Our Timeshare Cancellation Interview with Mr. Christensen.
Listening to the journeys of timeshare owners really gives us perspective on the different struggles they face while trying to work things out with the resort. Aside from countless hours spent on the phone, the effects of a bad experience can impact their everyday lives. From financial hardships to tension in personal relationships, these people go through a lot – simply to find a vacation resolution.
Many find out they can’t actually afford a timeshare. The unexpected maintenance and assessment fees pushed them outside of their budget. Others spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to terminate timeshare contracts. Once the mortgage is paid off, they become desperate to find a way out of an investment that’s taking advantage of their willingness to pay.
Why Ty Wanted to Tell His Story.
Mr. Christensen sat down with our founder, Mike Cantrell, to discuss his experience as a timeshare owner. Throughout this timeshare cancellation interview, you’ll be able to see that he tried nearly everything to escape the grip of the resort. It got to the point where merely thinking about the timeshare caused him grief. Over time, he was willing to do anything to get rid of the timeshare, no matter the cost. Unfortunately for Mr. Christensen, it cost him.
Why We Wanted to Help Him Tell It.
Far too many timeshare owners have similar experiences. At the same time, they’re not alone in their frustration. This is why we wanted to begin sharing our client’s stories. But, not to persuade you to consider our timeshare cancellation services. We want to help you understand what you’re up against so you can make educated decisions about your timeshare.
If you’re tired of getting the run-around and feel as though you’re being taken advantage of, there’s always a way to resolve the issue – you just need someone that’s willing to listen and take appropriate action. In order to expand on the process, we wanted to share some of the highlights from Mike’s conversation with Mr. Christensen, a satisfied VOC client.
From a Relieved Timeshare Owner’s Perspective.
It was a perfect evening in Southern California as we sat down with Ty to discuss his timeshare experience. His oceanside patio was beautiful and the crackling fireplace provided us with some serenity that carried into the conversation. You see, Ty was a new man. He was finally free of his timeshare and he was happy. He was at peace. He was eager to tell everyone what he had gone through and how much money he had spent over the years trying to get rid of something he never thoroughly understood.
As Mike opened up the conversation, he asked Ty to talk about why he chose a Hawaiian resort of all places. “I love going to Maui. I was actually born in Hawaii, so for me, I had decided that I always wanted to go back every year.”
As we got further into the discussion, we found that Ty wasn’t necessarily sold by the sales presentation, it just made sense for him. A right place, right time if you may. He talked about how a lot of people are persuaded into buying, but he was more concerned with getting back to the place he used to call home. “You fall into the trap of whatever free thing that they were offering. For me, it was just a matter of, “Okay, is this a cool place? Can I come here? Can I enjoy it?”
So What Happened After the Purchase?
It was an easy decision for him to pull the trigger. His wife was happy and everything seemed to be working out in his favor – especially initially. “When I got there, everything was perfect, of course.” But, soon after he started to think the experience could potentially be a mirage. Things started to get a little fishy. “All these promises were made,” he said with disenchantment. “We used it maybe once or twice after that.” The timeshare easily became an afterthought for him. You can tell he still beats himself up for it to this day. This disappointment and regret was written all over his face.
After a brief pause, he started to explain how the financial burden started to increase. “Then all of a sudden, you started to notice the maintenance fees going up. Not only were the taxes going up, but the maintenance fees were going up too. They weren’t doing the things that they said they were going to do with the additional maintenance fees.”
You could tell the realization of being misled was a tough pill to swallow. The bitterness was still present throughout the timeshare cancellation interview. He wasn’t necessarily upset that the fees went up as much as he was upset for being lied to. Putting your trust in something like that can be like a punch to the gut when you realize it’s not trustworthy at all. He went on, and you could tell it wore on him as the years went on.
The Emotional Impact of Timeshare Ownership
“It just became pervasively like a negative draw on wanting to go there. So, we just stopped going there altogether. His way of coping with the situation was to just avoid it. The money wasn’t ever an issue for him, but the experience left a bad taste in his mouth. “I’d still pay the maintenance fees,” he said. He thought they would just take it back over time but after consulting with his attorney he quickly realized he was stuck.
He still wears the disbelief on his face well, to this day. As he reenacted the conversation with his attorney he says with annoyance, “No.. HOA and maintenance fees don’t go away. They still accrue if you’re on title.” It’s almost as if reliving this moment was easy for him. That it wasn’t easy to forget.
Helplessness Can Take Its Toll on a Man.
When you have a lot of success, it’s difficult to get passed being hustled. But, being helpless took his emotions to a whole new level. “I was stuck, and I decided that I didn’t want it.” At this point of the experience, Ty was willing to do whatever it took to unload the timeshare contract. But, he wasn’t sure how he was going to do it.
“I knew I couldn’t sell it, because I had tried years before. There’s no value in it. I’d be willing to give it away, pay for all the escrow fees and just give it away. Ironically, nobody wants them. I needed to get rid of this thing somehow, someway. It just had to happen. I didn’t know what to do, so I just started researching everything I could get my hands on. I watched a lot of YouTube videos, did a lot of research online.”
The Pressure of Timeshare Relief Options.
Nothing he read or watched gave him enough confidence to pull the trigger. He simply couldn’t forget how overpromises manipulated him. Everything seemed like a sales pitch and none of it was genuine. “All the hard pressure sales from these other companies was just getting frustrating. I knew I was on title, I knew I needed to get off a title. How do I do that? Because the timeshare said they would not take it back. That was a real question that I had to have answered.”
