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My Wyndham failure (2019-07-17) (9625words)

Version nr 13

Having just arrived in the Florida seaside resort of Panama City Beach in early December 2017, I took an evening stroll and saw a sign saying Tourist Information.

I got information about sights and forthcoming events and then the male clerk said that he had an interesting offer to me. - If I attended an information meeting with a breakfast at the nearby Wyndham hotel then I could have a โ€œfreeโ€ week at one of their facilities.

I only had to pay 75 usd in taxes and fees. I negotiated this to 50 usd.

The Wyndham meeting was led by Tom Aiello, and Dustin Leonard became my โ€œassistantโ€ during the day. Tom Aiello presented Wyndham as an owner and operator of a number of hotel chains such as: Ramada, Howard Johnson, Days Inn, Caesars & Harrahs etc. and that Wyndham was highly rated ethically.

They had recently purchased RCI, where owners of apartments could submit their flats and instead get access to everyone else's apartments all over the world. Now they tried to fill all those empty hotel-rooms and flats during low season and I could have access to a hotel room or apartment at worldwide locations at the world's largest (?) hotel chain - Wyndham.

There are two public Wyndham companies; both listed on the New York Stock exchange: WYND (Wyndham Destinations; formerly Wyndham Worldwide Corporation and WH (Wyndham Hotel and Resorts). This is how they are described by Yahoo Finance;

Wyndham Destinations, Inc. (WYND) โ€œoperates as a vacation ownership and exchange company.

It provides vacation exchange services and products to owners of vacation ownership interests (VOIs); and manages and markets vacation rental properties, primarily on behalf of independent owners. The company also develops, markets, and sells VOIs to individual consumers; provides consumer financing in connection with the sale of VOIs; and offers property management services at resorts. It has operations in 110 countries at approximately 220 vacation ownership resorts and 4,300 affiliated exchange properties. The company was founded in 1990 and is based in Orlando, Floridaโ€.

(The market cap of the WYND company is 4,26 billion dollars in Jan. 2019).

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc.(WH) โ€œoperates as a hotel franchisor worldwide. The company licenses its hotel brands, including Super 8, Days Inn, Ramada, Microtel Inn & Suites, La Quinta, Wingate, AmericInn, Hawthorn Suites, The Trademark Collection, and Wyndham to hotel owners in approximately 80 countries. Its Hotel Franchising segments licenses its lodging brands and provides related services to third-party hotel owners and others.

The company's Hotel Management segment provides hotel management services for full-service and limited service hotels. As of January 8, 2019, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. operated a portfolio of 20 hotel brands with approximately 9,000 franchised hotels with 798,000 rooms. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. is a subsidiary of Wyndham Destinations. (The market cap of the WH company is 5.01 billion dollars in Jan. 2019).

WYND (Wyndham Destinations) presents itself as a Timeshare Company and as a mother-company for the Wyndham Vacation Clubs.

They market and sell Vacation Ownership Interests (โ€œPointsโ€) and โ€œhelp usโ€ to finance our purchase (by giving us loans at 21 % interest).

WYNDs financial position is very weak. The booked value is negative. (- 6,30 usd/share), and the investors have discovered that this hotel company is a house of cards, mortgaged above the chimney. If all assets are sold it will still be in debt.

Total Debt is 5.46 billion dollars while the Market Cap is only 4.05 billion dollars (June 2019).

The stock price have plummeted during the last 18 months from 57.31 usd (January 2018) to 43.21 usd (June 2019) despite recommendation by stock market TV-guru Jim Cramer in June 2018, when CEO Michael Brown was also invited to Cramerโ€™s TV-show.

Shareholders are disappointed and feel trapped.

Stock price have to rise by 35 % to make market cap as large as the WYND debts. Value of assets have to increase.

It is alarming that WYND is in this position. Their business model seems brilliant at first.

Members in the Vacation Clubs have been convinced and persuaded to make a very large one time advance payment โ€“ or take loans with an interest rate of 21% - to enjoy expensive vacations for the rest of their lives. The members also pay yearly maintenance fees despite the fact that the PVTO or โ€œCondo associationโ€ is not the owner but that the ownership is in a โ€œTrustโ€.

Now, many of the members have sobered up and realized that they have invested their life savings in a dream and a bankrupt company.

And since the target group and the present Club members are mostly senior, retired citizens, chances are very slim that this group will radically improve their finances and be able to make a one-time down-payment or even pay the interest and maintenance fees.

After all, many had no savings when the contract was signed.

Only a desperate and bankrupt company is as abusive towards their clients as Wyndham. There are a total of 900.000 members in the 4 Wyndham Vacation Clubs. We invested our life savings or took a high risk loan at 21 % interest rate when we signed.

Wyndham desperately need new members. But the bad reputation of Wyndham and its sales process is all over the internet.

Itโ€™s all about lies and harsh treatment during a full day sales process when Wyndham tries every trick in the book to convince the buyers.

A ruthless sales force have been engaged. They have no conscience and are willing to lie, cheat and threat. And take a lot of money for their efforts.

Amy Bornmann, (Director, Club & Association Governance โ€“ Wyndham Vacation Clubs, Wyndham Destinations, 6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, FL 32821, WynAG@***.com), is the PVTO spokeswoman and described what my membership (in Club Wyndham Access and the PTVO) stood for;

โ€œPTVO stands for โ€œProperty Trust Vacation Ownershipโ€. The PTVO Owners Association operates very similarly to a condo association and serves the same purpose.

In 2018, the total number of points deeded to the Trust (available for purchase by owners) is 38,215,249,366. As of today, there are approximately 150,000 members that are part of PTVO/Club Wyndham Access. Members own varying amounts of points from 84,000 to 5 million plus. Club Wyndham is the overall club.

It has apx. 900,000 members who own in the various products โ€“ Club Wyndham Select, Club Wyndham Access, Club Wyndham Presidential Reserve, and Margaritaville Vacation Club. โ€œIโ€™ve attached the Public Offering Statement for Club Wyndham Access / PTVO Owners Association. Within this document, you can see all of the inventory owned by Access/PTVO.

Itโ€™s substantial. Access/PTVO owns mainly points in underlying associations and pays maintenance fees on those points to those underlying associations. Access/PTVO has a limited number of whole units (units wherein it owns all 52 weeks). For these whole units, Access/PTVO not only pays any applicable maintenance fees to underlying associations, but also reserves for replacements and refurbishments of the interior of the units.

Technically, PTVO owns nothing. All of the inventory that is part of Access is held in a trust, which is the title holder of the inventory. PTVO is the entity that manages the trust.

โ€œThere is no free membership. Access/PTVO is a third-party entity.

