Wesley Financial Scam

[RX8]

Saw this on my Facebook feed. This is the pot calling the kettle black.

They claim on that same Facebook feed that they have a “near perfect success rate”. It is easy to be near perfect when your advice includes to stop paying so that your timeshare can be foreclosed. Maybe I should start a business helping people who cannot afford their car payment. I can charge them $10,000 and advise them to stop paying the bank and when it gets repoed, I can count that as a success.

Here is a BBB complaint from someone who paid Wesley almost $10K for a foreclosure.

“In March 2020, I hired Wesley Financial Group (WFG) to help me get out of my timeshare for $9,995. Over the next 2.5 years, WFG told me not to pay the time share company so that they could make my grievances against them sound more legitimate. I was also forbidden to have any contact with the time share company while WFG representatives were supposedly communicating with them on my behalf. However, each time I asked for a progress update or for evidence that WFG had been in communication with the time share company, they refused to give me any evidence of their communication with them and would just say that they had written a letter of grievance. I didnt pay nearly $10k for a letter! I expected further actions! Eventually, anytime I complained, WFG would just switch me over to a different Resolution Specialist, and my grievances with WFG would go unresolved. By November 2021, the time share company foreclosed my time share, and WFG claimed that this was the outcome they had been looking for.”

 

[rickandcindy23]

What a scam these companies are. They all claim to be successful when others aren't.

 

[Soccer Canada]

Scary thing is that they suck people in.
My folks who are trying to divest from a couple timeshares and who are extremely intelligent folks contacted Wesley Financial through once of these type of ads. Fortunately they mentioned this to me and I just about came out of my chair.. They were almost convinced.. You would think that other lines of sales for these folks would be much more lucrative and fulfilling then the one they are in.

 

[TUGBrian]

it is remarkable how every exit company claims they are the real deal and not scams like the others.

 

[dioxide45]

So they do get people out of their timeshare, but they prey on the uninformed consumer. Kinda like the outfits that get people into the timeshare.

 

[RX8]

So they do get people out of their timeshare, but they prey on the uninformed consumer. Kinda like the outfits that get people into the timeshare.

So true. Chuck McDowell Is a former timeshare salesperson so he sold timeshares for thousands of dollars which were only worth a dollar. Now, he sells exit services for thousands of dollars for something that is only worth a dollar. He is using the same sales techniques.

What Wesley Financial does, as do other exit companies, is really no different than a company charging an owner thousands of dollars to send a rescission letter on their behalf. That is something an owner could do themselves, if they knew where to find it in the contract. These exit companies will keep that from the owner and pretend they are doing magical things that only they could do.

 

[pedro47]

Plus, this company is allow to advertise in AARP Magazines and guess what is the target group?? Senior Citizens.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Someone paid 10K to get the timeshare company to foreclose on them just not paying your MF would accomplish that, and you would still have 10K in your pocket.

 

[gravityrules]

Speaking of scams, A+ BBB rating (although not BBB accredited, whatever that means). Same for local to me company Lonestar Transfer. Seems most of these outfits are A+ rated.

BBB is complicit. "What? Our A+ rated businesses are scams? We're shocked"

It appears other ratings platforms are also gamed to make anything negative disappear.

Doesn't WFG now claim to be a Fortune 500 company?

 

[dioxide45]

Speaking of scams, A+ BBB rating (although not BBB accredited, whatever that means). Same for local to me company Lonestar Transfer. Seems most of these outfits are A+ rated.

BBB is complicit. "What? Our A+ rated businesses are scams? We're shocked"

BBB ratings simply indicate that the business has a good track record of responding to complaints. It doesn't matter if the complaint resolution was satisfactory to the customer. Just that they respond to complaints.

 

[gravityrules]

BBB ratings simply indicate that the business has a good track record of responding to complaints. It doesn't matter if the complaint resolution was satisfactory to the customer. Just that they respond to complaints.

That can be accomplished with a bot.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

So they do get people out of their timeshare, but they prey on the uninformed consumer. Kinda like the outfits that get people into the timeshare.

I don’t know, I think the timeshare exit companies are an order of magnitude worse. At least with the outfits getting the person into a timeshare, people are largely getting the product they think they are getting and that the salesperson is selling them on, they’re just massively overpaying for it due to nonsense math and sales gimmicks. They also then have something they can actually use, and many are perfectly happy with their timeshares despite massively overpaying for them.

