Complaint Review: Fairfield Resorts Grand Desert Resort Las Vegas NV - Orlando Florida

Ok, first of all, Michael from anytown, NY. Cendant does not own MOTEL 6 - Accor Hotels does. If you were an employee, then you would know that. As a former employee, I will say that there are certain facets of Fairfield (now known as Wydham WorldWide) that are, to say the least, deceptive. Having worked for them, I will say that they are trying to revamp their image of the "typical" time share salesman. The one bit of advice I can give is: stay on top of them, and if that doesn't work go above and beyond the people you have already spoke to. At some point, you will reach the 'right' person to handle the situation. Cendant has had a history of this type of behavior, but they have come a long way.

Greetings all, first of all I would like to state that I am an owner with Fairfield as well as an employee. I was just reading the above comments and I agree... to some dagree but would like to add a comment or two if thats okay with you folks. I have been working in the industry for a year and a half, and have enjoyed it. The staff I am with is small and like family, and we are about honesty and intregity. Now I can only speak for myself and this staff... the part that drives me nuts are the sales staff (at Fairfield or ANY OTHER COMPANY) that DONT beleve in ethics. Those sales agents make me look worse then a guatamalan drug dealer trying to sell used cars. The part I am having a hard time looking past is why FF has over 500,000 families. If there are that many, then someone somewhere is doing their job correctly... This industry is like any other, if you recieve a bad experience then you are going to become a critic.. sad part is, it only takes once. So, my advice... use your own judgements, and if you take a tour to get all that free stuff (trust me.. we ALL do it) hopefully you will fall into the hands of an ethical and honest rep. There arent many, but we do exhist. Just to let you know... I keep in contact with every single one of my owners, and they couldnt be happier.. best part is... I was truthful and up front.. imagine that. Well, I probably didn't help much, but I wanted to let you folks know that there are good people out there. Cheers

I've been timesharing for three years now. I resent the lies and omissions the sales staff make. I also feel the purchase price is too high, especially since priority is given to rental units (not owner rental but resort rental)over owner exchanges in a number of cases, and since many times I can often RENT a unit at the resort for not much more than maintenace fees (I haven't been to resorts with low fees, so I apologize to those who take exception to my statement). I also don't like the fact that resale buyers are excluded form many perks at their resort. Think of it this way: When I sell my unit, it is worth less since perks I get will not be available to the new buyer. I can also be considered the liar if I tell a buyer the perks I get, then they find out they're not eleigible because they're a resale buyer. Now the good news, with diligent learning, patience and planning I have successfully used RCI to exchange over a three year period to Pahio Bali Hai on Kuai in September, Carraige House in Ontario (near Toronto) in October, Pacific Palasades near San Diego CA in April, {forgot name of Gold Crown Resort} in Saint Martin in the Carribean in October. Three of these resorts were awesome and one was great. I do have difficulty with summer exchanges but have noticed a lot of last minute places in Hawaii and elsewhere I would love to go if I had the time. In conclusion, it pays to read all the confusing docs. Take notes. DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU'RE TOLD. READ, READ, READ. If they won't put it in writing, don't believe it. I've walked from a few deals I really wanted because sales staff wouldn't put their assurances in writing and in most cases I found out later I made the right decision. The only regret I have is I worked a deal with Vacation Village at Weston to convert all 3 of my units from weeks to RCI Ponts for $3,000 total (these are all 86,500 point units) but I read a section of the contract where is said I had to renew after three years. Verbally they told me there would not be a renewal fee, but when I asked for it in writing they refused. There probably will never be a renewal fee, but do I want to take that chance? No way, especially not since the standard conversion fee is $3,000 per unit (they say $5,000 but appear to always come down to $3,000 at that resort).

I am glad to see more people reading this website. Yes, Michael, there is plenty of fine print in your companies contracts, which are full of legalese and tricky terminology that the average person would not suspect they are being scammed. We were given over twenty pages of documents to read and sign. sorry I'm not a lawyer so I didn't completely understand all of it. But at no time did anyone tell us we would have to book at least a year in advance to get a reservation, in fact we were told we could book anytime especially at our home base whee we bought. The fact is these companies are so seriously overselling these time shares that they are intetionally trying to keep owners away, so they can sell to new unsuspecting victims. I wish I had the time to rip them off like the gentlman above, but I work a nine to five and only have a limited number of days for vacation. Which is why I bought this scam. they promissed it would be easier than booking a regular vacation. This industry is full of lies and deceit. My suggestion to all is just say NO. Timeshare = NO.

