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Manhattan Club Maintenance Fee Problems

Tamaradarann

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We have heard at one of the (Sign up for our Destination Club for a few thousand dollars and you can go anywhere you want with no maintenance fees and we will take your timeshare away from you so you no longer need to pay maintenance fees Dinners) that the Manhattan Club has serious maintenance fee problems with maintenance fees over $3000 per week. Does anyone have any information about how the Manhattan Club got into this problem. This is a concern that all timeshare owners should have.
 

alwysonvac

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The Manhattan Club will be managed in the future by Bluegreen - https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/bluegreen-to-acquire-the-manhattan-club.275740/

Here are some old TUG threads about Manhattan Club
 

chefcristo

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99% of TMC owners have been defrauded, scammed and duped from the moment they stepped into the 2-floor sales office for their "presentation", i.e., lies and misrepresentations, from their ultimate purchase until the present. owners are left with exponentially exorbitant maintenance fees and major difficulty getting desirable reservations. the former new york state attorney general, eric schneiderman's in his case against TMC/IAN BRUCE EICHNER, acceptance of the so-called litigation "settlement" was a disgrace which left TMC shareowners with the same problems we currently face. schneiderman's undercover agents attended and recorded TMC sales presentions and proved, i believe, that criminal fraud in the form of false and misleading sales statements took place. there was a bait-and-switch scenario that occurred.

a discussion on this forum, offering ideas for solutions to these common issues/problems, will be helpful for us owners to obtain justice for being defrauded. the end result is that we want substantially reduced maintenance fees, and restructuring of the reservation process, among other individual injustices.

we are in desperate need to get a high percentage of owners to even become aware of these issues involving their TMC investment. many owners are not aware that forums like TUG exist. they remain uninformed of the issues. a possible solution is to obtain a list of owners with email addresses. this list, i understand, will not be made available by TMC. they do not want all of us owners to know of the above issues. this is one issue where TUG members can offer ideas to accomplish this.

an FYI: there are many owners who are willing to literally give away their ownership to relieve themselves of the financially distressful burden to them created by TMC.
 
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Maple_Leaf

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an FYI: there are many owners who are willing to literally give away their ownership to relieve themselves of the financially distressful burden to them created by TMC.
Hey Chef, I heard a rumour that Manhattan Club is now taking deedbacks. My source thought that Bluegreen is looking for TMC inventory for their points club.
 

chefcristo

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Hey Chef, I heard a rumour that Manhattan Club is now taking deedbacks. My source thought that Bluegreen is looking for TMC inventory for their points club.
i can't say IF or HOW TMC is taking deedbacks. some say they're doing so by offering $100 per week owned. how incredulous/incredible is that? you mention bluegreen, but you left out ian bruce eichner, the initial developer. my recall is rather sketchy on this point. i believe part of schneiderman's nonsensical TMC SETTLEMENT was to give eichner 3 years (?) to give up TMC TIMESHARE OWNERSHIP. as bluegreen became a major part of the picture. i can not guarantee the accuracy of these statements. there have been so many interpretations about the SETTLEMENT that leaves most TMC owners questioning what is accurate and what is hearsay. i am confident, however, that TMC owners are still in the same financially and otherwise distressed positions as we were before schneiderman's SETTLEMENT: exponentially exorbitant maintenance fees, up over 500%..or close, since original purchase, and inability of a huge percentage of owners to get desirable reservation due to (among other fraud) overselling of shares.
does anyone on this form have any constructive suggestions to remedy these issues?
 

tschwa2

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an FYI: there are many owners who are willing to literally give away their ownership to relieve themselves of the financially distressful burden to them created by TMC.

