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Wyndham Club Access fiasco
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Rating: 1/51

PANAMA CITY BEACH, FLORIDA -- My Wyndham failure (2019-07-17) (9625words)
Version nr 13
Having just arrived in the Florida seaside resort of Panama City Beach in early December 2017, I took an evening stroll and saw a sign saying Tourist Information.
I got information about sights and forthcoming events and then the male clerk said that he had an interesting offer to me. - If I attended an information meeting with a breakfast at the nearby Wyndham hotel then I could have a “free” week at one of their facilities. I only had to pay 75 usd in taxes and fees. I negotiated this to 50 usd.

The Wyndham meeting was led by Tom Aiello, and Dustin Leonard became my “assistant” during the day. Tom Aiello presented Wyndham as an owner and operator of a number of hotel chains such as: Ramada, Howard Johnson, Days Inn, Caesars & Harrahs etc. and that Wyndham was highly rated ethically. They had recently purchased RCI, where owners of apartments could submit their flats and instead get access to everyone else's apartments all over the world. Now they tried to fill all those empty hotel-rooms and flats during low season and I could have access to a hotel room or apartment at worldwide locations at the world's largest (?) hotel chain - Wyndham.
There are two public Wyndham companies; both listed on the New York Stock exchange: WYND (Wyndham Destinations; formerly Wyndham Worldwide Corporation and WH (Wyndham Hotel and Resorts). This is how they are described by Yahoo Finance;
Wyndham Destinations, Inc. (WYND) “operates as a vacation ownership and exchange company. It provides vacation exchange services and products to owners of vacation ownership interests (VOIs); and manages and markets vacation rental properties, primarily on behalf of independent owners. The company also develops, markets, and sells VOIs to individual consumers; provides consumer financing in connection with the sale of VOIs; and offers property management services at resorts. It has operations in 110 countries at approximately 220 vacation ownership resorts and 4,300 affiliated exchange properties. The company was founded in 1990 and is based in Orlando, Florida”. (The market cap of the WYND company is 4,26 billion dollars in Jan. 2019).
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc.(WH) “operates as a hotel franchisor worldwide. The company licenses its hotel brands, including Super 8, Days Inn, Ramada, Microtel Inn & Suites, La Quinta, Wingate, AmericInn, Hawthorn Suites, The Trademark Collection, and Wyndham to hotel owners in approximately 80 countries. Its Hotel Franchising segments licenses its lodging brands and provides related services to third-party hotel owners and others. The company's Hotel Management segment provides hotel management services for full-service and limited service hotels. As of January 8, 2019, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. operated a portfolio of 20 hotel brands with approximately 9,000 franchised hotels with 798,000 rooms. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. is a subsidiary of Wyndham Destinations. (The market cap of the WH company is 5.01 billion dollars in Jan. 2019).

