After attending a typical high pressure timeshare sales pitch my wife and I decided that the timeshare purchase was a bit more than we could afford at the time. Our sales rep then offered us a Vacation Ownership Agreement (VOA) where we would be entitled to a one week stay at the Gatlinburg, TN resort anytime within the next 3 years and we could also "lock in" the price on a future timeshare purchase.
In this VOA we were repeatedly told that we would be able to go thru ICE Gallery and RCI to book vacations at other resorts for the next two years for prices as low as $149.00 per week. My wife and I enjoy visiting Kiawah Island, SC so we thought, even at $300.00 to $400.00 per week we could stay there cheaper than what we would pay if we made the reservations ourselves. They even had the RCI vacation book there for us to look at, and said we would be getting the RCI and Interval Internationl books in the mail in a few weeks.
About a month later we tried contacting ICE to inquire about our information and were told we weren't in the system yet. Calling Westgate to complain I was told that the RCI benefit is only for timeshare purchasers only. We then tried to book a week at another South Carolina island thru ICE and was told they have no availability anywhere.
I sent an email to Westgate complaining about being mislead into signing this purchase agreement and only after resending the email a couple weeks later did I get a response. It merely stated that they had not been affiliated with RCI for approximately 3 years.
I have of course disputed the charges for the downpayment and monthly payments with my credit card company. Today I received a collections notice from Westgate stating my account was past due. I called them and explained the situation and was told by the not so nice individual that I spoke with that if my account was not brought current in 2 to 3 months that it would be forwarded to a collections agency and there would be a 40% penalty added onto the balance due along with a negative report on my credit bureau!!!
I've filed a complaint with the East Tennessee BBB and the Federal Trade Commission as I feel like they are misrepresenting what is available in the VOA to get people to sign. I'm also going to be consulting with an attorney to see what other options I have.
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