Mailed our rescission letter!

[jmcgowen]

Hello,

I just want to say this board is awesome. Last Saturday we bought our first timeshare. We thought it was a great deal - $7K for a triennial 4BR at Colonies in Williamsburg w/ MF $233/yr. But some of the things they mentioned just kinda "stuck" with me in a "hmmm, really?" way. So I started researching them. Among the things that I could not verify: 1) MFs will never go up, 2) W'burg is a top tourist destination w/ 9M visitors a year (I thought the rep said), 3) W'burg has a cap on the # of resorts that can be built.

(When I questioned the sales mgr why the Colonies are being built if there's a restriction, he replied that they've faithfully paid taxes for 18 years so they got an exemption from the city. I have to admit - these guys are good.)

Anyway, in my research to see if W'burg really is a low supply/hi demand town, I came across older posts on this board from buyers in nearly identical situations to ours. That sealed the deal for me. I mailed the letter Wed and got the signature card back Friday. Hopefully I'll see my deposit refunded sooner than later.

Now, I'm taking my time and looking at the resales on here. I still would like to purchase in W'burg as my home base. We visit Busch Gardens 2-3x/year and it would be nice to avoid the I-64 traffic. We're a family of 4, but I'm leaning toward a 3BR so that we can invite friends to join us.

I'm also thinking about doing alternating biennials, maybe even yrs in W'burg and odd in Myrtle (also a relatively short drive). I'm leaning toward prime weeks to give us some trading power for the occasional years we can splurge on flying.

A friend's parents offered us their 3BR at Cypress Pointe in Orlando, but being that we haven't been to Disney in 18 years I couldn't pull the trigger. (That and they wanted $3500 + $1K MF.)

I'd like to hear people's thoughts on summer weeks in W'burg & MB. Like I said earlier, I'm looking to use first and trade occasionally (every 4-5 years?). According to the II exchange book still in my possession, both areas are rating hi so I would assume they would have good trading power. I'm also assuming MB is overbuilt - is this correct?

We are kind of dipping our toes in the water at the moment. We purchased a last minute rental from Mr. Johnston on this board at Kingsgate. He seems to have a good rep on here.

To sum it up, what a great resource this place is! I hope to report back next month with a full refund!

 

[tschwa2]

Myrtle Beach is only overbuilt Nov-March. April-May and Sept and Oct it supply and demand are probably pretty well matched and there is way more demand than supply for summer weeks from timeshare owners.

Williamsburg is probably overbuilt Oct through early May and has just a little more demand than supply for May through Aug. You can book a 2 br in Williamsburg for the summer as late as March or April without too much difficulty.

If you want a 2 br summer week in Myrtle Beach, you need a very strong trader, you need to make your request 1 year plus in advance and still have less than a 20% chance of finding something except for fairly late deposits or cancellations.

If you were getting a summer week even triennial for $7000 it wasn't a terrible deal as a 4 br summer unit even in Williamsburg is going to be hard to find and the MF's are similar to many area 2 br units. If it was an off season week you could probably find the same one for under $500 and it still might not be worth it for what you want.

RCI is going to have more Myrtle Beach inventory but a summer 2br unit is still going to take planning but with a strong enough week and enough planning the success rate with RCI is probably going to be 70-90% vs the 20% with Interval International.

 

[jmcgowen]

If you were getting a summer week even triennial for $7000 it wasn't a terrible deal as a 4 br summer unit even in Williamsburg is going to be hard to find and the MF's are similar to many area 2 br units. If it was an off season week you could probably find the same one for under $500 and it still might not be worth it for what you want.

Thanks for the response & tips. The 4BR in W'burg was a week 10.

 

[momeason]

You also need to figure out the quality of resort you want.
Sheraton Broadway Plantation is given away frequently on TUG and will get you into Williamsburg easy. You will probably have to pay a little to get a 1-52 float week so you can be guaranteed a summer week.
SBP is a great resort for kids with lots of activities and a great kids activity pool with nice waterside and the water guns etc..like a mini water park. It is also within walking distance of Broadway on the Beach. That is a big restaurant, entertainment and activity complex in Myrtle Beach.

The big downside to this resort is it is not on the water and you need to drive to the ocean..only a short distance but it is not pedestrian friendly walk.

The Marriott in MB is a great resort but buying a week is going to cost you and you need to buy a Platinum season week to be guaranteed a summer vacation.

