In June 0f 2000 my husband and I purchased a timeshare through ILX. We purchased a 52 week red [premium] 5 star resort. Recently, Diamond Resorts International purchased the ILX contracts. They have informed me that they have instituted a point system and that our timeshare is no longer 52 week red [easily traded] nor is it a 5 star. It should be noted that our time share was paid in full more than ten years ago and is fully deeded. Basically, our timeshare is now worthless. We paid a great deal of money for this and do not appreciate being defrauded in this manner. Kindly inform as to the actions available to us.

This is an example of the dishonest billing practices of this company.
Invoice Date: 4/25/2011
Due Date: 4/16/2011
Late Fees Applied on payments received after 4/26/2011
The Due amount with late fees applied is conveniently printed on the bill.
Post Mark on envelope: 5/5/2011

Customer service will not wave the late fee. Don't do business with this company.

It is quite clear that this is an organization using theoretically legal, though highly immoral and unfair means, to extract money from vulnerable people. Around 15, 000 people in the UK are currently affected. They are also creating the environment for scammers of a wide variety of types to thrive. They need to be stopped.

It seems that they have taken over the management of a holiday club (Grand Vacation Club) and then engineered changes in the rules to make it almost impossible for members of the club to dispose of their “points”. At the same time they have hiked “management charges” by 40% in one year. These management charges now cost members more than it would cost a private individual to rent an equivalent property all in.

This, unsurprisingly, has both destroyed the value of members’ points holding and left them with, in many cases, totally unaffordable charges. They have then issued threats to anyone slow on payment. These include late night phone calls from the US and warnings of referral to debt collecting agencies. I have no doubt that these tactics are causing serious worry to many people. Attempts to return points and to exit the scheme are met with the reply that you remain liable unless the points are sold (effectively impossible because of the way that their policies have destroyed all value).

For someone who is caught in the web (me), it seems impossible to get out. The only suggested options are bankruptcy and death. Even then it seems they demand that the liability be picked up by your heirs. This leaves members vulnerable to a large number of fraudulent offers from a variety of crooks. One attempt to defraud me was made only yesterday by someone who promised that if I gave him £5000 he would take on my points.

If ever a subject deserves coverage, this is it. Hopefully this is an evil which cannot flourish when exposed to the full light of public scrutiny.

As members of Diamond Resorts we have been asked to pay nearly $1600 "maintenance" for our points.

Our points are just enough to get one week at the Santa Barbara Club in Tenerife. However it has been difficult to get a booking as availability seems to be lacking.

Now we see that Diamond is offering cut price holidays to non members: http://communications.diamondresorts.com/7421/index.html

The prices offered here for a week are a mere fraction of what we are asked to pay for maintenance! And non members booking off of the street even get a complimentary food pack!!!

What is going on here Diamond Resorts? As a member I feel that I have paid you thousands of pounds for the priveledge of paying more for a sub standard service.

Explain yourselves!!!

I purchsed my timehsare in 1990 at Flamingo in Saint Maarten. I paid for the timeshare as agreed and now that Diamond interantional has taken over the complex.They have foreclosed on my unit becasue I did not pay the maintenance fees for 2010. They claimed they sent me a certified letter but I did not receive nor sign for a certified letter. In August of 2010 they foreclosed on my unit. Calls to them have been ignored and i have been spoken to rudely by their staff. I have had my attorney contact them to no avail. We have both been given the runaround. I believe this was a LAND GRAB. is there anyone else that is in this same situation? I would like file a lawsuit or class action against Diamond REsorts International.