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Greetings!
The ExchangeHomes Newsletter is published bi-monthly to
provide information on home exchange vacations for
current and recent members of ExchangeHomes and Newsletter subscribers.
Quick Links to the left to: Member Login, Browse the Listings, Sign Up, Read Our Blog, Go To Our Help Center.
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Address links are to be found at bottom of the page.
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ExchangeHomes.com Members on TV
ABC-KGO/TV Channel 7 in the SF Bay Area
Two ExchangeHomes.com members who completed a home exchange this summer will be featured on the ABC-KGO/TV Channel 7 News in the Bay Area on Friday September 5th on the 6 p.m. news, probably airing around 6:30 p.m.
The Bay Area members are 25493 from Santa Cruz. Their exchange partners, 26013 from Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Anyone living outside of that location can click the hyperlink above and should be able to watch the segment on their front page replays.
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A New "Global" Alliance!
Global Home Exchange
After months of discussion, I'm delighted to be able to announce a brand new alliance between ourselves and Global Home Exchange.
Beginning immediately, all current and active ExchangeHomes.com members are invited to take advantage of a complimentary membership with Global.
Similarly, all current Global members will receive an invitation to a complimentary membership with Exchangehomes.com.
Like ourselves, Global is an approved member of CHECtravel and abides by the highest standards and business ethics.
In order to receive a free Global membership, you must visit this address: http://www.4homex.com/exchangehomes.htm
You must join with the same email as you have registered with us, and you must enter EH followed by your Current ExchangeHomes Membership Number after your name. Example: Jane Smith EH 12345. There will be a brief time lag before your free listing is actually released while Global verifies your current status with us. NOTE: You will remain a full member of ExchangeHomes.com. When it's time to renew you will be invited to do so with us. Your continuing complimentary membership with Global will be dependent upon your membership with us remaining active. This joint venture will provide both club's memberships with significantly better opportunities to find exchanges. As a member of Global Home Exchange you will be able to log on to their web site and initiate contacts with their members and likewise, their members will be able to contact you.
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A Set of Car Keys Gets Left Behind
A real disaster report from the Member 26761
We received the following report and had to chuckle, even though at the time, the implications were far from funny for the ExchangeHomes.com members involved.
"Just got back from a wonderful exchange with Member 26024 from
Montclair, New Jersey.
We did three things that were new to us: One, we
actually met our exchange partners, the first time we've actually met our partners in
over a dozen swaps. They picked us up at Kennedy airport and we spent a day
together. Second we swapped cars, without a contract or agreement. This
worked out wonderfully as well. Both of us had newer Hondas and theirs had
a GPS which helped in our maneuvering around the area. GPS does not help with
traffic jams though!
We experience lots of practice with patient driving in NY
area traffic. The 26 miles from Kennedy to their home took us 2 hours to complete.
We also tried a third new concept, not one that we would
recommend, we accidently left a carry on bag behind, forgetting to load it in
the car on our way back home. So when we got to Kennedy with our exchange
partners' car we discovered the missing bag.
Our forgotten bag
story:
Left our exchange home in New Jersey at 6:30 pm for a 26 mile drive to
Kennedy airport and our return flight home. The journey took us right through
Manhattan. Got to airport at 8:30 p.m.
Traffic, traffic and more traffic. When
we got to the airport (took our exchange partners' car) we discovered one
carry on bag missing - left at home in New Jersey.
No time to go back as our
plane would leave in two hours and
our exchange partners would be arriving in
an hour.
They had used our car and left it at Vancouver Airport for us to pick up
when we returned at 2 a.m.
Inside the missing bag were some of
Joanna's clothes, my medication for my inner ear problem, our toothbrushes,
Canadian money and CAR KEYS + HOUSE KEYS. We were departing in 2 hours knowing that we would have no way of getting into our car at 2 a.m. parked in the Vancouver airport parkade at
$30 a day.
Our exchange partners phoned us on our cell just as they got
into New York (they had flown in on the same plane as we would be departing on, but we were not able to see them again as they would have to go though American customs and
immigration at
Kennedy).
They needed to know where their car was parked and
of course I
still had the key to the car in my pocket. No way to get it to them,
but fortunately they had a second one with them. We too would have had a second key if we hadn't left
our bag behind!
Thankfully they told us they left our car key in the
glove compartment along with a house key. Now, how to get inside our car
to get the key? I thought of AAA, we are members, and hoped they would
be open at that time of morning.
Once back into Vancouver, we completed Canadian customs and immigration at 2:10 a.m. and collected our bags. I
phoned AAA and they were open, and by 3:20 am they had our car door open
and we were on our way.
Today I sent our exchange partners' car key back by
courier for $38. We we found a library book they left behind that I'll mail to them tomorrow. They are trying to find a way to send us our bag. Between us we've been given some huge quotes: $250 to $400. for a 10 pound carry on bag. The best price so far is
$115 with DHL courier.
The moral of this story:
Double check all your luggage before leaving for the airport
and never pack all your eggs in one basket In our case the eggs were our car and
house keys, medication and Canadian money.
Incidently, we got an
email from Judy and Ken when we returned home. They got into their car just
after 10 pm and it took them 4 hours to drive the 26 miles from Kenedy airport to their
home. Traffic!
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Associate Membership Option Removed
Clearly they were too much of a liability
Back at the beginning of February when our major web site re-write / upgrade went live, we introduced a two-tiered level of home exchange memberships. This is one change I had always resisted, in fact anyone who has read my previous posts on the subject of free memberships would be well aware of my opinion on them. But .... we had documented requests from many members and visitors asking for this much broader coverage for home exchange listings, so I agreed to a six month experiment.
Right away it became evident that these free memberships were (as I suspected they would be), a disaster waiting to happen. Our programmers had written code to very stringently control how many contacts they could actually initiate with listing (paid) members. Initially they were allowed just five contact emails in any 24 hour period, but after just a short time this was amended to a total of five for as long as they remained Associate Members. We also began asking Full Home Exchange Members to actually give us permission to allow email contacts from Associate Members.
Immediately the two tiered system launched it attracted a high volume of Associate (free) Member sign-ups. In fact, during the six month trial more than three thousand free members joined, and we were swamped checking the authenticity of the personal information the provided. I felt we had to do this to replace the otherwise standard validation of information which is part of the payment process.
A frightening proportion immediately had their memberships canceled because the names and addresses they entered were pure gibberish, but an equally scary number provided what appeared to be authentic names and addresses—until they failed validation.
Eventually enough became enough. In order to protect our Full Members we were spending hours every day administering dozens of Associate Members. As of the beginning of August the Associate (free) option was removed.
Of course there were hundreds of completely genuine free members who signed up, but as I saw it, the risk was just too great. Since we first began (back in 1986) we've never had a report of theft or malicious damage and I wasn't prepared to have that record destroyed. Also, a huge percentage of those free members were already paid members of other home exchange clubs and were directing our members to check out these listings.
They were expecting us to act as "feeder pages" for xyz.com (not a real url).
Anyway, the plug has now been pulled on Associate Memberships. I believe we gave it a fair trial, but it's not for us.
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Contibutions
To This Newsletter and Our Blog
We always welcome contributions from both Members and subscribers to our two publications. How about putting together a report on your recent home exchange a piece of advice, or a list of tips? Anything you believe could be of benefit to your fellow home exchangers.
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ExchangeHomes.com is a home exchange company that's been continually in business since 1986. This newsletter is published bi-monthly. Links to update you email address, unsubscribe and forward this issue to a friend can be found below.
Sincerely,
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Anne Pottinger
Editor
ExchangeHomes.com
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