Williamsburg is an easy trade. If you want summer in Myrtle Beach, buy summer in MB.

 

[jmcgowen]

1 month later...

and no refund yet. This weekend my wife told me we had a voicemail from their office. Apparently they want us to fill out another form. I read the contract a couple times, and all it said we had to do was send in a cancellation via certified mail (which I did).

So is this some kind of ploy? I haven't called back yet to see what the "form" is.

 

[theo]

1 month later... and no refund yet. This weekend my wife told me we had a voicemail from their office. Apparently they want us to fill out another form. I read the contract a couple times, and all it said we had to do was send in a cancellation via certified mail (which I did).

So is this some kind of ploy? I haven't called back yet to see what the "form" is.

If you met the rescission deadline, properly submitting a signed written notification of cancellation, then you have completed the rescission process from your end.
If there was really any such "additional form required", it could simply be mailed to you, no? A phone conversation from the disappointed developer obviously doesn't help in any way to actually get this mythical "additional form" delivered into your hands now, does it...? They certainly know your mailing address, since they got it once when you purchased and they got it again when you rescinded. If this mythical (...and heretofore unheard of) "form" is so critically important (a month later ), then they can simply mail it to you --- if it even exists at all. If it's suddenly important to them (...now, a full month later), they can send it to you by overnight mail.

As clearly indicated previously, it could conceivably take up to 45 days before you actually see your deposit refund. You have no recourse (or much cause for concern, frankly) until or unless you actually reach that 45 day mark but have not received your refund by then. You did not identify here the means by which you initially paid your purchase deposit, but if it was an unusual "auto payment" mechanism of some sort, that authorization might have to be reversed separately and independently.
However, you can likely follow up on that matter directly with the financial provider yourself --- without any unnecessary telephone conversation with the developer.

I've never heard of any such "another form required" song and dance routine performed for an exiting buyer in the course of a rescission --- that's a new fairy tale!
It's likely just a feeble effort by the sales weasels to get you on the phone to "work" you --- most likely by offering you a "sweetened" deal; a final act of desperation to try to salvage the disappearing sale and commission. Personally, I would not even return the phone call at all, but that's entirely your decision to make for yourself.

 

[Passepartout]

and no refund yet. This weekend my wife told me we had a voicemail from their office. Apparently they want us to fill out another form. I read the contract a couple times, and all it said we had to do was send in a cancellation via certified mail (which I did).

So is this some kind of ploy? I haven't called back yet to see what the "form" is.

I second Theo's comments, but with the caveat, it would depend on which 'office' left the voicemail. If it was the sales office where you bought the TS, by all means,ignore it. If it was some central back office, doing the clerical work of the rescission, however, there might be some detail- perhaps with a secondary financing outfit- that needs some internal form signed.

We're pretty sure you're inoculated from taking them up on any offers they might try to tempt you with, so give another couple of weeks (remember those 45 days?) and if the credit hasn't appeared, THEN consider calling.

Jim

 

[carl2591]

also don't forget if you did down payment/ deposit by credit card you can dispute the charge up to 60 days from date of charge. If your deposit does not show up by day 59 go online or call and do a dispute with credit card company that way you are protected no matter what happens.

also a week 10 in W'burg is sorta a lame week. most demand is weeks 23-33 just like at MB area.

 

[jmcgowen]

false alarm

It was the Affinity Rewards office calling because most of our referrals' phone numbers were on the do-not-call registry.

Yes, we did pay our deposit with a credit card. I made sure to use something that would give us the most power in a dispute. I will wait another couple weeks for the refund to appear.

 

[jmcgowen]

Deposit refunded!

I had to call the administration office last week after the monthly payment hit my bank account. They apparently "lost" my recission letter. I emailed them a reprint of my letter and a photo of my certified mail receipt with the signature on it.

Within 2 days my deposit was refunded. I'm still waiting on my monthly payment refund.

So, being patient cost me 2 months of interest on the deposit and an overdraft charge on the monthly payment. My advice to folks trying to cancel is to followup, followup, followup.

 

[carl2591]

I would send them a bill for the bank service charge. this was there fault. also let them know i was going to send info to the state agency that regulates them informing them of the slowness in the resorts refunding of the money..

try to make them screerm? a bit. they would have no problem turning you over to a collection agency the first time you got 30 days late on the payments.