While 99.9% of my email comes from very unhappy tour takers and Westgate owners, I do get the occasional letter from someone who is a happy owner and who feels I am making this entire thing up. Here are the questions I have gotten from the few happy owners, and my responses to them.
I Bought at the Meeting - and they Treated Me Wonderfully!
Well, yes, of course they did. The whole reason they attack, yell at, mistreat and abuse the people who write in is that those people did NOT choose to buy. If you actually chose to buy, then they were thrilled! You were going to pay far more than the going rate for their product - and pay for it at an incredibly high interest rate to boot. You were their dream. They were earning a fat commission off of your signature.
If Someone Doesn't Choose to Buy - Why Did They Take the Tour?
One owner actually felt that people were "wrong" to take the tour and then not buy. Hello? This is a TOUR. It is a way for you to learn more about the facility. Most people who go on the tours were actively solicited and heavily encouraged to TAKE the tour, and were told there would be no obligation. If someone has never seen a timeshare, sometimes they honestly want to know what it is all about! This twisted logic is like saying that a person who goes into a car dealership to look at cars then has a moral obligation to buy one of them. It is completely nonsensical. If the timeshare company doesn't like it, then they should not offer free tours. Period.
I Feel the Money Paid For My Suite Is Worth It
Most of the timeshare suites end up costing MUCH more than even an ultra-luxury hotel suite, once you add in the ever-inflating maintenance costs. They can keep hiking up your maintenance cost as much as they wish. This is a huge source of income for the timeshare company. Read My Financial Page for further details.
My Own Visit In My Room Was Wonderful
Yes, I'm sure the occasional room IS clean and sparkling, that it is in perfect maintenance and therefore that the owner visit goes smoothly. But far too many owner visits go horribly wrong. Maintenance does not respond promptly to problems. Think about it. If you were in a luxury hotel, the hotel will bend over backwards with personal service so that you come back. They have no guarantee you will ever return again unless you get top notch service. At the timeshare, you are trapped. You are already stuck making payments on this room. They have little incentive to make you happy.
I Can Sell Whenever I Want
It might be time to talk to the other owners on this site and on other sales sites. If you try to sell your unit, it is usually $1,000 just to list your unit for sale in the sales listings. Many owners find that their units never sell, because people are simply not willing to pay the price being asked. As an experiment, go on eBay and other listing sites and look at what you can buy your unit for. Would it even cover your money put in? Many timeshare owners have to sell at a huge loss, just to get out of the contract.
I Can Go Visit Other Units on Exchange
The number of complaints I get about exchanges are overwhelming. It's nice in theory. But in practice, you're usually told that it will be impossible to do the swap. If you do actually get out to the other hotel, you're likely to run into all sorts of problems. Again, looking at the cost analysis, you usually would have saved huge amounts of money by just getting a hotel room or apartment there, when you chose to go.