wah!! u kana big time liao. Just canceling the GIRO is not
enough. You have to cancel the contract!
**********
Buyers beware for timeshare termination, resale and leasing
services
Ms Lee Yin May wrote about her experience of being approached by
companies offering to help terminate or resell her timeshare (A
helping hand that may not be; Firms try to gain from couples
timeshare woes, 20 April). We strongly agree with her that those
in similar situations should be wary of calls offering such
help.
Many of these companies collect hefty service fees without
guaranteeing results.
To date, we have not received any feedback that any of them are
successful in terminating, reselling or leasing timeshare
memberships.
Consumers who are engaging the services of these companies should
exercise prudence. Some warning signs to look out for:
The company is not able to explain how they obtained your personal
contacts and information of existing timeshare contracts you
own.
The company is not able to substantiate their claims or show proof
of their track record.
The company claims to be able to perform timeshare resale and
leasing but is not able to provide a list of prospective
clients.
The company asks for a lump sum of service fees upfront or in a few
installments of large sums.
The company uses scare tactics or pressure tactics to get you to
sign a contract with them.
Consumers can terminate their newly inked timeshare contracts
within the three-days cooling off period, which excludes weekends
and public holidays. They should send in a notice of cancellation
via fax, registered mail or personal delivery with acknowledgement
by the business concerned.
To terminate their timeshare after the cooling off period,
consumers should refer to their contract terms and directly contact
the company. They may also approach Case for advice at 6461 1811 or
[email protected]
Seah Seng Choon
Executive Director
Consumers Association of Singapore (Case)
*********************
Members of timeshare companies take legal action to recover
money
By Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 07 May 2005 1851
hrs
Tired of holiday dreams that have gone awry, consumers are hitting
back at timeshare companies with lawsuits, citing
misrepresentation.
But some timeshare companies are now threatening to sue some of
these consumers for voiding their contracts.
Started in the 1960s, timeshare is a holiday concept which has a
group of people sharing the purchase cost of a vacation
accommodation.
And members get to use it in increments of one week (or more) per
year of use.
This accommodation can range from hotel rooms to condos, or even
yachts and cruise ships.
Under the various schemes, members make a one-time downpayment of
between $10,000 and $40,000 and get to stay at a premier holiday
resort for a week once a year for a number of years.
That was the promise timeshare companies made to more than 15,000
members in Singapore.
But, as many of the members found out, the payments do not stop
there.
Timeshare owners found they still have to pay an annual maintenance
fee of a few hundred dollars for the resort shared.
Jean Yew, who paid $32,480 for a membership, said: "After paying
21k for timeshare, we still have to pay $300 in membership fees and
this is ever increasing, up to $400. And in order to get out of
this cycle, they asked us to purchase concept vacation club."
And some do spend another $8,000 to $20,000 buying into a concept
vacation club or CVC - which also goes by other names - like
vacation ownership schemes or holiday rewards club.
The scheme is supposed to help them access other timeshare
resorts
But in 2003, this same group of consumers were asked to buy into
the cashback scheme instead.
Adding up the dollars, a timeshare owner could have spent anything
from $22,300 to $75,600.
Kenny Tan said: "They enticed me by giving me cashback, saying I
can get back all my investments."
He paid $30,000 to join a timeshare scheme.
George K Krishnan, Former Timeshare Consultant, said: "Cashback
scheme is just to tell people after a certain number of years, you
can get money back and they guarantee you, they tell you how they
put money into the FTSC index. Has anybody ever gotten any money
back? No, not that I know of."
Frustrated by the endless rounds of payment, some have stopped
their monthly payments on all schemes and started legal
proceedings.
But a class action suit filed by 13 timeshare owners was turned
down by the courts last September as each case involved different
circumstances.
Undeterred, the plaintiffs are now proceeding with individual
lawsuits.
Ng Soo Kok, who paid $25,000 to a timeshare company, said: "They
are trapped in a rut. By paying the money they will be paying for a
scam that they know it is, if they don't pay, they receive a letter
from a lawyer suing them and it's really a hassle."
Lawyer Ismail Atan, Director, Gabriel Law Corporation, is
representing five of them.
So far he has won one case against Leisure Marketing Group in
January.
The court ordered the company to return his client $15,000 under
the Consumer Act.
He said: "What this could mean is that consumers who had purchase
such a product could go to courts and perhaps succeed on their own
claims."
But the Consumer Association of Singapore says consumers should try
to resolve their disputes with timeshare companies through CASE
before seeing their lawyers.
Seah Seng Choon, Executive Director, Consumers Association of
Singapore, said: "Certainly the successful court action by this
member is going to encourage others to go to court but I would
suggest that the consumer come to us first so we can help them to
resolve the case without having to incur legal costs."
And this could be be more than $3,000.
CASE received a record number of over 2,700 complaints against
timeshare companies last year.
And in the last three years, it helped resolve 2 out of 3
complaints. - CNA /ch
