2011 "Program Fee" Assessment Increase on Biennial Contracts

[am1]

Time for the dumb question of the day. Is it possible to request your Bi annual contracts become Annual contracts. For example from the information Dave has showed before his contracts list 105,000 pts per year deposited every even year. Could you just request they switch it to 105,000 per year and not have it Bi annual? I highly doubt Wyndham would be that accommodating but thought I might ask the question.

Jason

Not without purchasing a new contract. You curretly own two deeds which can be used as equity when purchasing a every year deed.

As you thought it is not as simple as just calling up and requesting it.

 

[Goofyhobbie]

The discussion has continued at Wyndhm Resort Forums which use to be a Yahoo Group. For anyone who is not a member of Wyndham Resort Forums, I highly recommend the site. There are a lot of long time Wyndham owners that frequent that site and they are dedicated to all things Wyndham. To get access you will need to become a Member of the site (Membership is FREE.)

Here are two direct links to two separate discussions about the "program fee" and how it is being applied differently depending on whether or not you own Biennial contacts or do not own any Biennial contracts.

Program Fee Looks Like it doubled on EOY

and

2011 "Program Fee" Assessment Increase on Biennial Contracts

 

[learnalot]

Current Thread about Marriott double charging EOY contracts

There is a new thread in the Marriott section about being double charged for EOY contracts in case anyone is interested. I'd say one company may have started it and the other followed suit.

Here's the thread if anyone is interested.

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138296

 

[merlinrider]

Wyndham contract point issue

Has anyone with a "bi-annual" contract complained to Wyndham about the doubling of your program fee this year?

I called and was told that I now have to pay for the full contract point value each year even though I can't use those pointes except every other year.

 

[Paps]

Yes - I did by email as the same thing happen to me.

Here was their response.

It was the decision of the FairShare Vacation Owners Association’s Board to make this change. As quoted below from the cover letter with your annual billing notice, the club has reviewed the costs associated with the services provided in association with your membership and adjusted the billing for biennial program costs.

Previously, ½ of the points were used to calculate the program costs for the biennial contacts but this has been changed for 2011. Going forward, Biennial Owners will be billed each year for Program Fees according to the total number of points attributable to the contract. The maintenance fees are calculated separately from the Program costs and your VIP status is also determined separately. These calculations are separate and one does not impact another.

While Biennial Owners have points granted every other year, numerous program services are available at all times each year based on these points, below are some examples:

Reservation Services
• Telephone and WyndhamVacationResorts.com Services
• Reservation Confirmations that can occur in both the year in which the points are granted, as well as in the alternate year.

RCI or II
• Annual Renewal Fees paid to RCI or II
• Exchange reservations may be made every year

All Club Communication
• Faces and Places
• Insider
• Email Communications
• Member’s Directory

 

[learnalot]

Has anyone with a "bi-annual" contract complained to Wyndham about the doubling of your program fee this year?

I called and was told that I now have to pay for the full contract point value each year even though I can't use those pointes except every other year.

If you look in the Wyndham forum here on TUG, you will see at least one recent and entire thread devoted to this.

Moderator Note: The Thread referred to by learnalot is the current thread. The thread entitled: Wyndham Contract Point Issue which was started January 27, 2011 has been merged with this on-going thread.

 

[rrlongwell]

The benefit is Wyndham collects double the fees and will have the sales staff offer a $15,000 purchase as a way to reduce your CWA fees. :ignore:

And I too own even/odd year of 2 deeds. One of which is a fixed converted week.

The above issue does appear to be part of the sales pitch to buy a new contract. A sales person I was talking to recently specifically brought up the every other year contracts that I own as a reason to consolidate and buy another contract.

 

[hjtug]

Has anyone with a "bi-annual" contract complained to Wyndham about the doubling of your program fee this year?

Here are two emails (in reverse chronological order) that I sent to Wyndham on the subject as well as the response to the first (between my two emails). I did not receive a response to the second:

Dear Ms Gabel,

Thank you for your response to my earlier email.

In your second paragraph you have stated that "the more contracts a member has the more servicing and thus more costs are required." This would seem to be an argument in favor of charging extra for multiple accounts of any type, not just EOY accounts.

