Owner presentation help!!!

[Rksj2005]

Hi everyone - we live in Northern Ireland are just back from stay in Vistana Villages Orlando. We have a biennial even ownership with Sheraton FLex which we picked up in Myrtle Beach a while back - we currently get 148100 star options every even year. We endured several hours of a pitch and were told that the only way we could access the new amazing all things Marriott was to trade our VOI in and of course pay approx $14k to get us up to approx 3000 Club points annually.

The first thing I’d really love clarity on is if we stick with our existing Sheraton FLex VOI will we be able convert our StarOptions to Marriott Clubpoints and then use them within Marriott or whatever?

The presenters were adamant that because we had a biennial product that our only way in was to trade it in?

First time poster here - and our cooling off period runs out on Monday 5th - so any help from the hive mind much appreciated!!!

 

[grrrah]

Absolute lie if you bought directly from the developer, which you did if you have the StarOptions. You will be enrolled automatically and able to deposit for points. Rescind.

 

[kozykritter]

Hi everyone - we live in Northern Ireland are just back from stay in Vistana Villages Orlando. We have a biennial even ownership with Sheraton FLex which we picked up in Myrtle Beach a while back - we currently get 148100 star options every even year. We endured several hours of a pitch and were told that the only way we could access the new amazing all things Marriott was to trade our VOI in and of course pay approx $14k to get us up to approx 3000 Club points annually.

The first thing I’d really love clarity on is if we stick with our existing Sheraton FLex VOI will we be able convert our StarOptions to Marriott Clubpoints and then use them within Marriott or whatever?

The presenters were adamant that because we had a biennial product that our only way in was to trade it in?

First time poster here - and our cooling off period runs out on Monday 5th - so any help from the hive mind much appreciated!!!

Agree, you were misinformed, no purchase required. The one limitation is that you can only elect Club Points for your use year which means at this point you could only elect for 2024 usage. Once you elect the Club Points, you can borrow from that future year back into the current use year but because yours is a biennial even that would mean 2022 which doesn't fit with the launch of Abound which is for the 2023 use year and later. This might be what they were trying to tell you but in a very twisted way to get you to buy. But in the future you will have that option to elect and borrow.

In the meantime once Abound is launched you will have an account set up there and then you can actually rent Club points from other Abound owners to use in 2023 and do the same in odd years. They go for about $.70 each currently.

 

[grrrah]

so what they were saying is "the only way you can get club points (next year, or any odd year) is to spend $14k, which is essentially true i guess. Yes, you would only get abound points on the even years, and you can bank to the following year, but would likely be too late for 2022 when it comes online toward the end of this year.

Did you have to trade in your Flex to get the 3k points annually?

 

[dsmrp]

Rescind.
Like others have said you will get access to new Abound program at no extra cost if you bought your Flex options directly from Vistana.
In the Abound program you will have to pay the new (more costly $230+) club fee each year, even with biennial. But you pay anyway each year for VSN club fee.

 

[dsmrp]

If you want more club points to spend each year, then compare how many you will get for your current 148K flex pts vs how many more you will get for your $14K. Then compare to cost for buying Marriott Abound aka DC points in the near future. .
Retail Marriott price is about $16/pt ($16K for 1000 pts) or resale $7/pt.
I have seen posted in other threads a MF of about $0.70 / DC pt.

 

[DavidnRobin]

Rescind
Research
Resale

That’s right… I said it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CPNY]

Rescind
Research
Resale

That’s right… I said it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No truer words have ever been spoken. I wish I’d found tug early on.

@Rksj2005 listen up.

 

[Rksj2005]

so what they were saying is "the only way you can get club points (next year, or any odd year) is to spend $14k, which is essentially true i guess. Yes, you would only get abound points on the even years, and you can bank to the following year, but would likely be too late for 2022 when it comes online toward the end of this year.

Did you have to trade in your Flex to get the 3k points annually?

Thanks everyone for the responses - yes the deal was the total cost was $45k and we would trade our flex in for $29k, they discounted a further $2k leaving the $14k still to pay.
My wife and I were adamant going in to this - no more loans and spend - we just wanted to hear about the new program.

 

[grrrah]

So buying nothing, your 148,100 even year flex would get you approximately 4300 abound points on even years.

Banking will be included with the club dues, so you essentially paid $14k to go 4300 pts to 6000 pts every two years. Resale price for 1000 pts annually (to get you to 6300 pts every 2 years is about $7-8,000. I may have made a mistake in the quick estimate but should be somewhat close.

someone correct my math if they have better info. I'm in a similar situation if I want to upgrade to get a higher OBL by adding abound points to EOY VOIs.

 

[Rksj2005]

Thanks for all the comments. We are definitely going to rescind at this point.
Can someone please advise to whom we should make a complaint to?
At best we were misinformed and at worst we downright lied to. We made it abundantly clear that we were only there to learn about the new program, we even explained that my wife who recently suffered a stroke and has since retired on the grounds of ill health - so she struggled to take on the information and obviously our household income has been affected. We directly told them look in the same way as Bonvoy came on to replace the old Starpoints we assumed that the same thing would happen on the ownership side - they flatly just said no Marriott require a “qualifying product” and that Marriott didn’t recognise the biennial product.
So yeah we are actually reeling from this. So is there any point in complaining and if so does anyone know how and who we should complain to?
Thanks everyone in advance!!

 

[byeloe]

I am not sure complaining will help.
Just make sure that you follow the rescind instructions exactly. Send certified so that you get a time stamped receipt

 

[CPNY]

Thanks for all the comments. We are definitely going to rescind at this point.
Can someone please advise to whom we should make a complaint to?
At best we were misinformed and at worst we downright lied to. We made it abundantly clear that we were only there to learn about the new program, we even explained that my wife who recently suffered a stroke and has since retired on the grounds of ill health - so she struggled to take on the information and obviously our household income has been affected. We directly told them look in the same way as Bonvoy came on to replace the old Starpoints we assumed that the same thing would happen on the ownership side - they flatly just said no Marriott require a “qualifying product” and that Marriott didn’t recognise the biennial product.
So yeah we are actually reeling from this. So is there any point in complaining and if so does anyone know how and who we should complain to?
Thanks everyone in advance!!

It should be in your contract that you signed. Being that your mailing from Europe you want to double check those postage laws. In the states, as long as you send it with USPS proof of postmark/certified mail you should be fine. Not sure how it translates internationally. Others can weigh in here. But if I were you I’d get that letter out ASAP. I’d specify to put everything as it was