Westgate Resorts
Reviews and Complaints

This is actually good news... I was very worried that I would too remain a victim of this timeshare company after reading so many bad scam reviews after I already signed...

I am pleased to say that I have successfully cancelled a westgate contract for a loan assumption & got my full refund for my down payment of $1, 789.00

We were lied to & told that we had a rescission period of 5 days. We signed the contract september 2, 2012. After mailing back all their materials on the 3rd day express mail with delivery confirmation; I sent multiple letters to westgate, their corporate office, the better business bureau, my bank & cancelled my debit card to prevent further transactions...

At 1st a westgate rep called me to "resolve" the matter & insisted I couldnt prove I was told a rescission because the document was omitted from the keepsake binder they gave us at the last minute as we were literally pushed out the door. So I called their bluff & said ok no biggie, i'll just sue for the money & attorney fees & pain/suffering in court.

The representative stated she would call me back (september 27th) which she did; however she informed me that she was told by the director not to cancel & the property would foreclose. Again... No biggie... I'll just sue

Today, october 5, 2012 I received a call from the same rep in the corporate office in florida confirming that the contract would be cancelled & the full refund to be received within 3 weeks.

I recorded all the conversations on my cell phone... Documented everything & made sure to get full names included within my complaint & praise god we won!

I with my family decided to move to Florida and we were looking for a nice apartment. Westgate Resorts Timeshare invited us to a half an hour presentation. In fact we were sitting there more than 4 hours and finally they persuaded us to buy 2 bedrooms with lockout unit only for $14000 but now we also need to pay a fee of $1000 every year!

We had been to Myrtle Beach several times. This time we decided to stop at one of the tourism info shops, bad mistake. We got talked into a timeshare promotion. Please don't fall for these. Basically we were mislead about when we could use it, all the additional costs, lied to in general. We kept trying to leave but they did sucker us in. The lie that makes me the maddest is that even before the day was over, when my wife and I had time to think about it, called them back up and wanted to get out of the contract. We were told that you could NOT get out. This is not true, you have 5 days to right a letter stating you want out. It took me 2 years to find this out. Yes, its to late, but we're still trying.Please read the contract carefully and don't believe anything they tell you. They will lie for a buck.

This is nothing but a scam, we bought in June of 2008, and have never been in it, can't get reservations. We have a class action lawsuit starting. If you would like to join, e mail me at [protected]@netzero.com. the l is a small L.

Thanks,
[censored]drum

We had a reservation for a 1 bedroom with a King Bed. They put us in a 315 foot studio with a queen bed. When we complained they said we would have to pay extra to get what we reserved. What a rip-off! We checked and drove back home. We went to a lot of expense to get there. The day we checked in was our anniversary. Our anniversary celebration was ruined. If you must make reservations with them make sure you got what you paid for or reserved. BUYER BEWARE!

I have bought and paid for a time share at PlanetHollywood in Las Vegas Nevada. I called them at the beginning of August 2011 and was told they do not have my week avaiable for the rest of the year. I was wondering if they should have a notice that timeshare owners need to call 11 months in advance of your requested time share week? I was told they can book timeshare weeks 11 months in adavance. I feel that they have overbooked. They are building a second connecting time share building to the original building and have been selling time shares for these. I wonder if they gave some of the 2011 time share weeks to the new timeshare owners? I do not want to just complain. I am asking you the consumer if there is any action I can take to find out what is possibly going on that I have a timeshare but can not use it due to no opening weeks?

We were sold a 3 night resort package at Westgate Resorts that included a membership to Interval International. We were told that we could use Interval International, just like our RCI membership, to exchange timeshare weeks. I just spoke to Naomi, from Interval International and she claimed we do not have a membership with Interval International, that will allow us to exchange timeshare weeks. This was an outright lie by the Westgate Resort representative, in order to sell this package. I called and asked for my money back and spoke to a manager, Michelle, who refused to refund our money.

We had purchased a Westgate time share in 2005 on the assumption that we would be able to travel the world with it. Upon finding this was much harder to do than we had been told. Unfortunately upon staying in Flamingo Bay in 2009 we were told we needed to go to an owners meeting. Going there was a huge mistake. We were talked into paying out another $6000 to upgrade to Planet Hollywood. We were told that because this was on the strip we would have a much easier time exchanging it. I was devastated to later find out that we had been conned into exchanging our 7 days for only 4 days, and finding out we could no longer exchange at all. The contract is very ambiguous and I really can't see how they can get away with it.

