[ 2013 ] Your recent experience buying from redweek4less and VP Title LLC

Just wondering if anyone has had recent experience purchasing a timeshare from redweek4less and title company VP Title LLC?

This is the most recent thread. They occur every month or so. Caveat Emptor.

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=193756

I would not bid on a TS they have for sale if the expected winning bid will be over a few dollars.

They opt to keep the bidders private so it's impossible to see what's going on with the bidding.

Private auctions have their place but I don't believe that TSs are one of them.

csxjohn said:

I would not bid on a TS they have for sale if the expected winning bid will be over a few dollars.

They opt to keep the bidders private so it's impossible to see what's going on with the bidding.

Private auctions have their place but I don't believe that TSs are one of them.

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I wouldn't bid on one of their auctions at any price -- even a few dollars.

You are risking a lot more than the purchase price. You risk getting strung along for months if their captive escrow company cannot get the deed together properly (meaning you may lose a year of use, a beneficial exchange, and a years MF's). You risk wasting hours of your time dealing with them. You risk frustration.

Further, some of these less than stellar companies will transfer the wrong unit to you (perhaps accidentally), meaning you have to waste even more time and trouble straightening things out.

Finally, don't forget that they also make money on the closing; their higher than average closing fees are a hidden cost.

It may be true that their prices are lower, but there is a reason for that. For me, I cannot afford to save that money.

Redweek4less vs. Redweek

Is there any business tie between ebay seller redweek4less and the resale/rental company called Redweek ?

I presume that they are different companies with different principal officers.

BJRSanDiego said:

Is there any business tie between ebay seller redweek4less and the resale/rental company called Redweek ?

I presume that they are different companies with different principal officers.

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They are not related in any way whatsoever. No connection of any kind.

Private listings lead to shill bids to jack up the price. Then comes along "the original bidder backed out and we can offer you the TS for a great price". Two days later it is re-listed.

I have watched the same TS be re-listed 4 times. They are simply hoping for an idiot to fall for their tidy little scam. Not this cowboy...

gnorth16 said:

Private listings lead to shill bids to jack up the price. Then comes along "the original bidder backed out and we can offer you the TS for a great price". Two days later it is re-listed.

I have watched the same TS be re-listed 4 times. They are simply hoping for an idiot to fall for their tidy little scam. Not this cowboy...

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Although, I do agree that it happens I just started listing some items I sell as private listings, especially big ticket items, to protect the individuals' identities especially if they are repeat buyers. I know we use monikers but I do it sometimes as another measure of privacy control for my clients. People don't know what people buy off my other site so I like to give that same courtesy to my bidding customer.

caneil said:

Although, I do agree that it happens I just started listing some items I sell as private listings, especially big ticket items, to protect the individuals' identities especially if they are repeat buyers. I know we use monikers but I do it sometimes as another measure of privacy control for my clients. People don't know what people buy off my other site so I like to give that same courtesy to my bidding customer.

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It is an interesting theory with two very big holes. First, explain exactly how your bidder's identities are being disclosed with a regular non-private auction. Where does it show the identity??? Second, please explain exactly why it is necessary to protect "the individuals' identities" in the first place.

caneil said:

Although, I do agree that it happens I just started listing some items I sell as private listings, especially big ticket items, to protect the individuals' identities especially if they are repeat buyers. I know we use monikers but I do it sometimes as another measure of privacy control for my clients. People don't know what people buy off my other site so I like to give that same courtesy to my bidding customer.

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I have read that for collectors of big ticket items this can be an added benefit to keep everyone from knowing how certain eBay users bid. I'm thinking art, antiques and other similar big ticket items. I'm not putting TSs in that category as if they were one of a kind or something like that.

Their real identify may be hidden by the use of a non identifying user name but private auctions keep others from knowing which user IDs are bidding on what and how.

VP Title

They suck, I had one in there for 5 months trying to close. Screwed me out of the 2013 week that I paid for as well. Stay away. :annoyed:

luv_maui said:

Just wondering if anyone has had recent experience purchasing a timeshare from redweek4less and title company VP Title LLC?

