Complain about a product or service

Westgate Resorts

Liz of Port Saint Lucie FL (08/11/08)
My husband and I booked a vacation package for 1 night and 1 ticket for universal studios for 40 dollars, we just had to listen a talk of 90 minutes (that finally last like 2 hours and a half). We spent our night and our universal studios ticket, so next day receive the talk, we were late for the talk for 30 minutes, and they forced us to receive another talk but the next day, We thought, what were going to do until the next day? who is going to pay for the expenses until the next day? Who else? Us!

Well, the next day, we were on time for the meeting, Our salesperson was Gerardo from puerto rico,i do not remember his last name, At first, He was nice with us, and the first thing that He told us is that it doesnt matter if we buy or not, (THAT WAS A LIE) because He offered us that time share and bla bla bla,each time we refused to buy, he down and down the price of that time share, finally my husband told the salesperson a definitely No, and that salesperon gerardo from puerto rico called my husband a LIAR because my husband supposed said He was going to buy,

after that, that gerardo from puerto rico was very rude with us. In the time that you are a prospective buyer,you are being treated very well,they invite you hot dogs,chips,sodas, BUT WHEN YOU SAY NO AND DO NOT BUY ANY OF THAT TIME SHARE YOU ARE [MIS]TREATED, AND THAT IS NOT FAIR. They seem like very trained people just to convince you to buy their time share.

JUST WE FELT BAD FOR A WHILE

Sarah of Philadelphia PA (08/07/08)
My husband and I wanted to visit Busch Gardens in Williamsburg and went online to research discount tickets. This company offered a 2 night motel stay and park tickets for $100 if we agreed to listen to a 1 hour sales pitch, so we agreed. Of course we were prepared for a sales pitch, but not the high pressure rude treatment. This was the biggest scam I ever heard of. They kept trying to convince us to buy a $30,000 timeshare. We kept saying no, we don't have money (which is why we wanted discount tickets anyway, duh!) and they kept reducing the price to give us a deal because they could see we were such a great couple. HA!

After TWO hours it got down to $800. How do you go from $30,000 to $800? What a scam! I told the salesperson we just wanted our tickets so we could leave, and they kept bringing managers over to try and pressure us. We threatened to call consumer affairs so they finally gave us the tickets and let us go....VERY rudely. Our advice? Just buy your own tickets and stay away from these rip-off artists. I feel bad for anyone who got scammed by them.

Wasted two hours of our trip but it was worth the lesson learned.

Brian of Congers NY (08/07/08)
THEY called me sold me a packaged trip for $40 dollars told me ocean views room for 5 to sleep with a kitchen and they told me any time of the year. i called back to book my trip they told me i could only come in the winter.... i called back they fixed it that i could go to the beach in the summer i for got to ask about the room. when i called to check on the room they told me i had a street view an small room with two beds.

i told them to cancle me. they would not they called my house 100 times trying to get me to come.. an told me they will charge my credit card $100 some thing a night an some other booking fee if i dont go...... they were nasty with me on the phone...

Sherry of Woodhaven MI (07/23/08)
Contacts also are Manny Rucker or Neil Bartz at reservations. We have been owners at Westgate Towers since 1998- we have upgraded twice to better weeks. This last upgrade we were told we would not be locked into any weeks and we could even split up our stays 1/2 time in Kissimmee and 1/2 time in Miami and never be told we couldnt come and pay fees to do it so yes we signed the dotted line.

So first time we want to use our new condo we are told no problem come on down March 22 through March 29, 2008. My husband notices a $250 charge on our VISA. We asked why? reason: something about the leap year put us in a highly demanded week? well we said our new membership card states ALL WEEKS and we were told with this new upgraded membership (in which our other condo had been paid off so we went bacically into another mortgage with this new one paying monthly from our Michigan home not to mention the yearly maint fees keep going up every year!) we would have no exchange fees.

