Selling Your Timeshare? How To Protect Yourself.
The phone rings day and night, the mail box is stuffed with solicitations and if that wasn’t enough, someone just hung a flyer on your front door that says; “If you want to sell your timeshare, you should attend an upcoming event at a nearby hotel to learn exactly how.” You’ll get a free chicken dinner and $100 Visa gift card, just for attending. Sound familiar?
Consumers are being barraged by robocalls and other forms of marketing with inducements, day in and day out. That should send up red flares and sound loud alarm bells, especially for an owner not actively seeking resale assistance. Once a timeshare marketing company has your personal information or even parts of it, the games will begin and they never stop…not even on Sundays!
Consumer protection agencies like the state attorneys general and the BBB have for the most part, led the charge against unlicensed and unregulated companies but ultimately, the bad guys have been hiding in the shadows using aliases and call spoofing to cover their tracks. If for some reason those potentially unqualified offers should seem overly enticing to you, here are some important tips you should consider taking to protect yourself.
Our Consumer Watch Team recommends following these steps to protect yourself when selling your timeshare:
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SCREEN ALL UNKNOWN CALLS
– If you don’t recognize the phone number calling you, let it go to voicemail. Rarely do telemarketers leave a message but if they do, they will almost always leave a different number for you to call back.
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RESEARCH PHONE NUMBERS PROVIDED
– Find a free reverse phone look up service online that will show you the name of the company that is really calling you.
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VERIFY THE BUSINESS & LICENSING
– The BBB has one of the largest business databases in the U.S. Even if a company is not registered with the agency, there still may be a profile created and other information available.
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PERFORM AN ONLINE REVIEW CHECK
– Companies that have been around for any amount of time can be easily found online. If they are doing good business, they will have good reviews. Good places to start are Facebook and other social media sites. *Try entering the email address sent to you from the company.
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TERMS OF SALE
– Everything that is said to you verbally regarding the terms and conditions of the timeshare sale should be in writing. Do not rely on oral representations, as these can be hard to enforce if things go wrong.
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PAYMENT FOR SERVICES
– Never pay upfront for timeshare resale advertising services. Too many other legitimate options are available like RedWeek and TUG. Both are very inexpensive to use.
Finally, it’s important to remember that any resale pitch that sounds too good to be true, probably is. Resales go for a small fraction of what they are sold for new, as in a few hundred dollars or less. Take your time and do not let anyone rush you into signing a contract prior to doing your research. Stay safe!
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