Earlier this year with the help of London law firm Edwin Coe LLP, a large group of disgruntled timeshare owners assembled a class action against RCI Europe to confront them on the ineffectiveness of their world renown RCI exchange programme.
RDO and TATOC members, RCI Europe have been accused of “skimming off” of their members exchange pool to benefit financially and reap the rewards themselves by renting out the most popular and sought after properties to others while failing to make them accessible to their valued members. Originally RCI said it was selling off members timeshares in order to buy in other timeshares, this has now been deemed as untrue. It has also been uncovered that even RCI employees have a better chance than RCI members of reserving those high demand properties through employee incentive reward schemes.
With the help of head litigator David Green of Edwin Coe LLP, the class action was heard by the High Court of England and Wales in May this year with Justice Sonya Proudman residing over the case. At last, word on the grapevine is that Justice Proudman is expected to deliver her verdict next Thursday the 20th October.
A comment from David Green reads:
“All timeshare owners want when entering an exchange system is a simple, transparent and effective way of swapping their right to use a property for the right to holiday at another residence of similar quality, within a reasonable time frame. We intend to expose these unfair practices at trial, and expect to succeed in securing rightful compensation for thousands of frustrated holidaymakers.”
These owners have had enough of the excuses that RCI provide them every time they are refused the exchange of their choice. One thinks the whole point of an “exchange programme” is to be able to enjoy an alternative holiday from your normal yearly entitlement, this is why these owners have added to their existing annual maintenance bills to take on the yearly membership fee with RCI in the first place, to give them the option to exchange.
RCI Europe has over 3.5 million members across the world and this test case with around 500 claimants has just opened the door for countless others to pursue their issues with the company. One suspects this news may well bring about a long overdue review of the way these exchange companies work, which can only mean more transparency for the consumer going forward.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk