ebay buying Don't do it? How do you check references before buying?

[Perrygirl]

Should we not buy timeshares on ebay? Surely there are some reputable people how there. How do we find out? I checked the rating of my seller and it was good but now I am worried after all I have read from the same seller-redweek4less, iavacations,american title
What is a person to do?

 

[Whichway]

I bought a Wyndham resale from ebay for a couple grand. I figured that I could be ripped off 10 times through ebay and still be ahead of getting ripped off buying directly from Wyndham. I did a bit of due diligence and felt pretty comfortable from who I was buying from and the escrow company we were using.

If you don't have a good feeling from the person selling, I would recommend you wait for another auction. There will always be another auction.

I probably would be less comfortable buying a more expensive timeshare such as a Disney or Marriott, but for a couple grand for a Wyndham resale, I was easily willing to accept the risk.

Dave

 

[theo]

My $0.02 worth...

Should we not buy timeshares on ebay? Surely there are some reputable people how there. How do we find out? I checked the rating of my seller and it was good but now I am worried after all I have read from the same seller-redweek4less, iavacations,american title
What is a person to do?

One caution I must offer you is that eBay listings are often replete with lots of incorrect information. While it may be inadvertent error by the seller, rather than willful deceit, wrong is still wrong! Fixed and floating weeks get mixed up, points allocations for consecutive years are often combined and imply (inaccurately) a higher-than-actual annual points allocation, maintenance fee figures are often incorrect, etc. The assorted (often mandatory to the buyer, with no choice) closing companies of varying competency is another part of the overall process to watch closely.
I don't think that many of the well established "mega sellers" are necessarily deceitful or dishonest (or they wouldn't remain mega sellers for long and their feedback would quickly reflect buyer dissatisfaction). That said, each and every assertion an eBay seller makes in a listing should be verified. Buying something different from what was advertised and different from what you expected and/or with different maintenance fees than advertised, is not necessarily a "bargain", even if purchased for pennies.

Verify EVERYTHING before completing any eBay purchase. No, it's not easy. Yes, you'll have to invest some time confirming any and all of the information advertised. If you can't get verification of each and every advertised claim (by calling the resort to confirm details, questioning the seller directly on specifics, etc.) then you are really just gambling. Personally, I don't gamble....

 

[tombo]

I have purchsed more than 20 timeshares on e-bay and I have had one bad experience. A couple of the closings took too long, but I was on the phone with the closing companies regularly until the closing was finished. I always find out the room number and week on the deed ( by asking the seller, even if it is a floating week) and call the resort to verify that there are no assessments or past MF's owed on the week before I bid.Print out the seller's response as to the week and unit on the deed and any other answers they give you to your questions as proof later on if it ends up to be not as advertised. I always pay with credit card so that if the closing documents come in with any other resort, week, or room type than was advertised, I can dispute the charge and I have the E-bay ad as my proof that they are not selling me what was advertised. By buying from the high volume sellers with close to 100% positive feedback you will not have a problem. They want their feedback to remain positive and they will refund your money if the week isn't what they advertised with no complaining required in most cases.By researching a week that was supposed to float before I bid, I called the resort and found out during the auction that it was a fixed week 27, not a floating week as listed. That guaranteed me 4th of july about 3 weeks out of every 7 years so I never told the seller, the ad never changed, and the bid prices stayed lower than they would have been if it was listed as a week 27 fixed.

Many people are scared to buy on e-bay because of the old adage of if it sounds too good to be true it must not be true. 99% of the time it is true on e-bay if you buy from a reputable seller with lots of positive feedback. Do research on the week, the unit, and the seller before you bid and you will save many 1000's of dollars over buying from any other timeshare sales site on the internet. The real problem with e-bay is the dang weeks sell so cheap that you will end up buying more weeks than you can use.

 

[richardm]

If you buy on ebay insist on a your choice of closing agent. If the seller won't agree- don't buy it.. If you just aren't comfortable or feel you know enough about the industry to ask the "right" questions- buy from a well known brokerage.