While TMC MF and other issues may be exponentially worse than many resorts, there are thousands and thousands of timeshare owners across the board who are willing to give away their ownership (even those that have paid $20,000-$80,000+ to buy in) or even pay hundreds or even thousands to relieve themselves of the "distressful burden"
 

chefcristo

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While TMC MF and other issues may be exponentially worse than many resorts, there are thousands and thousands of timeshare owners across the board who are willing to give away their ownership (even those that have paid $20,000-$80,000+ to buy in) or even pay hundreds or even thousands to relieve themselves of the "distressful burden"

understandable for those who can't bear the MF financial burden. very telling. that leaves ALL (or a majority percentage) timeshare owners (regardless of their financial situation) victims of major fraud and deception that currently can be remedied only by further fraud. paying off some other scammers to rid themselves of their timeshare is AN answer, but not THE answer.
what is the bottom-line, essential necessity, albeit done via a long stressful path?
we need enforced state and national regulation and legislation to combat all those involved in the timeshare industry who continually and persistently perpetrate fraud, scams, shams and lies all of which may fall under the title of criminal acts. it's called consumer protection legislation which seems to be "on the books," but rarely used in connection with timeshares.....other scams, like ponzi schemes seem to take precedence. why is that?
 

alwysonvac

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Tamaradarann

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understandable for those who can't bear the MF financial burden. very telling. that leaves ALL (or a majority percentage) timeshare owners (regardless of their financial situation) victims of major fraud and deception that currently can be remedied only by further fraud. paying off some other scammers to rid themselves of their timeshare is AN answer, but not THE answer.
what is the bottom-line, essential necessity, albeit done via a long stressful path?
we need enforced state and national regulation and legislation to combat all those involved in the timeshare industry who continually and persistently perpetrate fraud, scams, shams and lies all of which may fall under the title of criminal acts. it's called consumer protection legislation which seems to be "on the books," but rarely used in connection with timeshares.....other scams, like ponzi schemes seem to take precedence. why is that?

I think the basis for a lot of these scams is that the timeshare industry: resorts associations, developers and associated sales teams are not willing to take back timeshares that have inflated prices to buy but no value on the secondary market. Perhaps instead of the situation being that you must pay your maintenance forever even if you don't use or want your timeshare any longer the resort association, developer or sales team must take back the timeshare for $0 after all the outstanding maintenance fees are paid up to date. It is bad enough that the owner fell for the inflated prices to initially buy the timeshare; we have all made bad purchasing decisions some major some minor. However, to penalize that decision with increasing maintenance fees that must be paid forever is not correct or fair.

The resort association then must decide how it will proceed with weeks that are returned. It may result in the association selling them to existing owners who want them, renting out the weeks, or hiring a sales team to sell them. If resorts have many vacant units which are not resulting in income from maintenance fees or rentals they may have to close sections of the resort or seasons at the resort to save on costs. Ultimately, if the resort is not solvent it may need to be sold.
 

Fredflintstone

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Sigh...just another situation where renting an Airbnb or hotel makes sense over huge outlay, maintenance fees and being gouged for life because you signed in the dotted line.

It’s situations like this that really turn people off of any timeshare scheme or concept.


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chefcristo

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fred,
agreed......
however your comments are after the fact for those of us "innocents" and trusting souls who bought into the timeshare fraud , scam and lies, (I OWN AT THE MANHATTAN CLUB IN NYC, AS FRAUDULENT AN OPERATION IMAGINABLE, ALONG WITH MORE THAN 14,000+++ OTHER SCAMMED PEOPLE) as bad as any ponzi scheme. stupid? yes, in retrospect, but now we're 'stucked" or f***** to put it more precisely. that's exactly why i repeat, we must get our legislators to create specific and enforceable state and national timeshare regulations and legislation. some timeshare swindlers are totally in (and out of) control, and it's nearly impossible to stop them. it's fraud, and to the extent of the numbers of purchasers they defrauded, it's a crime. ask bernie madoff.
 
