On 22 August 2010, we purchased 154, 000 Wyndham Points from Mr. Paul Christen at Wyndham Grand Desert. Based upon that initial meeting, we subsequently purchased another 146, 000 points (for a total of 300, 000 points) on 2 October 2010.

We now have cause to believe Mr. Christen sold us Wyndham ownership based upon false pretense. He sold us Wyndham ownership as an investment and explained how we would make money by renting our points. During his sales presentation, Mr. Christen presented a copy of a Wyndham property invoice from Travelocity showing a room that had recently rented for $10, 000 per weekend. To date, this process has not worked as described by Mr. Christen. We are extremely disappointed because we have followed Mr. Christen’s instructions, attempted to rent our points through the program offered by Wyndham, but have had completely unsatisfactory results. Subsequently, we voiced our displeasure to Mr. Christen, and he stated on two occasions that he had a buyer for our ownership points. However, Mr. Christen has failed to follow through with selling our points and terminating our ownership in Wyndham. Mr. Christen’s recent actions seem to continue a pattern of deceit. (It should be noted that on our sales paperwork, Paul specifically instructed us to identify “convenience, value, and property selection” and not “investment” as our reason for purchase.)

The “Executive Management Team” informed us that there was no basis for our complaint, that since it wasn’t in writing it wasn’t valid. Does that mean Verbal Contracts are not valid in Nevada?

On July 9, 2010, while vacationing in Las Vegas we were stopped by a person in Imperial Palace Casino and asked if we wanted to go to a free show. He asked if we were married and made over $75, 000 a year. If so, all we would need to do was sit through a 90 minute presentation were they would provide a lunch. After the presentation we would receive tickets for a free show and $75 dollars in food vouchers. We stated that we were not interested in a timeshare presentation and he told us, “No, it’s definitely not a timeshare.” We accepted this offer, and relying upon those representations we were taken to the Wyndham Grand Desert on Harmon Avenue to the sales center.

During the presentation Russ Delaney, the Wyndham presenter, asked the question, “What is holding you back from vacationing now?” He said that money is holding us back and with this you would not have to worry about that because you are locked in at today’s prices. He referred to “locked in at today’s prices” multiple times. Also, this can be passed down to your kids who will enjoy it because the price won’t go up. These resorts are better than what you are currently staying in because they have a kitchen and all the comforts of home. Images of “example” rooms were shown in a Power Point presentation. He also stated that with this you would not have to spend hours in front of your computer looking for good vacation deals. With one simple phone call you could go anywhere in the world. This is why he personally owned it.

After the presentation we talked to Nicole Gunckel who said as an owner she loves inviting family on vacations so they can spend quality time together. She said we would be saving money if we would purchase this deal because we spend $5, 000 on travel now, so this package at $23, 800 would be paid for in 5 years. Then, we would be getting the rest of the vacations of our lifetime for free and we can pass these free vacations down to our children. She said that this is not a timeshare it is a deeded property and that is why she has a real estate license to sell it. If we are ever tired of it or can’t travel we can sell it back to Wyndham for a profit since it is a real estate investment and the vacation costs will still go up even in this economy. She used Athens, Greece as an example of how the points work because that is a place we want to visit. She quoted us that a trip will be 77, 000 points and since we would have 154, 000 that would be two great vacations a year which is better than our current situation of one vacation a year. Nicole stated that this included airfare with the plus partner option because the trip was 70, 000 points and the 7, 000 was for airfare.

Nicole said that she was going to be our personal representative and gave us a card with her phone numbers at work, her cell phone number, and her e-mail. She said she would help us “work the system” to get the maximum out of our purchase. She said that her manager might come over and if they do we should ask for an all expense paid trip to Greece. When William Weatherspoon came over to talk to us, we did just that and asked for an all expense paid trip to Greece. He said he would be glad to set that up and left to go work on the paperwork for Greece. Nicole said we should ask for another one…where did we want to go? When William came back we asked about an all expense paid trip to Hawaii also and this time he said he didn’t know if he could and he would go check with corporate. When he left Nicole again said he has one more thing he is allowed to give away and he will come back to say yes to Hawaii. She said when he does you should also ask for a cruise. So he did and we did. Mr. Weatherspoon said that is all he can do since we now have three all expense paid vacations. We were still not sure and William said that this was our chance because you can’t go through the presentation again. He said with purchasing in July 2010 we would get an additional 6 months to use our purchased points and the three free trips and bonus points were good for two years until 2012.

