A husband and wife holidaying in Las Vegas, fall victim to Slick Willie Wyndham.
The couple were preparing the pick up their rental car when they noticed an offer that looked too good to be true. A kiosk that promised show tickets and $200 to play the slots in the Super 8 Casino. The requirement? To attend a timeshare presentation.
The next day they attended the ‘two hour’ presentation, now lets be clear, this was not, nor was it ever going to be a two hour presentation. They were served a cheap looking and tasting plastic meal, sat through the ‘all singing, all dancing’ presentation, taken on a tour of the facility and had their own personal ‘consultant’ who were able to give all different kinds of facts and figures.
At the end of the ‘two hour’ presentation the married couple decided that the ‘opportunity’ wasn’t for them, however they were told that to qualify for their free gifts, they needed to complete a survey. At the end of the survey the representative started to really examine their prices and made some offers that meant the couple may legitimately get a really good deal for a 1 day a year timeshare. However they stuck with the decision not to buy the timeshare and the representative, well he wasn’t happy at all and the more they said no, the more his bad attitude started to exhibit itself.
Anyway as the couple had completed the tasks necessary to get their $200 for the Super 8 Casino, they went to cash the vouchers in. Only then did they find out that it was only ‘bonus cash’ and could only be used in bonus machines. These turned out to be two banks of outdated slot machines. It also transpired that once you had put your voucher in you couldn’t take it back out and therefore had to use all your points at once in the dollar machine. On top of all of this, the only way to get a cash pay out was to ‘win’ $4000 in promotional funds, to receive $100. Unbelievable!
The presentation was certainly not worth the ‘gifts’ that were being offered for attendance and the couple ended up in a high pressure selling environment for no real return. It was clear to the couple that they would never purchase from these sales people because if their behaviour was anything to go by, then surely enough, they wouldn’t be able to trust the corporation.
For the rest of their stay the couple were exposed to the same sales people pushing their wares everything they ventured through the lobby.
The couple have said that the whole thing felt like a sham and an opportunity to get people to part from their money as quickly as possible. The couple advised that they had stayed at the Wyndham establishments previously and that it had always been a first class experience, they can’t understand why the Wyndham have associated themselves with the timeshare carnival and on this occasion they felt dirty after their trip.
The moral of the story, try not to be fooled by flashy promises. Try to make sure you understand what you are letting yourself in for before you commit your precious time.
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