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I actually bought a EOY MKO week from them in February (from an eBay auction). It went smoothly and within the timeframe they stated. The communication was not great, but I usually got a response when I emailed them. For instance, I asked them to let me know when it passed ROFR. After the ROFR period ended I sent an email asking and got a reply that it had passed a week earlier. I was overly anxious--mostly because I got what I thought to be a good deal.

redweek4less

I began a transaction with redweek4less through ebay. They had a 98.5% positive rating. Needless to say, it is now Oct. 22 and I have nothing but a stack of emails full of excuses. My money is with them, but I still do not have my Newport Coast Marriott timeshare. Ebay says they do not cover real estate transactions. I cannot even leave a poor rating on redweek4less on ebay, as they pulled the transactions number. So disgusted. At least some of the other complaints got their timeshares, even though late. I still have nothing. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH REDWEEK4LESS!

Beware inflated feedback

Geeejow said:

I began a transaction with redweek4less through ebay. They had a 98.5% positive rating. Needless to say, it is now Oct. 22 and I have nothing but a stack of emails full of excuses. My money is with them, but I still do not have my Newport Coast Marriott timeshare. Ebay says they do not cover real estate transactions. I cannot even leave a poor rating on redweek4less on ebay, as they pulled the transactions number. So disgusted. At least some of the other complaints got their timeshares, even though late. I still have nothing. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH REDWEEK4LESS!

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Take a closer look at how Redweek4less gets a high feedback rating, they buy $2 -$10 times on EBay from vendors who give them good feedback over and over again. Bottom line : they bought the feedback rating.
EBay does have a way to ask for rating only for items sold. They manipulate the sell only rating by selling the same $2 trinkets.

I won Ebay auctions from them for Hyatt and Marriott weeks. The weeks were never submitted to ROFR in 45 days. I posted negative feedback and they lied by saying they offered a refund. I paid by credit card and cancelled.

Stay away.

SunandFun83 said:

Take a closer look at how Redweek4less gets a high feedback rating, they buy $2 -$10 times on EBay from vendors who give them good feedback over and over again. Bottom line : they bought the feedback rating.
EBay does have a way to ask for rating only for items sold. They manipulate the sell only rating by selling the same $2 trinkets.

I won Ebay auctions from them for Hyatt and Marriott weeks. The weeks were never submitted to ROFR in 45 days. I posted negative feedback and they lied by saying they offered a refund. I paid by credit card and cancelled.

Stay away.

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You can filter by sold items and then calculate it manually. I looked at their last 200 items and they are 90%. That is very low. I estimate that 80% of negative feedback never makes it due to the time limit. This seller also has at least two other Ebay id's. We can also assume there are fake feedbacks as a seller considering the ridiculous amount of manipulated feedbacks as a buyer.

caneil said:

Although, I do agree that it happens I just started listing some items I sell as private listings, especially big ticket items, to protect the individuals' identities especially if they are repeat buyers. I know we use monikers but I do it sometimes as another measure of privacy control for my clients. People don't know what people buy off my other site so I like to give that same courtesy to my bidding customer.

Click to expand...

To that I say B%$^&*T - ebay protects the bidders identity in the auction, by redacting most of the characters, unless your are the seller there is no way you are going to contact the bidder.

I had a quality issue and wanted to send the seller additional pictures/video from after arrival - we both tried six or seven ways to send our actual emails through the system , ebay's spiders rejected every way we could think of to phonetically disguise an email in order to effectively communicate with attachments, outside of the eBay email system

There is absolutely no need for private auctions any more except sellers who insist on them to facilitate shill bidding

Rent_Share said:

To that I say B%$^&*T - ebay protects the bidders identity in the auction, by redacting most of the characters, unless your are the seller there is no way you are going to contact the bidder.

I had a quality issue and wanted to send the seller additional pictures/video from after arrival - we both tried six or seven ways to send our actual emails through the system , ebay's spiders rejected every way we could think of to phonetically disguise an email in order to effectively communicate with attachments, outside of the eBay email system

There is absolutely no need for private auctions any more except sellers who insist on them to facilitate shill bidding

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And ebay allows it because to cramp down on the abuse would be to decrease their own revenue. They keep the overly blatant abuse in check but clearly private auctions are abused and they allow anyone to do it for any items.

After I got a "second chance offer" for an "exact unit" that they "happened" to have a few hours after being beaten by shill bidding, I inquired as to more info about the "exact" unit.

Hi we have a second property exactly like this one in our inventory and wanted to offer it to you before listing it on Ebay. If you are interested you can click buy it now. If you have any questions at all, please let me know! Thank you! Jamie

Then I received an email saying that it had been sold, despite my three requests for a clarification of "exact unit".