Thanks so much for your informative response that people don't read the fine print. I also never claimed that I was hurting Cendant. I could careless about Cendant or if they are happy or not. I'm merely saying that you can stick it right back to these companies that DO lie to people during sales presenations. They DO lie, oh yes it's true, They DO! They will tell you anything and everything to get you to buy the product...starting with "Today only, sales incentive." complete crap there. I have went the same Fairfield sales presenation within 3 months and guess what...same "today only" offer. This = LIE! They tell you there are no fee's outside your maintance fees, they dont' tell you about the maid credits you get and if you run out, you pay morning money This = LIE! They tell you that if you buy off the secondary market you will never get to use the points because Fairfield doesn't recongize them. FALSE. I have 2 vacations now during prime season, never been had a problem. This = Lie! They tell you if you buy off the secondary marked you don't get all the VIP benefits. This is true, but they try to tell you the VIP benefits are worth the FULL RETAIL price of purchasing more points. This = LIE! SO, yes people don't read the fine print. Yes people buy stupid crap they do not need because they are "sold" But MANY MANY people are lied to and sold on false pretenses which is WRONG! Yes Yes Yes, Cendant is so big and they own everything, and I'm not hurting them...blah blah blah. I never said I was hurting them, I simply have other ways to pay for maintance fees and then some other than what the sales people tell you.

First of all, to the commentator from Minnesota - Days Inn didn't sell your info to Fairfield Resorts. Days Inn is part of Cendant Corporation - as is Fairfield Resorts. You gave your info to Days Inn, which distributed it free of charge to another part of the company. Cendant also owns Ramada Inn, Howard Johnsons, Travelodge, Super 8, Motel 6, Wyndham Hotels, Avis and Budget Rent-A-Car, Cheaptickets.com, RCI, TrendWest, and others that I'm probably forgetting. If you're traveling, one way or another you're pretty likely to be giving your money to Cendant at some point. To the gentleman from Ohio who's the career timeshare tour taker - you don't think Cendant is aware of this? Congrats on understanding how to use the system, all the way down to buying from panic sellers on e-bay - more power to you, you are one of those who understands the value of taking vacations. At the end of the day, you're not hurting Cendant - the goal is to put heads in beds, and if your head is in a Cendant bed, then mission accomplished. Maintenance fees are disclosed in the contracts that are signed the very first day you meet with the salesperson. It's right there in writing. The system does work the best for those who plan vacations far in advance or at the last minute. If you're planning at your home resort, the one to which you are actually deeded, you can book 13 months to 10 months in advance without any other owner or public interference. Your home resort is also listed in your contracts. If you buy a slow week at a low-demand resort (I'm thinking January in Wisconsin), and think you're going to get to Florida or Hawaii in July, then you're dreaming - you won't have enough points. I would suggest that those who complain about the system not doing what they think it's supposed to do actually open up their ownership materials and read the first several pages in the Fairfield Resorts directory, where it explains Advanced Reservation Priority, Express Reservation Priority, Points, Maintenance Fees, Taxes, etc. Then pull out your paperwork and actually read what you signed.

First off, for all of those people that have fell victome to these rip-off artisits, I pity you I really do, it's very sad that even the slightest bit of intelligence would allow us to even think we would be getting something for the THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of dollars these people charge for this stuff. Second, I am a Fairfield owner....why? Because I vacation enough to use what I bought for the price. I bought 154,000 points of EBAY, as a right to use deeded in Mexico (you can't own deeded property in Mexico and live in the US) for a 20 year lease. Now I bet your all thinking....I got ripped off. WRONG! I paid 850.00 Cash plus a couple of hundred in closing costs for it. RESELL RESELL RESELL!!! don't ever pay full price for something. You have to learn to con the con! Go to the time share presenation, but do it for cash!!!! Me and my wife like to go to Gatlinburg, we live about 4hrs away and we go down, stay with a few relatives and take 2-3 days and do nothing but 3 to 4 time shares presentations a day, what we walk away with is 2-fold! CASH!!! Hundreds of dollars!!! 3 days of 3 time-shares a day = about 700.00 PLUS - we get the knowledge of just how these people are ripping people off, but not ripping us off, we're getting them! We leave with cash and knowledge about one of the oldest scams in history - timeshares! Of course their resorts are nice, and who wouldn't want to stay there, but for the money they want - forget it! But what if you could get there 22,000 time share for 800 bucks! Just goes to show you what it's really worth. Oh yea I pay 550 a year in maintance fees...but not really...guess who pays that? Thats right the time share companies when I sit through a few prensenations! We usually pillage and rape Gatlinburg and Branson and I would say between the too, we've added an extra 2500-3000 a year income, not bad for a few 90 time periods. Oh, and I do mean 90 minutes...why would you let them keep you for 2-3 hrs...your paper you sign when you give them your deposit plainly says A 90-MINUTE PRESENATION, so hold them too that..."Nope I'm sorry your 90 minutes is up, we're not interested." People are starting to catch on though..I remember a couple in Branson, MO that seemed to be at every time-share presenations we did, doing the exact same thing. "oh, your waisting your vacation time." you say? Nope, up at and at the first one at 8am...last one ends at 2:30-3:00...WHAT have I wasted...a morning of stuffing my face with donuts for stuffing my pocket with cash. And I have the rest of the day to enjoy my vacation....FREE! I hoping to get to Orlando soon...The Mecca of the Time Share industry...I could do some series damage down there...I bet I could easly hit 1500 in 3 days! The point I'm trying to make with my esentric post is that if your tired of having these idiots rip people off...and thats exactly what they are doing, selling something for 10's of thousands of dollars, knowing in reality, people are selling the same thing for less than a 1000 dollars, then do something about it!!! Rip them off! I'll have my Time Share for 19 more years...and in that time I'll never have to pay a maintance fee ever, and I'll make more than enough money to pay for any d**n fee they'll ever try to charge me.

