I have been an owner at the Sunterra resort Powhatan Plantation in Williamsburg, VA since 1994. I bought the timeshare when Powhatan had a Gold Crown rating.in the ensuing years I have witnessed the decline of this property to the point that I decided not to visit again. When I received the obscene special assessments in 2003 and I called to talk to someone about these charges. I spoke to Alex Vasquez, General Manager. We spoke at length and he personally assured me that, with his presence, things would improve.
During those years I have owned at Powhatan I experienced incompetence at all levels of service and management. I shared this with Mr. Vasquez and he again assured me that the resort would improve. Against my better judgment, fueled by his assurance, I visited Powhatan again in July 30 to August 6.
We arrived on property and were checked in by Olga, who was cheery, informative and helpful. We went to unit 299c and reviewed the unit only to find several problems. The call to maintenance brought a young man to our unit who proceeded to address the problems. He was courteous and seemed to be knowledgeable and competent in his job. He replaced the burned bulbs, replaced the fan motor in the bathroom and seemed to know how to fix the hottub, which would not heat and was of a low water level.
As it would take a while to heat the Jacuzzi, we were not able to use it that night. The next day we went out and came back later that evening envisioning a pleasant time utilizing the hot tub to relax from a long day only to find that the hot tub was almost out of water and the jets were running, giving quite a spray in the tub. I immediately called maintenance and reported the problem. The young lady told me that I would have to shut down the tub as the motor would burn out if continued to run with little water in it. I located the fuse panel and found the breaker for the Jacuzzi, turning it off. We waited for maintenance to come to fix the tub so that we could relax in it. No one came. The next day I waited until about 11 AM expecting the problem to be fixed. No one came.
I called maintenance again only to be dismayed at the ambivalence of the staff. They told us that we did not have to wait around and someone would fix the problem. We went to the pool and came back periodically to the unit. No one had been there to fix the problem with the hottub. We returned to the unit around 7 PM for dinner and found that the hot tub still had not been fixed.
At that time my patience had been stretched to the limit. I called maintenance again. This call only yielded an attitude that I found unacceptable. My frustration level had risen to the point that a verbal altercation ensued with me being hung up on. I called back and demanded to talk to the young man who had hung up on me. The young lady I spoke to this time was no help and after completely decompensating and having my blood pressure rise to a level that demanded satisfaction from maintenance, which did not occur, I was faced with another voice on the phone who advised me that he (Anthony) was Powhatan Security.
I demanded to know why he was on the phone and why the problem was not being addressed. He said he would come to the unit. He arrived within 5 minutes.
What happened next had me so unsettled that I am still very upset and in need of some redress. Anthony told me that he was there because the young man that hung up on me reported that I had threatened his life. A totally ridiculous ascertain, none the less a serious charge. I was demanding and adamant to resolve the problem stated. At no time did or would I threaten anyone.
As we were talking, another person came to the unit who did not identify himself. I took this as a show of force by Security and immediately told that person to leave. The situation got more out of hand when we received a call to the unit. I went to the phone and was confronted by a person who, in a very abusive tone, demanded to talk to Anthony. I asked this caller to identify himself and he said that if I did not put Anthony on the phone, he would have me arrested. After this person spoke to Anthony, I inquired who that was on the phone. Anthony identified the caller as a McKenna (sp?). I further inquired about the call and was informed that McKenna was a x-NY city cop who now worked as part time security on the property.
As you can only imagine, my stress level increased further, however, I was able to discuss the situation with Anthony, satisfied that someone would contact me from management. I filled out an incident report and called Mr. Vasquez and left a very intense message in his voice mail, which has not been addressed as of this writing.
Anthony advised me that he would make sure and leave the report with Mr. Vazquez. I have no idea if that was accomplished.
We went off the property at approximately 9 PM that evening and I spoke to Anthony at the Security station upon leaving the property. As we were talking, there was another person behind Anthony seemingly intent on eavesdropping the conversation. I asked if he was McKenna. He responded that he was and why I asked. I told him that I was the person he threatened on the phone earlier and that I did not hold kindly to being threatened and told him not to threaten me again.
He immediately copped an extremely abusive attitude and asked if I thought he had threatened me. I again repeated that he had and not to threaten me again. At this point, he told me that if I said another word he would have me arrested. Although this was extremely distasteful, I erred on the side of discretion and addressed my comments only to Anthony, who was appropriate in manner and tone.
Anthony informed me that there was a meeting of Sunterra upper management expected on the property the next day and that I would be contacted in the morning and the issue would be addressed. I asked the time of the call and he said he did not know, however it would be in the morning. We left without further incident.
We received no contact the next morning and by 11:30 AM left Powhatan to sightsee. We returned later that evening, around dinner time and found that no one had been in the unit. No one repaired the hot tub. No one had called as expected.
There was no contact from Mr. Vasquez or anyone else the balance or out visit. I chose to not call again and we left totally unhappy with our experience at Powhatan.
I do not know or even believe at this point in time that Mr. Vasquez or his staff had any right to treat an owner/guest the way we were treated. I am writing this because I am in hopes that there is someone in Sunterra's organization that would care about the poor way in which this property is managed. I am totally frustrated with the occurrence and find it a shame that such a grand resort could deteriorate to the depths it has through incompetent and mismanaged practices that have not been addressed responsibly.
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