| You have to hand it to Westgate. From the moment you enter one of their “information sessions,” to the time you sign on the dotted line, EVERYONE is in on the program… …the greeters who tell you the sales pitch is mandatory… …the sales reps and managers who promise anything to get you to buy… …even the office staff who are just “here to help.” Or, should we say, especially the office staff? We came across a stark reminder of how they all work together when we read the letter from Sam and Wendy we found among the 4,256 pages of complaints against Westgate on file in the Florida Attorney General’s office. They’re from Flintstone, Georgia and they already owned a timeshare with a different company. When they stayed at a Westgate property, they had to go to a sales presentation. Of course. “We told the representatives we did not want to buy another timeshare because we already owned one that was impossible to use. We had been experiencing a continual inability to use our timeshare due to not having enough reservation power to book what we wanted and lack of availability.” “We told them repeatedly that we could not afford to take on more payments, which they scoffed at.” So why did Sam and Wendy buy? “We were guaranteed to secure the reservations we wanted with ease and assured there were no major limitations to when and what we could book.” “They promised the payments were not that expensive and we could make our money back.” So … “We signed our contract using an electronic system, but we were not allowed to read anything on our own.” Uh oh. “They skipped to each section without allowing us to read each section.” “For example, we were told we could rent and sell our timeshare for money, and this would outweigh whatever our timeshare payments set us back. The representative did not read out the information…that rejected this notion.” That night, Sam and Wendy had a chance to read things through…and they had second thoughts. “When we returned the following day to cancel our timeshare contract in person, we asked [the office staff] how we were supposed to do this. Instead of telling us we had ten days to submit a written request, or even telling us that this information was in our contract, she said we could not cancel AT ALL.” “This was a misrepresentation of fact and a violation of our rights.” It certainly was! A violation that even the office staff was in on. “We want to know why we were lied to about the benefits of Westgate’s timeshares, why we were intentionally deceived about our contract, why the representatives pursued us despite knowing we could not afford the timeshare, and why our attempt to cancel our contract was not honored.” So do we, Sam and Wendy…so do we!! Westgate CEO David Siegel should be able to tell us. Let’s email him at david_siegel@wgresorts.com. We should also see if Jason Gamel knows the answer. He’s the President and CEO of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), which represents timeshare companies in Washington, DC. You can email Jason at jgamel@arda.org. Maybe your timeshare company’s executives can explain Westgate’s tactics. Use this list of ARDA VIPs to find their contact information. Have you been subjected to a timeshare experience where everyone is on the scam…except you? Let us know at info@timesharefacts.com. PS: Follow us on social media. Twitter Facebook Instagram |
