My Wife and I purchased a timeshare at the Blue Blay Club in Cancun, Mexico. We purchased 8 million RCI points along with 9 bonus weeks at the resort (that could be changed into differing rooms according to luxury. For example 2 weeks could also = 1 week in a suite.) We were promised and shown luxurious rooms that later we learned required 8 people in our party in order to book, but we found that this difference in communication with the Club and RCI was just one of many to come. For the first 3 years we've been allowed to use points for airfare, car rentals, hotel, and resort bookings. These were unlimited. In fact, we told the salesman at the time that we wanted to purchase the most points possible because our families lived far away, in different states, and this would be our main use for the points. The salesman and the "top manager" from the club stated "This will be perfect for you!" Now we've learned that RCI has restricted our points to 60, 000 per year for every kind of use but resorts. This amount will only buy a round trip ticket from L.A. to San Francisco! We can't spend the amount of points we've purchased on resorts only even if we vacationed now at a rate of 365 days per year, for the rest of our lives! We could have saved 1/2 the cost of our timeshare because we can't use the other half (the points part) that's restricted. Every time we turn around we're dinged with fees particular to RCI or Club members only. For example, we'll be going to Tahiti in August and only RCI/ club members are charged a weekly electrity fee of $200 at this hotel. Anyone else booking there is not charged this fee, but its "included in their cost" according to RCI. We are also charged a $189 per week reservation fee, besides our resort booking fee. We are going with another couple, making our vacation a total of five weeks. This charges a total of $2, 070 just for our hotel fees/ stay! What was our $35, 000 purchase for? That $2, 070 doesn't include airfare, all the fees we constantly are getting dinged for throughout the year, and the fees from our club. These fees keep rising. So far this year we've spent $700 in dues without even using anything yet! Pretty soon we'll be charged a "clean towels in your room fee" and a "water fee" each time the toilet's used! We've contacted a lawyer and because of the vagueness of the contract RCI and the Club seem to have all the advantage. I feel like I'll soon be saying, "But I didn't see in the contract that I signed, RCI's right to stick their hands in my bank account and take out any money they want, " and their answer will be: "Well, the contract never said that we couldn't..." How can these companies take advantage of so many hardworking people and get away with it? These companies have been able to deceive through much of what they don't have to disclose. Sure they stated in the contract that they have the right to restrict points. Boy, hind site is 20/20 now! Wish we knew exactly what that meant when we'd read it and heard it explained. At the time this sounded less restrictive, and to our advantage in how things were explained: "The value of the points will never change" we were assured. But they've found other ways to increase costs and follow through on their contracts weasely ways, while keeping their silly promises. Instead of a vacation being a relaxing and enjoyable experience it's a hassle and a headache everytime we try even to make the simplest phone call. If anyone takes serious action against these companies we are interested in being involved. [email protected]

Not only have we lost much of the $35, 000 that we've put in, but at this rate we'll be spending another $17, 500 in dues alone over the life of our contract. This is before even making a reservation... more fees!