RCI buyback?

[B. Seaman]

Anyone using RCI had any experience selling a timeshare back to RCI? I had a call from someone claiming to be a sales rep for RCI saying they will buy back the two-bedroom double lockout we have at The Grandview in Las Vegas. There is (of course) an upfront fee to pay for the promotions they use to re-sell it, which normally would be a deal-breaker for me. But the "fact" that it is RCI making the offer--and claiming to be able to get anywhere from $18,000 to $30,000 makes me pause and consider more seriously.

Could this be the same old scam? Or am I right in thinking it plausible that RCI itself might actually be able to do this legitimately?

 

[theo]

An easy question...

Anyone using RCI had any experience selling a timeshare back to RCI? ?

RCI does not actually own or buy (or sell) timeshares --- including yours. Enough said...

 

[Karen G]

I had a call from someone claiming to be a sales rep for RCI . . . There is (of course) an upfront fee to pay for the promotions they use to re-sell it, which normally would be a deal-breaker for me. . . .Could this be the same old scam?

Sounds like it might be a new scam. RCI is an exchange/rental operation. They don't own or buy timeshares. Don't fall for it. Asking for upfront fees is always a deal-breaker.

 

[Margariet]

Scam scam scam! RCI does not own, sell or buy TS. Don't be fooled again! You have been there before. No one is gonna offer that much for anyone's TS at the moment. It's sad but that's the way it is. So stop dreaming, give it away if you can't pay the MF anymore or use it and make the best of it. That's what we all do and have to realize. I read too many of these posts ... every day. We have to wake up! It's a buyers' market - not a sellers' market.

 

[DeniseM]

It's not RCI the exchange company - it's an upfront fee company that has chosen the name "RCI" to dupe people into thinking they are affliliated.

 

[Talent312]

Piling on... This is TOTALLY BOGUS.
You found us. Now go to www.rci.com and look around.

You can see for yourself that they do not buy or sell TS's.
They only do TS exchanges/rentals owned by their members.
You can contact them, and they will tell you that its scam.

 

[ConejoRed]

I received the same call last week. I knew enough from TUG to know it was a scam and just told them that I am actually in the process of ADDING weeks (which was a true statement as I had just bought a Marriott DSVII EOY for $1 off ebay) not selling them and they ended the call quickly after that. Good way to get them to go away without a fuss.

The question is, where are they getting their phone numbers from... sure hope that RCI is not "selling" contact lists since they seem to be calling RCI folks (at least in my case).

 

[LannyPC]

The question is, where are they getting their phone numbers from... sure hope that RCI is not "selling" contact lists since they seem to be calling RCI folks (at least in my case).

It is not RCI, the company. Speculation is that it is some disgruntled employees (or ex-employees) of RCI selling TS owners' information to these scammers.

 

[fishingguy]

a matter of public info mostly -- data mining

I have family members that have only owned II traded TS, and they were also getting these calls. A friend of ours hasn't ever exchanged their TS outside of their resort, and the've also gotten calls from the company that starts off with "This is RCI...". We got a good laugh when my BIL said he always comes back with "Who is RCI?", which causes them to hang up.

I suspect they are ultimately coming from companies that mine public info, after cross-referencing it against phone records to get full details. Deeds are typically recorded in local govt. offices, and frequently you don't even need an account to get the info. Some are indexed by owners and property name [resort]; so web crawling software will pick them up. I've also seen some older TS Owner database lists offered for sale on Craigs and other sites before -- they wanted >2k$ to ~5k, depending on the age of the data.

The real RCI had a notice posted on their sites about this a while ago, warning of companies that make it appear to be them.

 

[Cargojon]

Anyone using RCI had any experience selling a timeshare back to RCI? I had a call from someone claiming to be a sales rep for RCI saying they will buy back the two-bedroom double lockout we have at The Grandview in Las Vegas. There is (of course) an upfront fee to pay for the promotions they use to re-sell it, which normally would be a deal-breaker for me. But the "fact" that it is RCI making the offer--and claiming to be able to get anywhere from $18,000 to $30,000 makes me pause and consider more seriously.