Jeanne,
I'm sorry the property is no longer available for sale, someone already purchased it, and the offer expired anyway. We sent it to you over the weekend and no one is actually in the office over the weekend. I apologize; it was the unit right next door, but it's no longer available for sale.
Thank you,
Jamie

"Jamie" did not like my following emails re: deceptive practices, so I received this from her:

Well good luck with that Jeanne; we can actually pick who we want to sell our properties to at any given time, and we would not sell to you especially after having been accused of deceptive practices. So good luck and please don't worry about bidding on anything with our company. Thanks, Jamie

1. Reported to Ebay
2. Reported to Tennessee
3. Preparing report to Florida AG

Our Recent Experience with RedWeeks4Less

Following is a letter we sent to Jaime at RedWeeks for Less when they said they were going to cancel our purchase of 6K WorldMark points, claiming that WE were delaying the process, when it took VP Title 60 days to get the documents from WorldMark. Jaime's response follows.


Jaime.

We are holding nothing up. As you were informed at the time of purchase, we would be leaving for Europe on December 6th, 2013 and time was of the essence. We were on a vacation in the State of Washington when we bought these points, and in spite of my being sick, we went to Tacoma and found a notary to send the documents that VP Title sent to us. We sent them back to VP Title, by overnight mail. These were not the documents that WorldMark required. They were only the documents that authorized WorldMark to deal with VP Title in regard to this purchase, .

In the meantime, Jim (Warren) contacted WorldMark to see how long it would normally take to complete a transfer like this. He was told 3-4 weeks. Today, when he spoke with WorldMark, he was told that had they known we would be out of the country, they would have processed the paperwork so that the due date would not fall while we were out of the country, but they were never told.

At the same time that we bought these from you, we purchased 20K WorldMark points from another company. It was from them that we learned that there was a flag on our account, and that there was an issue with the 6K that we bought from you. We called WorldMark to find out what the flag was, and it turned out that the original paperwork that we returned to VP Title lacked a specific name, or names, of authorized VP Title persons to deal with regarding this transfer. Eventually, that was apparently straightened out.

Meanwhile, we had to do a straight transfer with the 20K (that we bought on 10/18) rather than a combined transfer with our existing account. That transfer has long since closed (before we left for Europe).

Then next time we heard from VP Title, we had already left the country and that was only because in trying to be sure our cell phone would call the US from Europe, I called my husband's cell number and found a message on the phone from VP Title. We immediately called them and explained the situation. We told them what cell number to use if they needed to call, and what email address to use. They did neither. They continued to leave messages on my husband's cell number, and email at the email address that we rarely check while on vacation. We have responded to each and every message AS WE GET THEM. We are in remote parts of Europe, and do not always have access to cell, let alone email. We respond to email – and phone, as soon as we can access them. They had no difficulty contacting by my cell phone to get Maintenance Fees collected.

We left for Europe on December 6th, and WorldMark cut the paperwork on December 10th, with a 30 day deadline – or about 12 days before we get home. Ever since we discovered that document online, which was not on the 10th because we didn’t have access, we have been working with VP Title to get them to contact WorldMark and extend the contract date to the 20th so we would have a chance to get home, get it notarized, and overnight it to WorldMark. Their response has been that we, and obviously the seller, should be prepared for the closing process to take 12-16 weeks. It has now been 12 weeks.

Since VP Title could not negotiate an extension of the closing date with WorldMark, we were able to negotiate directly with WorldMark, and were able to extend the closing date from 10 January to 20 January allowing us time to get home on the 19th, notarize the documents, and overnight them to WorldMark, attention to a specific processing agent (name given to VP Title), without additional cost to anybody. This is well within the 16 week time frame that VP title has quoted to us, and the seller.

We have been contacted by VP Title, we have sent funds for the purchase, closing, WorldMark transfer, and when requested the quarterly dues. VP Title stated that because this has taken so long, that the seller started feeling that we are not committed to making the purchase. We have to ask you, that if we go to all of that expense, as well as $1 per minute phone calls from Europe, how can VP Title not feel that we are not committed to following through on sending the documents to WorldMark on the 20th. It sounds as though, when Jim finished his discussion with Hope, there must have been some sort of miscommunication for you to return a completely impossible deadline date of the 13th as opposed to one week later on the 20th as negotiated with WorldMark.

We would like to purchase the points and have done everything humanly possible given the circumstances. We are not delaying, as is obvious by the amount of monies we have already (and continue to) paid. We do not have reasonable access to a US Notary here in Europe.

