When it becomes a Crime?

[Tinkrbell]

I was very interested in the recent events on these boards about people renting, and being scammed out of their reservation.

Very awful indeed, however, from the one report that polygranny gave, Disney compensated her for her trouble (unclear how much?). With the way Disney is known for Sweeping criminal activity under the rug, and the large amount of members renting points out. What do you think Disney will do to handle this?

Compensating everyone for someone else's crime is nice, but who's paying for this? Dues? I hope not!

If a reported crime goes to court, they could subpoena Disney to release files about the members address, etc. But I don't think Disney will or CAN give this info out. IMO I think Disney needs to think of a way to SEVERELY PUNISH those who rent out points fraudulently!

Whats to stop others from making a rental, cancelling it, and then go to the Front Desk and state you had a res, show them your confirmation paper and then get "compensated" by Disney. Hey! Anyone want to rent me some points!?!? (temporarily, of course)

This issue needs to be addressed.

 

[pmcpmc]

I believe that Disney bought the pts. back becuase of a lean and that is why they are compensating.
doc. thanks for a better explanation

 

[RobDoc]

In this case, the person who rented to her later sold his membership. Disney then cancelled all existing reservations associated with the contract- thus creating the immediate problem. The renter mentioned that they had confirmed the reservation several times only to find it cancelled (by Disney- not the one she rented from) at arrival.

While the money most certainly should be returned to the renter, Disney's practice of cancelling reservations on sold contracts is not a well known policy and the rentor may well have been unaware of the situation. There was apparently some financial stress that led to the sale of the contract and the funds from the rental have likely already been spent.

Hopefully, this situation will cause some to take some precautions when renting.

Use a credit card, as you have some level of assistance from your card company. (I believe a cashiers check was required for transactions from this member.)

Make sure a contract is provided by the member for the transaction. It should state what is expected of each party and state what remedy would be available inthe event of a default by either. DVC does require a contract for rentals.

While these cautions would not have prevented the reservation from being cancelled by Disney, it might have provided additional resource for the renter in the event of any needed legal action.

I'm glad that Disney apparently provided some assistance in this situation- they are the ones responsible for cancelling the reservation. Perhaps if they had required the seller to acknowledge that he understood the existing reservations would be cancelled, the situation could have been addressed prior to arriving at the resort.

Hopefully, the renter will get satisfaction from the person she dealt with in the transaction.

 

[Tinkrbell]

I see, thanks for the clarification Doc. That makes alot more sence now.

 

[Dean]

This is a special case and DVC will not get involved in rentals or the problems that arrise as a rule. They have no jurisdiction to enforce it other than to hold the member responsible for what they have controll over and if there are repeated issues, they can hold the account as "not in good standing" preventing actvity like reservations. I'm sure they'd issue a couple of warnings first. They will not and cannot investigate individual issues unless they are directly involved as in this case.

 

[lat]

I have been really busy and did not read most of the posts on the DisBoard, this one caught my attention.

I am very disturbed by this because the DVC member involved was trying to get me to rent his pts a few times and I had spoken to him a few times. I just could not fork over the $ in cashier's check form without having a confirmation. The price was really attractive and I was thinking about renting from him to stay at GF or Poly concierge.

I have seen reservation pts going for around $5 in the last year but just could never work out the dates that I wanted. So I thought the price that he offered was fair and was actually a little lower than what I have seen. I could have been one of these people and I would absolutely be devastated if the room is not there when I get there.

Like other people said, this is a rare incident, but I was just appalled with the story, knowing how close I almost took up his offer!!!

 

[LIFERBABE]

Would using paypal to pay for transactions help in this type of situation?

Also I am going to review my paperwork for the cancellation policy during a sale. I remember reading it but can't remember if I read it here or in my documents.

Also I missed the update by polygranny to explain what occurred. I took this very personal also as I contacted the seller regarding these points also.

Again thanks to Polygranny for making us all a little more aware.