Sick to my stomach!!! Feel taken!

Hilton_Lemonade · Aug 20, 2014

So I purchased over a year ago now. And we upgraded about 6 months ago and now own @ flamingo in Las Vegas. 7000 platinum week points annually, and 40k bonus points good till 2016. Everything I have been told feels like a lie. I paid $34k for this and i see i can get it for 7-10K$???????????? WTF is going on? I mean what can I do? Am I just screwed? I mean I should be able to get my money back when I was bold faced lied to and there is a contract??? We have been taken hands down!
What can I do? Legal action?
We love the resorts and RCI exchanges but this is out of control!
Just researching the next vacation and found this site...

I feel like screaming!

DeniseM · Aug 20, 2014

It may not make you feel any better, but this is the nature of timeshare sales. When you buy from the developer, the price is far higher than the resale market - at nearly every resort on the face of the earth.

However, you are in good company - about half the regulars on TUG also purchased their first timeshare from the developer, and we like timesharing, and we are still here.

At this point, your best bet it to hang out with us, and learn how to get the most enjoyment out of what you own - WELCOME!

brigechols · Aug 20, 2014

You are outside the rescission period. You cannot unring the bell at this point so continue to enjoy the resorts and exchanges. Welcome to TUG :wave:

Passepartout · Aug 20, 2014

Welcome to TUG. In a recent poll, the numbers are just about 50/50% the TUGgers who bought retail and those who bought resale first. You are among friends.

It isn't so much that you were 'taken, but that the business model of timeshare developers is that their marketing requires that about 50% of the price is taken up by marketing. Commissions for salesfolks, those prizes for attending presentations, gift cards, fancy sales rooms, multiple layers of people to apply ever greater pressure to sign people up.

Hilton is a great product, and you will have lots of great vacations. Stick around TUG, learn to make the most of your ownership. No need to be sick to your stomach, just learn to use what you bought.

All the best!

Jim

Hilton_Lemonade · Aug 20, 2014

I do enjoy it and loved it without any regrets until about 30 minutes ago!

I am a firm believer in when both parties are happy its a done deal but 5x the going used price? I dunno just seems out of control.

DeniseM · Aug 20, 2014

takenbyhilton said:
I do enjoy it and loved it without any regrets until about 30 minutes ago! I am a firm believer in when both parties are happy its a done deal but 5x the price? I dunno just seems out of control.

It completely normal in the industry. In fact, many timeshares have NO resale value, so you actually bought one that does - give yourself a pat on the back for that.

At this point, you have zero recourse, so put it behind you, hang out with us, and enjoy your ownership.

csxjohn · Aug 20, 2014

It's time to take a deep breath and stop beating yourself up. At the time you bought you thought you were getting value for your purchase.

Do you have specifics and documentation of how exactly you were lied to?

I'm not attempting to give you false hope but we have been reading lately that there are more and more lawsuits against developers for these practices.

I don't see much becoming of them because the only thing that usually matters is what's in the documents you signed.

It might me worth looking into however, especially if you financed the purchase and have given them only a little real money.

alwysonvac · Aug 20, 2014

Take a deep breath

Welcome to TUG :hi:

It's water under the bridge. Enjoy your timeshare.

You're not the only one here who bought from the developer and there are those who have paid a whole lot more. :ignore:
See this thread. It's a 50/50 split - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=214613

Now you're aware that you can make any additional purchases via the resale market for much less

Stick around and learn how to get the maximum usage from your points.

PearlCity · Aug 20, 2014

takenbyhilton said:
I do enjoy it and loved it without any regrets until about 30 minutes ago! I am a firm believer in when both parties are happy its a done deal but 5x the going used price? I dunno just seems out of control.

The price descrepancy wasn't so great until the recent recession. But at least now you know. If you ever want to add points you know about the resale market. Stick around and read up. You can learn to maximize your points, exchanging into different places etc.

Hilton_Lemonade · Aug 20, 2014

csxjohn said:
It's time to take a deep breath and stop beating yourself up. At the time you bought you thought you were getting value for your purchase.

Do you have specifics and documentation of how exactly you were lied to?

I'm not attempting to give you false hope but we have been reading lately that there are more and more lawsuits against developers for these practices.

I don't see much becoming of them because the only thing that usually matters is what's in the documents you signed.

It might me worth looking into however, especially if you financed the purchase and have given them only a little real money.

We were told that you cannot sell for less than the selling price because Hilton wont allow it to protect the brand.
We were told that if we bought outside of Hilton we could not book RCI.
We were told that we would only be able to stay at about 6 resorts if we bought resale.
Plus much more I would have to ask the Wife more details.

