WYNDHAM:SHARKS...Canceled contract but won't cancel fradulent "down payment"

My husband and I are wyndham owers at the grand desert in Las Vegas. We have been owners since 2005, our shares will be paid off 2015. On April 6, 2012while on vacation we attend an owners update that included breakfast and free items. While talking with the lady she asked if we would be interested in hearing about their new program because effective October 2012 the points system will increase and a new program will go into effect. However, we would keep what we have. She said its a good time to get into this new program. We sat and heard the information, it sounded very good. We explained to her that we didnt have any money to do anything not even a down payment for this. She indicated that we would only need to purchase 128,000 more points to be VIP which is the first step in this new program. We told her we didnt have any money and couldnt really afford any more monthly payment. You know how it goes. She ran our shares and came back with another lady. I guess it was her manager. They said they were able to pull funds from our equiity since we had never upgraded and that our payment to upgrade to VIP by adding an additional 128,000 points would be about $150.00 more and about $50.00 more in maintence fees. We asked them how much down? they said, nothing down. no money out of your pocket! REALLY? Our total monthly would be $496 and $158 for maintance; no money down, first payment May 15th. Sounded like a good deal to us. Well we went through with it because there was no money down, the payment was okay and we got a few more hundred thousands points more to use. We confirmed several times if that was the final payment and no other monies would be have to pay. They said, no this is it. We will pull from your equity. Well knowing what that means, i mean timeshares have equity? So we can borrow off our timeshare and use the money to re-do our home kitchen? Right? NOT! I found that out. Anyway, We signed the contract and while doing so we noticed a "BILL ME LATER" mentioned in the contract. When asked what was "BILL ME LATER" they said it was the finance company for the timeshare. We accepted that, I mean there are changes going on so we went ahead. Well we enjoyed our vacation, left Vegas came home and was telling all our friends and family that are owners as well as those that are considering Wyndham ownership how good this was and about the upgrade. Ha! Some goodnedss. On April 10th we get in the mail a bill from "BILL ME LATER", we thought it was a statment until we noticed an amount of $4,695.00 due with payments of $171.00 to beg November 1, 2012. What is this, we havent made any bills for $4K. So I called bill me later and they said, yes you made a purchase on April 6th in Las Vegas at Wyndham? YEs we did but for not this amount. So we called Wyndham and they said it was our down payment. Huh? No we didnt have a downpayment, was our response. We were told they was taking the downpayment from the equity with nothing additional and our monthly payment was $496.00. No ma'am you need to speak with "BILL ME LATER" because that is your down payment you have to pay. WHAT THE $#!@. We we filed a formal complaint and having been dealing with this issue since April 11th. We made our first monthly payment on May 15th. On June 4th we receive via email a letter from a Jennifer Mason, she is a member of the esculation team on members complaints and investigations. She indicated that based upon their review and my email stating what happened. Wyndham was releasing us from that contract / cancelling the new contract and re-instating our two traded contracts. YIPPY! Great. Well on Friday, August 10, 2012 we found out that yes, they are canceling the contract but will not cancel the "BILL ME LATER". Well that arose out of the contract. Between all of this we stop making our payments and was advised that no payments were to be made until the traded contracts were placed in effect. We stop paying! On Tuesday, Aug 7, 2012, Jennifer Mason and I talked ( you can never get a hold of her you always have to leave messages and wait days before she calls back) she said, that there are points used from the new contract that we have to pay for. in addtion, the account is behind and the down payment will be used to pay for the used points ( we haven't used them the vacations arent until August 24th and November 19) and any pass due payments. I told her we didnt have a down payment. She said, yes you put down $4695. I said NO. That is what we are disputing. We never physically put any money down. I told her the vacation in NOvember was booked with the new points and to please cancel that because we are not paying. I told her the vacation in August was booked earlier this year with points from our traded contract, so we dont own on that one. I told her we will pay the pass due amounts in cash. I asked her how is it that the contract is being cancelled and you're not calceling the "BILL ME LATER" which arose out of the contract? She said, ma'am im just letting you know. I said, you're wrong and this is unacceptable. You can say, you gonna cancel the contract ( we have in writing) and now we still have to pay the down payment. What kinda crap is that. Not to mention she called on Friday and said we are 6 months behind in payments.. not true and they will use 2500 of the 5500 down payment that was made to bring the account current. WHAT? So now the amounts change. So, you are taking back on your word to cancel the contract or you're canceling it in part; which has not been stated and you are increasing the down payment of $4695 to 5500. And you're telling me we when asked what happens to the other portion of that down payment that there is no refund this is what we are doing. I know this is a long story and i have tried to give it as simple as possible but you know when you're going to a crises and when you hve been treated unfailly you want to get it all out. I have left minor things out. But there it is. Please know, our account is NOT 6 months behing on 3 months ( june, july and aug is due on the 20th) we received a bill yesterday, August 11th saying please pay your pass due amount of $1500, which we will do tomorrow. We have no intentions on using the share until this is resolved. My vacation for Aug 22nd - 25th we have booked hotel. so no points are necessary to be used or need to be paid for. I need clarifcation on this supposive down payment with bill me later. How can they hold us to pay for this when the contract is being terminated and our new contracts are being reinstated. That bill me later arose out of the new contract. Shouldnt they contract bill me later and cancel that transaction? So bottom line, we are being forced to pay for something that we didnt use. So in essences we are giving bill me later $4695 just because. Please please please help us and clarify this. This is totally wrong. Also, if we were six months behind we never received notication of this and our monthly payments have been deducted from our checking account with the last one being made in May. HELP!!!!