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chefcristo

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We have heard at one of the (Sign up for our Destination Club for a few thousand dollars and you can go anywhere you want with no maintenance fees and we will take your timeshare away from you so you no longer need to pay maintenance fees Dinners) that the Manhattan Club has serious maintenance fee problems with maintenance fees over $3000 per week. Does anyone have any information about how the Manhattan Club got into this problem. This is a concern that all timeshare owners should have.


it's not the manhattan club (TMC) that has the "problem." TMC created the problems for all of its sucker purchasers...over 14,000 of us, (including me!) who bought in good faith and were defrauded, scammed, lied to and misled from the day of presentation (with a sales staff, very well- trained, who learned the art of swindling, fast talk, deception and empty promises from TMC developer, ian bruce eichner. maintenance fees are now up over 500% +-, desirable reservations are impossible to get by many owners......due to, among other issues, overselling of share by eichner. i won't take time detailing this long, arduous story, but the former new york state attorney general, eric schneiderman took TMC/EICHNER to court based on the number of complaints received by his office. after three years of litigation, a SETTLEMENT (A TOTAL SHAM) was reached. schneiderman "won" his case and we TMC owners are currently in the same financial distress we were before schneiderman's SETTLEMENT. i keep repeating, all timeshare owners are in dire need of state and national timeshare enforceable regulation and legislation. write to your legislators demanding this legislation. i did and am awaiting a response.
chris
ps: the so-called DESTINATION CLUB is just so much dung (from whatever animal source). many of those timeshare relievers companies are frauds themselves usually requiring upfront fees. STAY AWAY.

pps: any constructive suggestions for TMC owners for further legal action?
 
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bogey21

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I thank my lucky stars. Many years ago when the Manhattan Club was just starting up I was walking by it and considered going in to stop in to see what they were offering. At the time I was building my TS Portfolio. Fortunately I was in a hurry and kept walking. Clearly I dodged a bullet...

George
 

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I also dodged a bullet many years ago. I purchased a EOY week for 16,000 but was able to rescind. I know it doesn't help you in regards to your MC ownership but it was nice to see Shneiderman resign. Of course he was able to dodge criminal charges. Chef I wish you luck.
 

chefcristo

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I also dodged a bullet many years ago. I purchased a EOY week for 16,000 but was able to rescind. I know it doesn't help you in regards to your MC ownership but it was nice to see Shneiderman resign. Of course he was able to dodge criminal charges. Chef I wish you luck.

tug ladies/gentlemen,
your responses to my comments are very much appreciated. most of you are not owners in THE MANHATTAN CLUB (TMC) as i am (along with more than 14,000 other defrauded owners.)
be thankful for making a wise decision. if you and others reading my comments have any more concrete suggestions/recommendations for TMC owners, please post them here.

enjoy your holidays!

thanks to all at TUG,
chris
 

Tamaradarann

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This is your answer. Take the $100 and run. Run away from the escalating MF.

I posted above that there should be a law that the resort association, developer, or sales team must take back a timeshare unit for $0 so that the owner who no longer wants the unit doesn't have to keep paying maintenance. While I still believe that is true in many cases and will help rid us of the pay upfront scams to get rid of your timeshare maintenance bills, that law won't help TMC owners since the TMC is offering $100 to take back the unit.

However, Bluegreen, the new owner of TMC, offering $100 to take back the units could be the initiation of another scam!! Buying back units that initially cost $20K-80K to buy years ago for $100 is a good deal for Bluegreen. They can then turn around and sell the units for at least $20K-80K. Nice PROFIT.
Also, I don't know why the maintenance fees got so high at TMC, however, if Bluegreen can successfully turn ownership numbers around perhaps they will be able to 1/2 the maintenance fees and make TMC viable again.
 

Marathoner

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I, as I expect many others on this forum, am very sympathetic to chefcristo's predicament and I hope he can receive some restitution.

In reading the NY Attorney General summary of the settlement, it does sound like they banned the sponsor from the industry and received $6.5M for the owners.
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-...ettlement-midtown-manhattan-timeshare-scammed


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tschwa2

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I posted above that there should be a law that the resort association, developer, or sales team must take back a timeshare unit for $0 so that the owner who no longer wants the unit doesn't have to keep paying maintenance. While I still believe that is true in many cases and will help rid us of the pay upfront scams to get rid of your timeshare maintenance bills, that law won't help TMC owners since the TMC is offering $100 to take back the unit.

