Do not buy RCI resorts

Do you like RCI? You be the judge.

I don't know what has you so upset (I guess I could research your past posts, but I'm not that interested), but I must say that I have been a member of RCI for over 20 years and have made some fantastic exchanges to great locations including the UK, Europe and Hawaii (several times).

While RCI has changed over the years and not for the betterment of the timeshare owner . . . and they do some things that frustrate me . . . I would hardly consider swearing them off forever.

Don't know if my sentiments are quite as strong as the OP, but I must admit that after being an RCI member for many, many years, for the first time, I am considering moving all my weeks to other independent exchange companies. Over the years, I've found that even my very strong traders pull less and less, perhaps because those owners are taking their weeks to the other systems as well. I too have had some fantastic vacations in great units in fabulous destinations, but for me personally, I am ready to try out the other options now.

FlyKaesan said:

RCI is trying to make money off you.

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Of course!

They make you deposit your week

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No, they don't "make you" do anything - it's a choice to deposit.

They don't care if you exchange or not

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True

II charges you fees but they don't run scams like RCI does.

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interesting theory.

glad you know about the independents. Happy Future Exchanging!

CatLovers said:

Don't know if my sentiments are quite as strong as the OP, but I must admit that after being an RCI member for many, many years, for the first time, I am considering moving all my weeks to other independent exchange companies. Over the years, I've found that even my very strong traders pull less and less, perhaps because those owners are taking their weeks to the other systems as well.

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Exchanging benefits owners of weak traders or less desirable resorts the most. The big selling point of RCI is being able to trade up. With a fancy or prime time resort week, you can usually only trade down in quality or size.

I am sorry that you are so unhappy with RCI. We have used them for over ten years and have had many wonderful exchanges. We own two one bedroom units, and usually get a two bedroom in exchange. The secret for me is to deposit early and then wait patiently for just the right offer to be presented. I have never been made to feel that I should just accept the first offer that comes along.

Victoria said:

I am sorry that you are so unhappy with RCI. We have used them for over ten years and have had many wonderful exchanges. We own two one bedroom units, and usually get a two bedroom in exchange. The secret for me is to deposit early and then wait patiently for just the right offer to be presented. I have never been made to feel that I should just accept the first offer that comes along.

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Consider yourself lucky. I've been made to feel this way just about every day for the past two weeks !!

Mark

as i posted previously, IMO, the fix needed for RCI is to have REQUEST FIRST feature. then they can't have your week, until they find EXACTLY the week you want. of course, this assumes you OWN at a resort you want to stay at.

when i first purchased my marriott cypress harbor, i did join RCI. they called CONSTANTLY trying to get me to deposit my week. i told them 'WHEN YOU CAN GUARANTEE I WILL GET THE EXCHANGE I WANT, I WILL GIVE YOU MY WEEK."
RCI rep said somthing very nasty so when my 1 year membership ran out i never renewed. i now also own a week that only trades thru RCI. if i can't use my week, i rent it. i never re-upped with RCI and have no plans to do in the future.

geekette said:

No, they don't "make you" do anything - it's a choice to deposit.

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They told me I need to deposit my week to see what I can trade with. The only thing I see is Extra Vacation and Last Calls.

Yes they are making me to deposit in order to search. II don't do that.....do they? I have II also so I should know.

Ah, yes, I stand corrected - if you wish to see the possible exchanges, then you must deposit a week. Absolutely true.

The OP is obviously very frustrated with the reality of exchanging having fallen victim to what is the common belief of most owners. Whether it is misinformation from salespersons or an assumption on his part is really not the issue. RCI used to be the only game in town. That is no longer the case & every timeshare owner can make excellent exchanges if they would just do a little research. All exchange companies do not operate the same way. They all have strengths & weaknesses. Use this great new tool THE INTERNET and quit complaining. No one is forced to use only one exchange service. Take your business where it will best serve your needs.

I'm also relatively happy as an RCI member for eleven years. Not always happy. Not always thrilled with their policies. But generally satisfied.

Sheila

BTW, OP, the title of your post is incorrect. RCI doesn't own any resorts so, therefore, you can't buy one. Vote with your $$ and deposit your week with someone else--or use it.

Phil

I have been an RCI member for 10 yrs and have been with II 8yrs.
I own a prime summer Cape Cod week and get wonderful exchanges with RCI. No complaints. Trade power of what one owns in a high season is key.

Unlike II with RCI you can see great exchanges up to 2 yrs out. Not so with II where most of the good trades are 6-8 months out and I find this frustrating probably due to all those float weeks as mine are fixed.

However I much prefer II's online "search all destinations "and "search first" over RCI's online search anyday. It is a pain to use and keep flipping back and forth.

