PLB It was Pure Manipulation
Westgate Timeshare Resort Issues



Date of Incident: 4/29/2003

I figured I'd write in and let you know what happened to me......
Thanks for the great information. It was just what I needed at the right time, to do the right thing.....
My wife and I went up to Orlando from Coral Springs, it is near Ft. Lauderdale, just for a week, use up the hopper tickets from a couple of years ago, and since I had just 3 days left, I thought I'd try to see if I could get discount tickets on AOL. I clicked on Westgate's link and lo and behold, I got free tickets just to sit and listen to a timeshare thing. I've never done this, I'm 31.....so I decided to try, I thought it would just be a little speech thing and then I could get some free tickets. I thought timeshares were just things that rich people had and that it was some luxury item kind of thing.....so I signed up, after all the qualification rituals, making any idiot think that it must be something great if there are so many requirements......The whole thing is psychological from the start.....
So we got there the night before.....and stayed at Ramada, and as we checked in, we got 2 free tickets for Arabian nights, that the lady tried to sell me, but then offered to me free, to go to a timeshare thing for Fairfield resorts. So I signed up for that too.....
The next day, we went early to the Westgate place, on the first day of our 8 day vacation, and it was crowded. The salesman called us in and we had breakfast, some crappy buffet thing....which was fine since I didn't want to be full to go to Disney....I thought I'd get out of there soon...
So we talked and talked.....and the guy mentioned that he's been selling for 20 years....and then did the whole sales thing......and then another manager came and took over and offered us a foreclosure after the first guy gave us figures of $32,000.00, $24,000.00 and $19,000.00 for weeks here and there and whatnot. The foreclosure was listed at $8,000.00, and I was like, WOW....IS that it? So they knew they had me.....I said ok....because one of my coworkers has one, and they talk about exchanging here and there and all that.....So I called her and asked her about the price bit and she said it was not bad....So I BOUGHT it.....for $8,000.00 and I was afraid that I'd lose the thing to someone else if I didn't act fast......
So after I said ok, I asked to see the unit, the EXACT unit, regardless of whether someone was there or not....I figured if they could take my money, I had to see the same room, the same bed and the same everything that I'd be using....So they let me see it.....I loved it....
When I came back, we got to signing the papers....All of a sudden, I wanted to make sure about the week and the unit so I asked again, and started writing notes while they answered....All of a sudden, the unit is not the exact unit that I bought.....So I asked to see the right one....Again, when I finally got there, the guy tells me that someone was in there, with an empty Westgate towers parking lot, and says that I'm in the unit directly below it, which is true.....So I said ok.....and then they said I'd have to go to the notary....whoever that is.....but not in any sense of the word that any intelligent person would know.....They thought that using big words and pricing techniques can manipulate anyone.......The whole time, they said things like, the unit is forever, and anyone can go anywhere, and there's no limit.....all red weeks and so on.......that everyone rents them out, and weeks can be sold, and flyers can be put up and this and that.......I got week 39, in September, they said something about a Disney annual Celebration.....
So we went to the notary who said that it was his job to make sure that we do things right, and that he works for the state and not Westgate....He wants to make sure that we really want it, and that we're so young and no one in our age group does this....leading us to believe that he's so fatherly, or grandfatherly and really must be out for our wellbeing....
He also said that he doesn't want us closing the deal and then cancelling in "30" days....because then the state board or whoever would come down on him for not looking out for the public or confusing them in some way.....
So then he re-explained everything in the deal......reiterated everything.....and made sure I understood everything......He asked if we wanted the agreements on paper or on CD and since I had my computer with me, I picked the CD....He then asked us to sign a form that verified that we knew that we shouldn't accept the CD if we couldn't look at it before the 10 day cancellation period. THAT SPOT, on THAT piece of paper, was the ONLY mention, the ONLY ONE time that the word "CANCELLATION" was mentioned. It wasn't mentioned with anything else....and so this "notary" made us reaffirm with each document we signed that we really wanted to do this.....He said we had till we signed the final credit card agreement, or we could back out....The other guy that stepped in during the sales pitch came back twice with 2 other offers for foreclosures that were priced higher than ours and he said that we were lucky to get it early......We signed the forms. I called my dad and talked about it. We then signed the final forms, me and my wife....We then received the 2 Disney tickets and our $20.00 deposit. We then received a briefcase thing, and the CD with the agreement, or "Public offering Statement", which was again, worded in such a way, that even a fairly educated person would think it was some sort of formal disclosure rather than one that should be read. We finally got a deed to the unit. The whole thing was designed to make someone think that they had done something that they couldn't just go back and cancel.....The final deed was in your hand....
Now, I purchased a home last year, and I know what a fully executed warranty deed looks like....This thing had our names and the unit, but no signature and no date....And yet they affirmed that the paperwork would come back after it was recorded....No one else had signed the thing, and this "notary" guy did not notarize anything.......nor was there anything that needed notarizing.....And this "notary" guy said that I should pay it off, and not pay their enormous interest rates with which I'd end up paying double. So he told my wife to remind me before the 60 days was up so that I could elect to pay it off within a year, rather that be forced to take their offer for 10 years....So now I have numbers like 30 days to cancel and 60 days of payment elections in my head. Those are the 2 numbers in my head. He finally made a remark that said there was a rumor that Disney was about to buy the property and develop it and that it might very well become part of Disney,
Which was another thing that stuck oddly in my mind..... A Disney resort on the edge of SR 192 behind a Sizzler and a Ponderosa on the other side of a dry weedy field.....??????? How likely was that?, and why the motivation to lead my into this train of thought.....???? which leads me to consider my wardrobe and wonder if I do in fact, look like the definition of IDIOT in the dictionary.....

