It's not too late...

This comment was left on the Blog, and I thought I'd publish it to make it more visible:

Dear Fabbo,

I'm going to leave a comment on Trendwest, which is based in the Oregon area. I went to the 90 minute spew just to get my free 4 day, 3 night stay in Vancouver or Victoria, Canada. I did get a bit 'suckered' into buying the 5000 credit plan they are now offering (but it took 2 hours to break me down). 'Suckered' is I went against my principle that if someone offers a 'deal' good for that night only and you really weren't willing or prepared to blow money on something, you should not do it. It's a bad move (especially if the price is as costly as a used car). I wasn't prepared for what 'Treadwest' actually was.

Fortunately, I was sick the next day and did a lot of research over the company, opinions, lawsuits, etc over Trendwest on the web, then I read through the big fat book. I concluded that:

1. I will only enjoy the Trendwest properties with my girlfriend or wife, which I have neither (and if I do acquire a wife she can get us on a future deal)

2. I would be planning my vacation/adventure around my lodging, which is oppositte of all the travels I have done all over the world (and in my opinion, more fun)

3. A bay area newscast just finished a year-long study of Trendwest that seems to suggest they are overselling their supply at an unsustainable rate, thereby chances of you trying to get in a popular place is slim-and-none:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=7on_your_side&id=5074783
This has led to people actually selling their ownership of timeshares at a loss because of this frustration. Thus, people need to be extremely flexible and have about 5 alternatives in mind for a destination.

4. You can actually buy these timeshare ownerships at a severe discount to what Trendwest offers through second-source place (here is one of them): http://www.vacationcredits.com/

5. Trendwest has competition now so I think people can afford to wait and find the best deal for themselves

6. I wasn't too thrilled with the lawsuit I found that California slapped on Trendwest in 2003 for their 'unreasonable' contracts you are forced to sign: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2003/10/27/daily44.html
I am sure they have changed some of their contract wording but...
There was also some noise I found on the company as far away as Australia.

All that said, Trendwest (here in Vancouver, Washington) was very professional with handling my cancelation. I personally cancelled it less than 24 hours after I signed up and they gave me no hassles. I did this professioally by requesting to talk to an agent (a hot agent, no less) in private to prevent my conversation to be overheard. Note though this was strategic on my part because they were about ready to have another 90 minute session with potential buyers so if they were going to hassle me I was going to make sure the whole building overheard me, including all the skeletons I would have whipped out for people to see.

Wise actions, indeed.

-- Fabbo
Tags: trendwest worldmark