Who are they???
We are looking at purchasing a rental week from this company. Has anyone rented from this company before? What was your experience, etc? They require us to complete a rental agreement and contract and so forth which seems all good to me, but also require us to send them a cashier or personal check to pay for the full rental price and from different things I've read people have said never to send anyone a check, but to use a secure online system like pay pal. Thoughts?
First off, PayPal is certainly NOT any form of "be all and end all" for "security". PayPal offers you (as the renter) no protection whatsoever in a non-tangibles transaction (such as a rental). PayPal is great for the
recipient of the funds, a whole lot less wonderful for the person actually
parting with their money.....
A bigger and more important issue, perhaps, is whether this company (do they have any real people names, a street address for their business, etc.) actually has lawful access to the product which is being offered to you for rent in the first place. Do they actually own the week? Likely not. Are they renting for someone else? If so, have them first identify to you exactly who that "someone" is and the specific unit number and week they own at that resort. Then confirm directly with the resort yourself, to own satisfaction, that this as yet unknown "someone" is indeed the actual owner of the week.
Beware of outfits claiming "they can get you a week". Too fuzzy, too vague, too uncertain. Some of these outfits (numerous folks on RedWeek have reported getting burned) apparently try to find a unit only AFTER they have the renter's money. Numerous folks never got a unit OR their money back. Other "companies" apparently rent out weeks somehow obtained via owner exchange. Since it violates RCI and II terms and conditions to rent out an exchange for profit in the first place, such a scenario includes the risk of being turned away at check-in if this violation is actually discovered.
In short summary, make this (or any other) entity PROVE to you to your own satisfaction and comfort level that whatever they are attempting to rent to you is something that they have a confirmed, proven, lawful right to rent to you at all in the first place.....