Finally, we had a unit and that was that......But I was confused about the deed and I went back and checked...All along the way, one moron after another would come up as I was waiting and describe how great it is to own, these were all salespeople....I finally found the same notary guy and he said I'd get the deed and that all the paperwork was inside the CD......

So NOW, I asked for an immense favor....Was it possible, for me, an owner, who just bought a week of their timeshare, to stay in a unit for the week that I was there, since I'd be there for a week. I wanted to stay for free, but even if I had to pay a nominal fee, I didn't mind.....I wanted to stay in the place that I bought at, rather than just another hotel, which is not as desirable according to the timeshare industry....
It took forever for them to get back to me......With all the empty space in the lot, and the scarcity of people there, it was surprising that they could not find a place for 2 people to use for less than one week.....about 4 days.....so they said probably not, but if one opens up, it would be $200.00 a night....So I was like, WHAT?.....A Disney resort I can get for that price, not an apartment building looking thing with a nice interior......So I was kinda irritated that after all that, they wouldn't do me a little favor since I had to be there for a week.....I can tell you Lisa, that if they had let me stay in their resort, I wouldn't have done what I did.....
We finished out the week and left and the whole time, I pondered about the costs involved....I only paid $8000.00, so for the next 8 years, if I died in 8 years, my hotel stay would be $1000.00 per week, for 16 years, it'd be $500.00 a week, and another 32 years had to pass before my vacation price would be just $250.00 a week, and that is not including the maintenance or exchange fee.....I bought an alternating lock off...I only pay $524.00 every other year, but it is still $262.00 per year mathematically....and after 32 years of payments and fees if you pay it off right away....It would be $250.00 for the payment, $262.00 for the maintenance fee and any exchange fee of $121.00 minimum. That is $633.00 per week at a hotel, for a vacation, where the primary aim for any fool, any imbecile is to not spend his or her time gazing at the walls or the paint or the counters or the whirlpools at a freakin resort.....I don't know what idiots go on vacation just to sit in a room......and admire its amenities......I also wondered about why a "notary" might care about how I chose to pay for my unit, whether I accepted financing or not....and it occurred to me that if I paid it off, in a year, I had saved some money, but at the same time, they, WESTGATE also received all the money, rather than just part of it, if I decided to let them foreclose in a year or a few months.....

