# RCI's response to my letter complaining of poor trade power



## Anne S (Mar 9, 2006)

I deposited my Aug. 2007 Aruba Beach Club last July, and was shocked at how poorly it traded, as compared to past years, and also in comparison with my July 2007 Dikhololo week (deposited before Black Sunday). Last week I searched the Caribbean from May 1-Aug. 31, 2007, with DIK pulling 27 resorts and ABC a grand total of two!   I made printouts of the results and wrote a letter to RCI, asking why my Aruba resort was trading so poorly, compared to DIK. Two days ago the following message was left on my answering machine:

   "Thank you for your letter. I completely understand the frustration that you feel that your Dikhololo is trading higher than your Aruba resort." (Well, no, my frustration was with Aruba trading poorly, not that DIK was trading well!) "On first glance you'd think that it would be the other way around. There's so many different factors that contribute to why things may change like that, and a lot of it has to do with demand each year. On the bright side, Dikhololo not being a Gold Crown, only a Resort of International Distinction, and one that we don't get many requests for overall, luckily it does trade higher because you probably got that to usually trade, so luckily it does trade high--not higher necessarily, but high."

And here I thought that the glass was half-empty. Leave it to RCI to show me that it is half-full ...   Yes, it is very nice that DIK is trading so well, but that was not the point of my letter.
I had mentioned in my letter that II seems to place more value on ABC because they are offering an accommodation certificate. I also wrote that this is the last ABC deposit RCI will ever get from me. I am so totally frustrated with RCI!


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## Aldo (Mar 9, 2006)

Gee, that was an informative response.

Next time, just post your question on the "Ask RCI" forum.

The answer will be every bit as useless, but you will save the 39 cents for the stamp.


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## Leturno (Mar 10, 2006)

I wonder if your DIK deposit can pull your ABC week for exchange and visa-versa?

Scott


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## reddiablosv (Mar 10, 2006)

I understand your reply completely.    Ben


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## Anne S (Mar 10, 2006)

Aldo said:
			
		

> Gee, that was an informative response.
> 
> Next time, just post your question on the "Ask RCI" forum.
> 
> The answer will be every bit as useless, but you will save the 39 cents for the stamp.



Aldo, I did that when I first deposited. At first RCI was giving me the boilerplate about not buying in order to exchange. (How deliciously ironic that an exchange company tells you not to exchange!) After finding out that I'm a Tugger they went into their RCI jargon mode and informed me that it was a VEP issue, that my Aruba week had such a high VEP rating that it simply did not pull the resorts that DIK did. But somehow I did not believe that ABC had suddenly received such high VEP that it no longer pulled the resorts that it had routinely pulled. And now RCI tells me that I should be happy that at least DIK is trading well!


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## Anne S (Mar 10, 2006)

Leturno said:
			
		

> I wonder if your DIK deposit can pull your ABC week for exchange and visa-versa?
> 
> Scott



No, DIK doesn't seem to be able to pull Aruba. Aruba Beach Club at least pulls--you guessed it, Aruba Beach Club, and also other Aruba resorts, such as Casa del Mar, Costa Linda, PLay Linda.

Can Aruba pull South Africa? I just did a search and ABC yielded 14 resorts in South Africa during the time period May 1-Aug. 31 2007, whereas DIK pulled thirteen.


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## Carolinian (Mar 10, 2006)

Remember the seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere.  You are thus searching winter in SA.


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## Anne S (Mar 12, 2006)

Carolinian said:
			
		

> Remember the seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere.  You are thus searching winter in SA.



Yes, I am aware that the seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere. This was nothing more than a trade test, done out of curiosity, in response to another poster's question. However, getting back to the point of my original post, it is rather interesting that a summer Aruba week should trade as well as a summer (July check-in) DIK week for South Africa, whereas a summer Aruba week trades for squat for the Caribbean in summer.


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## cclendinen (Mar 12, 2006)

*Ask RCI to search everthing.*

Ask RCI to search everything including lower VEP.  This will tell you if what is available and if your problem is to high a VEP.  You can not do this online only by phone.  If you find something you want you can request they waive the lower VEP.


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## DianeH (Mar 13, 2006)

Please excuse my ignorance and I am almost ashamed to ask this question as I should know the answer.  But....what is 'VEP'?

Diane


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## Tia (Mar 14, 2006)

VEP 

I _think_ it's Vacation Exchange Power ? If you have a high VEP they don't let you see resorts that don't measure up in trading power.


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## Carolinian (Mar 15, 2006)

Tia said:
			
		

> VEP
> 
> I _think_ it's Vacation Exchange Power ? If you have a high VEP they don't let you see resorts that don't measure up in trading power.



I believe it is actually ''Vacation Experience Profile''


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## Carolinian (Mar 15, 2006)

Aruba Beach Club is a desirable resort.  This makes no sense at all.  Is RCI renting a lot of weeks there, I wonder?  There has been some comments suggesting that heavy rentals may adversely impact supply/demand curves.


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## DianeH (Mar 15, 2006)

Thank you Tia!


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## beachsands (Mar 15, 2006)

Tia said:
			
		

> VEP
> 
> I _think_ it's Vacation Exchange Power ? If you have a high VEP they don't let you see resorts that don't measure up in trading power.




