Newbie member - Faced down the Wyndham "Closer"...

[JyRO]

Hi all - Just today getting into this, and wanted to get the basic understanding of buying resale. Haven't a clue as yet, and you folks really know how to roll out the acronyms. This is my first day to really learn about timeshare. Basically, I'm more than willing to read and learn, just point (link) me to the best thread. I figured I'd see something in the stickies but it wasn't what I expected. I have every question that a newbie can possibly ask ... and maybe a few new ones.


But let me tell you how this got started. The wife agreed to this "great discounted" vacation. As long as we would take the Wyndham's timeshare seminar thingie. Turns out the cheapie hotel they put us in was probably discounted so deep to Wyndham that they probably paid nothing for us to sit through their silly spill. So anywho, the guy that led us around was a good guy, and the rooms were fabulous. But the wife and I both knew that the answer was no, regardless. Once back to the table, I told the guy that we wouldn't be doing anything today. He hesitatingly brought in, "The Closer." Now this guy was a real prick, and there was no way his tactics were getting through. As soon as he started talking, my wife and my defense shields went to full power. Anywho, he kept jawing until enough of our quips he had had enough. Like: Him "You know what the right decision here is..." Our answer, "Yes, thanks for pointing it out to us. Well, gentlemen, have a nice day."

Anyway, the wife and I were discussing how it would be nice if we had a VIP package that was paid for ... but not with our money!

Just 30 minutes ago, I decided to do an online search for some discussions, and bingo ... I found tugbbs.

I am clay in your hands ... please shape me properly!

I look forward to understanding the basics, then learning the details and making a timeshare resale purchase. Thanks!

 

[ace2000]

Wyndham VIP can only be obtained by a purchase from the developer (i.e. the sales pitch you just attended)... it cannot be obtained via resale purchase.

You can however, obtain as many points as you want via resale... you just won't get VIP benefits. Which is perfectly fine for 90% of us anyway.

Good luck!

P.S. You also need to check out the Wyndham owners board at

www.wyndhamowners.org

there is a Primer there you can download and learn quickly.

 

[AwayWeGo]

You Done Good.

I look forward to understanding the basics, then learning the details and making a timeshare resale purchase.

You already caught on to the No. 1 most important basic fact about buying timeshares, to wit . . .

BUY TIMESHARES RESALE
SAVE THOUSANDS​

Everything else is details. True, there are lots & lots of details, but none so important as buying timeshares resale.

Click here for our (mostly) complete timeshare story, which you may find instructive -- i.e., go & do likewise for the parts that strike you as OK, & go forth & do something completely different instead of anything we did that looks squirrelly to you.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[vacationhopeful]

Yee, the sales staff at Wyndham is slipping. They are putting their targets in cheap hotels rooms with free internet access? And they wonder why sales numbers are down?
:hysterical: :rofl: :hysterical: :rofl: :hysterical:

Even some cell phones have Goggle access. Maybe they should ask their sales targets if they travel with a laptop?

 

[Conan]

I rate Jya-Ning as the most reliable of TUG's Wyndham people.

Search Jya-Ning as "user name" and "Wyndham Resorts" as "forum" and you'll find 500 posts.

The more you read the more you'll know!

 

[timeos2]

I look forward to understanding the basics, then learning the details and making a timeshare resale purchase. Thanks!

Wyndham Points are great, cheap to buy resale and get you great vacations. You did the proper first step - find out about them & then find out how to buy resale.

VIP is all marketing hype not worth the paper it isn't printed on. Forget about that and concentrate on what you want to do with your points (travel to great resorts at will!) then buy, rent, borrow with that in mind. You'll love it & VIP won't cost you 95% premium. A win win.

Open a few Wyndham threads and you'll get an education. But above remember that it's only a good buy at resale price NEVER, EVER worth retail. Never.

 

[BellaWyn]

Jya-Ning

I rate Jya-Ning as the most reliable of TUG's Wyndham people.

Second this statement! Extremely helpful, concise and stays on point!

 

[ausman]

While giving props to Wyndham posters don't forget John Chase (timeos2) who has posted on this thread, and probably even told Jya-Ning to buy resale.

That message has been consistently delivered for a lot of years now.

There have also been a number of other very well informed posters who have come and gone over the years.

Any way, in a very concise number of posts your question has been answered fully.

