Need advice for letter.

[topcop400]

I’m looking for advice as I write a letter of complaint to Cloobeck. After all, when he was on “Undercover Boss” he claimed he never says “No” (yeah, right). I own a deeded three-bedroom LO, at Grand Villas in Orlando. I purchased long before DRI took over. In fact, management has changed a few times since I purchased and DRI is the first company to tell me “No”.

My deed says I’m entitled to weeks 1-52 but, DRI has added a caveat. According to reservation staff, I’m only entitled to 1-52 if I’m going to use the unit myself. If I want to deposit to RCI, the following applies:

They deposit for you. RCI will not deal with you directly.
They will assign a bulk bank week and deposit that week. Choice is theirs.
RCI deposits are always Sunday check-in.
You cannot deposit week 51 or 52 because those weeks are never bulk banked.

DRI seeks to impose their system upon all owners in blanket fashion with an attitude of “one-size-fits-all”. There is no recognition or acknowledgement that there are different types of ownership. I am routinely disregarded by reservation staff when they summarily dismiss me by saying: “Read your manual”. They refuse to acknowledge that I do not have a DRI owner’s manual; nor have I ever had one. They seem to be on “auto-pilot” for points membership and, for them, nothing else exists. We purchased our week with financial sacrifice and resent being treated as second class owners because we own a deeded floating week.

I wrote a letter to Linda Riddle (HOA for Grand Villas Resort) and Lori LoDuca (Manager at Grand Villas) back in December and that letter generated no response whatsoever—Nothing.

Christmas week is the only week of the year where Orlando isn’t way overbuilt. It offers far stronger trade power. It doesn’t make much sense that I can reserve Christmas week and deposit that week to SFX or any other independent exchange company—just not RCI because DRI has some sort of sweet deal arranged with them.

I won’t be handing over my deed because I’m not interested in a developer purchase.

What would you include in a letter?

 

[DeniseM]

Becky - Sadly, you don't have a leg to stand on. Other resort systems (including big companies like Starwood) have implemented the same thing. We can no longer choose the week that we deposit. If it makes you feel better - write the letter, but I think it's futile.

 

[pedro47]

Please write your letter and good luck to you.

 

[VegasBella]

Honestly it sounds like you need to stop interacting with Diamond and deal with RCI directly. You have a deed and are entitled to reserve under your original ownership agreement, not through DRI. Then you can deposit the reserved week into RCI. If RCI won't take it then the issue is really with RCI not DRI.

I'm no expert but I'm learning. I don't exchange yet but I own a deed at a resort that is now owned by DRI. My interactions with DRI are confusing because they try to treat me like a regular DRI owner and then realize I'm not. So I've learned not to take their word for anything and to check elsewhere to find the truth. To book my week they told me to go to II! I don't even have an II account! And I'm using my week, not exchanging!


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[topcop400]

Honestly it sounds like you need to stop interacting with Diamond and deal with RCI directly.

I have a week already reserved, but RCI won't talk to me because that's their agreement with DRI.

 

[DeniseM]

Honestly it sounds like you need to stop interacting with Diamond and deal with RCI directly. You have a deed and are entitled to reserve under your original ownership agreement, not through DRI. Then you can deposit the reserved week into RCI. If RCI won't take it then the issue is really with RCI not DRI.

Actually, deeds do not stipulate "exchanging rights." Regardless of how the TS was originally purchased - DRI is the Mgmt. company now, and they control the inventory.

RCI will follow the agreement they have with DRI. If RCI tried to accept the deposit of the week you reserved (and they won't) DRI would simply refuse to release it to RCI. There is no way to deposit the week with RCI, or any exchange company, without DRI's consent, because DRI has to AGREE to give RCI access to the resort, accept the RCI reservation in the guest's name, and allow them to check in.

BTW - I'm not just pontificating here: Starwood owners (all of us, not just one) went through this a few years ago. Starwood changed the rules so that floating week owners could no longer make a reservation in their season, and deposit it. (Just like the OP.) Many owners were eager to participate in a class-action lawsuit. Unfortunately, there were no law firms who were interested in fighting Starwood...

 

[VegasBella]

I still stand by my statement that the issue has more to do with RCI than DRI. Why are using RCI if they "won't talk to you"? Why not go with the independent exchange companies instead? Why be an RCI customer if they won't help you exchange?


