An article in German which was published in the Noticias 7 news board from the canary Islands this week, which does not only apply to German timeshare owners, so we have translated the text below.

You can access the original article on the following link: http://goo.gl/2rmo0F 

On the Canary Islands hardly any tourist escapes from them: The so-called OPC’s, young people, who are everywhere where tourists are and try to lure customers with their dubious methods. At the beach, in shopping centres, nowhere one is safe from these touts. Despite all clear warnings they succeed again and again with their promises to win prizes and other tricks to get the consumers to sit through hours of sales presentations. At the end of such a promotion tour, which is done by well-trained sales people, very often the consumer ends up signing for a timeshare or the purchase of a holiday package.

Anybody who has signed in the past such a contract and found out at a later point that the exuberant promises made by the sales person did not come true, will be grateful for any idea how to get out of this membership.

Such timeshare victims possibly will receive then one day a cold call from some company that promises them to get their lost money back via the Spanish court. Whether this company is called Timeshare Refund Network, Reclaimgc or CLA, their modus operandi is more or less the same. In the past, several of these companies have been investigated by the police for alleged fraud. A sentencing of the responsible persons however has still not been achieved up to now.

Whatever the cold callers promise or suggest, it is always recommendable to be very careful, especially when you are invited to come to Spain or asked to pay great amounts of money upfront. There is quite a big risk that you will neither see any of this money back.

New business concepts with „old friends“

With these cold calls there are some issues that make one doubt. First of all you should ask yourself where these supposed saviours of timeshare got the telephone numbers and addresses from of the timeshare consumers they contact The reason could be that former timeshare sales people are calling down on their own client lists. Many times behind these cold calling companies are in reality the bosses of timeshare organizations who until a few years ago sold themselves timeshare products, as for example for Anfi on Gran Canaria.

As this business for some reasons did not work as good anymore or they finished for other reasons the contract with their previous business partners, they have now gone over to practice other different business concepts. And part of these new concepts is the offers made to unhappy timeshare owners to recuperate the money that they have paid for the timeshare.

Very practical, if you then can revert to a long client list. And if you can even harm the business partner that now has become a competitor, even better. We all know that in timeshare they do not work with velvet gloves, but with hard tools and clear threatening. Heavy conflicts between rivalling sales companies are not the worst of what has happened in the past. Behind the stage there are used much heavier weapons than what is shown to the nice holiday world and to what tourists are made believe.

Also in Germany it is possible to file a lawsuit

With all those companies that promote themselves on the Canary Island with their stories about the fantastic exit that they are celebrating at Spanish Courts, fighting against the timeshare industry, one should look very well whether these are perhaps the same people as the ones that have sold them the timeshare before. It’s actually unlikely that they had a Road-to-Damascus revelation and changed their ways. Especially as the methods they use to attract clients, are as questionable as the ones they used to lure the consumers before into their timeshare resort. The same as they told you about the benefits of timeshare then, as clever they are now to promise disappointed timeshare owners great exit at Spanish courts. About the costs that are to be expected they do not speak. Even if in some cases it is possible to get the money back due to mistakes made at the time of closing the contract, for this it is not bindingly necessary to go over a Spanish court. According to a decision of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany in 2008, victims of contracts made outside of Germany can fight for their right under certain circumstances also from Germany (court). Especially in those cases where the contract was cancelled inside the cooling off period but the company did not accept it, and the illegally asked deposit had not been returned.

In other cases however it is inevitable to go to court in Spain. But for this you will not need the help of a company that works with dubious methods. Anybody who has insurance will certainly be able to find a genuine lawyer in Spain who knows about these matters. You can also ask for information at the German Embassy in Madrid or at the consulate in Las Palmas who in some occasions have been very helpful in searching a genuine lawyer.

Source: http://goo.gl/2rmo0F

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