Odd email from HGVC

[CanuckTravlr]

We just received what I consider to be an unusual email from HGVC. Have not received one like it before in the over 3 years we have been owners.

It asked us to "please update your club member profile before your next vacation" to ensure we receive all relevant news and special offers to enhance our stay. They wanted to ensure they knew what name to call us, our phone number, email and home addresses.

I followed the link to our member account and, as I thought, everything was there...complete and correct. The email also said that if our profile was complete then just "simply confirm it's all up-to-date". Unfortunately I do not see any button or other method to "simply" do that, without going in and editing something and then "saving" it. Also, the email says not to reply to it, since emails sent to that address cannot be answered.

Has anyone else had such a request? I just find it very strange and a little annoying, especially since there does not appear to be any way to just say "everything is OK, don't bother me"!!

 

[CalGalTraveler]

It may be related to one of two things:

1) compliance with GDPR regulations. Many companies are reaffirming email permissions to comply with the new Euro law.

or

2) spam. Without clicking on any links try to open the email address to see the actual "from" address to see if it is really an HGVC address.

Good luck!

 

[Panina]

We just received what I consider to be an unusual email from HGVC. Have not received one like it before in the over 3 years we have been owners.

It asked us to "please update your club member profile before your next vacation" to ensure we receive all relevant news and special offers to enhance our stay. They wanted to ensure they knew what name to call us, our phone number, email and home addresses.

I followed the link to our member account and, as I thought, everything was there...complete and correct. The email also said that if our profile was complete then just "simply confirm it's all up-to-date". Unfortunately I do not see any button or other method to "simply" do that, without going in and editing something and then "saving" it. Also, the email says not to reply to it, since emails sent to that address cannot be answered.

Has anyone else had such a request? I just find it very strange and a little annoying, especially since there does not appear to be any way to just say "everything is OK, don't bother me"!!

I got it too, thought it was strange. The first thing I thought was it was fake. Was too busy to call and find out.

 

[dioxide45]

Perhaps you should have instead gone directly to the address instead of following a link in the email to avoid phishing schemes. Not saying it was, but always safe to avoid following links and typing the address in to a browser directly or following an existing bookmark or favorite.

 

[Talent312]

I got that same email, but I'm not going to follow some embedded link.
These days, one cannot be too careful, esp. when it comes to unsolicited email.

Recently, I found a Cox Cable door tag with a written message that said:
There's an issue with our line and to call "Dwayne" at a # (which is not Cox's).
I'm not gonna call some random dude, so I called Cox. They sent over a tech.
He said that "Dwayne" is legit - a contractor for Cox who's checking their lines.
... But says he understands my concern ...
.

 

[CanuckTravlr]

Thanks everyone, that was helpful.

Before I clicked on the link, I did check the email address for the source and it was legit. Very used to phishing emails at work, but good advice. The fact Panina and Talent312 also got it, confirms for me it is probably legit. Will probably change my password though, just to be safe.

CalGalTraveler's suggestion is what I initially thought it might be, although Canadian and US residents aren't subject to GDPR rules. Anytime I have received requests for confirmations in the past due to regulatory requirements, the emails usually make specific reference as to that being the reason. They also usually have a way to simply confirm that I wish to continue to receive emails or other contacts from them, without entering any personal information. This email made no such comment.

The cynical side of me says it is just a way to ensure that the Marketing Department at HGVC has the correct way to contact me multiple ways to persuade me to go to an "owners' update" or some other come-on. The fact that we made two reservations yesterday for our spring holidays, one at Ocean Oak and one at Ocean 22, seems to be too much of a coincidence!!

Will call HGVC member services tomorrow to inquire and make a couple of suggestions for any future contacts.

 

[Fredflintstone]

Thanks everyone, that was helpful.

Before I clicked on the link, I did check the email address for the source and it was legit. Very used to phishing emails at work, but good advice. The fact Panina and Talent312 also got it, confirms for me it is probably legit. Will probably change my password though, just to be safe.

CalGalTraveler's suggestion is what I initially thought it might be, although Canadian and US residents aren't subject to GDPR rules. Anytime I have received requests for confirmations in the past due to regulatory requirements, the emails usually make specific reference as to that being the reason. They also usually have a way to simply confirm that I wish to continue to receive emails or other contacts from them, without entering any personal information. This email made no such comment.

The cynical side of me says it is just a way to ensure that the Marketing Department at HGVC has the correct way to contact me multiple ways to persuade me to go to an "owners' update" or some other come-on. The fact that we made two reservations yesterday for our spring holidays, one at Ocean Oak and one at Ocean 22, seems to be too much of a coincidence!!

Will call HGVC member services tomorrow to inquire and make a couple of suggestions for any future contacts.

I am guessing the email is legit too. Timeshare companies want to have confirmation of your contact details for many reasons. Some of the main reasons are

1. To up sell to you.
2. To make sure their maintenance fee bills are getting out on time.
3. To make collections and harassment for unpaid maintenance fees smooth.
4. To ensure deed info is up to date.

The last thing they want is to chase you down if something goes wrong.

Lastly, they see you as a debtor and them a creditor so keeping up to date in contact info is crucial to maintain that relationship.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Denise L]

I also received the email. I already had the HGVC site open on my desktop, so I just used that window to check my profile. I did think it was unnecessary to solicit information from us in that manner. It would be better to have a message when we log into our account, asking us to look at our profile.

 

[CanuckTravlr]

I am guessing the email is legit too. Timeshare companies want to have confirmation of your contact details for many reasons. Some of the main reasons are

1. To up sell to you.
2. To make sure their maintenance fee bills are getting out on time.
3. To make collections and harassment for unpaid maintenance fees smooth.
4. To ensure deed info is up to date.

The last thing they want is to chase you down if something goes wrong.