WYND (Wyndham Destinations) presents itself as a Timeshare Company and as a mother-company for the Wyndham Vacation Clubs. They market and sell Vacation Ownership Interests (“Points”) and “help us” to finance our purchase (by giving us loans at 21 % interest).
WYNDs financial position is very weak. The booked value is negative. (- 6,30 usd/share), and the investors have discovered that this hotel company is a house of cards, mortgaged above the chimney. If all assets are sold it will still be in debt.
Total Debt is 5.46 billion dollars while the Market Cap is only 4.05 billion dollars (June 2019).
The stock price have plummeted during the last 18 months from 57.31 usd (January 2018) to 43.21 usd (June 2019) despite recommendation by stock market TV-guru Jim Cramer in June 2018, when CEO Michael Brown was also invited to Cramer's TV-show.
Shareholders are disappointed and feel trapped. Stock price have to rise by 35 % to make market cap as large as the WYND debts. Value of assets have to increase.
It is alarming that WYND is in this position. Their business model seems brilliant at first.
Members in the Vacation Clubs have been convinced and persuaded to make a very large one time advance payment – or take loans with an interest rate of 21% - to enjoy expensive vacations for the rest of their lives. The members also pay yearly maintenance fees despite the fact that the PVTO or “Condo association” is not the owner but that the ownership is in a “Trust”.
Now, many of the members have sobered up and realized that they have invested their life savings in a dream and a bankrupt company.
And since the Target group and the present Club members are mostly senior, retired citizens, chances are very slim that this group will radically improve their finances and be able to make a one-time down-payment or even pay the interest and maintenance fees. After all, many had no savings when the contract was signed.
Only a desperate and bankrupt company is as abusive towards their clients as Wyndham. There are a total of 900.000 members in the 4 Wyndham Vacation Clubs. We invested our life savings or took a high risk loan at 21 % interest rate when we signed.
Wyndham desperately need new members. But the bad reputation of Wyndham and its sales process is all over the internet. It's all about lies and harsh treatment during a full day sales process when Wyndham tries every trick in the book to convince the buyers.
A ruthless sales force have been engaged. They have no conscience and are willing to lie, cheat and threat. And take a lot of money for their efforts.
Amy Bornmann, (Director, Club & Association Governance – Wyndham Vacation Clubs, Wyndham Destinations, 6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, FL 32821, WynAG@wyn.com), is the PVTO spokeswoman and described what my membership (in Club Wyndham Access and the PTVO) stood for;
“PTVO stands for “Property Trust Vacation Ownership”. The PTVO Owners Association operates very similarly to a condo association and serves the same purpose. In 2018, the total number of points deeded to the Trust (available for purchase by owners) is 38,215,249,366. As of today, there are approximately 150,000 members that are part of PTVO/Club Wyndham Access. Members own varying amounts of points from 84,000 to 5 million plus. Club Wyndham is the overall club. It has apx. 900,000 members who own in the various products – Club Wyndham Select, Club Wyndham Access, Club Wyndham Presidential Reserve, and Margaritaville Vacation Club.
“I've attached the Public Offering Statement for Club Wyndham Access / PTVO Owners Association. Within this document, you can see all of the inventory owned by Access/PTVO. It's substantial. Access/PTVO owns mainly points in underlying associations and pays maintenance fees on those points to those underlying associations. Access/PTVO has a limited number of whole units (units wherein it owns all 52 weeks). For these whole units, Access/PTVO not only pays any applicable maintenance fees to underlying associations, but also reserves for replacements and refurbishments of the interior of the units. Technically, PTVO owns nothing. All of the inventory that is part of Access is held in a trust, which is the title holder of the inventory. PTVO is the entity that manages the trust.
“There is no free membership. Access/PTVO is a third-party entity. It is completely independent of Wyndham. We are simply the developer of the Club and the manager of the Club. The Club does not own any stake in either of the two publicly traded Wyndham entities. (WYND and WH).”
It is not possible for me to make a calculation how many square feet or square meters (m2) that corresponds to the number of eternal points I bought (in my case 400.000). But, if this was a regular real estate affair when a piece of property is bought and is used as collateral for a loan, then the interest rate of that loan would never go above 5 % in Sweden. But then of course, the property had to be bought at fair value. And judging by the 21 % interest that Wyndham charges, Wyndham sees the “property” as just another consumer product with a life span of maybe 3-5 years. So I can only assume that the “property” I have bought is a standing room only - less than One (1) m2.
Hopefully, someone living in USA can ask this question at a PVTO General Annual Meeting. (When the total area that the PVTO “owns” is divided with the number of members. And take into consideration that the Platina and Gold members have a bigger share than I have).
Tom Aiello had said that 900.000 people were members in the Wyndham Access Club and that I also could become a member and receive all those wonderful worldwide opportunities. This was probably the first lie told on that eventful day which in retrospect became a day of tall tales. (I was offered a membership in Club Wyndham Access - They have only 150.000 members.) So while I was given the impression that 900.000 persons had become voluntary members in this Wyndham Club and bought points by choice, there were only 150.000 that had.
But I listened eagerly as I was selling a condo that I owned in Panama City Beach. Now I had the opportunity to stay in numerous wonderful places around the world. So I became a member in the Club Wyndham Access. I paid 58379 usd for 400.000 yearly points. And got 600.000 bonus points the first year. (Points is the Club Wyndham currency. They are like a yearly interest on the one time membership fee. The points are used when staying at a Wyndham “property”). Later I also received a Title Insurance Policy for the “property” I had bought. (Perhaps it was only a formality showing that the “property” I thought I owned didn't “belong” to someone else.) Usually you know what price/square feet or square m2 you pay when buying a condo. But not here. The real value is only the future hotel costs that you will save.
Obviously there were “members” who owned up to 5 million points. I assume that the owners of the largest numbers of points are only temporary members waiting to sell their points and cash out. Perhaps they had been owners of property and had sold it in exchange for points and now tried to sell those points. (For example, I later bought 300.000 (eternal) points from the Emerald Grande Hotel in Destin, Florida (Eternal means that you receive 300.000 (“free”) points every year).
A 1,5 hour information meeting soon became a full day sales session. And by the end of the day, I was the owner of a Club Wyndham Access Silver membership with 400000 eternal points (You will get 400000 new points every year - “for ever” and I also got – one time only - 600000 bonus points).
I was given a contract that included 40 plus pages. Thomas Fetzer (“Quality Assurance CLUB WYNDHAM”) had prepared it. And my signing of it was recorded on video. I later read it carefully. But it never said that I was also a member of RCI – which had been promised. This membership was important to me as RCI had many vacation facilities outside of the USA.
I had ten days to cancel the agreement without penalty. And a day or two before it expired I met Tom Aiello and asked him. He answered that I was a lifelong member with RCI. I also asked Tom Aiello if he was related to the fine actor Danny Aiello; (often seen in New York film melodramas). Sure, he said, with a broad smile – “He's my uncle!”.
Then he remembered that he didn't need to lie any more. I had already paid the membership fee. So he found himself and said “We're not related”. We parted and Tom Aiello said farewell and looked me deep in the eyes and promised; “You will be surprised when you receive all those wonderful offers we have!”
I thought he was talking about special travel and hotel deals, but he was talking about the “Perks - exclusive savings all over the country”. And when checking those “great deals near you” I could only find a total of 2 offers (during 18 months) for a 25 % discount on car rental in Sweden (Avis and Budget)”. All perks are for people living in USA. And we don't have a Disneyland or Disneyworld here either. So the promise of Every Day All Day became just another of the empty promises or lies that Wyndham gives their Club members.
I wanted to have more information about web pages, bookings and how to find a way into the complicated network of Wyndham. It seemed to be a kind of patchwork where Wyndham had thought of everything except how to make it easy for the members. There were also a lot of added fees that I wanted to avoid.
I had been given a simple computer device where the Wyndham Catalogue was available. (We were never given paper catalogs). I was not familiar with how it worked and it took time to learn.
I asked Dustin Leonard for help. But he did not think I needed it. After all, I had taken notes during the meeting, and seemed to know everything, he said. He suggested a cup of coffee and a chat at a nearby Starbucks instead of an office meeting. He reported that spirits were high in the office and that they recently celebrated the success of recruiting many gold and platinum members in the past year.
I wanted to use my free week in Memphis. But nothing at all was available there. So I chose Nashville instead. Dustin promised to help but he booked only 6 days and used my points instead of the free week.
The stay in Nashville cost me 50.000 points. And my Silver Membership (400.000 points yearly) could thus give me the right to stay there a total of 8 weeks during one year. The rest of the year are for other Club Members.
While walking home I passed a gas-station/liquor store with a sign saying “Wine is cheaper than therapy”. And passing by another hotel nearby I was surprised to see that it was almost empty. Very few windows were lit up, while Wyndham Nashville seemed almost full – at a time when nothing happened at the nearby (new) Grand ole Opry.
A snowstorm hit Nashville and the soles of my shoes froze and fell off. Busses to Walmart were redirected and people stayed indoors except for one lonely salesman of Trump souvenirs who remained at his post after Trump's visit to Nashville a day or so before.
The almost full Nashville Wyndham hotel in January raises a question; Can members have access to their favorite place during the time of the year that they prefer? Or was the Nashville Wyndham full of members that had not been given room in the Caribbean or in Hawaii, Fiji and Brazil. They simply had to settle for anything that was available in January.
In Nashville, I was immediately invited to attend a Wyndham “Owners Update” meeting. I said yes because I did not yet feel fully learned.
It was immediately transformed into a very intense person to person sales session. A sales woman, born in Germany on a US military base, was in charge. (Many with military experience or raised in military families appear to work at Wyndham. They have experience from foreign countries and of large, hierarchical organizations. Dustin Leonard had just finished anti-pirate military activities outside Somalia).
She thought I had an insufficient membership. For travelers with a focus outside USA the "Rewards" system was the best. And a Gold membership would take me everywhere I wanted to go. The simple breakfast started at 10.45 am. And the sales session was over circa ten hours later – without any more food being served meanwhile.
My assistant this day was Jennifer Starkey. And Joey Spite arranged the final contract. The 300.000 points needed for an “everlasting” Gold membership cost 46,779 usd. After making a down-payment of 4704 usd I owed Wyndham 42,074 usd. When I went to pick up a blank check in my hotelroom Jennifer Starkey followed me, obviously worried that I would not come back but disappear before the contract was signed. (Or was this a honey trap at the height of the “me too” era? Were they hoping that I should behave badly and compromise myself and not be able to make any complaints in the future?)
Whatever the intention, it shows how desperate the Wyndham sales-staff are. A young woman in her early twenties accompanies a male stranger into his hotel room. But I have heard that the sales staff cashes and keep up to 40 % of the down payment. Then questions about risk taking and morality weighs thin.
After a long wait without refreshments for me but maybe with a power nap or a dinner for the Afro-German sales woman – she came back. She seemed extremely proud and said that she had been able to give me extraordinary good (loan-) terms.
And while glancing through the contract's “Closing Disclosure” and “Loan Calculations” I read “Annual Percentage Rate 16.99 %” in large print Plus in much smaller print; “This is not your interest rate”.
I must confess that I only read the latter sentence and thought that during the credit survey they had been informed that in Sweden I could get 2 % (sic) or less on a regular house mortgage loan. And that they had settled for a final rate in this vicinity.
The loan had a 16.99% annual interest according to the loan contract. They had done the "credit survey", but without contacting any credit research institute in Sweden; where I have my funds. However: The percentage was not that important as I planned to make a full down payment of the loan within a month (latest February 9th 2018). Then I avoided any future-interest payments at all.
Jennifer Starkey's boss in Nashville told me that he had clients abroad who were interested to own something with no value to declare in their local IRS report. And the membership-money invested in Wyndham meant that the money could not be seen by the IRS at home. Perhaps like a membership in a golf club. (This was certainly not a money laundering scheme – It was a money disappearing scheme! You could not get a refund or any money back). I told him that I had no funds of that nature.
In moments of weakness Wyndham had again convinced me that their model of expensive vacations was tailor made for me. It has since been an eye opener and a great learning experience. I was brought up to trust people and I am new to the Wyndham type of sales process. I have never experienced anything like it over here where the consumer is much better protected.
The aggressive, almost desperate sales technique by the Wyndham sales force is also proof that they know that they are selling an out-dated and secondary product. The traveling routines have changed. Today, anybody can book a hotel room the same day via internet. (In fact, the offer to order a hotel-room one year in advance does not suit a senior citizen without children living outside of USA, like myself. We have to wait until we are fit enough to travel, perhaps after a period when the cancer clinic have to be the prioritized, first choice). And we will not even get what Wyndham promises. Very few of the resorts are available at the time wanted. Instead W. reach out for new customers. And make more promises that they won't keep. Then the team disappears and their E-mail addresses stop working.
The sales cultures of USA and northern Europe are very different. Over here Wyndham had been breaking the law because of its aggressive sales campaigns and un-kept promises. Investigative TV reporters, who had visited the sales meetings with a hidden camera, would expose the lies and the (criminal)-history of the sales staff. And show tax reports and previous convictions. That would have been the end of Wyndham over here.
Obviously, it's in my nature to believe everything that is said and promised during a sales meeting. To me it is a legally binding situation and I have never before met people that lie so much without showing signs of it. After all USA is a Christian country and this type of behavior goes against the Bible.
The only arena over here for the same type of behavior is the investment scene. A friend of mine was contacted by an Icelandic bank (Kaupthing) on the same day that Lehman Brothers collapsed. They were selling securities (Bonds) that was backed by Lehman Brothers. And we are 5 hours ahead of New York, USA. So they had a window of 5 hours before the New York Stock exchange opened. On the same day those bonds lost all their value. (And a few days later the Icelandic bank collapsed too).
I bought a security (20.000 usd) from company (A). The seller seemed extremely honest. But when we parted he said - “don't pay any attention to the market value given to this security when it's listed in your portfolio”. And indeed, one third of its value was missing then.
When a TV-team investigated this company they found enough to put the seller out of business. And I realized that my trustworthy person had worked as a rather high official in the national police organization. He was chosen for the job because he seemed so honest. (And he made much more money than with the police). And the 1/3 (6666 usd) missing in value was his and his company's commission. (This bond was eventually worth nothing at the time of redemption).
Next time we met he offered to handle an investment in an Investment Banks trading department. Luckily I had read that they were in trouble. They had invested in ultrahigh risk instruments which soon collapsed and eventually the bank (HQ) was bankrupt too.
I asked the founder of a similar investment firm (B) why (A) had behaved so badly. He just coldly remarked. “The founder of company A is an alcoholic”. About a year later the founder of company B was also out of business for unethical business behavior….
How much of my 58.379 usd was used to buy 1/6 of a hotel room/flat? And how much was taken by the sales team as a bonus?
The Wyndham Access business model will collapse. There are better opportunities available. Today, when you have found a cheap air ticket to a place you want to visit, you can book hotel rooms as you go long. You don't have to book a vacation 12 months in advance. The 2nd hand value of the silver, gold and platinum memberships have collapsed.
Whenever you stay at a Wyndham property you are invited to an update meeting. And afterwards you realize that one full day of the vacation has been ruined by the most aggressive sales talk you have ever heard. In Nashville, I had the only free perk ever; Free popcorn from a machine.
Back home in Sweden on February 1st, I immediately sent Wyndham, Las Vegas a 25,000 usd personal check and bought a “bankers check” of 20,773 usd that was sent separately by Deutsche Bank to Wyndham Las Vegas. (This included a final down payment on the loan plus 10 months of Wyndham Access Club maintenance fees, as my USA bank account otherwise would be overdrawn by the automatic payment plan. On the 13th of February 2018 the 25.000 dollar check was cashed by Wyndham.
In Nashville I had bought 300,000 additional points from the Emerald Grande Hotel, in the seaside resort of Destin, Florida, to get the Gold membership. According to the contract, the debt would be transferred the same day (Jan 10th, 2018) to Wyndham; with a P.O. Box in Las Vegas. And Wyndham Las Vegas was supposed to collect the interest payments.
I was very surprised to see that that Emerald Grande on the 26 of February and March 26th and April 26th via an automatic payment plan, set up by Wyndham, took 735.67 usd per month in interest. Without making a deduction for the 59 % down-payment of the loan (via the 25.000 usd personal check).
I was paying interest to Emerald Grande Hotel. They no longer had anything to do with the loan / debt / interest according to the contract. And I had not received a confirmation (for the down-payment of 25000 usd) and a current statement.
And when I tried to contact Jennifer Starkey and Joey Spite in the Nashville office via email, their email addresses had stopped working...... and Dustin Leonard never answered his e-mails either.
It was a total back-office failure. And while Wyndham gained access to my bank-account within minutes and set up automatic payment plans, it took them 3 months to reply to my very urgent questions.
I learned that the 20,773 usd check had not been cashed. And simultaneously, after almost 3 months of silence (on April 27th), Wyndham Las Vegas confirmed that they could not find the letter with the check from Deutsche Bank - via a very short, unsigned 3-line e-mail message. This was in fact the very first sign of life I got from Wyndham. (This check have so far cost me an extra 141 usd; (for buying, investigating and eventually killing it).
In fact Wyndham asked me to describe the envelope from Deutsche Bank that contained the check. A very strange request indicating that they had piles of unopened mail in their mail room. And that they never opened mail from banks or financial institutes as they wanted to avoid reminders of unpaid bills…- a very ominous sign of a bankrupt and distressed organization.
At the same time I cancelled the monthly interest payments. The money went to the wrong recipient, and it did not take into account the 25,000 usd down-payment. Even worse was that the annual interest payment of 735.67 usd/month was not at 16.99 % but 20.98 %! yearly.
The small print; “This is not your interest rate”, meant that the interest was even higher - No wonder Emerald Grande and Wyndham Las Vegas hadn't responded to my questions about it.
That Wyndham's back office was dysfunctional was confirmed when RCI acknowledged that I was not a RCI-member. "Club Wyndham Owners Care" promised to fix this immediately. But nothing happened and I had to remind them again. After three reminders; No. 1 to Tom Aiello in Panama City Beach in December, and No. 2-3 in February-March 2018, I finally became a RCI member.
I also tried to register my Nashville contract number to receive Electronic Statements. But it was impossible. I could only register the contract signed in Panama City Beach.
It took a very long time to get replies to my letters and e-mails; On the 15th of May I got a reply from Emerald Grande and Ed McMullen Jr, who on the 18th of May forwarded my case to Patrick Wolford. Patrick also called me on the phone before transferring my case to Christopher Dzierbicki (Senior Case Specialist, Owner Services) on May 22nd.
Christopher called me too despite that I told him that matters of contractual, legal and financial nature are best handled in writing. I'm not fluent in English in these matters. The conversations soon turned into heated arguments as both Wyndham persons didn't answer my questions or were willing to discuss the points I thought were important.
I said that I wanted to cancel both Wyndham contracts and get my money back. And that I had informed my US bank that I was a victim of a scam and had to cancel the loan payments to Wyndham. It cost some dollars too stopping Wyndham from being able to set up new auto payment plans.
(Whatever plans I had to go to a Wyndham resort already this spring were cancelled because of the extremely long waiting periods and the no help from Owner's Care).
On May 18th I had sent Wyndham my calculations proving that they was charging me too high an interest. Patrick tried to explain that W. after a down payment, instead reduced the number of future interest payment at 735.67 usd. I should of course have been immediately informed about it on 13th February 2018 when they cashed the check. And W. should have sent me a calculation how many more payments were expected of me. None of this had happened.
On the 12th of June, Christopher transferred my case to Ronald Singh - Owner Care Operations Supervisor, Club Wyndham.
The Lies
Apart from the exaggerations and hiding of negative facts there were some very concrete lies told during those two sales sessions:
(Panama City Beach contract): Tom Aiello lied about my membership in RCI: I asked him if I was a member and if it was any recurring membership charges. He said that I was a perpetual/eternal member without extra charges. But the contract says: ”W. will enroll and pay your initial RCI membership fee. Renewal fees are part of annual Club Wyndham Plus Assessment”. But I was not even a member of RCI. It took several months and 3 reminders to become one.
(The Nashville Contract): the Rewards program.
I told the sales woman that I had joined Wyndham because of the RCI program.
She said that RCI was not very good for me - that I instead should join the Rewards program (and be a Gold member). And that it was perfect for me who wanted to travel outside USA. This was the major reason to buy the extra 300000 points in Nashville.
However, I was already a Rewards member as my contract from Panama City Beach said: “ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND DISCLOSURE STATEMENT - Club Wyndham Plus/Wyndham Rewards Program”. There the Rewards program rules were described. (Instead of buying more points at 46,779 usd, all I had to do was to transfer points into the Rewards program (at a total cost of 99 usd…). (I was traveling by bus to Nashville and didn't bring my P.C.B. contract…).
And she told me that I could transfer my regular club points to reward points. This was very important to me because in most of the locations outside USA you could stay at 15000(Reward-points) / night. And with 400000 points yearly that meant 27 hotel-nights in Asia, South America and Africa.
But later, another unhappy club member, who had also paid the down-payment (circa 58,379 usd) in 2018 for his membership and 400.000 yearly points, showed me his contract. And there it states clearly: When you change Club points into Reward point; for each Club point you only get 0.4 reward points. And this means that my 27 hotel-nights were down to not even 11 nights.
I had made the worst deal of my life.
And of course, Club Wyndham Access was not a mass movement with 900.000 member. They only had 150.000 members - some of whom had turned their property over to Wyndham.
Broken Promises