I have talked to reps at both companies that were very good and noncaring.

barndweller said:

Use this great new tool THE INTERNET and quit complaining. No one is forced to use only one exchange service. Take your business where it will best serve your needs.

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Hahaha...that is exactly why I am warning other new TS owners or those who is looking to buy. I have started to use Internet and if you do want to continue to use Internet, DO NOT buy RCI resorts. Of course RCI doesn't own but they want you to exchange with them. Well, they are doing unfair business to hurt most of the TS owners, not helping them. Yes, there are others who have great TP so they say..." I love my TS with RCI" Good for you but what about others who paid the same price you paid and got cheated? Yes, you say" who cares" Well, I do. I don't own RCI resorts but I wish those who belongs to RCI only. I feel for them. They do not have choice. I have choice so of course I will go with II or other exchange companies.
If you want to use Internet, BUY II related resorts, NOT RCI related resorts.
Just my warning, not complaints. If I was complaing, you are complaining that I am complaing so you should take your comments elsewhere.

Thank you!

I have been a member of RCI for 20+ years, since buying my first RTU TS in the early 80's. I have made A LOT of wonderful exchanges through RCI, making vacationing to places that otherwise I could not have afforded.

RCI has changed over the years from 1983 and some of the changes in their business have come with some some adverse impact on their members . . . some that I personally have not liked. Additionally, they have done some things (i.e., calling me to request that I space bank next year's weeks) which frustrate me and I wish they would stop.

All in all, for me, it is like anything else . . . you need to assess pros & cons and make an opinion based on your own outcome of the (+) and (-) for your situation. For me the positives still far outweigh the negatives so all in all, RCI is still satisfactorily meeting my needs!

As for the comment about how many people here (and elsewhere on other internet forums) complaining about RCI being indicative of how crummy RCI is . . . that is simply a flawed argument. The people who get angry and who dislike RCI are going to be more willing to speak up and with emotion are going to be far more assertive in their complaints towards RCI. Those who are happy, are rarely motived to say "WOW - I just got a great exchange from RCI!!" So naturally, you will find more posts and more passion about the negative than the position . . . that is only the nature of the beast of customer satisfaction.

Did you actually read the above posts?

If you did, you would understand that RCI cannot prevent you form using other exchange companies. The only restriction on an "RCI Only" resort is that you can't trade it through II, and to be honest II is just a corrupt as RCI.

The better resorts can be trader through many smaller exchange companies, and some of them also accept most other resorts as well. Would you be interested in knowing that there are Top qulaity II resorts where you ability to trade are severly restricted? Try DVC, where you don't actually belong to II - the club does, and you can only trade to resorts the club want you to trade to, a select group of hand-picked resort.


You seem annoyed that people here don't agree with you - well, we don't. RCI is not perfect, but they meet our needs. Your issue is with the resorts, not the exchange company. If anything, RCI has done its best to bouy up the value of some pretty worthless timeshare ownerships.

I usually stay away from responding to these types of postings but will make an exception (which I may regret later).

To OP - I have been reading many of your posts but probably not all here, so I may have missed something. Did you actually ever join RCI? On another thread, it sounded as though you were looking to get a deal through someone to use RCI, but did not want to join them directly. That thread was not too long ago. Between that time and today have you actually joined RCI, and if so, have you actually tried to make some exchanges? If not, then you do a disservice to Newbies without any real experience to back you up. If you did join RCI, then please give us the specifics of what it was that makes you post rants like this.

I don't even belong to RCI so have no personal stake in this, but I do think that if someone posts in the Newbies section the advice should be based on personal experience, with the specifics of that experience.

Mel said:

Would you be interested in knowing that there are Top qulaity II resorts where you ability to trade are severly restricted? Try DVC, where you don't actually belong to II - the club does, and you can only trade to resorts the club want you to trade to, a select group of hand-picked resort.

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Slightly off topic, but to be clear, that is a benefit for many people.
DVC weeds out the junk. They hand pick the top resorts in order to ensure a quality experience. It's impossible to trade into a dump.
Additional benefits include:
- Guaranteed trade power to get those resorts (of course availabilty and other resort competition come into play)
- No II membership fees
- Reduced trading fees
- Don't have to deal with II reps. Just call DVC Member Services.

FlyKaesan said:

I don't own RCI resorts

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???

So why the upset? RCI membership is yearly. Unless you are with FF, which will depends on which resort you own and you will have no choice but indirectly pay to RCI, otherwise none is needed to joint RCI.

I fail to see you can make any claim with no experience to back up but just some frustration that you can not peek their inventory before you make any decision.

RCI has some public data about number of exchanges they made per year.

Jya-Ning

Limiting the choices in II is a plus

Carl D said:

Slightly off topic, but to be clear, that is a benefit for many people.
DVC weeds out the junk. They hand pick the top resorts in order to ensure a quality experience. It's impossible to trade into a dump.
Additional benefits include:
- Guaranteed trade power to get those resorts (of course availabilty and other resort competition come into play)
- No II membership fees
- Reduced trading fees
- Don't have to deal with II reps. Just call DVC Member Services.