A vast majority of timeshare owners fall for the same persuasive tactics that resemble the timeshare sales process. When they’re not educated, it’s easy for the resort and relief companies to manipulate then with crafty jargon. Lucky for Ty, he took the time to understand what needed to be done. In turn, predatory agencies were unable to give him the answers he needed. Intuitively, he knew they’d never really be able to cancel his timeshare obligation.
Ty is a prideful man, respectfully. And he wasn’t going to let someone take advantage of him and his family again. Although he wanted to find relief that was financially fair, he valued transparency even more. You could tell throughout the timeshare cancellation interview that he was passionate about finding someone that he could look in the eye and trust. “The cost was important, don’t get me wrong.. But, I wanted someone to be real with me about the process. I need to know what exactly that was going to happen.”
What Mr. Christensen Liked Most About Our Services.
He went on to say that he appreciated the straightforwardness of our videos and how it was exactly what he was looking for. His patience had finally paid off and you could see it in his eyes. “When I saw your guys’ video and then I talked to Wendy, and Wendy was great, she basically helped me understand how when you make a claim of a guarantee, how that can truly be fulfilled or not fulfilled. To me, that was reassuring.”
All he wanted was an honest answer instead of manipulative pitches and open guarantees. His experience in dealing with people really ended up paying off for him. Unfortunately, most timeshare owners aren’t so lucky. It’s hard for them to read between the lines or decipher craftiness from integrity. But Ty could see right through the deceit.
“Now, with these other companies that I had spoken to, they couldn’t give me some of those specific answers, and then they would just keep calling back, and calling back, and they were emailing me, and all this stuff. To me, it’s like, I feel like there’s another timeshare trap. I feel like I’m back in that whole vicious cycle.” That’s something he didn’t ever want to experience again. The red flags tend to be pretty obvious when you’re paying attention – and he seemed pretty thrilled that’s exactly what he was doing.
Insight on Timeshare Cancellation with VOC
As Mike wrapped up talking about Ty’s search for relief, he transitioned into the VOC experience. It’s important to point out that he wasn’t just asking Ty premeditated questions – he was actually prying to better understand how it could have been better. He started off asking Ty about the eligibility process and the documents required to proceed.
Ty explained that his preparation was minimal and most of the necessary documents weren’t even available to him. “I didn’t have a grant deed to provide. I didn’t have an old contract. It had been so long since I had any of that stuff. Fortunately for him, VOC was able to take care of this for him. “They went out and found it. They were able to do all that without getting any other additional information from me.
VOC pretty much kept everything right out there in the open on what was taking place, and that – to me – is what’s the most important thing. I just needed to know what was happening, when it was happening, and Wendy was very direct. This is what happened, this is what we’re doing, here’s where it goes next.”
The details that he shared with Mike were intriguing. He could have easily let our company handle business, but you could tell he had an affinity with the result. This was personal and he wanted to make sure he was informed throughout to ensure he wasn’t burned again. Most call this responsibility, but you could tell he’d been personally invested in this timeshare for many years. The simple fact he remembered nearly every conversation was enough to prove this.
Wrapping Up the Timeshare Cancellation Interview.
As the conversation neared a close, Mike finally asks Ty, “So, do you feel like terminating the timeshare was a good financial decision for you and your family?” Ty responds as if it was an ignorant question, “I felt like I made not only a great financial decision by getting rid of the timeshare, but it was also just a relief of getting rid of something that I knew that I was really not going to use any further, and just seemed to be constantly weighing on me.” Mike then asks Ty to show a little bit of relief since most of the conversation was filled with bitterness. “The timeshare is gone now,” Mike tells him. “Show me a little emotion. Show me a little excitement.”
But, Ty refers back to the experience with the snapshot of reality that many timeshare owners feel stuck in. “Ya know, every year, you’d get that mail.. you’d get that envelope in the mail.. It was depressing. You could tell it was rough for him. You could tell the sense of hopelessness got to him over time. That it humbled him and he wants to use it to help others. “Nothing’s free,” he says.
Opening Up to Benefit Timeshare Owners
He tells Mike that he hopes being vulnerable in front of the camera persuades people to avoid buying a timeshare at all costs. “Do not do this free trip. Don’t go to this seminar, it’s a waste of your time. Just don’t do it.” He pauses and it’s almost as if he reflects back to the day he signed his contract. “My being naive to the process was one thing, but the things that they promise you, and the things that they say, and all the things that they promote, it’s not true. None of it comes true. In fact, it becomes the opposite. It becomes, like I said, a weight financially and emotionally. It was very frustrating.”
You could tell, during the entire timeshare cancellation interview, that it was hard for Ty to really embody anything positive when it came to his experience – and rightfully so. He had tried everything. He’d done his due diligence and he was finally timeshare free. But, it was still weighing on him. One can’t help but think what his life would have been like without that type of decision standing in the way of his progression as a man.
One last time, Mike chimes in, “Are you happy to finally be out of your timeshare? Would the experience with us cause you to refer anyone else to VOC? Without hesitation, Ty responds, “Yes, Yes, absolutely.. He takes a second to reflect yet again, then smiles. “I got to tell you, I was extremely impressed with VOC, extremely impressed with the communication. The outcome was beyond what I thought was going to happen in the timeframe that it happened. It was fantastic, and I would recommend the company to anybody.”