When a Wyndham sales person have closed the deal he disappears with the money. (Rumors say that they take 40 % of the down payment). Consequently they have no interest to help a Club member in the future. So they don't even answer e-mails.

I had to stop paying the monthly loan interest and finally the maintenance fees. Because of these contract violations;

1) W. set up the automatic payment plan so that my money went to the wrong receiver.
2) The annual interest rate was 4 % too high
3) There was a 12 months Price Freeze given me when the Panama City Beach contract was bought on December 3, 2017. I paid 0,1458725 usd for each point (or 58379 usd for 400000 eternal points) and also got 600000 bonus points for free, in P.C.B.
On the tenth of January 2018 in Nashville I paid 0,15593 usd for each point (or 46779 usd for 300000 eternal points). And I only got 300000 bonus points for free there too.
The price per point had increased despite the promise given when signing the contract in PCB:
Acknowledgement of PRICE FREEZE One year Price Freeze –
“Future purchases will be locked in at the prize that inventory is selling for today”.
I told the sales-woman in Nashville that I was not willing to pay more for the points than I had paid in PCB. And she even laughed sarcastically when I tried to buy them below that price…..Instead, I was charged 3017,25 usd too much in Nashville for the contract signed there.
Unfortunately I didn't have a calculating machine with me. Nor did Wyndham supply one. My ability to do mental calculations were not great after a sales session well into its 7-8 hour and no food served except a very small, simple breakfast.
In June 2018 I received an Amortization Schedule from Wyndham with the remaining 27 monthly payments scheduled. Now the interest was up 0,5 % to 17,49 %.
But the interest-payment the first month was 277,8 usd according to Wyndham. And with a balance (the remaining loan) of 15668,89 usd this was in fact 21.27 % in annual interest the first month.
Wyndham Club have broken the terms of the contract. I had to stop paying the Wyndham Club fees. Wyndham's poor calculations and book keeping and back office failure forced me to do this.
I told Wyndham that I wanted the Nashville contract to be cancelled and all money spent on it returned. In fact my experiences so far were so negative that I also wanted to cancel my Panama City Beach Contract. I saw years of problems ahead there too.
Wyndham's business model disadvantages the Wyndham Club members. Wyndham receives all payments in advance, or W. charges a very high interest rate. All efforts are committed to selling memberships and, afterwards, Wyndham's commitment has disappeared. All back office functions I experienced later appear under-dimensioned, insufficient or avoided.
In addition, there is an unpleasant lack of respect for the customers. Wyndham sales staff seem to know that promises given will not be kept. So they avoid further contact with the customer or send unsigned replies only, after months of waiting.
I also question Wyndham's ability to give access to the places customers request. Comments on the internet are about long waiting lists and that it's almost impossible to get what is wanted.
Has the business model collapsed when all employees are focused on selling memberships and get bonuses for it? And where the most popular resorts are never available?
On June 12th 2018 the following message arrived from Ronald Singh (Owner Care Operations Supervisor – Club Wyndham)
Good Afternoon Mr. Bernholm,
I am reaching out to you in the absence of Chris Dzierbicki your Sr. Case Specialist whom has been review of your case recently. Please allow me to provide an update regarding Wyndham's position your case.
After careful review and consideration we have found no ground that warrant cancellation of your two recent purchases with Club Wyndham. While we agree the check was not processed, we see our Financial Services team did provide you with a fair and amicable that would have allowed you to reach the objective you wanted with your final payment, as well as a generous gesture of goodwill for the confusion by providing the daily interest that did accrue as well as 6 months of your assessment fees waived. In regards to your concerns on your interest rate please see the attached amortization schedule that does outline your new payment. Per our previous discussion, when you make a large payment on your loan it does not recast then loan, however it does accelerate the maturity date. If you sign up for automatic payment you can also decreased your interest rate by .5%. This will help you achieve your 16.99% interest rate.
Please let us know if you have any additional questions and we will be happy to follow up with you in regards to your request. I trust in working together we can provide additional assistance to any inquiry you may present and we are here to be of service to you. If you would like to speak on this matter do not hesitate to contact me directly.
Thank You,
Ronald Singh
Ronald.Singh@wyn.com Owner Care Operations Supervisor – Club Wyndham
10 days later, on June 22, Singh called and said that I had been released from my Nashville contract. Money was going to be returned. The (points) price freeze had been overlooked in Nashville. And this breach of contract could not be denied even by Wyndham.
However, in an email sent directly after this phone message he wrote; “please allow this communication to serve as confirmation of our conversation earlier today. We are currently in review of your most recent purchase with Wyndham Nashville. We discussed your recent sales experience as a consumer and Drew a fair understanding on your position regarding your purchase with Wyndham. I understand the experience with dealing with our financial services team was not encouraging but we understand there was disconnect with the lost check you sent us…… etc etc”
As usual all written correspondence was legally non-binding and in fact didn't even mention or confirm that the Nashville contract had just been terminated.
Singh also said and wrote about the loan interest; “it is compounded daily just as any other simple loan commitment for our contract”. (This was 3 months after I had brought up this issue).
Still in the loan contract I saw in three different places in bold letters that the terms are “16,99 % annually”. But in much smaller print Wyndham has added in one place This is not your interest rate”. Nowhere is any mention about the compounded daily interest. Naturally, being optimistic I thought I was getting a lower than 16.99 % annual rate because the sales woman said that she had given me the best possible terms……
I wonder why W. doesn't tell customers that they will charge 20.98 % annually and compound daily? When will W. start compounding every second, or minute? Einstein called this way of (exponential) calculating the 8th wonder of the world.
I also think that every sales session must include a 2-3 hour private reading of the contract. And that the contract should not be handed out as an unnumbered loose pile of papers.
When a company promises too much and lies too often it will eventually go under in a blaze of lawsuits, class-actions and fines. And even more Wyndham whistleblowers, reporting that they are forced to lie to customers, have to be paid 20 million usd/each by Wyndham.
In the spring of 2018 I sought assistance from Time Share Tricks (Near Gulfport/Biloxi) - timesharetricks@gmail.com) - . And I sent James Grant - 23098 Freddie Frank Rd, Pass Christian, Harrison County, Mississippi 39571 USA – 850 usd (2 x 425 usd) to buy the necessary legal documents to be able to help me. But as soon as he received that money he disappeared with it and have not been heard of since. He's a crook of course. Beware, these vultures flock around Wyndham
Wyndham and Mr Singh never sent me any important written material. Everything is done on the phone. During the fall of 2018 I also wanted to have the first contract signed in Panama City Beach terminated. Eventually, in late November, Mr Singh phoned me and said that he had consulted senior people at Wyndham and that my request was declined. I never got this decision in writing – only on the phone. And he was aware of that I was leaving on a 7 week trip so he called 2 days before leaving which meant that I could only respond when back home again in February 2019.
Singh also threatened me with a penalty meaning that I would lose all the money (58379 usd) paid so far to Wyndham; when I stopped paying the monthly maintenance costs.
Does Singh and the people of Owners Care really care for me? Am I the owner which Wyndham cares for; or am I the owner who have to care for Wyndham's survival?

