YCH We Got Revenge on Westgate
Westgate Timeshare Resort Issues



Date of Incident: 7/5/2003

I emailed you several months ago that we were planning a trip to Florida and, of course, staying at Westgate. I promised you I would let you know how it went, so here it is. Oh, by the way, you might want to grab some tissues because you're going to be in tears laughing!!

We had already been staying at Westgate Town Center since 6/28/03. On 6/30/03, we had a 10:30am apointment with the "sales" department. We arrived at 10am and were called in at 10:20am. Breakfast consisted of a nice assortment of scrambled eggs, sausage links, cereal, muffins, fresh fruit, juices, milk coffee and sodas. We had breakfast with our salesman, Gary, for about 15 minutes. He then gave us his life story which took about 10 minutes. He proceeded to the survey, another 10 minutes. Gary then gave us the usual stats on the cost of vacations as opposed to owning a time share. At no time did we feel pressured as we were whisked off on our walking tour of the most beautiful 2 and 3 bedroom villas. Everytime Gary asked us how we liked the Villas, we all answered "this looks nice". It was extremely hard to contain ourselves because we had rehearsed our response constantly before we went in. Also, while we, the adults, were paying close attention to the tour, our 14 year old proceeded to inspect each Villa and loudly point our flaws, like cracks in the flooring. It was hilarious!! I also kept pointing the differences between the large Villas they were showing us and the small one bedroom we were staying in. Still, we felt no pressure, mainly because we knew what we had in store for them. By the time we returned to the sales table our original 90 minutes was up but we were having way too much fun to stop. Besides, I had taken a genuine liking to Gary and felt just a little guilty about what I was about to do. He never really caught on to our constant response of "it looks nice". Instead of Gary hitting us with the actual dollar sales pitch he brought to the table a guy named Adam. This guy looked like a "pro". Here's where the fun came in. After the introductions, I looked up at Adam, pulled out my "list" and told him "Baby, you're the one I've been waiting to talk to!!" You had to be there to truly enjoy the look of fear on his face....priceless. I proceeded to read to him my "list" of what we found wrong with our Villa.
1) No privacy - pocket doors to bedroom broken.
2) Patio view - contruction site!!
3) 7am - construction noise!!
4) Window treatment too low for Vertically
affluent husband - he's 6' 8" tall
5) Jaccuzi tub - only half of it worked
6) cracks in floors and ceilings
7) safety latch on door broken
8) tv cable constantly going out
9) garbage all over the place...outside
10) honking noise from bad ac unit outside
was very loud and annoying
11) no drainage - flooding after rain in streets
12) At no time were we ever told (several calls
from them before we arrived) that Westgate
was a non-smoking resort.
Also, during this, my husband kept pointing out the shoddy workmanship he noticed in our Villa. Another reason why we would not buy there. Funny thing though, they were proudly announcing approximately every 5 minutes, a new owner. I felt so sorry for each and every one of them.

Poor Gary was shocked because we had mentioned none of this to him. I tried to ease his horror by explaining that he was not the person we had a problem with, it was Westgate. I told him that "sales" also involves listening to the needs of the prospective buyer, not just telling them what you think they want to hear. Anyway, at this point, Adam knew he was beaten and went off to get the "big guns". Oh goody!! Again, we had someone greet us and trying to ignore our attempts to say no. I don't remember number 3's names because the fun I was having was overwhelming. I let salesman number 3 talk his head off. Bless his little heart - he gave us his best shot too! hehe We were offered a two-bedroom Villa, two weeks, prime time for $8700 at $160 months payments. WOW!! I told him we would not own at Westgate if they gave it to us for nothing. Meeting adjourned. Almost more fun than Disney and Westgate paid for Disney!!

Revenge is sweet sayeth the consumer!!

PS I remembered what you said about people being in your room when you were not there so we rigged the door with paper so we would know if someone had been inside when we were gone...not once was it ever moved. Made me feel better.

Hoped you enjoyed it.....we did!!

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