Sticky - Give back your unwanted wyndham Timeshare - Wyndham Ovations / Wyndham Cares / Certified Exit

[sforgues]

Shell West Club is .31 per point. That is high.

How did you stay in Breck with your points? I really like Legacy Golf in Scottsdale, but we can get that with Wyndham points much cheaper.

Wyndham won't let us deed back Shell, either. I am stuck with Wyndham until I can give them away.

The Hawaii club IS high...I guess we are realizing that using these points at anything but high demand locations will be inefficient.

The stay at Breck is upcoming in February...2 bedroom costing 4,000 Shell points through RCI plus a $189 exchange fee. I priced this reservation yesterday on VRBO and it is renting for over $4,000. Of course, this is about 2 months away, so I suspect it can be rented for cheaper. This is French Ridge Condos BTW.

 

[GoldPointer]

I will be leaving this bulletin board now. Thank you for all the sound advice you all have delivered over the years.
I have fully exited my timeshare with Wyndham. And while it feels good to not have monthly maintenance fees anymore—which were tickling the underbelly of $600 a month—I am not denying the fact that the original investment I made was somewhat foolish and indulgent. I’ll admit it, I am an easy target for a sales pitchman.
In the end, I did not receive the extended maintenance-free usage. I was ineligible for this type of exit because one of my two contracts was via in-house resale, which I mistakenly believed (and was told by the salesman) to be the same as Wyndham contracts in terms of eligibility for all services. As it happens it was not eligible for full benefits of the Certified Exit program. They took back my contract with San Francisco Wyndham Canterbury, and also the in-house Towers on the Grove Myrtle Beach contract.
Just before surrendering I converted my remaining points to Wyndham Rewards. There is a fee for this, plus a point conversion that is borderline painful but not up for dispute, so…there you have it. Except for a few years worth of hotel stays, I am all done.
Goodbye everyone! Have a wonderful lifetime of travel. And thank you for being there when I had questions.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

I will be leaving this bulletin board now. Thank you for all the sound advice you all have delivered over the years.
I have fully exited my timeshare with Wyndham. And while it feels good to not have monthly maintenance fees anymore—which were tickling the underbelly of $600 a month—I am not denying the fact that the original investment I made was somewhat foolish and indulgent. I’ll admit it, I am an easy target for a sales pitchman.
In the end, I did not receive the extended maintenance-free usage. I was ineligible for this type of exit because one of my two contracts was via in-house resale, which I mistakenly believed (and was told by the salesman) to be the same as Wyndham contracts in terms of eligibility for all services. As it happens it was not eligible for full benefits of the Certified Exit program. They took back my contract with San Francisco Wyndham Canterbury, and also the in-house Towers on the Grove Myrtle Beach contract.
Just before surrendering I converted my remaining points to Wyndham Rewards. There is a fee for this, plus a point conversion that is borderline painful but not up for dispute, so…there you have it. Except for a few years worth of hotel stays, I am all done.
Goodbye everyone! Have a wonderful lifetime of travel. And thank you for being there when I had questions.

I recognize you said this was your last post, but I'm just so curious, why didn't you resell your Canterbury?

 

[rickandcindy23]

The Hawaii club IS high...I guess we are realizing that using these points at anything but high demand locations will be inefficient.

The stay at Breck is upcoming in February...2 bedroom costing 4,000 Shell points through RCI plus a $189 exchange fee. I priced this reservation yesterday on VRBO and it is renting for over $4,000. Of course, this is about 2 months away, so I suspect it can be rented for cheaper. This is French Ridge Condos BTW.

French Ridge is nice. It's managed by the same company that manages Val Chatelle, which is where we own four ski weeks. They have managed French Ridge since the developer left. They do a great job. You will have a good stay. Parking is at a premium, so be sure not to bring more than one car, or you will be paying for parking. We have an advantage at Val Chatelle in that we have garages and driveways to park an additional car.

 

[sforgues]

French Ridge is nice. It's managed by the same company that manages Val Chatelle, which is where we own four ski weeks. They have managed French Ridge since the developer left. They do a great job. You will have a good stay. Parking is at a premium, so be sure not to bring more than one car, or you will be paying for parking. We have an advantage at Val Chatelle in that we have garages and driveways to park an additional car.

