| You gotta hand it to those sales agents at Westgate Resorts. THEY. ARE. RELENTLESS! And we don’t mean that in a good way. We thought we knew all the little Westgate tricks. The outrageously long sales pitches. The outlandishly deceptive promises. The out-of-this-world ploys to keep you prisoner of the sales pitch. So, even we were surprised to discover, courtesy of Mary and Wilmer from Willingboro, New Jersey, that a Westgate agent had yet one more trick up his sleeve. Mary and Wilmer’s story is just one of the hundreds among the 4,256 pages of complaints against Westgate Resorts on file in the Florida Attorney General’s office. As Mary explains, they certainly didn’t need another timeshare. “My husband, age 75 and I am 72 years old, we went to WESTGATE TIME SHARE RESORT, Orlando, Florida, thru our own COLONIES RESORT Time Share to celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary.” “We were not seeking or looking for another TIME SHARE. While there, we listened to the ‘TALK’ and was not moved.” Not moved, that is, until something very unusual happened. “We were left at the table to talk to each other.” That’s odd. Because that hardly ever happens during a Westgate sales pitch. We’ve even heard of an agent who walked a couple’s dog rather than give them the chance to talk in private! So it made us wonder… were Mary and Wilmer really alone? Mary certainly doesn’t think so…because her agent left something behind. “[T]heir cell phone or listening device was left there also. I say listening device because they seem to come back to talk on subject we were discussing.” What are the odds? “They then offered a 2-year package, which we could go to the resort or cruise instead. Being able to cruise instead of the resort sounded good.” Maybe because the agent had overheard Mary and Wilmer’s private conversation? “I kept asking the same question, are you saying we could take a cruise instead of going to the resort. The answer was ‘yes’, I even said my son is getting married next year, can I give him a cruise. The answer was ‘yes’.” Mary wanted to be sure, so she asked the agent for his notes, where he had written “cruise instead of resort.” “I wanted that paper he was writing on, however, it disappeared with him.” Now THAT is one of Westgate’s OLDEST tricks. Four months later, Mary and Wilmer tried to get more details about their package at the Westgate property near the timeshare they already owned. “The agent there said it was a package that you spend 3 days at resorts in different states.” “No cruises included in the package.” And no remorse from Westgate. The agent even attempted to sell them a cruise again! “The agent went on to say that they have the biggest discount on their cruises, plus amenities.” Like we said, relentless AND remorseless. Maybe it’s time David Siegel, Westgate’s CEO and President, was subjected to the type of unrelenting pressure his agents dole out. Let’s email him at david_siegel@wgresorts.com and tell him to stop invading his customers’ privacy. Jason Gamel is the President and CEO of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), which represents timeshare companies in Washington, DC. Let’s email Jason at jgamel@arda.org to find out whether he feels any remorse for Westgate’s behavior. Is there something your timeshare company has to feel sorry about it? Use this list of ARDA VIPs to contact its leaders and tell them. Deserve an apology from your timeshare company? Let us know at info@timsharefacts.com PS: Follow us on social media. Twitter Facebook Instagram |
