Immigrant Bengalis

While living in Indianapolis, my wife and I were on vacation in Florida during the summer of 1988 with our eight-year-old daughter Neela. Going from the cold Midwest, it was always a treat to visit Florida. As soon as the car crossed  the Stateline from Georgia it seemed that we entered a vacation Magicland with unlimited sunshine, free orange juice at the welcoming centers, large bulletin boards advertising various attractions and amusement parks and wide multilane highways. Our first stop was Orlando to show Neela Disney  World. We had been there before. The hotel where we stayed had numerous flyers and leaflets in the lobby, advertising attractions in the area for tourists. There was no shortage of attractions even 36 years ago.

The advertisement that caught my attention was a notice from a timeshare  company, High Pointe Resort, which was offering free tickets to Disney World if we were willing to sit through a presentation about their timeshare. This was  an offer we could not refuse. We went to Orlando mainly to see Disney world  and the regular admission price at the time was probably around $30-$40. We  signed up for a presentation.

The so-called resort was a townhome complex about a mile from the  entrance to Disney World. Each townhome was fully furnished with two  bedrooms, three baths and a fully equipped kitchen (including dinnerware,  silverware and pots/pans) with a back patio. The patio overlooked a grassy  area. The complex had a swimming pool, an exercise room and a jacuzzi. The  resort office had a library of VHS movies to lend to the residents for free. There  were plenty of stores both for groceries and gifts nearby as well as  restaurants. The price was $7000 just for one week each year. The name  “timeshare” implied that we would be sharing the unit in time with others. We  could go there every year or exchange it to visit some other resort in the world, which was listed in a thick colorful book full of enticing photographs, subject  to availability. There was one catch though. Every year we would have to pay an annual fee (for maintenance and tax), which at the time was somewhere  around $500.

Being both frugal and strong in Math, I did some quick mental calculations.  Owning it for one week at $7K was equivalent to owning it for the full year for  $364; a little on the high side but not excessive considering all the amenities  and location. As far as the maintenance fee is concerned, we rationalized that if we came here every year, staying in a comparable hotel would cost us more.  

The distance between our home in Indianapolis and this resort was about  1000 miles, a comfortable two-day driving distance; I had made it even in one  non-stop stretch during a previous visit. We could certainly drive down every  year if we wanted to. This would be a wonderful experience for our daughter,  growing up with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy, we thought. We preferred the week  around Christmas because it was supposedly the most popular week. The salesman assured us that there would be no problem in renting it out if we decided not to come nor exchange it for some other destination. The entire  central and south American population go nuts to see Mickey Mouse during  Christmas.

Everything seemed reasonable and attractive enough to go for it. The  relentless pressure from the salespeople also would have made us feel guilty if we walked  away without buying a unit. We took the bait.

As luck or misfortune would have it, I changed jobs the very next year and  moved from Indianapolis to San Diego. There was no reason anymore to visit  Orlando from San Diego. Southern California has plenty to offer in the way of  recreation and amusement; our love affair with Mickey and Minnie mouse  could continue just by visiting Disneyland in Anaheim, only about 90 miles  away. As a result, our planned annual visit to Orlando had to be scrapped. The  situation got worse a few years later when my wife and I got divorced,  basically ending the concept of family vacation for good. My wife was happy  to relinquish her share of the ownership of the unit in divorce settlement.

For several years I tried to exchange my week for a week at some other exotic destinations like Italy, the Caribbean Islands and Australia. Every place I could think of was solidly booked months if not years ahead of time. I realized that those colorful books were just a trap to lure us to sign a contract.

I tried to rent our unit also; I had to go through the resort management. This  effort was also unsuccessful, and I could not rent. I had no way of knowing  what was really going on and wondered if the resort was renting the unit and simply pocketing the money. To make matters worse, the annual  maintenance fee kept on rising by 10-15% every year. Contrary to the  assurance given to us at the time of purchase, it was virtually impossible to  resell the unit; who would want to buy an old unit when they could get free  tickets to Disney World if they bought a new one?

I was stuck and realized that we made a huge mistake. I thought of innovative  ideas. I gave the use of our unit as a gift to a good friend on his wedding. I did go back there in 1998 with my daughter when she was in high school, and in 2007 with a lady friend. By that time the units appeared old and tired-looking, and had lost the initial sparkle of newness that captivated us. All the other years the unit stood empty.

The real estate market crashed in the US in 2008-2009. I stopped making  payments for maintenance fees as I was having difficulties even in paying the mortgage on my home in California. Not surprisingly, I started to receive  letters from the resort’s attorney; initially reminding me of my non-payments, and eventually with various threats about possible foreclosure of the  unit and its implications on my credit report.

Coincidentally, I found out that a Florida-based company was offering  presentations in a San Diego area hotel about how to get out of time-share  commitments without paying any money and without any negative influence  on my credit report. Needless to say, I thought it was worth my time to attend  one of those presentations because it was the perfect remedy for my situation.

My attendance only reminded me of that adage: “If something sounds too good to be true then it probably is”. Of course, their service was not for  free; I do not remember all the details, but the speaker basically offered a complicated scheme for writing off this property as a business loss and  showed how to retrieve the cost of their program (several hundred dollars) from  tax savings resulting from using this loss as a tax deduction.

Another scam from a Floridian company, I thought. Besides, I had retired by  that time and my income was not high enough to have a significant tax  advantage from this scheme. Basically, I did not do anything and ignored all  subsequent letters from attorneys threatening foreclosures, lawsuits etc. I  was worried for a while that my credit rating would be adversely affected if my  unit was foreclosed and repossessed by the resort management. However, I had bigger fish to fry as I had to deal with foreclosure, loan modification, possible bankruptcy and  all other anxieties related to my properties in California during the subprime  meltdown of the real estate market.

Many years later, I occasionally checked my credit report. Ownership of the  timeshare resort never appeared in my report nor any negative comment. I heaved a big sigh of relief.

The moral of my story is simple: NEVER fall for the temptation of buying a timeshare, and if you want to get out simply stop paying for maintenance. I was amused  to see that the timeshare concept eventually progressed to purchase of a  second home in expensive areas.

Going against my own advice, I did participate one more time in a timeshare  presentation more recently. It was in a five-star ocean-view “Pelican Crest”  resort in Newport Coast in California – several notches above the High Pointe  resort in terms of luxury, amenities and view. By then I was no longer that naive immigrant Bengali who was overwhelmed by a timeshare presentation. I  knew the drill and was business savvy. Although I had to spend an hour and a  half of my not so valuable time sitting through the presentation, I knew what  to say and how to duck out of the sales pressure.

However, I do not recommend taking such a chance to any one, especially our Bengali friends who are relatively new to this country. Those experienced smooth-talking salesmen have heard all kinds of excuses to decline their offer and know how to counter them to the point of trapping you from which it is impossible to escape.​

POSTSCRIPT:  A further deterrent is the "perpetuality clause" which has been inserted more recently in almost all timeshare purchase contracts by the timeshare industry. This clause basically states that the owners will be responsible for the unit, not only until they die but even after death. This means that their estate or heirs would have to keep on paying for annual maintenance and taxes as well as other special assessments for perpetuality. I am glad that I escaped from this clause.

(Posted January 7, 2025)

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TIME TO SHARE MY TIMESHARE STORY
Basab Dasgupta