MK was told to 'leave the kids' in a nursery, then was abandoned
Westgate Timeshare Resort Issues
Date of Incident: 3/30/2003
We just had a similar bad experience on Mar. 12 at Westgate Resorts. We signed up for the tour at the car rental agency, to save $180 on tickets to Universal Studios and Kennedy Space Center for my wife and four kids. We arrived at 7:30 am so that we could get to Disney by 9:00 am. The first thing that we saw was a very long line of people waiting to get in. After waiting outside, we then had to wait again inside for a sales rep. We tried to speed up the process by eating first, but were guided back out of the breakfast room. They told us we had to get a paper first and a guide. The sales rep told us to leave our children and come with him, but we insisted that we all eat breakfast. After the terrible breakfast, our teenagers were left in a rec room (with Pay video machines, not even FREE), and the two younger children in their nursery while we toured.
The sales man made us start with chit-chat, even though we told him we were in a hurry. He had a set procedure to follow, and would not deviate from it. If we asked questions, he said "We'll get to that". With only 20 minutes to go on our 90 minute tour, we were actually interested, esp. in the chance to exchange to visit other states or countries. The sales rep still would not give us the bottom line. We went on the tour, saw a beautiful room, and then they took us to the other end of the complex (30 minute walk from our car and children). Here we were brought to a large room, and more intense sales pitches. The real problem came when he gave us the price ($24,000) and the interest rate (17%)!! We told him that we could do better if we just put it on our credit card. Then we asked if we could just have a copy of the papers, find our own financing, and mail them back. He brought several people back to our table to ask more questions. At this point, it was already 10:00 am (2.5 hours), and we asked for our tickets. I stood up to leave, and was told that I had to finish completing a questionaire, and to sit down. I refused, and said that I am leaving, give us our tickets. At this point, all the sales people just left!!! We didn't know how to get our tickets, or how to get back to our children!
We finally went into a room that we had seen the sales rep go into, and demanded our tickets. We were quickly shown out of the office, and were directed down stairs. After standing in another line for our tickets, we stood outside for a shuttle that never came. Finally, after making a lot of noise, a security guard flagged down a sales rep in a golf cart who was headed back to our starting point. I found it very annoying and very strange that they would not allow us to see the sales agreement or deed to purchase the property. They didn't want us to read it or consider what our obligations or responsibilities would be, or give a copy to our lawyer before signing. I told the sales rep that I don't even buy a DVD player without checking several stores or the Internet to see if it's a good deal. How much more if he expects me to purchase a Property!! My wife and I are now looking into buying a timeshare, but will speak with our real estate agent rather than those people at Westgate!!
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