Valley Forge Mailboxes Blog, Valley Forge PA

Timeshare cancellation companies. Another scam?

Who can you trust to represent your interests against a timeshare scam?

At Gonzalez & Gonzalez Timeshare Solutions, we believe our role is to inform consumers about potential timeshare scams, in order to prevent financial and emotional distress, and assist people who have already been scammed to cancel their fraudulent timeshare contracts. We pride ourselves on our honest work in this industry which is riddled with timeshare scams, and as a guarantee we do not charge clients any money until we have successfully cancelled the client’s timeshare contract. Many new timeshare cancellation companies have appeared online recently claiming to assist clients who have become victims of timeshare scam to cancel their timeshare contracts and recover their money from timeshare fraud. We have done some research on these timeshare cancellation firms to determine whether or not they are another timeshare scam in this fraudulent industry.

These new timeshare cancellation companies claim that they can help to provide timeshare relief, cancel or divorce you from your timeshare or even donate the timeshare to a worthy cause. Many of the timeshare cancellation companies have very vague statements about how their fees are charged. Some claim to have a money back guarantee, which implies that an upfront fee is required. As we have seen in the timeshare industry, there are many timeshare scams for rentals and resale companies that charge upfront fees and later go out of business. We encourage consumers to be very careful and questioning when contracting timeshare fraud assistance, and as a cardinal rule, never pay upfront fees for services to rent, sell or cancel your timeshare.

Another concerning factor is the misleading information about the memberships that the timeshare cancellation companies claim to have with large associations such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the American Resort Development Association (ARDA). When you are hiring timeshare cancellation services, it is important to have honest representation so that you don’t become a victim of timeshare scam for the second time. Some of the firms make claims that they are an accredited member of the BBB; however, they are not listed on their website. Regardless of whether or not the company is a timeshare scam, it is an unethical business practice to make false claims to be a member of an accredited association. If you are thinking about hiring one of these companies, check with the associations that they list on their website to ensure that they are valid claims and not just another timeshare scam.

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We have also checked into the age of the domains for these websites as many of them seemed to appear online at the same time. Most of the new timeshare cancellation companies claim to have years of experience in the industry; however, they have just started these online businesses in recent months, or in some cases a couple of years. Although the length of time they have been in business does not necessarily determine their success, we hope that clients are not being mislead to believe that a business has more experience than they do in reality.

The following is a list of some of the new timeshare cancellation companies that we have researched:

Company Name (Domain Age)

Audit Recovery Systems (October 26, 2009)

•Claim to work on a contingency basis, but some client reviews online state that  their contract asks for client’s credit card information
 

Timeshare Advocacy International (March 11, 2010)

•Fee is charged after the first free consultation. Claim to offer a 100% money back guarantee.
•Claim to have over 15 years of experience.

Give Back Timeshare (February 10, 2008)

•Located in the same building as Timeshare Out

Prepaid Timeshare (February 10, 2008)

•Link to Give Back Timeshare and domain was purchased on the same date.
•Claim to rid you of your timeshare in 30 days or less if all your timeshare, maintenance fees, taxes, and special assessments have been paid in full.
•Claim to charge a flat fee of your 2010 maintenance fee + 9.
 

Timeshare Out (July 06, 2007)

•Located in the same building as Give Back Timeshare
•Claim to be a BBB Accredited Business; however the BBB website does not show Timeshare Out as an accredited company
•Claim to not charge an upfront fee with a promise to sell the client’s timeshare property; however, do not mention how fees would be charged to cancel a timeshare

Professional Timeshare Services (July 07, 2009)

•Claim to have many years of experience.

The Owner’s Advocate (March 6, 2008)

•Claim to be a BBB accredited business. Upon clicking on the BBB link on their webpage, it leads to a page saying that their BBB accreditation has lapsed.
•On the BBB website, The Owners’ Advocate has an F rating for the following reasons (source: www.bbb.org):
-Length of time business has been operating.
-37 complaints filed against business
-Failure to respond to 8 complaints filed against business.
-3 complaints filed against business that were not resolved
-This company is not physically located in Delaware. Their address at 16192 Coastal Highway is a mail forwarding location.
-Click here to view the full BBB report
 

Taking on Timeshare (October 16, 2009)

•Website has the same look and feel to the previous The Owner’s Advocate site, who are now rated F with the BBB.
•Claim to offer a 100% money back guarantee
•Claim to be the first professional consumer advocacy group to successfully effect the termination of hundreds of Timeshare and Vacation Ownership contracts both nationally and globally
 

Timeshare Divorce (September 16, 2009)

•Claim to be a Founder and Member American Resort Development Association (ARDA) since 1991
 

Timeshare Mortgage Relief (September 01, 2009)

•Claim to be the original timeshare consumer advocacy group with over 15 years of experience
Our intention in writing this article is not to deter clients from using these timeshare cancellation services, we just want to ensure that clients do not become victims of timeshare scam another time. When hiring representation to resolve your timeshare scam situation, make sure that you do your research and ensure that the company’s claims, whatever they may be, are valid and truthful.