Thanks for the note. Good to know about the parking. We are going with another couple, so will need to figure the parking situation out.

 

[Lsfinn]

FYI.

Just got off the phone with Wyndham Certified Exit. In the current incarnation of the Wyndham Certified Exit program, Wyndham Contracts resulting from Shell Contract conversions cannot be returned individually: all Shell Contracts must be returned at the same time.

I was offered the names of the two "Feature Resellers": Fidelity Real Estate, and TimeShare Broker Associates. I told the Certified Exit agent I was speaking with that I contacted both of these resellers in Dec 2022 and was told by the agents I spoke with that they refuse to handle Wyndham contracts because they are "worthless" and "Wyndham is too difficult to deal with."

She was "so sad" to hear that.

While I disagree with the "worthless" comment - for at least some properties in some locations the Wyndham properties are, when comparing maintenance fees against rental costs, quite competitive - I can only agree with the "Wyndham is too difficult to deal with" when trying to transfer a title.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I agree about Wyndham being difficult to transfer title.

I am trying to fill out an online docusign for the new takers of some Wyndham contracts we are giving away.

1) Typing the deeds was a cinch, 2) getting them notarized, also a cinch, 3) sending them with a check to the county, easy breezy, 4) but the transfer form Wyndham sent via docusign is ridiculous. I cannot ask my buyers (actually no money exchanged hands) for their SS#'s. That is too much. I cannot leave the space blank, either. I did put four numbers in the SS# space. I am not asking buyers for that.

 

[KevinCol]

I agree about Wyndham being difficult to transfer title.

I am trying to fill out an online docusign for the new takers of some Wyndham contracts we are giving away.

1) Typing the deeds was a cinch, 2) getting them notarized, also a cinch, 3) sending them with a check to the county, easy breezy, 4) but the transfer form Wyndham sent via docusign is ridiculous. I cannot ask my buyers (actually no money exchanged hands) for their SS#'s. That is too much. I cannot leave the space blank, either. I did put four numbers in the SS# space. I am not asking buyers for that.

why on earth does Wyndham need the SS#'s of the new buyers?

 

[TravelJoy]

why on earth does Wyndham need the SS#'s of the new buyers?

Wyndham is not the only one, there are others, apparently they want to run a credit check.

 

[TravelJoy]

I agree about Wyndham being difficult to transfer title.

I am trying to fill out an online docusign for the new takers of some Wyndham contracts we are giving away.

1) Typing the deeds was a cinch, 2) getting them notarized, also a cinch, 3) sending them with a check to the county, easy breezy, 4) but the transfer form Wyndham sent via docusign is ridiculous. I cannot ask my buyers (actually no money exchanged hands) for their SS#'s. That is too much. I cannot leave the space blank, either. I did put four numbers in the SS# space. I am not asking buyers for that.

Is this new or have they always required ss#, have you been able to push these through with your technique?

 

[rickandcindy23]

why on earth does Wyndham need the SS#'s of the new buyers?

I sent the deeds in the mail to Wyndham. I sent a copy of the buyers' drivers' licenses for each. I hope they have no problem with me not using that docusign

We called Wyndham to have them guide us through the docusign, the woman said they would have to call us back the next day. No call back, called again, Wyndham said they cannot guide us through the process.

There were blanks on the docusign on pages that we couldn't fill out because they were for transfer to family members, but there were red boxes around some of the spaces, and we couldn't get past those blanks because when we went to save the document, those weren't filled in (because this was not information we were even supposed to fill in).

 

[Lsfinn]

Wyndham is not the only one, there are others, apparently they want to run a credit check.

Perhaps; except: while Wyndham has the right of first refusal - I. E., they can choose to purchase the contracts themselves at the terms agreed on with the buyers - they do not, as far as I know, have the right to stop the sale.

 

[KevinCol]

Perhaps; except: while Wyndham has the right of first refusal - I. E., they can choose to purchase the contracts themselves at the terms agreed on with the buyers - they do not, as far as I know, have the right to stop the sale.

