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The Latest "Owners' Update" (long)

Timeshare Von

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After 40+ years of T/S ownership, I am no longer "an owner"
We're at Wyndham Palm Aire and throroughly enjoying the resort! Very nice unit with great on-site amenities. Outstanding.

Today they snagged us for an "owners' update" promising it would only last 30 minutes and for our time, we'd receive $75 in VISA g/c's. Since we had some free time before heading out to the pool for the afternoon, we agreed.

Upon our arrival, we were taken back by a woman named Jill. She took us through the big sales room for beverages and then took us to an adjoining private room where there were no other people - - just tables and empty chairs. LOL - we knew immediately this was the equivelent of being sequestered for an OJ Simpson trial.

She proceeded to tell us about our ownerships, per the Wyndham computer system. Again, their records are not accurate . . . but not my worries or concern to spend my vacation time (and their 30 minutes) to help fix it. I will have to take time next week, however, to get the "resale" label off of our 77k points contract at Myrtle Beach!

Every time she started down the path of sounding like she wanted to sell us something, she reiterated she wasn't selling anything. With that said, however, she then proceeded to tell us how "TODAY" was the last day that Wyndham would be permitted fixed weeks converstions to points. WTF? You must be kidding me!! How did that news bulletin miss our friendly little TUG group??

When pressed about it, she stuck to her story, saying that today would be the last day that we could EVER convert our Kingsgate to the 203k points it would be valued at. Because she had no record of our Flagstaff, she didn't even try to go there. I told her we had no interest in converting to points. She went on the hard press touting all of the wonderful VIP benefits we would get if we were to convert. When I reminded her that 203k and 77k was still short of the 300k necessary for the paultry entry level VIP, she said that we would need to sign over all of our existing Wyndham ownerships (as she knew them - - Kingsgate and Myrtle Beach) and sign a NEW agreement which would be worth 300k points. I didn't even let her get far enough into telling us where the 300k would be deeded. "NO - I am not interested in points or VIP . . . and was promised this wouldn't be a sales presentation. OH and it has been 25 minutes, so you need to start wrapping this up as we are leaving in 5 minutes."

At that point she got very offended at my rude behavior and said that if we wanted to keeping "owning the gun, waiting for it to go off on us" (i.e., the fixed week) that would be fine with her. She went on to say that the fixed weeks would soon be going the way of the typewriter and the record player . . . and if that was where we were happy living, so be it. LMAO! Nice try. Is this a Geico commercial - "so easy a caveman would do it"??

During some of our early debating, she tried to debunk some of the "myths and lies" that are out there about the VIP program being devalued and how it was simply NOT TRUE that Wyndham has been taking away or has started to charge for previously provided VIP perks. I asked her if she was aware of TUG and she said no. That was during the conversation point when she was trying to convince us of the great business opportunity there was in owning Wyndham points to rent and sell as vacation lodging. She cited some yahoo who she said was in just last week to buy another million points to add to his 27million. JOY for him! I asked if she was aware of the lawsuit by another megaowner named Kendra who has issues with how she's been treated as an owner of millions of points? I told her that a business model that included Wyndham points as the primary asset was not a good one and definitely not one that we would spend a dime on. I also mentioned the discussions going on here about denying the ability for owners to transfer points from one account to another. She said essentially, that Wyndham would never do that because the owners have the rights to do with their points whatever they wish.

At some point she asked me, like she wasn't listening "So if I could show you a way to have over 300k points and VIP with us for around $8,000 you wouldn't be interested?" as though that would have me whipping out the checkbook . . . I told her "No - I wouldn't take that offer at $2,995."

I guess that was when I offended her the most because she asked me what I did for a living. She seemed a bit shocked to learn I was the executive director of an organization and held a very responsible CEO type job. She quipted "So what would you do if you had someone in your office and they were trying to help you and your company? Wouldn't you be interested in what they had to say and how they could help you."

"No especially if they had scheduled the appointment with me to discuss one thing and went off on a tangent that I was told wouldn't be discussed. I would let them know the discussion was over . . . and excuse them from my office. OH - and it's been 35 minutes and we're leaving now."

She brought in the closer who seemed way too happy and thought she might be able to still close a Discovery Package. She I told her we were just wanting to leave and that we didn't appreciate the way Jill had handled us, she asked what was the issue. We didn't want to get into it with her, but when I did tell her about the "today's the last day forever, to convert fixed weeks to points" she admitted that she had "missed that letter." AGAIN - - LMAO . . . they must be kidding me. She stamped our paperwork with the "Discovery Package" stamp - whatever that meant - and took us to the gifting room. She did thank me for letting her know about the conversion issue and said she would be researching it.

The irony of the conversations with both of these women was that the first (Jill) told us she had been at this property since it opened 11 years ago and had been here the longest of anyone here. She went on to say how she had worked very sales position here and knew "everything" there was to know about Wyndham and the timeshare industry. The second woman, the closer, prettymuch had the same line of b/s to include that she had been here for I think she said 13 years, but whatever it was, it more than what Jill had said. So someone was not telling the truth. As they've said here on TUG before more than once . . . "If the lips are moving, they are lying."

There was a lot of other nonsense that came out of her mouth . . . to each point I refuted with what knowledge I do have from here and the Wyndham Forum. She countered often with "Well you know, there are always three sides to every story . . . the side you hear from your friends and then the side I'm telling you." What? That is just two sides . . . I suppose the third would be the truth somewhere in between because I'm pretty sure the Wyndham word isn't the truth and I could be confused on the "facts" as I believe I understand them through friends and other internet sources.

