The new resale rule: The Empire Strikes Back

[Eric Julie and Hailey]

I came to this part of the DISboards expecting to find members venting about DVCs latest greedy move regarding resales. Yet, I'm not even seeing a discussion about it.

Really?

The decision to eliminate benefits from resale contract owners starting in March in order to improve "new" sales is pure Disney greed. The result will almost certainly be a lowered value of our already-watered down ownership interest.

Is no one else angry about this?

I know Disney has some excellent corporate lawyers, but I'm planning to research the legal aspects of this move to see if it really cannot be challenged. Part of the DVC sales pitch in 1998 was about how this is "just like owning a vacation home" and we "can always sell it later like any other property". They never told me that they would make my points less valuable than "their" points for resale purposes. In legal speak, this smells of an unfair trade practice -- or something of the sort.

I truly love Disney. I have for my whole life. I even admire the business aspect of Disney. Until now, I used to say that buying DVC was one of the best things I ever did. I told my friends and family about how owner-friendly the Club was - and how Disney takes care of us.

This DVC decision ends that speech for me. This latest move will sour me on DVC for a long time to come.

Anyone else?

 

[CarolAnnC]

The only thing we are guaranteed in our contracts is booking at our Home Resorts. Anything else is subject to change. I don't think you have any legal recourse in this regard.

 

[vicki_c]

Nope, no one cares.

Did you try a search or skimming the boards? I think the thread(s) have been moved to Mousecellaneous as of this week.

You're just behind the curve, that's all.

PS - I'm not angry at all, from my standpoint, it doesn't impact me negatively at all. Don't plan to sell, purchased direct (and never planned to use those options anyway) and I'm hoping resale prices drop so we can add on in the near future.

 

[ToddyLu]

The hospital I work for just decided to make all employees retiring this year pay full premium prices for coverage starting in January 2012. If you are eligible for Medicare--YOU NOR YOUR DEPENDENTS are covered after January 2012 by The Emploees Benefit plan. I think this is horrible and in the grand scope of things much, much worse. Imagine putting in a lifetime somewhere that you believe in--buying an home, putting the kids through college--then this. What if your wife is 6 years younger than you and never worked to take care of the kids. This will force me in some measure to work until I am 65--I am 42.

This came 2 days after they broke ground on a new building. So nah DVC isn't on my agenda this week.

 

[Sammie]

It's right here.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2636666

 

[disneynutz]

I came to this part of the DISboards expecting to find members venting about DVCs latest greedy move regarding resales. Yet, I'm not even seeing a discussion about it.

Really?

The decision to eliminate benefits from resale contract owners starting in March in order to improve "new" sales is pure Disney greed. The result will almost certainly be a lowered value of our already-watered down ownership interest.

Is no one else angry about this?

I know Disney has some excellent corporate lawyers, but I'm planning to research the legal aspects of this move to see if it really cannot be challenged. Part of the DVC sales pitch in 1998 was about how this is "just like owning a vacation home" and we "can always sell it later like any other property". They never told me that they would make my points less valuable than "their" points for resale purposes. In legal speak, this smells of an unfair trade practice -- or something of the sort.

I truly love Disney. I have for my whole life. I even admire the business aspect of Disney. Until now, I used to say that buying DVC was one of the best things I ever did. I told my friends and family about how owner-friendly the Club was - and how Disney takes care of us.

This DVC decision ends that speech for me. This latest move will sour me on DVC for a long time to come.

Anyone else?

I thought they said that this was a new policy that enhances our reservation bookings and it is in response to ongoing Member feedback.

Why would anyone be upset?

Bill

 

[palaemon]

I'm not happy about it. We will never be "full" members. If if weren't for resale, we couldn't afford the high price of DVC (at least now now with BLT going to $140 in March.)

It like bait and switch. Just because they put the VERY LEAST they can in the POS, doesn't mean they weren't "selling" the perks for 20 years. It's obvious to any of us that one foe DVC's biggest selling points was being able to sell it and recoup a good deal of cost.