Tonight I received a call from #954-935-4440. The man stated he was working for Fairfield Resorts and had received my name for staying at DaysInn last summer. He said I was now a valued customer (Basically, Days Inn sold my phone # to this company/scammer. This became quite obvious as our conversation progressed). He said he had a great package deal to tour one of their new resorts only available in Wisconsin or Missouri. He quickly got to the chase and asked for my credit card number to "seal the deal." Coincidentally, I had just been to the Better Business Bureau website yesterday, which warned of people calling and trying to sell vacation packages and attempting to secure credit card numbers as a scam. I politely told the man that I was not in any way going to give away my credit card number over the phone. He then pressured me to go online to their "official" website, fairfieldfun.com, to assure me that they were not scammers. I asked for his name and a 1-800 number for their company. I was then transferred over to another man, who also would not give me a 1-800 number but said that it did exist. I told him that I was moving and would not be able to go to their "special" resort tours in Wisconsin or Missouri. He then told me that was no big deal, because there were many other states that I could do this in. Basically, the story kept changing to fit my needs and they repeatedly asked for my credit card number, so I finally just hung up. I just wish that I would've asked them to take me off their calling list. I then checked it out online and of course, the ripoffreport website is the best for that! I just want to make sure if anyone gets a call from #954-935-4440, tell them to take them off your list and hang up.

My husband and I just returned from Las Vegas. We sat through the Grand Desert Resort timeshare presentation in exchange for dinner and a show. We are not interested in purchasing a timeshare at this time for various reasons, but may do so in the future. It is good to know that resales are so cheap, and we will probably buy from a private owner. Nonetheless, I cannot say we were treated badly, or that there was high pressure. The salesperson was pretty laid-back, and while I would say he was persistent, he was not rude or pushy. In fact, the salesman's manager came over and asked us point-blank if we felt uncomfortable or pressured during the presentation. One complaint I am seeing about Fairfield is about the maintenance fee. The salesman was very clear up front that there would be a monthly maintenance fee. It goes by fast, so some people might miss it, but he did show it to us in writing. Apparently, there may also be state/local taxes in some places. At any rate, we said thanks but no thanks, shook hands, and went off to have our dinner and show at the Harrah's Hotel Casino. I hope this is helpful. (And neither I nor my husband work for Fairfield or any affilated company.)

Sorry Candie but being smart in this case means not buying timeshares period. Having been dupped into this scam I have researched this business and found a number of discrepancies. First, timeshares sell you on the idea that you are buying vacations today at todays prices and locking in the price. The truth is any vacation involves at least three parts, 1. transportation, 2. lodging, 3. food. With timeshares you are only buying one third of the package. And your lucky if you like the package after it is done. As most people find out once you sign on the dotted line you are locked in, like it or not. This is not smart, especially when you are dealing with an industry whose number of complaints are among the highest of any industry. There are so many better deals out there than timeshares and you get much better treatment when you pay as you go. If you don't like a place you can always stop going there, and not be penalized. With timeshares your stuck. And as most people find out, when you go to sell your time share you never get what you paid for it. In fact, go on e-bay and check the prices for currently selling timeshares. It all adds up to RIP-OFF. Just say no to timeshares and enjoy your money. MIKE

