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On 18 Aug 2007 my wife and I went to a Wyndham sales office in San Antonio to sit in on a time share sales presentation in exchange for some incentives. During the presentation we spoke with Nicholas Peterson and we decided that timeshare ownership wasn't for us. However his bosses were very persistent in selling us a timeshare plan. We eventually purchased a biennial contract with the understanding that the timeshare would appreciate in value. It wasn't until later in that we discovered this was a lie and what we purchased was almost useless.

On May 14th of 2008, my wife and I attended a dinner party hosted by Wyndham Vacation Resorts at the Sheraton Gunther hotel in downtown San Antonio. After dinner everyone was split off into couples so that Wyndham could provide us with updates to our ownership. We were introduced to Mr. Michael Suarez who we were told would be our representative to help with any questions regarding our ownership and update us on new programs for Wyndham owners. Mr. Suarez was not introduced as a salesman; it wasn't until later that we discovered that the dinner party was nothing more than a sales pitch put on by Wyndham to lure people into buying more points in their program.

During the "OWNERSHIP UPDATE" Mr. Suarez told us that we did not have enough points to use our timeshare as we had previously purchased a biennial contract with Wyndham. From our original purchase we understood that our biennial contract would allow us to have a certain number of points with Wyndham to use over the course of two years. But according to Mr. Suarez, by not having enough points we were ineligible for many of the benefits within Wyndham like Wyndham's Extra Holidays rental income program. He made it sound like we had been sold an inferior package the first time and he wanted to help us get better value from our ownership.

Mr. Suarez promised us that he would personally help us rent our points. He boasted about how he had rented some of his points which covered the expenses he incurred when purchasing some new home entertainment equipment amounting to over $2000. Mr. Suarez explained that if we purchased additional points to reach the next level of ownership and by using Extra Holidays that we could actually (with his assistance) have the program cover our monthly maintenance fees of $73.71 and repay the $15,600 for this second purchase.

Mr. Suarez wrote all this out on paper and explained it in great detail and provided us with his personal cell phone number to reach him at anytime and he would answer any questions we had. By the time he had us sign the contract it was after midnight, we were totally exhausted and just ready to leave. At the time of signing the contract Mr. Suarez and his notary told us that we needed to back date and sign the document otherwise we couldn't buy into the next level of ownership. This created what we later realized was a false sense of urgency - there really was no reason to hurry us up. However, having been given what seemed like a reasonable explanation at the time, we back dated the document and left. Looking back on all this, the explanation was dubious at best, we feel like this was just another reason to hurry us up so they could get us to sign the contract.

Future attempts at calling Mr. Suarez were of little help and the Wyndham Extra Holidays rental income program did not cover any of the costs as promised. If Mr. Suarez had not intentionally lied to us and purposely misled us, we would not have bought anything that night. Instead we remember Mr. Suarez making the purchase of the additional points sound like a "หœno brainer' being that it would pay for itself, PLUS we could eventually make some money with our ownership like Mr. Suarez claimed to have done.

On May 31, 2009, my wife and I were staying at the Wyndham La Cascada resort. While staying there we had some questions about our now $28,198 timeshare and how we could more effectively use what we had already purchased. We made an appointment with Wyndham's member services to go over our membership.

At our appointed time we went down to member services desk and were introduced to Mr. Abel Michael Rosenberg who, after he specifically and intentionally misrepresented to us that he was not a salesman, told us that we should have been contacted about the new Wyndham programs and that we were missing out on financial benefits that were currently being enjoyed by other timeshare owners who had been notified. He said that he could not understand WHY we had not been notified but that he would now go over everything with us and try to get us to a point where we could use our timeshare more effectively. He said that we needed to be at the gold level of 500,000 points to take full benefit of the program. He explained what we would need to do to get there and he would help us with any questions that we might have in using any of the Wyndham programs, like the Extra Holidays rental program that Mr. Suarez had sold us. Having just heard this sales pitch a while back we were very reluctant to purchase again.

