Costal Linda one owner Rental Beware.. lesson learned..

[gogiantsfan11]

Well, I know there was just a topic on this board regarding renting from a timeshare owner. I have been going to Aruba for 20 years and the last 6 years we have taking our 4 kids to the Costa Linda, renting 3 bedroom units out. We all love it there. This year my parents and my brother's family were coming along, this was a last month of so choice to go as my older son is away at college and can not make it, so we were not sure we were going to go without him. Anyways, once we decided I have been looking for a 3 bedroom unit as my brothers family was getting a 2 bedroom and my parents were going to stay with us. I was thrilled when I got an email this week that one was open from Marshall Hall. Unfortunately, it went down hill after that. After a seris of emails back and forth to negotiate the price, to let him know i was going to check with the costa linda that he was the owner(he actually said, go ahead check with them, I own 36 weeks down there). Which when I called the lady on the phone laughed and said "Sure, we all know Marshall." Once, I got confirmation I told him we would send the check out tomorrow. The next day I told him the check was send out to please let me know he got it ok. We went on to discuss me renting the unit in 2013 for another week and he went on to tell me that its a great unit as it was the "developers" unit. I went ahead and booked 11 tickets to Aruba that day before the airfare changed. Well, yesterday I got an email that said.
"Karen - I am sorry to tell you that week 13 is now gone. The money came in from Canada yesterday and my rule is first check gets the week. Marshall"
Not at one point was I aware of his rule... that fact that someone else was interested, that it was not ours.
He has yet to return any emails and it looks like I am stuck without a place in Aruba.
I want to send out a huge thank you to Keith(an owner I rented in the pass from) and Charlie from this board for trying to help with the situation. I am sure my check is sitting in his mailbox as we speak.
I am so mad that people like this are out there.. but lesson learned. I will not book airline ticket until confirmation is in hand. Again, I have had NO issues with owners in the past and would happily rent again ... but, just like in life we always seem to run across a bad seed. I am just shock with all the weeks he owns that this is the way he conducts business. I will post this on a couple boards to get the word out to beware of this owner.. I just have some disappoint kids and myself at this moment.
Karen

[Andrea J.]

yikes!

welcome to the aruba.com community forum.

i guess the old saying rings true........let the buyer beware.
the owner should have made it perfectly clear.

i make things clear with my rentals.....i deal with 1 person at a time.

[katb161]

I'm sure you will find somewhere to stay. I had the same situation happen when I rented a house in Florida. Enjoy Paradise as always!!!!
Kath

[billy999]

One idea might be once you agree on a deal with the owner of the rental unit and agree to send payment, do it immediately and send it 'express mail" then, immediately send the owner of the unit the tracking number so this way he definetely knows it's on its way and gives him a sense of security that you actually sent the payment.

[billy999]

by the way...I like your handle ....GO GIANTS !! It should be a great game. We will dethrone the champs !

[gaby]

the owner was wrong. if someone else told him they were sending a check, he should have told you that and then if they didn't send it by a certain date, accepted yours. I would never rent from that owner under any circumstances.

[billy999]

I agree Gaby. The owner was wrong....and I wouldn't want to do business with a person like that either.

[arubabob]

Originally Posted by billy999

I agree Gaby. The owner was wrong....and I wouldn't want to do business with a person like that either.

The owner certainly should have mentioned that he had a deal pending on the unit. I have had several tell me that the unit was rented but they would contact me if the deal fell through.

[Randi]

A slightly different twist to a similar story. This year at the SC someone rented out his unit to two different people knowingly. Both showed up for the same unit. I guess each didn't bother to check to ensure their name was on the week.

Anyway, SC called the "owner" and told them that this was fraud and that he better pay up for another week for one of the people. They would not give him an owner's rate and made him pay them directly on his CC. He actually complained that this was costing him money!! Too bad and he was lucky no one was going to charge him.

On another note, many people can string along owners when trying to rent out units. They promise to take it and push things so they can keep looking for a better deal. While this wasn't the case for you, he should have been very clear to let you know that whomever's check arrives first is the one who gets the unit. Then you have options about sending the money courier, etc and also wait on buying tickets.

Both owner and renter needs to be careful. Most people are good and honest but it is unfortunate that there are a few "rotten" apples out there.