And there it is, writ large.
Caveat emptor, right?
There's plenty of information out there about the process. Heck, there was when I rented five years ago. Even the FB groups have links to stuff like this -- and even the sketchiest rental sites, like the one I used, RIP. This board has them at the top of the rent board.
If that makes me "victim blaming," whatever. There are ways for renters to do diligence and protect themselves to some degree, and they're the rules of these boards. Apparently a lot of people didn't do them. I don't see what this has to do with DIS, as it actually violates DIS's rules, and this isn't a normal thing here.
In today's world, Disney itself is a very large, complex animal. I have friends who tell me "Hey - I am bringing my family to Disney! You're a Disney person - what should we see?"
EVERY PERSON ON THESE BOARDS KNOWS WHAT COMES NEXT.... We've all been there.
"Do you have tickets yet?" - nope. they were going to buy them at the gate. I mean - you just GO THERE and give them a credit card and they let you in, right?
"Park Reservations?" - What are those?
"ADR's?" - Well, I don't know where we want to eat. But if you have any recommendations, I will walk up there when I am hungry, right?
"
Genie+" - who has a Genie now? You mean like from Aladdin?
"MDE App?" - I don't know much about cell phones. What do I need this for?
Now if you do not know anything about any of this - TRY to look it up. It's like trying to learn nuclear physics from google. You have pretty much NO CHANCE. There are so many conflicting pieces of information, opinions (many of which are wrong), outdated information, etc. Things change so much, so fast that what was true last week may be completely wrong now. You need a PhD in WDW to be able to even advise someone properly. Even TA's get it wrong. Bless you if you try to youtube it....
Now throw the COMPLEXITY of a time share on top of all that.
An average person really doesn't even have the base that they need to understand everything they are reading, much less grasp all the nuances without studying it for longer than most people have the time or patience for.
I am buying a house right now. I have bought one before. The contracts and long and complex. I pay a real estate agent to help me. She knows her job well. But she can only navigate so much. There are far more complex things like mortgages and finances and taxes that she doesn't know. MANY PEOPLE end up in very bad positions when buying a house despite the use of professionals to help them.
I swear Disney with a
DVC rental is every bit as complex with every bit of nuance. It's just not reasonable to expect the average person to be able to understand it all or know what they need to find out. Blaming them for not doing their research is the equivalent of asking me to build a house by myself and then blaming me when the plumbing doesn't pass inspection.