The Federal Trade Commission’s consumer guidance on timeshares and vacation plans describes a durable scam: a company promises to get you out, collects a large fee before anyone reads the contract, and then does little or nothing. The timeshare remains. Sometimes the owner was also told to stop paying the resort, so the credit damage is new and the contract is old. The FTC’s article is worth reading in their words: Timeshares, Vacation Clubs, and Related Scams.
These are the lines that should end the phone call.
A guarantee
No one can guarantee a developer will release your specific interest before they have the documents, and most cannot guarantee it after they have the documents either. “Guaranteed cancellation” is the sentence. Treat it as the end of the conversation.
A large fee before a reading
A case review can be a conversation. A four-figure or five-figure fee, due today, before the contract has been read, is the business model the FTC keeps describing. Ask what work the fee buys, in writing, and what happens to the fee if the developer says no.
“Stop paying”
Advice to stop paying maintenance, taxes, or the loan, given by a company that is not your lawyer and has not shown you a release, is a way to manufacture a crisis. The crisis does not cancel the contract. It adds a collector.
A lawyer who never sends an engagement letter
Some exit companies say “our attorneys” and never produce a retainer between you and a named firm. If a law firm is on the file, you should have a letter from that firm, on its letterhead, saying so. If you do not, you should assume you have not hired a lawyer.
A new timeshare as the exit from the old one
“We will get you out by moving you into this better program” is often a second purchase. Bring both contracts to anyone you talk to next. Exit-scam recovery is the service for owners who already paid.
Timeshare Cancellation Partners will not use this pitch. We also will not promise that money you already lost is coming back. Those are different claims, and only the documents can sort them.