Company wants to buy my extra RCI weeks

[meradtech745]

Hi everyone! I have a question about a company who is calling and asking for my extra RCI weeks. The RCI has extra weeks that I can use if the person that I use them for goes to a presentation. They cost $399 each and you get 12 extra weeks a year. So this company calls and says they want them, if I pay for them, they will rent them for me to companies that use them for business. This company says that they will charge $1000 per week, and mail me a check.

So I always believe that if it is too good to be true, it probably is, so I am concerned about paying for these weeks and then get burned. Has anyone ever heard of this program? Is it true, or is it another one of those get rich quick schemes that take your money and run thing.

Thanks,
Melody

 

[DeniseM]

Is isn't true - RCI doesn't permit rental of exchanges or extra vacations - it violates your membership.

Legitimate businesses charge a commission after the service, but these companies all ask for a large upfront payment - they have no intention of ever renting anything.

Here are some warnings signs with these kinds of companies:

1) Did you get an unsolicited sales call or mailing or email from them?

2) Do they say that they already have a renter/buyer for your timeshare? (Or an established market like people attending conventions.)

3) Do they claim that they can get your money back from another scammer?

4) Do they want you to pay hundreds/thousands of dollars for a title search, or transfer fees, or taxes, or a closing fee, or appraisal, or ANY large fee, UPFRONT?

5) Are they offering to rent/sell it for far more than the market value?

6) Do they want you to pay a large up front fee that supposedly you will get back?

7) Do they want your credit card number over the phone?​

If you answer yes to any of these questions, then this is the usual scenario:

Once you pay the fee and receive the contract, you discover that the company has only promised to advertise your resort, not to rent/sell it, and they don't mention having a renter/buyer in the contract.

Then, you won't hear anything from them for a long time, and when you contact them, they will tell you that the renter/buyer backed out, but they will advertise your timeshare on their over-priced website.

Finally, when you try to get your money back, they will point out that you signed a contract, and it's only for advertising.

When you try to challenge it with your credit card company, they will tell you that you only had 60 days to dispute the charge, and that it's too late to do anything.​

This is a bitter pill to swallow, but right now, most timeshares are selling for 0-20% of the original retail price. It's not a good time to sell a timeshare.

To see what your timeshare is really worth on the current resale market:

1) Register with ebay
2) Sign in
3) Search for your resort by exact name
4) From the menu on the left click "completed listings"
5) The next page will show you current selling prices

(Be sure you look at the completed listings - those are actually SELLING prices - you will find asking prices all over the place, but what really counts is what they actually sold for.)​

 

[jc92869]

Ask them for a deposit payable through Paypal. Most of the time their willingness / or refusal to pay in advance is a strong indicator whether it is a scam or not. DO not ever accept checks or any other monetary instrument.

 

[MauiLea]

Too good to be true....

Yes. It's too good to be true. Don't fall for this scam.

When I travel on business, I tend to stay at hotels, not timeshare condos. Hey, I want someone to clean my room and I don't have time to shop or cook.....

 

[Rent_Share]

They call me and I am not an RCI member

 

[meradtech745]

Thanks for the help

Thanks to you guys for the quick response. The reason why this seemed to be true is because they did not ask for any money! They just wanted me to pay for the weeks with RCI, but I guess that really means they would have kept that money.

Like I said, I knew it was too good to be true, and the fact that they were telling me the money was for the RCI weeks and not to pay them threw my off. I use my timeshare every year, and actually am very happy that I got it, so did not want to actually sell my weeks, just the extra RCI weeks......

There is one born every day, thanks for helping me not be that one today!

(a sucker)

Melody

 

[csxjohn]

I'm glad you saw the light and didn't get burned. The giveaway here is why would they want you to pay for the weeks then they would rent them out. Why would they need you and not just rent the weeks themselves.

Welcome to TUG, stick around and learn more about timeshares and teach others what you know.

 

[RX8]

The other thing not yet mentioned is the fact that you don't have 12 additional RCI weeks. That is part of their scam. Even if you DID have RCI weeks to rent out (and if RCI allowed it) you would pay RCI the $399 for the week and not some stranger calling you on the phone.

Is this scam even mentioned on the RCI website? You might want to let RCI know about it.

 

[DeniseM]

Once they had you hooked - there would absolutely be a fee. These people are getting a little smarter now, and they no longer mention the fees upfront. They had absolutely no intention of renting anything...

 

[RX8]

Once they had you hooked - there would absolutely be a fee. These people are getting a little smarter now, and they no longer mention the fees upfront. They had absolutely no intention of renting anything...

I think the pitch is that they want the timeshare owner to pay THEM the $399 RCI fee. $399 X 12 is $4788. THAT is their "upfront" fee. They will then "rent" the weeks and send the owner $1000 for each week. The owner supposedly stands to NET a $7200 profit for the 12 total weeks.

Of course that only happens in fairyland. What really happens is that the owner sends $4788 and the scammer disappears.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Once they had you hooked - there would absolutely be a fee. These people are getting a little smarter now, and they no longer mention the fees upfront. They had absolutely no intention of renting anything...

I guess that since they no longer as for the money up front to "start" the paperwork, it's no longer an "upfront" fee. Now they just collect it after someone sends in the paperwork. End result is the same.

And of course it's still really is an upfront fee because they want it paid at the front end of the process, not at the back end from the rental or sale proceeds. But it gives them a rationale to say it's not "upfront" even though it really is.

 

[Cheryl20772]

I've gotten that scam call several times. I tell them that I am so sorry that I can't help them out, but we do use all of our free RCI extra weeks. It's not a lie as nothing at RCI is "free". They become so incredulous at this and ask if I am sure of this and I say of course I am. I think they assume that most people don't even know there are extra weeks in RCI.

You can be pretty sure that any time you get a phone call out of the blue (cold call) pertaining to anything "timeshare" that it's a scam!

People who list their timeshare for sale or rent do open themselves up to additional calls of this nature and have the complication of separating the sincere contacts from the scams. If you don't have anything listed anywhere why would anyone contact you about your timeshare? Only to scam you fishing for you to bite their hooks.