Second-largest timeshare market has weak oversight
With 14 developers and 130 resorts, South Carolina has one of the biggest timeshare industries in the United States (second only to Florida), along with 32 pages of laws to regulate them. But "South Carolina's system of consumer protections is failing aggrieved buyers -- people who thought they were buying a product, rather than paying their way into a tricky system of bidding and swapping and scrapping for service," reports the Charleston Post & Courier. Although the Department of Consumer Affairs receives at least one complaint each week, the state has cut the budget for timeshare oversight and has left only one employee in place to investigate the industry. South Carolina stopped screening timeshare promoters in 2003 and gives consumers only a 5-day window in which to cancel timeshare contracts. "Most of what state regulators do now is broker peace accords between disgruntled buyers and the companies they bought their units from," the Post & Courier says. "Developers sometimes relent to commission pressure, although many are unyielding to complaints from buyers."
