Wyndham Vacation Ownership, Inc., is one of the largest timeshare companies in the world. A quick review of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) or other review sites on the internet will also show a disturbing pattern. Far from being a stress-free, economical way to vacation, Wyndham ownership is marred by misrepresentations and an inability to take the vacations you want.
It’s common knowledge that vacation clubs and timeshare points often create more headaches and expenses for the people that purchase them. Even knowing this, however. It can still be hard to escape the pull of the timeshare sales presentation.
Sales staff are very good at selling you the idea of an annual dream vacation at Wyndham destinations in Hawaii, Florida, or New York. They may even try to sell you a membership to WorldMark by Wyndham, for select international options. They also use high-pressure sales tactics to break you down and get you to buy timeshare points.
The purpose of this article is to cut against that hard sell and tell you a bit about what timeshare ownership is really like, from owners of Wyndham timeshare units. We’ll take a look at three common complaints on the review sites. And, if you’re a member of the club, we’ll talk about some measures you can take to legally and ethically get out and away from Wyndham.
The vast majority of states recognize the problems that many timeshare owners have had. As a result, they passed laws requiring minimum cancellation periods after a timeshare sale.
For example, let’s say you are on vacation in Las Vegas or Orlando and you go to a Wyndham sales presentation in exchange for a pair of free show tickets. You are promised that the meeting won’t go longer than an hour, but you have been at the resort for five hours and there is no end in sight. In order to get out of the presentation, you sign a contract.
Under Nevada real estate law, even though you signed the agreement, you can still cancel the contract within five calendar days. So, once you get out of the presentation, you are well within your rights to deliver a written cancellation to the company, either via a delivery service or in person.
Even though that is the intended scenario, it doesn’t always work that way. One owner, in a June 2021 Yelp review, says that he tried to cancel his contract with Wyndham the same day he signed it. Wyndham did not honor his request and denies he ever made it. Now he complains that the company is ruining his credit.
Keep in mind that, while it is often against the law, timeshare companies like Wyndham may try to get you to waive your cancellation right or deny you ever tried. It is very important, then, to keep accurate and timely records of all interactions that you have with Wyndham, so that you don’t lose any rights you might have.
Maybe you were initially happy with your timeshare purchase. Sure, the initial presentation may have been a bit heavy-handed, but that’s over now, right? No more sales presentations for you!
Nice thought, but we’re sorry to say that’s not how Wyndham works. Even after you have signed up and paid them thousands of dollars for a Wyndham membership, the high-pressure sales tactics don’t stop. Nor are they just selling you timeshares, as many owners report being signed up for a credit card by sales staff after check-in at Wyndham vacation resorts.
One Wyndham owner reports being invited to an “owner update” in Las Vegas in September of 2021. In return for coming to the one-hour presentation, they were offered a $100 gift card. Like the basic sales presentation, though, this one went much longer.
During the three-hour presentation, they pressured the owner into purchasing a Club Wyndham pass that they didn’t need. Wyndham also tried to sell the owner $23,000 of new Wyndham points, including a 10-year $17,000 loan with a 13% interest rate.
Wyndham will also use your membership to deliver high-pressure sales pitches to your friends. One reviewer on Trip Advisor went to a Wyndham resort in Tennessee with her friend, who was an owner. The sales staff invited her to a presentation in exchange for free gifts.
After multiple sales pitches, the reviewer declined to buy anything, and Wyndham reneged on its promise of free gifts.
The moral of the story is to pay very close attention to how Wyndham treats you in the sales presentation. Because you can be sure that kind of treatment will continue if you become an owner. Not only that, they will treat your family and friends the same way.
A timeless complaint that timeshare owners in every company have is the ever-increasing annual maintenance fees. You pay hundreds (more likely thousands) of dollars a year for the upkeep and maintenance of Wyndham resorts. In exchange, you should get major perks. At the very least, you should be able to book a vacation whenever you want, right?
Wrong. Wyndham ownership is characterized in part by an inability to reserve the kinds of vacations you want. One reviewer on the BBB website states that she had problems using Wyndham’s online reservation system between August and September of 2021. Though she contacted the company multiple times, nothing apparently happened until her BBB complaint.
Another owner that had problems making a reservation was told that she needed to book her getaways more than a year in advance — or buy more points. She complained that, with her increasing annual maintenance fees and the other money spent with Wyndham, she and her husband “could have traveled the world for a year.”
And of course, don’t forget that Wyndham may use the opportunity to try and sell you a new membership in RCI, its company that purportedly allows owners to trade timeshare points and units. Of course, if you can’t get the service you need from Wyndham directly, it is unlikely that paying more money to RCI will solve your problems.
The problems with Wyndham ownership are legion. If you have yet to sign a contract, hopefully, you now have good information about what comes with that signature. But what if you are already an owner? Are you just stuck?
No, you’re not. Centerstone Group is a timeshare exit company staffed with experienced professionals who can assist you in pursuing a legal, ethical, and lasting exit from your timeshare contract.
Sometimes that help might take the form of exercising your right to cancel under the timeshare contract. Or, if you have had your unit for longer or Wyndham is not responding, you might need one of our proprietary pressure campaigns to make them do the right thing. We can also help you look at resale options, though that often is not realistic for the majority of owners.
Sometimes, you may even need a lawyer to talk through more involved legal options. Even though we are not lawyers ourselves, we often partner with them to get the best results for our clients. Finding a lawyer through Centerstone Group will also save you money, as our partners often charge us a lower rate for referring people to them who may need their services.
One of the reasons timeshare sales staff use strongarm tactics is that they don’t want you to talk to anyone else before making a decision. They are afraid people will talk you out of the decision, or worse, tell you stories about what Wyndham ownership is actually like.
That’s why doing research on the internet and elsewhere is so important. Talk to the people who have been through the system, and see what they have to say before you make your decision. And if you are one of the owners trapped in that system, contact Centerstone Group today for a free consultation and case evaluation so we can talk about how to get you out.
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