We have yet to use any of the items promised or purchased because the information we were told at the presentation/sale was misrepresented and/or false.

1. This is not a deeded property. What we received from the Title Company was an “Ownership Certificate.”
2. We were told we could start using our points right away in July 2010 and that would give us a year and a half to use them before December 2011. The use year actually does not start until January 2011 and was left off of our purchase summary document and it is attached for reference.
3. We were told the bonus points could be used however we wanted. The truth is they are required to be used as a set vacation package Wyndham offers.
4. We were told that 7, 000 points can be used for airfare and when we reviewed the point chart with PlusPartners, it would take 200, 000 for a flight to Hawaii and for both of us to go 400, 000. With Wyndham Rewards it would be 90, 000 points to Hawaii and for both of us 180, 000. Either way, we can not use our points for flights because we only have 154, 000 total points and it was represented as enough for resort and airfare for two separate vacations.
5. The amount of points for a vacation was also misrepresented. It will take 105, 000 points to cover the resort for a vacation we discussed. That is 35, 000 more points and does not leave enough points to take a second equal vacation.
6. The point amounts required for a vacation can/will change at Wyndham’s discretion. Therefore, we are not locked in at today’s prices and vacation will cost us more points each year. Our purchase will be losing value instead of gaining.
7. The maintenance fees are also subject to change and have already increased in four months. Again, not locked in at today’s prices and paying more each year.
8. The locations of the resorts were misrepresented. We discussed Athens, Greece and there is not a resort offered in Athens, Greece. This does not allow us to vacation “anywhere in the world we want.” Other destinations we talked about with Nicole do not have a resort either or the resort is far away from the attraction.
9. Nicole said her other owners do not pay maintenance fees because regular monthly use of the Wyndham Reward credit card earns them enough points to pay the fees. Relying on her information, signed up for that credit card. For minimum benefit I would need to spend over $5, 000 a month to get 10, 000 points in order to cover $60 in maintenance fees. This is not my average use of a credit card and $60 wouldn’t cover all the current fees.
10. We were not provided with any rules, limitations or conditions to the usage of our points. There are extra fees for each step/transaction you want to make to take a vacation. To transfer points to take a RCI vacation it is $194 and a transaction fee of $30, if you call instead of using their website it is $29 more. To bring family you have to get a guest certificate for another fee.
11. We were promised three all expense paid trips (including airfare) and paperwork was to come in the mail from corporate. When it had been almost a month since our contract, I called Nicole to ask about them. She said she would check and to give her my e-mail. I didn’t hear back from her and I tried to contact her through the e-mail on her business card. That e-mail was not correct, nor was the one on the contract. I called and left a message again on her voice mail. She had not responded after two more days, so I called the main line to get her correct e-mail. They were not sure either and I sent out test e-mails to a variety of possible addresses. Finally, contacted Nicole on 7/29/10. On 7/30/10, she replied that the cruise was sent to us and now Mr. Weatherspoon would assist us with the other trips tomorrow. This e-mail is attached for reference. Mr. Weatherspoon called a few days later and said he would set the Hawaii trip up in the system so that all I needed to do was call the 1-800 number and ask to redeem my Hawaii trip. Then, for Greece I needed to decide on my dates and call him and he would personally put it in the system for me. When I later tried to redeem the Hawaii trip by calling on 10/26/10 Naomi said that the computer wasn’t showing any trips. I called William that same day and he said that he would have to look up my contract and get back to me tomorrow because the corporate offices were closed. When he didn’t call at the agreed time on 10/27/10, I called him. His voicemail recording said that it was full so I couldn’t leave a message. I called the main sales # and left a message there for Mr. Weatherspoon. When I still hadn’t heard back I called Nicole and left a message also. On 10/28/10, I was able to leave a message on William’s voice mail. Around an hour later I decided I should call the main line and see if he is in because I wanted to get this resolved. Mark said William Weatherspoon was no longer with the company. I told him the whole story and he could verify the information with Nicole Gunckel because she was there when we were promised the trips. Mark replied that Nicole Gunckel was no longer with the company either, but he can get Rita Abrahams who was William’s manager to call me back later that night. Ms. Abrahams never returned the call. When you call about a problem you get transferred to different departments and no one is sure how to help you. The only people that call want you to come to owner’s meetings and bring friends.
12. The 90 minute length of time was misrepresented as well as the food. Transportation took 45 minutes to get to the sales office with all the stops. The lunch that was promised at the casino had chicken breast and other selections. When we arrived the lunch that was served was a small square of overheated, dry lasagna on a styrofoam plate. With out a real lunch, we were very hungry during the 5 hours we were there.
13. Important details of the contract were omitted from the sales discussion such as the 5 day cancellation period.