So girl Yolanda says to my husband no problem they waive these all the time we just need an email from Neil Bartz - we assume he did the email. We were than told on 4-8-08 That a Manny Rucker who is the head of reservations denied the email and he is the final decision maker. I asked to have Mr. Manny Rucker call us back as to his reasoning and to date have not received a returned call! It is now July 23, 2008!

THis time share is such a con to people- they get your money and than they have no problem going back and what they said and than just keeping charging you more money. I and go online and rent someones time share when I need to go on vacation! now I am spending $200 a month for 3 years for this upgrade and $1,000 or more every year for maint fee and than these exchange fees come out of the wood work.

All we get is a sorry we cant go over this Manny Rukers head who doesnt even have the professionalism of calling us back to inform us why he made this decision while Mr. Siegel owner of westgate and also unreachable gets richer and richer -he even asks for charity donations from us members and than he takes all the credit and he gets the tax credit under his name nice gig he has! Check out their mission statement they are able to exceed all expectations is one of the statements well my expectation is to get our $250 refunded to us and an apology from Westgate Towers Resorts!

Economic damage is we dont feel we should of been charged a $250 exchange fee and if they waive fees all time why cant ours be waived? Why shouldwe be penalized due to a leap year? I feel we were discriminated against. Also we spent alot of time in our room on the phone with reservattions and it caused tension with me and my husband as I wanted to enjoy our vacation and he kept trying to get this $250 while we were there well now we have been home 4 months and we still are trying to get our $250 back! 

Kathleen of Lansing IL (06/27/08)
Leave out details on the contract they pressure you to sign. We under went a (so call presentation for 90 minutes) that lasted at least 3 hours... To finally say NO to two salemen that tried to sell us a timeshare in the Mountains. We really got nothing for our time. But then they sent a closer in to ask us about their Try me deal.

We thought it sound OK, but to find out when I got back home That the Full $900 had to be paid up front before you could go to the resort. you only have 27 months to go to the resort and the contract to pay for this resort is at 26 months. It is a 24 month payment plan but it does not start payment till 2 months from now. When I call on this, and told them I wanted no part of their Try Me, they told me it was not refundable. NO cancellations allowed. So they can take your money and not give you a thing in return... Unless you prepay the contract.

I am not happy with their No cancellation policy on this, because they do not give you time to read the fine print and do any investigation on the company. It is a SCAM

Amabelle of Newport News VA (06/05/08)
I had a timeshare presentation last April 28, 2008. And after 4 hours of pressured sales talk, I finally decided to buy a timeshare. But I wasn't happy with I found out when we we're trying to use their amenities. They were charging us certain amount of money to use their boat bikes and etc. After three days, I went there personally to hand my cancellation letter. I asked the receptionist on who and where can I give the letter. Instead of givingme information, she let me speak with my closing officer thru the phone.

My closing officer told me NOT no hand my cancellation letter to anybody in the building because she'll be helping me out when she comes in the next day. I thought all the while that she'll help me, but I was wrong. She didn't accepted my cancellation letter insted she send another representative to give us a downgraded offer. We still refused the offer but then again she send another person, their manager, who again insisted me to buy a Corporate Account, in which he said a much, much lower price.

So with all these nice deals he gave me, which is 2bedrooms, float, every other year, lockout, in Westgate Blue tree Resort for $7,700, I decided to take the offer believing them that it was a better deal. We have agreed before that I'm cancelling my other purchase in replacement of the 2nd offer. They told me they'll mail my contract as soon as possible. But things got more complicated. I have been calling my closing officer to ask for the contract but she said they got a better deal (AGAIN) fo the same price. She said 2bedroom, float, lockout, every other year but it will be in the Westgate Town center. I was happy with the ofer so I told them to send me a copy of the contract.

Two weeks after, I haven'y receive any contract. Called her again, but then she said they can't make the contract because the price is too low for the deal. So they want to increase the price for $9,800. I was so disappointed with the situation so I told the that I'm not buying anything from them anymore. And that I hope that the cancellation I made after 3 days of purchase will be granted. But then again, they said I can't cancell it anymore because I passed the 10 day period. I told them that it was because of them why my cancellation got delayed.