You also say that "The goal of the change was to ensure that the costs of servicing are being paid by the members requiring the services." If you are correct that someone with a only a single EOY contract was paying less than their fair share, then others were paying more than their fair share. I understand your desire to remedy this. But under your new scheme you now seem to be charging owners of one even-year and one odd-year contract more than their fair share as shown by my example. I understand that you feel that overcharging this smaller group is not as bad a situation as undercharging of the larger group, although I feel that any known overcharging by the system should be remedied. In addition, I would like to point out that I chose my example to be simplest case to demonstrate the inequity, but I would argue that it is not only folks that own one even-year and one odd-year contract who are now being overcharged. I would argue that you are now overcharging all owners who have one or more EOY contracts and have points every year through any combination of EOY and/or every year contracts. Therefore, the "great number" of owners to whom you refer that have only one biennial contract surely includes many owners that have other contracts as well and were already paying for club services annually.

It would seem to me that a reasonable approach to this problem would be to apply some sort of surcharge (doubling the FSP fees seems a bit much) to owners having points in only even or only odd years to account for whatever services that they were not paying for previously. I don't see much logic in charging more for owners with one or more EOY contracts but with points every year.

----- Original Message -----
From: Gabel, Deanne

Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 2:16 PM
Subject: FW: example of inequity

Good Afternoon, and thanks so much for your email. I am just returning from vacation, and apologize that I was not able to get back with you earlier.

In answer to your example, you are correct that both of these members have the same amount of usage at the resorts; however your example assumes that the cost of the club servicing these two members is the same. We did an analysis of the costs of servicing and found that the more contracts a member has the more servicing and thus more costs are required. The goal of the change was to ensure that the costs of servicing are being paid by the members requiring the services.

Additionally when we analyzed the membership and contracts to consider how to resolve this challenge we found that less than 1% of our members have two biennial contracts as in your example. A far greater number of members only had 1 biennial contract. Prior to this change these members were getting club services annually but only paying for the club services biennially. This meant that the costs of servicing and communicating these members in non-use years were not being offset by program fees, and were being carried by other member contributions to the CLUB WYNDHAM Plus.

When we make any changes in the Club rules or charges we examine all of the different member groups that are impacted. Our goal is to ensure that the rules of the club treat all members fairly. We recognize that some changes may impact certain groups disproportionately depending on the benefits and services they use; however our intention is to ensure that the rules and charges are fair to the membership as a whole.

Again, thanks for your patience, and I hope this helps to explain the change. Thanks for being a member, and please have a good new year!

Deanne Gabel

Senior Vice President

Owner Club Management

Wyndham Vacation Ownership

8427 SouthPark Circle

Orlando, FL 32819

(407) 626-6417 phone

(407) 370-6375 fax

mailtoeanne.Gabel@wyn.com (please note new e-mail address)

Wyndham Vacation Ownership, A Wyndham Worldwide company -

www.WyndhamWorldwide.com






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Sent: Tue 12/21/2010 3:44 PM
To: Gabel, Deanne
Subject: example of inequity

Dear Ms Gabel,

Please look at the following example of inequity in Wyndham's new computation of Program Fees.

Owner A: 105000 every odd year contract and 105000 every even year contract.

Owner B 105000 every year contract.

If I am not mistaken, owner A will pay twice as much as owner B in program fees even though they both will have the same usage rights.

Please let me know what you think of this example.

Thanks,

 

[Goofyhobbie]

Originally Posted by merlinrider: Has anyone with a "bi-annual" contract complained to Wyndham about the doubling of your program fee this year?

No doubt there have been many complaints made by Wyndham points owners who own just one Biennial Contract.

Meanwhile, there have also been numerous complaints by Wyndham points owners who own one or more Biennial Contracts AND also own more than enough points to cover the minimum Program Fee each and every year for their particular membership.

The SINGLE contract owner who owns a Biennial contract probably has no reason to complain; but the multiple contract owner who has one or more Biennial contracts and and overall portifolio that produces fees that exceed the Minimum Program Fee each and every year has a legitimate beef with Wyndham and their current policy.

Apparently, based on Ms. Gabel’s cover letter sent out with the Annual Assessment Summary to owners of Biennial contracts and according to her e-mail to TUGGER htug, the "service teams" have determined that a segment of Members (owners of a single Biennial Contract) have not been paying enough in Program Fees to cover the PROGRAM cost that it takes to support those Memberships.