That being said we had been to dozens of TS presentations before and never bought we just decided we wanted Hilton so we went back. Never even considered we were being lied to by the huge Hilton brand. I didn't think it was like West Gate.

Thanks for the warm welcome. It means a lot. I guess I'm a little calmer now i feel like I'm coming out of literal shock. Need a beer...

Talent312 · Aug 20, 2014

Caveat emptor.

Consider a brand new car... In 5 years, it's worth ~ 37% of what you paid. [Edmunds]
What you're seeing is all that depreciation swooping in on you all at once.
They say a motor vehicle is a wasting asset. Your TS is just plain wasted.

At least it will last longer than the car.

Hilton_Lemonade · Aug 20, 2014

Can I rent and still use and make some money back? Is there a profitable market with 7k points to still go on some myself?
Anything else I should know that would help ease this pain?
Can I call Hilton and raise hell and get more bonus points?

DeniseM · Aug 20, 2014

takenbyhilton said:
Never even considered we were being lied to by the huge Hilton brand. I didn't think it was like West Gate

We have a saying around here:

How can you tell if a timeshare salesperson is Lying? Their lips are moving...

SmithOp · Aug 20, 2014

First, welcome to the club! I paid $40K before I learned about resale. You job now is to learn how to use your points and stretch to get the most usage.

Now to answer your questions below.
Selling Price - you can only get what you paid IF you trade it back in for another purchase, not a wise use, better to keep and buy more resale points.

RCI booking - this is a lie, resale is not restricted from using RCI.

6 Resorts - another lie, you can use resale points at any HGVC or Affiliate.

The key is that all the lies they told you are not in writing in your contract! The only thing you or HGVC is bound by is the written, signed contract, all the verbal promises and threats are not valid!

takenbyhilton said:
We were told that you cannot sell for less than the selling price because Hilton wont allow it to protect the brand.
We were told that if we bought outside of Hilton we could not book RCI.
We were told that we would only be able to stay at about 6 resorts if we bought resale.
Plus much more I would have to ask the Wife more details.

That being said we had been to dozens of TS presentations before and never bought we just decided we wanted Hilton so we went back. Never even considered we were being lied to by the huge Hilton brand. I didn't think it was like West Gate.

Thanks for the warm welcome. It means a lot. I guess I'm a little calmer now i feel like I'm coming out of literal shock. Need a beer...

vacationhopeful · Aug 20, 2014

Yee, $34,000 for 3 weeks annually in a 1bdr in Hilton resorts -- money is gone; just look at the value you are getting from your yearly MFs.

If you owned a vacation house, how many weeks a year would you be there? You have a limited number of vacation days as you have to work. So, MAX is 3 weeks of vacations? RIGHT?

Your Hilton units are, no doubt, VERY NICE ... kept clean and updated. It is a place where you and the family can sleep and play -- without ANY maintenance work to be done. You don't like a resort, choose every year to go to another resort. Need a 1 bdr this year or a 3 bdr next, PLAN and you will have those size units. Much better than owning a fixed vacation home.

Your feelings today are that you were scammed ... you should spend more time watching info-commericals. On TV, it is hard to figure out the junk plastic or tissue paper used to make those products. You stayed and slept in a Hilton unit when you brought your first set of points; you had been a member for 6+ months, when you added on MORE POINTS.

So start learn HOW TO USE this Hilton points - planning vacations. Including other elements of your family ... right now, I trying to figure out, SHOULD I take my 89 yo aunt to WDW for the first time in her life? Would be a PRICELESS vacation for her to meet Mickey and Minnie ...

Surely with 40K Bonus points you have A LOT OF PLANNING to do - 40K plus 7K (2015) +7K (2016) ... 54K --- HOW many weeks of vacations for your family?
So, take a very deep breath, get out the Hilton picture book and move forward to enjoying the rest of your life ...... by planning great vacations your KIDS will tell their KIDS ... that you took them on when they were a little tykes. And be the family who your kid's friends say to you, "Wish my parents took us to those great places!" or "Can I be YOUR kid? You do such neat stuff!".

presley · Aug 20, 2014

takenbyhilton said:
Can I rent and still use and make some money back? Is there a profitable market with 7k points to still go on some myself?
Anything else I should know that would help ease this pain?
Can I call Hilton and raise hell and get more bonus points?