That said, I actually can't believe it took them this long. Read the boards here for any length of time, and if a newbie asks, "Should I buy direct or resale?" the answer was always, unless you're rich or impatient, etc... Buy resale.

Now that said, if someone asked, "can I use points to cruise or trade out?" the answer was always, trading out and cruises are a bad way to use your points and other timeshares might be better for trading.

To be honest, the biggest concern that I've seen on these boards about the change isn't the change itself, but what it represents - "What's next?" Disney is only getting started. What perks are going next?

Everyone always says, "buy where you want to stay," because you might not get into your 1st choice if it's not your home resort. Now they're saying "buy where you want to stay," because you're only gauranteed your home resort and eventually Disney will/may restrict everyone to only their home resort.

Personally, I don't think Disney will remove the 'club' from Disney Vacation Club.

 

[TLSnell1981]

$140 PER POINT!! SERIOUSY?!!

 

[bicker]

The possibility of this change has been there since the beginning. We knew, when we bought in many years ago, that this kind of change could come about, and logic would tend to indicate that that would be the case toward the latter half of the contract term.

Disappointment makes sense. Many of us would have been personally better off if these changes did not take place. But shock, outrage and indignation don't make sense. Anyone who was surprised by the fact that these changes could come about failed to do their own part, learning about what they were buying when they bought in.

 

[TisBit]

Honestly, the change doesn't bother me all that much and here is why. First, I bought my membership for my personal use and to vacation with, this change doesn't affect me in that sense. It doesn't change the way I will vacation or my membership. I don't plan on selling.

Second, while yes the change may boost the direct sales of DVC....but there is a plus to that as well. If direct sales plummeted and DVC stopped growing and expanding (both on site and off site like in Hawaii) it could be become stagnant and less appealing. The buildinds could go into disrepair because DVC would no longer need to keep appearances up to draw in new buyers, but merely keep them operational just to appease existing owners.

Also, resale prices are tied to direct sale prices. If direct sales are going up, so will resale prices, even with reduced benefits. Have you looked at the resale market....I don't see the prices being affected much by this change. I only see that contracts might stay on the market longer, etc. Yes, you will no longer be able to buy a resort in May and be able to resell it December recouping most of your money.....but that shouldn't happen anyway. Direct sales needed an edge over resales and of all the options that we as Disboard members were discussing as possiblities, these were pretty tame.

 

[maminnie]

We are extremely disappointed in this change and have expressed it on these boards.

Would contact DVC as well but it would be like talking to a "wall". The Member Satisfaction Team would tell us they are sorry about the change and that they will be sure to share our thoughts with management. As with other changes that we were not happy with, nothing would change.

The bottom line is DVC/Disney could care less about how its members feels about this recent change. As long as it stimulates their direct sale purchases and fuels whatever other goals that they may have, they will be pleased with the decision that they made despite its negative effect on its members. With such a squeaky clean pixie dust image, I am surprised by this a bit.

Traditionally DVC timeshare has held its value much better then other timeshare properties. Many people bought with this in their mind. While others want to be critical of those that anticipated DVC holding value better then other timeshares, nothing over the 10 plus years says anything but this. It is only the latest change by DVC/Disney that has now created such havoc and a potential nose dive of resale values.

I sincerely hope all future "direct" purchasers remember that they TOO in a blink of an eye could be selling their points on the resale market and they TOO will experience the same negative effects that current members may soon face with resale values. And let's not forget, what else could be taken away next from resale or even direct purchasers.....that is anyone's guess at this point.

All I know is that I am so glad that I did not purchase at some of these very high per point costs over the past years.......I would really be upset if I had.

 

[sean-1966]

I'm not really all that worried about this. I always figured I would rather just rent out my points to someone that wants to stay at WDW and then take the money and go where I want to go. In the long run I'd be ahead money wise and I'm not restricted to RCI, Disney Cruise, whatever. Kind of tough for DVC to stop this when they themselves do it...

 

[a742246]

Yes, I am disappointed but I don't have the time to do anything about it.
Like others have said I am more worried about future changes than this current change. If you would like to fight it, then bravo to you.
If you need my name on a petition I will gladly sign it.
Good luck!

