Buying VGC points

[Currahee]

HI all! This is my first post and I hope someone can shed some light on my confusion. My wife and I are new DVC members as of June 17, 2009. We purchased 320 points from the BLT while we were on board the 7-day DCL cruise last June 13, 2009. Being from Washington state, we wanted to purchase from VGC but was told by our guide that it was sold out.. We see ourselves frequently visiting Disneyland more often than Disney World. AS I read through the threads, many have recently purchased from VGC. I'm quite frustrated knowing that VGC is still available or is it available for DVC members only?

What is my option? Shall I sell my BLT and purchase VCG. Is that difficult to do? Will it cost more if I did so?

My guide won't be back from vacation till next week so I could probably get some opinions from others here.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Sandisw]

Since your guide will be away, I would contact Quality Assurance (# should be in your paperwork) and find out if your contract has closed yet. If it has not, you can still rescind the contracts and start over if you are re-thinking purchasing BLT. If they can not help you, I would then ask them to put you in touch with a manager/supervisor so that you can find out if you can still get out of the deal.

Changes can be made to any contract as long as it hasn't officially closed. Good luck!!!

 

[ACDSNY]

Yes VGC is available to anyone. Hopefully your contract hasn't closed and you can make the change.

 

[Currahee]

Man, that is quite annoying! Now, why would our guide mislead us by letting us know that VGC was not available for purchase? I am tempted to go through DVC members assistance and completely bypass her.

 

[ACDSNY]

Man, that is quite annoying! Now, why would our guide mislead us by letting us know that VGC was not available for purchase? I am tempted to go through DVC members assistance and completely bypass her.

That might be a good idea.

Since you're on the west coast I'd request a new guide from the DL DVC office.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Start with Quality Assurance about the BLT contract and then definitely change guides by talking to a supervisor. As was suggested - being west coast you may want to ask for a DL guide.

 

[MCSfromWA]

I agree with the other posters. You should call QA ASAP and see if your contract has closed yet. If it is not closed then you might want to consider cancelling your contract. I also live in Washington state and can see why you might prefer VGC. In addition, I agree with the other posters that you should get a new guide. After the deception or ignorance that was displayed if I were you I would be really upset if that guide received comission for selling you something that you didn't want (especially when you asked for something in particular that was still available). I wonder if your guide got a special bonus for selling BLT? In any event, I recently bought both VGC and BLT -- mostly VGC because I live on the west coast and I make more frequent trips to DLR vs WDW. They have a spectacular price on VGC right now. For the same price that you paid for BLT you could possibly buy more points at VGC. Or if you still like BLT, you could decide to split the points between ownership at both BLT and VGC. Good luck!

 

[Currahee]

Thanks for all of the great responses guys! I will await my guide's response tomorrow since she stated that she will return from her vacation tomorrow. If she still deceives me, I will write a formal complaint against her and find another guide based at the DL resort.

MCSfromWA, where did you purchase your VGC points from?

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Waiting is your choice but I cannot stress enough that you need to call Quality Assurance right away and stop the closing on the BLT points if it's still possible. They really are the ones that take care of problems much more so than the guide. If you BLT points close there is next to nothing that can or probably will be done about it - and if it's possible QA will be able to stop it immediately.

Your guide will probably have lots of messages waiting for them after being on vacation and many guides are also notorious about not returning calls. They may not be very enthusiastic about talking to you either after such a big boo boo and it's a risk you are taking in waiting another day or even minute.

I also own VGC points because it is expected that booking there at 7 months with other DVC points may be very difficult. Being that you know you want to go to DL more often you want to do what you can to get the purchase changed to get the priority 11 month booking.

I hope you'll be able to get things changed.....and don't wait on your guide! Time really is of the essence on this.

 

[Currahee]

I will contact QA during my lunch break tomorrow.

 

[bumbershoot]

I will contact QA during my lunch break tomorrow.

Since we're on west coast and they are on the other coast, I might suggest calling before you go into work. They will probably already be there (unless you go in disturbingly early).

I'm so bothered for you that your guide said that! I'm sure I could call our guide (CA-based, though we bought BLT b/c I do not have tons of interest in staying at Grand Cal) tomorrow and buy into VGC no problem. I just hate that this happened to you.

 

[forevercruising]

Waiting is your choice but I cannot stress enough that you need to call Quality Assurance right away and stop the closing on the BLT points if it's still possible. They really are the ones that take care of problems much more so than the guide.

Absolute "ditto" here....Quality Assurance is definitely your next step -- ASAP. You should not count on contacting your guide to fix this until your current sale has been stopped. Then, if you wish, you could contact your guide and voice your opinions.

QA is the way to go.

Good luck!!!

 

[MCSfromWA]

Good luck with your call to QA. One thing that I learned through my sister who is a long-time DVC owner is that when working with QA: state your issue and stand firm. I hope that you will get the resolution that you desire.

You asked where I got my points. I have a guide at DL. My DH and I spoke to my sister's WDW guide 3 years ago but didn't purchase then because we were waiting for BLT and VGC (which had not been announced then but we knew would happen eventually). When we decided to buy this spring we were still assigned to the other guide. We requested a change because it made more sense for us to have a guide that is in our time zone. We signed our paperwork at DL when we went down for our DD's birthday.

