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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!
Come on Duffers. At least make some pretense at answering us. After all you are the Chief Customer Experience Officer.
Does that post carry any personal liability in the event of corporate malpractice?
PATRICK DUFFY FOUND
He is still alive and well and living in Las Vegas. Seems to be spending a lot of money on coloured squares. I am sure that is a comfort to all of you DRI victims out there. http://weeklyseven.com/feature/2011/january/27/patrick-duffy
Looks like you have a pretty good life style Mr Duffy.
Come on Duffy. Still say that Dicko and I are the only unhappy customers? No wonder you have gone into hiding.
Are their any American laws against doing this sort of thing? Or can Mr Duffy and Cloobeck simply take our money and walk away to start again somewhere else?
Mr Cloobeck obviously has friends in Government. Do they sanction his behaviour? Who do his political contributions support? Perhaps we should ask that politician (in public of course) for his opinion on this?
I wonder if there are corporate liability rules that Mr Cloobeck can be brought to book on? Looking at the photos, the state of some DRI property is not simply unpleasant to stay in, but actively hazardous to health.
Maybe we cannot get legal redress from Cloobeck for the real wrongdoing (of charging ridiculous maintenance fees and changing the rules to make it impossible to exit their scheme) but we can for a secondary issue. Remember that Al Capone was not brought down for murdering, robbery etc but for income tax evasion. Perhaps we need to take the same approach with DRI.
Anyone know how US law stands on this? I know in the UK that corporate management can be made personally liable if they can be shown to have ignored helath and safety problems that have been brought to their attention.
Don't we all miss old Duffers? The pluck he displayed for defending the indefensible was a glory to behold.
Has he now moved on to try some other method of extracting money from the vulnerable? It would be good to know where they are now.
This seems to be the way they are going to go, make us pay maintenance fees and have a lack of availability because they are then selling cheap holidays from our fees. I am rapidly running out of patience with the club.
Only now running out of patience? Unfortunately according to the rogues that run this company you are not able to leave ever! I say rogues but the judgment handed down by the court in St Marrtens actually supports the contention by one of their unhappy members that they are fraudsters!
Sadly Bakers you will fail to illicit a response on this site (or any other for that matter!) because Mr Duffy and co seem to be in hiding, or is it that there are so many blogs and complaints about the company now that they have not got the time te read them anymore! Which is odd because according to the cowardly Mr Duffy there are only 2 or 3 unhappy members!
Another happy customer!
This company has no moral sole or code whatsoever. . We are a hard working family who turned our RCI based time share into points in 2005. Sunterra owned our resort, Garden Lago. (this was a good time share venue and we had many weeks away having fun ) and we thought this idea looked very appealing. Fees to be kept no more than 3/4 %, buy back options any time. Quotes you are all familiar with
What a grave error on our part. This company ignores your letters and phone calls, and when they do reply they do not address the matters in hand. We fully paid our 2007 management fees and left. No contact for 2 years then a demand for over £1500, no breakdown, no reasoning. We totally refuted this, then a generic letter explaining the "death or Bankruptcy option". Nothing else. Now again 16 months later a debt collection agency with late night Friday contact just in time for the weekend ( apparently we now owe over £2000, no breakdown, mind. Perhaps a figure plucked from some warped DRI executive's fuggled imagination) We have parted with over £5000 and our holiday options were limited to the Canaries, Santa Barbara, Tenerife. Mis representation and breach on contract are quotes from my solicitor. I have been informed to make contact yet again stating " our desire to give our points up " is this does not work, then we will take this sham of a company to court.
As a note just put this company name into Google, many thousands of hits and a very small percentage of happy holidayers.
Good luck everyone.
What a wonderful company where are you Mr Duffy?
You must understand DRI needs to pay their executive's multi million dollar salaries so they need your money. Don't be late either or they will stick it to you at about 25% penalty. That is more than Uncle Sam charges if your late on your TAX bill. So I guess that makes DRI EXTORTION FEES worse than paying Taxes.
