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After the Christmas holiday period has settled, while everyone is storing away their Christmas trees, looking towards the year ahead having enjoyed a lovely break; some were not so lucky this holiday season.  These said people are RCI clients, whom have been blasting the social media pages with complaints of their treatment as an RCI guest this period.

RCI Claim to be the “global leader in the provision of holiday exchange services, offering the world’s largest resort holiday exchange network. More than that, we provide a suite of unrivalled products and services designed to enhance the leisure lifestyles of our members. These are all reasons why more resorts trust us to deliver holiday exchange services to their owners than any other company across the globe”

We have all come to learn that the exchanges made through RCI are not always straightforward, also, they all seem to have hidden charges of some sort, and a lot of the time do not even have availability for the resort or destination that one desires.  This seems to be the general consensus of the complaints published throughout the World Wide Web after this holiday period.

One such RCI member, thought that he had used his points with an RCI booking for Punta Cana Hard Rock Resort.  He did have to pay an extra fee for his friend to join him, however, this was a very small fee which he paid without questioning.  This client then booked both flights in the safe knowledge that he had just printed off his booking confirmation from the RCI website.  There was a glitch, when the client arrived at the resort, he was told that there was no booking, however, there were rooms available for a price of $3000 per person.  This particular client was not drawn in to spending more money and decided to find a private condo for his break, which turned out to be a lot cheaper than what he was to pay at the Hard Rock Resort.

Another client has expressed their New Year woes regarding their RCI Exchange at Kissimmee, explaining that after purchasing for $12,000 in 2011, thinking that they would simply have to pay for flights and a small exchange fee if they wanted somewhere different to enjoy future holidays, have been left severely disappointed with the service provided by RCI.   The exchange fees that have been proposed to them are ever increasing, to a point of ridiculous, the client states that they would be better off booking a holiday from scratch and forgetting about the original investment, their holiday would work out cheaper.  This client also invested a further $8000 for the ‘platinum service’, which they were promised would be superior service, less waiting time for holidays and lesser exchange fees, however after spending the money, the client did not feel that there were any benefits to the platinum service, actually, the normal service was sometimes superior.

There have been several other reviews posted since the start of the year, not a great start for RCI, and their claim to have the world’s largest exchange network, one would ask at what cost? after reading these reviews.  These reviews re-iterate the article that we wrote back in September, it would seem that RCI are not making an effort to better their product or service.  How can a world leader in the industry just let these comments go?

We at the TCA would like to hear from you if you have had an experience, good or bad, with RCI, please get in touch with us on the contact details below to share your story.

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