There are many wonderful guides at DL. But as the Disboard has reminded all of us -- their job is to sell us more points. I love my guide but I always read my contracts carefully -- and I have several because I have my points in units of increments that we can sell later if we choose or can divide between our children if we keep them and give them to the kids in 40 years. My sister also told me at the beginning of our process that the guide can promise us the moon but unless it is in the contract it means nothing. I wonder if you will really be able to trust your guide to tell you about all of the product and incentives available after this experience?

Good luck! And let us know if you have a magical ending to this situation!

 

[Currahee]

Got up early this morning and contacted QA. I was surprised that there wasn't any waiting period. I was sad to find out that my contract had already closed as of July 1st, 13 days after we became members. QA was surprised that my guide had told me that VGC was sold out. QA would email them and I left another message with my guide. I hope that she will be able to contact me.

Has anyone sold their points and then repurchase points for another resort? Will I lose money if I did?

MCSfromWA, could you recommend me your guide and their contact number? There is no sense in rushing for the contract has closed. I would probably wait for my guide's phone call. Dang, I'm really stressed out! Can't think anymore.

 

[Sandisw]

Got up early this morning and contacted QA. I was surprised that there wasn't any waiting period. I was sad to find out that my contract had already closed as of July 1st, 13 days after we became members. QA was surprised that my guide had told me that VGC was sold out. QA would email them and I left another message with my guide. I hope that she will be able to contact me.

Has anyone sold their points and then repurchase points for another resort? Will I lose money if I did?

MCSfromWA, could you recommend me your guide and their contact number? There is no sense in rushing for the contract has closed. I would probably wait for my guide's phone call. Dang, I'm really stressed out! Can't think anymore.

Yes, I have sold a contract and I did take a small loss. I bought in in Jan. with a small VWL contract so I could buy in to BLT with less points (rumor was they were going to raise the minimum buy in to 200 points which never happened).

I realized that I really just wanted to own BLT so I put the VWL up for sale, sold it (will be closing after my vacation in August) and then just re-bought the points at BLT. Of course, I was selling a 50 point contract which was easy to sell but it was worth it for me to own all my points where I knew I wanted to stay so I could book the whole trip at 11 months.

In your case, BLT is new and you have a big contract, which will be harder to sell. The commission on a sale is somewhere between 10 - 12% (I paid 10% to TSS). Plus, you would be competing with Disney's direct price, with incentives, which is about $99.00 per point for contracts that big, so your price would have to be competitive-which may make your loss quite large.

I wish you luck in figuring something out.

 

[Currahee]

Been on the phone with DVC members, my guide and QA. I may have to resell BLT so I can purchase VGC. Who can I sell it to and how long will the process take? I purchased 320 BLT points for $92 a point. At what price should I sell them? I am thinking of selling only 160 points and maintain a 11-month booking window for th BLT and buy another $160 for VGC at $88.

 

[Sandisw]

Been on the phone with DVC members, my guide and QA. I may have to resell BLT so I can purchase VGC. Who can I sell it to and how long will the process take? I purchased 320 BLT points for $92 a point. At what price should I sell them? I am thinking of selling only 160 points and maintain a 11-month booking window for th BLT and buy another $160 for VGC at $88.

First, you can contact one of the resale brokers and they can put it up for sale for you.

But, did you buy your contract as two 160 point contracts or one big 320 point contract? If you do not have two 160 point contracts now, you can't sell them that way. You can only sell what you bought so if what you currently own is one big 320 point BLT contract, that is all you will be able to sell.

If you do have two small contracts, and can sell off only 160 of the points, you might be able to get a buyer for what you paid and your loss would be limited to the commission.

Of course, you can offer it for whatever you want since Disney has ROFR, so it really all comes down to how big of a loss you are willing to assume. Even if what you ask is lower than what will pass ROFR, you might get someone who is willing to try to get a great deal.


Good luck!

 

[florep1]

Since your guide misspoke/misrepresented the status of VGC, he should help you figure this out with minimal loss on your part. If he doesn't, I would change guides.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

First of all I'd push back on DVD on this one. I'd call QA back and say that you would like to speak to your guides supervisor about the problem and escalate it to the supervisors supervisor if necessary. I read that there has been the VERY, VERY rare case of them doing a change if they made a mistake, but am unfortunately doubtful that guide misinformation would qualify. I believe it was Dean that said he had heard of it in only one or two cases which isn't much at all. Still, though I wouldn't count on it but I'd give it a try. There would probably have to be an admission on your guides part of giving you incorrect info but maybe they're willing to do that.

If you do end up having to go the resale route you may be in a bit of luck to come out even. BLT discounts have gone down since you purchased and VGC discounts have increased so you may be able to sell BLT, pay the commission and repurchase VGC without too much of a monetary difference.

As was mentioned - if your contracts were broke up then you can sell one and keep the other. If it is one contract then it's all or nothing.

I'm curious - what did your guide say about VGC being available when you talked to him/her today? Also, I PM'd you last night if you haven't seen it.

 

[Currahee]

I am in the process of finding another guide anyway. When I spoke to her this morning she suggested that I just go ahead and purchase another 120+ points from the VGC when I was more concerned about selling.