Has anyone seen them do that?

 

[Lsfinn]

Has anyone seen them do that?

I’ve never seen nor heard of it actually happening: I just recall reading it in some contract docs.

 

[bnoble]

I vaguely recall a report or two of it being exercised here on TUG. However, it's been a minute.

 

[gottashiner]

when did Wyndham start only allowing resale points to be deposited for the first 3 months of 2024? It allowed me to deposit developer points but now I'm on hold while they check if my resale points can be deposited. I am such a pissed off platinum owner

 

[gottashiner]

when did Wyndham start only allowing resale points to be deposited for the first 3 months of 2024? It allowed me to deposit developer points but now I'm on hold while they check if my resale points can be deposited. I am such a pissed off platinum owner

Actually, I was just informed by customer service that I had to deposit them by 1/1-3/31/23 into 2024. How does this make any sense?

 

[Eric B]

Actually, I was just informed by customer service that I had to deposit them by 1/1-3/31/23 into 2024. How does this make any sense?

It’s been a couple of years now, IIRC. Same time they stopped providing any and all VIP benefits for use with resale points (i.e., no unlimited housekeeping and reservation transactions, no discounts at 60/45/30 days, no RARP, etc.). Simple rationale is that those benefits are incentives for developer purchases and funded from sales profits - resale purchases don’t fund them. They gave you an allotment of goodwill points when they did it.

 

[paxsarah]

Yes, I think they waived the deadline in 2021 because the division of VIP and resale was implemented in August. But the standard deadlines/policies for resale points would have been in effect since 2022.

 

[nicemann]

I'm really debating if I give back my resale CWA to Wyndham. It's not something will we use as much in the future and the maintenance fees keep going up. Been looking online and we can rent from current owners close to the same cost we would be paying in MFs for the points we would use. We can't book as far in advance due to both of our jobs so renting gets cheaper because I am sure they are platinum owners.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

I'm really debating if I give back my resale CWA to Wyndham. It's not something will we use as much in the future and the maintenance fees keep going up. Been looking online and we can rent from current owners close to the same cost we would be paying in MFs for the points we would use. We can't book as far in advance due to both of our jobs so renting gets cheaper because I am sure they are platinum owners.

You can almost certainly give it away here on tug, make the new owner pay closing costs, and probably be done with it slightly faster than if you used certified exit.

 

[Lsfinn]

One apparent advantage of Certified Exit, >if< they'll take the contracts, is that every indication is that they process the transfer relatively quickly and efficiently. My limited experience - though consistent with other TUG posts on the subject - is that Wyndham makes it >very< difficult to transfer title and can be counted upon to screw-up every step in the process (estoppel letter(s), title transfer fees, title transfer documents, and processing of title transfer documents).

Mind you I don't >want< to give back the points to Wyndham so that they can up-sell them; however, there's a limit to the sturm-und-drang I'm willing to put-up with in trying to get rid of the points.

 

[Nunyah123]

