| What’s the opposite of buyer’s remorse? Seller’s delight? Regrettably, we’ve found a lot of both among the 4,256 pages of complaints against Westgate Resorts on file in the Florida Attorney General’s office. One remorseful Westgate buyer is Stefanie, from Pittsburg, Kansas. And, boy, does she wish Westgate would feel at least a little sorry about the all the lies they told when selling a timeshare to Stefanie and her police officer husband. Of course, it doesn’t seem like that will happen anytime soon. “My husband and I went on a trip in June of 2017 to Las Vegas and sat through a timeshare presentation as we were on a tight budget. What was said to be a 90-minute presentation turned into a 4 hour nightmare.” To Westgate’s delight, that time-worn (and time consuming) tactic worked…again. “After telling [Westgate] that purchasing a timeshare was not in our budget at the moment, they would not let up. Being exhausted from the atmosphere and listening to this guy talk for hours, we thought we can buy it now and then just sell it back at a later date (as we were given the impression that’s what the people did before us).” Another thing that must have delighted Westgate is that after selling Stefanie and her husband a timeshare, they really didn’t have to provide much in return. “This was more than two years ago and we have YET to use it.” “The longer we had it and wanted to utilize it, the more we found how many lies we were told.” How many? Well, there were at least eight lies that Stefanie recounted. “[T]he HOA fees are a lot higher than what we were being told, the unit we purchased was sold to us as a unit that has no blackout periods and we can utilize it “whenever we would like” (my husband is a police officer with rotating shifts, we cannot plan months or years ahead), told us we had a lot of flexibility, the unit was worth much more than what we are paying, it is an asset (more like a liability), the property value will increase, we can rent it out and make our money back, sell it to another party (can’t do that as there are so many scammers out there and units are NOT even worth a fraction of what we paid) and the story goes on and on.” And on and on. Pretty much Westgate’s greatest hits! Something else that must delight Westgate is that it’s nearly impossible to get out of one of their contracts. Stefanie couldn’t even give her timeshare back! “I contacted Westgate in the past about exercising an early termination, which they do not accept. I also inquired about deed in lieu just to get out of it.” “We don’t want our money back or sell it. We just simply do not want to own it anymore.” “Good grief we should have just said ‘no’ 100 more times.” Good grief is right. Stefanie’s remorse is understandable – and unfair. But you know who doesn’t show any signs of grief or remorse over the way Westgate owners are treated? Westgate CEO and president David Siegel. Let’s email him at david_siegel@wgresorts.com and tell him Westgate needs to stop delighting in the lies it tells to make it sales. And we should find out whether Jason Gamel is delighted by, or remorseful about Westgate’s tactics. 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 Do the leaders of your timeshare company have something to feel sorry about? Use this list of ARDA VIPs to let them know. Made a timeshare purchase you have come to regret? Share your story with us at info@timsharefacts.com PS: Follow us on social media. Twitter Facebook Instagram |