I'm an owner since 2007. We made a reservation three weeks ago to stay at the Westgate Towers in Las Vegas. I just called to cancel my reservation because my husband will be deployed sooner because whats happening in Libya and I was told that the $130 reservation fee can't be refunded. I'm so disappointed at Westgate, this is how you treat military people? Even the insurance they offer doesn't cover cancellations due to military reasons. Most companies waive cancellations for military because they understand how military works. Westgate Resorts may be an american company but is definitely not military friendly. What a shame!

I purchased a 5 bedroom timeshare at Westgate-Gatlinburg in October 2010. The financing offer was a down payment and payments over 10 years. The option was to pay 50% within 60 days and remainder over 3 years with no interest. My plan was to use the option within the allotted time. After about 45 days, I received a call from the accounting/deeding department in Orlando indicating that Westgate wanted to close loans and was willing to offer an incentive (5% discount) to pay it off within the 60 day period. I asked and it was confirmed that paying the loan off 100% would not incur any interest. The answer was YES, NO INTEREST. I asked for the payoff total and authorized the payment from my credit card. In January, I received a notice that I had paid $200.97 in interest. When I questioned why interest was charged, I received several fabricated stories but finally they said I broke the contract by paying the loan off early and therefore they could charge interest. (I still have the recording from Westgate representative stating the payoff would be a no interest loan payoff. ) An appeal to the local business closure person who wrote up the “no interest” loan provision caved in to the home office and indicated that if I took them to court. They would provide numerous witness stating that I agreed to be charged interest. This is a total fabrication and I challenged them to listen to their tape recording of phone calls to prove it. They would not. An appeal to David Seigal, president, resulted in no response. The lesson is that even though a contract is in writing, they can change their mind and dare you to sue them. Any future purchasers of a time-share from Westgate, do not believe anything that is told to you nor anything that is in writing. Just bend over, grab your knees and hold on.

Plz do not waste your vacation time at one of these lousy Westgate Resorts. They only want your money and will pressure you so much that you will give anything to just get out of there. There are soo many bad reviews about this company online, they have a D- with the BBB. And the owner, David Segiel, was found guilty on sexual harrassment charges on one of his employees! This is not someone you want to do business with! WE WANT OUT! Hope this review will help someone else who got suckered. But if your reading this chances are its too late, Good luck!

Changes in present contracts affecting old owners in a negative manner!
1. no longer able to visit the property if in the area (something we were able to do when we first signed on- a perk we loved since we live close to the property)
2. exchange fees changed- we bought in a high activity week (thanksgiving) and now it is not considered a premium week due to changes they have made to booking. So if I want to exchange into Christmas, Easter, or a few other "Premium weeks", I have to pay a higher fee. NOT HOW WE BOUGHT INTO THE CONTRACT.
3. NOW not able to exchange into ANY resort in Orlando- there is a "geographical block". Have been able to exchange in the past to wherever needed - again a new change to the contract.
I have been an owner since 1991- the changes are NOT beneficial to my usage, and am has ruined my enjoyment of being an owner with Westgate. I have had other issues but this one finally pushed me to complain so that NO ONE BUYS INTO WESTGATE! Your contract you sign will not be what you really get!

