| Unhappy Westgate timeshare owners are more than just unhappy. One hears a “next level” tone of disgust in the labels they all use to describe the “Westgate Way” of doing business. “Dishonest” comes up – a lot! So do “deceptive” … and “deceitful.” Actually, we hear these words so often, it all can seem, well … routine. But there was nothing routine about the subject line of Robert’s email: “Robbery (legal or not it is still Robbery by any name).” Robert and his wife are seniors from Indianapolis, Indiana. We ran across his email among the 4,256 pages of complaints against Westgate Resorts in the Florida Attorney General’s office. Robert and his wife were so poorly treated by a particularly aggressive Westgate salesperson it took them four emails to describe their experience. “I/We are being robbed,” begins Robert’s first email. That got our attention. “We were staying at the Westgate Town Center Resort. A salesman called and invited us to breakfast. He said he would be updating us on our timeshare!” “We were set up for a deceptive upgrade from a timeshare for which we were satisfied, two weeks every year at Westgate Town Center.” “We thought we were going to have the four weeks in both even and odd years.” “He was actually setting us up for a marketing ploy that we unfortunately fell for that took away our every year plan and put us in a plan for even years only, at almost twice the cost!” In other words, Westgate sold Robert four weeks every other year – the same amount of time over two years he already had but costing twice as much! “We believe this is Fraud by Deception and is a Criminal Act!” It certainly sounds that way, Robert. In another message, Robert explained how all this happened. “The methods used to convince us to continue with this contract after we said NO several times were, we feel, Elder Abuse in the purest form!” “As an 82 yr old M and 76 yr old F, we were easy prey for this Conman… using his high pressure,‘must be done immediately or you lose the opportunity’ technique!!” And as Robert reports in his final email… Westgate doesn’t stop. They just keep piling on. “Now I have received an email from Westgate Resorts that it is offering our type of upgrade purchase for HALF PRICE! Which means we were overcharged by twenty five thousand dollars!!” That begs the question: just how much of this kind of abuse does Westgate think seniors can take? David Siegel, the President and CEO of Westgate, must know. Let’s email him at david_siegel@wgresorts.com and find out. We should also email Jason Gamel, the President and CEO of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), the trade association for timeshare companies. Let’s ask him if tricking seniors into paying twice as much is routine for ARDA members. Jason’s email is jgamel@arda.org Or ask the leaders at your timeshare company yourself. Use this list of ARDA VIPs to contact them. Been abused by your timeshare company? Report them to us at info@timesharefacts.com PS: Follow us on social media. Twitter Facebook Instagram |