In Sweden University studies are free (paid for by income taxes which generally are 40-50 %). It is ironic that some students, even here, have gotten a free economy education, only to cheat those that paid for their education through the taxes.
In USA, student loans are mounting. The top jobs goes to students of powerful families with connections plus a few brilliant students with outstanding talents. Too many people are educated and many have a hard time to find a job.
Ronalds Singh's name indicates that he is a Sikh. The Sikhs have always excelled in India despite being a small minority. Owners Care is just a glorified name for “complaints” and not the type of executive position an ambitious student of economics or law is looking for. I don't think it will lead to an executive position in a larger and fast growing company. To attract an ambitious, educated and clever person like Singh, the money has to be good. And enough to pay off a heavy student loan and live the American way of life.
With all unhappy customers complaining I guess that much of the Wyndham monthly maintenance fees goes to Owners Care.
And W. is efficient in collecting money. It only took Wyndham 1 hour to set up an automatic payment plan for the rest of my life, while it took them three months to reply and start answering urgent questions from me. They don't hesitate to contact collection agents to drive in the money.
I have received feedback from other unhappy club members. People who don't have enough for their old age any more. They are unhappy about the Cosa Nostra level of Wyndham's interest rates (21 %). They are no longer consumers, they are broke. While the people who seemed so anxious to advice and help, have disappeared without leaving even a forwarding address. They have left the building, and are somewhere else counting the money. You will realize this after you have signed the 40 plus page contract. The people of Owners Care don't realize that we are the owners and that they are there to take care of us. Or is their lack of care proof that we don't own anything?
EXTREMELY POOR VALUE – AND NOTHING AVAILABLE
When I came to the first meeting in Panama City Beach – not informed that it was a time share meeting - I came there because I had paid 50 usd for a vacation week via “Endless Vacation” – another Wyndham company. Already at the initial meeting I told everybody that I wanted to travel outside of USA and Europe. The Wyndham people in Panama City Beach asked me where and I answered Africa. So they wrote “Africa” on my memo paper and on the black board.
I also said that I had a busy 12 months in front of me with no traveling possibilities. (Of course no one said that I still had to pay maintenance costs meanwhile…..). And I usually travel by myself. I have no family. I'm not a resort person and I never book an all-inclusive vacation because I don't drink alcohol and my food habits are simple.
Outside of USA what is offered to Club-members is very thin. The poor options given travelers in Sweden by Wyndham clearly illustrates this. I live in Sweden but I can't compose a meaningful stay in Sweden using what's available via the Club Wyndham, RCI or the Rewards program in Sweden.
Mölle is a nice summer seaside village on the west coast but few stay there outside the summer period. Then there is a golf resort (I don't play golf) and the rest are half a dozen ski resorts, in the same area, to visit during winter – a period when I look for a warmer climate.
There is no plan behind the Club Wyndham offers. It's only randomly assembled resorts. In Sweden visits to the old university towns like Lund or Uppsala and a stay in Stockholm is a must. What W. offers is far worse than any routine package tour offered by a less than mediocre travel agency.
Africa
The Club Wyndham have nothing in Africa.
But RCI have
Cape Verde (1 place)
Ivory Coast (1)
Kenya (2)
Senegal (2)
Ethiopia (1)
Zimbabwe (2)
South Africa (35)
Extra booking charges for a RCI unit are around 150-200 usd. (There is no info about this in my contracts). It is too much to pay if you plan to stay only a couple of days or want to leave early.
It is impossible to compose a realistic and interesting journey to Africa. Only 1 or 2 places in those very large countries is not enough. (I guess that the RCI items are mostly one flat or one room and not the whole building or hotel…). When traveling I usually start in the capital/international airport town and then stay 3-4 days for a short rest and to arrange the remaining country tour.
Most African countries are missing. I don't want to visit countries terrorized by muslim extremists. South Africa is a criminally violent country now. The many available places there indicates that the owners no longer feel safe enough to use them and nobody else wants to buy the property. (There are also many places available in China. I guess those flats are in unpopulated newly built ghost towns where no one want to live).
The Rewards also have;
Ghana (1)
Nigeria (Abuja) (1)
And I have seen Namibia mentioned elsewhere, before.
The thousands of opportunities promised proved to be less than 25. While Hotel booking websites like Booking.com, for example, offered the following African selections in February 2019;
Uganda (932 items)
Ethiopia (328)
Kenya (2217) etc, etc.
* I went to Sri Lanka during December-January 2018-19.
RCI only have 3 places
Colombo/Negombo (2)
Habaraduwa (1)
And the Wyndham Rewards offer 2 Ramada hotels at the Colombo/Katunayake airport. Nothing was available when I was there. Conclusion; Wyndham offer 4 places in the capital Colombo, its airport and suburb town plus one southern seaside resort.
But the hotel booking site Booking.com offered 11076 properties in Sri Lanka (and 3083 properties in Sweden). Rooms that can be booked the same day. You don't need to book in advance.
Being a Club Wyndham Access member is also an extremely expensive way of traveling.
I paid 58,379 usd for 400.000 points yearly. And got 600.000 bonus points the first year.
My age when signing the contract was 71 years. The expected average Swedish lifespan is 82,3 years; slightly lower for men or 80,6 years). At 72, I have circa 10 years ahead of me when I'm fit enough to travel. I usually travel by myself only, and I plan to continue doing so. I'm not a resort person and I have no plans to go to USA or to Western Europe.
When the 600000 Bonus points are used up there is hopefully 10 travel-years left for me. Then I will receive 400.000 points yearly and is hopefully fit enough to be able to use them.
I initially planned to use these points via the Rewards System for hotel-rooms in South America/Africa/Asia (15.000 points/night). But if I change those 400000 yearly points into Reward points I will only receive 160000 ( 1 eternal point bring only 0,4 Reward Point. And I can only stay 11 nights there.
The yearly (“condo”) maintenance costs are 2632 usd. (12 x 219,33 usd). So in reality – via the maintenance fees - I will have to pay for those 11 nights (a second time) at 239 usd/night.
I finally managed to silence the aggressive, non stop sales talk of the Afro-German woman in Nashville when I suggested that putting the money in a low risk investment would give me a yearly interest on 58379 usd of circa 5 % or 2919 usd yearly. Then I could pay the hotel-rooms out of my own pocket - instead of paying the yearly maintenance costs of 2632 usd. And still keep the 58379 usd for myself. (Unfortunately there was not a calculator available to prove it).
Conclusion:
A 5 % interest/dividend on 58379 usd will give circa 2919 usd/year.
And the Condo maintenance costs for the Wyndham Club members cost 2632 usd/year.
These 5551 usd will give Club-members only 11 days (sic) of vacation outside USA at 505 usd/day.
I used hotel booking site Booking.com instead. They had more than 10000 items to choose from on Sri Lanka. They were mostly close to beach, clean, air-conditioned and with private toilet and bath etc. I paid circa 25 usd/night.
5551 usd would get me 222 hotel-nights on Sri Lanka and save the 58379 usd for myself.
Conclusion: In Sri Lanka and also in many of the other countries I plan to visit I don't have to pay above 25 usd/night.
So instead of getting 11 days of vacation; by giving up 58379 usd of hard earned savings plus also the yearly interest/dividends (5 %) from those savings (=2919 usd/year). Plus having to pay the yearly maintenance costs (2632 usd yearly). I can in fact get over 222 hotel nights and vacation days each year by paying out of my own pocket and still keep my hard earned (58379 usd) money. While living at decent family hotels in a good locations.
Other expenses are not counted here; the Reservation Costs when using RCI, and yearly Wyndham membership costs of 59,95 usd, etc. And the maintenance costs will probably increase yearly.
I will be getting very little for my money (58379 usd). What might be fine for a young American family with many children is not at all suitable for a single person past 70 years old and living outside USA. Whoever will inherit my membership will stop paying monthly maintenance costs immediately.
So it's better I stop paying right now. Which of course I already have. And I encourage everybody to stop paying Wyndham.
It's evident that Club Wyndham is a club for Americans traveling in America. Outside America it's just a random assortment of (hotel-) rooms and apartments. Not part of any serious strategy and with a very poor traveling value. Just enough to fool people in a biased presentation. Definitely not what I'm looking for.
Club WYNDHAM alternatives;

