Timeshares In China

Our Comment More high pressure sales tactics and dubious schemes that are rightly associated with timeshares finding their way to the far reaches of the world. No surprise here.

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The sales pitch hit Mr Zhu as he made his way down the aisles of a Shanghai houseware store: If he filled out the survey, his name would be entered into a big prize draw.

A few days later, a caller asked him to go to an office building downtown. When he and his wife arrived, the staff welcomed them as winners of the draw and invited them to watch a video. It described a resort in Yunnan province where they could buy long-term rights to stay for a week each year, or accumulate credit toward longer stays. As the Zhus puzzled over the arrangement, staff pressed them to secure usage rights for 15 years for 30,000 yuan (HK$28,825).

The Zhus' debit card allowed them to pay only 3,000 yuan on the spot, so a staffer offered to escort them home for more cash. Suddenly, wary because night had fallen and their home was far away, Mrs Zhu declined.

Two days later, the Zhus began asking for their money back. They didn't get it, so they took their story to a local newspaper as a warning to other naive consumers.

Timesharing, an industry whose high-pressure sales tactics and sometimes dubious schemes has generated more than its share of complaints and lawsuits in countries from Singapore to Australia to the United States, has arrived in China... Read More