sabrina, this was hard to read with no separate paragraphs, however from the gist of it you should contact the highest official at Wyndham Corp. headquarters with your complaint and keep complaining until this is resolved. If this is not resolved with Wyndham then you need to file a complaint with the NV attorney general and with the state attorney general where Wyndham Corp is located. You can do this online by googling contact info. It certaintly doesn't seem that this Jennifer Mason is of any help to you. If Wyndham cancelled the contract then they should refund the bogus down payment.

Jay, sorry for the huge 15 paragraphs made into one big. I appreciate your input. I will do just as you've said. we are also considering seeking counsel but are trying not to go that right as it will just be more money out of pocket. if you hear or know of anything please pass on the information.

sue them never ever buy from wyndsham

We upgraded our timeshare with Wyndham and told them we didn't want to finance it. When we got home after about two weeks we received a bill from bill me later for 14,999.00. The timeshare from Wyndham was for 14,999. also so for an extra week, we were paying almost 30,000 and upgrade from 6,000 dollar once a week timeshare. We were so shocked because the 3 salesmen that kept us for over 4 hours seemed to understand our needs. Now Wyndham has cancelled for nonpayment but now Bill Me Later is still sending us bills. So unfair. We also sought the Help of Jim Grant/notimeshare and after sending him over 300 dollars he never responded. Another fraud. Any help out there???? Sincerely, Hope

Did you sign a contract for this $14,999 charge .... read your contract backwards and forwards.

All of the entities that say they can get your money back are scams .... expensive lesson for you.

Did Jim Grant ever respond?

One thing ive learned over the years is you have to always be careful with timeshares most of them are scamming people in one way or the other. They got my parents sit through their presentation while on vacation and convinced them to buy into a timeshare. Im sure it wasnst that difficult because my parents are pretty naive and are not hurting for money. To make a long story short they bought into the sales pitch. They ended up getting lied to about places they could use and ended up paying all kinds of fees. It was basically just a money trap for them. So I did what I could to help them get there timeshare cancelled with emailing, calling, and whatever I could do. I was not getting anywhere so we decided to look for lawyers that could possibly help them. After a lot of research and talking to different law firms we narrowed it down to Aaronson Law Group and Finn Law Group! My parents liked Aaronsons plan to take care of it and that they specialize in timeshare cancellation so thats who they went with! They took care of there case in just over 2 months which included the documentation, rescission, and credit restoration which was very important to them. Of course it was not free but my parents said it was worth every penny to get rid of this nightmare! I know there are people in similar situations so if you are I recommend you check some timeshare cancellation lawyers. Just make sure you do your research. I hope this information can help someone in need! Any questions about our experienced are welcome. These timeshare scams are absolute nightmares and i would not wish this crap on even my worst enemy!