 

[Timmuscat]

jyRo, also keep in mind that your VIP status would not be a deeded right. Instead, you are merely purchasing access into a Wyndham program that Wyndham can change at anytime for any reason. So even if you believe that buying retail to obtain VIP status would pay for itself in the long run (or, in reality, the very very long run), you still have to factor into your analysis the strong probability that Wyndham will change the VIP program in a manner unfavorable to current owners. Wyndam has certainly downgraded its VIP program in the past.

When I factored in all these issues, I gladly purchased my Wyndham points resale on ebay. Just my opinion, but I have no regrets, and I paid 95% less than the price quoted to me by Wyndham.

 

[JyRO]

OK, thanks for the responses. I welcome further input. I will go back and review each reply to extract as much value from them as I can. And will follow the advice and do the reading. I'm only 1% as far along as I'd like to be. Any plain ole advice, well ... I'm all ears!

Just as an additional note, as far as facing down, "The Closer." The wife and I noticed after reviewing the resorts when coming back into the Wyndham facility, that there were wine glasses, crackers & cheese being distributed.

We were expecting our sales guy to bring them out in order to loosen us up or something. Be we never got anything. Once we were leaving, we realized that the wine, cheese & crackers were for those that were signing on the bottom line. Let me tell you, there were a lot of wine glasses, and cheese & crackers going around. Are there really that many people unable to say no?

It's a policy of my wife and I that we always go back and have a discussion on our own before making such a large decision. And an even stronger policy that when someone like, "The Closer," is placed before us, that the fact that there's someone putting pressure on us to buy means that there is some reason that this item is not selling itself. And we just totally flat refuse to buy anything where there is pressure place on us to purchase.

Anywho, thanks for all the replies, and keep them coming if there is just some plain ole advice that you think would be helpful. As far as buying resale, I won't do it any other way.

- JyRO

 

[falmouth3]

People are often on vacation when they attend these sales presentations. The salesmen are trained to take advantage of the relaxed mindset. And they present so well that the unwary will agree that it makes good financial sense. Until they step away from the table, that is.

We've seen a lot of people who write here for advice, yet they still think they got a good deal and are reluctant to rescind. They have 20 people telling them to buy resale, they came for advice, and still they are sitting on the fence, afraid to make the wrong decision.

Congratulations on your decision to get educated before you sign on the dotted line. Take a look at eBay and see all the people who are selling at a major loss.

Good luck and welcome to TUG.

Sue

 

[ace2000]

P.S. You also need to check out the Wyndham owners board at

www.wyndhamowners.org

there is a Primer there you can download and learn quickly.

I'll say it again... start with the 'Primer' document at the wyndham owners site (above)... read the document and then you'll understand the terminology and Wyndham nuances a lot better when you do your searching and research.

 

[karentrimmer]

buy resale

it is also important that when you buy resale try to make it so that your home resort is somewhere you would like to stay. We love myrtle Beach all 6 of our contracts are deeded there which allows us to make reservations 13 months ahead instead of 10 months ahead of time if your home resort is somewhere else - it gives you much better access to week you want. You can always move the points you don't use to RCI and get an exchange but if your going to purchase make it somewhere you want to go.

 

[Jya-Ning]

Welcome.

I rate Jya-Ning as the most reliable of TUG's Wyndham people.

Thanks, I learn a lot of a lot of Wyndham owners that post their experience on the websites. Wyndham have a lot of owners, and if you are willing, they are very willing to share their experience, so if you are looking to step into a timeshare, and looking for owner support, it is a good product.

Wyndham VIP can only be obtained by a purchase from the developer (i.e. the sales pitch you just attended)... it cannot be obtained via resale purchase.

You can however, obtain as many points as you want via resale... you just won't get VIP benefits. Which is perfectly fine for 90% of us anyway.

Good luck!

P.S. You also need to check out the Wyndham owners board at

www.wyndhamowners.org

there is a Primer there you can download and learn quickly.

I will echo to encourage you joint that site if you are interesting in purchase Wyndham.

VIP is nice, it is very well designed package to lure buyer to purchase it, but as you have conclude, it is not worth the cost difference.

At this moment, with economic downturn, it is even better to get into resale, take your time, most people don't expect the economic will jump back, you can looking around, compare a lot of different Timeshare companies, and pick the one that fit you most, or develop a stragey to purchase different TS products to help you achieve your vacation dream. You can even test rent some units from here to see if you like the style or not.

You may want to looking into the http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=13 . So you can get family with resale purchase.