It is completely independent of Wyndham. We are simply the developer of the Club and the manager of the Club. The Club does not own any stake in either of the two publicly traded Wyndham entities. (WYND and WH).โ€

It is not possible for me to make a calculation how many square feet or square meters (m2) that corresponds to the number of eternal points I bought (in my case 400.000).

But, if this was a regular real estate affair when a piece of property is bought and is used as collateral for a loan, then the interest rate of that loan would never go above 5 % in Sweden. But then of course, the property had to be bought at fair value. And judging by the 21 % interest that Wyndham charges, Wyndham sees the โ€œpropertyโ€ as just another consumer product with a life span of maybe 3-5 years. So I can only assume that the โ€œpropertyโ€ I have bought is a standing room only - less than One (1) m2.

Hopefully, someone living in USA can ask this question at a PVTO General Annual Meeting.

(When the total area that the PVTO โ€œownsโ€ is divided with the number of members. And take into consideration that the Platina and Gold members have a bigger share than I have).

Tom Aiello had said that 900.000 people were members in the Wyndham Access Club and that I also could become a member and receive all those wonderful worldwide opportunities. This was probably the first lie told on that eventful day which in retrospect became a day of tall tales. (I was offered a membership in Club Wyndham Access - They have only 150.000 members.) So while I was given the impression that 900.000 persons had become voluntary members in this Wyndham Club and bought points by choice, there were only 150.000 that had.

But I listened eagerly as I was selling a condo that I owned in Panama City Beach.

Now I had the opportunity to stay in numerous wonderful places around the world. So I became a member in the Club Wyndham Access. I paid 58379 usd for 400.000 yearly points. And got 600.000 bonus points the first year.

(Points is the Club Wyndham currency. They are like a yearly interest on the one time membership fee. The points are used when staying at a Wyndham โ€œpropertyโ€). Later I also received a Title Insurance Policy for the โ€œpropertyโ€ I had bought.

(Perhaps it was only a formality showing that the โ€œpropertyโ€ I thought I owned didnโ€™t โ€œbelongโ€ to someone else.) Usually you know what price/square feet or square m2 you pay when buying a condo. But not here. The real value is only the future hotel costs that you will save.

Obviously there were โ€œmembersโ€ who owned up to 5 million points. I assume that the owners of the largest numbers of points are only temporary members waiting to sell their points and cash out.

Perhaps they had been owners of property and had sold it in exchange for points and now tried to sell those points. (For example, I later bought 300.000 (eternal) points from the Emerald Grande Hotel in Destin, Florida (Eternal means that you receive 300.000 (โ€œfreeโ€) points every year).

A 1,5 hour information meeting soon became a full day sales session. And by the end of the day, I was the owner of a Club Wyndham Access Silver membership with 400000 eternal points (You will get 400000 new points every year - โ€œfor everโ€ and I also got โ€“ one time only - 600000 bonus points).

I was given a contract that included 40 plus pages. Thomas Fetzer (โ€œQuality Assurance CLUB WYNDHAMโ€) had prepared it.

And my signing of it was recorded on video. I later read it carefully. But it never said that I was also a member of RCI โ€“ which had been promised. This membership was important to me as RCI had many vacation facilities outside of the USA.

I had ten days to cancel the agreement without penalty.

And a day or two before it expired I met Tom Aiello and asked him. He answered that I was a lifelong member with RCI. I also asked Tom Aiello if he was related to the fine actor Danny Aiello; (often seen in New York film melodramas). Sure, he said, with a broad smile โ€“ โ€œHeโ€™s my uncle!โ€.

Then he remembered that he didnโ€™t need to lie any more.

I had already paid the membership fee. So he found himself and said โ€œWeโ€™re not relatedโ€. We parted and Tom Aiello said farewell and looked me deep in the eyes and promised; โ€œYou will be surprised when you receive all those wonderful offers we have!โ€

I thought he was talking about special travel and hotel deals, but he was talking about the โ€œPerks - exclusive savings all over the countryโ€. And when checking those โ€œgreat deals near youโ€ I could only find a total of 2 offers (during 18 months) for a 25 % discount on car rental in Sweden (Avis and Budget)โ€.

All perks are for people living in USA. And we donโ€™t have a Disneyland or Disneyworld here either. So the promise of Every Day All Day became just another of the empty promises or lies that Wyndham gives their Club members.

I wanted to have more information about web pages, bookings and how to find a way into the complicated network of Wyndham. It seemed to be a kind of patchwork where Wyndham had thought of everything except how to make it easy for the members.

There were also a lot of added fees that I wanted to avoid.

I had been given a simple computer device where the Wyndham Catalogue was available. (We were never given paper catalogues). I was not familiar with how it worked and it took time to learn.

I asked Dustin Leonard for help. But he did not think I needed it.

After all, I had taken notes during the meeting, and seemed to know everything, he said. He suggested a cup of coffee and a chat at a nearby Starbucks instead of an office meeting. He reported that spirits were high in the office and that they recently celebrated the success of recruiting many gold and platinum members in the past year.

I wanted to use my free week in Memphis. But nothing at all was available there.

So I chose Nashville instead. Dustin promised to help but he booked only 6 days and used my points instead of the free week.

The stay in Nashville cost me 50.000 points. And my Silver Membership (400.000 points yearly) could thus give me the right to stay there a total of 8 weeks during one year. The rest of the year are for other Club Members.

While walking home I passed a gas-station/liquor store with a sign saying โ€œWine is cheaper than therapyโ€.

And passing by another hotel nearby I was surprised to see that it was almost empty. Very few windows were lit up, while Wyndham Nashville seemed almost full โ€“ at a time when nothing happened at the nearby (new) Grand ole Opry.

A snowstorm hit Nashville and the soles of my shoes froze and fell off. Busses to Walmart were redirected and people stayed indoors except for one lonely salesman of Trump souvenirs who remained at his post after Trumpโ€™s visit to Nashville a day or so before.

The almost full Nashville Wyndham hotel in January raises a question; Can members have access to their favorite place during the time of the year that they prefer? Or was the Nashville Wyndham full of members that had not been given room in the Caribbean or in Hawaii, Fiji and Brazil.

They simply had to settle for anything that was available in January.

In Nashville, I was immediately invited to attend a Wyndham โ€œOwners Updateโ€ meeting. I said yes because I did not yet feel fully learned.

It was immediately transformed into a very intense person to person sales session. A sales woman, born in Germany on a US military base, was in charge. (Many with military experience or raised in military families appear to work at Wyndham.

They have experience from foreign countries and of large, hierarchical organizations. Dustin Leonard had just finished anti-pirate military activities outside Somalia).

She thought I had an insufficient membership. For travelers with a focus outside USA the "Rewards" system was the best. And a Gold membership would take me everywhere I wanted to go.

