| What’s the difference between buying a new car and a Westgate timeshare? If you buy a new car, you can actually travel somewhere! Wind your way through the 4,256 pages of complaints against Westgate Resorts in the Florida Attorney General’s office and you’ll find plenty of cases where purchasing a timeshare was no guarantee that you could actually use it. In fact, in the case of Jennifer and Viviana from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Even upgrading didn’t get them to their destination. “We decided to attend the timeshare presentation with the understanding that it would only take 90 minutes. Instead of a short timeshare presentation, we were subjected to a 5-hour marathon high-pressure sales pitch during which we were not given a single break.” “We even tried to ask Westgate agents to discuss the purchase between ourselves, but we were denied such opportunity.” Okay. We’ll admit it. There are some similarities between buying a car and buying a Westgate timeshare. “We also told Westgate agents that there was no way we could financially afford a timeshare…however, they assured us that we would be able to refinance our loan at a reduced interest rate when we returned home.” “After hours of harassments, we eventually agreed to sign the contract.” A pretty standard deal for Westgate…except…after Jennifer and Viviana drove off the Westgate lot, Westgate’s harassment wouldn’t stop! “Shortly after our original timeshare purchase, we began receiving solicitation phone calls from Westgate to upgrade our timeshare. We were solicited a free stay at the resort that would be given to us after attending an upgrade meeting (which could be done on the phone).” “Thinking a short phone conversation would be worth the perks, we agreed to attend via telephone. Once again, we were subject to a high-pressure sales pitch, where ‘no’ was not an acceptable answer to Westgate agents.” But this time the Westgate agents told Jennifer and Viviana they had to UPGRADE just to use their existing timeshare! “Westgate agents made all the same representations as they did regarding our original purchase but told us that utilization of our original timeshare was dependent on purchasing an upgrade.” Apparently their first Westgate purchase was like buying a car…but without the wheels! “Thinking there was no other choice we agreed to purchase the upgrade.” In the end, the upgrade didn’t get them any further down the road. “We still have not been able to utilize our timeshare and we were unable to refinance our loan.” Despite the additional options package, this Westgate timeshare is still a clunker. Let’s tell David Siegel, Westgate’s President and CEO, it’s time for Westgate to stop selling customers such lemons. David’s email is david_siegel@wgresorts.com And Jason Gamel should hear that too. He’s the President and CEO of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), the trade association for timeshare companies. Let’s email Jason at jgamel@arda.org Do the leaders of your timeshare need to get it in gear? Use this list of ARDA VIPs to let them know. Old or new, if your timeshare arrangements aren’t getting you where you want to go, give us a honk at info@timesharefacts.com PS: Follow us on social media. Twitter Facebook Instagram |
