Underage and Underfunded -> Class Action?

This message was left recently by a visitor on the blog:

I'm in Australia and am having similar problems with this company. They lured me into their sales meeting with promises of a free gift, and suckered me into signing up for 7,000 credits. The thing is, to qualify to buy credits, you have to be over 25 and earning a certain income, right? Well my girlfriend co-signed with me and she was under 25 and earning much less than the required income. But they still let her sign the contract. So she couldn't afford to make her half of the repayments and now I've been stuck with the full brunt of the $196 monthly payments PLUS the upkeep levies which are probably now in excess of $1000 they say I owe them. It's killing me and I can't afford to pay it.

I've put probably over $5000 into these timeshares so far and haven't even used any of it yet. What I would like to do is cancel my contract and recover all my money back on legal grounds!

On what grounds could I file a lawsuit?

Please email me on bossplaya77(at)optusnet.com.au if you have any advice or can help.

Perhaps we could get together a group of people who are in a similar boat with Trendwest in Australia and file a Class Action lawsuit against the company.

I will be consulting some lawyers and getting some legal advice soon. Please email me on above email address if you wish to put your name down for a Class Action lawsuit against Trendwest, cancel your contract and get your money back!

Jesse Ward

Tags: trendwest worldmark

Couldn't be happier

A recent positive comment left on this blog:

Wow, you folks seem to feel like you were really mis-treated! My experience with World Mark has been the exact opposite. I bought my ownership a little over a year ago from an off site location in Tri-cities WA. Our salesman was very kind, courteous and helpful. After sitting through the presentation vacation ownership made perfect financial sense...our choices were keep renting our vacations (100%) loss of our hard earned $$$ or own our vacations and keep the money we were already committed to spending on vacations.

If you attend the owner education class you will learn how to work this ownership to your advantage. We have never not gotten a reservation. It takes just a little common sense to use this. If you desire a location that is very popular you need to book it out in advance. I have gotten Seaside in June(high season) by putting myself on a wait list in April and I got it. Peoples plans change all the time! As far as the dues are concerned I look at it as a savings because when my ownership is paid off I could never vacation 7 times a year in luxurious condos on 600.00 a year. Last year alone we went to the Oregon coast 3 times, Hawaii, Maui for 8 days, Leavenworth for Thanksgiving for a week, Seattle on opening day of the Seahawks, and Arrowpoint in Idaho! Some of those trips in peak season. I researched this and WM has the lowest annual dues in the industry. They only feel stupid because you haven't taken the time to learn how to use this! If you own a car or house you have to pay something to maintain it...right?

WorldMark has been one of the BEST decisions we ever made when it came to vacations. We have more memories as a family traveling with WM than renting our vacations from a hotel chain. Lets face it staying in a 300 square foot room with 2 little kids isn't so much fun! I would only consider your 12K down the drain only because you have made the choice to not ask for help on how to use it. And is there really a need to insult your salesperson...he feeds his family the same way you do.

As for the phone calls...if you don't want them to call you why not ask them to put you on the Do Not call list? Plus I find it really hard to believe that they are calling you at 3:30 in the morning. WM is the largest vacation ownership company only second to Marriott and they didn't get that big by making people mad by calling in the wee hours of the morning. Give me a break!

My family and I couldn't be happier with our ownership. As far as I am concerned WM is the most reputable company in the timeshare industry. I would recommend WM to anyone...in fact most of my friends and family already own!

Tags: trendwest worldmark