To correct that problem Wyndham chose to double the Program Fee that applies to any and all Biennial contracts to make up the short fall.

Obviously that decision resulted in an increase in this year’s Program Fee for every Biennial contract holder and therein lies the rub – the change impacts anyone who owns a Biennial contract even if the Member happens to own enough TOTAL Wyndham Points to exceed the MINIMUM PROGRAM FEE each year.

Over the years, Wyndham has been successful in selling a Biennial Contract when a prospect simply did not want to pay the higher price for an annual contract. The “Half Off” sales effort worked a great deal of the time and because it worked so well Wyndham found itself with a huge number of owners who were not paying the minimum Program Fee each and every year.

Because there is a large number of Members who own a single Biennial contact and no other contract there has been a significant short-fall in the funds needed to support the Program.

It would be hard to argue that an owner of a single Biennial Contract or a single Annual Contract should not pay at least the minimum Program Fee each and every year.

A Member who does not participate in Plus Partners and who owns a single Biennial Contract that provides 154,000 points every other year should have to pay at least $88.12 every year to enjoy what Ms. Gabel refers to as the "cost of servicing and communicating" that the Program provides every year.

According to the FAIRSHARE VACATION PLAN USE MANAGEMENT TRUST AGREEMENT and Accompanying Documents (specifically the Club Wyndham Plus Program Summary) that MINIMUM is what the Member should have been paying anyway if the Member did not participate in Plus Partners.

Prior to this year it is likely that each such Member was underpaying his FAIRSHARE of the PROGRAM FEE by paying only one half of $88.12 every year or he was paying at a rate of $.57 per thousand points ($87.78) and enjoying the benefit of having to pay just half of that amount annually.

Given the number of similar situations, one can see why Wyndham decided to correct the problem. The short-fall in Program Fees must have been extraordinary high because of the number of sales to owners who purchased just one Biennial contract.

In 2010 @ $.57 per thousand points, the Program Fee charge for a 154,000 Biennial contract sans Plus Partners would have been $87.78 which is just short of the $88.12 minimum Program fee that should have been charged every year.

Wyndham, by billing one half of the charge every year, was dramatically under charging such a Member. All Wyndham owners, when they think about it, should agree that the Board of Directors would have been acting reasonably by increasing the Program Fee for such a Member so that the Member would be paying at least the minimum Program Fee each and every year. But the Board by going after every Biennial Contract that has or will be sold has exceeded what is reasonable.

Going forward, in my humble opinion, it is reasonable to charge $88.12 each and every year or the fixed rate of $.57 per thousand points each and every year when a non-Plus Partners Member owns just one Biennial or just one Annual contract.

Charging the minimum each year as per the Trust Agreement is fair to the Wyndham owner who does not own enough points to be paying more than the minimum every year.

Meanwhile, any Member who has Plus Partners and owns a SINGLE Biennial or a SINGLE Annual contract and no other contract also should have to pay at least the minimum Program Fee for that contract. If the Contract Point Value is 154,000 points the Member should be paying at least $106.26 every year or the Minimum Program Fee of $107.08 every year.

Anyone who owns a different size Biennial contract than the one described above and anyone who owns a single Annual contract should also be paying at least the appropriate minimum Program Fee every year.

However, once a Member’s Total Account disburses at least the number of points to cause the MINIMUM PROGRAM FEE to be exceeded each and every year that Member should not pay double the PROGRAM FEE for each and every Biennial Contract that the Member owns.

The appropriate correction and the correction that yours trully would recommend to the Wyndham Board of Directors is a correction that eliminates the short fall in Program Fee income by simply following the rules as stated in the Club Wyndham Plus Trust Agreement and Accompanying Documents.

The Board of Directors should ask the “service teams” to program the appropriate software so that it does NOT double the Program Fee for each and every Biennial contract but does charge each and every Member at least the appropriate MINIMUM PROGRAM FEE each and every year.

 

[rrlongwell]

It is my understanding that all BBB complaints against Wyndham Vacation Resorts and Wyndham Vacation Ownership go to the Central Flordia BBB. I checked Wyndham Vacation Ownership's current BBB rating and found the following. From the stats below, it appears Wyndham does resolve complaint filed against them in this forum.

