My wife and I had our owners update today at Marbrisa. In return for our 60 minute obligation we were given about $250 in LegoLand tickets. I say “about” because depending on how you look at the pricing, or what discounts are available to you, the total price varies. But I know myself, my wife, and our daughter got in with the tickets and I saved “about” $250.
I should add that we had zero intention of buying anything. But we also were happy to hear the update, see the resort, and enjoy the chance to learn more about HGVC. In other words, we had a good attitude going in.
Anyway, we arrive and after a few minutes are met by X. Things got off to a rocky start right away. The conversation literally went like this – “Hi, my name is X. I’m a straight shooter, I don’t get commission, so whether you buy anything or not doesn’t matter to me. I’m just here to make sure you’re taken care of as an owner.”
No commission? Really? That statement got us on guard right away. And then it got much worse.
Mr. X sat us down and talked about our “odd” portfolio. He didn’t understand why we have some regular purchases (direct from HGVC) and some resale purchases. I said “you said you’re a straight shooter, so let me ask you this – why would we buy anything today when I can get it on TUG or E-Bay for a fraction of the price”. The look on X’s face was priceless. He quickly said “that’s not true” and that’s when the lies started to flow.
He said that if we buy anything resale it doesn’t come with any “rights”. I asked what “rights” he’s talking about and added that I’m aware resales don’t count towards Elite status. He said that if you buy resale you don't get to trade into RCI and you don't have an RCI account provided by HGVC. He went on to say you are locked into the actual week you buy (for example if you buy week 45 you must travel in week 45 and only in week 45). Besides that, you are not allowed to stay anywhere but at the actual resort you own. And you can’t break your week apart; in other words, points don’t exist. You get an annual 7-night stay at your home/only resort; nothing more, nothing less, no flexibility. He then launched into some confusing nonsense about his “neighbor” who bought a unit from a “friend” and got stuck in this “no rights” situation with HGVC. Fortunately, X gloated, he was able to “save” his neighbor and “unwind” the transaction.
At that point I said “we just closed on a resale week and HGVC put the 5,800 points in our account and they are commingled with all our other points”. He said “well this new rule just took effect, so you got lucky”. He then went into a fascinating story about HGVC’s use of their ROFR. He said that the ROFR ensures that resale units can’t be sold for less than developer prices. At this point we were done with X and I was getting mad for being lied to. I said “that’s odd, we just closed on a unit I got on E-Bay for $1. It passed ROFR”. Again, he said we got “lucky” and it must have “slipped through HGVC’s office by mistake”.
Unrelated to HGVC, he said that Marbrisa (as a Grand Pacific resort originally) allows you to use “a fraction” of your points to pay your maintenance fees. His example was something like this – if you own 7,000 points you can use 2,500 of them to pay your annual MF and then use the remaining points to travel with. He said he owns 35,000 points at Marbrisa, uses some of them to pay his MF, and then travels for free on the rest. Has anyone ever heard of this? It sounds great! But based on the stories/lies he told us I don’t trust anything he said to us. And I don’t see how Marbrisa can pay their bills if this is the case. Who wouldn’t use 1/3 of their points to avoid writing a check for $1,300 and then use the other 2/3 to travel with?
He also said that California recently passed legislature that prohibits ANY and ALL future timeshare resorts on the California coast. Wouldn't that be a local law? Like Carlsbad (where Marbrisa is) would pass such a law? But the entire state passed a law the restricted any and all future timeshares? He said "California didn't want to become like one of the east coast states where their entire shoreline is covered with timeshares." His point with this interesting "fact" was that we needed to buy Marbrisa because it was the last chance FOREVER to buy a timeshare on the California coast.
Anyway, we had several other annoying and unprofessional conversations regarding various topics and we left after spending 59 minutes. The survey lady sat us down to sign us out and we were short and said “we just want to leave” and she showed us to the door.
While I knew he had lied to us, I had 0.00001% doubt in my mind and worried that perhaps all our resale points were indeed now under this new “rule”. I went back to our (mediocre) room (more on this later) and e-mailed 3 different, independent resale professionals I have worked with and talked with and trust. All of them agreed they had never heard of this and all said they’d reach out to their contacts who work for HGVC and confirm it’s a bunch of BS. I also heard from one of them they have another client at Marbrisa this week and just yesterday Mr. X gave them the SAME SPEECH. The same lies. The same BS.