The simple breakfast started at 10.45 am. And the sales session was over circa ten hours later โ€“ without any more food being served meanwhile.

My assistant this day was Jennifer Starkey. And Joey Spite arranged the final contract. The 300.000 points needed for an โ€œeverlastingโ€ Gold membership cost 46,779 usd.

After making a down-payment of 4704 usd I owed Wyndham 42,074 usd. When I went to pick up a blank check in my hotelroom Jennifer Starkey followed me, obviously worried that I would not come back but disappear before the contract was signed. (Or was this a honey trap at the height of the โ€œme tooโ€ era? Were they hoping that I should behave badly and compromise myself and not be able to make any complaints in the future?)

Whatever the intention, it shows how desperate the Wyndham sales-staff are.

A young woman in her early twenties accompanies a male stranger into his hotel room. But I have heard that the sales staff cashes and keep up to 40 % of the down payment. Then questions about risk taking and morality weighs thin.

After a long wait without refreshments for me but maybe with a power nap or a dinner for the Afro-German sales woman โ€“ she came back. She seemed extremely proud and said that she had been able to give me extraordinary good (loan-) terms.

And while glancing through the contractโ€™s โ€œClosing Disclosureโ€ and โ€œLoan Calculationsโ€ I read โ€œAnnual Percentage Rate 16.99 %โ€ in large print Plus in much smaller print; โ€œThis is not your interest rateโ€.

I must confess that I only read the latter sentence and thought that during the credit survey they had been informed that in Sweden I could get 2 % (sic) or less on a regular house mortgage loan.

And that they had settled for a final rate in this vicinity.

The loan had a 16.99% annual interest according to the loan contract. They had done the "credit survey", but without contacting any credit research institute in Sweden; where I have my funds. However: The percentage was not that important as I planned to make a full down payment of the loan within a month (latest February 9th 2018). Then I avoided any future-interest payments at all.

Jennifer Starkeyโ€™s boss in Nashville told me that he had clients abroad who were interested to own something with no value to declare in their local IRS report.

And the membership-money invested in Wyndham meant that the money could not be seen by the IRS at home. Perhaps like a membership in a golf club. (This was certainly not a money laundering scheme โ€“ It was a money disappearing scheme! You could not get a refund or any money back).

I told him that I had no funds of that nature.

In moments of weakness Wyndham had again convinced me that their model of expensive vacations was tailor made for me. It has since been an eye opener and a great learning experience. I was brought up to trust people and I am new to the Wyndham type of sales process. I have never experienced anything like it over here where the consumer is much better protected.

The aggressive, almost desperate sales technique by the Wyndham sales force is also proof that they know that they are selling an out-dated and secondary product.

The traveling routines have changed. Today, anybody can book a hotel room the same day via internet. (In fact, the offer to order a hotel-room one year in advance does not suit a senior citizen without children living outside of USA, like myself. We have to wait until we are fit enough to travel, perhaps after a period when the cancer clinic have to be the prioritized, first choice).

And we will not even get what Wyndham promises. Very few of the resorts are available at the time wanted. Instead W. reach out for new customers.

And make more promises that they wonโ€™t keep. Then the team disappears and their E-mail addresses stop working.

The sales cultures of USA and northern Europe are very different. Over here Wyndham had been breaking the law because of its aggressive sales campaigns and un-kept promises. Investigative TV reporters, who had visited the sales meetings with a hidden camera, would expose the lies and the (criminal)-history of the sales staff.

And show tax reports and previous convictions. That would have been the end of Wyndham over here.

Obviously, itโ€™s in my nature to believe everything that is said and promised during a sales meeting. To me it is a legally binding situation and I have never before met people that lie so much without showing signs of it. After all USA is a Christian country and this type of behavior goes against the Bible.

The only arena over here for the same type of behavior is the investment scene.

A friend of mine was contacted by an Icelandic bank (Kaupthing) on the same day that Lehman Brothers collapsed. They were selling securities (Bonds) that was backed by Lehman Brothers. And we are 5 hours ahead of New York, USA. So they had a window of 5 hours before the New York Stock exchange opened.

On the same day those bonds lost all their value. (And a few days later the Icelandic bank collapsed too).

I bought a security (20.000 usd) from company (A). The seller seemed extremely honest. But when we parted he said - โ€œdonโ€™t pay any attention to the market value given to this security when itโ€™s listed in your portfolioโ€.

And indeed, one third of its value was missing then.

When a TV-team investigated this company they found enough to put the seller out of business. And I realized that my trustworthy person had worked as a rather high official in the national police organization. He was chosen for the job because he seemed so honest. (And he made much more money than with the police).

And the 1/3 (6666 usd) missing in value was his and his companyโ€™s commission. (This bond was eventually worth nothing at the time of redemption).

Next time we met he offered to handle an investment in an Investment Banks trading department. Luckily I had read that they were in trouble. They had invested in ultrahigh risk instruments which soon collapsed and eventually the bank (HQ) was bankrupt too.

I asked the founder of a similar investment firm (B) why (A) had behaved so badly.

He just coldly remarked. โ€œThe founder of company A is an alcoholicโ€. About a year later the founder of company B was also out of business for unethical business behaviorโ€ฆ.

How much of my 58.379 usd was used to buy 1/6 of a hotel room/flat? And how much was taken by the sales team as a bonus?

The Wyndham Access business model will collapse.

There are better opportunities available. Today, when you have found a cheap air ticket to a place you want to visit, you can book hotel rooms as you go long. You donโ€™t have to book a vacation 12 months in advance. The 2nd hand value of the silver, gold and platinum memberships have collapsed.

Whenever you stay at a Wyndham property you are invited to an update meeting. And afterwards you realize that one full day of the vacation has been ruined by the most aggressive sales talk you have ever heard. In Nashville, I had the only free perk ever; Free popcorn from a machine.

Back home in Sweden on February 1st, I immediately sent Wyndham, Las Vegas a 25,000 usd personal check and bought a โ€œbankers checkโ€ of 20,773 usd that was sent separately by Deutsche Bank to Wyndham Las Vegas. (This included a final down payment on the loan plus 10 months of Wyndham Access Club maintenance fees, as my USA bank account otherwise would be overdrawn by the automatic payment plan.

On the 13th of February 2018 the 25.000 dollar check was cashed by Wyndham.

In Nashville I had bought 300,000 additional points from the Emerald Grande Hotel, in the seaside resort of Destin, Florida, to get the Gold membership. According to the contract, the debt would be transferred the same day (Jan 10th, 2018) to Wyndham; with a P.O. Box in Las Vegas. And Wyndham Las Vegas was supposed to collect the interest payments.

I was very surprised to see that that Emerald Grande on the 26 of February and March 26th and April 26th via an automatic payment plan, set up by Wyndham, took 735.67 usd per month in interest.