My personal opinion they (ALL DRI decision makers and their legal staff too) can bake in Hell for all of eternity and cloobeck should first be keelhauled, drawn and quartered and then bake in Hell for all eternity. What a truly slimy ripe piece of [censored] he is, fleecing his members and even those that are not DRI members like myself. So he can fund his $100, 000+ political contributions ($189, 000 total for 2010) and pay TOP dollar for acquisitions (because he has our unlimited supply of money) like the 2007 Sunterra bailout @ 700 million and the 2010/2011 Bluegreen (NYSE:BXG) acquisition that he is currently attempting @ 500 million, both considered by Wall Street as way over priced. Your DRI extortion uh I mean maintenance fees are very important to cloobeck's future political bribery, oh excuse me I mean contributions and resort/exchange company take overs uh I mean acquisitions.
Simply amazing how cloobeck/DRI's political contributions made a dramatic upswing around 2007 the same time DRI began the fleecing of it's members and resort owners. Coincidence I think not...
fleecing –verb (used with object)
to deprive of money or belongings by fraud, hoax, or the like; swindle: He fleeced the stranger of several dollars. -- dictionary.com
DRI Turn from your greedy wicked ways or change your motto from Relaxation... Simplified to perhaps Robbing our members blind one year at a time or how about FLEECING... Simplified that has a nice ring.
CVO
Hi all
Some good news from the UK. eg - TCA http://www.timeshare.org.uk/news.html
" Kings Ransome Holidays (Peachy Leisure) yesterday took a large number of its Members to Court in Manchester. Kings were attempting to claim back management fees and other monies from said Members.The Judge STRUCK out every claim, and told Kings they were liable for ALL defence costs, and ALL Legal costs."
It seems the LAW does not like scamming timeshare! It also just so happens that this company had the same contract type as the company for this thread. Shame on them!
Wheres duffy?
Everybody have a look at www.canyoutrustthem.com and you will see what Mr DUFFY and Mme ELIZABETH BRENNAN wrote.
However in the CourtHouse in Philipsburg St Maarten, the retired SUPREME COURT JUDGE told Stephen Cloobeck's lawyer to buy a dictionnary as well as to tell his client to open a FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS office at the resort. He has not done so so he is in contempt of court.
However the Judge did say THE TRUTH IS NEVER SLANDER and threw out the case.. They have appealed!
They not only have never sent me contracts, but, they sent the summons to the wrong address with the wrong name as well.
Its very curious now that if you type in Political Contributions for the name CLOOBECK and as the Judge noticed they have increased to $198, 000... why?
So the poor victims of DIAMOND RESORT INTERNATIONAL can pay the contributions as well every time our fees increase.
I did stay at Flamingo recently
We did not have towels... two, nor sheets, one toilet roll, one packet of tissues and we did not receive new supplies...
So just where are the maintenance fees going., the hairdryer is the original from Pelican days. The fridge was covered in rust. The electrical sockets were broken and two did not work.
:Last year we stayed there and the bath flooded, . it has been there since the resort was built. The unit underneath was totally flooded.. I do have photos but maybe Stephen CLOOBECK will again accuse me.. Fortunately the Judge in the CourtHouse told his lawyer that Cloobeck has many other things against him that he also found in his investigations... curious to know what they are..
Perhaps Mr CLOOBECK can answer why he stays at the WESTIN when he comes to St Martin and not at his resort?
There is NO manager... Why not?
There is NO administration office! Why not?
In fact you were supposed to open an office where we can pay our fees locally and not by internet to Las Vegas
Why don't you answer these questions here for everybody to see?
All those fellow Americans who are over 70 years old and simply want to enjoy their weeks they bought but now have to let them go as they can not afford to keep them because you have almost doubled their fees which are the HIGHEST on St Maarten without a manager nor administration locally.
One couple, both with cancer now have to find over $16, 000 in Maintenance fees and WHY? Where is the money going and where do you declare it?
Tell everybody and on this site... the Judge in Philipsburg will love to see your answers and again as I also have never received any contracts for the weeks I own.
To go with the text above are the photographs which do not lie.. broken and dangerous electrical sockets where children stay, rotten rusted OLD refrigerators that have been there for YEARS and not replaced, rotten rusted door locks, electrical sockets COMING out of the wall, rusted stove, rotten cupboards, the FLOOD inside the walls of 7202, the DIRTY air conditioning unit that sent my daughter to emergency with asthmatic crisis, INSIDE the cupboards after the flood in 7202, the FLOOD with one inch of water on the floor from the ANCIENT bathtub..., the rotten wall divider in the kitchen... too many floods, another electrical connection! Photographs do not lie Mr Cloobeck. This is probably why you do not choose to stay at your own resort.