Wyndham took a large portion of my future vacation-money, and I realized too late that a vacation at Wyndham is a nerve-wrecking experience which starts with an invitation to a “follow-up meeting when important news from Wyndham is delivered”. But it became a full day of abusive, hard sell talk which didn't end until you had signed another Wyndham contract. Wyndham had a total focus on your remaining money while the only thing free in Nashville was the popcorn in the machine outside the small gym.
We have paid a lot for our memberships. But we are not even the owners of the PVTO club. (= the Condo association Club). But there are many more opportunities outside the Club Wyndham membership. Lately, I have been in Sri Lanka and Burma. And been given room and full board during 2,5 months there without any costs at all.
The stay in 2 Buddhist monasteries have the added bonus of not meeting any Wyndham staff. Thus avoiding the anger and uncontrollable high blood pressure that many Club Wyndham members are suffering from.
Living like this is an un-parallel way to get to know a country and its people and culture better. You stay for free as long as you follow the rules - no alcohol, no drugs no sex – and have access to a library and can share the life of the people of far east countries like Vietnam, Laos, Taiwan, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Burma. Places where Wyndham is very poorly represented; which I discovered when it was too late.
All sales people including Tom Aiello said that they are long time Wyndham Club members – which I doubt. Tom had many wonderful Wyndham vacation memories with his whole family. Then tragedy struck and his daughter died at a young age. True or not, it is not appropriate to use a deceased family member as a sales argument.
I expect that Wyndham eventually will pay back the money from the first contract signed in Panama City Beach. When the full payment have been made, the Wyndham staff is fleeing because they don't want to face all their unmet promises and lies. Leonard & Tom Aiello at the Panama City Beach office never answered any e-mails. And when trying to contact the Nashville staff (Jennifer Starkey and Joey Spite) their e-mail addresses had been discontinued. Dustin Leonard refused to meet me in his office and demonstrate how I should use the websites and find what I was looking for. Had it happened within the short cancellation period I could have seen for myself that Club Wyndham was not for me.
THE WYNDHAM ROBOTS IN NETHERLAND
There are a lot of websites where unhappy Wyndham Club members share their sad experiences. A website by Timeshare Consumer Bureau called Wyndham Timeshare Scam has brought quite a few replies from people sharing my experiences or who made a lucky escape.
But a lot more non-sense replies there are coming from The Netherlands and their new age therapeutics. It is strange that Wyndham uses our membership money setting up robots abroad or paying for this type of help. (Because I cannot even imagine that Holland today is so full of confused pot-smokers).
And their replies are all about how much they appreciates my style of writing:
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So far I have received more than 160 replies and messages like this; where the Wyndham name is never even mentioned.
* I have been in contact with many organizations trying to help time-share victims. And contacted many people working at Wyndham, too;
I have sent complaints to;
Better Business Bureau Orlando.sba@bbb-email.org

tug@tug2.net tug@tug2.net
Federal Trade Commission.

www.timeshareconsumerbureau.com (They have the blog The Wyndham Timeshare Scam)
Pissed Consumer (they will publish your complaint)
The Disqus team
(Please avoid JH Grant. He promised to help me, but took my money and disappeared. Time Share Tricks, James Grant, 23098 Freddie Frank Rd, Pass Christian, MS 39571, USA)

Various people working at WYNDHAM
Emerald Grande Hotel (they sold points to me) Ed McMullen Jr. emcmullenjr@emeraldgrande.com
Cc: Johnson, Margaret Margaret.Johnson@wyn.com,
* Wyndham Panama City Beach
QA.CW. PanamaCity@wyn.com Thomas Fetzer, Quality Assurance Officer Wyndham Panama City Beach 14700 Front Beach Road Suite 3 Panama City Beach, FL 32413 Office- (850)-636-8222 Fax – (850)- 636-8239 Thomas.fetzer@wyn.com
dustin leonard@wyn. com dustin.leonard@wyn.com
* Wolford, Patrick Patrick.Wolford@wyn.com Senior Servicing Analyst Account Servicing Operations
Wyndham Consumer Finance, Inc. 10750 W. Charleston Blvd #130 Las Vegas, NV 89135 702-567-2994 (p) 702-304-4217 (f) patrick.wolford@wyn.com
Christopher.Dzierbicki@wyn.com Christopher A Dzierbicki Senior Case Specialist Owner Services Wyndham Vacation Ownership 6277 Sea Harbor Drive Orlando, FL 32821 O: 800-446-1466 EXT 630277 F: 407-626-6328 Christopher.Dzierbicki@wyn.com Monday-Thursday 8:00AM-5:30PM EST Friday 8:00AM-12:00PM EST
consumer finance at 888-739-4016.
Wyndhamcaresteam@wyn.com Justin.parker@wyn.com My office hours are Tuesday 9am-8pm, Thursday 9am-6pm, Friday 9am-8pm, and Saturday 8am-6:30pm (Eastern Time) Kind Regards, Justin Parker Wyndham Cares Specialist – Wyndham Vacation Clubs WyndhamCaresTeam@wyn.com

Michael D. Brown President & Chief Executive Officer
Wyndham Destinations clubwyndham@email.wyndhamvo.com
Media@wyn.com Media@wyn.com
servicerequest@wyn.com
Wyndham Destinations Attn: Ronald Singh (2nd Floor Owner Care) 6277 Sea Harbor Dr Orlando, FL 32821 407-626-6328 Singh, Ronald Ronald.Singh@wyn.com

Wyndham Nashville
Jennifer.Starkey@wyn.com Jennifer Starkey
615.681.2941 Jennifer.starkey@wyn.com Jennifer.starkey@wyn.com
“Sorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address Jennifer.Starkey@wyn.com”
Spite, Joseph Caleb Joseph.Spite@wyn.com “Sorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address. Joseph.Spite@wyn.com”
MBX - CIM Cisco Service svc-ciscoemail@wyn.com Quentin C. Owner Care Specialist 407-626-1817.
Wyndham Vacation Resorts Owner Care
* PTVO WynAG@wyn.com Amy Bornmann, Director, Club & Association Governance
Wyndham Vacation Clubs Wyndham Destinations, 6277 Sea Harbor Drive Orlando, FL 32821

Stockholm July 17th, 2019,

Jonas Bernholm

Wyndham Club Member no. 00203428443
Blekingegatan 25
11856 Stockholm
Sweden
Ph:+46-8-6426358 jonasbernholm@Yahoo.com
(2019-07-17) WYNDHAM Stock market failure (1023 words)
WYND (Wyndham Destinations) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It presents itself as a Timeshare Company and as a mother-company for the Wyndham Vacation Clubs. The Vacation Ownership segment develops, markets, and sells vacation ownership interests (VOIs)/(“Points”) to individual consumers; provides consumer financing in connection with the sale of VOIs” (by giving loans of 21 % interest). WYND recently spun off Wyndham Hotels (WH) .
WYNDs financial position is very weak. The booked value is negative (- 6,30 usd/share), and the investors have discovered that this hotel company is a house of cards, mortgaged above the chimney. If all assets are sold it will still be in debt. Total Debt is 5.46 billion dollars while the Market Cap is only 4.05 billion dollars (June 2019).
The stock price have plummeted during the last 18 months from 57.31 usd (January 2018) to 43.21 usd (June 2019) despite recommendation by stock market TV-guru Jim Cramer in June 2018,
Shareholders are disappointed and feel trapped. Stock price have to rise by 35 % to make market cap as large as the WYND debts. Value of assets have to increase.
It is alarming that WYND is in this position. In one respect their business model is brilliant. Members in the Vacation Clubs have been convinced and persuaded to make a very large one time advance payment – or take loans with an interest rate of 21% (sic) - to enjoy expensive vacations for the rest of their lives. The members also pay yearly maintenance fees despite the fact that the PVTO or “Condo association” is not the owner but that the ownership is in a “Trust”.
This one-time advance payment seems to be divided between the sales force and the Wyndham staff. No new property is then bought by money but paid for by points (the Wyndham vacation currency) which the sales force then will help the hotel or resort to sell to new members.
WYND desperately needs income. But when the down payment is made, Wyndham has no incentive to help us; the buyers – the Vacation Ownership owners - as the big payment has already been made. And Wyndham's Owners Care ignores us. Now, many of the members have sobered up and realized that they have invested their life savings in a dream and a bankrupt company.
And since the Target group and the present Club members are mostly senior, retired citizens, chances are very slim that this group will radically improve their finances and be able to make a onetime down-payment or even pay the interest and maintenance fees. After all, many had no savings when the contracts were signed.
Only a desperate and bankrupt company is as abusive towards new and old clients as Wyndham is. There are 900.000 members in the Wyndham Vacation Clubs. We invested our life savings or took a high risk loan at 21 % interest rate when we signed.
Wyndham desperately need new members. But the bad reputation of Wyndham and its sales process is all over the internet. It's all about lies and harsh treatment during a full day sales process when Wyndham tries every trick in the book to convince the buyers. A ruthless sales force have been engaged. They are willing to lie, cheat and threat and take a lot of money for their efforts. (The Club's offer to book a hotel room or flat one year in advance is very dated and does not suit a senior citizen. We have to wait until we are fit enough to travel; perhaps after a period when the cancer clinic have to be the first choice. Besides, via hotel booking sites you can order a room the same day and much, much cheaper).
It is sad to see that the stock market is not really aware that there are 1000s of unhappy Wyndham Club members and that this eventually will harm the stock market performance of both WYND (Wyndham Destinations) and the WH (Wyndham Hotel and Resorts) shares.
Still the WYND stock seems more vulnerable; as it's the motor behind what's on the net is called the Wyndham Timeshare Scam.
On June 5, 2018 TV personality Jim Cramer (CNBC “Mad Money”, the Street) invited Michael Brown, CEO of Wyndham Destinations (WYND) to his TV-show.
But Cramer didn't understand the true nature of WYND. He ought to have discovered that all assets were gone. And everyone could see that CEO Brown didn't look relaxed. Was he afraid that an unhappy Wyndham Vacation Club member might appear any minute as a surprise guest? Wyndham have caused many people economic disaster and is now even targeting senior citizens that don't have English as their first language.

