Keeping watch on Trendwest / WorldMark by Wyndham

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Wyndham: Disneyland or Used Cars?

I received this comment buried on a previous post, and thought it worthy of a main post (with improved punctuation):

It seems to me that Worldmark [Editorial comment: It's actually Wyndham, not Worldmark] needs to police their telemarketing contractors a little (OK a lot) more closely if they are, in fact, not trying to use high pressure to try and make them sign the contract, even if they tell you that its not possible to afford.

[I just had a] phone call, telling me that I had entered a drawing for $75,000 and had been selected for the second and final grand prize drawing (first outright lie) and that I had "won" a 3 day, 2 night package for either Vegas or Disneyland including free airfare, hotel, and amusement park tickets (came to find out that's another lie as the tickets will cost $50 per person up-front).

So I tell her (the telemarketer) I only live about 45 minutes from Disneyland — just send me the tickets for the park, forget the airfare and the hotel. Then she says I need verify your info and asks if my annual income is more than $40,000 a year. When I tell her "not at this time", she tells me to just say it is when I go to pick up my tickets (no mention of sitting through a sales pitch). So I say OK.

Then she asks are you married or single and since I'm still married but separated I tell her "neither". She says "just tell them you're single and own your own business they'll never check that anyway" (OK now I'm being coached at what lies to tell I DON'T LIKE TO LIE!!). But I tell her OK anyway and she rattles off about 6 different time slots that "she" has available for me to come to a fairly local location and pick up my tickets (still no mention of any sales presentation), so I set it up for about a week from now.

After hanging up I start to wonder and can't remember entering any drawings so I Google the company name she gave me (Worldmark) and after looking at one of their pages I stumble on this page (there may really be a God after all). I may have become irate when I arrived at [Wyndham] and wasn't just handed my prize winnings and sent on my way since the telemarketer (I'm positive it was unsolicited and we're on the Don't Call List BTW) never once mentioned that this was just a 'come on' to get anyone over 25 and willing to lie about their income into their "used car" showroom for a pressure test.

I want to thank those that shared their experiences with [Wyndham] for giving me an idea about what's really going on there. I think I'll take the kids to Disneyland on my own.


Phew!

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Friday, September 12, 2008

A $1500 lesson?

This just in from a reader:

My husband and I went to a Worldmark presentation last month and bought 7000 credits. We signed all the paper and paid $1500 deposit. We've attended the education workshop right away. I started to have the access to the on-line booking since last week...and I'm totally disappointed for the fact that 1) the availability of those popular places are extremely low 2) the fees for all-inclusive resorts are much higher than I thought - the extra fees were not mentioned at all during the presentation 3) cruises are much expensive than what I can get from my travel agent. My husband just wants to get out of Worldmark at this point. $1500 to learn a lesson!! Do you think we can just stop all future payments and leave?


Alas, I think you are in trouble. You need to review your contract and seek legal advice. Wyndham make their money this way and aren't likely to release you so easily. You might be lucky if you have not received any credits to date (it depends on what it meant by a "deposit"). I think this lesson will be costing you a lot more than $1500.

-- Fabbo
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Thursday, September 11, 2008

A story from a reader...
We went to the presentation and got $75 of gift cards for home depot. We thought the premium plan sounded nice for someone who could afford it and had plans for vacationing every year for the rest of their lives. It's nice that the benefits can be passed on to your heir also, but we just could not afford it. We bought the trial package and went home. We looked online at resales and found some great deals so we went in the next day and canceled our trial package. The lady behind the desk took our folder and all of our trial member info.

We noticed the monthly fee was still coming out for the trial package two months later, so we called and they claimed we never canceled. We didn't have the receipt... our fault I know... proving we canceled so we were stuck. They have no cameras in the Oceanside CA office so they couldn't look back and SEE that we came in and canceled and OUR RECORD HAD NOT BEEN UPDATED to show that we canceled.... that's shady if you ask me. They don't put anything on your record or remove it when you cancel? It just sits there as if you had never made a change? That can't be true. I've read so many stories on here of the EXACT SAME SITUATION that it must be their policy. It is a good deal, but there are better ones... and that's just shady business tricking people like that. HOLD ON TO YOUR CANCELLATION RECEIPT IF YOU DO CANCEL!

Now we are having trouble even getting info on how to use this trial experience that is now paid off. We'll let you know if the accommodations are worth the price of the trial. (probably not though after comparing online prices!)

Anyway, there are BETTER deals out there! Just good Worldmark or Trendwest resale!


If you only committed to the trial and owe them nothing more, then it sounds like you got off cheaply. Yes, it's much cheaper to buy points from eBay or Redseason!

-- Fabbo

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