# Seeking Kansas City area TUG members



## rickalm (Jun 6, 2007)

I am a business desk reporter at The Kansas City Star working on story about TimeShare. I am seeking people from this area with TimeShare experiences, good and bad, to tell. I must limit contact to those willing to be quoted in The Star. 
If you are willing, please email me soon with a daytime phone number. Please expect me to contact you within 48 hours for a chat.

Regards,
Rick Alm
Gambling & Tourism Writer
The Kansas City Star.
ralm@kcstar.com


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## TUGBrian (Jun 14, 2007)

as a side note, I have personally spoken to him...and he is a legitimate writer for this newspaper.

His articles are published and viewable online

http://pd.kansascity.com/sp?aff=100&keywords=rick+alm

Hopefully we can find one or two TUG members in KC to participate in his article!


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## Dave M (Jun 14, 2007)

Rick, there are at least 14 people who list Kansas City as home and have posted here. You can find them as follows:
1. Click on "Users List" on the above blue bar.
2. Click on "Search Users" on the right side of the page.
3. Click on "Advance Search"
4. Enter *Kansas City* in the Location box and click on "Search Now".

There are buttons allowing you to send e-mail messages to each of them.

Start over again for other communities if you decide to expand your search beyond Kansas City.


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## taffy19 (Jun 14, 2007)

rickalm said:


> I am a business desk reporter at The Kansas City Star working on story about TimeShare. I am seeking people from this area with TimeShare experiences, good and bad, to tell. I must limit contact to those willing to be quoted in The Star.
> If you are willing, please email me soon with a daytime phone number. Please expect me to contact you within 48 hours for a chat.
> 
> Regards,
> ...


Hi Rick,

Would you be interested in writing a story about this subject here? It may not go on so much in your State because these companies seem to go where they find many timeshare owners in one city and surrounding areas. These are the people who do not know how to sell their timeshare and may have listed them with outfits that take a big upfront fee but never try to sell them except listing them on a web page on the Internet. Many of these people are older folks and are not internet savvy either.

The postcard companies use fear tactics and tell them that their heirs get stuck with the timeshares they couldn't sell so for a steep fee, they take them off their hand. Some of these folks still get bills for maintenance fees because they still are the legal owner. They use a power of attorney so only when they have a buyer and get paid do these timeshares go out of their name. Older folks fall for this because they want to pass a clean estate to their heirs and may pay these postcard companies $3,000 plus for this. No wonder timesharing has such a bad name. First people buy from developers and pay way too much and then they get taken advantage of again when they are not timeshare or internet smart. It should make a good story for you.

I googled and there are many threads to read about these companies. If you write about it, the major papers may pick it up too but your paper was first.


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