1. We bought before the first building was built. The pressure was incredible. They said go with the 1 bed room and they would upgrade us if things were available. After 9 years and no upgrades.
2. So we upgraded and paid an additional $5000 and paid another $500 in maintenance. And when we checked in we got a room smaller than we expected. I complained and they said they had nothing else. Even though it was the off season.
3. We pay that much for maintenance and:
- the door in the bath room does not move freely and hits the toilet
- Door frame was busted.
- Internet cost $40 per week additional per computer
- TV's are old even though 2 years ago they were going to upgrade them to flat screens
- They are switching tv service providers so we have almost no channels
- Movies cost $6 per night at the game room.
- 20 oz bottled soda's are $2.
- Hot dogs are $2 and a small bag of potato chips are $2. Really. Is this Disneyland.
Actually I don't think it's that much there.
- Why is everything an extra charge. Kids activities are $5 each kid.
- Resort is in Utah and does not seem to be kid friendly. Hikes require kids to be over 8 and the ping pong tournament requires that you be over 18. Come on this it UT where there are more kids per capita than anywhere in the world.
- water spout on the jetted tub was broken.
- Customer service on responds when you go up the chain and complain to management when they are around the following day.
- Sales person was mysteriously not available the 5 different times I went to the sales office.
- I have heard nothing but complaints from other owners.
- bonus time for members who paid $10000 + maintenance fees is $125 per night. That's great until you realize that non owners can rent a night the same week for $130 to $150 for the same unit. So I pay $800 a week to get a $5 savings per day. Wow. This is a great value.
- I have approved 10 commercial leases in shopping centers where I have never seen anything more than $10 per square foot per year in Maintenance fees etc... So if the space id 1000 sqft you would pay $1000 per hear for NNN (tax, maintenance, service). Westgate charges $800 + per week. That is almost 50 times greater than a shopping center or mall would charge. Really? Does it cost 50 times more than a commercial shopping center? And then what do you get, crappy service. Poor reservation services.
- I will admit the Manager did treat us right in the end. After the 2nd day of informing him I was going to get $800 of flesh from his employees and I was going disrupt his life for the week he upgraded us to the Presidential Suite. Very nice and if we got this each time I'd be satisfied and would pay for it. We won't. True to form we will be pigeoned holed to a building we did not intend to buy and would not have upgraded to if we knew that is what we were going to get. We expected the 2 bedroom in the Elk Lodge (which is where we were for 9 years with a 1 bedroom). We found out we were sold the Bear lodge. Which is smaller.
- Everyone in the resort seems to think the Bear and Elk are the same size and configuration. I can assure you that after spending 9 weeks in these units I can certainly tell the difference. Maybe the sales people ought to be more informed about the real estate they are selling. We should have been given a floor plan.
- How did we mis that we were being moved to a new building? It doesn't say the lodge it give a CODE for a lodge. Only an insider would know the codes.

We Bought into a Time share @ Westgate lakes in April 2007 [A 3 Bedroom Apartment] In April 2008 we were offered the oppertunity to purchase a 5 Bedroom Unit in a New Development THE RESERVE. as we had been overlooked for a 4 Bed Unit that we had expressed interest in. We were advised the RESERVE would be available for Early 2010 occupancy.
Having Telephoned several times to ascertain progress, nobody could give us any Info, We visited Westgate Lakes in Nov 2009 & again at Easter 2010, having been promised answears all to no avail. We therefore advised the Sales Manager we were dealing with, that we wished to withdraw from the RESERVE as we were now aware the Site was up for Sale and we would revert back to our original Purchase with Monies paid on the Reserve being refunded.
This brought the Offer of a 4 Bedroom unit in the same Block as our 3 Bedroom which which we accepted, this meant our Liabilities would be reduced. We were Advised Contract Papers would be sent to us in the Post as my Son was a signatury on the Reserve agreement, but was not with us on Vacation at Easter, plus the Mortgage payments on the Reserve would be put on Hold for two months whilst Contracts were signed, none of which has happened.
Despite various Emails to our sales Contact we received no response, as a result we wrote to the CEO on 22 July 2010 with copies to the Coporate Office in Westgate Lake & Sales Manager to date no response.
We feel very let down by Westgate at there lack of Communication & Honesty and now feel we just want Out!
Help please.

Pressured to buy and not told of yearly maintaince fee. I can let people rent for $500. Will sleep 6 Has Kitchen set up dinning room Washer and dryer. 2 full bathes 3 tvs I have 2 weeks available. [protected]@msn.com

My name is Alex Sabogne. I purchase a deal from Westgate Resorts back in February. It cost me about 5000 dollars to get into this membership (8weeks) with your resort plus a leisure time passport membership.

After finally paying my last monthly payment, I received a welcome letter from your company and a leisure time passport number that entitles me to go anywhere in the world at a DISCONTED RATE.

Well, to my surprise, I went to your website and looked to see how many resorts you have and where can I spend time with my family to find you only have 28 resorts all around the US (Orlando, Miami, Branson, Robinsonville, Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach, Gatlinburg, Park City, and Williamsburg). I remember the day of our meeting, one of your sales reps pointed a big plate you had on the lobby, with David Siegels (billionaire) name on it. She said, that he was a founder of this amazing resort, club, etc.. so it gave some type of reassurance that you are picking a good company to do business with. Well to make story short, typical marketing scam. You are just using a big name to sell bad products.

What makes me angry is not only I need to pay $199 to continue the club, but also $500 every time I travel, and in top of that the $5000 that lets you become a member. It makes me upset to have overlooked this HORRIBLE DEAL, if you can call it like that.