Then Mr. Rosenberg with Mr. Matthew Gutierrez closed the deal by promising us that Wyndham was starting a "หœbuy-back' program and would purchase back our property if we kept it for two years provided that we had an offer from a buyer (which could be anyone) and we could make money on the deal. We asked WHY Wyndham would do this and they said that at the 308,000 point level that Wyndham would rather resell our property themselves than to have it out on the open market. To help us use our timeshare they BOTH promised to personally help us manage our points and provided us with their personal cell phone numbers to call at any time. This sounded like a great offer so we purchased the additional points, thinking we would try for two more years to get value from our ownership, comforted in knowing that we would have an "หœout' after that time. If still unsatisfied, we were relieved to hear that we would be able to sell our full ownership back to Wyndham, which would allow us to recoup our investment and hopefully some of our expenses and to get out of the Wyndham timeshare completely as we have not benefited from it as we were originally told we would. We now believe they told us this so that we would not rescind the contract within the required deadline.

Back in October we had an interested buyer for our property, so on 15 October 2010 we placed a call to Wyndham's "Transfer of Ownership" section (866-812-****). We inquired about the buyback program and discovered that Wyndham does NOT have such a program. Therefore two more employees of Wyndham resorts; Mr. Rosenberg and Mr. Gutierrez intentionally lied to us and purposely misled us just to get us to sign another contract and purchase more points with Wyndham. This was done to secure the execution of the document under the deception that Wyndham would buy back our time share after two years.

We would like to believe that the deceptive selling practices of Wyndham Vacation Resorts was limited to the San Antonio office but we also were invited to a Wyndham "Party Weekend" which we attended in Cancun Mexico back in March of 2008 where we met a group of Wyndham representatives from Las Vegas Nevada. Our assigned representative was Mr. Ben Nethery, a VIP Portfolio Manager, who also attempted to convince us to purchase Wyndham property in Las Vegas and made many of the same claims (on papers still in our possession) that the San Antonio representatives did that we now know are not true. We did not purchase as we were not interested in Las Vegas. Given that these same lies are being sold in different markets, we are convinced that this is part of the Wyndham training given to their representatives, therefore is being driven from the top down.

Location: Dallas, Texas

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Phuc Fgm

It makes sense to bring a recorder, if the sales rep and presenter are not comfortable being recorded or if they don't want to put everything in writing, then they are lying.

Guest

Still helping victims of Wyndham. Visit my website at www.timesharetricks.blogspot.com

Guest

Same story as ours at destin

Juanita Orj

On a visit to Vegas we signed up with Wyndham on the story if I signed with them, I wouldn't have any more obligations or payments to RCI, (another timeshare I own.) Needless to say, I am now on the hook for two timeshares. Lies, half-truths, and a ton of hidden fees and charges is what you can expect from Wyndham. Worst money I ever spent, and that includes the time I lost everything when I bought ENRON stock!

Guest

parents bought a timeshare from wynham long ago. They passed away this year and we were told there is a disclaimer form to fill out but we cannot find that form. Anyone know what we do now as their two heirs don't want the timeshare and it is not in the trust!

thanks all

Guest

Sounds to me like you REALLY need to give Ozark Liquidation a call they are a great company that in no way shape or form are affiliated with the timeshare companies but I attended one of their seminars (it really did only take an hour) and got out completely of my Wyndham and blueberry timeshare. Contact them to find out when they will be having a free seminar in your area. They actually put everything down in writing and gave me a written gaurantee and at the seminar I actually got out of my blue green timeshare that day and 90 days later I was free and clear from Wyndham at last so give Ozark liquidation a call at 417-251-**** they WILL help

Guest

:cry :cry :cry :cry :cry :upset :upset :upset :( :( :(

Johnie J

Still working on it.

Guest

Were you ever able to get out of the wyndam timeshare?

Guest

I went to the Dells, it was quite the experience. I went to my "update" meeting. It was to be 30 minutes, shame on me...it was 2.5 hours.

I used that time to ask for the things that we needed. We needed trash bags, the 4 bedroom presidential needed to be cleaned. My 2 year old niece had wet the bed so we stripped it and called down for clean sheets. When stripping the bed we found a half empty pop can stuffed under the mattress. I had called for the sheets and trash bags before the meeting.

My family called me to see where I was, my kids were waiting on me. I asked if the items had been provided, they hadn't. I informed the person I was with. They said they would call housekeeping.

Then I told them I needed to go, he says "wait" and starts telling me more. I said no multiple times and explained that I would not buy at such a touristy location, especially with the issues we had experienced up to that point.