All in all, it was still a rather amusing way to spend 45 minutes. We were happy to return to our poolside chaises to enjoy the nice warm Florida sunshine!
 
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UWSurfer

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Wow! And to think you are going to be stuck with that week like that after today!!!:rolleyes:

It is exactly that type of experience which has me saying I'll never go to an owners update again...and then we do. (sigh) It helps that my wife actually tells them what we paid for the week they want to sell for multi-thousands. It just leaves them with nothing to sell, and the dumb ones make snide comments.

For a bunch of Disney $$ and movie passes I went to the Shell Presentation center in Pasadena last spring all set to take them on. The place was packed...in fact over booked. They attempted to get us to come back in an hour and when I said no, they gifted us and that was that. Kind of took all the "fun" out of it.

Enjoy your time Von!
 
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jdb0822

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the fact that they stamped "discovery package" on your paperwork concerns me. If they have your CC on file, you may have an issue.

If you didn't want that package, why stamp your paperwork?

Something fishy there.
 

Kozman

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Just Say NO!

That is why I never agree to go to an owner's update no matter what they say the reason is. It's always to try to sell you something.

And, never allow them to come to your room to give you a 'free' gift. I ran into this at Nashville. It was an attempt to give the hard sell without offering anything of real inducement to listen to them.
 

vacationhopeful

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I was at the Royal Vista )Pompano Beach) sales office for my owner update this week. I was told 45 minutes; I pitched my objections to the owner points transfer elimination and the way too high guest certificate fee (if I can order Papa Johns pizza for no cost over the interent, what cost is a computer generated GC to Wyndham?). Susan never heard of the points transfer being eliminated. :ignore: Then at the 50 minute mark, I got up and told Susan I was going to refill my coffee and I would met her at the gifting desk ... did what I said and when she found me at gifting, she told me she hadn't gone thru her owner update with me. Told her I had been there 50 minutes and I had told her my problems. She told me 45 minutes was a suggested time for the update, I told her it was a contracted time to receive my gift ($75), and I was leaving. She asked me what I had against her and why was I not willing to listen to her ... then I raised my voice in the waiting room - restating 45 minutes was how long I needed to be there and I was leaving now and I wanted my gift.

No managers, closers, etc; she left, I got my dining cards. I left.:D
 

timeos2

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Beat the Weasel. Nice

she told me she hadn't gone thru her owner update with me. Told her I had been there 50 minutes and I had told her my problems. She told me 45 minutes was a suggested time for the update, I told her it was a contracted time to receive my gift ($75), and I was leaving. She asked me what I had against her and why was I not willing to listen to her ... then I raised my voice in the waiting room - restating 45 minutes was how long I needed to be there and I was leaving now and I wanted my gift.

No managers, closers, etc; she left, I got my dining cards. I left.:D

Very nice job! We should all be so efficient and purposeful.

Happy New Year and keep up the good anti-weasel work.
 

Timeshare Von

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After 40+ years of T/S ownership, I am no longer "an owner"
Yvonne:
was Jill a redhead?

Yep - even made some comment about my hubby "being in trouble with two red headed women" when she first met us and was taking us back to the sales area. I'm also a bottle red head :)
 

Timeshare Von

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After 40+ years of T/S ownership, I am no longer "an owner"
the fact that they stamped "discovery package" on your paperwork concerns me. If they have your CC on file, you may have an issue.

If you didn't want that package, why stamp your paperwork?

Something fishy there.


I assumed she was the Discovery closer/pitcher, which is how they traditionally end a sales pitch when they realize that they aren't going to get you to buy anything. I am not too worried since we signed nothing and authorized nothing with them.

It should be easy enough for us to refute if they have the balls to try to push through some phoney purchase.

Thanks for your concern though.
 

jercal10

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Yep - even made some comment about my hubby "being in trouble with two red headed women" when she first met us and was taking us back to the sales area. I'm also a bottle red head :)


I thought so ---we had the misfortune to be her targets, several years ago. After 4 hrs, she wore us down. I signed, then rescinded.
 

djkrolow

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Member Service Meeting

We just returned from a very nice stay at Glacier Canyon and too were greeted with a 10-15(Turned out to be more than 30min) minute visted in our room to let us know of any updates. Sounds like the same line and dance, he had no idea about the point transfer changes. But he kept pressuring us to come down to his office and sign an Accept/Decline form that would save them from being fined $10,000 from someone because we bought into the system between 2001-2006. I told him I don't sign anything anymore from Wyndham except for our reservation form at check-in time. He said just come down before the end of the day December 31st or I'll never be able to change anything on my contract. He wanted me to remove my PIC points with Bluegreen that I never use with Wyndham because they were costing me money. Maybe that's true, maybe not but to be honest I still have no idea what I would have been accepting or declining. The only people I trust are TUG members and I'll get all my owner updates right here. If anyone knows what I was suppose to accept or decline please let me know. They said they had 18 months to get all 300,000 owners to sign this paper or they would be fined. Sounds to me if it was really that important I would have received something in the mail from headquarters in the last year-and-a-half. I think they wanted to get me down to their spin room (my head always spins down there)!
 

cerralee

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I recently went to an "update", I posted on it Mid-Dec and was given a similar song and dance such as that being mentioned in this thread. The big difference is I own NO Wyndham affiliated properties and the only thread in common is that Wyndham now controls RCI. You folks got off easy, they actually had a credit card issued in my name without me requesting one, and that saga is still continuing.
 
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