TR Son's Leukemia Wish Trip Ruined
Westgate Timeshare Resort Issues
Date of Incident: 10/4/2003
I cannot believe what I am reading on your site. It sounds just like what my family just went through. We were suckered into the tour for free breakfast and $70. We were on vacation for my sons wish trip (he has spent 3 years on chemotherapy for Leukemia). At Universal Studios a lady gave my husband free coupons for the kids lunch and told him to talk to the man in the booth. He was very friendly and told us that we could have a free breakfast and $70 just for listening to a 90 minute presentation and tour. We were interested in the resort because we really enjoyed our trip and wanted to see another place to stay in case we ever came back to Florida, we are from California. We were told to leave a $20 deposit. Nothing was ever mentioned about a timeshare. We told him we were on vacation and that we were going to Sea World the next day and didn't think we would have time, he told us that the resort was just 5 minutes from Sea World and that w e would have $70 spending money, we thought what can we loose. We left early the next day so that we would have time at the park. When we got there we had to wait in the reception area after my husband filled out some paperwork. Our son wasn't feeling very well and was hungry. We pretty much knew that we had made a mistake then and just wanted to get our $20 deposit back but still curious. A salesman named Mike finally showed up and took us to a buffet breakfast, scrambled eggs, fruit that looked like it came out of the can, and some rolls. The eggs were the worst I have ever tasted. He acted like he was in a hurry for us to eat and after eating showed us where the game room was for the boys to stay. We don't usually leave them but they had licensed day care. His presentation was enjoyable for the first 30 minutes but was pretty much not going anywhere. He was very nice and showed us pictures of his kids and wife. My husband made it clear in the beginning that he wasn't interested i n a time share at the time but we did want to take the tour. Mike told us to look around the room at the other people sitting around and said that probably none of these people woke up this morning thinking about buying into a time share. He exaggerated how much we would spend staying at a hotel for a week, which is a very rare thing for us to take a week long vacation. Usually we can only get away for 2-3 nights. About an hour and a half later we finally took the tour. We stopped to get the boys first. He took us in a golf cart to the other side of the resort explaining that the first half was old and that they were in the process to restore and rebuild it. He showed us to a very nice model. Our youngest son disappeared around the corner and we heard him say "Hey! Who put water in here?" Sure enough he had found the bath tub full of water and had stuck his feet in it getting water everywhere. Mike was a little upset about it but tried to be nice. Of c ourse we felt really bad. The maid was rolled her eyes and looked right at our son when Mike told her there was a wet towel on the dryer. We left the model and Mike took us to the main lodge to talk business and seal the deal as my husband now puts it. Mike thought that it would be a good idea to leave the boys at another day care so we left them again. Now it has been about 2 hours or more and we are getting very impatient and ready to leave because we are loosing time and wasting time that belongs to our oldest son. We sit down in a large lobby with other people who look like they are ready to go but are also being pressured into staying. For as long as we were there we weren't leaving without our money because we felt we had earned it by then. My husband again told Mike that we weren't interested and that he wasn't the type to buy into a 30K deal in one day and that the 2K that they take off if you sign on the first day wasn't worth it to him. Mike said he had to go get his manage r and that he wanted us to talk it over with each other. We didn't want to talk, we were done and he didn't care. Mike brought his manager over and he started to crunch numbers and tell us he can sell us a model that some people decided to upgrade and needs to sell their old version. He went down to about 17K. We still were not interested and getting very impatient with him because he would not take no for an answer. I finally stood up and told him we were ready to go and that we wanted our money that they had promised us. He said sit down that he would go get the person to sign us out. She sits down and immediately starts asking questions and I tell her that we are ready to go, our son is on his trip and that he is loosing time. She tells me ever so nicely that well your wasting time aren't you, lets finish. After that I heard nothing she said as she sat there and told my husband all the things she could do to get the price down for us to stay for a week, we just had to leave a d eposit. I stood up and told her that I was going to go get my kids and that we were leaving and we wanted the money they promised us. When I came back she was still sitting there with my husband trying to sell him something and he was telling her no and she did not care. He asked her where we go to get the money and she tells him downstairs. I asked her why she didn't just say so and she made some stupid reply that I didn't care to listen to. I told her we would never be back. No one offered us a ride back to our car on the other side of the resort, we had to ask how to get back and didn't want to walk because our oldest son can't make it very far (we had been renting wheelchairs for him at the parks or else he wouldn't last very long). We finally found the shuttle that takes you back to the other side. My grandma told me last year that she had bought into a timeshare and it sounded a lot like her plan and I haven't had a chance to ask her yet if it was w ith Westgate. I hope it wasn't because I don't want to think of her sitting there being taken advantage of. The people at Westgate were horrible and the $70 and breakfast weren't worth it. We didn't get to Sea World until 2:00.
As we got into the park we did have a good laugh at our youngest son stepping into the bath tub and making a mess. Thank you for your site and for posting other peoples complaints. After reading what other people have been going through with them I can't believe that they are still allowed to set people up like that. We are from a small, rural community and people don't treat other people like this. We should have known better but there were a lot of other people there too. I want other people to know what happened to us so that they don't waste thier valluable time for $70 and breakfast.
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