Complaint Review: CLUB INTRAWEST - Vancouver British Columbia

While on a ski vacation in March of 2009 we purchased a Club Intrawest 3 night/4 day stay for $199 to come back during
March of 2010. It was understood that because of the huge discount we would be required to attend a 90 min presentation of how Club Intrawest operates. At no point were we told that this was about timeshare, or that they would be trying to sell us a timeshare.

When we arrived in March of 2010 we were introduced to a Nick Galbraith. Our son stayed at the child care facility they
had available. Mr. Galbraith proceeded to take us on a tour of the property itself, lasting 25 minutes; whilst the rest of the presentation lasted over two and a half hours. This was WELL OVER the 90 minutes which we were promised.

At one point in our tour we stopped at a wall showing all of the Club Intrawest properties; some of which were the Hilton
Grand and the Sea World locations in Florida. At this time Susan asked Mr. Galbraith if they had the Polynesian Resort in Disney as well. He intentionally lied to us when he said yes we have access to a wide rand of Disney resorts which you can use at any time. He intentionally omitted telling us that we need to be a part of the Extraordinary Escapes program to take advantage of this feature; which we later found out was an extra $139.

We then proceeded to the games room and then to their in house theatre to watch a movie. It was explained to us that
buying a timeshare was a long term investment. It was only known to us after our purchase that our timeshare/points system was not an investment but in fact a depreciating asset with little to no value. 

Mr. Galbraith also misled us in regards to the other timeshares we could use. He stated that Intrawest was affiliated with
companies like RCI and Hilton Grand Vacations. It is obvious to us now that Mr. Galbraith was using our inexperience with the timeshare industry to mislead us to believe that RCI and Hilton were in fact a part of Intrawest.

He also tried to entice us by offering incentives. Mr. Galbraith said he would give us two free weeks of vacation to
use at ANY time. Our final decision was to purchase 160 points because he said we would be guaranteed at least one week at 110-120 points AND book a last minute get away with our remaining 40-50 points. This was intentionally exaggerated along with the ability to take a two week vacation ever year. Mr. Galbraith also informed us that there
would be yearly maintenance fees of $1092.80 which we were fine with. However, what he intentionally omitted was the fact that these maintenance fees would increase yearly, which we soon realized. Also, we have now seen that the $600
fee for document processing was really for the notary.

During the signing of documents we were introduced to Gerard Belanger, who was to walk us through booking our first
vacation when it was time. We soon learned that it cost more points to use Intrawest properties than using the RCI properties. In some cases we would have to use almost all of our points just to book one week at a Club Intrawest
resort, leaving us with no points for a second week.

In August of 2010 we began to look at Disney properties because we were planning a trip to Animal Kingdom. Per Mr. Galbraith we needed to book Disney resorts six-eight months in advance. Because of this we called later in August, the 12th to be specific, to book dates in March; seven months BEFORE. At this time we were introduced to a man named
Jerome because Mr. Belanger was no longer available. This is when we found out how this program truly worked.

We were told in order to stay at Disneys Animal Kingdom we would have to book through RCI which can only be reserved
through Intrawest for an additional $20 PER night. Also, we were told that we would have to wait for a Disney timeshare owner to give up one of their weeks to be able to use it. This was NEVER explained at the presentation. Susan and I
quickly realized that we bought a $30,000 timeshare with no guarantees of our desired location. Jerome assured us that since we were booking so far in advance an opening would become available. As frustrated as Susan and I were we
decided to go ahead with the search in hopes of a happy ending. By November we had still not received an update on availability. So Jerome assured ONCE AGAIN that although nothing was available at that time we should not worry as we
would receive confirmation soon.

By January, not receiving any confirmation, we were mad! At this point we still needed to get the days off from work, book
flights, and reserve a rental car. Most importantly we didnt want to end upwith nowhere to stay two to three weeks before we were to arrive.

On January 4, 2011 we talked to a woman named Kathy. This time around we received a little more truth. Kathy told us
that it would be difficult to book Disneys Animal Kingdom especially at that time of year. We were quick to tell her we had been trying since August and she recommended that we widen our search to include additional Disney properties.
Susan and I were beginning to see our vacation to Animal Kingdom slipping away.


At this exact time we requested to cancel our membership which was immediately denied, Kathy said, you cannot cancel
your membership because its like a piece of real estate and you are now legally bound. I explained to her that my wife Susan and I had purchased a product in which does NOT work the way it was promised. At no point were the
benefits promised delivered. Although we were given 7 days to rescind our contract we were not allowed to book dates until May 1, 2010, due to this how could we have known how this product truly worked?

In an attempt to salvage some sort of vacation we gave in and widened our search to include SEVEN more Disney resorts.

On January 6, 2011 we spoke to a Helen and pleaded our case again. Again, we were told the same thing as by Kathy. We were then transferred to Angela where we were met with the same response. We were extremely frustrated and still are. We had made this purchase in good faith only to find out it does not work as stated.

On January 7, 2011 we spoke to a woman named Melissa. She told us that there was nothing available for any of the
seven other properties we requested. It continued to become more and more evident that our chances of getting into the properties we were guaranteed were slim. So in a last ditch effort we asked Melissa what was available. This is
when we were introduced to a few properties in Orlando, which were not Disney properties. We had to settle for a Vacation Village resort for 2 weeks from March 5- March 19. Due to this we booked the rest of our trip including airfare, rental cars, etc.

Upon arrival we realized that even more misrepresentations were made to us. At the time of sale we were told that ALL
resorts available would have a full kitchen; this however did NOT have a kitchen. We were also appalled that we had to pay for internet at a resort.

Although we enjoyed our trip to Disney itself we were extremely disappointed with Intrawest and the substandard
service we received from them. They painted a picture in which they could not provide.

Prior to this, we tried booking on short notice, as suggested. Susan and I tried on two separate occasions to reserve the last week of August 2010. Our intention was to take a weekend in Lake George, New York and could not get a reservation. Our second attempt was to stay in Mont- Tremblant the second week in February 2010 for a one night stays. This is when we realized we couldnt even book only one night. Because of this we had to book two nights leaving us borrowing 24 points from our next year. This was grossly disappointing to us as during the presentation Mr. Galbraith assured us we could travel to Mont- Tremblant for only $75 in cash Or points. This was obviously not true since all we wanted to do was use up our remaining points for 2010 and ended up using points for 2011.

LAUREN