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Carl - Twice in two weeks we agree! DVC does do a service to the members by weeding out the II junk. And there is plenty of it to be harvested. The meaningless motto - "The Quality Exchange Company" just isn't reflected in the inventory that most II members would see. When DVC or Sunterra or Marriott chose to use a corporate membership and cherry pick the resorts they really are doing their members a big favor. When your view of II is limited to the best resorts and times and the cost is reduced to a fair amount of whatever system you are in points II can look pretty good. As an individual member stuck with a week for week trade II doesn't come close to the selection or quality of resorts RCI can offer. Not that RCI doesn't have those dogs too, they are an all-you-can eat exchange just like II so they can't turn them away, but the cream is there if you have a decent trade to offer.

FlyKaesan--I am surprised you are posting such negative comments with so little knowledge of the system. You just bought Worldmark, correct? Isn't that your first timeshare purchase? Yet you already have strong opinions about RCI? I don't even have those harsh opinions and we have been members of RCI for 21 years. I don't understand your problem with them. You are not at all specific. I think you were rather rude to Barndweller as well.

Glad you posted. Thanks for reading some posts but I guess you haven't read all the recent ones. I didn't have RCI so I have asked other RCI owner for Extra Vacation and Last call only reservation account. Well, many people said No thanks. Which I could understand why. So I bought a timeshare. Yeah, after reading I got one so I can sign up with RCI. Paid my $349 dues and got an account after 2 weeks later. I have also signed up with II. They gave me 1 free year membership. Maybe that is why I like II better. No, that is not why. It's cuz they let me search without depositing first.
Ok, no real experience you say? why do you assume? I have experience and that is why I am warning new people who haven't owned yet. If you own and happy with it, then press the back button and ignore my posts. Yes, this is my experience and my opinion.
Experience: I searched last call and found one in NJ. I couldn't reserve it and web site told me to call. I called the same day that appeared in Last Call and they told me they all rented out. I know they didn't rented out since they putted in Extra Vacation. They increased $200 and told me there is nothing in Last call. Well, if I called since I couldn't reserve it through internet, they should give me as $179 but they said NO!
Ok.... I am glad I don't exchange with RCI. Then I searched through and found Orlando Last Calls after a week later. I tried to reserve it and same thing happened. I found it at 9am and called at 2pm. I couldn't reserve it through internet since it came out with, you shoud call their 1-800 number. So I called and they said the same thing. I saw 18+ resorts at 9am and at 2pm, they said there was none. It all rented out. I know that is lie since I see them all in Extra Vacation. If they are lying like this, I am sure they lie more in their personal life. Well, that is their life so I won't go there.

That is my experience.

tashamen said:

I usually stay away from responding to these types of postings but will make an exception (which I may regret later).

To OP - I have been reading many of your posts but probably not all here, so I may have missed something. Did you actually ever join RCI? On another thread, it sounded as though you were looking to get a deal through someone to use RCI, but did not want to join them directly. That thread was not too long ago. Between that time and today have you actually joined RCI, and if so, have you actually tried to make some exchanges? If not, then you do a disservice to Newbies without any real experience to back you up. If you did join RCI, then please give us the specifics of what it was that makes you post rants like this.

I don't even belong to RCI so have no personal stake in this, but I do think that if someone posts in the Newbies section the advice should be based on personal experience, with the specifics of that experience.

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You are right. Barndweller...sorry. I just don't like it when you are lied to. After accepting their lies, I will be little bit more calm. It's been 3 days so I think I am calming down, don't you think?
I just want to warn new owners of my experience. Sorry if I am complaining too much about RCI.
If you can explain about the knowledge of RCI system, maybe I won't be as frustrated.

rickandcindy23 said:

FlyKaesan--I am surprised you are posting such negative comments with so little knowledge of the system. You just bought Worldmark, correct? Isn't that your first timeshare purchase? Yet you already have strong opinions about RCI? I don't even have those harsh opinions and we have been members of RCI for 21 years. I don't understand your problem with them. You are not at all specific. I think you were rather rude to Barndweller as well.

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FlyKaesan said:

Ok, no real experience you say? why do you assume?

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If you read my post again, you'll see that I did not assume anything and admitted that I probably have not read all of your posts. I simply asked you to post your experience here about exchanging with RCI, and the specifics of that since there did not seem to be those details in your first post.

You still did not answer my question about exchanging with RCI - only about attempting to buy Last Calls or Extra vacations.

But anyway - you're right abbout one thing - I will gladly ignore your posts from now on. I'm very happy with II and don't need to get into arguments about RCI (which I choose not to use).