Lastly, they see you as a debtor and them a creditor so keeping up to date in contact info is crucial to maintain that relationship.

Thanks, Fred. Certainly agree with no. 1 and 2, although we elect to receive our annual maintenance bill by email, since it takes the US Postal Service about 2 weeks to get a regular letter from Orlando to Toronto. Not sure why they should be concerned about deed info being up-to-date, since I believe that is between us and the State of South Carolina and the HOA, although HGVC obviously manages it?

Even if they wanted to look upon us as a debtor, that would only apply if we did not pay our maintenance fees. Not that we would want to, but if we were doing that deliberately, having or not having our contact info would be the least of their problems. While it is certainly possible, it is not all that easy to enforce a non-criminal, lower US court decision across an international border!!

I agree with your conclusion that the email is probably legit, but I have changed my password anyway. I also still think the email was poorly thought out and executed and will be letting HGVC know that!

 

[CanuckTravlr]

Thanks Denise, for confirming you got it, too. I agree that the process was poorly thought out. I like your suggestion better!!

 

[Sandy VDH]

Got one too.

 

[Denise L]

Thanks Denise, for confirming you got it, too. I agree that the process was poorly thought out. I like your suggestion better!!

Or if they need to send a generic email to all of us, they could ask us to log into the site for important update information. That would be good enough.

 

[Helaine]

I got one too! It's the first email I've EVER gotten from HGVC since I own at an affiliate - Fiesta Americana - so I was sure it was SPAM or fishing. They asked me to update my club profile, but I don't have one and I do not have an HGVC account - I deal directly with FAVC. They wanted me to update my email, phone number and mailing address. I went to the HGVC site, but could not sign in or create an account.
Very weird.

 

[CanuckTravlr]

Now that's really strange, Helaine...you got one and don't even have an HGVC account or profile!! Sounds like there wasn't much planning or oversight in preparing this email.

 

[Helaine]

I don't know how they even got my email address. I never gave it to them and I have no sense that FAVC would have since I book directly through FAVC. That's why I thought it was fishing.

 

[GT75]

I also received and thought that this email was old from HGVC (it is even odder now). But I never use any links in general emails like this. I always just go to the web site via normal means.

 

[PigsDad]

It may be related to one of two things:

1) compliance with GDPR regulations. Many companies are reaffirming email permissions to comply with the new Euro law.

I think this is the most likely reason we got this mail. Given that so many other owners (including me) have received the mail and that the link does indeed point to Hilton.com, the likelihood of it being spam is quite low.

Has anyone else noticed spikes in emails in the last few months from almost every company you have an account with requesting you to review their updated privacy policies or update your personal information that is stored with them? This is due to the new GDPR regulations as CalGalTraveler mentioned. Anyone working in the IT industry and has global customer has had to do significant work to make their products and services GDPR-compliant.

Kurt

 

[Tamaradarann]

I am guessing the email is legit too. Timeshare companies want to have confirmation of your contact details for many reasons. Some of the main reasons are

1. To up sell to you.
2. To make sure their maintenance fee bills are getting out on time.
3. To make collections and harassment for unpaid maintenance fees smooth.
4. To ensure deed info is up to date.

The last thing they want is to chase you down if something goes wrong.

Lastly, they see you as a debtor and them a creditor so keeping up to date in contact info is crucial to maintain that relationship.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I believe there is a great deal of truth in what your saying here. I wish they would chase me down when something goes wrong with the website. However, I don't know if I could keep up with all the e-mails I would be getting from HGVC if they did. Usually I have to chase them down. In the late spring I found out that there was no availability for certain unit types at the Hilton Hawaiian Village at the 9 month mark that was always available for the last 10 years. I wanted to book one of those units. I called the call center and one of the Representatives agree with my experience and thought that something was wrong. She suggested I write to Input. I did 3 times stressing that this must be an IT problem. Two different people gave me wrong written answers; "There are none available." "The owners must have booked their home week." I persisted since I knew my experience with the system was greater than theirs and other unit types that normally have less availability still had availability. The third person must have done a little more digging or asked the right IT people. He responded that the availability was not loaded for these unit types into the website and it would be shortly. I thanked him and a few hours later I was fine.

 

[TheCryptkeeper]

I also received this email and paid no attention to it.

 

[Helios]

Same here.

 

[CanuckTravlr]

I also received and thought that this email was old from HGVC (it is even odder now). But I never use any links in general emails like this. I always just go to the web site via normal means.

Excellent advice. Just to be clear...I did hit the link button, but only after confirming that the email was sent from a legitimate email address for HGVC.

I was expecting the link to take me directly to my account, as is the case with most emails requesting me to confirm my account under either CASL or GDPR regulations. When it only took me to the sign-in page for HGVC, I became much more suspicious. I then closed out of my browser and signed into my HGVC account directly. I then looked in my Member Profile for a way of confirming it was up-to-date. Not finding any obvious or simple method of doing so, I exited and created this thread.

At no time did I enter my sign-in information while connected by the link in the email, and would hope no one else would either. However, I nevertheless changed my password while in my account in the interests of being overly cautious.

From the number of replies to my post, it would appear that this was a legitimate email from HGVC, however poorly conceived. I had hoped to contact HGVC today, but was otherwise occupied. It is still my intention to do so and I will report back on their response. Thanks to everyone for your help!!

 

[Arimaas]

I also received this email and paid no attention to it.

Ditto

 

[CanuckTravlr]

Called HGVC Customer Service today. They confirmed the email was legit and that they do periodically send these emails out in batches. I suggested to them, that in future they might want to have a button in the account profile to be able to indicate quickly that "everything is up-to-date" and no changes need to be made. Not sure they will actually change anything! I think we can now put this thread to bed. Thanks everyone for your feedback!