Just because it’s common doesn’t mean it’s great. It just means it is what it is.
We share common ground in providing visibility to the deceptions and attempting to get Wyndham to wake up to the fact that the customer experience management practices in use are really nothing short of miserable and if they do not change said practices Wyndham will collapse under its own weight sooner or later. With economic justice becoming a primary talking point in our political spectrum, and for good reason, companies like Wyndham had damn well better sit up and take notice, and implement serious changes to their customer experience management strategies, or suffer the inevitable consequences further down the line.
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You and I have both posted on this subject in the past. How we believe Wyndham has an excellent product but from the sales practices, the way the Wyndham salespeople deceive, outright lie and manipulate, you would think what they are selling is the worst product ever. The timeshare equivalent of a car with badly faded paint, dents in fenders, doors and quarter panels, a door or two that doesn't close right, four bald tires, a badly cracked windshield and when you attempt to start it, it takes several tries to even get it to turn over and then clouds of black smoke come out of the tailpipe.
Mistake #1: This will come back to haunt Wyndham big time. Sales telling owners they won't be grandfathered at their current level if they don't make a purchase now. Wyndham said from the start and it was repeated repeatedly at the owners meeting that current owners will be grandfathered at their current level's new name.
Mistake #2: Arrogant and offensive sales people who can't at least be bothered to come up with better lies then continue to insist they are right and the owner who knows better is wrong. When their lies get challenged by a knowledgeable owner they should cut their losses right then and there because they aren't going to make a sale. Other owners not as knowledgeable may also be in the room and overhearing the conversation or hearing about it later at the pool, fire pit, etc. That owner who had the horrible sales experience is very likely going to spread the word about their sales experience. This past week on one of the Wyndham Owners Facebook groups Kayla at Fairfield Glade was specifically mentioned for how horribly she lied to and treated an owner in an update. Other people added their comments about having dealt with her. Thousands, literally thousands of people in just that one Facebook group read those posts.
The Really, Really Huge Mistake #3: Wyndham salespeople prey on the uninformed owner. And it's even worse when they convince an uninformed owner to make a new purchase and give up something they should have never given up. In the coming up on 18 years we've owned I can tell you that the worst and most vocal haters are the uninformed owners who get taken advantage of. They go out of their way to make sure to spread the word about their experience and they don't forget. While we were staying at a resort twice now I've had people wanting to give me their deeded points at Nashville because they wanted nothing to do with Wyndham and telling everyone why they felt that way. When I declined they moved on to offering it to other people they would be talking to during the remainder of their stay. In the one case it was three years ago this past summer and a couple in their mid 70's. They also owned a fixed week at a resort through RCI and that is where we were staying at the time. We were sitting in a group of people talking and when they found out we were Wyndham owners it opened a floodgate. After telling all the details the wife was almost begging me to take their paid for deed and willing to pay the costs. I felt bad for them so just said that being platinum already we had more points than we knew what to do with and thanked her for her offer. She proceeded to ask all of them if anyone else wanted it. When I saw her later in the week she said she still hadn't found anyone who wanted it but they had a stay at a Wyndham resort coming up and hoped they would be able to find another Wyndham owner who wanted it. When it was just my husband and I he asked why I didn't want their points and why they were so unhappy. I explained that they had been conned into trading what they had that had low maintenance fees and that Nashville's maintenance fees are really, really high. Also that after all they spent they didn't have enough points to be able to do all that much with. They got one week a year in a two bedroom deluxe at Bonnet Creek because of when they were going. I explained how much less our maintenance fees were on the same number of points and that we easily got 3-4 weeks vacation with the same number of points. And Dominic, it about kills me to say this, but I told my husband they could and did rent cheaper from other owners than stays cost them as owners. So how many people at that resort and the Wyndham resort they were going to heard a story that was enough to convince anyone they would never want to own Wyndham? The sales person who took advantage of an elderly couple got his or her sale but how many potential sales did the company lose because of it. The saddest part is that the salesperson could have still made the sale and done right by them instead of completely screwing them over. Instead of having them give up their lower maintenance fee deed he or she could have just sold them the additional points at Nashville (this happened at Nashville btw) and helped them enroll their week at that resort in RCI (where we were staying) in the PIC program. They would have at least been permanent silver and been able to get a whole lot more out of their ownership instead of becoming virulent Wyndham haters.
I've posted that I had hopes that when Michael Brown took over we would see sweeping changes in the sales model but that hasn't happened. At least not so far. The way Wyndham is turning a blind eye to what sales is doing at this time is going to bite them in the butt so very much harder than they are allowing themselves to see. Not that there aren't already a a number of unhappy owners but I think what is going on since the concept of Privileges was announced and will continue until it rolls out will escalate those numbers exponentially. Wyndham will not survive without those repeat buyers and the VIP/Privileges program is the carrot that gets people to buy more points.
Wyndham better make darn sure the Privileges program has some really good benefits not some half-assed stuff that's a joke and only an idiot would think was worthwhile.
We share common ground in providing visibility to the deceptions and attempting to get Wyndham to wake up to the fact that the customer experience management practices in use are really nothing short of miserable and if they do not change said practices Wyndham will collapse under its own weight sooner or later. With economic justice becoming a primary talking point in our political spectrum, and for good reason, companies like Wyndham had damn well better sit up and take notice, and implement serious changes to their customer experience management strategies, or suffer the inevitable consequences further down the line.