Please help, need to rescind.

[seansnov]

We are on a stay in Rio Mar Puerto Rico and were sold on becoming Margaritaville Owners. We were CWA VIP Platinum with 1,005,000 points and they used the sales tactics that CWA will no longer be able to see the Margaritaville resorts due to changes within Club Wyndham whereas Margaritaville was separating themselves from Club Wyndham. We love Rio Mar and stay yearly, so this did put a scare in us. This is not what sold us though. The sales rep showed us a presentation on our Maintenance fees, specifically the fees of CWA MF vs. Margaritaville MF. Based on our points currently, 1,005,000, our MF monthly are roughly $700 and that would go up on average of 8% every year vs Margaritaville Rio mar or any Margaritaville 1.28% every year. Using the calculator form timeshare legal services (calculator recommended from sales guy) our total number of points over 20 years would be the following:

CWA 20 Years total maintenance fees (using 8% increase every year compounded) - $415,152.79
Margaritaville 20 Years total maintenance fees paid (using 2% increase every year compounded. 1.28% was not available on calculator) - $227,510

the difference was about $187,642 between the 2 scenarios.

To but into the Margaritaville, we had to but additional points and traded all of our CWA points into Margaritaville points. This gave us a total of 1,110,000 Margaritaville points and cost was $105,000.

It seems like a good deal on face value but the things that are not sitting well with me are the fact that the Margaritaville MF increase of average 1.28% per year seems like it could be a lie. We were told that there is an insurance policy from Jimmy Buffet that keeps this yearly increase low. Can anyone confirm this?

Also, in my contract, I see no where about rescinding. Any help or advice from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

Losing sleep as I feel I have been duped again.

Thanks

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

It looks like you have 7 days to rescind in Puerto Rico. I’m sure someone will be along shortly to post where you can mail the rescission notice to.

 

[paxsarah]

It seems like a good deal on face value but the things that are not sitting well with me are the fact that the Margaritaville MF increase of average 1.28% per year seems like it could be a lie. We were told that there is an insurance policy from Jimmy Buffet that keeps this yearly increase low. Can anyone confirm this?

It’s a lie.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

We were told that there is an insurance policy from Jimmy Buffet that keeps this yearly increase low. Can anyone confirm this?

Without doing any research I would say that this is 100 percent to be a lie. The statement makes no sense.

 

[Sandi Bo]

See the sticky at the top of this forum. It has all the information you need!

Sticky - HELP! How can I cancel/rescind my recent Wyndham timeshare purchase

How To Rescind Your Recent Wyndham Timeshare purchase This post is designed to be a quick guide on how to rescind your timeshare purchase from Wyndham. If you are not purchasing from Wyndham, or want a more in-depth guide please refer to this TUG advice article...

tugbbs.com

 

[chapjim]

We are on a stay in Rio Mar Puerto Rico and were sold on becoming Margaritaville Owners. We were CWA VIP Platinum with 1,005,000 points and they used the sales tactics that CWA will no longer be able to see the Margaritaville resorts due to changes within Club Wyndham whereas Margaritaville was separating themselves from Club Wyndham. We love Rio Mar and stay yearly, so this did put a scare in us. This is not what sold us though. The sales rep showed us a presentation on our Maintenance fees, specifically the fees of CWA MF vs. Margaritaville MF. Based on our points currently, 1,005,000, our MF monthly are roughly $700 and that would go up on average of 8% every year vs Margaritaville Rio mar or any Margaritaville 1.28% every year. Using the calculator form timeshare legal services (calculator recommended from sales guy) our total number of points over 20 years would be the following:

CWA 20 Years total maintenance fees (using 8% increase every year compounded) - $415,152.79
Margaritaville 20 Years total maintenance fees paid (using 2% increase every year compounded. 1.28% was not available on calculator) - $227,510

the difference was about $187,642 between the 2 scenarios.

To but into the Margaritaville, we had to but additional points and traded all of our CWA points into Margaritaville points. This gave us a total of 1,110,000 Margaritaville points and cost was $105,000.

It seems like a good deal on face value but the things that are not sitting well with me are the fact that the Margaritaville MF increase of average 1.28% per year seems like it could be a lie. We were told that there is an insurance policy from Jimmy Buffet that keeps this yearly increase low. Can anyone confirm this?

Also, in my contract, I see no where about rescinding. Any help or advice from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

Losing sleep as I feel I have been duped again.

Thanks

Among other things, Sales has no insight into future maintenance fees.

 

[RX8]

First priority is to rescind. Follow the instructions exactly as outlined in your contract. Avoid going back to sales as they will only lie some more trying to save their commission. Once you have rescinded, send an e-mail to Wyndham corporate with the details of the outlandish, made up lie by the sales team.