If we had known that these representations were untrue, we would not have made a purchase. My husband and I feel we were subjected to a high-pressure sales presentation designed to keep us from reading the contracts, reflection or deliberation on the decision to purchase, discussing with each other the decision to purchase and omitting crucial facts about the timeshare

My husband was tricked into purchasing discounted hotel nights and Fiesta Texas tickets at a mall kiosk in Arlington. We did not know we would be forced to sit through a 90-minute sales presentation until we arrived in SA to use the package. Despite honestly telling the rep that we were both unemployed and would be unable to purchase anything, they still made us sit through 2.5 hours of hard sell, worse than when I worked at a used car lot as a college student! I been around sales my whole life, and I have never experienced treatment like this. For example, we were crowded in a room that was uncomfortably warm, shoulder to shoulder with prospects and salesweasels at the adjacent tables, with obnoxoius rock music playing at bar volume. Every time I reached into my bag for water or a pen, the salesweasel put down her papers, made a nasty comment about needing my whole attention, and sat there until I was finished. The final straw was that after we said the final no, a sales manager came over and tried to sell us another package. We will never stay at any Wyndham property for any reason ever again.

I went to a sales presentation at the Harrah's Hotel where Wyndham Vacation Resort rent space for their presentation on March 12, 2010. The main part of the presentation was fine until the end when a Manager by the Name of Dena Pittijohn came over, she just wouldn't take "no" for an answer no matter how I phrased it or what I said with good reasons for my "no" answer. She kept pressuring and pressuring me to sign. When she realized that I was not going to sign, she stormed up from the table and said she was going to put my name on some list and stated for the future if I wanted it, she wouldn't sale it to me. Well, needless to say if they gave it to me for free for the rest of my life I wouldn't take it. They state in their forms that you are not obligated to buy, but they never state that you will be repeatedly harassed at the table and made to feel worthless if you don't sign. NO WAY would I sign up for such a large investment on the spot without doing some research on the company, or talk to someone who already has a membership. I know they get alot of people this way but I'm not one of them, I'm not your Fu--ing- fool. "GO TO HELL DENA!!!" <br />
<br />
To bad that Wyndham teach their sales people/mamagers to treat future customers like this, because today may not be the right time to sign but tomorrow is another day and because of that experience Wyndham will not be considered.

Wyndham has consistently refused to resolve this complaint, opting rather to call the US Navy Chief Petty Officer making the complaint a liar:

On April 4, 2008 while visiting Wyndham’s Governor’s Green resort we attended a sales presentation conducted by Wyndham salesperson Henry Wilkerson. We were promised that the presentation would take only 90 minutes, but by the time it was concluded it lasted much longer. In fact it lasted four hours. We had our children with us who are 10 and one year old. At the end of the presentation, Mr. Wilkerson knew they and their frustration distracted us. Our baby, just a year old, was very fussy while we were attempting to sign the documents. We were tired, hungry, overburdened with information and ready to leave by the time we were signing our contracts. We now understand that this was by design. We believe that we were purposely hurried through the contract signing specifically in order to keep us from reading it more carefully.