I thought there was a clause that you had 3 days to change your mind on a deal. I could be wrong.

Johnie J

Thanks, we have started looking into this.

However due to the obvious lack of ethics on Wyndham's part we won't comment about any current or future plan of actions in a public forum until its done. More later...

Jim G Nhq

What these guy told you was illegal, you can force Wyndham into canceling your contract and refund your money. Visit my website at www.timesharetricks.blogspot.com and email me at notimeshare@***.com

Guest

Well, for $199 they offered 4 nights / 4 days in downtown San Antonio, and a cruise, and gave me a $50 gift card. So, I went ahead and did it, just b/c I wanted to go on a cruise later this year, anyways.

It seemed like a good deal at the pitch, but as I explained to them at the meeting: I wouldn't loan a family member the money they were asking for without investigating it, and I wouldn't do it then. On top of that, the MARRIED sales person was flirting with me (rubbing my hands), used a 4 letter curse word, used a degenerate word for the mentally disabled. Then the money-lady came over and was really pushy as well. Basically called me a fool for not investing in their company, said I wasn't capable of making these dream vacations happen unless I had bought in with them, even though she knew I had 6 / 12 planned over the next year already, but just not the actual scheduling aside from time off from work planned.

After reading all the shady business practices here, I'm very glad I told them no. Thanks for sharing your stories.

Guest

He is an excellent liar- oh yeah.. call me anytimeรขโ‚ฌยฆ The famous words of every *** wyndham salesperson.

I told one sales person in san francisco if he told me "you know you are going to be there.. get this amount of points" one more time he would be on the floor bleeding.

We left and the rest of our stay, the resort just wasn't the same "friendly" atmosphere. Good thing we only stayed 3 nights.

Guest

You can get wyndham point for $1000 for 100,000 points if you look for it. You still will have the maintance fees as normal.

Basically all you are doing is taing over and paying the maintance fees on default properties. As for adding your kids to the deed don't do it!!!! make a trust instead. On the deed they become responsible for fees if you die.

They can't say they don't want it.

In a trust Wyndahm can't do any thing about it they get full previledges that you had and can dump it any time. Always check with a lawyer when in doubt

Guest

here is the real scoop with Wyndham they are in business to make money selling timeshare investigate before you buy always any thing a timeshare sells person says is a lie unless they put it in writing and then the company Wyndham always has the right to revock the deal If you go to a sales presentation take your gift and say NO then run I have owned Wyndahm for 3 years and am very happy with owner ship but I never beleive a word they say and have caught them in numerous lies and have even proven they lie. They will always have a better deal if you want to buy check out ebay and sell my time share for best prices buy with caution

Guest

Wow kristin. .you are an ***.

189,000 points for 2500? Are you really that ***? Why did you sign the contracts?

Can't you read? How much was it?

Guest

I had a similar situation happen at the Wyndham in Wisconsin Dells. I had an every other year timeshare and they have tried in the past 2 months to update my timeshare.

I said no both times. The last time was in March when we were their for a weekend for my granddaughter. I met with Jason he said he had goose bumps that I did not update my timeshare and could not believe it. I could change my every other year to every year for the same price, could not believe I declined that.

I said I was never offered that. He came back with 210,000 points 300,000 points I said and 12,000 to 18,000 I said no. He said let me see what I could do. He ended up saying 189,000 points for $2,500 more.

Ten minutes before my granddaughter's party he wanted me to sign with my daughters so they could be on the deed. I said this is crazy we have people coming. He said it would take 5 minutes. We went up stairs and signed the papers.

I said repeatedly $2,500 and no funny business. He said absolutely. He said he would talk to me about any questions I had. I then called the next day the next day and so forth.

Another associate at Wyndham called me on behalf of Jason and said I could rescind it with Jason on Saturday and I had plenty of time. Jason called me on Sunday and said I could.

By monday I could do nothing and talked to over 20 people at Wyndham and they said I signed the contract. I cannot believe that all these stories I am hearing that we can not be able to go after these basXXXX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-261266

Contact Mary fonz in stoughton wisconsin she is a timeshare lawyer and is great

Johnie J

Yes we agree, that is totally wrong, their LACK of ethics will be there down fall. And it's corporate wide!

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