[2010] $5000 "Weeks" to "Points" conversion fee.

[AwayWeGo]

eBay Drought Of Points Units In Vacation Village At Parkway.

For months, eBay was full of points-converted Vacation Village At Parkway units -- $1 opening bid, no reserve.

Some included free or reduced-fee closing, some with free resort transfer, many with free additional points (from the old owners' accounts, I suppose).

We snagged just about the dinkiest 1 of those ourselves -- triennial off-season unit worth 55,500 points, delivered as 18,500 points annually.

Lately -- i.e., for the past few weeks -- no points-converted units in Vacation Village At Parkway have been offered on eBay.

No doubt the points bargains all got snapped up by the savvy buyers on TUG, leaving the rest of the general world nothing but Vacation Village At Parkway straight-weeks bargains.

So it goes.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[AwayWeGo]

They're Back.

Lately -- i.e., for the past few weeks -- no points-converted units in Vacation Village At Parkway have been offered on eBay.

As of last night, eBay once again had several more of those points-converted Vacation Village At Parkway units offered at $1, no reserve.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[Tia]

My one resort was sold in it's resort group to Equivest, that was bought later in 2002 by FF now Wyndham. Resort was originally sold as fixed weeks, then float weeks came in to the picture sold for flexibility, then came the convert/buy Wyndham points pitch. Right now fixed are the only ones not hollering they can't get a week at the resort. What a mess. So glad we did not fall for this expensive privilege of more $ down drain for nothing.

Oh we have 2 Wyndham employees still sitting on our board, at the urging of an owner board-member, while we could have owners in all 5 seats. Too many owners think this is a good thing

 

[Tamzeng]

$5000 vs $200

Hi,
This is the biggest cash grab by the developers.
We bought a every other year, odd at Vacation Village Parkway from holidaygroup.com, It cost us $200 to set up an RCI points account! I was flabbergasted when I learned that. We have always been told $5000 or so as well. So, live and learn. We still have a weeks resort, and now have points as well. The membership fee for one covers both. If we were to buy more points from holiday group the fee is, currently, $100 to add more points to an existing RCI account.

 

[AwayWeGo]

Vacation Village At Parkway Points Conversion.

Hi,
This is the biggest cash grab by the developers.
We bought a every other year, odd at Vacation Village Parkway from holidaygroup.com, It cost us $200 to set up an RCI points account! I was flabbergasted when I learned that. We have always been told $5000 or so as well. So, live and learn.

We recently bought some (dinky triennial) points units at Vacation Village At Parkway. They had been converted to points by prior owners & they stayed converted after we bought'm.

According to the eBay sellers' item descriptions, the earlier owners paid $3,000 each for points conversion.

We noticed at the time, & again several times since, that most of the eBay offerings for Vacation Village At Parkway are unconverted straight-weeks units, some with opening bid amounts of $1 & no reserve.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[tombo]

If it wasn't for the Disney block on Orlando I would have purchased one of those. The Vac Villages have the most annual rci points of any timeshare you can buy for $1 on e-bay, and the MF's costs to points received is very good too. I am not even a Disney fan, but I hate to own an Orlando resort and be locked out from exchanging for Disney if I ever want to. For someone who wants to buy points (resale for $1) other than to trade for Disney, this is a great choice.

 

[leverite]

It's been a while since I've viewed this thread, and I'm finding a lot of your folks' stories interesting and beneficial.

My wife and I exchanged into VV at Boneventure, a "sister" property to our own resort at Mizner. After registering, I was directed to the "Hospitality Desk" ... and pretty much knew what was coming.

The attractive young lady behind the desk offered me a free lunch ... where on I chuckled and replied: "Another trip to the Shark Tank ... and I'm what they're having for lunch? Nooooo Thanks!"

She just laughed, and proceeded to tell me that "No, we would never do that to our owners! There will be a short presentation ... "

"Let me guess" I interrupted " a (fingers making quotation marks in thin air)90-minute spiel on the virtues of the Points System, right?"

"Well, yes, but there won't be any pressure to buy ... and you will get a $75.00 VISA card as a gift."

Long story short ... I caved. Handed her a $20.00 bill and ended up going.

We were met by a "VIP" rep, and pretty much skipped the TV room (1-hour "silent salesman") and went immediately for lunch. This guy went on about being early-retired from some multi-million project management deal, then told us that he had recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It just so happened that my wifes sister had recently succumbed to the very same thing ... and it struck a nerve with us.

So we had a nice lunch, and returned to the Welcome Center (Shark Tank).
He pitched (as expected) the "Points" system for $3,000.00. We said "not interested, thanks" ... and were met with "What are you ... stupid?"

That's when I got up and headed for the door. He's running after us, apologizing ... and panting for breath. So we stop ... and I said "there's really nothing you can say to convince us ... our minds are made up!"

"OK, OK ... but I need you to sign this refusal letter, and you will not get offered this deal again."

"No, no, no ... I'm not signing ANYTHING! That's what got me into this hell-hole to begin with!"

"Well, OK. Sign it, don't sign it ... the result is the same. I am required to submit the form saying that the offer was made and refused."

By this time my wife is visibly upset and crying. Resume brisk walking and mumbled cuss-words. Again he is chasing us, and telling us we are entitled to our "free gift" ... "I'm sorry, genuinely sorry that you're upset ... but for Heaven's sake, don't leave without your free gift." These guys are good.

Entering the last building for our "gift" resulted in some lady asking about our experience. She got told.

"Oh my God ... ____ did that to you? I just can't believe it! That is just SO not like ____!", and hands my wife some kleenex ...

"Listen, I know you're really upset, but it's my job to tell you about another exciting deal."

"Are you folks for REAL???!!! NO!" (I'm sure she could see the vein in my neck, now.)

"OK, I understand. Please just take a seat, and we'll get you your $20.00 plus a $55.00 Prepaid VISA gift card!"

I just looked at my wife, shook my head, and said "Un-blanking-lievable!":annoyed:

Moral of the story: RUN don't walk away from the "Hospitality Desk"!