I purchased a biannual floating week with Med Resorts in 1999 (read headache) that was given to AVR to manage.in 2003 an outfield Marketing rep came and told the story that AVR didnt know what to do with the biannuals so they wanted us to convert to the RCI points program. AVR had been difficult to deal with so $3500 solved that problem.
October 10th Celebrity Resorts sent out a letter detailing their effort to keep AVR afloat with "a loss of approximately 900,000 per year". It mentioned specal assassments of an unknown frequency and questioned continuance of service. They also said that many may not want or afford to assist and anyone wanting to may cancel membership now.
February 21st the "immediate action required" letter arrived. Verbatum: "The primary purpose of these meetings is to educate all members of the significant changes with the Clubs affiliations, the Special Assessment, and the effects these will have on your membership interests. At the meeting the representatives will be able to answer your individual questions and go over your membership options."
A seven night stay was offered as inducement, and two phone calls were made to assure attendance.
We arrived 1/2 hour early, was seated only 5 minutes before we were approached with what can only be described as a typical time share sales pressure. The first question was what our dues were. When we couldnt recall precisely and asked why, he said it mattered when we would be taken downstairs to be shown inventory on a computer. The next event was the rapid fire two columns of numbers on a piece of paper with how one was good and the other was bad. Being totally confused I stopped any foward momentun he had and demanded a little more information.
Celebrity resorts was attempting to remove a points debt load from AVR so they look better in court. Explanation: AVR was not paying RCI for the points used in the program between them. RCI was going to stop honoring AVR members points contracts after 2008. Any money paid by the purchaser for points was going to be lost. AVR would only be able to let you select from their three resorts.
He started discussing equity in what we do own and we weren't sure. I asked if we could get our paperwork and come back later and we were told that it was today or nothing. A Florida statute was referenced. Celebrity would allow us to use the equity as a down payment on one of their units as long as we sign off AVR.
Consenting to look at what they had to offer, we were given one property to look at. I requested a slightly higher unit and was told that the next higher unit was too much to offer us. As it was our equity was 1/2 the remaining balance of the unit we were offered. With the prospect of losing the flexability we like with RCI, we went for it. The transaction was put on an RCI credit card opened just for this purchase. (Six months interest free, Woohoo!)
When we got home, we found annual units in the same resort for sale on the market for the same cost as we just added to our original investment.
We are not happy campers.
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