It has, in fact, taken us over a year to discover that our contract is defective. We have been able now to compare our contract with those of other owners and we are missing vital parts of the contract that were never copied for us. We never received a copy of the document required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development—the Settlement Statement. We never received any notarized documents such as a Mortgage Deed or Deed in Trust. We are therefore ignorant of the specific duties assigned to us and of those assigned to Wyndham. It would seem to us that the contract is invalid on this one point alone. While someone might contend that we signed the documents, the signing was conducted by the representative in such a way that they seemed not to be of great importance. We trusted the Wyndham representatives to include all the necessary documents and we would not know how to identify any missing documents in any case. As we’ve already mentioned, we were under a great deal of stress from our children and from being hungry that our judgment was definitely impaired and Henry Wilkerson knew it.

Mr. Wilkerson promised that he would personally help us to move points from year to year into Wyndham’s rental program “Extra Holidays” in the event that we should not be able to make our payments. Everyone pays for their maintenance with this program, he said. He told us that we should not worry, that enough money could be made to make payments and take care of the maintenance payments as well. Our maintenance payments are $77.49 and our monthly payments are $412.68—so we were led to believe that renting out our points would earn that much. This was especially relevant in our discussion with Mr. Wilkerson as we informed him that due to military obligations, we would be unable to take advantage of the points ourselves for the first two years of our ownership. He told us not to worry, we’d be making money until we could use the points and we’d retain our VIP status as well. This was not true.

Henry continually assured us that this purchase was a sound financial investment. That its value would increase if we ever wanted to sell it. He promised that we’d be getting a tax break because this was a real property purchase—we could write off the interest and property taxes even though they’re included in our maintenance fees.

Presidential suites were to be available to us and we could still travel three to four weeks every year on the points that we were purchasing. This would be possible because Mr. Wilkerson promised to help us “work the system” to our advantage. He promised to be the person we should go to with any problems or questions we had concerning using the program. Henry showed us the point conversion chart in the RCI book and told us that we could travel anywhere, anytime we wanted for a “blue studio week.” Because Wyndham owns RCI, he said, we could stay at any Wyndham resort for a week for the same number of points that it took to get a “blue studio week” which we now know is 28, 000 points. We also know that this is not possible.

We would be able to transfer points from one year to the next according to Mr. Wilkerson. He would be available to help us with this, he said, all we had to do was call. Available, is what Mr. Wilkerson was not—ever. We later learned that what Mr. Wilkerson had promised is entirely contrary to Wyndham’s policies.

We specifically told Mr. Wilkerson that we would not, because of my Permanent Change of Station orders with the U.S. Navy, be able to use the first 2 years’ points or the bonus points. Mr. Wilkerson and his manager both assured us that this did not matter—our VIP status would be permanent and we could start using our points whenever we were ready. We were also informed that our bonus points would be reserved for us. Mr. Wilkerson specifically told us that our points would just “roll over” to the next year and to the next until we had accumulated a huge number of points for a big vacation when it came time after the two years. This was not true.

We indicated that we were ready to leave but were told that the price we were being offered was only good for that day. It was a special price offered to us only on the day that we took the tour. We were told that we absolutely had immediately to make up our minds concerning a purchase that would eventually cost our family more than $50, 000 plus maintenance fees. There was no time to “think about it.” After investigation, we found that the price we received was no different than those offered to any other.

In summary, Mr. Wilkerson and his manager made promises that misrepresented the program. Every time we indicated that we needed to attend to the children or that we were all hungry, we were told to “hang on for one more minute.” They knew we were being worn down emotionally and physically and needed to attend to our children. So they knew we were under duress when we signed the contract. The contract was not explained to us and the provisions were covered only in the most cursory manner. We didn’t know until recently that the contract was deficient and that the promises made to us by Mr. Wilkerson were false.

To be sure, Wyndham has a rental program called Extra Holidays, but were we were not informed that 40% commission was charged. We were specifically told that we’d be able to make enough money to make payments and never have to pay maintenance fees. We were told that Mr. Wilkerson would be available to help us arrange the rentals and he is not. We have been informed that the role of sales people ends at the point of sale. After that it appears we are on our own. These methods of securing a sales commission were deceptive and fraudulent; they caused us to suffer loss.