For the past 6 years an ex-timeshare sales representative for the renowned vacation ownership company, Wyndham Worldwide has been tirelessly fighting in court to prove her wrongful dismissal after exposing the mammoth corporations underhand tactics when selling their product to elderly clients.
Back in 2010 former employee Trish Williams was wrongly dismissed from her position of timeshare sales representative after challenging the legal standing of the high pressure sales technique that Wyndham condone and allow their representatives to use.
After her unlawful termination Williams went on to seek advice and enlisted the legal counsel of Chris Dolan of The Dolan Law Firm and Anne Costin of Costin Law Inc, to fight her case against Wyndham.
Williams stated that the company was knowingly defrauding elderly clients by applying for credit cards in their names and then continuing to completely drain the accounts dry without informing the client that the account had even been opened on their behalf.
Additional information that was gathered during her deposition uncovering the string of blatant lies regarding reducing interest rates, maintenance fees and the ability to obtain rental income from their timeshare, that would be told to these clients to convince them to sign on the dotted line. As well as this inflammatory information Williams disclosed an illegal, industry-wide procedure of falsely representing that if the owners spend enough money, often in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range, Wyndham would happily buy back the timeshare at full value on request of the owner.
The evidence produced to the defensive lawyers at the San Francisco Superior Court has proved Wyndham employees were involved in a practice called “pitching heat”, this is a tactic used to pressure clients into a new sale or upgrade of “points” which they are already in doubt over.
During the case, quoting another employee: “I sold my soul to the devil, I can say what I want, whenever I want as long as I am sure not to put any of it in writing, this is exactly the reason Wyndham have great lawyers.”
The verdict, following on from a one-month trial was announced late last week and seen Williams awarded $20 million dollars in compensation for her wrongful dismissal from Wyndham. Ecstatic at the verdict Williams commented:
“I am grateful a jury of 12 people exposed the facts of this fraud and confirmed that I was terminated for standing up to Wyndham on behalf of the elderly clients they were ripping off. For six long years, I have battled the world’s largest timeshare corporation so that the facts showing their dishonesty would be revealed to an unbiased jury and the American public. I want to say to others that know people are being cheated by their employers: have the courage to stand up and protect others. It’s not easy, but it’s the right thing to do. I’d also like to thank my lawyers, Anne Costin and Chris Dolan, who took my case and beat back the army of defensive lawyers that Wyndham threw at us. We need more lawyers who will fight for what’s right.”
Williams lawyers added:
“This was an epic battle against a well-funded army of lawyers that took us across the United States to obtain evidence and testimony demonstrating the fraud. This jury was deliberate and careful. In no way should this verdict be anything other than what it is: compensation for Ms. Williams with a penalty worth less than one percent of this massive corporation’s net value. This is a warning to corporations worldwide: do not steal from the elderly as you will be held accountable. Given the ageing of our population, more and more elder financial fraud is occurring. Whistleblowers need to come forward, and they should be commended for their courage and sacrifice.”
This is yet another example of the rising number of claimants winning battles against huge companies , whether you are the consumer or employee, do not stand to be bullied. We at the TCA are happy to report that in this case the little person gained the victory.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk