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Diamond Resorts International Club Inc. is facing a class action lawsuit alleging it engaged in deceptive high-pressure sales tactics to sell timeshare contracts.
Plaintiffs Gisele Fournier and Rejean Fournier of Riverside County, Calif., claim they obtained on an unknown date a “membership” with Diamond Resorts that would allow them to acquire timeshare “points” that they could redeem for accommodations at various resorts.
In July 2015, the plaintiffs say they contacted a Diamond Resorts sales associate to express their dissatisfaction with their membership. Specifically, they complained that they were not able to secure accommodations on the dates and at the locations they wanted.
According to the Diamond Resorts class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs were advised to upgrade their membership to “platinum” in order to receive superior customer service. They were also told to attend an “update” meeting to have their concerns addressed.
The meeting did not provide the Fourniers an opportunity to air their grievances, according to the Diamond Resorts class action lawsuit. They claim they were pressured again into purchasing a membership upgrade and were reportedly mocked by Diamond Resorts’ agents because they did not bring a credit card to the meeting.
According to the Diamond Resorts class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs “felt bullied, manipulated and intimidated into signing a new contract upgrading their membership with the Defendant.” They claim that the agents’ high-pressure sales tactics caused them “a great amount of stress, embarrassment and humiliation” and that they felt they could not leave the meeting unless they signed up for a membership upgrade.
Their credit card was allegedly charged $2,000 for the membership upgrade, and the upgrade caused their monthly membership dues to nearly double, according to the Diamond Resorts class action lawsuit.
Despite paying for the upgrade, the Fourniers say they did not receive the services they were promised and sought to terminate their membership. When their attempts at cancelling via phone and online chat were unsuccessful, they sent a letter in August 2016 informing Diamond Resorts that they were terminating their membership and cancelling all future reservations.
After they mailed the letter, the plaintiffs reportedly received a monthly loan statement with an invoice date of Aug. 22, 2016. This invoice stated a balance of $813.77 with a due date of Aug. 12, 2016. This statement indicated that payments received after the due date would be subject to additional fees.
According to the Diamond Resorts class action lawsuit, the statement indicated the Fourniers owed a “Principal Balance” of more than $45,000 and that they had paid at least $6,000 toward interest fees.
They subsequently sent more letters informing Diamond Resorts of their intent to terminate their membership but Diamond Resorts repeatedly denied the requests and claimed that the plaintiffs would remain contractually obligated to pay the fees. They continued to receive letters demanding payment. These letters reportedly contained “confusing, conflicting and misleading” information about their membership.
The plaintiffs say they received harassing phone calls from Diamond Resorts even after they asked the company to stop contacting them.
The timeshare sales class action lawsuit accuses Diamond Resorts of violating the Truth in Lending Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the California False Advertising Act, the Consumers Legal Remedies Act and the California Welfare and Institutions Code.
Diamond Resorts is also currently facing a class action lawsuit alleging it targets older consumers with abusive sales tactics.
The plaintiffs are represented by Amir J. Goldstein of The Law Offices of Amir J. Goldstein Esq.
The Diamond Resorts Timeshare Membership Class Action Lawsuit is Gisele Fournier, et al. v. Diamond Resorts International Club Inc., et al., Case No. 5:17-cv-00911, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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113 thoughts onClass Action: Diamond Resorts Pressures Buyers into Timeshare Contracts
please add me same crap i could right a book of all the lies
I bought time share Grand Monarch 20 years ago they went on bankrupt and it was transfer to diamond resorts that time we recieved a letter that we need to see the representative here in Woodland Hills, we went and they force us to get this $2000.00 worth of points so we use we did pay it, so we used it in going to Orlando to find out that they will force you to buy a new time share per representative the old time share will be combine with new one so we will save on paying the maintenance fee but it turn out that we pay 2 maintenance fee I been calling them for the past 3 years from 2012-2015 but no solution so until now I’m paying 2 maintenance fee which is too hard for us I really want to get out from this diamond resorts time share that until now I’m paying my monthly mortgage for the second time share and one more thing it’s you can even get your vacation with them unless you upgrade it and they will ask you to pay at that time. It’s really ripped off. I cannot stop paying because they will report you to credit bureau and they will not stop calling you they will harrass you. It’s realky big problem. How can I joint the class action.
Is there a class action suit we can join,
We were told no maintenance fees ever again as platinum members and were issued 4 Barclays cards to cover the down payment. Points would now be worth $3 per point and although we kept saying no, the deal kept getting upped and after being pressured for over 5 hours and getting extremely hungry agreed to the purchase.