Without making a deduction for the 59 % down-payment of the loan (via the 25.000 usd personal check).

I was paying interest to Emerald Grande Hotel. They no longer had anything to do with the loan / debt / interest according to the contract. And I had not received a confirmation (for the down-payment of 25000 usd) and a current statement.

And when I tried to contact Jennifer Starkey and Joey Spite in the Nashville office via email, their email addresses had stopped working...... and Dustin Leonard never answered his e-mails either.

It was a total back-office failure.

And while Wyndham gained access to my bank-account within minutes and set up automatic payment plans, it took them 3 months to reply to my very urgent questions.

I learned that the 20,773 usd check had not been cashed. And simultaneously, after almost 3 months of silence (on April 27th), Wyndham Las Vegas confirmed that they could not find the letter with the check from Deutsche Bank - via a very short, unsigned 3-line e-mail message. This was in fact the very first sign of life I got from Wyndham. (This check have so far cost me an extra 141 usd; (for buying, investigating and eventually killing it).

In fact Wyndham asked me to describe the envelope from Deutsche Bank that contained the check.

A very strange request indicating that they had piles of unopened mail in their mail room. And that they never opened mail from banks or financial institutes as they wanted to avoid reminders of unpaid billsโ€ฆ- a very ominous sign of a bankrupt and distressed organization.

At the same time I cancelled the monthly interest payments. The money went to the wrong recipient, and it did not take into account the 25,000 usd down-payment. Even worse was that the annual interest payment of 735.67 usd/month was not at 16.99 % but 20.98 %!

yearly.

The small print; โ€œThis is not your interest rateโ€, meant that the interest was even higher - No wonder Emerald Grande and Wyndham Las Vegas hadnโ€™t responded to my questions about it.

That Wyndham's back office was dysfunctional was confirmed when RCI acknowledged that I was not a RCI-member. "Club Wyndham Owners Care" promised to fix this immediately. But nothing happened and I had to remind them again. After three reminders; No.

1 to Tom Aiello in Panama City Beach in December, and No. 2-3 in February-March 2018, I finally became a RCI member.

I also tried to register my Nashville contract number to receive Electronic Statements. But it was impossible. I could only register the contract signed in Panama City Beach.

It took a very long time to get replies to my letters and e-mails; On the 15th of May I got a reply from Emerald Grande and Ed McMullen Jr, who on the 18th of May forwarded my case to Patrick Wolford.

Patrick also called me on the phone before transferring my case to Christopher Dzierbicki (Senior Case Specialist, Owner Services) on May 22nd.

Christopher called me too despite that I told him that matters of contractual, legal and financial nature are best handled in writing. Iโ€™m not fluent in English in these matters. The conversations soon turned into heated arguments as both Wyndham persons didnโ€™t answer my questions or were willing to discuss the points I thought were important.

I said that I wanted to cancel both Wyndham contracts and get my money back. And that I had informed my US bank that I was a victim of a scam and had to cancel the loan payments to Wyndham.

It cost some dollars too stopping Wyndham from being able to set up new auto payment plans.

(Whatever plans I had to go to a Wyndham resort already this spring were cancelled because of the extremely long waiting periods and the no help from Ownerโ€™s Care).

On May 18th I had sent Wyndham my calculations proving that they was charging me too high an interest. Patrick tried to explain that W. after a down payment, instead reduced the number of future interest payment at 735.67 usd. I should of course have been immediately informed about it on 13th February 2018 when they cashed the check.

And W. should have sent me a calculation how many more payments were expected of me. None of this had happened.

On the 12th of June, Christopher transferred my case to Ronald Singh - Owner Care Operations Supervisor, Club Wyndham.

The Lies

Apart from the exaggerations and hiding of negative facts there were some very concrete lies told during those two sales sessions:

(Panama City Beach contract): Tom Aiello lied about my membership in RCI: I asked him if I was a member and if it was any recurring membership charges. He said that I was a perpetual/eternal member without extra charges.

But the contract says: โ€W. will enroll and pay your initial RCI membership fee. Renewal fees are part of annual Club Wyndham Plus Assessmentโ€. But I was not even a member of RCI.

It took several months and 3 reminders to become one.

(The Nashville Contract): the Rewards program.

I told the sales woman that I had joined Wyndham because of the RCI program.

She said that RCI was not very good for me - that I instead should join the Rewards program (and be a Gold member). And that it was perfect for me who wanted to travel outside USA. This was the major reason to buy the extra 300000 points in Nashville.

However, I was already a Rewards member as my contract from Panama City Beach said: โ€œACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND DISCLOSURE STATEMENT - Club Wyndham Plus/Wyndham Rewards Programโ€. There the Rewards program rules were described.

(Instead of buying more points at 46,779 usd, all I had to do was to transfer points into the Rewards program (at a total cost of 99 usdโ€ฆ). (I was traveling by bus to Nashville and didnโ€™t bring my P.C.B. contractโ€ฆ).

And she told me that I could transfer my regular club points to reward points. This was very important to me because in most of the locations outside USA you could stay at 15000(Reward-points) / night.

And with 400000 points yearly that meant 27 hotel-nights in Asia, South America and Africa.

But later, another unhappy club member, who had also paid the down-payment (circa 58,379 usd) in 2018 for his membership and 400.000 yearly points, showed me his contract. And there it states clearly: When you change Club points into Reward point; for each Club point you only get 0.4 reward points. And this means that my 27 hotel-nights were down to not even 11 nights.

I had made the worst deal of my life.

And of course, Club Wyndham Access was not a mass movement with 900.000 member. They only had 150.000 members - some of whom had turned their property over to Wyndham.

Broken Promises

When a Wyndham sales person have closed the deal he disappears with the money.

(Rumors say that they take 40 % of the down payment). Consequently they have no interest to help a Club member in the future. So they donโ€™t even answer e-mails.

I had to stop paying the monthly loan interest and finally the maintenance fees. Because of these contract violations;

1)W.

set up the automatic payment plan so that my money went to the wrong receiver.

2)The annual interest rate was 4 % too high

3)There was a 12 months Price Freeze given me when the Panama City Beach contract was bought on December 3, 2017. I paid 0,145**** usd for each point (or 58379 usd for 400000 eternal points) and also got 600000 bonus points for free, in P.C.B.

On the tenth of January 2018 in Nashville I paid 0,15593 usd for each point (or 46779 usd for 300000 eternal points). And I only got 300000 bonus points for free there too.

The price per point had increased despite the promise given when signing the contract in PCB: Acknowledgement of PRICE FREEZE One year Price Freeze โ€“ โ€œFuture purchases will be locked in at the prize that inventory is selling for todayโ€.