Could this be the same old scam? Or am I right in thinking it plausible that RCI itself might actually be able to do this legitimately?

This right here should scream that it's a scam.

 

[AwayWeGo]

eBay All The Way.

I've also seen some older TS Owner database lists offered for sale on Craigs and other sites before -- they wanted >2k$ to ~5k, depending on the age of the data.

Some of those lists have been offered also on eBay.

Aren't cold calls from fake-RCI companies violations of federal Do Not Call rules ?

There were supposed to be fines & penalties for cold-calling Do Not Call numbers.

What's the procedure for getting paid when a cold-caller does that ?

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

 

[theo]

No $10,000 for you (or for me)...

Aren't cold calls from fake-RCI companies violations of federal Do Not Call rules ?

There were supposed to be fines & penalties for cold-calling Do Not Call numbers.

What's the procedure for getting paid when a cold-caller does that ?

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

Alan:

I'm guessing / betting that your question is actually a bit "tongue in cheek"...

In theory, violators of the FTC "do not call" registry can be fined up to $10,000 per offense (...none of which, if actually paid, would ever be heading your way, my way, or any way other than Uncle Sam's till).

In reality, there has to be a fair (...but unspecified to the public by the FTC) number of formally filed compaints registered against a particular violator before that violator ever gets any real attention at all from the FTC anyhow. In order to file a complaint, the complainant must first have their phone number officially registered at http://www.donotcall.gov (which is the same site where complaints get filed).

As usual, however, the scammers and spammers are often one step ahead. You need to know the incoming phone number in order to file a complaint against the caller, but the scammers often either "block" their phone number entirely or somehow "spoof" the number, showing a phony, non-existent number on the recipient's caller i.d. (It is of course of no use or value to file a complaint against an invalid phone number which doesn't actually exist in the first place).

 

[rickandcindy23]

I get this call about once per month, and it's been going on for five years.

It's not the exchange company, it's another company that claims to be RCI. RCI is NOT happy about this. If you call RCI to complain to a guide, they don't care, but if you send a letter to the CEO of RCI, he sure as heck does care. You can google his name and get his email address very easily. I have done it. His name, I believe, is Geoffrey Ballotti. The more info you can give to Geoffrey, the better. He would like the phone # and the claims they make to you. He won't work on it personally, but he will put someone else in charge of the issue. I have done this myself, several times. But according to RCI, I am one of the only people who has ever reported the issue. I would love more people to report such claims directly to RCI

 

[theo]

No argument, but...

It's not the exchange company, it's another company that claims to be RCI. RCI is NOT happy about this. If you call RCI to complain to a guide, they don't care, but if you send a letter to the CEO of RCI, he sure as heck does care. You can google his name and get his email address very easily. I have done it. His name, I believe, is Geoffrey Ballotti. The more info you can give to Geoffrey, the better. He would like the phone # and the claims they make to you. He won't work on it personally, but he will put someone else in charge of the issue. I have done this myself, several times. But according to RCI, I am one of the only people who has ever reported the issue. I would love more people to report such claims directly to RCI

Realistically, the "real" RCI could never even hope to keep track of (let alone take any legal action against) the many and varied "fake" RCI's which will forever be calling people with the intro "Hello, this is RCI..."

The "real" RCI is not an entity with which I would ever personally want to even pretend to be associated in the first place, but that's a whole other discussion...

 

[B. Seaman]

RCI Buyback?--epilogue

Just to wrap this up, I can report that a rep from the real RCI called me directly to respond. She said that someone at the company had seen this thread on TUG. She then said what a number of you have pointed out: that RCI is an exchange mechanism and does not own, buy or sell timeshares itself. Whoever was calling, identified as "Michael Boy, Director of Sales and Finance, RCI Las Vegas," was not with the real RCI.

Mr. Boy did try to call me twice more, but I did not return the calls. Meanwhile, I was able to save a bunch of RCI points that were about to expire and booked us a week at a place in the Berkshires at the end of October, when the foliage should be great.

 

[RX8]

Scam

There was another recent thread of a scam company calling themselves RCCI. This is likely who the OP received a call from.

That thread title was called "RCCI?"