I belive that what happened to me was a misleading sale and information. And this a way of delaying tactics. Until now, the sale is still pending. All those good deals they've promised is only to good to be true.

John of Ogden UT (02/22/08)
We had bought a timeshare last summer and have 1 week every other year but were told we could get bonus time at any time. Our week is springor fall. I called to make a reservation for their Vegas resort because we could use any of their resorts, and bonus time was $50.00 or $129.00 depending on the room. It turns out they want me to pay a $500.00 upgrade plus the cost of the room ($77.00). We were not told any of this when we purchased said property. I have talked to someone there and told them how I felt about not being told by the salespeople of the hidden charges

I pay $82.00 a month for 4 years that I get one week every other year. I bought the property because we were told we could use the resorts, but you can get hotels cheaper then what they charge. I am disabled at this time awaiting surgery for my neck, so my income is limited. I feel we were misled by their sales tactics.

Courtney of South Elgin IL (01/29/08)
This company calls my cell phone several times a day but leaves no message. Sometimes they call several times in a row. It is very obnoxious and I would really like it to stop. I have no use for their services and yet they continue to call.

The phone rings at all hours of the day very early in the morning until almost 9pm at night. All day long while I am at work, I have had to turn my phone off on several occasions because this company calls so many times.

Brett of Bountiful UT (08/31/07)
My wife and I purchased a 'time share' at the Westgate Resort in Park City in June of 2005 -- we were told (on our contract and verbally) that we would have a certain week every even year. When we tried to book our week in 2006 we were told they had no room -- nor did they have room at any other time that we could use. We were told we could easily exchange our week -- we have not been able to find an exchange to accommodate any of a dozen or more trips we've tried to plan as a family.

We were told we could save our week and use it in 2007 -- when we tried to book a reservation in 2007 we were told we had missed our week and would have to wait until 2008. We were told that the company could 'resell' our week if we decided we didn't want it... we are now being told that is not true. We have spent nearly $15K on this time share and have nothing to show for it! We want our money back!

We have paid nearly $15 and still counting (annual fees, mortgage interest).

Arnulfo of Lodi NJ (02/27/07)

The closing officer of Westgate Resort (who sells timeshare) told us told us that once we signed the contract on that day, we can not back up with our time share. After three days I've learned that we can still back up. So I personally brought back the package in his office. I wrote a letter stating our dislike of the timeshare and that we have no money for this yet. He took all the package and just left without assuring us that we will get the money. Only this Feb 25, we learned that they didn't close our account.
 

Richard of Naugatuck CT (04/29/06)
We went on vacation and went to a vacation tour. We were pretty interested in their selling of timeshares. After hours of badgering us, we agreed on a monthly payment, and were told that we got the cheapest deal. We were told we could refinance the high apr thru the bank after we got home from vacation. Since the day we signed the papers, we have attempted to call them and cancel the agreement, as we learned that the same exact timeshare was selling for under 3,000.

We were sold one for 13,000 with a 17 percent interest rate. We tried for hours, days, weeks to get thru to someone. We sent letters. We got no where, but in the meantime we kept up with the monthly payments, maintenance fees, taxes. We have spent over 5,000 already and have not even used the timeshare - we attempted to this year, but again could not get thru to reserve it. It literally took weeks with hours at a time to get thru, only to be told we had to pay an additional 150.00 to use another resort, which we paid and then had to cancel because it would have cost us over 2500.00 for transportation.

We called again for weeks to cancel, only to be told we could not get a refund, or use the week. We were told as a courtesy that we could pay another 150.00 to use it next year. This is totally a scam, they saw us coming and took advantage of us and our vacation. We were told we could deed the timeshare back to them, and just walk away - something that the management states it is not true. We don't know where to go with this. At this point, we are thinking about letting it go into foreclosure and ruining our credit. Can anyone help us with this mess?

continued financial strain, with nothing to show for it. We were told we could cancel within 3 weeks, but conveniently no one would help us.