Based on BBB files, this business has a BBB Rating of F on a scale from A+ to F.
Reasons for this rating include:
•964 complaints filed against business
•36 complaints filed against business that were not resolved.
•25 serious complaints filed against business.
•Failure to respond to one complaint filed against business.
Click here for an explanation of BBB Ratings
The company has requested, before filing a complaint with BBB, please contact them via phone at 866-323-6188 or email bbbinquiries@wyn.com.

Complaints concern selling practices. The company responds to complaints explaining its cancellation policy and offers a refund when applicable.

 

[Free2Roam]

Goofyhobbie... your rationalization is very well-stated and right on point. I can't believe that there's not at least ONE person at Wyndham who can understand this.

 

[Goofyhobbie]

What You Should Do If You Feel You Are Being Overcharged!

To All Wyndham Owners,

If you are affected by the 2011 "Program Fee" increases (doubling) on your Biennial Contract(s) you need to complain effectively so that your complaint is noted on your Member Account.

Once your complaint is noted on your Account, follow-up in writing to make sure your complaint is counted by the appropriate person who is compiling a list of complaints for official handling by Club Wyndham Trust Management.

Based on input presentd by some above, it appears that calling or writing Deanne Gabel, Plan Manager is NOT getting an adequate response.

There has been no indication so far that she understands the impact on owners who own over 200,000 points distributed annually and who also have Biennial Contracts in their portifolio.

Based on past experience, Wyndham is not likely to make a change in their policy if just a small fraction of affected Members do not complain effectively so that their complaint is officially noted.

By NOT complaining effectively, Members affected are telling Wyndham that the overcharge is acceptable and that we as a Group will continue to accept the overcharge year after year!

A Wheel that Squeaks loudly and effectively will be greased by the Mechanic; but a Wheel that does NOT Squeak, when the Mechanic is willing to note the Squeak, may not get the attention deserved.

The evidence so far shows that complaining directly to Deanne Gabel and only to Deanne Gabel may NOT get the job done.

To effectively complain about the 2011 "Program Fee" Assessment Increase on Biennial Contracts do the following:

1.) First call Wyndham at 1-800-251-8736 and listen carefully to the options. When prompted Press Option 2 because you have an issue with Financial Services.

2.) After initially Pressing Option 2 you will have to Press Option 2 a second time because your question has to do with Club Wyndham Plus Assessments and Fees.

3.) Finally, after prompting, you need to Press Option 2 a third time because your specific question is about Assessments and Fees.

4.) Be prepared for a little wait time, finally when the Financial Services Representative comes on the line calmly point out to the representative that you have one or more Biennial Contracts where the Program Fee has doubled as to those contracts.

5.) The Representative will probably give you a canned speech as to why your "program fee" has been doubled.

[NOTE: If you have just one Biennial Contract and have been paying just half of the Program Fee each year you probably have not been paying the minimum program fee required by the Trust Agreement and you can reasonably expect that the increase as it pertains to you is valid.]

However, if your total points distributed each and every year exceed 200,000 points and you also have one or more Biennial Contracts you HAVE BEEN PAYING in excess of the MINIMUM PROGRAM FEE in past years and the DOUBLING OF THE FEE against your BIENNIAL CONTRACTS should not have happened for 2011 and should not happen in FUTURE YEARS!

6.) Once the Financial Services Representative has finished telling you why the change took place you should calmly and nicely ask for a Financial Services Resolution Specialist.

7.) Once the Financial Services Resolution Specialist comes on the line, calmly explain that you as a Biennial Contract owner are already paying in excess of the MINIMUM PROGRAM FEE on your TOTAL Member Account and explain that you want a refund of the overpayment and you want your account to be noted so that Wyndham is aware of the fact that you have complained about the on-going overcharge against your Member Account.

8.) DO NOT STOP THERE, ask the Financial Services Resolution Specialist exactly who you can e-mail or write to voice your concerns in writing.

9.) The Financial Services Resolution Specialist should then give you the name of the person who will be compiling the complaints. That person will be advising the appropriate Wyndham officers of the overall number of complaints. OF COURSE, IF YOU FAIL TO COMPLAIN YOUR COMPLAINT WILL NOT BE AMONG THOSE COUNTED!

