A new name on our list of alerts!
Star Timeshare Store has started cold calling timeshare consumers and is offering the usual guaranteed resale with an upfront fee of £995.
The website of this dubious resale company http://startimesharestore.com has been created on the 23rd of September 2011, so that is only 7 days ago!
Their contact details are Telephone: 01708 878 158
Email: info@startimesharestore.com and a UK address: 58a First Floor, Western Road, Romford, Essex, RM1 3LP
There is no company under this name registered at the UK Companies House and we are contacting the Trading Standards Office to check out the address.
Reading through the text of the web, they actually mention they are not charging “huge upfront fees” ….excuse me? Upfront fees? There should be NO UPFRONT FEES at all! Have they not read the New Timeshare Directive?
Have you been called by Star Timeshare Store? Please let us know!!
About mindtimeshare
Mindtimeshare SLU is registered Company reg number: B35957182 Mindtimeshare provides assistance to timeshare owners who have been defrauded by holiday clubs and bogus resale companies.
The Mindtimeshare project was launched in February 2011.
After dealing with timeshare members over several years who had been defrauded by numerous bogus companies and for large amounts of money, I considered launching an Organisation to help timeshare owners that have been targeted by bogus companies. On this blog you can find information about the different active scam companies and their “modus operandi” and also place comments, ask questions and see comments from other consumers who have the same doubts or have been through the same experience.
Mindtimeshare has resulted in a huge success and has received the back up from not only timeshare consumers but also from the professionals in the timeshare Industry.
Mindtimeshare helps timeshare owners who have been scammed by bogus Discount Holiday Clubs; bogus cash back companies; fraudulent timeshare resale companies; bogus class action companies and false lawyers and notaries. We offer professional answers and advice to Timeshare users.
If you want to send an email instead of posting a comment on the blog please do so by emailing: customercare@mindtimeshare.com
Mindtimeshare 
UPDATE – the 01708 878 158 number is no longer operational !
And the startimesharestore.com website is down for “maintanence”
Watch out for these guys poping up under a different guise !
We were contacted in September this year by Charlie Barratt of Star Timeshare Store asking us to let his company market our DWVC mambership. Against our better judgement really, we allowed this to happen and he telephoned a week or so later to say that a buyer was willing to pay £9,400.
The next step was contact from Beauregarde Marketing Solutions (Star Timeshare’s “Legal Department”) asking for £940 as insurance. We authorised this with our bank and paid by debit card on 5 October 2011 to Fleetmar Developments. Since then we have really been having misgivings and so I decided to look up details of the company on the Internet and found your site.
Today we received through the post contracts for us to sign, together with a payment authorisation form. We also had a copy of the terms and conditions in which it states:
“Cancellaltion of this contract will only be acceepted in writing, from the vendor, via 1st Class post. The written cancellatiion is to include the unsigned contract. We cannot accept cancellatiions by fax or email. Should the notice be sent within ten days of the contract date then the Liability Insurance will be duly returned minus a 20% administration charge. Any cancellations after this period will result in the loss of any monies having been paid by the owner.”
We are now about to return the forms, unsigned, together with a letter requesting the return of the Liability Insurance. We will lose 20% of the amount we paid to these people but that must be better than losing all of the money.
Hi i found a nice little tip for you, when they call tell them you have aready sold it, and listen to the shocked silence at the other end of the phone, they don’t know what to say to that…..
Made me smile anyway, you had to be there 🙂
cheers
Hi Gary,
Thanks for the tip, like it!
Regards
Customer Care
Are there any legitimate methods of getting rid of our timeshare, we are even willing to give it away?
Cheers
Dear Gary,
It all depends with who and what kind of membership you have as each club / resort has their own rules.
Regards
Customer Care
Thank you for setting up this very useful thread on what is an excellent website. I have been contacted by a Charlie Barrett today who wanted a £995 credit card payment in retrun for a £7,000 offer from a prospective purchaser. They claimed to be a sales agent making 10% on top of the offer. I have asked for proof of offer and said any transaction would be managed by my solicitor. I doubt I’ll hear from them again as no doubt they are reading this too. Hopefully, Trading Standards are not taking too long to investigate this. The whole operation looks hastily put together. They put their no up-front fee offer (they called it an insurance policy) in writing to me which reads as follows :
Dear Mr & Mrs Henfrey,
Further to your conversation earlier today with my colleague Charlie Barrett, I have pleasure in confirming that we have a total offer of £7,000 for your membership. (Please see below)
DWVC.