Brown said that Wyndham is a pure-play on vacation time-share destinations, an industry that's as strong as ever. Today's vacationers want space, amenities and consistency, he said, and Wyndham caters to the everyday traveler, which is the market's biggest segment. In addition to allowing customers to lock in future vacations at today's rates, Wyndham also sees big opportunities in the secondary markets when timeshare owners decide to make their exits.
I worked for 10 years as a stock market reporter in Scandinavia's biggest stock market magazine called Aktiespararen.
I would not recommend anyone to buy any stock in WYND. It has a negative booked value of 6,3 usd/share. Technically it is bankrupt. Before the IFRS rules in book-keeping came into existence, the good-will value had to be depreciated every year. (Good will = brand value, plus the “over value” when a company is buying companies or assets above their booked value).
It is very rare to find a company these days with a negative value. Because the value of the company assets doesn't have to be depreciated every year as before.
I have never bought shares in a company that have a negative value. This goes totally against the recommendation of Benjamin Graham; Warren Buffett's mentor who taught Buffett how to invest. And WYND is a property company - Without property?
The shareholders and staff of WYND are in for a rocky ride.
Jonas Bernholm (jonasbernholm@Yahoo.com

Replies
Poor Reservations, Low Quality Room/ Amenities
StarStarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 2/51

BUFFALO, NEW YORK -- Wyndham is one of the four top national chain hotel companies. In the Buffalo New York Area, Wyndham has many locations and a great reputation. I'd like to know how the partnership between Super 8 and Wyndham works? Congratulations for outstanding service and point reward systems. I greatly appreciate the opportunities for points and reaping the benefits of becoming a platinum member. Wyndham locations overall pricing to competitors is very competitive and is typically at the lower end.
The location is typically popular among travelers no matter the day of the week. It is convenient for travelers going from Canada to an area just outside the city of Buffalo. Buffalo is a very diverse city, second largest in the state to New York City. The staff is well equipped and trained to help all travelers. The employees are very friendly and informative. Many of them are bilingual which is such an asset and accommodates a variety of people coming and going through the area.
In early August, I made a phone call to the Super 8 by Wyndham in Tonawanda, New York. I spoke with an employee and set up an agreement for a weekly two-night stays for a few months' duration. However, when I originally planned my weekly stays, I had requested to stay in the same room and to have a refrigerator in that room. The staff say that they cannot guarantee my reservation of the same room every time. I feel as though this is absurd and could have been arranged. I have given the same employee a written schedule of my stays, three individual times after our initial phone call in August. She still has no clue when I am coming or going though it is the same every week. After 13 weeks staying at the same location, I have yet to stay in the same room more than once. I'd like to know if this policy stands for all Wyndham locations?
Wyndham's reputation is the reason I chose to stay at this location. In the Buffalo New York Area, Wyndham has many locations and a great reputation. As a regular customer to Wyndham, I am curious how the affiliation of Wyndham and Super 8 works. The quality of the rooms is poor. Wifi rarely works with spotty connection in all the rooms I've stayed in. The faucets are not fixed properly to the walls, the tub drain stopper does not work and many of the rooms' windows do not lock. As a platinum member, I feel as though these cosmetic and functional defects are unacceptable quality for a place of “hospitality”. The security around the hotel is quite poor. There are only five cameras for a two-floor hotel with long parking lots. Just two of the cameras are for outside surveillance. As the Super 8 Pride Statement “Experience the best in quality, service, and overall guest satisfaction.” As a customer of Wyndham, I am confused as to how often a Wyndham official checks on the facility's quality. What are the room standards for a Wyndham location?
A major perk of becoming a member is the Wyndham customer loyalty rewards program. Congratulations for outstanding service and point reward systems. Earning points is done in a reasonable manner, though the appearance of the points into my Wyndham rewards seems to take an extremely long time. How long after checking out do the points then become visible on my account? I greatly appreciate the opportunities for points as well as bonus chances for getaways. However, I'd like for my concerns to be addressed by a management team member of Wyndham or Super 8 before I plan my next stay. Becoming a platinum member has encouraged me to write this letter with confidence that these issues will be addressed.