And this is not all, I found that by searching for a deal in Expedia, Trip advisor, Hotwire, and some other companies, I get the same type of discount through your company that doing a regular search on the websites mentioned above. Take a look at my attachments.

I look to see if you offer better prices for Disney tickets and NO same price, I looked for hotels deals, NO same price, and I look for airline discount and NO same price. So what you are just doing is creating a portal through your website showing the same type of information. I mean I build websites for living; I could start doing this also and make people believe they are purchasing the deal of a life time, but you know what, I have a conscious.

So my regular search without havent wasted $5000 + $199 yearly +$500 every time I travel, would have better if I saved the money and do the search on my own.

To add to this AMAZING DEAL, the special deals that you have on the side, for Las Vegas, Bahamas, Cancun, etc. not to my surprise are about 10 dollars discounted, I mean, WHY DID I PAY 5000 DOLLARS FOR. Your deals are no deals. In some cases the prices on my search were cheaper than your mentioned discount so please explain to me or if possible give me a refund for the money I spend, because up to this date it makes no sense to me why do you sell this horrible deal.

I am very, but very upset how I got tricked into buying this, as when I bought it you gave me the impression that I was going to receive 4 free weeks plus 4 weeks at discounted price.

I am trying to think how can I make this better and avoid thinking I wasted my money but there is no way of doing this. Trying to sell this weeks on Ebay or Craiglist is going to create more hassle, and this is something I shouldnt even been considering but what other options do I have.

My name is Alex Sabogne. I purchase a deal from Westgate Resorts back in February. It cost me about 5000 dollars to get into this membership (8weeks) with your resort plus a leisure time passport membership.

After finally paying my last monthly payment, I received a welcome letter from your company and a leisure time passport number that entitles me to go anywhere in the world at a DISCONTED RATE.

Well, to my surprise, I went to your website and looked to see how many resorts you have and where can I spend time with my family to find you only have 28 resorts all around the US (Orlando, Miami, Branson, Robinsonville, Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach, Gatlinburg, Park City, and Williamsburg). I remember the day of our meeting, one of your sales reps pointed a big plate you had on the lobby, with David Siegel’s (billionaire) name on it. She said, that he was a founder of this amazing resort, club, etc.. so it gave some type of reassurance that you are picking a good company to do business with. Well to make story short, typical marketing scam. You are just using a big name to sell bad products.

What makes me angry is not only I need to pay $199 to continue the club, but also $500 every time I travel, and in top of that the $5000 that lets you become a member. It makes me upset to have overlooked this HORRIBLE DEAL, if you can call it like that.

And this is not all, I found that by searching for a deal in Expedia, Trip advisor, Hotwire, and some other companies, I get the same type of discount through your company that doing a regular search on the websites mentioned above. Take a look at my attachments.

I look to see if you offer better prices for Disney tickets and NO same price, I looked for hotels deals, NO same price, and I look for airline discount and NO same price. So what you are just doing is creating a portal through your website showing the same type of information. I mean I build websites for living; I could start doing this also and make people believe they are purchasing the deal of a life time, but you know what, I have a conscious.

So my regular search without haven’t wasted $5000 + $199 yearly +$500 every time I travel, would have better if I saved the money and do the search on my own.

To add to this AMAZING DEAL, the special deals that you have on the side, for Las Vegas, Bahamas, Cancun, etc. not to my surprise are about 10 dollars discounted, I mean, WHY DID I PAY 5000 DOLLARS FOR. Your deals are no deals. In some cases the prices on my search were cheaper than your “mentioned discount” so please explain to me or if possible give me a refund for the money I spend, because up to this date it makes no sense to me why do you sell this horrible deal.

I am very, but very upset how I got tricked into buying this, as when I bought it you gave me the impression that I was going to receive 4 free weeks plus 4 weeks at discounted price.

I am trying to think how can I make this better and avoid thinking I wasted my money but there is no way of doing this. Trying to sell this weeks on Ebay or Craiglist is going to create more hassle, and this is something I shouldn’t even been considering but what other options do I have.

Someone please help. There is power in numbers. My name is Sienna Dow. I am organizing enough people to fight back and protest against Westgate Resorts. I live in Washington DC! IF their is anyone who would join me please email me, [protected]@ymail.com What Westgate is currently doing is down right unethical and illegal. I don't have money for a lawyer so I am going to spend as much time as it takes making sure no one ever gets frauded by Westgate again.