However, Bluegreen, the new owner of TMC, offering $100 to take back the units could be the initiation of another scam!! Buying back units that initially cost $20K-80K to buy years ago for $100 is a good deal for Bluegreen. They can then turn around and sell the units for at least $20K-80K. Nice PROFIT.
Also, I don't know why the maintenance fees got so high at TMC, however, if Bluegreen can successfully turn ownership numbers around perhaps they will be able to 1/2 the maintenance fees and make TMC viable again.

I don't think it is ever going to go down to half. I think a more obtainable number would be $500-$800 less per year than it currently is and even that may not happen.
 

Tamaradarann

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I, as I expect many others on this forum, am very sympathetic to chefcristo's predicament and I hope he can receive some restitution.

In reading the NY Attorney General summary of the settlement, it does sound like they banned the sponsor from the industry and received $6.5M for the owners.
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-...ettlement-midtown-manhattan-timeshare-scammed


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The accusation in the settlement was that TMC Management Group was renting out units to the general public so that owners had no availability to book their weeks. I don't know the details of what they were doing but since all the units were not sold and all the maintenance fees were not collected they did have the right to rent out some weeks. Since The Manhattan club is a Floating Week System perhaps the question is which weeks are they renting out? While I am not an owner there I do own HGVC weeks. When I am booking my timeshare weeks in Honolulu during peak season there are very few weeks available and at times none for a particular period. I always wonder if the resort is renting out weeks on Hilton.com that I would like to book. I believe that the winter period after the Holidays are low desirability times in NYC. Owners perhaps don't want to rent those weeks. However, TMC Management also might have a hard time renting those out also, so they rent out more desirable times. Then there are more owners chasing after the desirable weeks than there are weeks available.
 

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I posted above that there should be a law that the resort association, developer, or sales team must take back a timeshare unit for $0 so that the owner who no longer wants the unit doesn't have to keep paying maintenance. While I still believe that is true in many cases and will help rid us of the pay upfront scams to get rid of your timeshare maintenance bills, that law won't help TMC owners since the TMC is offering $100 to take back the unit.

However, Bluegreen, the new owner of TMC, offering $100 to take back the units could be the initiation of another scam!! Buying back units that initially cost $20K-80K to buy years ago for $100 is a good deal for Bluegreen. They can then turn around and sell the units for at least $20K-80K. Nice PROFIT.
Also, I don't know why the maintenance fees got so high at TMC, however, if Bluegreen can successfully turn ownership numbers around perhaps they will be able to 1/2 the maintenance fees and make TMC viable again.
Unfortunately, buying from the developer is usually overpriced. Most timeshare are given away for free in the resale market. Most of us on TUG bought our first timeshare from the developer. My first purchase from the developer 20+ years ago is now worth $0. One day when I want to get rid of the MF obligation, I hope the developer is willing to take back from me and resell at a huge profit.
 

Tamaradarann

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Unfortunately, buying from the developer is usually overpriced. Most timeshare are given away for free in the resale market. Most of us on TUG bought our first timeshare from the developer. My first purchase from the developer 20+ years ago is now worth $0. One day when I want to get rid of the MF obligation, I hope the developer is willing to take back from me and resell at a huge profit.

That is the point of my saying that there should be a law that the developer must take back the timeshare for $0 so that you don't have the MF obligation. I totally agree that being from the developer is overprices and buying resale is the way to go. However, the perpetual MF obligation is there whether you buy from the developer or resale.
 

chefcristo

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is anyone here on the tug forum an owner, as i am, in THE MANHATTAN (FRAUD) CLUB IN NYC?
 

escanoe

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is anyone here on the tug forum an owner, as i am, in THE MANHATTAN (FRAUD) CLUB IN NYC?
Fortunately, I am not. I am staying there with my family Memorial Day weekend through an RCI exchange. After I checked out the maintenance fees for owners, I will not complain about the daily fee. I sure hope it gets better Under Bluegreen for unfortunate souls that have been put through the wringer with ownership.

If I run into any owners while there, I will tell them about TUG.
 
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