Questions on Wyndham Certified Exit Program...
INFO: READ Carefully Please.
Let's say...
1) You own a deeded week that is at a Wyndham Resort in December every year.
2) Your Timeshare Week is Paid off and you have owned that deeded week for years now but are just paying Annual Maintenance Fees that just keep going up and up.
3) You are also a member of RCI for Week Deposits and Points Exchange.
4) Since it takes MONTHS for the Wyndham Certified Exit Program to transpire and you MUST be caught up and paid in full for that year on Resort Maintenance Fees before you can even try the WCEP (Wyndham Certified Exit Program) and Maintenance Fees are due each year in January...
5) So you have paid your Resort Maintenance Fees in January for that year, want to do WCEP that year, BUT also want to Deposit that Dec week you own for points into RCI since you have paid for that years week in Maintenance Fees already...
QUESTIONS:
A) According to WCEP Contract... You CANNOT do that? You own that week right(?) as you have paid your maintenance fees for that year and your week in January...your week just comes later in that year?
B) Is Wyndham that greedy that they would want your money AND WEEK too in order to exit? According to what I have read in WCEP info, doing this might prevent you from using their WCEP and/or they can go and get those points back from RCI and you must report this RCI week/points deposit upfront in WCEP.
C) If you do not report this RCI points deposit for the week you have paid the maintenance fees on, upfront to the Wyndham Cert Exit Team, when they discover it (could be a year later according to their WCEP Contract) they can retroactively cancel the WCEP Contract on you, hand you a bill on arrears on Maintenance Fees, and tie you back to owning the Timeshare and future Maintenance Fee dues. You are then BACK IN. YES, this is all in the WCEP Contract.
D) Wyndham OWNS RCI. Yes, TRUE. In some sort of corporate structure Wyndham owns RCI. So are your points safe in RCI for that week? Are you really safe from Wyndham?
E) Why is it fair that Wyndham can have its cake and eat it too on its customers? By paying your maintenance fees for the year, you have met your obligations for usage of your timeshare week for that year, and should be able to use it however you see fit then you are done and out.
F) Has anybody out here tried this or had an experience with this type of situation with WCEP and a Deposit of Points for that year to an Exchange Affiliate?
G) What about this $10 they mention in their WCEP contract? They put it in there to make it binding and say they are giving $10 to the timeshare owner in lieu of the property but THIS IS NOT TRUE. Not even $10 in trade for your years worth of timeshare payments and maintenance fees paid on their property.
In Closing:
The Wyndham Certified Exit Program Contract is written very, Very, VERY, much one sided and completely in their favor and control of you...FOREVER...if you don't follow their rules to a "T".
Yes, to be able to get out of a Timeshare, Payments, and never ending, always increasing, Maintenance Fees is a desperate situation for all.
Yes, there are scammers and sharks out there praying on the desperate owners with schemes on how to get out of Timeshare Hell.
Yes, it is (sort of) a blessing that WCEP exits...
BUT, Don't Be Fooled... Wyndham is still squeezing it's customers for every penny, taking what you have rightfully paid for, and every right you have... completely up until the end with its WCEP.
You are NOT even worth $10 to them.
ps. Even though my Wyndham Timeshare Week is PAID FOR, is a Deeded Week, is an RCI Gold Crown Week, is at an Excellent Location, and is ALWAYS in High Demand... My Sister wants me to give it to her even though I explained the always increasing Annual Maintenance Fees...AND I easily can give it to her via Wyndham Ovations Program... BUT I WOULD NEVER DO THIS TO ANYONE...not even an enemy. JUST NOT WORTH IT. The Wyndham Curse Dies With Me.
Good Luck People. God Bless All Timeshare Holders...Especially Wyndham Ones!

 

[paxsarah]