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[gjw007]

In general, diamond is exchanged through interval. I suspect that a specific week was purchased that allowed an internal exchange within the resort for any of the weeks for personal use but rci wil only allow the specific week that is owned to be exchanged. It sounds like an attempt to use add a third party (diamond) into the exhange process to exchange a week that is not owned. There is no information that diamond is denying the internal exchange at the resort for personal use. I see it hard to win this one

 

[topcop400]

Why are using RCI if they "won't talk to you"? Why not go with the independent exchange companies instead? Why be an RCI customer if they won't help you exchange?

I happen to also own a Wyndham contract, so I have an RCI membership whether I want it or not. I do use SFX as well.

RCI refuses my business because they are more interested in having DRI's business than mine.

In general, diamond is exchanged through interval.

My deeded week trades through either RCI or Interval.

I suspect that a specific week was purchased that allowed an internal exchange within the resort for any of the weeks for personal use but rci will only allow the specific week that is owned to be exchanged.

It doesn't matter what week you own. A friend owns week 51 and she is not allowed to deposit that week.

Denise is correct. She straightened out my thinking on this. It still steams me, but she's correct. **sigh**

Although, I do have one question for Denise. You mentioned something about Starwood owners being interested in a class action lawsuit (initially). If there is no leg to stand on; what would have been the proposed argument for a lawsuit? Past practice?

I'm still writing the letter. I'll be the first person to whom Cloobeck says "No". Have you seen his twitter page? He is all things to all people.

https://twitter.com/StephenCloobeck

 

[DeniseM]

I still stand by my statement that the issue has more to do with RCI than DRI. Why are using RCI if they "won't talk to you"? Why not go with the independent exchange companies instead? Why be an RCI customer if they won't help you exchange?

Because they've got the goods. The top resorts do not affiliate with the small, independent exchange companies, so the small independents hardly get any deposits from the top resorts. The top resorts systems ONLY do bulk space banking with RCI and II.

So yes - you can snub your nose at RCI and II, but that will really limit the resorts you can trade into. For instance, if the OP wants to trade into DVC, RCI is the only ball game in town. DVC does not deposit with the independents, nor do Starwood, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, etc.

Yes - they have us right where they want us....

 

[VegasBella]

So the OP owns a TS that no longer has value to him. As Denise pointed out, exchanging is not a right of ownership. (I never implied that it was, btw.) Why not sell or give away this TS since it no longer has value to you?

Have you asked if DRI wants it? If I were you, that's what my letter would say - I'd say that if they don't want to allow you to exchange it the way you're used to exchanging it then they should take it back.

But then again, I'm not an exchanger. And frankly, the people at my resorts who reserve the best weeks just to use for exchanges annoy me. I do feel like owners who USE their weeks should have preference to reserve the best weeks.

This is what happened last Summer when we tried to reserve a week for Summer 2014 at one of our TSs (not affiliated with DRI):
I knew that making Summer reservations at this TS was very competitive and old school. It's small and has low MF and a good location. People like to stay there and exchange from there. But to make reservations, owners have to be there IN PERSON to make your reservation. So at 5am a year prior to the week we wanted, my husband went in to make the reservation. He was 2nd in line. The person in front of him owned 10 weeks of the same size unit we own and that person reserved all of them purely for exchanging. There weren't any left for my husband to reserve. We weren't allowed to reserve a smaller unit (even though there was no competition for that). We ended up booking Christmas instead (great for trading but not what we wanted for USE).

So in that respect I like DRI's policy. I feel like if you own a TS just to exchange then you should own points rather than weeks. Of course, that's just me. And I'm still learning. But I'll tell you, if we continue to have reservation troubles with this place we will sell it and not think twice about it.

Why throw good money after bad? If a TS doesn't have the value an owner wants, they should dump it.

 

[topcop400]

Why not sell or give away this TS since it no longer has value to you?

I'd give it away! Pay for closing, MF, and any transfer fee.

 

[Passepartout]

I'd give it away! Pay for closing, MF, and any transfer fee.

Why not list it as such in the 'Bargain Deals' subforum of Buying, Renting, Selling Forum on TUG? Just follow the basic format you'll see there. Offer what you said above, freshen the ad periodically if someone doesn't snap it right up. It will go away. Honest. Hundreds of TSs have found new homes that way.

Jim

 

[topcop400]

Why not list it as such in the 'Bargain Deals' subforum of Buying, Renting, Selling Forum on TUG?

I will. Thanks.