Replies
Wyndham Timeshare
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE -- My Wyndham failure
Newly arrived in the Florida seaside resort of Panama City Beach in early December 2017, I took an evening stroll and saw a sign saying Tourist Information.
I got information about sights and forthcoming events and then the male clerk said that he had an interesting offer to me.
If I wanted to attend an information meeting with breakfast at the nearby Wyndham hotel then I could have a free week at one of their facilities. The only thing needed was to pay 75 usd in taxes and fees. I negotiated these to 50 usd and paid it.
The meeting at Wyndham was led by Tom Aiello and Dustin Leonard became my assistant during the day.
Tom said that Wyndham had revolutionized the time-share industry. It was no longer about sharing an apartment with other owners. But to have access to a hotel room or apartment at maybe 70,000(?) different locations at the world's largest hotel chain - Wyndham. They had recently purchased RCI, where owners of apartments could submit their apartment and instead get access to everyone else's apartments all over the world. (Wyndham owned a number of other hotel chains such as: Ramada, Howard Johnson, Days Inn, Caesars & Harrahs and many more and they were highly rated ethically, etc).
A 1,5 hour information meeting soon became a full day sales session.
And by the end of the day, I was the owner of a Club Wyndham Silver membership that cost 58379 usd. I paid it through my American bank account.
I was given a contract that included 40 plus pages. I read it carefully. But it never said that I was also a member of RCI – which had been promised. This member ship was important as RCI had many vacation facilities outside of the USA.
I had ten days to cancel the agreement without penalty. And a day or two before the expiration period I met Tom Aiello and asked him about my membership with RCI. He said that I was a life long member with RCI.
I wanted to have more information about web pages, booking and how to find a way in the complicated network of Wyndham. It seemed to be a kind of patchwork where Wyndham had thought of everything except perhaps to make it easy for the members. There were also a lot of added fees that I wanted to avoid.
Dustin Leonard did not think I needed any extra training. After all, I had taken notes from the meeting, and seemed to know it all, he said.
He also said that spirits were high in the office and that they recently celebrated the success of recruiting many gold and platinum members in the past year.
Dustin helped me to book a week in Nashville in January 2018. (Only 6 days were booked initially and I had to extend it by one day….).
In Nashville, I was invited to attend a Wyndham “Owners Update” information meeting. I said yes because I did not yet feel fully learned.
This meeting was almost immediately transformed into a very intensive sales session. An Afro-German woman (born in Germany on a US military base) was in charge.
Many with military experience or raised in military families appear to work at Wyndham. They have experience from foreign countries and of large, hierarchical organizations. (Dustin Leonard had just finished military anti-pirate activities outside Somalia).
She thought I had an insufficient membership. For travelers with a focus outside USA the "Rewards" system was the best. And a gold membership would get me everything I wanted.
It became a long day. The light breakfast started at 10.45 am. And it was over circa ten hours later – without any more food being served meanwhile.
My US bank account had been almost emptied for the Silver Membership. Now the hard working Wyndham staff tried to find different ways to sell me 300000 points (Points is the Wyndham currency) to get an "everlasting" gold membership. My assistant this day was Jennifer Starkey. And the one who arranged the final contract was Joey Spite. 300000 points cost 46,779 usd. And after making a downpayment of 4704 usd I owed Emerald Grande/Wyndham 42,074 usd.
It became a loan with 16.99% interest. (or 735.67 usd/month) . They had done a "credit survey", but without contacting a Swedish credit research institute – (I have all my funds in Sweden). I was not satisfied with the “loan shark” terms. When I picked up a check from my American bank in my hotel room, to make a first installment, Jennifer Starkey followed me there, obviously worried that I would not come back but instead departing before the negotiations were completed.
However, if I made a full down payment of the loan within a month (latest February 9th 2018) there was not going to be any interest payments at all.
Back home again on February 1st, I immediately sent Wyndham, Las Vegas a 25,000 usd personal check and bought a “bankers check” of 20,773 usd that was sent by Deutsche Bank to Wyndham Las Vegas. (This included a final down payment of the loan plus 10 months of Wyndham Home Owners Association maintenance fees as my USA bank account otherwise might be emptied or even overdrawn).
The letter to Wyndham in Las Vegas with the 25,000 usd personal check also included information about my membership number and contract numbers from Panama City Beach and Nashville. And info about the 20773 usd check that was arriving by separate mail from Deutsche Bank.
On the 13th of February 2018 the 25.000 dollar check was cashed.
I had bought my 300000 points to get the Gold membership from the hotel Emerald Grande in the seaside resort of Destin, Florida. According to the contract, the debt would be transferred the same day (Jan 10th, 2018) to Wyndham, PO Box in Las Vegas. And Wyndham Las Vegas was supposed to collect the interest payments as well as the downpayments.
I was very surprised to see that that Emerald Grande on the 26 of February and March 26th and April 26th via an automatic payment plan took 735.67 usd per month in interest. Without deducting the 59 % down-payment of the loan (via the 25.000 usd personal check).
I was paying interest to Emerald Grande who no longer had anything to do with the loan / debt / interest according to the contract.
And they even took an interest on the full amount (42074 usd) without reducing for the 25,000 usd that had already been cashed in.
It was a total back office failure.
There seemed to have been no communication between Wyndham Nashville (that had written the loan contracts) and Emerald Grande and Wyndham Las Vegas.
And when I tried to contact Jennifer Starkey and Joey Spite in Nashville office via email, their email addresses had stopped working......
I had to start an investigation about what had happened to the 20773 usd check. I learned that this check had not been cashed. And Wyndham Las Vegas confirmed that they could not find this 20,773 usd check) - via a very short 3-line unsigned email message. In fact this was the very first sign of life after waiting for 2 months for a reply from Wyndham…. (This check had so far cost me 141 usd; (buying, investigating, killing).
3 parties were involved:
1) The Nashville office that was responsible for the terms and conditions
2) Emerald Grande who should not have any interest payments – but did.
3) Wyndham Las Vegas who had not booked my 25,000 usd down payment.
Meanwhile, I had to blacklist Wyndham / Emerald Grande at my US bank (E-Trade), and stop all interest payments. The money went to the wrong recipient. And it did not take into account the downpayment of my debt.
And even worse was that the interest payment of 735.67 usd/month was not at 16.99 % but at 20.98 %!! (12 monthly payments of 735.67 = 8828.04 usd and the initial debt was 42,074 usd. Which makes 20.98 % yearly). Someone in the Nashville office didn't even have a basic 4th grade knowledge of math! And Emerald Grande and Wyndham Las Vegas hadn't even noticed it.
The fact that Wyndham's back office was dysfunctional was further confirmed by RCI when it turned out I was not a member of RCI.
A helpful Wyndham employee at "Owners Care" promised to fix this immediately. But nothing happened and I had to remind him again. Finally after three reminders No. 1; in Panama City Beach in December, and No. 2-3 in February-March 2018, I became a RCI member.
I also tried to register my Nashville contract number to receive Electronic Statements. But it was impossible. But I could register the contract from Panama City Beach. (Is this another aspect of the “cover up” of the Nashville contract situation?)
* Wyndham's business model disadvantages the Wyndham Club members. Wyndham receives all payments in advance, or charges a very high interest rate. All effort is committed to selling membership and, afterwards, Wyndham's commitment has disappeared. All back office functions since then appear under-dimensioned, insufficient or avoided.
In addition, there is an unpleasant lack of respect for the customers. When Wyndham sellers have been successful they seem ashamed as they know the promises given will not be kept. So they avoid further contact with the customer. Like never respond to an e-mail. Or sending unsigned replies only, after months of waiting.
I also question Wyndham's ability to be able to supply what the customers are expecting. Comments on the internet talks about long waiting lists and that it's almost impossible to get what is wanted.
Has the business turned into a pyramid game where all employees are focused on selling memberships and get bonuses? And where the most popular resorts are never available.
After 3 months of waiting for a reply to my letters and messages I was finally contacted by Wyndham Las Vegas (Patrick Wolford) and Emerald Grande (Ed McMullen Jr). But it has been messages without substance. No promises or a plan. I have asked that the Nashville Contract should be terminated and money returned because Wyndham has broken so many of the contract terms. Instead I was recently transferred to “Owners Care” (Christopher Dzierbicki).
What I have experienced with Wyndham is similar to what I experienced when I examined Swedish listed companies as a financial journalist. The Swedish companies showing the same type of back office failures or customer dissatisfaction were usually bankrupt within a short time. Or the share price had collapsed.

Jonas Bernholm
(Stockholm, May 26rd, 2018, Sweden)
jonasbernholm@Yahoo.com

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I Won Free Prizes From Wyndham Resorts Vacations
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE -- I filled out one of those cards in the Mall that you drop in the box saying that you could win free prizes if your name is pulled. Of course, my name was pulled! Why? Because I wrote on the card that I make over $50,000 per year or more. They choose anyone that has a high salary. The person who called to tell me I was the winner of course had a ethnic accent, Hispanic, Ukrainian, Hindu, Asian or something, it was really difficult to tell on the phone.

I mean no disrespect to any of the honest people of those races and religions! It's just that corporate ** crooks in this country use your people to do these types of jobs because they know you want to climb that ladder of success in America.

Then I called them and spoke with a young ** kid, another of the upwardly mobile pigeons businessmen use in this country to deceive and trick people out of their cash! Long story short, I made the appointment to come to their seminar, though they never call it that! They just say "come get your prizes and we will have you out of here in an hour." I want them to think I am coming just to mess them around.

Hey, they are lying to people so I am returning the favor! Lol! They also ask you upfront to bring a credit card, and it can't be a debit card, it must be a credit card! They say they aren't going to need it, but you can't get the prizes without it! The prizes are supposed to be $4,000 of free air travel tickets and a $100 gift certificate to dine at some restaurants. I looked up the restaurant vouchers and you get redirected to so many sites trying to find which one will honor it, I never did find out where they would be good for!

The airline tickets have so many "subject to..." and "for participating only..." crap. You get the feeling that you will never be able to use them! It literally read like "fly anywhere in the world as long as it's from St. Louis to East St. Louis!" Lol! Some crazy stuff! And the worst part is, we live in a country that allows this scam! Wyndham Vacation Resorts isn't an obscure name. They are well known, so it isn't like it is a Nigerian scam that the government can't track down the crooks!

Don't go to their seminar folks! I'm not! But every time they call, I am going to reschedule and tell them I had personal emergencies come up, but that I really want to do it! I am going to make them think I am really a sucker. I am going to get them to a point of exhaustion and I am going to ask the girl who's trying to con me for sex! In fact, I am going to beg her! Moral of the story is, you ** yourself out for a dishonest company, then expect to be a real ** and go all the way!

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Devious and Untrustworthy
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

I learned a few things this past trip to Las Vegas on how Wyndham tries to sell you a timeshare. I will admit, at first I had an open mind for it. The more I listened to the presentation, the more it made sense. But let me walk you through how my experience went. First, when I checked into the Flamingo, I was greeted by a gentleman that offered to take me and my girlfriend to our room. In the way, he offered us some free Cirque du Soleil tickets or some other prizes.

Our curiosity got the best of us. While he presented us to a girl on the counter, where she explained that all we had to do was sit in a presentation for 2 hours, he asked for our IDs. I offered my military ID (a pretty legit federal ID might I add), which he wouldn't accept. So we gave him our driver's license. Unbeknownst to us, he was actually probably running a “soft” credit check on both of us. Which would explain why they offered her to fill out the paperwork and put me down as a guest.

So we go the next day to this presentation/meeting, and they pair us up with a person that has some “similarities” as us, from California. Funny part is that they pair everyone with someone to have some sort of connection. Hispanics with Hispanics, blacks with blacks. The presentation ends and it is time for them to SELL. So our salesman, Michael ** from San Diego, starts with what do you think, and yadda yadda. Funny thing is that he presents us first with a fictitious number in their system to figure out how long it would take to pay and how much we would “save” if we didn't take the offer.

Also, he would ask these funny questions like, “Is saving money something you would be interested in?" Even after showing us this luxurious suite with a view, he would ask, “Is staying in a place like this something you'd be interested in?” Just their tactic to keep you saying yes so you can get used to it. (I'll give it to them, they are very creative, even using monopoly money to show how it works - for the visual people). When asked if he had one, he gave us a story about how he travels for this company in which he plays in. I think if I would have rolled my eyes a little harder, they would have fallen off my face.

Anyway, we're both still a little skeptical, and besides, we went to Vegas to celebrate my girl's birthday, not to get in debt $26,250 with an extremely high-interest rate of 17.99%. I kept asking questions, to get these numbers out of him, and his response to me was, “With all due respect, the offer is for her. You are not even qualified for this.” I mean, this one cracked me up because all I was asking was questions that normal people would ask. Besides, I was SUPER glad that this was not something I qualified for. Well, at this point we were 2.5 hours into the whole deal and were completely irritated.