 

[dchilds]

I've purchased on ebay from both large sellers and individuals. The large sellers usually have the most problems, especially with their closing company, but both types have ended up well. It's pretty easy to verify with the resort the owner, the week, and that there are no back due fees. Get a copy of their deed, keep a copy of all communications, and pay with AmX, even if you use PayPal. AmX doesn't care what PayPal's policies are, if you tell them you didn't get what you paid for, they refund your money. Never give the seller more time if it takes you out of your 60 day window for a refund. Tell them you'll repay after they fix any problem.

 

[Bill4728]

I bought a Wyndham resale from ebay for a couple grand. I figured that I could be ripped off 10 times through ebay and still be ahead of getting ripped off buying directly from Wyndham. I did a bit of due diligence and felt pretty comfortable from who I was buying from and the escrow company we were using.

If you don't have a good feeling from the person selling, I would recommend you wait for another auction. There will always be another auction.

I probably would be less comfortable buying a more expensive timeshare such as a Disney or Marriott, but for a couple grand for a Wyndham resale, I was easily willing to accept the risk.

Dave

I like this advice.

When you're dealing with ~ $1000 it hard to get to ripped off. But if buying a Marriott or DVC for >$10,000 ( maybe alot more) You must be much more carefull.

 

[nazclk]

Closing companies

As richardm put it would be great but that would only work in a perfect world.
Most big companies where most of the "good deals" are found have their own closing companies that they work with and if you don't want to use them it's adios. I believe it is spelled out in their ads who the closing/transfer company is. If you don't want to use them don't bid, win the auction and then say " Oh by the way I want to use Joe Blow for my closing company. JMO

 

[Deb from NC]

I bought 2 of my 3 (FF Alexandria and Port O Call) timeshares on ebay and really had no problems whatsoever. I don't think I could have bought either of them for less $$ anywhere else, and we love them both!

 

[pammex]

I have purchsed more than 20 timeshares on e-bay and I have had one bad experience. A couple of the closings took too long, but I was on the phone with the closing companies regularly until the closing was finished. I always find out the room number and week on the deed ( by asking the seller, even if it is a floating week) and call the resort to verify that there are no assessments or past MF's owed on the week before I bid.Print out the seller's response as to the week and unit on the deed and any other answers they give you to your questions as proof later on if it ends up to be not as advertised. I always pay with credit card so that if the closing documents come in with any other resort, week, or room type than was advertised, I can dispute the charge and I have the E-bay ad as my proof that they are not selling me what was advertised. By buying from the high volume sellers with close to 100% positive feedback you will not have a problem. They want their feedback to remain positive and they will refund your money if the week isn't what they advertised with no complaining required in most cases.By researching a week that was supposed to float before I bid, I called the resort and found out during the auction that it was a fixed week 27, not a floating week as listed. That guaranteed me 4th of july about 3 weeks out of every 7 years so I never told the seller, the ad never changed, and the bid prices stayed lower than they would have been if it was listed as a week 27 fixed.

Many people are scared to buy on e-bay because of the old adage of if it sounds too good to be true it must not be true. 99% of the time it is true on e-bay if you buy from a reputable seller with lots of positive feedback. Do research on the week, the unit, and the seller before you bid and you will save many 1000's of dollars over buying from any other timeshare sales site on the internet. The real problem with e-bay is the dang weeks sell so cheap that you will end up buying more weeks than you can use.

I totally agree with this post, I do same..VERIFY everything with resort etc., and yes I agree sometimes so cheap you buy more than you need, that can be a problem or addiction, I know it has been for me..

These can be very time consuming purchases but for the price also worth it...

 

[tombo]

I would feel good about buying any timeshare weeks including high dollar resorts at Wyndham, Marriott, DVC, or HGVC from the high volume e-bay sellers with a proven track record. I would be more wary of buying a week from an unknown individual on the numerous web sites that allow anyone to list anything with no verification of who they are. On e-bay you can read feedback from many previous customers giving yourself some confidence that they are legitimate. From an individual on redweek or myresortnetwork, you have to put more blind faith in the ad than you do on e-bay in my opinion. I can log on right now place an ad on Redweek for a Platinum Marriott Aruba Surf Club 2 bed room 2 bath that I don't own using a fake name, phone number and address. Marriott will not tell you who the owner of the week I list is because of the privacy laws. I simply buy a throw away cell phone to answer your calls and have my mail forwarded from a previous address to my new P O Box. There is no record of my previous sales to research or any previous customer's feedback on whether my weeks for sale were as advertised. Of course a person on those sites can be checked out through due diligence, but there is no Better Business Bureau to file a complaint with or any system in place to leave positive or negative feedback if they are con men and rip you off. At least on e-bay you can warn others if you have a bad experience dealing with a seller, and every time he tries to sell something your feedback can be read by all.