 

[nunzia]

I'm not that upset about it..I had read these boards extensively before buying and understood that all I was really getting was a prepaid vacation option in my home resort..everything else was gravy and could come and go. Yes, this could dampen the resale value, but I'll deal with this hopefully way down the road, or maybe never if my kids want to inherit the points which they probably will since they all love Disney.

 

[mdsd8700]

Love your Thread Name by the way, laughed when I seen it. As others have said many comments on here about this subject. It seems to have died down in the last week or so.

We haven't been members long enough (only last June) to really have a feel what DVC was like in past years or when it began. It does seem some people have been disillusioned in recent years for many reasons the latest resale vs. direct change being a big one. However before purchasing our contract I lurked on these boards for years and became familiar with the many aspects of DVC. I will say what I really learned from all the reading is that Disney pretty much can do what they will to DVC all in the name of member satisfaction. Our desire for DVC (which took us 14 years of thinking to purchase) was a pre paid Disney room. It appears that is all we are guaranteed; at our home resort. Even knowing that we purchased. For right now I am fine with how things stand. Not sure what the future will bring and chances are there will be more changes ahead but will have to wait and see on those. It may be because we are so new to the club that we are not too upset by these changes. Would have preferred that it didn't but still happy with our purchase.

 

[jodifla]

It doesn't surprise me that they felt the need to separate themselves from the resale market. I don't like it, but I agree with a previous PP that it would also be to our disadvantage to have direct sales drop off...they'd stop expanding, and DVC would be less viable.

With $140 direct sales, $60 resales are going to look pretty good to a lot of people.

 

[staceymay00]

There are threads discussing this topic. Some people are upset. Me...I don't care about these changes. Will I care if DVC does something much more drastic in the future? Probably. I will wait until that actually happens before I worry about it.

We knew going in exactly what we were buying - one day we may only be able to use our points at our home resort, and our contract might be worth nothing right after we buy it. People expect too much from Disney, in my opinion. They are a corporation whose objective is to make money. Personally, I don't feel the resale changes went so far as to be greedy and unfair.

 

[Figment2]

Nope, not upset. I'd be upset if they discontinued the AP discount or changed the booking windows (both of which they can do at any time).

Cyn

 

[Granny]

{snip}That said, I actually can't believe it took them this long. Read the boards here for any length of time, and if a newbie asks, "Should I buy direct or resale?" the answer was always, unless you're rich or impatient, etc... Buy resale.

Now that said, if someone asked, "can I use points to cruise or trade out?" the answer was always, trading out and cruises are a bad way to use your points and other timeshares might be better for trading. {snip}

The other thing you will consistently see in reply to newbie inquiries about buying DVC is it makes sense if your primary intent is to stay in DVC accommodations. Questions about other uses are, as you say, met with suggestions that those aren't a great use of points.

Do DVC guides use the other aspects when selling points? Sure they do. But there have been many perks used to sell DVC points that have changed or gone away.

I'm not excited about the changes, but am not surprised either. The only question is, what else do they intend to do to make resales less attractive?

 

[cseca]

At this point it really doesn't matter if members are mad or upset. DVD needs to do what they need to do to make $.
The fact that the POS promises only Home Resort stays is the point. That's why I'm a big proponent of purchasing where you like to stay. Some people doesn't care where they stay and that's fine. But there are some people out there who wants to stay at BLT but purchases OKW/SSR because of the cheaper price.
It might be ok now, but you never know when DVC decides to say "As of now all members can only stay at their Home Resort.".

And well, there's really not much we can do about that other than try to sell your contracts if we're unhappy about it.

So yeah, am I happy about the change? No (even if all my points are Disney Direct, I still worry about future resale).
Am I going to sell my contracts? Nope, still wants to go to Disney for another many years

Do I expect more "improvements" coming in the future? Yep... and nothing we can do about it other than keep or sell.

Honestly I'm more worried about DVC expanding beyond it's capability then anything else.
I'd rather DVC keep the current resorts and work on improving what's already here, rather than expand expand expand and let the quality of the product fell slowly but surely.

But that's a personal opinion.