Welk Resort Group review: Timeshare ownership trouble

The whole ordeal began when Welk Resort offered us a complimentary 3-day, 2-night stay at their facility. The catch was that we had to spare them 90 minutes of our time for a facility tour and vacation presentation. Initially, we had to provide a deposit, which would be refunded upon completion of the presentation. However, there was one instance where our deposit was supposed to be returned to us in the form of Visa Gift Cards. Unfortunately, when we tried to use them, they turned out to be invalid, leaving us empty-handed.

The sales representative, along with the sales managers, applied immense pressure on us, causing our expected 90-minute session to extend well beyond 3 hours. Their approach revolved around making us believe that this was the sole path to a remarkable vacation at a luxurious 5-star resort.

They assured us that managing a vacation through them would be a breeze compared to doing it ourselves.

After enduring a series of relentless sales tactics, my wife and I had a conversation and decided that as parents of 5 children, this could be a great way to enjoy fantastic vacations at beautiful destinations. So, we took the leap of faith and went for it!

Issues encountered:

- Getting the rooms that we request. My wife has a difficult time on stairs and we have asked for rooms to accommodate her and every time we get a room that has at least 6 stairs to get to. Also, with the facility as large as it is, we always get the exact same room (the first one from the 1980's and way before we became Platinum) every time we utilize the Welk, Escondito Facility and with all of their upgrades and ours as well, we should have been able to get better updated rooms.

- Frequest phone calls from Welk are received, even when we are not on vacation, requesting us to book a visit for an update on our time share. More so, Welk Resort no longer exists. They are now known as part of the Hyatt Regency Resorts.

- When checking in for a vacation, we struggle to get a parking pass until they apply alot of pressure to attend a Resort update. We have had to spend 30+ minutes simply trying to get our parking permits.

- Navigating the exchange program is not as easy as we were told and the "owners services" have not been very helpful either. People that are not members seem to get reservations easier than we can.

- Most of the places that we want to visit are not part of the timeshare exchange program as we have found out, which does nothing but show that we were lied to by the sales people. In order for us to be able to use our timeshare, we have to go to the very, very expensive places in order to find a facility. They have no resorts close to where we want to go and again, many broken promises.

- Many of our vacations are like road trips. Basically we like to stay in various historical cities or sites. Finding a timeshare place is very difficult or impossible, so consequently points are not used and we have to pay for

hotels, so much for saving the money that we were told we could do.

- Over the years, every time we do an update they change the exchange programs we can use; RCI or Interval, and we don't know which one is available. They never provide a resort catalogue for us to

brouse through for travel ideas. When selling the resort to us, they surely showed us fabulous places; however that is the only time that we have encountered fabulous (through nothing but false pictures)!

- We are very, very frustrated now because when we purchased into this time share, it was "members only" using the facilities; however, today, anyone can book time at the resort just as if they were going to stay at a hotel off the street and this fills the facility so that we don't ever get the time we

wanted and have paid for. Being Platinum means nothing, except higher dues and definitely high payments for nothing.

We have been so disappointed in the Welk Resort over the past several years. The increase in the dues annually and every time we upgrade our useage points our payments have increased. We no longer have our 5 children and we have thought about selling our timeshare and researched that that

was a joke, so we decided to keep paying for it. Welk Resort is now part of the Hyatt Regency Resort and it has turned into a hotel and anyone can book stays there, making it impossible for us to get time, therefore we feel the highest impact! When we spend approximately $12,300 annually on a

timeshare and we can't ever book time when we want it, we feel it's like walking to the trash can and tossing our money out. People staying at the facility like its a hotel to them don't pay annual dues and their stay doesn't cost them monthly.

We are now currently retired and live on a fixed income. Paying $1,000 per month for our payment and dues is not easy and it will continue to increase as the dues increase every year. We are simple people so on $12,000 a year we could take 3-4 one-week vacations at various locations in very nice

hotels. At the rate of the dues increasing we could find ourselves not being able to take as many trips as we have planned.

The convenience of managing our own vacations and travel plans is better for us without being concerned about using any resort and managing the point process to make sure we take full advantage of our points. Through the new Hyatt Regency program we have to make reservations 12-18 months in advanced to be guaranteed a vacation location. By us managing our own trips, we can take off whenever we want to, as most retired people can, and possibly take more trips.

When we reached out to Hutch Farrell a few months ago regarding our experience, he provided no assistance options. Instead, he attempted to talk his way through the issue, offering excuses and sounding just like your very false sales people) and insisting that no action would be taken until the contract was paid off. Even then, he suggested that progress might still be uncertain.

We believe it is necessary for Hutch Farrell or his supervisors at Hyatt to thoroughly investigate this matter. As retired individuals on a fixed income, we pay over $12,000 annually to enjoy a vacation experience that we were persuaded to sign up for, but which has not been delivered. Is this fair?

What steps must be taken to bring this situation to a resolution?