The only reason I don't buy the high dollar weeks on e-bay is because you win the bid, pay the money to the closing company, and 30 to 90 days later you find out the resort stold the week from you by using ROFR. Why go to the trouble and tie up your money for a week you will probably never own. Rarely does an e-bay bid get high enough to stop the resort from ROFR'ing it (although with the high air fares I feel that many resorts will stop most of their ROFR'ing when they get loaded up with inventory and sales slow down). I would gladly buy those weeks on e-bay if the resort had to actually outbid me to buy the week.

If your sale passes ROFR you know that you just paid more than the developer felt the week was worth, so they let you buy it. The purpose of buying resale is to get weeks as cheaply as possible. If the developer uses their "right" to ROFR, you know you won the auction at a good price, but the developer says for that price we want the week, so you still don't own it. I actually don't bid or make offers on any resort that has ROFR on e-bay or not, but if I was going to try and buy one of those weeks which have ROFR, I would still use e-bay to get it as cheap as I can and hope the resort has enough inventory to let my sale go through.

There is risk to buying a week from anyone including the developer (sometimes the salesman promises things that you don't get), but the huge savings over any other web site makes buying on e-bay worth the risk to me. Do your homework on the ad and seller, use a licensed bonded closing company, and enjoy the thousands of dollars you saved by buying on e-bay.

 

[JMAESD84]

If you buy on ebay insist on a your choice of closing agent. If the seller won't agree- don't buy it.. If you just aren't comfortable or feel you know enough about the industry to ask the "right" questions- buy from a well known brokerage.

While this advise may sound appealing, you will miss out on the best purchases plain and simple.

Nearly all of the high volume sellers on eBay retain some contractual association with a closing company (which is most likely another revenue source to them) and you will not have your choice. If you decide to "don't buy it" because they don't offer you "your choice" you'll be missing out on the best deals on eBay.

 

[tombo]

While this advise may sound appealing, you will miss out on the best purchases plain and simple.

Nearly all of the high volume sellers on eBay retain some contractual association with a closing company (which is most likely another revenue source to them) and you will not have your choice. If you decide to "don't buy it" because they don't offer you "your choice" you'll be missing out on the best deals on eBay.

I agree 100%. If the seller has close to 100% positive feedback, you can feel sure that all of those buyers had to use the same closing company you will have to use if you buy from them, and yet they still left positive feedback about their purchases. Just make sure that it is a licensed, bonded closing company the seller requires you to use and you will be fine. I have been forced to use the seller's choice of closing companies on virtually all of my 20 plus e-bay purchases. I can't tell you how many closings Timeshare Closing Services has done for me, and almost all with no problems or complaints. When I had problems they got them straightened out for me. You could read some complaints on TUG about Timeshare Closing Services which might make you feel uneasy using them. I currently have another week they are closing for me, and I will gladly buy again from a reputable seller that makes me use them. I would use JRA services for closings if I had my choice, but my best e-bay deals didn't give me that option.

 

[EileenSRN]

I just bought 2 Vacation Villages units.
The first, at Bonaventure in Weston, FL on Apr 28th. I got the deed in the mail and a phone call from the seller notifying me that the transfer was complete at the resort on June 19th. Paid less than $500 for a 2 bdrm L/O President's wk, GC resort.
The second on June 2nd at V V Parkway, wk 6. The seller called me last Wed. to say he couldn't get a clear title and was refunding my money. I asked if he could try to clear it, because I really wanted that week. He got back to me Fri to say he thought it would clear, but wouldn't know till Monday. Another one I paid less than $500 for. I'm sure he already made his $ from the old owner, but he's working hard to keep me happy.
This is my 3rd ebay purchase. It is too easy to buy too many. But doing your homework is essential.
EIleen