My husband and I are currently trying to get out of a contract with Trendwest/Worldmark which we have been paying for for the last three years and which we feel was grossly misrepresented. We were not aware of what the product was before attending and were intrigued because at the time it sounded as if it was something that would benefit us and also our clients.
My husband owns a home construction/remodeling company and the salesman said that because the resorts were available to any of our guests/family and friends we would be able to use it for homeowners in the midst of the messiest time of construction on their homes. At the time, it sounded like it would be a great thing to offer our customers.
We asked for time to think about it, but were told that it was a ONE TIME opportunity and if we left we would not be able to attend again, per California real estate law. Not wanting to pass up an opportunity, we bought a half-share and financed the down payment. We were very excited by the potential and the opportunities presented at that time.
Our reason for wanting to now get out of our contract is because we've been members for almost three and a half years and have not once been able to use the services. Not once have we been able to book a vacation in the month we need or at the resort we'd like to use. We feel like we're in a one sided contract and are paying for something and getting nothing out of it.
We would like to be released from this contract and we are willing to forfeit the money already paid, but don't want to pay any more. As I've stated, on our side, we have paid all our dues, but the Trendwest/Worldmark resort/hotel has not provided ANY of the services we were told we could expect.
Following is a list of opportunities we would have liked to use the resort/hotel for, but were unable to book due to unavailability, lack of rooms.
The waiting list for the service is between 6-9 months. The salesman assured us that we'd be able to book resorts in "weeks" not informing us that the waiting list is actually in excess of nine months. We are unable to foresee six months forward as to when the worst of the construction period is, this was misrepresented. The salesperson said specifically that we would be able to get into resorts, booking them in just weeks. This may be true, but not anyplace that is desirable, local or wouldn't require long term planning, airline tickets or pet-sitting.
We purchased the timeshare in December and were planning a trip to a five day long conference in Long Beach, CA in March of we were excited to be able to use our new resort/hotel service. But after calling and trying to make reservations, none (not one in Southern California) of the resorts had any rooms available. When we were unable to get into to the resort "just" two months in advance we had to pay for a hotel (sister-company to Worldmark) and pay for it out of pocket and in addition to the monthly dues. This was our first experience and we thought it was just a coincidence at the time.
We were married in August and starting several months prior to the wedding we tried to make reservations at several of their honeymoon type destinations, but was unable to get anything, ANYWHERE in the month of August.in order to save money and use the services we'd paid for, we tried to reserve a non-honeymoon resort destinations, just so we could use our membership. NOTHING was available, and in the end, and in addition to our fees, we paid out of pocket for a resort for our honeymoon.
In December we purchased tickets to Disneyland and wanted to use the resort/hotel in Anahiem, our tickets were good for a year, but after checking for months to see when we could book a resort it became apparent that there was not one opening in the nine month calendar or beyond. (NOT ONE) When we finally took our family vacation to Disneyland in November we paid out of pocket for a hotel. It was really frustrating to walk past the WorldMark hotel/resort every day on our way to Disneyland and know we'd paid our membership fee every month for two years and were not able to use the resort.
We just want out, but when we called to try and cancel, we were told we could only cancel after we'd paid in full. This is unfair as we've never ONCE been able to use the service, they are taking our money for what? We've received NOTHING in exchange for what we've paid fro the last 26 months and don't have much hope for the future.
I hope someone can help us with this, it's fraudulent to promise so much, to take money under false pretenses and not provide any service to us at all.
Bconghaile
Burlingame, California
U.S.A.
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