I have just had another call with I. from regulatory affairs (I got her initial wrong last time, it's I. not V.). Please read, there are some surprises.
At the end of last call I told her which were my biggest concerns:
- the lockoff premium
- the possibility to move points between different vacation home sizes
- how they judged demand
- the maximum reallocation
So she asked me where I wanted to start and I said the lockoff premium, which is really the thing I care the most. She started saying that she doesn't think they call it "lockoff premium", but there was a woman in the room (she didn't introduce herself) who confirmed it is what they call it. This seemed strange to me, because the VGF POS clearly has wording for it, I was talking with a senior manager, it seemed weird she didn't know it after last time I explicitly told her about it.
She explained to me that the lockoff premium is needed for them to balance demand between different unit sizes. It could be increased or could be decreased. They could even make it negative in case studios and 1BR are far less in demand than 2BR. She then went explaining (again) that the whole resort has to be balanced, so an increase in a studio or a 1BR had to be balanced somewhere else.
I replied this is true just for the dedicated units, not for the lockoff because they count only the 2BR. It was clear she wasn't understanding me. So I made the example of SSR and at that point she told me that
the increase in the studios and 1BR went to lower the 2BR.
At that point I had to tell her what she was saying was not true. I told her what we discussed here, the difference in total points if SSR is fully booked as 2BR or as separate rooms. She still wasn't sure to understand. She asked for a 5 min pause so she could call someone who has been responsible of the reallocation, but she called me back saying she wasn't in the office today.
So she asked me to tell her exactly what my question was so she could get me the answer. I told her to do an experiment: take the 2019 and 2020 chart, apply them to the same Base year, calculate how many points are needed at SSR to book all lockoffs as studio+BR and compare the results. The different will be around 450k points. Then repeat the same experiment with 2BR. According to which law this is possible?
Then I went to tell her why I think they are not allowed to reallocate points across units. I told her about paragraph 10.6.3 of the condominium declaration, which is about destructive damage and it says that if a unit and its owners are removed from the system then the rest of the resort has to be in balance according to the one-to-one Florida law. There was a pause, she didn't give me an explanation.
I went on saying that in the first 20 odd years of
DVC their interpretation of the POS was clearly that they couldn't reallocate cross units, it started in 2013 when they changed the product understanding document and reallocated the THV. They changed their interpretation without changing the POS, so they created all sorts of contradictions.
She told me the product understanding document is not a legal document but a courtesy they do to buyers and they simplified it making it shorter due to members feedback. She then asked me about which other contradictions I found and I told her the other things we discussed here:
- the "within one Vacation Home" sentence
- the fact that an increase in one Use day has to be balanced with a decrease in a different day (non in the same day in a different unit)
- the maximum reallocation rule
Before I could tell her, she told me her interpretation of the sentence "Vacation Points existing within a given Unit at any time may not be increased or decreased". She told me what she already told to
@crvetter and I replied what I already wrote here: that points do not exist in a Unit, the sentence doesn't make any sense. A Unit is sold in different contracts as a % of ownership and that Points correspond to that % as a simplified tool to book rooms. So in the context of the paragraph, that sentence makes sense only if interpreted as "the total number of points needed to book a Unit cannot increase or decrease".
At this point we were about 1 hour into the call and she had to go. She promised me to get me answers to my two questions (the imbalance in the
point charts due to the lockoff premium and the destructive damage paragraph).
But before leaving she asked me what I wanted. Was I looking for? I told her I would like them to roll back the 2020 change

Then I told her I'd be happy to be pointed to the laws that make this reallocation legal, that I may be missing something important that clarifies everything.
But this wasn't what she meant. She told me that they care all their 250,000+ members are happy. She knew that I didn't purchase direct from Disney but on the secondary market (she added it is completely in my rights to do so). She said I didn't purchase direct from DVD so I didn't have a chance to talk with the guides or read the production understanding document I referred to, I replied that when I purchased, I took all rights and obligations from the previous owner and she just replied: "yes that's right".
Then she added that if I'm not happy anymore to be a member she would take my case to the committee and ask to reimburse me even if I didn't purchase direct. I told her I don't want to sell and she repeated the offer a second time. At that point I told her I'm happy to be a owner and that I want to continue to use my DVC, but if they cannot convince me there is nothing wrong with the reallocation I would use my rights as a consumer like talk to a lawyer or make a complain with the federal and Florida authorities.
She told me she'll take some time to gather all the answers I need and they'll call me back, probably in a week time. She also told me she's quite a senior manager and already spent a lot of time with me, and she's happy about it because they care about the members but she would be also be looking at finding a conclusion to this (I think this means next call will be the last one).
I have to say I actually appreciate the time they're spending with me, but I'm not happy with the replies I got until now.