My husband and I went to Vegas in 2009. We sat through the presentation and took a tour of the 'model' for what would be the accomodations at the new "Planet Hollywood Towers". At that point neither tower was open but the construction was on schedule. That said, we loved it and were offered several packages until we had one that would fit our budget.
At that time we purchased the 1 Bedroom Grand iis suited our needs, but not all of our wants. Here is where the 'bait and switch' comes in. We purchased a 1BD Grand week 52 even years with an option to upgrade to a 2BD Grand for an additional $8000 within the next year. Seems simple right? Wrong!
When the time came to upgrade, we were contacted over the phone. Everything was explained and I asked specifically if we were keeping what we had and just adding on the studio unit to make it a two bedroom. "Yes that's it" I was told."
Then we recieved to contract to sign. On the first page, it looked as if we were keeping our week 52 for the 1BD Grand and getting to Studio for week 10.??? That made no sense. As I kept reading to clearly took away our wk 52 for wk 10 float with wk 52 not even included for trade, but that info was about 8 pags into the contract. When we contacted Westgate, we were told the option upgrade was too low and they could only honor an all-season upgrade.
Several employees told my the option letter was not specific enough. The option letter had at the top of the page the package we currently had, then a sentence stating that the customer has the option to upgrade to a 2 BD Grand for an additional $8000 within 1 year. Don't see the confusion? Neither did I. I was told that I could keep my week 52 and upgrade for $21000. WHAT!!! Are you serious?!
So after a month and a half, several transferred calls, several unreturned messages, some pleasant but ineffective contacts, and more than a few very rude ones, Weestgate made us a 'gracious' offer. For an additional $11K, we could have wk 52 annually, but lose about 200 sqft.??? Does that make any sense? First they just offered the standard price for the 1 BD Deluxe, not a gracious offer. Second, were trying to upgrade for more space not less.
It was totally a 'Bait' - (join Westagte and you can upgrade the package you have for $8000) and 'Switch' (Did not explain the contract changes clearly in the verification, implied few changes in the front of the contract and attempted to bury the large changes, complaints that the sales reps should have clarified the offer, obscene costs to upgrade my package.)
I am not a timeshare sales person. I did not know what the wording of the option needed to be, but I feel scammed and regardless of what they try to say, Westgate did not honor their own offer and did not make any reasonable attempt to meet me in the middle or meet my needs at all. I wanted more space they offered less. I was told I could pay $8K they told me $21K.
Watch-out for these shysters! Don't just get it in writing! Get it written out word for word! And use your cell phone to call corporate and find out exactly what the options need to say!
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