Do these guarantees sound familiar?
We guarantee that you’ll be able to walk away from your timeshare contract!
If we’re not successful, you’ll get your money back – no questions asked!
If you’re a consumer trying to cancel or exit a burdensome timeshare contract, we’re willing to bet you’ve seen plenty of ads and offers that sound a lot like those. Maybe they came from a site that seems reputable, maybe from one that seems less than trustworthy.
But after you see enough of the same promises repeated again and again during your eager search for timeshare cancellation help, you may start to believe these claims. Certainly, we’re not trying to say that every claim you read online is a falsehood or exaggeration (after all, you’re almost certainly reading this post on a computer or smartphone!).
For any consumer, nothing brings more relief than the sight of the phrase “guarantee.” But as any consumer protection advocate will tell you, it’s highly important to always take that word, or similar claims, with a grain of salt.
Timeshare Scammers
First, as anyone who follows timeshare news will avow, the resale, cancellation, and redemption industries are full of scammers and less-than-reputable businesses. We find stories of fraud and deceit all the time, and discuss some of the most compelling in our “What We’re Reading” posts. Tales abound of “legitimate-looking [resale] contracts” that are utterly bogus, or of buyers who only get the “runaround” when they try to follow up with timeshare resale or rental companies. Things are so bad that the FTC, the BBB, and other consumer watchdog organizations have each published numerous articles, blog posts, and white papers on the dangers of the timeshare resale scheme.
Timeshare Resellers
And even legitimate timeshare resellers or transfer/redemption companies are, realistically speaking, hard-pressed to offer a genuine guarantee of success. Many of these companies operate by means of exclusive partnerships and deals with resorts and inventory aggregates, wherein they snap up unwanted interests in bulk and offer them back to the resorts. However, market conditions will heavily dictate whether the resorts will be willing to take back an interest at any given moment. If the resort company does not think your particular interest will be easily remarketable, it is under no obligation to retain it.
With the market as oversaturated with inventory as it is, these unlicensed third party companies can be slow to act or unresponsive, and could easily fold or drop off the map at any moment – making any money back guarantee claims they extremely difficult to trust.
Legal Professionals
Any reputable legal professional will be far less likely than a private company to make bold claims about guarantees – yet, as we’ve argued before, just about any licensed, legal professional is a better option for consumers than a private company making big, hard-to-verify claims about cancellation. The most important thing is that you, the consumer, feel protected and looked after; a legal professional will only be beholden to you and your needs – not to quotas, bottom lines, or backdoor industry connections.
Before conducting your business with anyone – including a legal professional – take the time to research them thoroughly with the consumer protection agencies for your state, as well as with any industry review sites or other online resources that have information available.
Led by Attorney Michael D. Finn with 50 years of experience, the Finn Law Group is a consumer protection firm specializing in timeshare law. Our lawyers understand vacation ownership as well as the many unique pitfalls of the secondary market of timeshare resales. If you feel you have been victimized by a timeshare company, contact our offices for a free consultation. Know your rights as a consumer and don’t hesitate to drop us a line with any questions or concerns.