# Please help me... Urgent Question - Diamond Owner losing points (husband on fire)



## sb_sparky (Dec 17, 2017)

Hi everyone, 

I apologize if this is not the right section to post in I am completely frazzled right now. My husband has been on the front lines of the massive wildfire that is currently burning behind our home in Santa Barbara, CA. Thousands of us are evacuated. I was actively trying to use up our points and schedule a vacation for sometime this month when the fire broke out on Dec 4th.  

We own with Diamond Resorts and I have almost 10,000 points that we are going to be unable to use with him on the fire. I have spent hours and hours this past year trying to find places to stay within driving distance because we cannot afford to fly all of us plus kids. We have not been very successful so I have all of these points that I do not want to loose. I begged Diamond to move the points over for us but they refused and say they cannot because they are 2016 points. We used to rent to others for our cost to help pay for the upcoming maintenance fees but I am not sure how to do that on this site. I know there is a rental section which I have looked at but cannot figure out. It seems like you have to make a actual reservation and list it. I have NO idea where anyone would like to go and can reserve all over the US.

Is there someone who can help me? I have very limited access to internet and they are shutting off the power occasionally as well. I cannot bother my husband about this obviously and would appreciate any help that you could give me.

Thank you SO much!


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## DanZale2000 (Dec 17, 2017)

I'm sorry about your situation, but I don't think there is anything you can do at this point. The 2016 points must be used for a reservation starting on, or before Dec. 31. It looks like only Polo Towers in Las Vegas has something within driving distance. Maybe someone would be interested in renting Las Vegas for Christmas, but you don't have much time to find them.


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## DeniseM (Dec 17, 2017)

Also - if you have limited internet access, it's going to be hard for potential renters to contact you in a timely manner.


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## pedro47 (Dec 17, 2017)

Can you used these points to pay toward your maintenance fees for 2018?


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## LisaH (Dec 17, 2017)

Is it possible to make a reservation, then if not rented, deposit into RCI? I’m sorry for your situation. My heart goes out to our neighbors to the south.


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## pedro47 (Dec 17, 2017)

Second thought I would send a letter or an email to the new CEO at Diamond and ask for his assistance in this matter. The old CEO at Diamond was good in type of problem; especially when it produced good public relations for Diamond.  Please try this.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Dec 17, 2017)

There are two cases, depending on whether or not your points are the DRI Club or if they are non-Club affiliated trust points.

I'll start first with the situation if the points are in the Club.  Going strictly by the rules of the Club, there isn't much you can do with those expiring points other than use them for a DRI arrival before 1/1/2018. Those are 2016 points, and as you've learned, you can only roll them over once.  Even if you could, it is past the last date at which points can be saved to the next year.  (I learned that the hard way myself.)  It is also past the date at which those points could be used for a reservation at II.  

If the points are not in the Club, you could try to make any reservation that you can and then see if you can find an exchange company that will take your unit as am exchange.  Or you can try to rent the unit. 

If you do go the rental route, one route would be to try to obtain something available as a last-minute cancellation at a location that is near a college football bowl game.  The list the unit for rent on Craig's list in the are of the game in the home areas for the teams that are playing.  Be careful whom you rent to; you don't want to end up having the unit occupied by people who are most looking for a place to party.


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## youppi (Dec 18, 2017)

You could join the 3 DRI Facebook groups shown in my signature and post there to reach more DRI members.
I'm currently in vacation for the next 2 weeks. So, I can't take your points.
There is not a lot of choice still available in USA for a full week for anybody (more for just a couple days like Hawaii)
There is a couple days available in Palm Springs, Arizona, Nevada close to you (you could change resort/area every 2-3 days)
Good luck.


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## youppi (Dec 18, 2017)

You may look at the Timeshare Rental Wanted section if somebody is looking for something that you can book for them. You will not recover your money paid for your 10,000 pts.


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## DanZale2000 (Dec 18, 2017)

pedro47 said:


> Second thought I would send a letter or an email to the new CEO at Diamond and ask for his assistance in this matter. The old CEO at Diamond was good in type of problem; especially when it produced good public relations for Diamond.  Please try this.



Good idea: the CEO is michael.flaskey@diamondresorts.com

And just today they have a PR campaign focused on first responders. 

Military, First Responders to Receive Complimentary Tickets to Third Annual Diamond Resorts Invitational
https://www.insidethegate.com/2017/...to-third-annual-diamond-resorts-invitational/


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Dec 18, 2017)

I neglected to mention - I also support the idea of making a direct appeal as DanZale and others have suggested.