The exit companies are selling something that doesn’t exist, a way to exit your timeshare “without penalty,” and the victims dont end up with anything at the end of it that they couldn’t have done themselves for free.

I’m by no means defending the retail timeshare industry, but the timeshare exit companies are often borderline, and/orliterally, criminal, whereas the retail timeshare salespeople are generally mostly just engaged in civil fraud at worst, or really slimy sales tactics at best.

 

[LannyPC]

So true. Chuck McDowell Is a former timeshare salesperson so he sold timeshares for thousands of dollars which were only worth a dollar....

...or less than a dollar, even less than zero. After all, if people are paying exit companies to get them out of their TSs, doesn't that make the TSs worth less than zero

 

[jp10558]

...or less than a dollar, even less than zero. After all, if people are paying exit companies to get them out of their TSs, doesn't that make the TSs worth less than zero

This one is tricky - it is worth less than zero to that person at that time. This doesn't mean it has no value to anyone, or no inherent value. I've seen people pay to get rid of old tractors that work and for many middle age farmers may be more desirable than modern computer controlled ones. But the widow of the guy who had it thinks it's "junk on the lawn". I've seen many stories for garaged classic cars too. I've seen people give away moderate value used tools at garage and estate sales etc.

Hell, we've had to throw away (pay for garbage) perfectly good furniture because we were cleaning out a relatives house and no one wanted the furniture nor did we want to pay for storage either.

Is a TS worth thousands? No. Is it inherently a negative value? Depends a lot on what specifically it is, but if it's a reasonable trading week or the like - some people (like us on TUG) may be getting a lot of value out of it. I'm relatively new but still getting massive value so it's not even there are no new people who might well like the timeshare - just not at retail prices.

 

[pedro47]

View attachment 107211
Saw this on my Facebook feed. This is the pot calling the kettle black.

They claim on that same Facebook feed that they have a “near perfect success rate”. It is easy to be near perfect when your advice includes to stop paying so that your timeshare can be foreclosed. Maybe I should start a business helping people who cannot afford their car payment. I can charge them $10,000 and advise them to stop paying the bank and when it gets repoed, I can count that as a success.

Here is a BBB complaint from someone who paid Wesley almost $10K for a foreclosure.

“In March 2020, I hired Wesley Financial Group (WFG) to help me get out of my timeshare for $9,995. Over the next 2.5 years, WFG told me not to pay the time share company so that they could make my grievances against them sound more legitimate. I was also forbidden to have any contact with the time share company while WFG representatives were supposedly communicating with them on my behalf. However, each time I asked for a progress update or for evidence that WFG had been in communication with the time share company, they refused to give me any evidence of their communication with them and would just say that they had written a letter of grievance. I didnt pay nearly $10k for a letter! I expected further actions! Eventually, anytime I complained, WFG would just switch me over to a different Resolution Specialist, and my grievances with WFG would go unresolved. By November 2021, the time share company foreclosed my time share, and WFG claimed that this was the outcome they had been looking

Wow! Someone paid WFG $9,995.00 dollars not to pay their time share MF for over 2.5 years.
Could that OP, sued WFG, for making false claims that they were contacting the timeshare company in their behalf. I feel that this person needed something in writing to prove their claim against WFG.

 

[LannyPC]

Wow! Someone paid WFG $9,995.00 dollars not to pay their time share MF for over 2.5 years.

That's my feeling exactly. If you're going to pay nearly $10,000, then pay it towards the MFs and either use the TS or rent it out and recoup at least some of that amount. Even if you pay a little bit more for MFs than you would recoup in rental income, it would take many years for the losses to match the $10,000. That would bide you some time to find a cheaper way to get rid of it.

 

[LannyPC]

This one is tricky - it is worth less than zero to that person at that time. This doesn't mean it has no value to anyone, or no inherent value.
Hell, we've had to throw away (pay for garbage) perfectly good furniture because we were cleaning out a relatives house and no one wanted the furniture nor did we want to pay for storage either.

Is a TS worth thousands? No. Is it inherently a negative value? Depends a lot on what specifically it is...

