Welcome to this weeks Tuesday Slot, today Margaret Chandler shares her “Nightmare on Timeshare Street”, with an introduction and editing by Irene Parker. This story focuses on the problems being faced by senior citizens at the hands of unscrupulous sales agents, this is being commonly called Elder Abuse.
We were actually hoping that this article was going to be pulled, but unfortunately we have not had any answer or reply from Wyndham, so on with the article.
For the Benefit of the Consumer and the Benefit of the Industry,
Timeshare Consumer Education is Important
Margaret Chandler shares her Wyndham disaster
Introduction by Irene Parker
If you buy a house and have a loan, you can still sell your house.
Inside Timeshare has heard from 443 mostly angry and desperate timeshare members, many seniors with 800 credit scores, facing foreclosure in their 70s and some even in their 80s. All report they were told their timeshare would be easy to sell or that the company would buy the timeshare back. Margaret contacted two licensed timeshare resale brokers. They both told her there was no demand for timeshare points.
I contacted Tom Tubbs of Island Consulting Realty. Tom has been in the timeshare resale business for 32 years. Tom said Wyndham points can be listed for a penny or a penny and a half a point. So, for example, 300,000 points could be realistically listed for $4,500. That’s quite a hit from a likely initial purchase price of $60,000. http://www.timesharestogo.com/
Margaret has filed complaints with the appropriate regulatory agencies, but chances are nothing will happen. Timeshare members tell us the Florida Attorney General’s timeshare division will say, “You should not have relied on verbal representation,” the Nevada Real Estate division will say, “You have no proof,” and the Texas Attorney General will advise legal assistance. With virtually no timeshare regulation, and few understanding at purchase the limited secondary market, more and more timeshare members have been contacting Inside Timeshare seeking straight answers. Do not pay anyone upfront money to get you out of your timeshare without checking with Inside Timeshare or one of the self-help groups posted below. Scams abound. We sent a draft of this article to Wyndham. They said they are looking into it.
Elder abuse is “a single, or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes harm or distress to an older person.” Wikipedia
June 5, 2018
By Margaret Chandler
My name is Margaret and my husband is Edward. We are both 70 years old and Florida residents. Edward is an Army veteran, E6 at discharge. Our timeshare nightmare started with Wyndham in 2012. I want to detail some of the lies we feel this company told us so that others can be forewarned. We have filed a complaint with the Florida Attorney General’s office, the Nevada Real Estate Division and the Texas Attorney General. We have also filed with the Better Business Bureau.
We purchased Wyndham points several times.
We bought 125,000 points in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2012.
We bought points a second time in San Antonio, Texas in 2013. We were told buying more points would increase our original point value to get more availability. This did not improve availability.
We could only find availability in less desirable locations.
We went to Hawaii in 2014 and bought what they said was deeded property.
We were told at Pompano Beach in November of 2014 we would be better off with non-deeded points. They took our Hawaii points. They said there would be higher maintenance fees with the deeded points because deeded points are tied to real estate. The maintenance fees did not go down.
We bought additional points in Atlantic City December of 2014. They kept telling us we would have better benefits at a higher loyalty level.
We bought more points at Daytona Beach January of 2017. They took two contracts and traded those in and added more points. Now all we own is points.
We still have the Nevada and the San Antonio contract in addition to Daytona.
We are financially devastated.
Our experience started out fine, but got worse and worse. We ended up paying more and more money to fix a situation that never improved. I imagine it’s something like a drug dealer hooking a new junkie. The first hit is for free. After that you have to pay more and more to get something that gives you less and less satisfaction.
Wyndham’s salespeople have always told us that they have our best interests at heart and that they are there to make our experience better. One salesperson even called me ‘mom’ and another invited us to her son’s wedding. Others were ex-teachers like me or said they had military connections when they found out Edward is a veteran. As a result, we have signed six contracts between 2012 and 2017 that have been upgrades, trades or merges.
The problem is we now feel that that the sales agents were not truthful about pretty much everything. We are both being treated for high blood pressure worrying about the money that we feel they have taken from us so dishonestly. Edwards’s face turns red and I can see the stress level increasing every time the topic of timeshare comes up. We cannot even talk about using it anymore, as he stresses too much. He wants us to be able to enjoy our remaining lives without the threat of bad credit, missed payments or annoying phone calls from Wyndham all day long. I keep telling Edward not to answer calls, but he forgets and answers anyway….then he becomes annoyed all over again.
Edward was working a part time job during 2016-2017 but gave it up because his blood pressure was increasing due to the worry over these timeshare loan payments. He has not been sleeping well which is another factor that is leading to his declining health.
Wyndham promised us the vacations of our dreams, an investment that would be something we could pass onto our children. One salesperson, Zadith, even offered to contact us in a year to help us deed it to our children. They said the Las Vegas location’s value would rise, Hawaii would always be in demand, and Bonnet Creek was a great one because it’s near Disney.
We had to book 13 months in advance to get a place in Hawaii and it has become harder and harder to find availability. Wyndham said there was no availability when we tried to book six months ahead in San Antonio, but online booking sites showed River Walk Wyndham was available. Now how does that happen that owners cannot get a room, but the rooms are available to the general public??
The Wyndham sales agents told us to go to the bank to get a line of credit after we returned home, using the properties as collateral, but we learned timeshares are not considered properties so we can’t refinance. We are stuck with a high interest loan.
Wyndham told us the contract would pay for itself with rentals and they would help us do that but when we tried to rent they told us it would cost 40% of the fee of the booked room to put it in the rental pool and if it was not rented we would have to cancel or lose our points. No one helped us with this complicated process. It was completely left to us.
They told us we could resell the timeshare with ease because timeshares are in demand but when we called Wyndham to do this they said we couldn’t because we still owed money on it. They didn’t tell us those were the conditions at the presentation. If you buy a house and have a loan, you can still sell your house. We were referred to two licensed resale companies that wanted to charge us 10% and 15% of the sale but told us there really was no market for timeshares because the market was flooded.
This was the turning point. Wyndham lied and pressured us into paying more and more money, each time telling us they would fix the problems, but each time we were saddled with more debt. Our ‘personal reps’ were never available. The latest one Zadith, from Daytona Beach, has not been in touch at all. I tried texting her several times.
We are on a fixed income and we cannot keep up with the increasing costs. We are near the end of the money that we saved all our working days just to pay for these purchases. How can their sales people sleep at night after taking advantage of people that are hardworking souls and are honest and simple folks? They don’t have to lose sleep over our bills that are not being able to be paid. They are not worried about our blood pressures or our health. They just move on to the next victim.
We have written to Wyndham and they have offered to cancel our latest contract from 2017 but not the first two. We have tried to explain that the only reason we have so many contracts in the first place is because they told us the new contracts would fix the problems with the old ones. We are tired and exasperated and just want to be done with Wyndham.
https://www.facebook.com/timeshareadvocategroup/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DiamondResortsOwnersAdvocacy/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/180578055325962/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/465692163568779/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1639958046252175/
Thank you Margaret and Irene, once again it is a story we at Inside Timeshare are becoming very familiar with, it is a great shame that a once superb product is being destroyed by nothing more than greed.
If you have had a similar experience to Margaret or just want to comment, then use our contact page and get in touch with us. Inside Timeshare is here to give you a voice.
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