I have not changed a word of the following statement below: When you have read it, visit the link. Have matters changed at the resort? . Some say no. The resort Committee fails each day to give its members their constitutional right to have the accounts checked.
Then with unjustified accounts, the timeshare consumers are sued one, by one, by one, by one. Nothing changes! Each time the consumers are hit, the committee enshrines in the “settlement agreement” a confidentiality clause so matters are silenced again and again and again and so on. In this case, the pen, the author and the words resonate. Is anyone willing to do that “absolute good”?
I was a member of the previous group and read all the contributions with interest. There is much I don’t understand or have missed at Lakeview and in that respect I am certain that I’m not alone. Here are some of my thoughts and a bit of a reality check that I undertook on my situation. This contribution is not intended to be contentious, or a one man campaign.
I got involved in timeshare at Lakeview in 1998, not to holiday there, but to exchange the week through RCI. At that time the lodges were in pristine condition and the resort was Gold Crown. Since we purchased a week in `red time’ to quote the sales person it was `Martini Time’ (go anywhere, anytime, anyplace). We have never had a holiday at Lakeview but we have enjoyed the holidays that the timeshare scheme has enabled us to take all around the world.
About two years ago we embarked upon a reality check and discovered that we didn’t want or need our timeshare week for a variety of reasons:-
The ever increasing cost of the annual maintenance fees
Our own change of interests and direction
Taking holidays for the sake of using the timeshare week
So we set about trying to sell our timeshare week as it happens with one of the agencies that were listed on the enclosure with the last communication from Resort Solutions. They valued the timeshare week and it has been advertised on their website together with others at Lakeview and none of them have been sold. The reality is that there literally hundreds of time share weeks for sale that no one wants even as a gift and it has nothing to do with Lakeview or whether or not it has been refurbished but everything to do with the fact that the vast majority of people see timeshare as a liability and not an asset. There are organisations out there that will claim to want to buy timeshare weeks but I have yet to find one that wants to charge me anything from £1500 for the privilege, that doesn’t fit my definition of buying! Up to this point I’m alright with the idea that my timeshare week has no monetary value as I consider that to date I have had my monies worth.
I have never found it easy to exchange through RCI. There might be an easy way but maybe I have never found it. Even with a flexible approach you can’t always get what you want let alone where you want it. Some destinations in Europe are impossible and destinations on the other side of the world are extremely difficult. I found exchanging in Australia a nightmare and only succeeded by visiting the Head Office of RCI in Kettering; fortunately we only live a few miles from this office.
At Lakeview the barricades are up with VKA on one side and everyone else on the other. Whilst `everyone else’ might have one the first skirmish the battle is far from over. I suspect VKA will have negotiated a better deal for supplying utilities than they had before, if they haven’t it wouldn’t be for the lack of trying. Access to the site seems to be a contentious issue, as does the money that VKA owes and the counter claim that they proceeding with. VKA are not going to make things easy and will do everything to make life difficult; 5 going on 6 weeks have already been disrupted. I wouldn’t go Lakeview for carefree holiday at the moment when you would be made as welcome as snow in harvest.
I don’t know how many timeshare units were originally for sale at Lakeview but if VKA `owns’ 300 this represents 6 lodges completely unsold. I suggest that after 14 years or more the market has dried up and these weeks may never be sold. It is further suggested that VKA pay the maintenance fee on each and every one of these weeks whilst I can see the logic that leads one to this conclusion, is it or has it ever been a reality?
For my information does anyone know who the committee members are, how they meet and are their meetings minuted ?
We are retiring, not wage earning anymore and changing our lifestyle and this timeshare week at Lakeview is one millstone that I could do without.
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We just wait to be picked off. one by one by one by one. It that our legacy?
Do we want Change. This resorts chairman is Mr. Harry Taylor Managing Director of TATOC. You the consumer might want to direct your questions to them.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk