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   Sunterra Scam Alert

Steer Clear of Club Sunterra

Beneath the surface of most timeshare scams lies an intricate web of misrepresentation, poor resorts, unusable weeks, and swiftly expanding maintenance or membership fees. However, it’s important for intelligent consumers to consider that these swindles come in all shapes and sizes. Most crooked salesman have a particular pitch or angle – a method to their mad thievery – that can manage to hook unsuspecting vacationers, even ones that have been taken in by different scandals before. TCG came across one such unique scamming apparatus on a forum solely devoted to discussing the timeshare corporation Sunterra (and its healthy set of satellites). Although initially fed the standard promises of paradisiacal resort time, the Sunterra customers expose in their revealing comments the full scope of the scam they were delivered.

Forum member CAT from Avonbridge in the UK offered a step-by-step description of her experience, a tale worth re-telling. First the consumer is invited to a Club Sunterra presentation, offered by a franchise selling vacation time at CS. Significantly, Sunterra never makes the sales pitch (or the actual sale) themselves, thus rendering them immune to accusations of false advertising. And as usual, the presentations feature high-pressure sales pitches with gross exaggerations of convenience and holiday luxury. One of Sunterra’s unique characteristics is the use of the somewhat uncommon “point system” – a customer does not directly buy fixed weeks to sell or trade, they purchase points that (like frequent flyer miles) can be redeemed for resort time. This system is often touted as being more flexible than a fixed week trade, but in reality it can be even less convenient since the customer isn’t technically guaranteed any resort time, however undesirable (as with buying a fixed week). In addition, while points don’t require any maintenance fees, they do require membership dues (same cost, different name). As user CAT puts it, “Victims are deliberately missold points to get what they are assured is a luxury, anytime, anywhere holiday.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

Most customers realize the error of their purchase before the “cooling off” period ends (the legal grace period between a contract’s signing and its official completion), but during this time Sunterra offers no documented information, and generally any questions directed towards the company are answered with silence. The transaction then legally finishes, and the customer truly becomes a “victim”. However, the scheme hardly ends here. If and when the customer begins complaining to Sunterra, they are offered the following solution: buy more points, which in time will provide the customer more trading power. The customer has no choice, unless they decide to sell back their points to Sunterra and suffer a 50-75% loss. And all the while, the “annual management fees” continue to climb.

These complaints are relatively congruent across the bulletin board. Most people profess to have been taken in by a bait and switch tactic where they were guaranteed resort time for a certain number of points (40 points, 150 points, 2,000 points…the numbers are different every time). After buying, however, it quickly became apparent that a greater number was needed to obtain the sort of luxury described in the sales presentation (if this was indeed possible at all). A few customers pursued legal reprisal but this case was dropped after a number of entanglements.

Sadly, the victims of these scandals have few opportunities for restitution, and even fewer outlets to vent their rage (the forum is one of the few documents exposing the truth about Sunterra). Needless to say, Club Sunterra’s customer service program has been described as “non-existent” and the bulletin boards offered on their website are carefully watched for any negative material. As with many other timeshare scams, the customer enters a space of virtual powerlessness upon purchasing, with no choice other than to cut their losses or suffer through the financial black hole of their timeshare points.

Despite the overwhelming majority of negative feedback on this forum, TCG must report that there were a few posts from satisfied customers (as well as from Sunterra representatives…). An example:

“We have owned Sunterra points for 3 years. I am amazed at the negatives I am reading. We have gone to Orlando, Florida and Las Vegas so far. We were able to get a beautiful 3 bedroom in Fla. and a 2 bedroom in Vegas. No problem booking. I think maybe the problem from reading the negatives, is that people think having these points will get you in a resort during school holidays. But let's get real, you can't get in these resorts even when you pay hard cash during holidays unless you book a year in advance.”

The Sunterra company: lofty promises with no return, or merely not as user-friendly as one would hope? The reality no doubt lies somewhere in between, but this poses a nagging question – is the median between these points worth the money?

 

All data culled from the Sunterra Scam Forum, http://www.topix.net/forum/state/nv/TJUE2VVOV9T857URJ.