Bishop and Waters Consulting Group is located in Carlsbad California and they specialize in timeshare contract cancellation and contract transfers. They have six years of experience in this industry and according to their website, they claim to be a consumer advocacy group whose main focus is lifting the financial burden of a timeshare off of their client’s shoulders. But does their good online presence actually belay a good exit company to go with?
Website Review
The first impression you get of Bishop and Waters is the cleanliness and ease of navigation that their website provides. There is a clean transition of photos that all depict beautiful places or stock photos of older folks in distress. While the photos and their captions urging the website traffic to contact them today can be a bit cheesy, it is formatted well and doesn’t appear garish like some other websites we’ve seen.
Their tab section at the top of the site is very neat and easy to access, no broken links and you’ll be able to find everything you need. The further you scroll you’ll find their “About Us” and it details their years of experience while trying to reassure potential clients that they will help ease your financial burdens. They also have a handy included form to fill out so you can contact them for a free consultation.
They even have a helpful welcome video to make potential clients feel more at ease with contacting them. If you drop to the bottom of the screen you’ll find a rotating carousel of testimonials from happy clients all over the United States. These testimonials are written like letters and always start with a friendly greeting to Bonnie who is the owner and who allegedly helps every step of the way. All of their contact information is located at the bottom right of the screen for ease of access along with their hours and address.
If you click on their “About Us” tab, you would think you’d get a more detailed page of information about what Bishop and Waters can do for you but that isn’t exactly what you’ll find. Their little about us blurb is a restatement of what was already on their landing page, though they’ve now added tabs labeled Shared Complaints, Misunderstandings, Frustration, Life Changes, and Be Free of the Burden.
If you click on each of these you’ll find a small explanation of why they help individuals get free of their timeshares and why someone would want to get rid of their timeshare in the first place. These aren’t necessarily helpful, they look more like an attempt to fill the page with information to help endear the potential client, but it doesn’t quite hit the intended mark. They fall short of providing helpful information and mostly appear as filler rather than anything relevant.
Their Services tab leads directly back to the section on their landing page that holds the video introduction and states that they cancel and transfer contracts so this tab also was used to fill the space. Thankfully their Testimonials tab leads to a page where they’ve posted up intimate testimonies from their satisfied customers, but there is an overlap in some of the ones listed on the page and what was provided in the testimonial carousel on the landing page.
They do provide a helpful Resources tab so you can be directed to their cost calendar to find out how much you’re paying vs. how much you could be saving. They also have a glossary of terms that come up in timeshare negotiations so you aren’t going in blind.
If you access their Blog tab, you’ll find a scrolling list of helpful blogs they’ve provided such as “How To Get Out of That Vacation Timeshare Amid the Pandemic” and “How to Spot Timeshare Scams”. These could be helpful resources for those who aren’t very versed in timeshares or the scams they can fall prey to.
The only other available tab is a contact tab that is the same fill-out form you can find on the landing page. There is no mention of how much their services cost or whether or not they do escrow payment. Escrow payments are something we value as they are the only surefire way to ensure your timeshare is canceled before any money is released to the company or firm helping you.
Overall the website is helpful in some ways but is lacking substantial information about those on staff and what exactly they’ll do to help you cancel or transfer your contract.
Bishop and Waters Consulting Group Reviews
You’ll find testimonials from a few of their clients featured on their website both on the landing page and a separate tab dedicated to all customer reviews. There aren’t very many but all of them are positive, addressing Bonnie who is both the owner and apparently incredibly instrumental to the timeshare exit process. You’ll find little clues about the other members of the team from these reviews, mentioning a law team and other members of the group.
You can garner from these reviews that Bonnie is a very dedicated presence throughout the whole process. It seems that she gets very close with her clients and even remembers to catch up with them once in a while and according to one has even sent a gift before. While these testimonials may be a bit biased as they are the ones featured on the website, we found it hard to find any negative reviews about Bishop and Waters Consulting Group anywhere.
Their BBB profile as well as their Google reviews are full of mostly positive reviews from customers who were satisfied with their trustworthiness, timeliness, and attention to detail. One of the reviews we saw even mentioned that Bishop and Waters apparently put the client on a payment plan to make things easier for them. Everyone mentions being extremely comfortable with Bonnie and the rest of her team as they did their best to meet client needs no matter what.
The only negative review we could find was a 1 star on Google Reviews that mentioned Bishop and Waters allegedly charged them a huge fee and that hiring them was a mistake. They do mention by name another timeshare exit company so we don’t know how credible this source is, especially when the rest of the reviews across the board are all 5 stars.
The process is allegedly made easy, efficient, and most people reported that their credit scores went up immediately after Bishop and Waters helped them get the timeshare cleared from their record. CEO Bonnie Kulka seems to have loyal clients who were impressed by her attentiveness and willingness to guide them through the whole process without taking advantage. Individuals with timeshares are prone to be duped with language or jargon they don’t understand, but allegedly Bonnie Kulka makes it her mission to explain every step so her clients know what they have gotten into and what they are getting out of.
All in all these testimonies seem legitimate and highly complementary, which speaks for the group as a whole.
Bishop and Waters Consulting Group Cost
While no prices or fees are specifically mentioned, if you mine their website and their reviews a little bit you can find some small clues. They apparently offer free consultations and you can contact them to see if you qualify for an exit plan before you put any money down. There are also possible payment plans available according to two reviews we spotted in our search.
They do not mention escrow payment as an option but that is something you can certainly bring up during your initial consultation.
Summary
While their website is a bit lackluster as far as content goes, their reviews speak volumes about the efficiency of this group. We would like to see some of this greatness translated to their website so potential clients can get an initial impression of who they might be working with. The Group’s About Us and Services tabs could use a big makeover to fully detail who they are and what they do to help you, but perhaps they believe their results speak for themselves.
It would also benefit them to provide information about who they have working for them and if they have a background in law, so potential clients can feel more at ease right off the bat. They should also include a section that details the payment options they offer so you know what you’re getting into right away. It is important to have most of the information upfront so you don’t waste time or effort with a company that might not be trustworthy in the end.
All in all, though, the plethora of positive reviews really swayed us. The fact that the testimonials were consistent across the board really sold us on their credibility and trustworthiness. If you decide to look into Bishop and Waters Consulting Group, you’ll want to start with that initial consultation just to make sure they can actually help you with your timeshare exit.