The retainer needed is £995. This can be paid by credit card. This will be refunded upon completion and completion time will be 4 / 6 weeks from the date your retainer has been received.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
Yours sincerely
{no name}
Hi Roger,
Thanks for your detailed message.
We hope as we were able to put the alert on very quickly, that consumers will find the blog before they pay to these people.
Retainer, deposit, insurance….no upfront fee full stop….they will not learn!
Regards
Customer Care
Have been contacted today by startimesharestore. Asking if i would like to pass on my DWVC package (obtained by going through ILG – Yep another mug). Dave Lawrence stated that they could pass my package on for between 8 – 10 thousand GBP’s. That DWVC knew about them and had asked them to help out by selling on packages. I have spoken to DWVC and they know nothing about it. They have not asked for any fees up front but would take a percentage from the sale.
Could i please have any constructive advice with regards to getting rid of my original points (changed to wk41 in sunset bay on request of ILG). It has been suggested to advertise on eBay or in shops etc or located a third party elsewhere. Also is it too late to get our money back that was paid by CC to ILG??
What also do i do about the maintenance fee that are being requested by Diamond Resort Intl, do i pay them or hold on to my money??
Roy Holcombe
Hi Roy,
Thanks for your message.
If they haven’t asked you for a fee upfront yet, believe me they soon will. Maybe a part of the pitch and something to be tackled in the second call.
You have 6 years to claim the money back paid by credit card.
We are sending you all the information by email.
Kind regards
Customer Care
Tks for your response. If they do phone again they will be unhappy at the reply. regards Roy
I have also been contacted earlier by David Lawrence and today by Louise from Star Time Share Store. They requested £1495 deposit from us up front. I agreed I wanted to sell my holiday membership by only if monies were deposited in an escrow account.
We will not be going ahead.
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for your comment.
We have only heard about this company recently but by the amount of comments flowing in we can guess they are very busy on the phones.
You’ve made the right decision b y not paying them, £1495 is a lot of money for no guarantee at all and anyway an upfront fee should not be paid as per the Timeshare Directive…
Kind regards
Customer Care
I have been contacted by Star Timeshare Store by Dave Lawrence offering to sell our timeshare and contacted again a few days later by Charlie Barrett with an offer which we accepted. I was then contacted by their ‘legal department’ telling me they were sending me a contract which, after it was returned they would forward me their client’s cheque and when it had cleared my bank I was to send my Owners’ Certificate duly signed on the bank to transfer the timeshare to the buyer. After reading various comments on the internet I am now very dubious about this firm. They have asked for an amount of £1395 as insurance that I will send them the Owners’ Certificate after I receive the cheque and it has cleared, but is this just another way of getting ‘upfront fees’ which was not mentioned in the original telephone conversation?
Hi Eileen,
Thanks for your message.
£1395 for insurance, well that is an upfront fee full stop which goes against the New Timeshare Directive.
No monies at all should be paid before a sale has been finalised, they can call it what they want.
So please don’t pay as this doesn’t sound very good.
Kind regards
Customer Care
I was contacted by the Star Timeshare Store, the man calling himself Dave said that I had contacted them about selling my timeshare (I didn’t). He wanted an up-front fee of £995 to cover their costs! I told him that I was not prepared to do this and not to bother me again. Despite saying no – I think he must have had a problem understanding this word, I received numerous calls which I ignored. Finally having ogt fed up of it I answered the phone to be told by a female that they had a buyer for my tme share! I told her very politely that I was not interested and that I was going to report them to the police if they didn’t stopp phoning me. This appears to have worked!
Thanks for your comment Christine!
None of these companies seem to take a no for an answer, and they keep on bothering people with their dubious offers.
Let’s hope they have given up now on your number at least.
Kind regards
Customer Care