CF says they bought and are stuck
Westgate Timeshare Resort Issues
Date of Incident: 12/5/2002
Your description of your sales experience cannot be far from the truth as it is almost word-for-word what happened at our tour in 1997.
We had the lovely breakfast with a pleasant saleswoman; took the obligatory tour; and sat down to discuss the price. My husband and I had made a commitment not to buy no matter what the sales pitch. When we politely told "Carol" (not sure if this was her name, just "hypothetical") we could not afford it and we were not interested, we endured another 20-minutes about these wonderful time shares. We stood our ground a second time and insisted that the math just won't work and we cannot afford the monthly payments. She said OK and reluctantly went to get her "supervisor" to close the now 2 1/2 hour sales pitch. The supervisor "Joe" was a well-dressed young man who sat down with "Carol" and us for another 20 minutes of how we should not pass this "opportunity" up. For a third time we held on to our conviction that this was not affordable. "Joe" really put on a show of compassion and heartfelt pity that we would not be able to buy into the time share and enjoy it, so he made a "special exception" for us since he "liked" us so much, and went to talk to his "boss" about finding an affordable solution for us. He came back after 15 more minutes to tell us that we could afford half-ownership in a "special" arrangement that he could do "just for us" - a half-price odd-year ownership. We tried to turn it down a fourth time, but the affordability excuse no loner worked. He had us - and after another grueling 20 minutes of convincing we finally gave in. We really thought that maybe this would a nice arrangement - or were we finally just so tired and brainwashed enough that we were now believing all of this. Did you forget about the limousine ride and the pictures we had to take once we agreed to "sign on the dotted line"? That was another 30 minutes until we were finally ushered into the "Big Boss's Office" where we signed all the legal papers and were finally given the 2 tickets were promised almost 4 hours earlier.
That was not the end. Legally you have 3 business days to cancel any sales transaction. After arriving home and our heads had cleared we tried to cancel our purchase. Only our envelope did not get postmarked until the fourth day and Westgate refused to cancel. The story continues.... After a couple of years we tried to sell the time share through a real estate company. We paid them $500 up-front for them to list our time share, and never heard from them since. That is another scam that unfortunate time share owners fall victim to -- these companies know that we are frustrated and want to sell, and take $400 to $600 from you up-front to "list" your time share. So now you have lost out twice.
Enough said; it just feels good to know that we were not "stupid" or "suckers" - but that a lot of people get hooked into buying time shares only because of the brainwashing sales tactics used by these resorts.
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