I told the sales-woman in Nashville that I was not willing to pay more for the points than I had paid in PCB. And she even laughed sarcastically when I tried to buy them below that priceโ€ฆ..Instead, I was charged 3017,25 usd too much in Nashville for the contract signed there.

Unfortunately I didnโ€™t have a calculating machine with me.

Nor did Wyndham supply one. My ability to do mental calculations were not great after a sales session well into its 7-8 hour and no food served except a very small, simple breakfast.

In June 2018 I received an Amortization Schedule from Wyndham with the remaining 27 monthly payments scheduled. Now the interest was up 0,5 % to 17,49 %.

But the interest-payment the first month was 277,8 usd according to Wyndham. And with a balance (the remaining loan) of 15668,89 usd this was in fact 21.27 % in annual interest the first month.

Wyndham Club have broken the terms of the contract.

I had to stop paying the Wyndham Club fees. Wyndhamโ€™s poor calculations and book keeping and back office failure forced me to do this.

I told Wyndham that I wanted the Nashville contract to be cancelled and all money spent on it returned. In fact my experiences so far were so negative that I also wanted to cancel my Panama City Beach Contract. I saw years of problems ahead there too.

Wyndham's business model disadvantages the Wyndham Club members.

Wyndham receives all payments in advance, or W. charges a very high interest rate. All efforts are committed to selling memberships and, afterwards, Wyndham's commitment has disappeared. All back office functions I experienced later appear under-dimensioned, insufficient or avoided.

In addition, there is an unpleasant lack of respect for the customers.

Wyndham sales staff seem to know that promises given will not be kept. So they avoid further contact with the customer or send unsigned replies only, after months of waiting.

I also question Wyndhamโ€™s ability to give access to the places customers request. Comments on the internet are about long waiting lists and that itโ€™s almost impossible to get what is wanted.

Has the business model collapsed when all employees are focused on selling memberships and get bonuses for it? And where the most popular resorts are never available?

On June 12th 2018 the following message arrived from Ronald Singh (Owner Care Operations Supervisor โ€“ Club Wyndham) Good Afternoon Mr.

Bernholm,

I am reaching out to you in the absence of Chris Dzierbicki your Sr. Case Specialist whom has been review of your case recently. Please allow me to provide an update regarding Wyndhamโ€™s position your case. After careful review and consideration we have found no ground that warrant cancellation of your two recent purchases with Club Wyndham.

While we agree the check was not processed, we see our Financial Services team did provide you with a fair and amicable that would have allowed you to reach the objective you wanted with your final payment, as well as a generous gesture of goodwill for the confusion by providing the daily interest that did accrue as well as 6 months of your assessment fees waived. In regards to your concerns on your interest rate please see the attached amortization schedule that does outline your new payment. Per our previous discussion, when you make a large payment on your loan it does not recast then loan, however it does accelerate the maturity date. If you sign up for automatic payment you can also decreased your interest rate by .5%.

This will help you achieve your 16.99% interest rate.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions and we will be happy to follow up with you in regards to your request. I trust in working together we can provide additional assistance to any inquiry you may present and we are here to be of service to you. If you would like to speak on this matter do not hesitate to contact me directly. Thank You, Ronald Singh

Ronald.Singh@***.com Owner Care Operations Supervisor โ€“ Club Wyndham

10 days later, on June 22, Singh called and said that I had been released from my Nashville contract.

Money was going to be returned. The (points) price freeze had been overlooked in Nashville. And this breach of contract could not be denied even by Wyndham.

However, in an email sent directly after this phone message he wrote; โ€œplease allow this communication to serve as confirmation of our conversation earlier today. We are currently in review of your most recent purchase with Wyndham Nashville.

We discussed your recent sales experience as a consumer and drew a fair understanding on your position regarding your purchase with Wyndham. I understand the experience with dealing with our financial services team was not encouraging but we understand there was disconnect with the lost check you sent usโ€ฆโ€ฆ etc etcโ€

As usual all written correspondence was legally non-binding and in fact didnโ€™t even mention or confirm that the Nashville contract had just been terminated.

Singh also said and wrote about the loan interest; โ€œit is compounded daily just as any other simple loan commitment for our contractโ€. (This was 3 months after I had brought up this issue).

Still in the loan contract I saw in three different places in bold letters that the terms are โ€œ16,99 % annuallyโ€. But in much smaller print Wyndham has added in one place This is not your interest rateโ€.

Nowhere is any mention about the compounded daily interest. Naturally, being optimistic I thought I was getting a lower than 16.99 % annual rate because the sales woman said that she had given me the best possible termsโ€ฆโ€ฆ

I wonder why W. doesnโ€™t tell customers that they will charge 20.98 % annually and compound daily? When will W.

start compounding every second, or minute? Einstein called this way of (exponential) calculating the 8th wonder of the world.

I also think that every sales session must include a 2-3 hour private reading of the contract. And that the contract should not be handed out as an unnumbered loose pile of papers.

When a company promises too much and lies too often it will eventually go under in a blaze of lawsuits, class-actions and fines. And even more Wyndham whistleblowers, reporting that they are forced to lie to customers, have to be paid 20 million usd/each by Wyndham.

In the spring of 2018 I sought assistance from Time Share Tricks (Near Gulfport/Biloxi) - timesharetricks@***.com) - .

And I sent James Grant - 23098 Freddie Frank Rd, Pass Christian, Harrison County, Mississippi 39571 USA โ€“ 850 usd (2 x 425 usd) to buy the necessary legal documents to be able to help me. But as soon as he received that money he disappeared with it and have not been heard of since. Heโ€™s a crook of course. Beware, these vultures flock around Wyndham

Wyndham and Mr Singh never sent me any important written material.

Everything is done on the phone. During the fall of 2018 I also wanted to have the first contract signed in Panama City Beach terminated. Eventually, in late November, Mr Singh phoned me and said that he had consulted senior people at Wyndham and that my request was declined. I never got this decision in writing โ€“ only on the phone.

And he was aware of that I was leaving on a 7 week trip so he called 2 days before leaving which meant that I could only respond when back home again in February 2019.

Singh also threatened me with a penalty meaning that I would lose all the money (58379 usd) paid so far to Wyndham; when I stopped paying the monthly maintenance costs.

Does Singh and the people of Owners Care really care for me? Am I the owner which Wyndham cares for; or am I the owner who have to care for Wyndhamโ€™s survival?

In Sweden University studies are free (paid for by income taxes which generally are 40-50 %). It is ironic that some students, even here, have gotten a free economy education, only to cheat those that paid for their education through the taxes.

In USA, student loans are mounting. The top jobs goes to students of powerful families with connections plus a few brilliant students with outstanding talents.

Too many people are educated and many have a hard time to find a job.