BUT my question is... HOW much of the money you collect in Las Vegas is sent back to St Maarten? Obviously from the photographs not much>>> ALL other resorts have a wonderful Manager's Cocktail party... its gone and anyway if you were lucky we obtained ONE meatball, a little stuffed something and a watered down punch... all for 1239 US dollars per week for a STUDIO..
go to MULLET BAY where you have a magnificent buffet for the RESORT WELCOME...
Mr CLOOBECK you need to qualify to every TIMESHARE OWNER just where those absolutely exorbitant fees are going to and send proof of how much money comes back to St Maarten... send it to the JUDGE in the CourtHouse in Philipsburg and every owner over 70 years old..
It's quite clear we are not going to hear from either of these lovely people. They must be well aware by now that they are running this organisation into the ground. I trust there will be no holding back on investigations into where all our money went when the inevitable wall looms for DRI
You can bet your life Cloobeck and Duffy have already got an exit strategy planned and another scam in the pipeline, this sort of people are more slippery than an eel. Eventually when one of their employees is actually caught telling lies at a presentation they will plead ignorance and wash their hands of them! That is of course if Cloobeck is not doing time for contempt of court or corruption in St Maartens!
Hey how about the judge sentences him to stay at the resort it looks infinitely worse than prison. Still at least those of us on the DRIP site know where Duffy is and why he is no longer answering questions or threatening people on sites like this he is at home looking at a multi coloured wall with his two dogs!
My boyfriend and I are in the same predicament. I have excellent credit that is going to take a hit due to our decision to stop paying either the maintenance fees or the remainder of the mortgage on our time share. We have sent letters detailing the fraudulent sale practices and are waiting. Good luck!
lmj and sea I assume from your comments that you borrowed money to buy the timeshare? Who did you borrow the money from? On their own Management Fees (in the UK) are not something that can affect your credit rating because they are not regarded as a debt and not covered by the consumer credit act. However loans with financial institutions are so if you borrow money to buy point/timeshare and stop paying you could well have a problem!
I agree with you Talman. Our loan is going to be my nemesis and do a number on my credit rating (my boyfriend's credit was not good). However, the fraudulent selling practices of the original group (ILX) places the whole thing in dispute. We are not disputing just DRI's maintenance fees.
Bakers I suspect he is keeping a very low profile lets face it he has not got enough fingers to plug all the hole in the DRI dike! Nor does he apparently have the gonads to continue to defend himself and the other crooks that run DRI! Or maybe he is visiting Cloobeck in a St Maartens jail!
lmj and sea I sympathize with you and hope you can extricate yourself from the clutches of DRI it amazes me how the full force of the law pursues some criminals but lets other get away with it! Maybe the Mafia run DRI if they don't they probably wish they had thought of it now!
Please everybody have a look at the site www.blogs.mirror.co.uk/diamond and also type in on Google.com: HAITI, CLOOBECK DONATIONS and you will see that CLOOBECK is now donating designer clothing to the women of Haiti as he felt he had to do something! He is truly amazing... Also incredible are the figures on St Maarten...since 2007 until 2011 DIAMOND RESORTS Flamingo Beach Club have collected over $32 million dollars in Maintenance fees and that does not include the other resort they own The Royal Palm Beach Club...NONE of that money is collected on St Maarten as its all paid to the HEAD office in Las Vegas. As you can see by the photos no maintenance is done. There is NO Manager. There is no administration office where the fees can be paid and a receipt issued...WHY not? Where does he declare that incredible revenue? This is a perfect story for AMERICAN GREED on the CNBC! Have a look at the photos and photos do not lie. Even I wonder if there was a building permit for the jetty built? Does immigration know about this?
Check out www.prweb.com/releases/2010/02prweb3593834.htm and you will the kind Cloobeck feeling sorry for the ladies in Haiti and not his staff in St Maarten and Hawaii...
Also EVERYBODY join www.drip.webs.com its the British group DIAMOND RESORTS PROTESTORS.
Over on the rights side is MEMBER sign in or register.
Everybody has to register!
Andrew Penman also is an investigative journalist with the MIRROR.co.uk and you can join his blog as well
www.blogs.mirror.co.uk search investigations Diamond resorts.
the WORLD over is against him and his company
Hi del doc - please do tell us how you have managed to get out of this contract! Also could you also answer Golfers question too please - would be interesting to know! Thanks