10.) Write or send an e-mail to the individual identified by the Financial Services Resolution Specialist and specifically ask that you as a Member be kept advised as that individual compiles the list of complaining Members and follows through to inform Management of the Club Wyndham Plus Program.

I realize that following the above outlined procedure is going to be a pain in the rear; but you cannot expect redress of your concerns if you do not complain in a way that will get Wyndham's Attention.

Believe it or not, Wyndham is keeping a running total. IF far too many of the affected Members do NOT complain nothing will be done.

Of course, if you are willing to pay the double charge every year into the future DO NOTHING! Wyndham will consider your non-complaint as reasonable evidence that you DO NOT CARE!

If there is enough of you who do not care, Wyndham will, no doubt, continue to take the additional money you contribute to the Club every year going forward.

 

[rrlongwell]

Quote of Goofyhobbie: To All Wyndham Owners,

If you are affected by the 2011 "Program Fee" increases (doubling) on your Biennial Contract(s) you need to complain effectively so that your complaint is noted on your Member Account ...

A more effective method of negotiating with Wyndham might be to form a Wyndham Owners Club that is not affiliated with Wyndham along the lines of the Worldmark one that I saw was attempting to gather proxies. I do not know anything about how that works because I do not own any Worldmark properties.

 

[Goofyhobbie]

rrlongwell,

As far as I know there is no such thing as a Wyndham Owners Club affiliated or not affiliated with Wyndham.

Wyndham Owners, outside of interaction at Wyndham Resorts, usually do not have any interaction with each other. The exceptions to that involve communication at the Club Wyndham Plus Annual Meetings or through interaction on the Internet at BBS websites like TUG and the Wyndham Owners Forum. (Membership if free.)

It would be difficult to form a non affiliated club without the help of the Board of Directors of the Club Wyndham Plus Fairshare Vacation Plan Use Management Trust. They and Wyndham are the only parties who know or can compile a list of all Club Wyndham Plus members for the purpose of forming an affiliated or unaffiliated Club. Such help from the Board or from Wyndham is not likely to take place in the foreseeable future. Discussion of the possibilities can take place in this thread started just for that purpose: Should Wyndham Create An Owner To Owner Website For Communication Among Owners?

Meanwhile, as far as I know, the only effective way to communicate a complaint such as the one being discussed is for each Owner to compalin as an individual Member using the above mentioned guidelines so that collectively our complaints will be NOTED and acknowledged individually.

WYNDHAM is not likely to refund an overpayment if a Member does not complain as the Member wronged.

It is unfortunate that most Members affected by the overcharge do not realize they are being overcharged or they are choosing to accept the overcharge by not complaining.

 

[rrlongwell]

Thanks for the info

 

[Goofyhobbie]

Update

If anyone reading this thread has specifically asked for and received a refund of 1/2 of the 2011 "program fee" for their Biennial Contract(s) or received an indication that a refund will be forthcoming consider letting us know within this thread.

There are some who have or should have received a refund.

If you make a request for a refund and support your request with a strong argument against the doubling of the "program fee" you may be rewarded for your effort.

Also, if you have not registered your complaint with the Financial Services Department of Wyndham and followed it up in writing please do so. The Financial Services Department at Wyndham is counting the complaints that are satisfactorily documented.

Those who have been overcharged should request a refund and strongly argue for a change in the current policy.

However, those of you who own and receive 210,000 points or less each and every Use Year probably do not have a complaint because the Trust Agreement calls for the account of each Member to pay at least the Minimum Program Fee each and every year.

 

[paxsarah]

However, those of you who own and receive 210,000 points or less each and every Use Year probably do not have a complaint because the Trust Agreement calls for the account of each Member to pay at least the Minimum Program Fee each and every year.

I think that I would have a complaint, but not for a full half of the newly inflated Program Fee. I am still waiting for my third of three contracts to show up in the Wyndham system (so I wouldn't complain until all of my ducks are in a row) but my preliminary back-of-the-envelope math seems to indicate that I am being overcharged, but not by double.

