Metro
Residents warned of timeshare frauds
By Qin Zhongwei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-08 07:59
Beijing citizens looking to travel abroad during the holiday season are being warned by local government to be cautious of timeshare vacation offers.
The advice was provided by an official from the Chaoyang district administration of industry and commerce yesterday.
"Consumers might be cheated by lucrative promotions like 'traveling around the world' or 'buying timeshare services as an investment'", Liu Dazhong, head of the consumer rights protection department of the administration, told METRO.
"In fact, there are still quite a few countries that remain closed to Chinese travelers. Any promotion that says it can send you around the world is a lie," he said.
"Sometimes timeshare companies boast that consumers can purchase the rights to use a hotel resort for 20 years, but then disappear with the cash," he added. Liu said he wants to slow the growing number of consumers being cheated by scams, with elderly people emerging as the largest target group.
As many as 260 notice boards were set up in busy shopping malls like SOHO Shangdu and The Place, as well as in local communities in Chaoyang district to echo the administration's month-long campaign to warn consumers about timeshare scams that was launched last weekend.
The idea of buying timeshares was first invented by a ski resort developer in France in the 1960s. It is a form of ownership in which the hotel or resort is shared with other parties. Each party, after paying a certain amount of money, is granted a period of time in which they may use the property.
The concept was quickly adopted by developers worldwide. The timeshare industry in countries like US is now mature but the Chinese market continues to lack regulation.
Liu said domestic timeshare companies usually hold promotions in famous hotels and with free travel to the location, push consumers to act quickly before they lose the chance, attach unfair clauses to contracts, and exaggerate the possible investment returns.
He said no companies in China are qualified to carry out timeshare services. And because Chinese law lacks sufficient detail to protect the rights of consumers in timeshare cases, winning a case is extremely difficult.
Wanghai Online, a non-profit organization dealing with consumer rights protection, has already received over 200 complaints from across the country this year. Most cases took place in large cities like Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou, Zhao Wenbin, manager of its complaint department, said.
"Consumers often fail to review the contracts clearly when they sign with the service providers," Zhao told METRO yesterday. "Although the law is not yet strong enough, administrations like the industrial and commercial bureau can prohibit exaggeration of services or the use of coercive persuasion," he suggested.
(China Daily 12/08/2009 page26)