It all began in Nov 2008. Westgate sales rep "Lisa" said as her final attempt to make her sale to me and my uninterested husband that we needed an extra bill for vacations. We really could not afford the timeshare. I mentioned that we had enough debit and were trying to refinance a few things with our credit union. She then stated that Westgate reports on the credit bureaus as a mortagage every month like any other real estate purchased. My husband I suddenly became interested in the offer and discussed how much easier it would be to get a loan or refianance a few things. In the closing office where we spoke to the serious guy in a suit, it was recorded and private. He reassured it was to make sure that there was not fraud involved. Consequently, the company only uses it for quality assurance and throws it away after 90 days or so. Evidence gone. So after we were frauded, we did not know it until 90days had pass. I gave Westgate some time to report on my credit report. I was awaiting it eagerly. When I did not see it on my credit report, I called and was informed by an apologetic representative that West gate does not report on the bureaus. In fact, she said, "I don't know why "they" told you that." So I was told to submit a hardship letter. This was supposed to be their way of settling disputes and fraud. It was not. as a matter of fact it was just a step to no where. Then I told that something is coming in the mail and for me to fill it out along with all of my bills. I actually did it and it went no where. The next time I was contacted was by a 3rd party collection company who was clueless about my fraud account. So I call back, by now a few months had passed. I was told that they see the numerous times I called about the fraud and that there is no fraud dept or other rememdy other than the "no where" steps I took previously. Much worse there is no record of my latest submited documents of hardship. So the rep is sending another one to repeat the process and send it again to corporate. This time it will be certified. I am treated like somehow all of this is my fault. The only way out of this is if I pay Westgate and then pay another company to buy it. In respect to my own ignorance to business law, in my heart I know that this can't possibly be acceptable practices or legal. I am willing to spend time on Westgate brick by brick. If their are any other legitamate victims out there, please contact me, and let begin in number protesting Westgate's fraudulant business practices. -Mom on a Mission

My family and i took a trip to south carolina to see my son graduate from basic at Ft jackson . we are owners of westgate and pay our fees every month...when it came time to make our reservations at myrtle Beach we had nothing but problems it took us a week to even get our reservations. they kept saying we owed them money . we aid the money even though that was not the agrement when we bought the property . but we paid it because i didnt want to miss my sons graduation. I loved myrtle beach ! when we arived there we stayed 2 nights and left for 1 night to my sons graduation . when we left my 12 yr old son left his brand new swim suite on the bathroom floor ( not a cheep suite either) when we got back the next day the suit was gone... I called front desk they connected me with housekeeping i left a message told them what the suit looked like .they never called back . Well to make a long story short I never did get his suite back! I dont even know how many people i talked to about it and told every person what it looked like nobody knew anything about it .. i was told 10 - 15 times they would call me back they never did.. the last day i went to the front desk they were no help.. i can replace the suite., thats not the point ! We are owners and if we cant trust housekeeping not to STEAL ! I would rather not have them step foot in my room for that week or 2 weeks. i can see if we were staying at a Cheep motel! But not at westgate... I would lock up your stuff if you dont want it Stolen by the Maids...

I just wanted to visit Disney World. I was invited to a timeshare meeting for receiving a free night's stay in a Holiday Inn that was so filthy that my children and I slept on top of the covers on our backs with our clothes and shoes on. I attended the meeting, and the saleswoman with very bad breath tried for "hours" to talk me into buying a timeshare. I had just lost my mother and brother-in-law two months ago and just came to Disney to try to smile again. By the time I left I had written my information down and unfortunately did not ask for the information back. My final commication to this woman was NO, I do not want the timeshare, because I cannot afford it. She gave me her phone number and said to call her "if I changed my mind." I did not call her and thought that was the end of it. I spent 4 days in Orlando before driving back to Atlanta. Of course no one gets around to reading the big stack of papers you received from them until you get back to where ever home is. Unfortunately by that time it is tooooooo late. You have 5 days to call them and cancel a contract you didn't even know you had in the first place. You of course do not sign up for the $8, 000 timeshare, but you do unknowingly enter into a contact for a 7 day vacation package totaling over $500. Of course when I called Westgate Orlando after receiving a payment book in the mail and the rep. told me I only had 5 days to cancel, and that I should have read the paperwork. I think that is fraudelent and they have to be stopped. Why not give someone at least 30 days to cancel. Westgate only gives its victims 5 days because they know more often than not people came to Disney to have fun and by the time they get around to reading it 5 days have long passed. I want to sue Westgate and it would be great if a class action suit can be initiated so that these people can be stopped!

Frustrated,
Atlanta, GA