Complaint Review: Worldmark by Wyndham

My list of grievances and complaints is long and I hardly know where to start. This will not be a complete list. I will start with the purchase of the Discovery Program. I purchased it for $3000 and for a two-year test run. The salesmen told me I could try it out and that pricing for the upper tiers of ownership would be frozen until the end of the Discovery Program. I used it for the first time about six months later. I had to attend a sales pitch while there and the salesmen pressured me to buy a full membership at that time or lose the “frozen” prices. I declined and had to sign a statement that I understood the benefit pricing would not remain in effect for the remaining 18 months of this program. The Discovery Program salesmen lied to me about fixed prices. Or they omitted the scenario if I was offered an upgrade and refused the price promise would no longer be valid. Either way, the valuable promises to me evaporated.

The next very important point has to do with my wife’s emotional support dogs. The salesmen told us that these dogs are considered service dogs and that there was no problem bringing them with us anywhere. They told us that the dogs would be welcome at any resort. That is not true. I tried to make reservations for Steamboat Springs and the staff there told us that the dogs would not be allowed on the property. I had to make reservations at a local La Quinta instead. Tell me why I should continue to pay for something that the salesmen lied about. They knew the importance of the support dogs and they also knew that most resorts didn’t accept them.

In May of 2017 I purchased an upgrade under extreme stress and again because of the lies and omissions of the salesmen. I made it clear to the salesmen that I had a VA appointment that I could not miss. They assured me there was plenty of time to do the presentation and close. I told Shane about the horrible experience I had had with the Discovery Program and how the salesmen had made promises that they didn’t keep. I asked if the original prices could be reinstated if I bought that day; Shane assured me this was so. I asked for a list of pet-friendly resorts; they assured me that would follow. It has not. They opened up a Barclaycard for us to use for the down payment. They told me if I used this card for the monthly payments and maintenance fees I would get a lot of points toward my annual fees.

When I got my statement I saw that there were no rewards points on it (from the down payment) and digging through my paperwork afterward I saw that the down payment does not qualify for points. At the end of this presentation, I was so stressed about missing my appointment I rushed through everything. The salesmen and finance person, Jeanette Ochoa, knew very well how important this appointment was and purposely kept me there until there was no solution but to sign everything as fast as I could or miss the appointment and so push back my claim decision for up to a year. I signed whatever they put in front of me and literally ran out of the office. I took the salesmen at their word and signed everything, believing they had told the truth. I find they didn’t. They lied and omitted very important aspects of the ownership, and forced me into signing so quickly – something I told them over and over I didn’t want to do. I told them I would come back the next day to finish up; they wouldn’t hear of that. I am absolutely certain that I want nothing more to do with WorldMark. The promises about the timeshare have been unfulfilled and the sale was done under fraudulent conditions.