 

[andy]

increase in EOY fees

I sent the following email to: alyssa.neely@wyn.com

To whom it may concern:

I am writing to get information on the following contracts.
I have called financial services and they connect me to someone else.
They cannot give me any answers.
I gave a copy of the Club Wyndham Assessment Summary to the
resort manager of Royal Vista and he came back with the same answer.
“There is nothing he can do.”
I can’t understand why I have to pay twice the amount to use 77,000 pts.
from 2 different contracts.

I have 3 contracts that I have questions on
#000379932460 monthly fee $40.49 EOY - even
#000390011427 monthly fee $40.49 EOY - odd
#000390004166 monthly fee $37.09 annual
They are charging me more than double the amount instead of one half.
In other words it cost me $971.76
instead of $445.08 to use the same amount of points 77,000.

Would you believe it cost $1943.52 for a one week stay in a one bedroom unit at the Wyndham Royal Vista resort in Pompano Beach. FL.

The same unit using the annual contract cost $890.16.
People are renting these units for $1000 and as an owner I am paying up to $1943.52, This is not very fair to owners.

Why do they charge me program fees for 154,000 points when I
only get to use 77,000 .

I have many other contracts and think I am paying my fair share.

Response:

Thank you for your correspondence of February 18, 2011 regarding the Program Fees on your Biennial Ownership Contracts. We appreciate you taking the time to provide thoroughly researched suggestions to improve our procedures. Your recommendations have been forwarded to the CLUB WYNDHAM Plus Board of Directors for review.


Wyndham Consumer Finance greatly values constructive feedback from owners like you. Thank you for your continued ownership and we look forward to continuing to provide your vacation needs in the years and decades to come.

Sincerely Yours,
Alyssa

 

[hjtug]

Re: response from Ms Neely

For whatever it is worth, I also sent an email to her about the fee increase we have seen on our two biennial contracts, one even and one odd. The response I received is exactly the same as yours.

 

[ronparise]

I may be the wrong guy to weigh in here, since I dont own any bi-annual contracts. I do own 3 annual contracts and I am shopping for ie doing my due -diligence, before buying an RCI points contract.

I see an analogy here between the Wyndham "Program Fee" and the RCI weeks subscription fee of $89/yr and points membership of $124/yr

All three are fees charged just for the privilege of playing in their sandbox. The difference seems to be that RCI charges one fee no matter what size contract or how many contracts you might have.or put another way. RCI's fee is charged per member, not per contract. Wyndham looks like they wanted to establish a minimum fee and a maximum fee per account, but didnt fully consider the impact on owners of bi-annual contracts

Do I have this right? or do I need to study this issue a little more.

 

[hjtug]

Wyndham looks like they wanted to establish a minimum fee and a maximum fee per account, but didnt fully consider the impact on owners of bi-annual contracts

Do I have this right? or do I need to study this issue a little more.

I think you are are pretty close to being correct. Apparently Wyndham did have a minimum program fee but they weren't applying it to owners of a single biennial contract. So those folks were getting a break by paying less than the minimum even though they could use the system every year. It seems the change they have implemented to correct this overcharges what is likely a much larger group of owners.

 

[Goofyhobbie]

Update

Sometimes when you are right it pays to be persistent and as stated earlier complain effectively!

On April 21 I decided to go ahead and send an e-mail to Ms. Deanne Gabel even though I had success convincing folks in the Wyndham Finance section that things were not as they should be, there was nothing coming from top management except there is no problem or a statement indicating that Biennial Contract owners were underbilled in prior years and Wyndham was just catching up.

I also wanted to wait until closer to the upcoming Annual Meeting to present my argument; while also giving Ms. Gabel and the folks that advise her time to react before the meeting.

Since she is the "Plan Manager" and the person who signed our Account Summaries which were received in late December or early January. The message sent with a few things left out because of the personal nature is provided below:

Subject: Information and Comments for Upcoming Fairshare Vacation Owners Association Annual Meeting

To: Deanne Gabel, Club Wyndham Plus FairShare Vacation Plan Manager

Dear Ms. Gabel:

RE: Membership Accont:

Please accept our apology for not personally attending the upcoming Wyndham Owners Annual Meeting.

As satisfied Wyndham Point owners we want to share with you some feedback and concientious concerns that no doubt are of significant concern to a large class of the Club Wyndham Plus Membership.

Since acquiring our Wyndham Points we are pleased to tell you that we are extremely happy with your product and the people we have dealt with at Wyndham.

