The one thing, the positive, that this topic exposes is the complete unbalance, so totally in the resorts/TS/RTU favor. And how you the one who paid for the right to keep paying, is left with so few options to get out from your dream vacation contract. I say keep the discussion loud and in the open, so all newbies can judge for themselves, and hopefully the industry will forced to change as profits dwindle. Major change is needed, just paying large amounts of cash or giving something away does nothing to fix the real problem. Some sort of mandatory statement/clause under the EXIT title in plain language, is in order, attached to the title/contract. Now would someone buy anything with a Exit statement that might read...sorry you are stuck in this paying for ever, we have no exit plan for you?
Huh? I remember the "Exit" portion of our first presentations 30 years ago. They went pretty much like:
"Why would anyone ever want to sell? . . . . But, if that ever happens, these are going up in price every day . . . If you don't get one today, they'll be higher tomorrow."
In our first ones you can add, "Besides, you can rent these for so much more than you're paying, and make a lot of money."
But, then, Al Gore hadn't opened his Internet yet, and on Thursday of that first week of presentations, probably 8, 9 or 10 of them, I succumbed. Yeah, no way to do any due diligence, so I had to rely on the only source I had.
Even with the best of due diligence, and the best of intentions, and the best of personal responsibility, things change, people change, resorts change, and the resort wakes up one day with their belly up.
Even nowadays, with the Internet right there in their pockets, where they could see that people are trying to give away what they are getting pitched, and complaints about companies numbering into the thousands, even at the worst of the worst, people are still buying. A personable BSer will beat due diligence enough of the time . . . . . nuff said, don't wanna go there.
For those who have not experienced this, good for you, just disregard this discussion.