Jorge of Houston TX (02/22/06)
I brought this time share from Westgate Resorts. I brought this time share thinking that it will be available when ever I needed it. Now I come to realize that I will haveto call 3 monthe or more in advance to reservation.

The consequences of this problem is that I don't agree with their policy. They never told me that I had to call three months prior to make reservations. Most times that I have vacation I don't even get three months in advance. Now I want to cancel the purchase of this time share.

Anne of Yonkers NY (03/21/05)
I booked a vacation with them over the phone. They gave me a 1 800 number 1800 551 1886. i received a confirmation number and passpot number. I cannot reach them because the phone is busy all the time. This is at any time of the day or night. This was done of Jan 28 2005. The hotel was with Westgate Flamingo Bay Hotel. They charged me $222. I have tried to contact them but their website is too long. There is no place on the site to make contact.

Althea of Belleville NJ (02/03/03)
This is a timeshare in Florida. My complaint is I had authorized Westgate-CFI Resorts to make direct debit payments out ofmy checking account every 25th of each month and this was done for approximately over a year without problems until, October 3rd, they took out of my account the $276.67 three weeks to soon (I think this was a computer error) but because of the earlier payment it threw my payment schedule off for other bills going through at that time. Therefore I had four checks which were charged $30 each insufficient funds, a total of $120.

On several occasions I have submitted copies of my bankstatement citing these charges and the original insufficient notices which were sent to me by the bank. This has went on sending the statements to Westgate and them denying receipt of the statements, even though I have voicemail statements at my home of the Westgate representative stating that they received the information requested, but to no avail I have heard any answer from Mr. Mason or anyone in his department of the status of this request.

Cecille of Elmhurst NY (08/03/02)
I am filing this complain against westgate because they are denying my cancellation. On July 4,2002 we are intimidated of buying a time share but we came to our senses the following day July 5,2002 and cancelled the sale.We spoke to the sales person Adam Tas along with his supervisor, of course they still trying to convince us by lowering the price, negotiating interest rates and monthly payments. But we said we are not interested anymore.So, everything is done they take the packages, binders & etc.

When we came back to New York I contacted their 800 number on July 11, 2002 to make sure thay they have refunded my credit card $579.00 i spoke to a man named Manuel Luke at ext.10549 he said that it is noted in the account that i have returned all the materials but he did'nt receive my written cancellation, i told him that i have done all of this in Orlando. So then he asked me if i could send him another one CERTIFIED and i said no problem. But on July 29,2002 Manuel contacted me at home to notify me that they have receive my written cancellation LATE. I told him that first of all its not my fault that they lost or misplace my first cancellation letter second, its a favor that i have sent them another one to be put in my file and third i just cannot afford it right now. He then threat me that we will be reported to CREDIT BUREAU. I don't think its fair, just because they wanted to save the the SALE they wiil ruin me. PLEASE i need HELP, all i want is this to be CANCELLED.

Kevin of Hobe Sound FL (07/05/00)
My wife and I vistited Westgate Resort in Gatlinburg and we were interested in purchasing a timeshare week with them. When we spoke to the agent above (sorry dont know name just agent#), we told him we were interested in a week only if they could help us sell our present week in St Thomas. They said they would help us and send us paperwork via Century 21 up there. They said they would get us a good deal with Century 21. So, we agreed and purchased a Vacation Occupancy & Price Lock in Agreement for the sum of 595.00. We put 200.00 down and waited for the bill for the rest and the paperwork to sell our timeshare. We received the bill and nothing else. I tried contacting them, no one wants to talk to us and will not return our calls.

We are out 200.00 and we feel they promised us help to sell our timeshare just to get a sale. They lied to us and we feel cheated.

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