If you were happy before you read this website, you can go back to being happy. HGVC is a great system with a great product. They have a sales model that involves getting you to buy whatever they can sell you. And, they will try to get you to buy more whenever you take another vacation. Usually, they do not lie in the presentations, but there are times that they do. If the lie wasn't in writing, you have no contract for whatever they said to you.

You can rent your home week, but I doubt it would be very profitable. You'd pay the annual dues + the guest fee. If you book something like New Year's Eve, maybe you'd make a good profit. Rentals are generally iffy.

Nothing will ease the pain. When you bought/signed the contract, you were probably happy with your purchase. Keep bringing back that feeling/memory. Use your product and enjoy it.

You cannot get anything from Hilton. If you ever speak to their sales department again, they will try to upsell you. They will offer you more points for more money. You should not talk to them. If you are so inclined, you can document all the actual lies, mentioning the sales person and sales managers by name and file a BBB complaint as well as send it to the head of HGVC. I doubt anything will ever come of it, but you might feel better about it.

alwysonvac · Aug 20, 2014

takenbyhilton said:
Can I rent and still use and make some money back? Is there a profitable market with 7k points to still go on some myself?
Anything else I should know that would help ease this pain?
Can I call Hilton and raise hell and get more bonus points?

Honestly, I won't change your usage strategy because you just found about the resale market. Yes, it stings to learn that others have bought it for less but that doesn't mean you can't continue to enjoy the resorts and RCI exchanges as you've done so far. Obviously you like the club since you upgraded and bought additional points.

Don't lose focus on why you bought HGVC in the first place. It's a great system with lots of flexibility.

Hilton_Lemonade · Aug 20, 2014

We do love it. We almost bought Disney but didn't because of the 50 year lease period.

We have 6 vacations planned with HGVC / RCI now, and more to book because we don't want to lose the 7,000 bonus points. We are looking for nice places in Gatlinburg and Key West now but no luck as of yet.

vacationhopeful · Aug 20, 2014

Go read the Wyndham thread - almost all the Wyndham resorts are not near as nice as your Hilton properties - but as a much BIGGER system, a lot more people who feel TAKEN by Wyndham and many for a similar amount of money. And there are some, on TUG here, who Wyndham has clean out their bank accounts for $100,000+ of developer brought points. And some were the GRANDPARENTS who thought this was a gift to their grandchildren.

I met a guy who got SOLD some Wyndham timeshares for $70,000 about 6 years ago. He had spent that sum of money 5+ years early - it was still eating at him. He did not enjoy the vacations - was never looking forward to going to any Wyndham resort - had been paying years on his loan & then those growing MF payments every year ... his blood pressure was high as he HAD TO USE those points every year. The only joy at a resort he got, was sitting at the pool bar and drinking beer.

Look forward ... read and learn ... plan next summer's vacation & a fall getaway. Perhaps, that Dream Trip to Hawaii (2 or 3 island for 3 weeks?) Have the grandparents tag along? Your wife's sister? Your brother?

Just keep them and yourself OUT of the sales meeting rooms. Most of us here on TUG feel the $100 bribe is too low of a payment for our vacation time...

thelug · Aug 20, 2014

We paid a bunch too. Lesson learned. Sucks hard. Your not alone.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

alwysonvac · Aug 20, 2014

takenbyhilton said:
We do love it. We almost bought Disney but didn't because of the 50 year lease period.

You can use your HGVC to trade into Disney :banana:

See this thread - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=206584

We have 6 vacations planned with HGVC / RCI now, and more to book because we don't want to lose the 7,000 bonus points. We are looking for nice places in Gatlinburg and Key West now but no luck as of yet.

In the RCI Directory, I see that there are only three resorts in Key West and only 1 of the 3 is a Gold Crown (Galleon Resort) so you'll definitely want to setup an ongoing RCI search request due to the limited availability. I also noticed in the RCI Directory lots of RCI Points Resort in Gatlinburg so you probably want to start searching for those online at 10 months before check-in for the highly desireable resorts in that area during the peak travel season.

Here are some posts that you might find helpful regarding RCI.
- http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1662969&postcount=16
- http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1605364&postcount=5

Good Luck

Passepartout · Aug 20, 2014

takenbyhilton said:
We have 6 vacations planned with HGVC / RCI now, and more to book because we don't want to lose the 7,000 bonus points. We are looking for nice places in Gatlinburg and Key West now but no luck as of yet.

Since it seems you want to do some exchanging, you may want to consider actually joining TUG. Your $15/year membership gives you access to reviews by TUGgers of thousands of resorts worldwide. It also removes that pesky 'Guest' designation and replaces it with the prestigious 'Member' moniker showing that you are truly 'in the know'.

