and it's not that expensive.

mtm65 said:

So my questions...

Can a seller report a buyer to DVC and the buyer suffer any consequences?

Is there a way to know if the transfer was ever submitted to DVC in the first place?

There was too much money at risk to let this play out and I felt I needed to put the transaction on hold to learn if the seller was real and serious.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

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No DVC will not block you from purchasing in the future.
And why are you doing a big purchase on ebay from an unknown seller?
Buy from one of the reputable DVC resellers.
Like you say, it's too much money at stake, besides DVC has ROFR so you won't be getting a smoking deal on a resale anyhow. :ignore:

chriskre said:

No DVC will not block you from purchasing in the future.
And why are you doing a big purchase on ebay from an unknown seller?
Buy from one of the reputable DVC resellers.
Like you say, it's too much money at stake, besides DVC has ROFR so you won't be getting a smoking deal on a resale anyhow. :ignore:

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It wasn't a smoking deal, I believe it would have passed ROFR but it was a little more reasonable than the DVC resellers.

There is currently a run on DVC BLT contracts and it appears some of the "reputable" resellers are encouraging bidding wars. It is very hard to find a contract that has not been stripped of points for a reasonable price.

I did have a level of protection with my credit card company and the credit card processing company that he used. I did not give my card information directly to him.

Thanks for your thoughts!

DeniseM said:

Management companies are do not get involved in private sales.

The terms you agreed to were very risky - I would never send money without doing my due diligence first, nor would I agree to let a private seller handle the the transfer themselves, nor would I give a private seller my credit card number. Using a reputable title company gives you a lot of protection, and it's not that expensive.

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Denise, I know you have a high level of knowledge of timeshares. Do you know if I can confirm if any transfer paperwork was submitted to DVC with my name on it?

Thanks.

mtm65 said:

Denise, I know you have a high level of knowledge of timeshares. Do you know if I can confirm if any transfer paperwork was submitted to DVC with my name on it?

Thanks.

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I doubt it - With most deeds, once a deed is recorded with the county and submitted to the management company, it's a done deal. It's not something the seller can undo by just saying, "I changed my mind." I know that DVC deeds are different, but I believe they are still recorded deeds.

Also - If you just completed the transaction on June 7th, it's too soon for all that to happen.

Who did you provide the credit card number to, if not a title company?

DeniseM said:

I doubt it - Once a deed is recorded with the county and submitted to the management company, it's a done deal. It's not something the seller can undo by just saying, "I changed my mind." I know that DVC deeds are different, but I believe they are still recorded deeds.

Also - If you just completed the transaction on June 7th, it's too soon for all that to happen.

Who did you provide the credit card number to, if not a title company?

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The seller used a credit card payment processing company. So the seller created an invoice within the processing company website and I paid the invoice within that site. My info was never given to the seller and the money is held by the processing company until the processing company determines that the transaction is not fraud. They act as a go between for private parties.

mtm65 said:

The seller used a credit card payment processing company. So the seller created an invoice within the processing company website and I paid the invoice within that site. My info was never given to the seller and the money is held by the processing company until the processing company determines that the transaction is not fraud. They act as a go between for private parties.

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Was it an escrow company? I've never heard of a credit card processing company that provided escrow. What is the name of it?

No not an escrow company.

mtm65 said:

No not an escrow company.

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What is the name of the company that you made the payment to?

mtm65 said:

I also requested the deed information as proof of his ownership. I did not receive the promised/requested documents. I sent a few reminders and also decided to search the Orange County Comptrollers website for the deed. I was unable to locate a Disney timeshare in his name, only four non-Disney timeshares.

...The seller responded negatively and cancelled the Ebay transaction. In his email response, the seller threatened to report me to DVC when he cancelled the transfer so I would be banned from buying DVC in the future.

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These two statements tell me all I need to know about the seller, and you did the right thing.

It's quite possible that the OCC site was not accurate, and it's pretty clunky to use and mistakes are easy to make. But even if they DID actually own DVC (which I suspect they did), you don't need to be dealing with a moron like this.

Can a seller report a buyer to DVC and the buyer suffer any consequences?

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No. That's nonsense -- just running their mouths because they're mad.

Is there a way to know if the transfer was ever submitted to DVC in the first place?

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No, but what difference does it make? He's already canceled the eBay transaction, which does two things:

1. It settles the question with the credit card processor. The transaction is canceled; no need to prove fraud or anything else.
2. Unfortunately, it also prevents you from leaving negative feedback on eBay. That's one of the problems with eBay -- a crook or a jerk can just cancel the transaction and the whole thing never happened in eBay's eyes.