lauraj214 wrote:

My parents liked Aaronsons plan to take care of it and that they specialize in timeshare cancellation so thats who they went with! They took care of there case in just over 2 months which included the documentation, rescission, and credit restoration which was very important to them. Of course it was not free but my parents said it was worth every penny to get rid of this nightmare!

Of course this was not free, probably cost about a couple thousand dollars. Your parents paid this law firm a couple thousand dollars to essentially write a few threatening letters to the resort (or its HOA) saying "Take back ownership or else...". That's something they could have done themselves.

The other recommendation is to advertise and offer to give your unit to another willing taker. Offer to pay the closing costs and even the next maintenance fee. That will work out to a lot less than what these law firms charge.

The attorney and paralegal scams are rampant now. They charge huge upfront fees and promise they can get you out of your contract. I wouldn't trust either law firm. Check them out and see if they have an actual office that someone can walk into and see them actually working or just a website and a mail drop box. It's your hard earned money. Don't be duped by a shill steering you to their scam operation. Do your homework. It's your hard earned money. Don't be surprised if both of the so called law firms are run by the same scammers.

donp196 wrote:

The attorney and paralegal scams are rampant now. They charge huge upfront fees and promise they can get you out of your contract. I wouldn't trust either law firm. Check them out and see if they have an actual office that someone can walk into and see them actually working or just a website and a mail drop box. It's your hard earned money. Don't be duped by a shill steering you to their scam operation. Do your homework. It's your hard earned money. Don't be surprised if both of the so called law firms are run by the same scammers.

Yes I agree check out and make sure they are real. Im sure there are more scammers out there. But like I said do your research before making a decision. I know they are legit you can check them out yourself and they took care of their timeshare cancellation for them/us. Thanks for a looking out for everybody Don people will fall into more traps if they dont be careful!

lancec13 wrote:

lauraj214 wrote:

My parents liked Aaronsons plan to take care of it and that they specialize in timeshare cancellation so thats who they went with! They took care of there case in just over 2 months which included the documentation, rescission, and credit restoration which was very important to them. Of course it was not free but my parents said it was worth every penny to get rid of this nightmare!

Of course this was not free, probably cost about a couple thousand dollars. Your parents paid this law firm a couple thousand dollars to essentially write a few threatening letters to the resort (or its HOA) saying "Take back ownership or else...". That's something they could have done themselves.

The other recommendation is to advertise and offer to give your unit to another willing taker. Offer to pay the closing costs and even the next maintenance fee. That will work out to a lot less than what these law firms charge.

They whole timeshare gig can be a nightmare and they got fed up with it so thats why they decided to just spend the money and let them take care of it. We probably definitely should have tried to do what you were saying probably would have saved them some money but it got taken care of so in the long run thats all that matters!

Beware of shills claiming that the law firms are legit. I reported them to Redweek staff before for trying to use the forums to drum up business and Redweek removed their posts. Looks like they found a way around it. Please tell everyone how much of their hard earned money they charge for something they can do themselves and do they " guarantee " they will get you out of your contract . Will they put that guarantee in writing with a money back guarantee. NEVER pay anyone money upfront that says they can get you out of you out of your contract........Nobody !!

donp196 wrote:

Beware of shills claiming that the law firms are legit. I reported them to Redweek staff before for trying to use the forums to drum up business and Redweek removed their posts. Looks like they found a way around it. Please tell everyone how much of their hard earned money they charge for something they can do themselves and do they " guarantee " they will get you out of your contract . Will they put that guarantee in writing with a money back guarantee. NEVER pay anyone money upfront that says they can get you out of you out of your contract........Nobody !!