Don't just take my word for it, look at all the other reviews! Search ‘Wyndham timeshare reviews'. We didn't even ask if we could write a check for the whole amount, but I'm sure they wouldn't want to. Even though this clown said they are not a bank, I am sure that they would really enjoy the profits from that interest like a bank. On top of that, the guy giving the presentation mentioned that would not try to force you to buy, because they are already rich. They actually are. They own hotel and motel chains like Super 8, Motel 6, Howard Johnson, etc., but they sure want you to sign that contract.

Let me not forget, right when we were finishing, he asks her to fill out this form with her information and sign it. Of course she decided not to, but his response to her asking why she needed to was, “so we can track you”. I wish I was joking! First and last time we will take anything of some value for free. Think of it as a car dealership. The salesman is not your friend. He is trying to take as much money from you as he can. Watch out for these devious people. Just be careful, all that glitters is not gold.

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Issues With Timeshare
StarStarStarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 3/51

ORLANDO, FLORIDA -- In 2009 we purchased a Wyndham time share. Fortunately, we only bought 105,000 which kicks in every two years. Your out of pocket cost was about $10,000 and our yearly maintenance is only $250 per year... rather cheap versus quotations we have gotten when we attend their updates. This comes out to less than $1.00 per thousand shares. The most recent, two weeks ago, an effort was made to get us to upgrade our status to silver or gold. The additional shares would have cost $2.30 per thousand points. Of course we could have done even better had we gone to eBay and bought a package.

Personally, I think that one has to look at the opportunity cost that you are forgoing when you buy any timeshare and the lack of flexibility that you lose by being locked into such a package. In our case, the cost was pocket change and we have used it to our advantage, but not without extra fees, etc. We recently stayed at Wyndham's WorldMark hotel in San Francisco... right in the center of town. We basically had a hotel room but had to pay an extra charge of $100 to use WorldMark, part of the Wyndham group... something the sales people don't talk about.

Now, let's look at the opportunity cost of our package from a strict accounting standpoint. We were 62 when we bought this small package and will assume that we will use it until we are 78 years old... for a total of 16 years, every two years. We paid $10,000. Assuming that $10,000 was invested in a total stock market index fund, one should average a 6% RETURN over 16 years or $600 per year less perhaps 25% tax leaving about $450 per year return. Then we have our maintenance fee of about $250 per year (ours is very low... compared to the fees today that I see).

On top of that one has to assume that the timeshare is worth nothing at age 78... One has to either give them away from what we read. So over 16 years, we are using up $625 per year of that $10,000. Now, within that 16 year period, we will have eight opportunities to use our 105,000 since they only become available every two years.

When adding up our alternative investment return of $450 per year after tax, our maintenance fee of $250 per year and the $625 every year from our initial cost ($10,000 divided by 16 years) and converting that to our cost every two years and assuming that we are able to buy seven days from those 105,000 points every two years, our cost of lodging comes to $378 per night for those seven days! During the time that we have used our Wyndham package, I can honestly say that we would not have had to pay $378 for the comparable lodging that we had on four occasions but maybe close to that on one or two occasions.

Had we been buying the package presented to us in an update/sales presentation last week at $2.30 per 1000 points with higher maintenance fees, this per night cost would have probably doubled. That is what, in my personal opinion, each prospective buyer has to focus on... the potential cost per night based on not buying a time share. Numbers don't lie!!! Work the numbers and keep in mind that you are giving up the flexibility of going anyplace at any time and the constant phone calls, etc.

Then, of course are the extra fees such as we encountered last week using WorldMark that they don't talk about when you buy. They like to tell you that you have flexibility to go all over the world... but that is at an additional cost in many cases and requires long term planning and luck, especially if you don't have one of their priority packages in the silver, gold, and platinum category.

Last week we were asked how much we spend on vacations per year. I threw out $15,000. The salesman tried to imply that by upgrading to a silver or gold level we could save much of that... NOT TRUE at all. We would still have airline flights, travel insurance, car rental of far away from home, meals, etc... it just goes on and on. Lodging is just a small part of that $15,000 per year. He also told us 74% of Wyndham timeshare owners, like ourselves, have to stand in the back of the line when reserving since they are not in the silver, gold, and platinum category. Poor us!

I feel truly sorry for any younger couple who have to put themselves into debt to buy a time share. Our timeshare works for us every two years by paying for lodging but again, we could have bought comparable lodging out of pocket in most cases for less than the $378 per night plus it is costing us. None of the places that we have been able to book into could be considered five star resorts but some have been very nice. Please keep in mind again, that this is just my personal opinion based simply on our experience as an owner over the last six years.

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Poor Business Practices
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

ORLANDO, FLORIDA -- Last year I received a free cruise offer, one I had to pay upfront, and canceled it not long after I made it due to an emergency. They report the payment didn't go through, which is just as well because I didn't want to take it then. Well, I called to reschedule and for some reason the agent couldn't pull up the trip and this was about a month ago. She told me she would contact another department and have them email me about the offer. Sis is it was within 12 months and I should still be eligible to take the trip. I never heard from anyone. A month later, today, I contacted them again by phone and was told that the trip was expired on May 20.

Personally, I think this stuff is a total scam. Even when I went to book the trip the guy took like an hour and kept me on hold most of that time because I think they try to discourage you from using the trip but they just want you to sit in those presentations. I'll never sit in another Win the presentation again and I'll make sure everybody on my Facebook page doesn't e sis is it was within 12 months and us should still be eligible to take the trip. I never heard from anyone.

Furthermore, how do you give someone a so-called free trip and make them pay for it ahead of time? I should report this company to the Better Business Bureau because I actually canceled the trip and they told me that I could rebook it with Norwegian Cruise as long as it was within the 12 month. I tried and no one got back to me. Then when I called again, the agent said that the offer was expired, and I couldn't book the trip. Don't fall for this trickery! If they had contacted me back in time, it wouldn't have expired.

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Terrible/Unprofessional
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA -- Went to a presentation for Wyndham Timeshare in late 2016 in Myrtle Beach. This was the most horrible and terrible experience you could imagine. First let me say my weekend wasn't free. I did receive a discount hotel rate in exchange for attending a 90-minute timeshare presentation. When the 90 minutes was over, I wasn't going to buy and was ready to leave. Since they didn't sell me one they stated if I didn't stay and go through everything they wanted to say they would charge my credit card the full rate of the hotel at 350.00 per night.

Five sales people and 3 1/2 hours later when I still didn't buy they made all kinds of rude and unprofessional statements to me, such as "You just came for the discounted hotel rate", "You are doing a terrible thing for your family, not buying a vacation timeshare from us" and the list goes on. When I first arrived they wanted my ss#. I told them I didn't want to do that until I decided if I wanted to buy. They said they just keep it on file in case it's needed. I still said no and they said it was a requirement to continue or I would be charged.

Well they ran a hard credit inquiry which is a hit on your credit report, so they lied. Once I discovered that it made sense why they didn't want me to leave because they saw good credit and an income that could pay for a timeshare. I do have a membership to club Wyndham which I had before I went to this presentation where I get points when I stay at their hotels. I will NEVER stay at any Wyndham hotels again after this experience. There are many places to choose from and they won't be one of them.

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Got Screwed by Lying Sales People
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

SIERVERVILLE, TENNESSEE -- My wife and I bought into Wyndham in Orlando 126k points plus 2 years with additional bonus weeks of 174k. We book a trip to Tennessee and upon arriving are told we need to attend an owners breakfast. So we go and end up in another sales pitch and fast talking. We were told that we could the additional bonus points and could do surveys and use the card we had to change points to cash to offset the difference. All lies, after coming home we decide to cancel. Well the bank calls and says they need to verify some information and we inform them that we decided to cancel. She tells us that is no problem and that we will only have the original loan and payment.

Almost a month later we receive a bill on a different card for 29k and a payment of a thousand dollars. We call the bank and they say that they see where we cancelled but we had to call Wyndham. We call Wyndham and then informed we used the card as a down payment and because we did not send them anything in writing the loan and points were still charged to our account. There was never any mention of the card on top of the new payment for the points.

We tried calling our salesperson who gave us his number and had told us all these things he could help us with. Well he called back and guess what he had to look into it and for us to call him back. We did no answer. These people are all unethical and liars. Stay away from Wyndham or any other timeshare.

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Change in Booking Vacation Locations
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

FT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA -- In August 2019 me and my husband attended a Wyndham Vacation Club presentation. I had been called the year before by them and was offered 3 nights at a hotel for 159.00. In addition, I was offered a $200 Amex gift card for attending. I booked my flight and attended the presentation in their new resort near Deerfield Beach. We were greeted by a saleswoman who at first was very nice and friendly. She spoke for about 3 hours. When I kindly advised that we weren't interested her attitude changed and she became rude and nasty and said we wasted her time.

We then spoke to someone else. We like the program but we were not interested in buying and becoming owners. We then were offered the trial discovery package for for about 1/5th of the cost with no fees. They give you 400,000 points to use in 2 years. We purchased and so far I was able to book 3 vacations with 1/2 my points left. So far so good.

Now we went to our first vacation on 10/13 and was advised we would have to attend 1 presentation and no more for the rest of our membership. Now we are told that they changed the program and the resort in Puerto Rico that we attended which is a Margaritaville I can only use during off season. This property will only be used for VIP owners. I advised that this was not told to me when I purchased in August and I should be grandfathered and use anytime and they said no. I would have to upgrade and become a VIP owner. This company is very dishonest and has very bad selling tactics. I would not recommend purchasing.

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Wyndham Hotels Rating:
Star Empty star Empty star Empty star Empty star
1.2 out of 5, based on 41 ratings and
49 reviews & complaints.
Contact Information:
Wyndham Hotels
P.O. Box 4090
Aberdeen, SD 57401
877-999-3223 (ph)
www.wyndham.com
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