Is your time and your timeshare worth more than 25 dollars?
Then don't get overly excited if you receive the offer shown in the photo, in your mailbox.
What will Timeshare Relief, Inc. relieve you of?
They will, as promised, relieve you of maintenance fees for your unwanted timeshare. They
will also relieve you of your deed. And they will happily relieve you of anywhere from
$1,200 to $3,000, and more if they can get it.
Don't try to ask too many questions if you go to their presentation at a local hotel. According to TUG members they are not very happy with open discussion of anything approaching facts or truth.
Look at the the website, and you begin to get some idea of their target market.
Our research has yet to confirm that Antonia Pavone is an actual person, though she may be. Many
of their “satisfied clients” appear to be elderly.
Janice Borst-Smith, the other satisfied client is very real and does live in San Pedro, California where she and her husband Dave are active with the Hope Chapel Church and she writes. At least one of her stories was published on the website for the San Pedro Knights basketball team.
Oh, and one more thing, Janice and Dave work for Timeshare Relief, you know, the company that quotes her under the heading “this is what our clients are saying about us…”.
She is also the star of a video on the website under testimonials. More about that later.
If you only read the letter or watch the testimonial video, you would never know she works for the company.
It’s only if you decide to look at the “our team” tab on the website do you learn the truth.
Start clicking through the tabs. You won’t find them on the executive team. The next tab is the travel team. Lo and
behold, there’s Janice Borst-Smith!
Click on the Internet Team and now we have both Dave and Janice Borst-Smith. And we learn
Janice has become a “fantastic Team Leader…”.
I spoke to Janice and Dave today. According to the website Dave has been working for
Timeshare Relief since 2006, and he told me Janice has worked there longer than he has,
almost since the beginning of the company, according to Dave, which was founded in 2004.
Janice was less certain of her tenure, by the way. Her response was a few years, then maybe
four years or less. When I asked if it could be more than four years, her tone became very
defensive and she said I sounded like a lawyer.
To understand why this is important, you need to understand what Timeshare Relief does. They relieve you of your timeshare deed. And, according to reports, they relieve you of anywhere from 1,200 to 3,000 dollars. You read that correctly. You give them your timeshare and as much as 3 grand, and maybe more. And they only take the timeshare if it is fully paid off and the maintenance fees are current.
What do you get in for your money? You are relieved of taking your timeshare home with you. And you won’t have to pay your maintenance fee any more.
By the way, this is completely legal. It is a way to deal with owners who no longer want their timeshare, or have inherited a timeshare, and have been unable to sell it. They want to be relieved of the annual expenses.
This is not a scam, and they deliver what they promise. The real scam are the mock resale companies who get frustrated owners to pay $500, $700, even more than a thousand dollars, and never sell the timeshare, so now the owner is out that money, and still has the burden of annual fees. At least, after you pay your three grand, you are rid of the timeshare.
Who’s fault is it that this business and others like it exist. The answer may surprise you.
More about that later.
In Part Two, we let you decide wether Timeshare Relief is an ethical company
In Part Three we look at who is responsible for the environment that permits companies like Timeshare Relief to thrive.
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