My husband and I own with Fairfield...have for about three years as of this week plus the year before this was members of their Discovery Plan(a trial plan)! We upgraded to more points and a different location this past Feb. and have had little problems or complaints. I can tell you that even if you pay cash upfront for your Purchase with Fairfield, as long as you own with them you WILL have maintance fees (that they usually bill monthly) and those vary depending on which Property you purchased with and the $63.00 a month that you are speaking about sounds like those Fee's...that is about what ours is! It is true that in the first year of owning with Fairfield that it can be very hard to get a reservation...that is mainly because you do not have that 10 to 13 month window to reserve. We had the same problem our first year of ownership. After the first year if you book just as soon as they allow...either 13 months or ten...you will have very little problems booking exactly what you want. The first year we were not able to go where we wanted (the beach...which is always in high demand) we were able to take a very nice week long trip to Branson, MO. Since then we have taken LOTS of trips to places we like to go(Destin, Orlando, Daytona, Myrtle Beach, we even gave my parents a trip to Nashville, as well as a couple of other Anniversary trips to TN for me and my hubby)...have even been able to take one last minute trip that we reserved within 30 days of the trip. It is very easy to check availability online. All but two of the trips I have scheduled 10 months in advance. I was even able to Bank some points we knew we would not use this year and was able to use those points with next years points to reserve Two 3 bedroom cottages in Myrtle Beach in June where we can take our parents and siblings on Vacation with us...a nice treat for the whole family! And NO....I do not work for Fairfield in any way and I do have a few complaints....it is true they are Very High pressure....but we have had worse. One thing that bothers me is that ALL of the Fairfield resorts have a certain amount of rooms that they reserve just for the Paying Public and whereas they can have rooms available...if they book their quota for Fairfield Owners(which for some high demand resorts is small)...they will not allow you to book a room reserved for the pay-by-the-night guest unless you pay-by-the-night! That one really irks me!! And even as owners we have had some sales people talk down to us and one that somewhat reprimanded us after we bought into one of the resorts that was not in High Demand...the trick is....the lower in demand...the lower the costs for a higher number of points and the lower the maintance fees...and some states you are required to pay property tax for owning with them and some you don't(Florida requires Property Tax which is completely seperate from Fairfield)! Don't let them bully you and don't take their crap and it can actually be a good thing. For the most part we are VERY Happy. We take an average of three trips a year including at least one full week...sometimes two. We don't have to worry about having all the money upfront for accomadations when we get ready to go on vacation which gives us more money for fun...most cases you have a Full kitchen and washer and dryer(a FANTASTIC bonus)...they will give you a free gift(Usually a dinner gift certificate) if you go and talk with them whenever you are staying at a resort although you tend to get some of the same High Pressure crap to upgrade...but we have received many nice free dinners this way as well as attraction and movie tickets. Oh and VIP status is ONLY for those who have a certain amount of points(300,000+ annually)....all you have to do is read the info they give you to know that!! Just read the info and FINE print BEFORE you sign...it is all there...don't take them at their word...read it for yourself!! We did that and by reading all the fine print and taking our time and standing firm on how much we were willing to pay and what we wanted we actually got a better offer(more points...less money). You just have to be smart!

Jackie, I did try to contact the sales person one month after buying this thing. It seems he was let go a few days after the sale. This is a high turnover field, I understand. Which is why so many people are dissatisfied shortly after being dupped into signing. Now tell the truth Jackie, don't you work for Fairfield? Mike

Aloha Mike, Yes, timeshare representations are not always truthful. Examples: 1. I was talked into upgrading to a four-bedroom New Year's week at Westgate Lakes in Orlando, FL. The sales manager enthusiastically told us that since this is a holiday week, not only is this a red week, it's redder red, which would mean our exchange request would have greater strength with the exchange company. Well, even though my week was a redder red, I could not find an exchange in Hawaii for my niece's wedding even though the exchange request was made a year in advance. When I asked the International Interval representative about redder red, her response was huh? 2. The sales rep assured me that I would be able to purchase a fixed week and fixed unit even though the building was set up for floating time. My contract indicates I own a Fixed Week and Fixed Units. I confirm, show up, and other people are already in my units. How can that be? I own fixed I say. The front desk agent replies, No, the whole building is designated floating. Unfortunately, once you've signed their documents and by the time you realize there were misrepresentations but missed the 10-day rescission deadline, more than likely you are simply stuck. There's no warm, fuzzy feeling toward any resort, no matter how nice otherwise, once you realize you've been had. Also, as you've experienced, customer service is not a high priority with some of these timeshare companies. It is all about the sale.

We have purchased 3 timeshares with Fairfield Resorts and are extreamly happy with them. We have vacationed at Royal Sea Cliff (Kona Hawaii) OutRigger Reef at the Beach (Waikiki),and Kingsgate at Colonial Williamsburg, VA. We also used RCI to go to the Grand Mayan in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. This has been over a period of a little less than 2 years. We have confirmed reservations for Kona Hawaiian Village (Kona, Hawaii), Durango and Pagosa Springs, Co., and Orlando, Florida all in the next 6 months. We have always been able to get the time we desired with the exception of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. If you are having so much trouble, maybe you should consult your original sales person.