As of now, WorldMark has notified us that they are not capable of processing any of this paperwork because the sellers paperwork has never reached them. If it does not reach them by the 20th, and we do complete our’s by the 20th, in actuality the seller will be in default, per WorldMark. We have made arrangements with WorldMark to allow the seller’s documents to reach them no later than the 20th, and the contract will continue forward.


Jaime's reply?:


Dear bradaighbradaigh,

Bradaigh,
I appreciate your email. I do see that the closing company sent you many emails regarding the documents that needed your signature in order to process the transfer. Whether or not Worldmark advised you that they would transfer the property in 2 weeks is irrelevant; we have deadlines to our sellers too, and the closing company did exactly as they should have. They sent you the first document to be signed and sent back so that they could order the transfer documents, and the transfer documents were sent to you once received, and are time sensitive. So just as we have stated, you have had the documents for quite some time now, and we must have a tracking number from you by Monday or we will have to cancel the transfer.
Thank you,
Jamie

In light of the many negative comments I wanted to share a recent, positive transaction with this seller. I just completed the purchase of a Marriott week that went off without a hitch. Contracts were signed during the third week of November and I received notification from VP Title yesterday that the transaction had been successfully completed. Shortly after notification by VP Title I received notification from Marriott Vacation Club that the week had transferred into my name and was now in my account. When I contacted VP Title (twice) during the closing process I received a response with 12 hours - once to tell my ROFR had been waived, and once to notify me that the deed had been recorded and paperwork submitted to Marriott. First usage for this unit was 2014 and included a prime summer week reservation that had been booked by the previous owner. After reading some comments above, one of my concerns was making sure the usage (and week) remained with the transfer. This was no issue as the notification from Marriott restated first usage beginning in 2014 with a week already reserved (and confirmation # attached).

I realize this is only one persons experience but this transaction went extremely well and everyone I dealt with was very professional and courteous. I feel I got an outstanding price on my purchase (particularly with the valuable 2014 reservation included) and while I admittedly was following each step extremely closely as a result of others experiences I had no issues.

redweeks,

Good luck to all that buy from them

Bradaigh said:

Following is a letter we sent to Jaime at RedWeeks for Less when they said they were going to cancel our purchase of 6K WorldMark points, claiming that WE were delaying the process, when it took VP Title 60 days to get the documents from WorldMark. Jaime's response follows.


Jaime.

We are holding nothing up. As you were informed at the time of purchase, we would be leaving for Europe on December 6th, 2013 and time was of the essence. We were on a vacation in the State of Washington when we bought these points, and in spite of my being sick, we went to Tacoma and found a notary to send the documents that VP Title sent to us. We sent them back to VP Title, by overnight mail. These were not the documents that WorldMark required. They were only the documents that authorized WorldMark to deal with VP Title in regard to this purchase, .

In the meantime, Jim (Warren) contacted WorldMark to see how long it would normally take to complete a transfer like this. He was told 3-4 weeks. Today, when he spoke with WorldMark, he was told that had they known we would be out of the country, they would have processed the paperwork so that the due date would not fall while we were out of the country, but they were never told.

At the same time that we bought these from you, we purchased 20K WorldMark points from another company. It was from them that we learned that there was a flag on our account, and that there was an issue with the 6K that we bought from you. We called WorldMark to find out what the flag was, and it turned out that the original paperwork that we returned to VP Title lacked a specific name, or names, of authorized VP Title persons to deal with regarding this transfer. Eventually, that was apparently straightened out.

Meanwhile, we had to do a straight transfer with the 20K (that we bought on 10/18) rather than a combined transfer with our existing account. That transfer has long since closed (before we left for Europe).

Then next time we heard from VP Title, we had already left the country and that was only because in trying to be sure our cell phone would call the US from Europe, I called my husband's cell number and found a message on the phone from VP Title. We immediately called them and explained the situation. We told them what cell number to use if they needed to call, and what email address to use. They did neither. They continued to leave messages on my husband's cell number, and email at the email address that we rarely check while on vacation. We have responded to each and every message AS WE GET THEM. We are in remote parts of Europe, and do not always have access to cell, let alone email. We respond to email – and phone, as soon as we can access them. They had no difficulty contacting by my cell phone to get Maintenance Fees collected.

