Timeshare exit services rarely worth the money - San Francisco Chronicle

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Hundreds of thousands of timeshare owners are dissatisfied, stuck in contracts that are often lifetime in length and that are usually difficult or impossible to cancel. Many timeshare owners are elderly and have lost interest in traveling or the ability to do so. Many can no longer afford to continue paying unpredictably escalating maintenance fees. Some are dissatisfied by the deterioration of their facilities over time or are recent buyers who, having been subject to high-pressure sales tactics, ended up with lifetime commitments to resorts they will rarely, if ever, use.

In the past six years or so, timeshare exit services have emerged, making promises to help owners eager to jettison their timeshares. But an investigation by the nonprofit Bay Area Consumers’ Checkbook and Checkbook.org found that scores of these services have developed reputations for taking advantage of their customers, adding insult to injury instead of solving problems.

Checkbook reviewed hundreds of timeshare-related customer complaints, lawsuits, ads and marketing schemes, and interviewed timeshare owners and consumer advocates. It found a disturbing picture of an industry that uses deceptive selling practices to lure people into buying timeshares without understanding all the costs and complexities of ownership, and then victimizes them again when they want to get rid of their properties.

Checkbook found that although timeshare exit services can succeed in terminating their customers’ contracts, many resorts make it difficult for them to follow through on their promises. Some resorts refuse even to deal with exit companies. As a result, there are countless online complaints from angry exit company clients, who often make the same allegation: After they paid thousands of dollars upfront, exit companies strung them along for months or years, often with few or no updates about their cases. Exit companies often tell customers that eliminating a timeshare can take 12 to 18 months, but some of their contracts specify no firm deadline by which the companies must complete work.

Many complaints that Checkbook reviewed detail attempts by frustrated customers to ask for refunds under the companies’ money-back guarantees, but who are simply told to remain patient. Others are denied refunds based on fine print in contracts. For example, the companies may say that the owners failed to provide requested documents or other information within a reasonable time. Some exit firms have gone out of business, stranding owners who, despite having paid thousands of dollars, remain on the hook for their timeshares.

Some companies made misleading promises to get clients. A common tactic that exit companies use is to tell owners that unless they get rid of their timeshares, their annual maintenance fees and other charges will automatically pass on to their children. The truth is that children don’t inherit their parents’ timeshare obligations unless they’re co-owners or accept ownership as part of an estate transfer or agreement with the resort.

Missouri, with its Branson-area timeshare developments, is a major center of the timeshare exit industry. Checkbook found many of these operations are located there. The Better Business Bureau serving that region has issued a blistering report detailing problems with the industry and issuing advisories about companies operating in the state. That report says that a staggering 16 Missouri exit companies have “F” ratings from the Better Business Bureau.

In September, the Nashville Better Business Bureau, alarmed over escalating complaints about timeshare exit companies nationwide, announced that it no longer will award accreditation to any exit company in its coverage area. And AARP recently decided it no longer will accept advertising from Tennessee’s Wesley Financial, which claimed in TV ads that family members would inherit timeshare contracts, and which had been running full-page ads in AARP’s newsletter.

Washington state’s lawsuit against Timeshare Exit Team says the company accepted payment from people who owned resort timeshares that it knew, based on past experience, it would not be able to return or cancel.

But Checkbook found that the Missouri attorney general’s office has taken almost no action against any timeshare exit company. It has begun only one action against an exit company, despite receiving large numbers of complaints from customers of companies in the state.

More Information

Editor’s note: The Chronicle is partnering with Bay Area Consumers’ Checkbook magazine and Checkbook.org, a nonprofit consumer group with a mission to help consumers get the best service and lowest prices. Checkbook is supported by consumers and takes no money from the service providers it evaluates. You can see Checkbook’s full article about timeshare exit companies, as well as access to all of Checkbooks ratings of Bay Area service firms until Aug. 7, 2020 at checkbook.org/chronicle/timeshare-exit.

Checkbook found that timeshare exit services sometimes compound their clients’ problems rather than solve them. While working on behalf of owners, some exit company representatives tell their clients to stop paying their maintenance fees, sometimes in conflict with the wording in the companies’ contracts. Owners sometimes are left with huge bills and a foreclosure, which damages their credit. Exit companies often consider a foreclosure to be a successful exit that satisfies their contractual obligations.

Although some of these firms do terminate contracts, there’s a good chance their clients, with a little know-how, could have achieved the same result on their own for free or at little cost, rather than paying exit companies thousands of dollars.

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Timeshare exit services rarely worth the money - San Francisco Chronicle
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