I still don’t understand how timeshare sales can get away with blatant lies time and time again. As bad a reputation car dealers have one would never tell a prospective car buyer that they need to buy this new Toyota because their current Corolla is being spun off from Toyota beginning January 2025 and will be subject to an added $1.50/gallon in taxes each time they purchase gas.

Sales tactics like this will be the death of the timeshare industry.

 

[CYRUS2400]

When in doubt, rescind. But, I have a couple questions to ask that I've wondered about for some time. You were grandfathered Platinum, I suspect the purchase put you to permanent Platinum, or maybe even Founders. If you rescind, will your Grandfathered position remain? Secondly, with the purchase, did you retain unlimited HK? And, will you retain that when you rescind. My gut says you should go back to where you were before the purchase, like it never happened, but, we are dealing with Wyndham.

I obviously don't trust Wyndham Sales, so a person with actual experience needs to address the question, as the answer might impact your decision. Hopefully, a TUG member has been through the purchase/rescind process where grandfathering was in play can give a real life answer.

If you do rescind, please share your experience regarding the grandfathered aspects of your pre-purchase account.

 

[paxsarah]

When in doubt, rescind. But, I have a couple questions to ask that I've wondered about for some time. You were grandfathered Platinum, I suspect the purchase put you to permanent Platinum, or maybe even Founders. If you rescind, will your Grandfathered position remain? Secondly, with the purchase, did you retain unlimited HK? And, will you retain that when you rescind. My gut says you should go back to where you were before the purchase, like it never happened, but, we are dealing with Wyndham.

I obviously don't trust Wyndham Sales, so a person with actual experience needs to address the question, as the answer might impact your decision. Hopefully, a TUG member has been through the purchase/rescind process where grandfathering was in play can give a real life answer.

If you do rescind, please share your experience regarding the grandfathered aspects of your pre-purchase account.

Policy-wise, it goes back to exactly what it was prior to the purchase and rescission. The question is what happens system/IT-wise. They will want to keep an eye on it and promptly pursue anything that isn't working correctly after the rescission.

Specific to the policy, even though it doesn't specifically mention rescission, I think the policy on grandfathering (now called "legacy" but I don't think Wyndham can shake people calling it grandfathering) on Page 312 of the current directory would essentially cover this situation in the "upgrading" and "decreasing" sections. If you increase but don't reach the next level (and grandfathered VIP *is* permanent VIP), "you will retain your legacy VIP by Wyndham status at your current level." If you decrease but remain VIP, "in order to maintain VIP status at the same or lower tier, you must meet the applicable VIP Point Tiers prior to November 1, 2012 or November 10, 2020 depending on your original purchase or upgrade date..." so even with a decrease the grandfathered level depends on their original grandfathering date, not the new level requirements. And on the VIP chart on Page 310, it states "Eligible owners who were part of the VIP program prior to November 11, 2020 will retain the unlimited housekeeping credit benefit" so as a continuous VIP regardless of the rescission, they retain it.

 

[seansnov]

Ok guys, first of all thanks so much for your help and advice. We were able to rescind and get back to our prior membership and vip level but it was a process and a little bit of luck.

We sent a certified letter, emailed and faxed a copy of our recission letter. They confirmed receipt of all but we were told by owner services, nothing started until they received the certified mail version of our recission. We did this within 3 days of signing the contract. We did overnight the certified letter and that was received next day. They started the process right away and had us out of Margaritaville and back into CWA within a week, also receiving our full refund of our deposit. Unfortunately, because we had 1,005,000 they did revert us back to gold VIP. This is where the luck comes into play. We went round and round with the wrong people at customer service until we finally got a hold of the most caring person I have met yet at Wyndham. This person was very understanding and had a wealth of knowledge. To make it a short story, he started an investigation into how we went from Platinum to gold. We emailed him all of our purchases, how we got to platinum. Within 3 days we were back to Platinum and exactly where we were before the purchase of the Margaritaville. All is good and word of advice, Stay away from any of the sales people, they are not your friend and only care about themselves and their sales. I blame this partly on Wyndham on how they are set up to pay their commission sales teams. On that note, a little about our sales guy. I am a US Army Veteran, he is a retired US Marshall (So he says), his dad was US Army Veteran and son currently in US Army. As we have gone through this process, I think out of all the sales people we encountered, he ended being the worst. He told many lies and once he found out we rescinded, he started sending me nasty texts. He claimed to be the sales manager of Rio Mar, and if so, he is very unprofessional.

Again, thanks for all your help.