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Jennifer2610

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Hi everyone.

In March of 2015, I was told that I must get out of my Westgate Bluetree timeshare because of some legal issues they were having over ownership of the entire property. If I didn't get out, basically I would be wasting my ownership because it would be worth nothing to any company I would try to exchange to or anyone I would try to sell to.

We decided to upgrade from a 2 bedroom to a 3 bedroom at Westgate Lakes. As we are going through everything, our sales rep - Tiffani Miller - tells us that she can easily rent out our timeshare for us to big corps that come in for the convention center. Even drawing us a lovely diagram on how we can split our 3 bedroom and easily rent out the 1 bedroom lock off for $1,500.00.

This was of course 100% our money because Westgate was not allowed to collect from this. This is not the first time I've heard this from one of their sales representatives so I did not think anything of it.

She said she was going to move our maintenance fees til 2016 and to give her a call closer to summer and let us know if its something we would like to do. Spoke to her again during the summer, but since we moved our fees to 2016, she couldn't rent it out until 2016 after our maintenance fees were paid, but to go ahead and give her a call once we did.

We called her after our fees were paid in February of 2016 and left her numerous messages, texts, emails with no response. Even asked for her supervisor because at this point we didn't know how to get a hold of her. Supervisor is never available either. Finally we were told she moved locations.

With still no luck in the summer of 2016 I called Westgate Lakes and asked for whoever high up I can speak to. I spoke with Lisette and told her what Tiffani Miller had said regarding getting a hold of her to rent out our timeshare and the lady on the phone said, we don't do that? You are responsible for doing that.

She explained to me that it is not something they do and I explained my concerns and quickly asked for whomever high up to speak to. She was not able to get a hold of her supervisor so she sent him, Bryan, an email because apparently Tiffani was still at BlueTree all along. A week later Tiffani Miller miraculously appeared and claim she never received any voicemails, texts, emails etc.... Spoke to my husband and apologized profusely. She says that she has a few people on her list to rent out their timeshare, but will add us to that list and rent it out for us. She also told my husband that this was something the sales representatives did on the side so to please deal with her directly.

Had i known that this was not approved by Westgate I would have NEVER upgraded. How about it is now January of 2017 and still when you call for Tiffani you can NEVER get a hold of her and Bryan, her supervisor, no longer works there, but you can call the next day to get a hold of another supervisor who's NEVER there.

After chewing out a representative, they told me to write a letter to their complaints department which I've been holding off in hopes to make sure i gather all my information correctly before doing so. The rep also told me that they would extend the time to use my 2016 time anytime through 2018 with no issues. My husband calls today to try and exchange that 2016 week, not only do they want a $150 fee, but they also want $250 because its Easter week (WOW!). He calls again to speak to another rep and they say oh I see your notes and I have no issues waiving that $150, but the $250 fee stands.

Anyone have any experience with what I've gone through and can give guidance. My timeshare is not paid off, but in good standing. Not sure if a deed back is even an option, but I want to make sure I have all my information correct before I send my complaint.

Thanks in advance.
 
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Ty1on

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You were lied to. She won't return your calls because there is no more money for her to make by lying to you.

Deedback is not an option with Wastegate with a loan balance, and even if you pay off the loan, you may be able to get them to take it back for a fee (I've heard 1 or 2 years of maintenance fees, depending on the source), and few others would take if off your hands because they strip so much use out of contracts when they are resold.
 

TUGBrian

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always hate to see the same lies told to owners over and over again to get them to spend countless thousands of dollars.

Very sorry that you found out far too late that just about everything that salesperson told you was fabricated to convince you to "upgrade" and nothing more.

would suggest that inform westgate that you will be reporting your ordeal to the florida Atty Generals office, but sadly now that its been nearly 2 years since the transaction...the chances of you simply just "getting out" are slim to none especially with a balance left on your loan.
 

dioxide45

TUG Review Crew: Expert
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Likely a lie from the beginning. Was it the same sales rep telling you about the ownership issues at Bluetree that also sold you the upgrade and lied about the rental opportunity? I suspect it is and that there are no legal issues with the ownership at Bluetree.
 

Talent312

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This is the OP's first post here, so here's something of a mantra here:
"How do you tell a TS salesperson is lying? -- Their lips are moving."

It's human nature to take people at face-value and believe what they tell you,
but that's eggactly why salespeep are so good taking advantage of "marks."
Peep often research to death which blender or coffee-maker they should buy,
but when it comes to dealing with "that nice TS guy," its a different story.
IOW, don't let them hornswaggle you, again.

.
 

HudsHut

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Jennifer:
Welcome to TUG.

The salesperson conned you into an upgrade by telling you the 1br portion of the 3br lock-off could be rented for ~$1500; since that amount was sufficient to pay for your maintenance fees, then you could still use the 2br to vacation for "free".

What exactly did you buy? a 3br lock-off at Westgate Lakes in Orlando for which week(s)? Do you own a specific week, or is there a range of weeks from which you can reserve?
How much do you owe on the loan?

You only have 2 choices now.
1) Learn how to use your timeshare --
a) how to reserve the best week for you on the earliest possible date
b) how to exchange it through Interval International for other resorts
c) rent it out on Tug's marketplace, CraigsList, Redweek, Homeaway (the difficulty here is that Orlando has hundreds of timeshares, so rentals tend to be cheap. There is no way you'll be able to rent the 1br portion of your lock-off for $1500.)
or
2) don't pay another cent and default on the loan
 
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