So here’s my question. Do I go over and talk to a manager tomorrow? Does Mr. X need a talking to from Marbrisa or HGVC? Do they care?
I should add that we had zero intention of buying anything. But we also were happy to hear the update, see the resort, and enjoy the chance to learn more about HGVC. In other words, we had a good attitude going in.
Anyway, we arrive and after a few minutes are met by X. Things got off to a rocky start right away. The conversation literally went like this – “Hi, my name is X. I’m a straight shooter, I don’t get commission, so whether you buy anything or not doesn’t matter to me. I’m just here to make sure you’re taken care of as an owner.”
No commission? Really? That statement got us on guard right away. And then it got much worse.
Mr. X sat us down and talked about our “odd” portfolio. He didn’t understand why we have some regular purchases (direct from HGVC) and some resale purchases. I said “you said you’re a straight shooter, so let me ask you this – why would we buy anything today when I can get it on TUG or E-Bay for a fraction of the price”. The look on X’s face was priceless. He quickly said “that’s not true” and that’s when the lies started to flow.
He said that if we buy anything resale it doesn’t come with any “rights”. I asked what “rights” he’s talking about and added that I’m aware resales don’t count towards Elite status. He said that if you buy resale you don't get to trade into RCI and you don't have an RCI account provided by HGVC. He went on to say you are locked into the actual week you buy (for example if you buy week 45 you must travel in week 45 and only in week 45). Besides that, you are not allowed to stay anywhere but at the actual resort you own. And you can’t break your week apart; in other words, points don’t exist. You get an annual 7-night stay at your home/only resort; nothing more, nothing less, no flexibility. He then launched into some confusing nonsense about his “neighbor” who bought a unit from a “friend” and got stuck in this “no rights” situation with HGVC. Fortunately, X gloated, he was able to “save” his neighbor and “unwind” the transaction.
At that point I said “we just closed on a resale week and HGVC put the 5,800 points in our account and they are commingled with all our other points”. He said “well this new rule just took effect, so you got lucky”. He then went into a fascinating story about HGVC’s use of their ROFR. He said that the ROFR ensures that resale units can’t be sold for less than developer prices. At this point we were done with X and I was getting mad for being lied to. I said “that’s odd, we just closed on a unit I got on E-Bay for $1. It passed ROFR”. Again, he said we got “lucky” and it must have “slipped through HGVC’s office by mistake”.
Unrelated to HGVC, he said that Marbrisa (as a Grand Pacific resort originally) allows you to use “a fraction” of your points to pay your maintenance fees. His example was something like this – if you own 7,000 points you can use 2,500 of them to pay your annual MF and then use the remaining points to travel with. He said he owns 35,000 points at Marbrisa, uses some of them to pay his MF, and then travels for free on the rest. Has anyone ever heard of this? It sounds great! But based on the stories/lies he told us I don’t trust anything he said to us. And I don’t see how Marbrisa can pay their bills if this is the case. Who wouldn’t use 1/3 of their points to avoid writing a check for $1,300 and then use the other 2/3 to travel with?
He also said that California recently passed legislature that prohibits ANY and ALL future timeshare resorts on the California coast. Wouldn't that be a local law? Like Carlsbad (where Marbrisa is) would pass such a law? But the entire state passed a law the restricted any and all future timeshares? He said "California didn't want to become like one of the east coast states where their entire shoreline is covered with timeshares." His point with this interesting "fact" was that we needed to buy Marbrisa because it was the last chance FOREVER to buy a timeshare on the California coast.
Anyway, we had several other annoying and unprofessional conversations regarding various topics and we left after spending 59 minutes. The survey lady sat us down to sign us out and we were short and said “we just want to leave” and she showed us to the door.
While I knew he had lied to us, I had 0.00001% doubt in my mind and worried that perhaps all our resale points were indeed now under this new “rule”. I went back to our (mediocre) room (more on this later) and e-mailed 3 different, independent resale professionals I have worked with and talked with and trust. All of them agreed they had never heard of this and all said they’d reach out to their contacts who work for HGVC and confirm it’s a bunch of BS. I also heard from one of them they have another client at Marbrisa this week and just yesterday Mr. X gave them the SAME SPEECH. The same lies. The same BS.
So here’s my question. Do I go over and talk to a manager tomorrow? Does Mr. X need a talking to from Marbrisa or HGVC? Do they care?
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