You need to either very flexible or can make plan like 10 month or 13 month in order to enjoy Wyndham. Its MF is in the middle/higher range among different TS chain, but it does has good quality of resorts. You need to look at your budget to determine if it makes you comfortable to know that you will pay these much for the vacation every years

Wait until you figure out what type of vacation person you are, and think Wyndham is a good fit, than you can determine if home resort is important to you or not, and what you should look at for the resale purchase.

Jya-Ning

 

[vacationhopeful]

Hi JyRO,
The timeshare sales pro is well schooled in how to get couples to spend large amounts of money on a whim and "feelgood". Bond to the prospect, make them feel good, have them agree to simple statements working up to the big question - you need to spend $20K to be happy, right?

They even sold you on their VIP product, where most here on TUG use Wyndham very effectively with less than 300,000 Wyndham Points.

I spent 7 hours on vacation last Sept with a couple who had been TS'ing for 15+ years. They owned 4 timeshares including 126,000 Wyndham Pts. They had been taking 4 weeks of vacations every year. With their newly developed "TS Plan", I bet they will be doing 10-14 weeks with their overall portfolio and new found knowledge - w/o buying, converted or paying for rented anything. Knowledge is perhaps more important than money in TS'ing and TUG is one powerful place for learning.

And just when you think you have it figured out, the rules change.

Welcome to TUG!

 

[Merilyn]

I am about to be a new Wyndham owner. I was going to check out the website www.wyndhamowners.org and can't get it to come up. Is it me or is there a problem with the site.

 

[carl2591]

I'll say it again... start with the 'Primer' document at the wyndham owners site (above)... read the document and then you'll understand the terminology and Wyndham nuances a lot better when you do your searching and research.

that's a great place to start. I have gone through the primer several time and still see questions about the process.

the one thing that has slowed me down on Wyndham is the event recently done to devalue the points for owners that in most cases did not find tug and signed on the dotted line, got the wine and cheese and spend a lot of money to become VIP and then got shafted by cendent/wyndham..

not what i call customer appreciation.

the more you read about what is going on with wyndham the less you will like what you see. spend a lot of time making sure you understand that what you see or sign up for today can change next week and you have NO input or control. FYI, CYA, and CHOA. (wyndham has the most acronyms )

 

[timeos2]

Very little not to like if you buy right

the more you read about what is going on with wyndham the less you will like what you see. spend a lot of time making sure you understand that what you see or sign up for today can change next week and you have NO input or control. FYI, CYA, and CHOA. (wyndham has the most acronyms )

The beauty of buying resale Wyndham points is that's all you need. What they do with VIP or other sales gimmicks just don't matter. Buy XXX points to use - they can never take away the value of those points. If that's all you buy & pay for you know what you'll have for as long as you hold it. Wyndham has beautiful resorts in many non-standard as well as the usual suspects that are easily available with simple, resale points. While I'd like to see the Boards be less filled with Wyndham stooges fortunately the basics of the system are solid and protected by unchangeable rights. Fees aren't as low as they could be but they aren't out of control as they are at Starwood, Marriott, DVC, DRI and others where the developer holds management control. Overall Wyndham is a solid system with plenty of resorts, low buy in at resale and great overall value. Tough combination to beat.

 

[Jya-Ning]

I am about to be a new Wyndham owner. I was going to check out the website www.wyndhamowners.org and can't get it to come up. Is it me or is there a problem with the site.

It is there. Try http://forums.atozed.com/ It will direct you to the forums area.

I think I read someone has issue that maybe related to the browser/setting. Not sure, try again, if you still have problem, post again with the browser you use, I believe some people manage that site will come and try to help.

Jya-Ning

 

[ace2000]

Regardless of the content of this thread, this title has to go down as one of the all-time greats...

Newbie vs. the Wyndham Closer kind of reminds me of David vs. Goliath or maybe Gunfight at the OK Corral or something... LOL

 

[JyRO]

Title...

Ace - Thanks for the sentiment. When I found the TUG, and decided to post, it didn't take long to come up with the title. I still had the bad taste of that even in my mouth. I can still see the closer's smug face. But I won! And the realization about what the wine and cheese meant (wallet opened, mucho dinero removed) I was flabbergasted. Then I was like, whew, dodged a bullet.

Still not sure what I'm going to do. I'll probably rent / buy some points or however that goes from an owner, just to see how I like the timeshare experience.

I've loved the replies.

- JyRO