Ronalds Singhโ€™s name indicates that he is a Sikh. The Sikhs have always excelled in India despite being a small minority. Owners Care is just a glorified name for โ€œcomplaintsโ€ and not the type of executive position an ambitious student of economics or law is looking for. I donโ€™t think it will lead to an executive position in a larger and fast growing company.

To attract an ambitious, educated and clever person like Singh, the money has to be good. And enough to pay off a heavy student loan and live the American way of life.

With all unhappy customers complaining I guess that much of the Wyndham monthly maintenance fees goes to Owners Care.

And W. is efficient in collecting money. It only took Wyndham 1 hour to set up an automatic payment plan for the rest of my life, while it took them three months to reply and start answering urgent questions from me.

They donโ€™t hesitate to contact collection agents to drive in the money.

I have received feedback from other unhappy club members. People who donโ€™t have enough for their old age any more. They are unhappy about the Cosa Nostra level of Wyndhamโ€™s interest rates (21 %). They are no longer consumers, they are broke.

While the people who seemed so anxious to advice and help, have disappeared without leaving even a forwarding address. They have left the building, and are somewhere else counting the money. You will realize this after you have signed the 40 plus page contract. The people of Owners Care donโ€™t realize that we are the owners and that they are there to take care of us.

Or is their lack of care proof that we donโ€™t own anything?

EXTREMELY POOR VALUE โ€“ AND NOTHING AVAILABLE

When I came to the first meeting in Panama City Beach โ€“ not informed that it was a time share meeting - I came there because I had paid 50 usd for a vacation week via โ€œEndless Vacationโ€ โ€“ another Wyndham company. Already at the initial meeting I told everybody that I wanted to travel outside of USA and Europe. The Wyndham people in Panama City Beach asked me where and I answered Africa. So they wrote โ€œAfricaโ€ on my memo paper and on the black board.

I also said that I had a busy 12 months in front of me with no traveling possibilities.

(Of course no one said that I still had to pay maintenance costs meanwhileโ€ฆ..). And I usually travel by myself. I have no family. Iโ€™m not a resort person and I never book an all-inclusive vacation because I donโ€™t drink alcohol and my food habits are simple.

Outside of USA what is offered to Club-members is very thin.

The poor options given travelers in Sweden by Wyndham clearly illustrates this. I live in Sweden but I canโ€™t compose a meaningful stay in Sweden using whatโ€™s available via the Club Wyndham, RCI or the Rewards program in Sweden.

Mรถlle is a nice summer seaside village on the west coast but few stay there outside the summer period. Then there is a golf resort (I donโ€™t play golf) and the rest are half a dozen ski resorts, in the same area, to visit during winter โ€“ a period when I look for a warmer climate.

There is no plan behind the Club Wyndham offers. Itโ€™s only randomly assembled resorts.

In Sweden visits to the old university towns like Lund or Uppsala and a stay in Stockholm is a must. What W. offers is far worse than any routine package tour offered by a less than mediocre travel agency.

Africa

The Club Wyndham have nothing in Africa.

But RCI have

Cape Verde (1 place)

Ivory Coast (1)

Kenya (2)

Senegal (2)

Ethiopia (1)

Zimbabwe (2)

South Africa (35)

Extra booking charges for a RCI unit are around 150-200 usd. (There is no info about this in my contracts).

It is too much to pay if you plan to stay only a couple of days or want to leave early.

It is impossible to compose a realistic and interesting journey to Africa. Only 1 or 2 places in those very large countries is not enough. (I guess that the RCI items are mostly one flat or one room and not the whole building or hotelโ€ฆ). When traveling I usually start in the capital/international airport town and then stay 3-4 days for a short rest and to arrange the remaining country tour.

Most African countries are missing.

I donโ€™t want to visit countries terrorized by muslim extremists. South Africa is a criminally violent country now. The many available places there indicates that the owners no longer feel safe enough to use them and nobody else wants to buy the property. (There are also many places available in China.

I guess those flats are in unpopulated newly built ghost towns where no one want to live).

The Rewards also have;

Ghana (1)

Nigeria (Abuja) (1)

And I have seen Namibia mentioned elsewhere, before.

The thousands of opportunities promised proved to be less than 25. While Hotel booking websites like Booking.com, for example, offered the following African selections in February 2019;

Uganda (932 items)

Ethiopia (328)

Kenya (2217) etc, etc.

*

I went to Sri Lanka during December-January 2018-19.

RCI only have 3 places

Colombo/Negombo (2)

Habaraduwa (1)

And the Wyndham Rewards offer 2 Ramada hotels at the Colombo/Katunayake airport. Nothing was available when I was there. Conclusion; Wyndham offer 4 places in the capital Colombo, its airport and suburb town plus one southern seaside resort.

But the hotel booking site Booking.com offered 11076 properties in Sri Lanka (and 3083 properties in Sweden).

Rooms that can be booked the same day. You donโ€™t need to book in advance.

Being a Club Wyndham Access member is also an extremely expensive way of traveling.

I paid 58,379 usd for 400.000 points yearly. And got 600.000 bonus points the first year.

My age when signing the contract was 71 years. The expected average Swedish lifespan is 82,3 years; slightly lower for men or 80,6 years).

At 72, I have circa 10 years ahead of me when Iโ€™m fit enough to travel. I usually travel by myself only, and I plan to continue doing so. Iโ€™m not a resort person and I have no plans to go to USA or to Western Europe.

When the 600000 Bonus points are used up there is hopefully 10 travel-years left for me. Then I will receive 400.000 points yearly and is hopefully fit enough to be able to use them.

I initially planned to use these points via the Rewards System for hotel-rooms in South America/Africa/Asia (15.000 points/night).

But if I change those 400000 yearly points into Reward points I will only receive 160000 ( * eternal point bring only 0,4 Reward Point. And I can only stay 11 nights there.

The yearly (โ€œcondoโ€) maintenance costs are 2632 usd. (12 x 219,33 usd). So in reality โ€“ via the maintenance fees - I will have to pay for those 11 nights (a second time) at 239 usd/night.

I finally managed to silence the aggressive,non stop sales talk of the Afro-German woman in Nashville when I suggested that putting the money in a low risk investment would give me a yearly interest on 58379 usd of circa 5 % or 2919 usd yearly.

Then I could pay the hotel-rooms out of my own pocket - instead of paying the yearly maintenance costs of 2632 usd. And still keep the 58379 usd for myself. (Unfortunately there was not a calculator available to prove it).

Conclusion:

A 5 % interest/dividend on 58379 usd will give circa 2919 usd/year.

And the Condo maintenance costs for the Wyndham Club members cost 2632 usd/year.

These 5551 usd will give Club-members only 11 days (sic) of vacation outside USA at 505 usd/day.

I used hotel booking site Booking.com instead. They had more than 10000 items to choose from on Sri Lanka.