I'll agree that this is a tricky subject. Yes, there are some intervals out there that are worth a lot. But why are owners paying to get rid of some TSs? Why are some resorts and TS companies refusing to take back TSs from owners who really want to get rid of theirs if these have such good resale values.

What I highlighted in your post shows why some of these intervals are valued at zero or below. Many owners who hold these TSs do not use them and do not want to pay for MFs which are comparable to paying for storage for furniture that's not being used.

It kind of reminds me of when my dear mother passed away some years ago and we kids were cleaning out her stuff, she was renting a storage unit for years (she had to move around from place to place occasionally) for a lot of her furniture and other stuff. By my rough calculations, I figured that she ended up paying more for the storage than what the stuff she had was worth. We ended up throwing a lot of it out which also cost money.

 

[Rjbeach2003]

So they do get people out of their timeshare, but they prey on the uninformed consumer. Kinda like the outfits that get people into the timeshare.

Yes, but at least when you buy a timeshare, from the timeshare company, you are out thousands, but you do have something you can use. When you pay these guys, you are out thousands, have nothing to use, and get a major credit hit as well.

 

[jp10558]

I'll agree that this is a tricky subject. Yes, there are some intervals out there that are worth a lot. But why are owners paying to get rid of some TSs? Why are some resorts and TS companies refusing to take back TSs from owners who really want to get rid of theirs if these have such good resale values.

What I highlighted in your post shows why some of these intervals are valued at zero or below. Many owners who hold these TSs do not use them and do not want to pay for MFs which are comparable to paying for storage for furniture that's not being used.

I understand why some units aren't desirable on the second hand market. But I also think there are many people who want out not because there's some negative value intrinsically, but because they just don't use the TS.

However, in this view of value based on what you could sell the TS for disregards the main value of TS - using them. I've run the numbers again and again and again, and every time the worst case is break even on MFs vs renting or AirBnB or Hotels for the same level of accommodations and same number of rooms. If I add in kitchens and laundry and hot tubs and pools and game rooms and gyms - heck outside of TS it gets hard to find all of that in one place to be a like to like, but # of bedrooms are doable. However, many many times the rates are a huge value vs alternatives. And this is comparing meh MF/pt ratios in HGVC and Wyndham, and independent traders in II.

I guess I kind of look at it like a car - it's an asset with ongoing costs that depreciates, but often is still the cheapest way to do what that asset class could do.

It kind of reminds me of when my dear mother passed away some years ago and we kids were cleaning out her stuff, she was renting a storage unit for years (she had to move around from place to place occasionally) for a lot of her furniture and other stuff. By my rough calculations, I figured that she ended up paying more for the storage than what the stuff she had was worth. We ended up throwing a lot of it out which also cost money.

Yea, that's always a concern with the furniture etc. One of the issues is - can you actually get a replacement set of equivalent quality vs the storage fees? Sometimes it's impossible, sometimes it's so expensive to to get someone to custom make something like was standard 100 years ago that it can pay for A LOT of storage fees. But ONLY if you actually would ever find someone to use it again. Storing indefinitely with 0 plans to ever use it is of course a likely waste of money - as you all found out.

 

[vacation911]

Wesley Finacial is one of the most upsetting because they have such a good online reputation. People really trust them, and they really do nothing you couldn't so yourself without paying them their outrageous fees. It annoys me they they have managed (aside from TUG) to pull the wool over the totality of their reputation. People are happy cause they do get them out, but you would think they would still be upset with the fact that their credit is hurt ect.

 

[pedro47]

Wesley Financial advertises monthly in the senior citizen magazine AARP; with a full page ad. That is an outstanding marketing population for Wesley Financial. IMHO.

 

[jwalk03]

Wesley Financial advertises monthly in the senior citizen magazine AARP; with a full page ad. That is an outstanding marketing population for Wesley Financial. IMHO.

They also advertise on XM Radio and Cable News. I hear their ads frequently.

 

[TUGBrian]

certainly disappointing that AARP would choose ad dollars especially after what happened with dave ramsey and timeshare exit team.

 

[geist1223]

I am not surprised at AARP's action. The various insurance plans, etc they recommend are the ones that pay them the biggest commission.

 

[TheHolleys87]

The Wesley Financial ads were the reason I canceled my AARP membership, several years ago.