Best way to get out of a Timeshare?

ThrowawayInTheYear23@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 98 points –

My mom got roped into buying a Wyndham timeshare on a trip and procrastinated herself out of the grace period. Is there anything she can do to get out of it now?

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Why are timeshares so bad? Never looked into it but the concept seems to make sense on the surface.

They are amazing, for only 12K [1] it is like owning [2] a place in the resort. You can book any time [3] on our easy to use site [4]. Once you have had enough you can simply sell your timeshare back to us [5,6] or to someone else [7].

  1. Plus 700 a month for maintenance.
  2. No, you don't own a stake in the unit.
  3. If you book between the previous solstice and the closest new moon to your preferred holiday time.
  4. Online booking only available in the pro package or beyond.
  5. No guarantee we will buy it.
  6. A fee equal to 2 years worth of maintenance costs will charged on dissolution of the contract.
  7. You receive no proceeds from sales to third parties

The idea sounds great, but the implementation is shit and the fiduciary duty isn't for those who bought the timeshare.

For vacation properties and stuff, it’s sometimes far from worth it. Some timeshares work for people, though. For example, it’s common for aspiring pilots to own a timeshare on an airplane so they can fly on their own and log hours without actually owning a plane of their own. If it’s something you’re actually going to use, it can be ok. I went on a trip with a family who owned a timeshare on a giant houseboat in Lake Powell. It was pretty freaking awesome, actually. Each year, the family members pitch in to help pay for the trip, and you can fit a lot of people on a houseboat. Nobody wants to actually own a houseboat and deal with all the bullshit that comes with something like that. A boat is a money pit to begin with, so a timeshare on one actually looks much more desirable to some people.

That being said, the sales tactics some companies use are designed to fool people into buying something they won’t get the value out of. They don’t care. I’ve always imagined that those little seminars they give to get you to buy one have another table right out the back door when you’re leaving that will sell you help to get rid of it. There’s NO WAY there’s not people covertly playing both sides of that.

It's like a plane where they've way overbooked the flight, yet everyone still contractually obligated to pay the full fare regardless of whether they're allowed to board the flight or not.