I think it stands for Vacation Experience Profile


Joel


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## SteveH (Mar 15, 2006)

I believe VEP is 'Vacation Experience Profile' and it refers to the exchange experience forms we all fill out and mail to RCI after an exchange has been completed.  A Gold Crown resort maintains status based on these scores.  So the rationale from RCI has been that if you own a resort with a high VEP (ie: Gold Crown) then you would be disappointed if you willingly accepted an exchange to a lower VEP resort.  Thus the computer program block you from seeing a much lower VEP resort when searching.  It seems that recently RCI reps have become more reluctant to unblock VEP when an exchanger requests it.
Steve


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## Bootleg (Mar 16, 2006)

FWIW - The Aruba Beach Club is, unfortunately, the least-requested timeshare on Aruba. There are two reasons for this:

1. It's low ID number (0008) gives people the impression that it is an older resort; The Adventure Inn on Hilton Head (0007) has similar appeal;

2. The ABC usually only deposits studio units, and in the current martketplace, "Bigger means better" so fewer people will consider ABC, releasing it if it comes up on a search and requesting something more appealing.

Hope this sheds some light on the situation.


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## Anne S (Mar 16, 2006)

Bootleg said:
			
		

> FWIW - The Aruba Beach Club is, unfortunately, the least-requested timeshare on Aruba. There are two reasons for this:
> 
> 1. It's low ID number (0008) gives people the impression that it is an older resort; The Adventure Inn on Hilton Head (0007) has similar appeal;
> 
> ...



Thanks for your reply, Bootleg. It is true that ABC is an older resort. However, it is quite well kept up, and has just finished a complete renovation. I can also understand not wanting a studio unit, but I deposited a one bedroom unit. 

Perhaps no one requests ABC, but we have gotten some pretty good exchanges in the past for this resort which no one requests. If I am unable to get decent exchanges in the future, I will no longer deposit with RCI. II seems to find this week rather more valuable than RCI, since I am offered an accommodation certificate for depositing.


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## spiceycat (Mar 16, 2006)

just go with II.


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## Anne S (Mar 17, 2006)

spiceycat said:
			
		

> just go with II.



Yeah, I hear you. Unfortunately I deposited my 2007 week with RCI over a year in advance, in order to maximize my trade power. (We all know what happened with that.) Now, whenever I log onto II, I see that enticing message that they will give me an accommodation certificate if I deposit with them. Wish that I could! Hey, maybe I can call up RCI and ask for my week back, since, according to RCI, there is not much demand for my week ...


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## JudyS (Mar 18, 2006)

Anne S said:
			
		

> ... Hey, maybe I can call up RCI and ask for my week back, since, according to RCI, there is not much demand for my week ...


I think you should do exactly that.  If no one has taken it, you should be able to get it back.  Then, deposit it in II.


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## segerd (Mar 19, 2006)

Same problem for me with RCI and my Aruba Beach Club week deposited.  I too have a 1 bedroom that was deposited and couldn't pull anything.  I called and asked them to let me have it back two days later and was told that it was gone quickly for "ongoing searches" and that it was too late.  I'm only sorry that I have a few years left on my RCI account, wish I could get my money back from them to go with II.


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## Carolinian (Mar 19, 2006)

segerd said:
			
		

> Same problem for me with RCI and my Aruba Beach Club week deposited.  I too have a 1 bedroom that was deposited and couldn't pull anything.  I called and asked them to let me have it back two days later and was told that it was gone quickly for "ongoing searches" and that it was too late.  I'm only sorry that I have a few years left on my RCI account, wish I could get my money back from them to go with II.



This seems to show they aren't playing straight on supply and demand.

I suspect the lawyers in the two lawsuits will have a LOT of fun in the discovery process!


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## Aldo (Mar 19, 2006)

How can a unit be gone practically instantaneously to fulfill ongoing searches but on the other hand have practically no trading power?

It evidently happens.


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## Carolinian (Mar 19, 2006)

I wonder if that ongoing search was from RCI's rental pool?


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## Aldo (Mar 19, 2006)

It's a bit of an interesting tightrope, actually.

You want to skim off weeks deposited into the exchange pool to rent them out, because you make more money off a rental than you do from an exchange.

To keep doing this, you have to encourage people to continue to deposit desirable weeks.

To do this, you have to assign that week high trade power.

But you can't do that, because (remember) you've already skimmed off most the best weeks and rented them out.

Kinda a ponzi scheme in reverse.  You got to hand it to them.  It's obviously unsustainable, but you'll make a pile before it collapses.

(Actually, I imagine that with modern computerized inventory management, a point of "optimal return" of this practice is constantly monitored...as deposits decrease, availability for exchange increases, and vice versa...just the opposite of what should occur in a market composed only of  actual timeshare owners.)


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## segerd (Mar 20, 2006)

I probably wouldn't have noticed with my ABC trade not pulling anything but I had purchased a "week" from Ebay and had it deposited into my RCI account.  Well, for the $99, this new SA week was pulling lots and my own ABC week couldn't get anywhere near as many or even similar quality.  That's why I tried to pull it back from RCI and that's when I found out it wasn't available even two days later.  I've now decided to keep only weeks at resorts I intent to use and get rid of RCI.  I've been a member of RCI since 1978, I'm out!


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