What is a shill Don?

donp196 wrote:

Beware of shills claiming that the law firms are legit. I reported them to Redweek staff before for trying to use the forums to drum up business and Redweek removed their posts. Looks like they found a way around it. Please tell everyone how much of their hard earned money they charge for something they can do themselves and do they " guarantee " they will get you out of your contract . Will they put that guarantee in writing with a money back guarantee. NEVER pay anyone money upfront that says they can get you out of you out of your contract........Nobody !!

Don why is it that every thread I have seen that you post in is something negative. You claim everything is a scam all it takes is doing research like I did and you can find out whats real and whats not!

I work hard at keeping the scammers out of here. It's bad enough that people were lied to at the sales presentation and found themselves with a product that was not what they were told. Now some low life bottom feeder wants a huge upfront fee claiming they can get them out of their written obligation that they can do on their own if they put in the time and effort. There are also cases where no one including the " super attorney " you are hawking cannot undo or does he claim he can leap tall buildings ?

You are avoiding the question as to how much does this bottom feeder charge ?

donp196 wrote:

I work hard at keeping the scammers out of here. It's bad enough that people were lied to at the sales presentation and found themselves with a product that was not what they were told. Now some low life bottom feeder wants a huge upfront fee claiming they can get them out of their written obligation that they can do on their own if they put in the time and effort. There are also cases where no one including the " super attorney " you are hawking cannot undo or does he claim he can leap tall buildings ?

You are avoiding the question as to how much does this bottom feeder charge ?

My goodness. You seem like quite the negative person. Yes I can understand where that you are trying to look out for everyones best interest. Im not trying to advertise for them by any means. I do not get anything out of this besides the satisfaction of maybe helping someone. Thats all no malicious intent. Im sure there are people who just wanna take advantage of someone who is vulnerable and already been screwed over. We had a good experience with an attorney so I wanted to put it out there in case it could help somebody else. I would be happy to tell you more details about cost, time, etc. We gave them every bit of information and documentation that we had. It costs us $2000 and took them a little under 3 months to take care of our case. Like I said it worked for us and it might not be an option that some wanna take but it is an option that works. We recently purchase a timeshare with Marriott Vacation Club. First trip was to Amelia Island and we absolutely loved it. No complaints! Not everything is bad just have to do your research! Like I said Don I do not have any malicious. Just trying to help if I can in any way!

I have seen these two firms in the forums numerous times plugging their services . Two thousand dollars is a HUGE upfront fee for something someone could negotiate on their own if the resort will take back their contract. Let these law firms pay to advertise like any other reputable company does . I am suspicious of anyone coming in the forums claiming to be satisfied customers. We have finally cleaned up a lot of scam operations and I will continue to monitor the forums for any hint of scams. These two firms in particular are on my radar already for their unethical practices.

I will stand by this statement forever... NEVER pay anyone money upfront that claims they can get you our of your contract.

donp196 wrote:

I have seen these two firms in the forums numerous times plugging their services . Two thousand dollars is a HUGE upfront fee for something someone could negotiate on their own if the resort will take back their contract. Let these law firms pay to advertise like any other reputable company does . I am suspicious of anyone coming in the forums claiming to be satisfied customers. We have finally cleaned up a lot of scam operations and I will continue to monitor the forums for any hint of scams. These two firms in particular are on my radar already for their unethical practices.

I will stand by this statement forever... NEVER pay anyone money upfront that claims they can get you our of your contract.

Fair enough! Im new to redweek so I dont know about what you have had to clean up. Obviously I shouldnt have posted cause it has caused a stir. I wont bother with trying to help anymore I will let you handle that. All I can tell you is our story and whether you believe it or not is up to you. Good luck! Sincerly Laura

If anyone needs honest guidance please let me know. I'm not an attorney but operate a non profit for owners and can answer any questions you have and recommend an honest, qualified attorney who is more than fair if it comes to that. Most times it can be handled without that step. They can't do this but this industry is so loosely regulated even the big guys ate getting away with some very serious crimes.