We were lured into a presentation via a postcard offering a "free" cruise. The postcard states this is not a timeshare or land sale. We went to the presentation and found they were selling a "vacation club" for several thousand dollars. I was not really impressed with the offer and felt certain it was another ripoff or scam. They even offered the plan that was "not available any more."
We just couldn't tell anyone about it. This was like a "trial" version, but would still cost about $2,000. We signed up for the regular program that day after paying an $800 down payment and a $250 non-refundable processing fee. The full price was almost $4,000 for the lower regular plan. They will even finance it though themselves at 17.9% interest!
We were told we would have to wait up to 10 business days for the processing before we would get our user name and password to use the service. Of course, this is the 10 day rescintion period, so by the time you can see what they have to offer, you can't cancel and get a refund. While we were there I asked them to check for a better rate at a hotel where I already had a reservation, but they could not find it while I was there.
They did say we could call and talk to a manager if we wanted to make reservations before we received our password. It makes no sense that it takes that long to get a password or user name. It only took moments to take my money. Virtually every legitimate company gives user name and password immediately. They do offer a 365 day full refund offer, but you are required to stay a full week at one of their resorts. It seems they will get your money one way or another.
The very next day I called to tell them to stop the processing and just refund the money. They did say they would refund the $800, but we lost the $250. This was for the few minutes it took to run our debit card and fill a sheet of paper out. I asked for the $250 back, but as expected, they refused. It will also take 10-14 business days to get our refund. Why? The money was transferred from our account within 1 day. Why not just credit the account immediately?
The "free cruise" actually is through Spirit Incentives and will cost $199 per person. It is for off season travel and you have to pick three dates months in advance and at least 30 apart from each other. I suggest reading about Spirit as well before even considering wasting time at Worldwide.
This seems to be nothing more than a new way of selling time shares without actually selling the time share ownership. Any way you look at it, it will cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars the moment you sign.
If they change their minds about the $250 I will update this report.
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