Please add to Diamond Resorts Member Class Action Lawsuit. Additional info: We were told we could sell at any time with their assistance. NO, timeshare is worthless. Tried to sell, donate, give away for free, return free and paid to Diamond. Unable to do any of those. Representative told us “Sorry, you have no options “.
Same here in California!
We bought 25 years ago from Monarch. We were told it would only go up in value. They went
Bankrupt and or purchase by diamond resorts. We were threatened that if we did not buy into their points program we could not get rid of our timeshare in anyway and when we died our children would be responsible for it’s fees! We don’t use it yet pay $538 every year, Increasing yearly, and find it worthless unless we spend a fortune on points to join their Diamond resort club
High pressure tactics, lies of omission, too good to be true promises (most all of them later denied). Foolishly purchased timeshare after 90 minute presentation that lasted exhausting 9 hours. Interval International flex time , one of the highlights that really sold us, turned out to be impossible to use. Guaranteed maintenance fees would never increase have doubled. Facilty has gone from bad to worse. Unsanitary conditions. Could go on and on forever.
Please add me. They are frauds. I have not once in the 29 years of ownership been able to get the vacation that I desired on the date that I wanted. NOT ONCE! What a shame! Get me out of this BS!
Please Add me for they bought out my resort and changed they way I can use my points with interval and lost about 6 weeks of vacation. They don’t let me bank the weeks and use them later with interval points they wanted me to join their exchange club back 2012. Widow and stuck on stupid can’t get out of it.
Please add me.
DIAMOND RIP OFF
1 – they sell you the basic package, 2500 points a year
Imply you can have a good one week vacation for 2500 points
To sweeten the deal:
They give you a pad with their app loaded on it.
They promised you an orientation course – two nights at one of five of their properties. No charge of course.
At orientation:
The first thing they do:
Tell you that you can do nothing with a measly 2500 points.
The second thing they do
Try to sell you more points.
Tell you if you leave you will never again be able to buy points at that CHEAP rate.
At the Gatlinburg orientation they could not show you how to use the pad they gave you, because their facility did t have Wi-F
If you say NO then they send in the second round and:
Try to sell you an other package that will hold the CHEAP point price and give you a bunch of one time points.
The orientation part was a joke. It was the furthest thing from their mind. Our salesman didn’t even know how to use the website. When we insisted they show us what we could do with our measly 2500 points they finally sent out a woman to talk to us. Somehow she could miraculously get on the website and show us ways to use our points.
Our suppose it one week vacation was available in the off-season – IE Gatlinburg in the winter months. Lovely!
When we told them we were sold a pack of lies they said that Branson, where we bought our original package, should not have done that. How convenient.
I wonder if they were selling basic starter packages, with only 2500 points, there in their Gatlinburg facility?
The question I have is, how can the people working for Diamond do that to their fellow human beings. How can they do that knowing that it will cause a hardship for many of them? How can they in all good conscious take money that the family was saving for college funds and retirement plans? Unfortunately I believe the answer is GREED. And that speaks to the kind of person they have become. What happened to integrity and honor?
On July 13, 2018 I was lied to and pressured into buying a sampler timeshare with 20,000 points for $4,000. They told me that I would be able to make $40 monthly payments, interest-free. It turns out that they entrapped me into a Barclays credit card, which means that they are already paid in full and I’m stuck with a credit card bill. At the end of the transaction, I asked the guy how long I had if I changed my mind. He told me that I had 3 days. But after I left and had time to look over what I’d signed, I saw that at the top of the contract it said that there is not cancellation or rescinding. That was never pointed out to me. Needless to say, it ruined my whole vacation when I realized that I’d been swindled. I then Immediatly made phone calls and sent a certified letter to Diamond explaining my situation. After many phone calls, I got a couple of call backs. In the end they sent me a letter telling me that I was bound by the contract because it is a sampler package and that there was no getting out of it. I was dumb enough not to figure out at the time that $40 a month for 2 years does not add up to $4,000. I am also finding out from everything I’ve been reading that they are going to keep making me attend their meetings and keep pressuring me into buying more points. I am afraid to think of what else this is going to lead to. I don’t want to have to deal with these people anymore. Why is it that banks and other financial institutions are heavily penalized for deceptive practices like these, but there are there no laws to protect consumers against timeshare scams? This has got to stop. I am hoping that someone out there will let me know of a class action suit that I can join. We need to unite and fight this.