Although we cannot attend, we ask that you carefully consider the comments below and respond in writing as well as at the open meeting to fully address our concerns and the concerns of hundreds of other Wyndham owners who are adversely affected by the change in the Annual Club Wyndham Plus Assessment Summary.

A Member that owned a single Biennial Contract prior to 2011 was probably NOT paying the minimum annual “program fee” each and every year. As you already know all Members are required to pay an annual Assessment to the Club Wyndham Trust that includes at least the minimum “program fee.”

To fix the problem, you as the Plan Manager, implemented on behalf of the Board of Directors a change in how the annual “program fee” is assessed against Biennial Contracts instead of how the annual “program fee” is assessed against a Member’s overall account.

That fix resulted in our having to pay considerably more in “program fees” because we own Biennial Contracts that mirror each other. If we owned just one Biennial Contract that distributed points every other year then yes, we should pay the minimum “program fee” annually. But, when we own two Biennial contracts that mirror each other and together distribute the same amount of points annually, the “program fee” charged against those points should be based on ½ of the Biennial Contract Point value and NOT the current “Contract Point Value” indicated in your Assessment Summary.

The Club Wyndham Plus Program Summary states that the “program fee” is paid by all Members and is calculated by multiplying the TOTAL number of points associated with the Membership by a rate determined by the Board of Directors. But, the Program Summary goes on to state that in no event shall the “program fee” be less than $88.12 or $107.88 depending on whether or not the Member participates in Plus Partners.

The intent of the Trust Agreement is clear. Each Member’s Account pays at least the Minimum Program Fee. Members that own a single Biennial Contract and nothing more than a single Biennial contract are likely to have been under billed prior to 2011. That under billing, however, should be rectified by making sure that the Member pays at least the minimum annual “program fee” each and every year.

A Member that receives in excess of 155,000 Wyndham Points each and every year is already paying in excess of the minimum “program fee” and should not be penalized because the Member happens to have multiple Biennial Contracts within their account.

A Warranty Deed that conveys a Biennial fractional fee simple absolute Undivided Ownership Interest (“UOI”) describes the property owned as a fraction with the numerator identifying the points owned by the Member and the denominator identifying the total Undivided Ownership in Units committed to Undivided Ownership.

For example: When the numerator of the fraction is 105,000 that number reflects the points actually owned and the denominator identifies the total Undivided Interest. When the Warranty Deed then refers to the described property as a Biennial Undivided Ownership Interest and goes on to say such Undivided Ownership Interest has been allocated twice the number of Points for use by the Grantees in either Odd Years or in Even Years; but not both years, you should not consider the doubling of the points as the annual Contract Value.

If the Board of Directors desires to assess the “program fee” against the “Contract Point Value” the number identified should be the numerator of the fraction shown in the Warranty Deed and NOT the number of points distributed every other year.

The error in billing can be put squarely on identifying the “Contract Point Value” as the total number of points distributed every other year instead of the “Contract Point Value” as determined by the fraction of ownership described in the Warranty Deed.

When a Biennial Contract is involved, the Points determining “HOA Billing” and the Points Determining the “program fee” should be exactly the same. But, if the Total Points in the account cause the Program Assessment to be less than the minimum “program fee” then the guidelines of the Club Wyndham Plus Program Summary should determine the “program fee” to be charged to the Member’s Account.

The Club Wyndham Plus Trust Agreement and Accompanying Documents states that the Trustee may establish varying fees among Members provided there is a reasonable basis for such a fee structure.

Under the MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT, SECTION 5.3 (b) the PLAN MANAGER is charged with the responsibility of determining each Member’s Program Fee based upon the BUDGET and the number of Vacation Points owned by each Member.

It is the VACATION POINTS owned and not the type of contract owned that should determine the charge assessed against each Member’s account.

When the Vacation Points owned for distribution each year are not sufficient to meet the minimum “program fee” the PROGRAM SUMMARY, as explained in Section 10, stipulates that a minimum fee be charged. Because each Member is already required to pay at least the minimum “program fee” each and every year, there is no reasonable reason to double the fees charged on all Biennial Contracts just because the contract distributes the points every other year.

