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a timeshare was donated as a silent auction item
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Question: How would you handle this situation: at a recent golf outing, a timeshare
was donated as a silent auction item. In hindsight, I don't believe the
auctioneer stated that the trip must be used by December 19, 2004. Now the
winner is having difficulty fitting the available times of the time-share to
her travel/vacation time, and she's hinting that she would like her money back.
The donor of the prize is trying to work with the winner to find a date she
would be able to go, but.......if they can't come up with anything and she
out-and-out asks for her money (aka donation) back - how do we handle this?
The lesson learned is that any "contingencies" on prizes must be stated and/or
printed clearly somewhere prior to bidding...and auctioneers must be coached
beforehand. I'm not sure it wasn't - but that's something to be certain of next time.
What do you do when someone asks for a donation back?
Answer: It doesn't seem to me that the bid-winner/purchaser was a "donor". She
purchased the use of the time share and did not "donate" anything. Now she
wants her money's worth for her "donation".
I don't know who would bid on the use of a timeshare property and wouldn't
ask or expect that there would be some form of limitation on when the
timeshare could be used. That's what a timeshare is. Now she is hinting
about getting her money back because her schedule doesn't permit her to use
the timeshare before December 19, 2004. When did she hope to use the
timeshare? -- in 2005, 2006, 2007?
Okay, enough of my whining about the so-called donor who bid on the
timeshare.
I would just try to work something out about with her. Ask if she has any
friends or relatives who might want to use the timeshare she purchased. If
she doesn't want to do that, ask what she thinks would be a fair
compromise -- maybe a partial refund. In the worst case scenario, just
refund her money in full -- it's not worth going through a hassle with
someone like that.
If she is not going to use the timeshare, then you can offer it to others
since it is still available for use before December 19, 2004. In fact, it
might not hurt to mention here what the general location of the timeshare
unit is, how much time is available (1 week, 2 weeks), which weeks are
available, and what the amount of the winning bid was. Who knows, maybe
someone who sees this will want to offer to purchase the use of the
timeshare from your organization or from the woman who won the bid at the
earlier auction. After all, you do still have the real donation -- the use
of the timeshare that was donated to your organization.
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