In March, we were on our way to Florida when we stopped at a roadside booth in northern Florida advertising cheap and free tickets to Disney World and Sea World attractions. We thought we were getting a great deal on tickets so we purchased some but had to set up an appointment to pick them up at Westgate Lakes Resort in Orlando, Florida.
After receiving a free breakfast, we found ourselves in the middle of a sales presentation to buy a timeshare from Westgate Resorts. We were not intending to purchase a timeshare but we listened to the sales pitch of Barry Gold. He told us that my fiance and I could save a lot of money on hotels and suites by using our Westgate membership benefits to stay in high class upstanding hotels and suites at a huge discounted rate. We were told that our membership would guarantee us rooms of equal or better value than those at the Westgate Resorts. We still were unsure of this purchase and really decided we didn't want to purchase a timeshare but Barry then brought his sales manager, Alicia Quiroga, to our meeting and lowered the price of our purchase to make it more appealing. They convinced us we would save a lot of money because we did so much traveling and also because my fiance drives truck he would be able to save a lot of money while on the road by calling Interval International to set up his hotel suites in upstanding high class hotels at a discounted rate.
During our travels this past summer to Colorado, we attempted to use this benefit for hotels but when we called Interval International to reserve a room, the representative from Interval informed us that was not her job to do so and that Westgate must have misinformed us and that was not part of their agreement with Westgate. She told us that Interval International could set up getaways and exchanges for 2 days or more at a time but that we had to get on-line to set up those services and they needed more than a day's notice to do so. When we told the representative from Interval that we were in the middle of Colorado at night and needed the services that we believed we purchased from Westgate, she directed us to a cheap, filthy, and roach-infested motel in a bad part of town.
The next day, I called Westgate Resorts to complain and they said they couldn't be responsible for what Interval International does because they are two separate companies. However, I informed the Westgate representative that we purchased the timeshare primarily because of the benefits we were told by Barry Gold and Alicia Quiroga we would get while traveling. She then asked if I got any of that in writing and I told her "no" because I thought they could be trusted that they were being honest about the benefits.
I'm a teacher and can only travel at certain times of the year and every time we've attempted to use our benefits, we were in the middle of "black out dates". We still haven't been able to utilize any of our benefits we thought we were purchasing from Westgate Lakes Resorts.
After many unreturned phone calls to Barry Gold, Alicia Quiroga, Dustin Vizueta, and many other Westgate representatives, we are just wanting to get rid of our timeshare at Westgate Lakes and be done with Westgate altogether. We have been lied to, misinformed, and conned out of too much money to trust anything they say anymore!!
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