While it is appropriate and reasonable to make sure that each and every Member is paying at least the minimum “program fee” every year, applying the “program fee” against the total points distributed by a Biennial Contract every other year overcharges any Member who has a Biennial contract and also has more than 155,000 points distributed each and every year.

Unfortunately the change in billing has unfairly overcharged the Account’s of hundreds if not thousands of owners like my wife and I who have one or more Biennial contracts but have more than enough Vacation Points to cover the minimum “program fee” each and every year. As a “class” we are being over charged.

Once a Member has acquired at least 155,000 points that are distributed each and every year the Member is paying more than the minimum “program fee” on all the points owned. The “program fee” should be allocated among Members in an equitable fashion each year and each and every Member should be required to pay their reasonable pro-rata share of the “program fee.”

Our annual UDI contract (# xxxxxxxx) provides 105,000 points every year and we are charged $0.51 per thousand points because we own a total of 469K. The “program fee” charged for that contract is fair and equitable and the $53.55 charge is a properly prorated share of the total “program fee.”

Our Biennial Ownership contract (# yyyyyyyy) provides 210K every odd year and our Biennial Ownership contract (# zzzzzzzzz) provides 210K every even year. Because the contracts mirror each other, we get exactly the same services as a Member who owns an annual 210K contract. In other words, we receive from the two contracts together a total of 210K annually and we should pay the same program fee ($0.51 per thousand points) that a Member who owns an annual contract for 210K and who also owns more than 300K in total. As a class of Members we deserve to be treated in an equitable fashion.

Please respond to our concerns and correct the billing procedures now in effect so that future assessments for the “program fee” are applied fairly for all concerned. We look forward to your response in writing and to a response by you at the Wyndham Owner’s Annual Meeting.

Thank you for your time. We encourage you to share this with any individual who may have been inadverently omitted.

Sincerely yours,

[Note to my friends here at the TUG Wyndham Forum: A copy was sent to as many of the past and present Board Members as possible; but not all received the e-mail.]

 

[Goofyhobbie]

Now For The Result Desired!

Hopefully Ms. Gable will not mind my sharing her response with the Members of this Forum.

From: Gabel, Deanne Deanne.Gabel@wyn.com
To: _________________________

Date: Mon, May 2, 2011 at 7:08 AM

Subject RE: Information and Comments for Upcoming Fairshare Vacation Owners Association Annual Meeting

Good Morning Mr. ____________,

Thank you for your comprehensive email regarding the biennial billing adjustment that we made at the end of 2010. You are correct, there are a few owners that were negatively impacted by this, and we are working towards a solution which enables us to further simplify the now somewhat complex algorithm that we use to calculate the program fee. There are various types of ownership configurations, and we are working towards simplifying this.

I concur with your thoughts on the subject, and please do know that there will be an announcement shortly for owners such as yourself that were not assessed properly.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your thoughts

Deanne Gabel

Obviously, her response to my e-mail is considerably different from previous responses received by other members of this Forum.

We can only be watchful and patient at this point in time. At least Wyndham appears to have recognized that we will not simply go away accepting an obvious unfairness to those Wyndham Owners who like myself own well over 155,000 points distributed annually and also multiple Biennial Contracts. We as a "CLASS" should not bear the cost of any shortfall in annual "program fee" income.

Please let all know when any Member receives confirmation that their monies either will be refunded or applied to a future bill and please be viligent in the future to make sure you are not over billed in the coming years.

 

[Free2Roam]

Dave - all this is very much appreciated. I don't have any EOY contracts, but I've been following this mainly to see how Wyndham would rectify this situation. Thanks for your persistence.

 

[rrlongwell]

... We can only be watchful and patient at this point in time. At least Wyndham appears to have recognized that we will not simply go away accepting an obvious unfairness to those Wyndham Owners who like myself own well over 155,000 points distributed annually and also multiple Biennial Contracts. We as a "CLASS" should not bear the cost of any shortfall in annual "program fee" income. ...

Do not mean to be the bearer of bad news, here it goes:

Called Wyndham, they will not transfer calls to Ms. Gabel. They said she does not take calls. Michael Eddings indicated he was aware that every other year owners were being overcharged for Program Fees but there is nothing being done about it to correct the situation at this time.

If a class action lawsuit emerges, please post that information and the name of the Attorney handling it.