Westgate Resorts

As a single gal, I purchased a timeshare being led to believe that as a Westgate Resorts owner, I could form a travel business (Jackie's Vacays), buying and selling additional weeks worldwide, for a fraction of the cost that the general public pays.

They call the program "WestGate Cruise & Travel" which although uses the name Westgate, is a completely separate entity.

It is purposely misleading that they use the same name for a corporation in Arizona that has nothing to do with Westgate Resorts.

When I stayed at a subpar resort, for their "$399 getaway vacation", the cost ended up $178 higher to due additional Resort and cleaning fees.

Upon questioning the Westgate Resorts sales team, their reply was that "we don't know nor regulate how Westgate Cruise & Travel operates".

That is a completely different perspective than they gave us during the 4 hour sales pitch.

I NEVER want to stay at a Westgate Resorts property. I feel lied to and duped.

I'm told it's a deed, which I can't transfer (although at this point I would not do that to another person anyway), until the $15k unit is paid off and even then they have the right to refuse the sale AFTER the paperwork is drawn up.

This policy is also beyond what anyone can imagine as fair.

These practices are so deceptive that I can't believe the United States government allows this.

Thousands of people like myself are in a financial hardship as a direct result of Westgate Resorts.

Hopefully someone can stop these evil people, before more lives are ruined.

Westgate resorts needs to be investigated for unethical practices. We were scammed in 2011 and don't understand how it still continues a decade later. How are there thousands of complaints filed and several class actions representing 100s of owners yet it still continues? Westgate's modus operandi is to deny deny deny, they have nothing to lose

We have spent a lot of money with this company, Westgate. The reps told me that to remove my ex-wife from my account I would have to purchase a new account. They told me I would have to combine both accounts into one and purchase a new account at an amount of nearly 30, 000 dollars. I have found out since then I could have removed my ex-wife from the account by simply removing her by contract since I was "awarded" the timeshare in the divorce. I was told by the company that my timeshare would be double that amount in value when that is also not true you can sell these timeshares for a dollar on eBay. I went to Florida in person to again talk to Westgate, this is when they told me they could not assist me in removing her even after I was making all of my payments they had no care to help me other than putting me into a whole new account to remove her. I had no choice but to geta new account this is when things got really screwed up they were supposed to merge my account into one I was told just to get this new account and they would take care of cancelling out the other account. This was not done correctly either so now I had two accounts that I could not afford and not any closer to removing my ex-wife from the first account. Westgate was supposed to make this into one account but all they cared about was making more money and no concern that I was struggling on making both payments on those accounts. This business does not treat their customers with respect the way they should if they would have done this right in the first place I would not have had to take care of three accounts. The only time this was fixed was when I came to Florida again for a third time, this time they sold of both of the other accounts and removed my ex from the account. This left me with a huge payment because I once again had to purchase this new account to straighten this all out and I had no interest in starting all over but I could not afford two accounts along with making the yearly property taxes on both. I should have never had to get 3 accounts just to make this go away and keep spending more money that I did not have. This started out at nearly 8000 dollars and now it is over 30000 dollars total I have put into these accounts. This is something I have had a lot of stress over for my family and a company like this should not be doing this to customers. Westgate has done nothing but lie to me about the steps on this. I should not be paying for Westgate employees sales people mistakes.

The State of Florida protects the interests of business' over those of consumers.

Caveat Emptor when dealing with Westgate Resorts, and the State of Florida.

My fiance and I were solicited, and accepted (mistake) a great deal from Westgate Resorts regarding discounted hotel rooms and shows in Las Vegas, Nevada. If we gave Westgate Resorts $159 we would receive, among other benefits, a vacation package that included the aforementioned discounts. That sounded great as I am sure it could have been.

We were solicited the deal months in advance of the actual dates and times we were to go, and at that time our lives permitted the trip. However as the time neared for us to go, our circumstances changed and we were unable to take advantage of the vacation package offered by Westgate Resorts.

We called Westgate to get a refund, and to our surprise we were told sorry. Westgate Resorts have cancellation policies/rules that read as follows:

"Any travel date cancellation/change within 7 days, will result in a $25 service fee

Any travel date cancellations/changes made within 72 hours of arrival are subject to a service fee of $25 plus the first night's room rate at the non-promotional rate. No refunds will be made for No Shows or early check-outs."

Westgate Resorts terms and conditions mention the latter, but do not mention what to do if you cannot make the trip at all. If we had cancelled within the 7 days and paid the $25 service fee and received a refund of $134, we would have understood that. However, we called to cancel outside of that 7 day period and were told we had no way to recover any portion of the original $159 paid. We were given the chance to postpone the vacation package (time slots) for an additional 3 months or 6 months for $19 and $50 respectively. That would be great, but the reason we could not go still existed, so going later in the year did not negate the fact I could not go and wanted a refund.

It was explained to me by a well rehearsed manager of Westgate, that it is the State of Florida which says that once a solicitation has been made and accepted any money paid is non-refundable after 14 days. (Nowhere was that mentioned in the paperwork given to us by Westgate Resorts). The manager then told me that people who sign up for these vacation packages do not intend on canceling them, and I should have asked about cancellation policies if that was a concern of mine. Well I am not a fortune teller and did not know I would lose my job 2 months after agreeing to the $159 for the vacation package. Let me tell you how bad I wanted to reach through the phone line, and ...! However I am Christian.

All in all Westgate Resorts would not refund our monies paid, and basically said their hands were tied because of Florida Law, and I should talk the state if I had issues. I think that is very convenient that this non-refund law is not mentioned by Westgate. It is unfortunate that you have to get taken advantage of once before to know these sorts of things. My advice to everyone is make sure you are going to be able to go to these silly time share events, and know what state laws are applicable regarding refunds before you sign up for what sounds like a to good to be true opportunity. Otherwise you will get suckered into buying some guy from Nebraska who signed up for the same deal and was able to go, a round of drinks.