They were mostly close to beach, clean, air-conditioned and with private toilet and bath etc. I paid circa 25 usd/night.

5551 usd would get me 222 hotel-nights on Sri Lanka and save the 58379 usd for myself.

Conclusion: In Sri Lanka and also in many of the other countries I plan to visit I donโ€™t have to pay above 25 usd/night.

So instead of getting 11 days of vacation; by giving up 58379 usd of hard earned savings plus also the yearly interest/dividends (5 %) from those savings (=2919 usd/year). Plus having to pay the yearly maintenance costs (2632 usd yearly). I can in fact get over 222 hotel nights and vacation days each year by paying out of my own pocket and still keep my hard earned (58379 usd) money.

While living at decent family hotels in a good locations.

Other expenses are not counted here; the Reservation Costs when using RCI, and yearly Wyndham membership costs of 59,95 usd, etc. And the maintenance costs will probably increase yearly.

I will be getting very little for my money (58379 usd). What might be fine for a young American family with many children is not at all suitable for a single person past 70 years old and living outside USA. Whoever will inherit my membership will stop paying monthly maintenance costs immediately.

So itโ€™s better I stop paying right now.

Which of course I already have. And I encourage everybody to stop paying Wyndham.

Itโ€™s evident that Club Wyndham is a club for Americans traveling in America. Outside America itโ€™s just a random assortment of (hotel-) rooms and apartments. Not part of any serious strategy and with a very poor traveling value.

Just enough to fool people in a biased presentation. Definitely not what Iโ€™m looking for.

Club WYNDHAM alternatives;

Wyndham took a large portion of my future vacation-money, and I realized too late that a vacation at Wyndham is a nerve-wrecking experience which starts with an invitation to a โ€œfollow-up meeting when important news from Wyndham is deliveredโ€. But it became a full day of abusive, hard sell talk which didnโ€™t end until you had signed another Wyndham contract. Wyndham had a total focus on your remaining money while the only thing free in Nashville was the popcorn in the machine outside the small gym.

We have paid a lot for our memberships.

But we are not even the owners of the PVTO club. (= the Condo association Club). But there are many more opportunities outside the Club Wyndham membership. Lately, I have been in Sri Lanka and Burma.

And been given room and full board during 2,5 months there without any costs at all.

The stay in 2 Buddhist monasteries have the added bonus of not meeting any Wyndham staff. Thus avoiding the anger and uncontrollable high blood pressure that many Club Wyndham members are suffering from.

Living like this is an un-parallel way to get to know a country and its people and culture better. You stay for free as long as you follow the rules - no alcohol, no drugs no sex โ€“ and have access to a library and can share the life of the people of far east countries like Vietnam, Laos, Taiwan, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Burma. Places where Wyndham is very poorly represented; which I discovered when it was too late.

All sales people including Tom Aiello said that they are long time Wyndham Club members โ€“ which I doubt.

Tom had many wonderful Wyndham vacation memories with his whole family. Then tragedy struck and his daughter died at a young age. True or not, it is not appropriate to use a deceased family member as a sales argument.

I expect that Wyndham eventually will pay back the money from the first contract signed in Panama City Beach. When the full payment have been made, the Wyndham staff is fleeing because they donโ€™t want to face all their unmet promises and lies.

Leonard & Tom Aiello at the Panama City Beach office never answered any e-mails. And when trying to contact the Nashville staff (Jennifer Starkey and Joey Spite) their e-mail addresses had been discontinued. Dustin Leonard refused to meet me in his office and demonstrate how I should use the websites and find what I was looking for. Had it happened within the short cancellation period I could have seen for myself that Club Wyndham was not for me.

THE WYNDHAM ROBOTS IN NETHERLAND

There are a lot of websites where unhappy Wyndham Club members share their sad experiences.

A website by Timeshare Consumer Bureau called Wyndham Timeshare Scam has brought quite a few replies from people sharing my experiences or who made a lucky escape.

But a lot more non-sense replies there are coming from The Netherlands and their new age therapeutics. It is strange that Wyndham uses our membership money setting up robots abroad or paying for this type of help. (Because I cannot even imagine that Holland today is so full of confused pot-smokers).

And their replies are all about how much they appreciates my style of writing:

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Everything is up to the mark. Written perfectly and I can use such information for my coming assignment.

So far I have received more than 160 replies and messages like this; where the Wyndham name is never even mentioned.

*

I have been in contact with many organizations trying to help time-share victims. And contacted many people working at Wyndham, too; I have sent complaints to;

Better Business Bureau orlando.sba@***b-email.org

tug@***.net tug@***.net

Federal Trade Commission.

www.timeshareconsumerbureau.com (They have the blog The Wyndham Timeshare Scam)

Pissed Consumer (they will publish your complaint)

The Disqus team

(Please avoid JH Grant. He promised to help me, but took my money and disappeared.

Time Share Tricks, James Grant, 23098 Freddie Frank Rd, Pass Christian, MS 39571, USA)

Various people working at WYNDHAM

Emerald Grande Hotel (they sold points to me) Ed McMullen Jr. emcmullenjr@***.com Cc: Johnson, Margaret Margaret.Johnson@***.com,

*

Wyndham Panama City Beach

QA.CW. PanamaCity@***.com Thomas Fetzer, Quality Assurance Officer Wyndham Panama City Beach 14700 Front Beach Road Suite 3 Panama City Beach, FL 32413 Office- (850)-636-**** Fax โ€“ (850)- 636-**** Thomas.fetzer@***.com

dustin leonard@***n. com dustin.leonard@***.com

*

Wolford, Patrick Patrick.Wolford@***.com Senior Servicing Analyst Account Servicing Operations

Wyndham Consumer Finance, Inc.

10750 W. Charleston Blvd #130 Las Vegas, NV 89135 7**-**7-2994 (p) 702-304-**** (f) patrick.wolford@***.com

Christopher.Dzierbicki@***.com Christopher A Dzierbicki Senior Case Specialist Owner Services Wyndham Vacation Ownership 6277 Sea Harbor Drive Orlando, FL 32821 O: 800-446-**** EXT 630277 F: 407-626-**** Christopher.Dzierbicki@***.com Monday-Thursday 8:00AM-5:30PM EST Friday 8:00AM-12:00PM EST

consumer finance at 888-739-****.