THIS IS WHAT IS AMAZING....THE NEXT DAY, WE HAD THE APPOINTMENT AT THE FAIRFIELD THING, AND WE COMPARED IT, BUT IT WAS MUCH SMALLER, BUT THE MANGER PERSON ALSO OFFERED US A LOCKOFF, WHICH WAS A FORECLOSURE, AND IT WAS SUCH A FAKED THING, THAT IT WAS OBVIOUS, THAT THE WHOLE THING IS JUST A SCAM.....A PLAY, A SHOW.....FOR PURE MANIPULATION....

SO THIS TIME, after I got back home, I looked at the CD, Monday night, a week after I bought it.....which is when I read the first lines of the public offering statement and it stated that I "shouldn't accept oral statements and things to be correct", that I should read the whole agreement and should not rely or oral representations in my final decision.......This was when the great light began to dawn on me....I read everything......and found that I could indeed cancel in 10 days, when in reality I had a pit in my stomach, thinking that I had DONE the deal and that I had no choice but to sell or foreclose......And then I found your website, and I knew I had to CANCEL......and I knew that I was in the 10 day period and that it was not too late, but it might have been.....If those guys had given me a free 4 days to stay or let me stay at a reduced rate, I wouldn't have looked at the CD for a couple of weeks.....I think that if they offer all their new owners a week in a unit after they buy it, a substantial amount of the 10 day period would be used up by purchasers during their vacation and they'd be riding high after getting something for free, that they would think of searching for cancellation policies within the first 10 days, and I ALMOST missed it....It was on the EIGHTH DAY that I discovered this......It also stated in the POS that the timeshare plan was for 30 years.....not indefinitely as the salesman said....
So I cancelled the agreement....It cost me about $40.00 dollars to send 6 letters.....on 2 separate days......2 overnight, 3 certified, and 1 registered, addressed everywhich way mentioned in the POS (Public Offering Statement). I notarized the first letter, I know a friend who is a notary so I could do it without much trouble. I got receipt statements for all these items.....Six letters that I sent 6 times.....to let them know that I couldn't be lied to.....and I don't think that many people think about it in this matter.....You really have to look at everything.....If I had let that 10 day period go by, I couldn't do anything......I'd have given away $8000.00 and had myself a thing that I couldn't really use unless I was as flexible as a rubber band......There's a lot of money involved, but it comes from the idiots who pay for timeshares, and not realize that they can get the same stuff AND have their flexibility.....So I ended up paying $40.00 for those 2 Disney tickets but they were worth it.....Another guy called me to verify that I wanted to cancel, and then offered to cut the price in half.....But I realized, and everyone should realize that it will be a certain while before you get back the money you pay out, and that for people paying $500 and over a year, it is what you'd pay anyway.....And Lisa, think about it, If a certain resort in the Alps has someone willing to pay for the room, or a reduced contract rate from II or RCI through Westgate, chances are, the idiot at Westgate isn't going to find an available week.....
So, I guess the best thing.....in my opinion, is to BUY the timeshare, and then CANCEL, very cleanly, on 2 separate days....there's no way they can say that six letters couldn't be delivered for some reason or another.......That will prevent the people like David Siegel from getting richer....Actually, looking at your webpage, I'd much rather give to needy people that sit at some resort. After all, if God has given me the means to do well, I can't waste it just on myself and the idea of sitting in a tacky, teal and pink room, playing with diswashers and stuff on my vacation just doesn't sound like a good use of my money.....especially after I've read of such hassles trying to use the week or exchange the week......I'd do just as well in a little motel room....I'm not in the room much anyway.....
I wish there was a way of putting these people out of business...because there are people who honestly thought they could do something for themselves and their families but are just being taken and manipulated and lied to.....and these are our own folks....not Muslims, not terrorists, not any opposing factions, but good ole Americans trying to make an indecent buck and raking in profits at someone else's expense.....and the worst thing is that the developer has his picture taken with the President and Jeb Bush and others like that.....I'd try hard to get away from that association if I was George W....or Disney....

Again,
Thanks for the timely information.....It was there when I needed it, and I can't thank you enough.

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