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## Diamond Resorts (Dec 20, 2017)

youppi said:


> You may look at the Timeshare Rental Wanted section if somebody is looking for something that you can book for them. You will not recover your money paid for your 10,000 pts.



Hi Sb_Sparky,  so that we can assist with your inquiry please can you send your membership number to customerservicesm@diamondresorts.com and a member of our Hospitality Team will be happy to reach out.


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## LisaH (Dec 20, 2017)

Bravo, Diamond Resorts for reaching out to sb_sparky! I hope OP still checks this thread and sees the above post.


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## pedro47 (Dec 20, 2017)

The former CEO at Diamond loved to reach out in this type of situation.


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## learnalot (Dec 21, 2017)

Diamond Resorts said:


> Hi Sb_Sparky,  so that we can assist with your inquiry please can you send your membership number to customerservicesm@diamondresorts.com and a member of our Hospitality Team will be happy to reach out.



Bravo if this is Diamond.  I would love for this to be legit - so much so that at first I took it at face value.  But then a couple things about it spiked my antennae a bit, particularly since this new user's message asks her to email them her account number.  The email address format is also a bit off.  Anyone else want to caution her about going this route?  Sparky, I would recommend you use the CEO email that was provided by Dan Zale - or call and ask for member services.


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## DeniseM (Dec 21, 2017)

_[Redacted - the email has been checked-out.]_


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## TUGBrian (Dec 21, 2017)

if its a spam/scam attempt, its an extremely impressive one as it would imply that the individual has access to DRI's internal mail servers.

basically "anything"@diamondresorts.com is going to be sent to DRi's mail server.  

I also see this email address used fairly regularly across the internet as a reply to complaints, so id lean towards it being legit.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Dec 21, 2017)

DeniseM said:


> *I would not respond to:  customerservicesm@diamondresorts.com*
> 
> The IPS originates in the UK, which seems odd.  To be on the safe side, I would only use known contact emails.


Not an issue.  

Much of the DRI's outreach customer service comes out of the UK.  If you use the DRI message baords, many of the DRI reps on the board, are UK based.  And they are also generally more helpful than the US ones.


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## learnalot (Dec 21, 2017)

TUGBrian said:


> if its a spam/scam attempt, its an extremely impressive one as it would imply that the individual has access to DRI's internal mail servers.
> 
> basically "anything"@diamondresorts.com is going to be sent to DRi's mail server.
> 
> I also see this email address used fairly regularly across the internet as a reply to complaints, so id lean towards it being legit.



Thanks, Brian.  I don't claim to be a techie.  I just didn't want to see her get burned, so I was hoping to get someone with more expertise to take a look at it.  Thanks for doing that.


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## TUGBrian (Dec 21, 2017)

no problem at all!

just for general knowledge, most email phishing scams involve "masking" the email address to look like one...but actually sending to another.

for example I can make an email LOOK like it came from ceo@diamondresorts.com  but when you hover over it or click reply etc...it will go somewhere else like spamy@mcspamface.com

another common one you find is domains that LOOK legit but arent...these are common with the paypal and microsoft scams where you see things like

support@paypal.scammy.com  (note that domain urls are read right to left, not left to right.)

or paypai (capital I vs an l).com

etc etc

its very important that folks verify where the email reply is being SENT when replying or clicking on links...


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## markb53 (Dec 21, 2017)

learnalot said:


> Bravo if this is Diamond.  I would love for this to be legit - so much so that at first I took it at face value.  But then a couple things about it spiked my antennae a bit, particularly since this new user's message asks her to email them her account number.  The email address format is also a bit off.  Anyone else want to caution her about going this route?  Sparky, I would recommend you use the CEO email that was provided by Dan Zale - or call and ask for member services.



I would suggest that to OP try sending an email to *customerservicesm@diamondresorts.com *without information such as your account number and see if you get a response. If you click on the link it does go to diamondresorts.com. I agree with TUGBrian, This would be an extremely impressive spam/scam if it is one.


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## youppi (Dec 21, 2017)

It's just weird that DRI replied on my post in place of the OP post. I received the alert and not the OP.


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## TUGBrian (Dec 21, 2017)

could have just clicked the "reply" button on the wrong post is all...certainly wont hurt to send them an email to see who replies!


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## Diamond Resorts (Dec 21, 2017)

Hi Sb_Sparky, so that we can assist with your inquiry please can you send your membership number to customerservicesm@diamondresorts.com and a member of our Hospitality Team will be happy to reach out.


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