Wyndhamcaresteam@***.com Justin.parker@***.com My office hours are Tuesday 9am-8pm, Thursday 9am-6pm, Friday 9am-8pm, and Saturday 8am-6:30pm (Eastern Time) Kind Regards, Justin Parker Wyndham Cares Specialist โ€“ Wyndham Vacation Clubs WyndhamCaresTeam@***.com

Michael D. Brown President & Chief Executive Officer

Wyndham Destinations clubwyndham@***.wyndhamvo.com

Media@***.com Media@***.com

servicerequest@***.com

Wyndham Destinations Attn: Ronald Singh (2nd Floor Owner Care) 6277 Sea Harbor Dr Orlando, FL 32821 4**-**6-6328 Singh, Ronald Ronald.Singh@***.com

Wyndham Nashville

Jennifer.Starkey@***.com Jennifer Starkey

615.681.2941 jennifer.starkey@***.com jennifer.starkey@***.com

โ€œSorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address Jennifer.Starkey@***.comโ€

Spite, Joseph Caleb Joseph.Spite@***.com โ€œSorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address. Joseph.Spite@***.comโ€

MBX - CIM Cisco Service svc-ciscoemail@***.com Quentin C.

Owner Care Specialist 407-626-****.

Wyndham Vacation Resorts Owner Care

*

PTVO WynAG@***.com Amy Bornmann, Director, Club & Association Governance

Wyndham Vacation Clubs Wyndham Destinations, 6277 Sea Harbor Drive Orlando, FL 32821 Stockholm July 17th, 2019, Jonas Bernholm

Wyndham Club Member no. 0020342****

Blekingegatan 25

11856 Stockholm

Sweden

Ph:+46-8-642**** jonasbernholm@***.com

(2019-07-17) WYNDHAM Stock market failure (1023 words)

WYND (Wyndham Destinations) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It presents itself as a Timeshare Company and as a mother-company for the Wyndham Vacation Clubs. The Vacation Ownership segment develops, markets, and sells vacation ownership interests (VOIs)/(โ€œPointsโ€) to individual consumers; provides consumer financing in connection with the sale of VOIsโ€ (by giving loans of 21 % interest).

WYND recently spun off Wyndham Hotels (WH) .

WYNDs financial position is very weak. The booked value is negative (- 6,30 usd/share), and the investors have discovered that this hotel company is a house of cards, mortgaged above the chimney. If all assets are sold it will still be in debt. Total Debt is 5.46 billion dollars while the Market Cap is only 4.05 billion dollars (June 2019).

The stock price have plummeted during the last 18 months from 57.31 usd (January 2018) to 43.21 usd (June 2019) despite recommendation by stock market TV-guru Jim Cramer in June 2018,

Shareholders are disappointed and feel trapped.

Stock price have to rise by 35 % to make market cap as large as the WYND debts. Value of assets have to increase.

It is alarming that WYND is in this position. In one respect their business model is brilliant. Members in the Vacation Clubs have been convinced and persuaded to make a very large one time advance payment โ€“ or take loans with an interest rate of 21% (sic) - to enjoy expensive vacations for the rest of their lives.

The members also pay yearly maintenance fees despite the fact that the PVTO or โ€œCondo associationโ€ is not the owner but that the ownership is in a โ€œTrustโ€.

This one-time advance payment seems to be divided between the sales force and the Wyndham staff. No new property is then bought by money but paid for by points (the Wyndham vacation currency) which the sales force then will help the hotel or resort to sell to new members.

WYND desperately needs income. But when the down payment is made, Wyndham has no incentive to help us; the buyers โ€“ the Vacation Ownership owners - as the big payment has already been made. And Wyndhamโ€™s Owners Care ignores us.

Now, many of the members have sobered up and realized that they have invested their life savings in a dream and a bankrupt company.

And since the target group and the present Club members are mostly senior, retired citizens, chances are very slim that this group will radically improve their finances and be able to make a onetime down-payment or even pay the interest and maintenance fees. After all, many had no savings when the contracts were signed.

Only a desperate and bankrupt company is as abusive towards new and old clients as Wyndham is. There are 900.000 members in the Wyndham Vacation Clubs. We invested our life savings or took a high risk loan at 21 % interest rate when we signed.

Wyndham desperately need new members.

But the bad reputation of Wyndham and its sales process is all over the internet. Itโ€™s all about lies and harsh treatment during a full day sales process when Wyndham tries every trick in the book to convince the buyers. A ruthless sales force have been engaged. They are willing to lie, cheat and threat and take a lot of money for their efforts.

(The Clubโ€™s offer to book a hotel room or flat one year in advance is very dated and does not suit a senior citizen. We have to wait until we are fit enough to travel; perhaps after a period when the cancer clinic have to be the first choice. Besides, via hotel booking sites you can order a room the same day and much, much cheaper).

It is sad to see that the stock market is not really aware that there are 1000s of unhappy Wyndham Club members and that this eventually will harm the stock market performance of both WYND (Wyndham Destinations) and the WH (Wyndham Hotel and Resorts) shares.

Still the WYND stock seems more vulnerable; as itโ€™s the motor behind whatโ€™s on the net is called the Wyndham Timeshare Scam.

On June 5, 2018 TV personality Jim Cramer (CNBC โ€œMad Moneyโ€, the Street) invited Michael Brown, CEO of Wyndham Destinations (WYND) to his TV-show.

But Cramer didnโ€™t understand the true nature of WYND. He ought to have discovered that all assets were gone.

And everyone could see that CEO Brown didnโ€™t look relaxed. Was he afraid that an unhappy Wyndham Vacation Club member might appear any minute as a surprise guest? Wyndham have caused many people economic disaster and is now even targeting senior citizens that donโ€™t have English as their first language.

Brown said that Wyndham is a pure-play on vacation time-share destinations, an industry that's as strong as ever. Today's vacationers want space, amenities and consistency, he said, and Wyndham caters to the everyday traveler, which is the market's biggest segment.

In addition to allowing customers to lock in future vacations at today's rates, Wyndham also sees big opportunities in the secondary markets when timeshare owners decide to make their exits.

I worked for 10 years as a stock market reporter in Scandinaviaโ€™s biggest stock market magazine called Aktiespararen.

I would not recommend anyone to buy any stock in WYND. It has a negative booked value of 6,3 usd/share. Technically it is bankrupt. Before the IFRS rules in book-keeping came into existence, the good-will value had to be depreciated every year.

(Good will = brand value, plus the โ€œover valueโ€ when a company is buying companies or assets above their booked value).

It is very rare to find a company these days with a negative value. Because the value of the company assets doesnโ€™t have to be depreciated every year as before.

I have never bought shares in a company that have a negative value. This goes totally against the recommendation of Benjamin Graham; Warren Buffettโ€™s mentor who taught Buffett how to invest.

And WYND is a property company - Without property?

The shareholders and staff of WYND are in for a rocky ride. Jonas Bernholm (jonasbernholm@***.com

Location: Tyreso, Stockholm

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How the heck is going to read such a long block of solid text??? Not me!

Have you ever heard of brevity? Have you ever heard of paragraph breaks?

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Not surprising!!

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