Questions on Wyndham Certified Exit Program...
INFO: READ Carefully Please.
Let's say...
1) You own a deeded week that is at a Wyndham Resort in December every year.
2) Your Timeshare Week is Paid off and you have owned that deeded week for years now but are just paying Annual Maintenance Fees that just keep going up and up.
3) You are also a member of RCI for Week Deposits and Points Exchange.
4) Since it takes MONTHS for the Wyndham Certified Exit Program to transpire and you MUST be caught up and paid in full for that year on Resort Maintenance Fees before you can even try the WCEP (Wyndham Certified Exit Program) and Maintenance Fees are due each year in January...
5) So you have paid your Resort Maintenance Fees in January for that year, want to do WCEP that year, BUT also want to Deposit that Dec week you own for points into RCI since you have paid for that years week in Maintenance Fees already...
QUESTIONS:
A) According to WCEP Contract... You CANNOT do that? You own that week right(?) as you have paid your maintenance fees for that year and your week in January...your week just comes later in that year?
B) Is Wyndham that greedy that they would want your money AND WEEK too in order to exit? According to what I have read in WCEP info, doing this might prevent you from using their WCEP and/or they can go and get those points back from RCI and you must report this RCI week/points deposit upfront in WCEP.
C) If you do not report this RCI points deposit for the week you have paid the maintenance fees on, upfront to the Wyndham Cert Exit Team, when they discover it (could be a year later according to their WCEP Contract) they can retroactively cancel the WCEP Contract on you, hand you a bill on arrears on Maintenance Fees, and tie you back to owning the Timeshare and future Maintenance Fee dues. You are then BACK IN. YES, this is all in the WCEP Contract.
D) Wyndham OWNS RCI. Yes, TRUE. In some sort of corporate structure Wyndham owns RCI. So are your points safe in RCI for that week? Are you really safe from Wyndham?
E) Why is it fair that Wyndham can have its cake and eat it too on its customers? By paying your maintenance fees for the year, you have met your obligations for usage of your timeshare week for that year, and should be able to use it however you see fit then you are done and out.
F) Has anybody out here tried this or had an experience with this type of situation with WCEP and a Deposit of Points for that year to an Exchange Affiliate?
G) What about this $10 they mention in their WCEP contract? They put it in there to make it binding and say they are giving $10 to the timeshare owner in lieu of the property but THIS IS NOT TRUE. Not even $10 in trade for your years worth of timeshare payments and maintenance fees paid on their property.
In Closing:
The Wyndham Certified Exit Program Contract is written very, Very, VERY, much one sided and completely in their favor and control of you...FOREVER...if you don't follow their rules to a "T".
Yes, to be able to get out of a Timeshare, Payments, and never ending, always increasing, Maintenance Fees is a desperate situation for all.
Yes, there are scammers and sharks out there praying on the desperate owners with schemes on how to get out of Timeshare Hell.
Yes, it is (sort of) a blessing that WCEP exits...
BUT, Don't Be Fooled... Wyndham is still squeezing it's customers for every penny, taking what you have rightfully paid for, and every right you have... completely up until the end with its WCEP.
You are NOT even worth $10 to them.
ps. Even though my Wyndham Timeshare Week is PAID FOR, is a Deeded Week, is an RCI Gold Crown Week, is at an Excellent Location, and is ALWAYS in High Demand... My Sister wants me to give it to her even though I explained the always increasing Annual Maintenance Fees...AND I easily can give it to her via Wyndham Ovations Program... BUT I WOULD NEVER DO THIS TO ANYONE...not even an enemy. JUST NOT WORTH IT. The Wyndham Curse Dies With Me.
Good Luck People. God Bless All Timeshare Holders...Especially Wyndham Ones!

First question, have you called the Certified Exit department to inquire? Some of their policies are a moving target and can only be answered by them - for instance, which resorts they're accepting or not at any given time.

Next question, is this a Club Wyndham fixed week that has not been converted to points? Because if it is, I'm not even sure that Wyndham will take back an unconverted fixed week. I know they will take back converted fixed weeks (at least as of Q3 2023). If you have confirmed that they they will take your unconverted fixed week, I'll admit that I haven't heard a report on this forum from an owner who has done it, so I'm not sure if anyone here will have the answers to your questions.

I can say in the case of points contracts (and in this case, no difference between UDI or converted fixed week), current year points can be completely used up and Wyndham will still accept the contract. The Certified Exit paperwork for points contracts specifies that future year points must be fully intact, but is agnostic on current year points. I've heard of owners waiting until the start of their use year, converting their points to maintenance fees at $2.10 per 1,000 points, and then immediately starting the Certified Exit process successfully. I used Certified Exit last year on two contracts 8 months into my use year with zero points available. The paperwork also states that any confirmed RCI reservations will still be honored. However, a Wyndham points owner with points deposited to RCI will lose access to their Wyndham-provided RCI account during the Certified Exit process (EDIT: if they're fully exiting their ownership) and then can't use their points for exchanges, which is why only confirmed exchanges from prior to the start of the process are honored. If Wyndham were to take an unconverted fixed week, IMO I would see an exchange deposit of the paid-up current year's week as comparable to the ability to start the process with current year points that have been used up - but I have no idea how Wyndham would see it. And with an unconverted fixed week, there would be no issue of loss of access to the RCI account since it's paid for by the individual, not Wyndham.

 

[paxsarah]

My Sister wants me to give it to her even though I explained the always increasing Annual Maintenance Fees...AND I easily can give it to her via Wyndham Ovations Program

This would be the Tribute program. The Ovation program was a precursor (almost identical) to Certified Exit.