Dikhololo not allowing to exchange fixed weeks?

[Carol]

I went to pay my fixed week and then deposit with RCI. I got a letter back that they no longer will allow exchanging of fixed (with anyone???)!!!!
They also provided a usage document that now says that fixed weeks can not be exchanged!!

Has anyone had this issue.

 

[Dori]

Sounds like the same nefarious works of Stuart Lamont, or someone emulating his practices. The same thing happened to many SA owners here on TUG. If you search the boards for Lowveld Lodge, you will find out lots of information. When this happened, we could no longer deposit or exchange, just pay our MF's while they rented out our units for their own profit.

Sorry to hear that your resort has adopted this policy.

Dori

 

[AwayWeGo]

Whoa !

Dikhololo was the 1st & greatest of the South African tiger trader timeshares. Sorry the saga ended.

We got in on the craze too late for Dikhololo & had to settle for Lowveld Lodge, which was OK or better for several years. Then it converted itself to a non-timeshare resort & that was that.

So it goes.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[EJC]

I went to pay my fixed week and then deposit with RCI. I got a letter back that they no longer will allow exchanging of fixed (with anyone???)!!!!
They also provided a usage document that now says that fixed weeks can not be exchanged!!

Has anyone had this issue.

Carol--I don't understand why they wouldn't let you exchange a fixed week. What difference would it make if it was fixed or floating? A week is a week. I hope you attempted to go further up the chain of command to get a rationale. A own a floating red week. They no longer deposit it directly with RCI, but the resort management company sends me a confirmation letter with the unit number and date. Then I call RCI or email the RCI specialists with the info and they deposit it for me. I wonder if the resort WANTS you to walk away from your fixed week membership.

 

[bizaro86]

If you have a fixed week/unit and you've paid your MF, you could try depositing it through RCI. All that needs is the resort ID, unit number, and week number. They might still refuse to confirm your week, but they're more likely to try and bully you than RCI, I suspect.

 

[custcarcen]

I went to pay my fixed week and then deposit with RCI. I got a letter back that they no longer will allow exchanging of fixed (with anyone???)!!!!
They also provided a usage document that now says that fixed weeks can not be exchanged!!

Has anyone had this issue.

ANY NEWS ???

 

[Laurie]

Years ago, there were separate RCI offices for US and South Africa, and Dikhololo dealt with the RCI South Africa office. No idea whether that's still true, but you might investigate that avenue as a potentially better contact point than RCI US.

 

[silentg]

We sent our original paperwork to Dikhololo a few years ago to release us from the timeshare.
Followed the instructions and we no longer own there.
We had a lot of great exchanges with this timeshare but it was a hassle getting it into RCI and converting the dollar to rand.
If you are unhappy with Dikhololo do what we did, hopefully you kept all the original paperwork?
Good Luck!
Silentg

 

[PaulT]

Actually. you don't need to be that nice to Dikhololo. Quite a while ago, I just stopped paying my MF's and they took the unit back with no action on my part. Very simple and easy. I am not surprised with people's unhappiness with management there. When I stayed at the resort, they didn't even have owner representatives at the resort. If I wanted to speak with an owner's rep, I would have had to drive all the way back to Pretoria.

 

[silentg]

Being nice is my nature, I sleep better at night.

 

[PaulT]

I understand completely. Nice is always better. But when I asked them to take the week back via a deed-back, they refused and said I would need to sell the week through one of the resellers. I wasn't willing to put that much effort into it.

 

[custcarcen]

I went to pay my fixed week and then deposit with RCI. I got a letter back that they no longer will allow exchanging of fixed (with anyone???)!!!!
They also provided a usage document that now says that fixed weeks can not be exchanged!!

Has anyone had this issue.

I wrote to Dikhololo twice but my emails were not answered. I emailed "specialists@rci.com" however and they said that you can most certainly still deposit weeks to RCI.

RCI asked for examples of Dikhololo refusing to deposit weeks so I sent them a link to this thread.

Will post a follow-up if I hear anything more.

 

[silentg]

I was able to give back my timeshare to Dikhololo it’s been a few years now. I felt like we got our monies worth with that one, we never stayed there, but traded for lots of other timeshares.
We are down to 4 timeshares now and find it more manageable than 7.
Silentg

 

[custcarcen]

I wrote to Dikhololo twice but my emails were not answered. I emailed "specialists@rci.com" however and they said that you can most certainly still deposit weeks to RCI.

RCI asked for examples of Dikhololo refusing to deposit weeks so I sent them a link to this thread.

Will post a follow-up if I hear anything more.

Specialists@RCI.com have confirmed that they have spoken yesterday to VMS and it is no longer policy at VMS to not permit space banking of fixed weeks. You may deposit your week if you so wish.

 

[dsfritz]

I went to pay my fixed week and then deposit with RCI. I got a letter back that they no longer will allow exchanging of fixed (with anyone???)!!!!
They also provided a usage document that now says that fixed weeks can not be exchanged!!

Has anyone had this issue.

I contacted Dihololo a month ago to deposit my week in another organization. They didn't respond and didn't respond. They kept saying they needed more information. The form that the other company uses was not compatible with their form. Finally , after several phone calls, they agreed to the deposit, but said they would NEVER DO IT AGAIN. I can hardly wait for next year to start the fight all over again.

 

[dioxide45]

Why not just sell or otherwise let them go?

 

[silentg]

Actually. you don't need to be that nice to Dikhololo. Quite a while ago, I just stopped paying my MF's and they took the unit back with no action on my part. Very simple and easy. I am not surprised with people's unhappiness with management there. When I stayed at the resort, they didn't even have owner representatives at the resort. If I wanted to speak with an owner's rep, I would have had to drive all the way back to Pretoria.

Can you tell me how you liked the resort? We had a one bedroom there.

 

[PaulT]

My apologies for not getting back to you sooner, I just now saw you question. I owned a 1 and 2 bedroom unit. When we were there, we stayed in the 2 bedroom unit. I was completely unimpressed with the units themselves. For us, the draw at Dikhololo was to be able to walk around the resort and mingle with the animals. After our visit, I submitted a rather detailed review and numerous pictures. My review is the one dated 8/6/2007. I don't know what happened to the pictures that I submitted, but they are no longer being shown. Looking at the pictures currently posted of the resort, there have been HUGE changes. The timeshare accommodations and facilities were no where as nice as current pictures depict. Things look much, much nicer now. So I a afraid my opinions would be far too outdated to be valid.

 

[soon2b6]

This is slightly off topic regarding "Dikhololo" - however - it does have to do with getting rid of a SA timeshare. Our lifestyle has changed significantly enough that we are no longer able to use our TSs. Wyndham has agreed to take back our TSs via Ovation. I've attempted a number of times to get Silver Sands/Gooderson Properties to explore the same approach - with no response - not so much as an acknowledgement of my inquiry . Any suggestions? If you stop paying MF can a SA company impact your credit score in the US? Thanks

 

[silentg]

Like I said in my previous post I gave back my dikholol week years ago. Got good trades but always had problems getting it into RCI. It was a good thing at first, when all of tug was advising and using it. Then the hassles started and we had a good run. Now we have 3 timeshares and all are manageable. I’m sticking with RCI, since they have been helpful during this stressful Corona thing.
Silentg