We left for Europe on December 6th, and WorldMark cut the paperwork on December 10th, with a 30 day deadline – or about 12 days before we get home. Ever since we discovered that document online, which was not on the 10th because we didn’t have access, we have been working with VP Title to get them to contact WorldMark and extend the contract date to the 20th so we would have a chance to get home, get it notarized, and overnight it to WorldMark. Their response has been that we, and obviously the seller, should be prepared for the closing process to take 12-16 weeks. It has now been 12 weeks.

Since VP Title could not negotiate an extension of the closing date with WorldMark, we were able to negotiate directly with WorldMark, and were able to extend the closing date from 10 January to 20 January allowing us time to get home on the 19th, notarize the documents, and overnight them to WorldMark, attention to a specific processing agent (name given to VP Title), without additional cost to anybody. This is well within the 16 week time frame that VP title has quoted to us, and the seller.

We have been contacted by VP Title, we have sent funds for the purchase, closing, WorldMark transfer, and when requested the quarterly dues. VP Title stated that because this has taken so long, that the seller started feeling that we are not committed to making the purchase. We have to ask you, that if we go to all of that expense, as well as $1 per minute phone calls from Europe, how can VP Title not feel that we are not committed to following through on sending the documents to WorldMark on the 20th. It sounds as though, when Jim finished his discussion with Hope, there must have been some sort of miscommunication for you to return a completely impossible deadline date of the 13th as opposed to one week later on the 20th as negotiated with WorldMark.

We would like to purchase the points and have done everything humanly possible given the circumstances. We are not delaying, as is obvious by the amount of monies we have already (and continue to) paid. We do not have reasonable access to a US Notary here in Europe.

As of now, WorldMark has notified us that they are not capable of processing any of this paperwork because the sellers paperwork has never reached them. If it does not reach them by the 20th, and we do complete our’s by the 20th, in actuality the seller will be in default, per WorldMark. We have made arrangements with WorldMark to allow the seller’s documents to reach them no later than the 20th, and the contract will continue forward.


Jaime's reply?:


Dear bradaighbradaigh,

Bradaigh,
I appreciate your email. I do see that the closing company sent you many emails regarding the documents that needed your signature in order to process the transfer. Whether or not Worldmark advised you that they would transfer the property in 2 weeks is irrelevant; we have deadlines to our sellers too, and the closing company did exactly as they should have. They sent you the first document to be signed and sent back so that they could order the transfer documents, and the transfer documents were sent to you once received, and are time sensitive. So just as we have stated, you have had the documents for quite some time now, and we must have a tracking number from you by Monday or we will have to cancel the transfer.
Thank you,
Jamie

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There's a special place in hell for Jaime and her ilk.


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Horrible and frustrating Experience

I have to wonder about the Tugger who reported getting prompt call backs. Lack of response was my most irritating part of dealing with Hope at VP Title. The receptionist did call me back to relay some excuses or tell me a refund would be issued.

I spoke with someone in attorney general's office and was told complaints are public record. I paid by credit card and got my money back. My contact at the AG says many complaints included loss of money.

Best thing is the reputation is so bad that many EBay auctions go for 1/2 the TUG price. Makes me wonder if saving $2,000 is worth the aggravation and having a stroke....... Nah! I will buy somewhere else, and have.

4Reliefnow said:

I have to wonder about the Tugger who reported getting prompt call backs. Lack of response was my most irritating part of dealing with Hope at VP Title. The receptionist did call me back to relay some excuses or tell me a refund would be issued.

I spoke with someone in attorney general's office and was told complaints are public record. I paid by credit card and got my money back. My contact at the AG says many complaints included loss of money.

Best thing is the reputation is so bad that many EBay auctions go for 1/2 the TUG price. Makes me wonder if saving $2,000 is worth the aggravation and having a stroke....... Nah! I will buy somewhere else, and have.

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It was stressful dealing with them. There were a couple times during the process I felt like I'd been had

I'd buy from them again but that's because I think their issue is scale not honesty. They became a big dog virtually overnight and obviously they haven't added the staff necessary to handle the volume.

boyblue said:

It was stressful dealing with them. There were a couple times during the process I felt like I'd been had

I'd buy from them again but that's because I think their issue is scale not honesty. They became a big dog virtually overnight and obviously they haven't added the staff necessary to handle the volume.

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This is crazy! Do not deal with these people! They sold me a week that does not exist! When i busted them on it, the promised me a full refund. 8 weeks later, i have nothing but broken promises and i am short $15,000!