Oh, by writing reviews of resorts you visit, you can earn extra time on your membership. As few as 2 reviews a year and your membership can be free.

Jim

P.S. I know that today, the hurt of discovering that you overpaid is a little fresh, but over time, you'll probably feel like changing your username.

Sandy VDH · Aug 20, 2014

I'm assuming 40K HGVC Bonus points. That is a lot of points.

Can you do something big with those points, take the entire family on a trip of a lifetime, splurge on something you would have never been able to do. At least you will feel like you got something out of that money.

Can you even use 40K HGVC points by 2016?

weavershome · Aug 20, 2014

vacationhopeful said:
Yee, $34,000 for 3 weeks annually in a 1bdr in Hilton resorts -- money is gone; just look at the value you are getting from your yearly MFs.

If you owned a vacation house, how many weeks a year would you be there? You have a limited number of vacation days as you have to work. So, MAX is 3 weeks of vacations? RIGHT?

Your Hilton units are, no doubt, VERY NICE ... kept clean and updated. It is a place where you and the family can sleep and play -- without ANY maintenance work to be done. You don't like a resort, choose every year to go to another resort. Need a 1 bdr this year or a 3 bdr next, PLAN and you will have those size units. Much better than owning a fixed vacation home.

Your feelings today are that you were scammed ... you should spend more time watching info-commericals. On TV, it is hard to figure out the junk plastic or tissue paper used to make those products. You stayed and slept in a Hilton unit when you brought your first set of points; you had been a member for 6+ months, when you added on MORE POINTS.

So start learn HOW TO USE this Hilton points - planning vacations. Including other elements of your family ... right now, I trying to figure out, SHOULD I take my 89 yo aunt to WDW for the first time in her life? Would be a PRICELESS vacation for her to meet Mickey and Minnie ...

Surely with 40K Bonus points you have A LOT OF PLANNING to do - 40K plus 7K (2015) +7K (2016) ... 54K --- HOW many weeks of vacations for your family?
So, take a very deep breath, get out the Hilton picture book and move forward to enjoying the rest of your life ...... by planning great vacations your KIDS will tell their KIDS ... that you took them on when they were a little tykes. And be the family who your kid's friends say to you, "Wish my parents took us to those great places!" or "Can I be YOUR kid? You do such neat stuff!".

Feel happy that you have a tone of bonus points to use. I can't remember if there are rules or not to renting your units booked with bonus points. I am sure someone on here could clarify. If the 34k was financed, renting out some units in higher priced areas/peak times could be a good way to use those 40,000 points and get some of the that Itinvestment back. Figure 5 weeks individual weeks for 2k or something to get 10k back????For me, it would be hard to use all those 54000 points in 2 years. If you can use the points in 2 years and you did not finance the 34k, I would agree to just use it for the best couple years of your life and feel good that you get to use this forever...

All of your info on what the salesperson told you was similar to what they told me. It is wild that they can say this stuff and get away with it. In fact we bought direct while in Hawaii on a vip trial trip and recsinded when we got home. Not because of any resale awareness but mostly mostly because it wasn't the right time. I was lucky to find this site and JudiKoz's site to gain clarity about resale. Anyhow, as many hve said, you are not the only one who bought direct and you have a ton of great vacations ahead of you.

PearlCity · Aug 20, 2014

takenbyhilton said:
We do love it. We almost bought Disney but didn't because of the 50 year lease period.

We have 6 vacations planned with HGVC / RCI now, and more to book because we don't want to lose the 7,000 bonus points. We are looking for nice places in Gatlinburg and Key West now but no luck as of yet.

The good news like others have said is you can use HGVC to trade into Disney, often times for less than if you bought into Disney and paid the maintenence fees.

Read up in exchanging, ask questions. The best exchange weeks go to those with ongoing searches in RCI. What you see in RCI on the website are leftovers.

Sick to my stomach!!! Feel taken!

Hilton_Lemonade

DeniseM

brigechols

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Veteran

Hilton_Lemonade

DeniseM

csxjohn

TUG Review Crew: Expert

alwysonvac

PearlCity

Hilton_Lemonade

Talent312

TUG Review Crew: Veteran

Hilton_Lemonade

DeniseM

SmithOp

TUG Review Crew

vacationhopeful

TUG Review Crew: Rookie

presley

TUG Review Crew: Expert

alwysonvac

Hilton_Lemonade

vacationhopeful

TUG Review Crew: Rookie

thelug

alwysonvac

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Veteran

Sandy VDH

TUG Review Crew: Elite

weavershome

PearlCity