Complaint Review: Club Wydham

Club Wyndham, in my opinion, is not to be trusted.  Following a seemingly terrific vacation purchase program presentation from Club Wyndham, I bought into a "lifetime of vacations" through Club Wyndham and their affiliate RCI, "the world's largest and most experienced vacation exchange company".  In this program, unlike traditional timeshares programs, you purchase points that are used, and refreshed annually, towards vactions at Wyndham venues, and other available options and services.  A major sales pitch that was made was that, for a given year, unused points could be rolled forward and banked for future use up to three years.  What was not explained to me and my wife at the time of purchase, is that the banking of points has to be accomplished by a date certain prior to the beginning of their effective year, and that there is a fee associated with the banking.  Thus, if an owner wishes to bank their 2014 points for use in a future year, that decision has to be made prior to January 1, 2014.  This encourages people who cannot forsee what their vacation plans are in the coming year to "bank" their points at a cost of $39 additional dollars.  It wasn't until I attempted to bank my current unused points in October that I was informed of the timing requirement and cost, and that I had missed my window of opportunity which ended the prior March.  I was advised by customer service that since I was unable to bank my points, that they could be transferred to RCI for future use up to for one year, and that there is no cost to transfer the points.  Furthermore, it would be advisable to wait until the end of this year to make the transfer so that I would have the entire calendar year to use them.  I waited until late November to make the request, only to then have it explained that while there is no cost to roll the points into RCI, that i would incur an additional fee of $209. to actually use the points.

While none of this is illegal in the sense of consumer fraud (Club Wyndham reps assure me that this information is spelled out somewhere in the volumes of (fine) printed materials they provide, it is smarmy and misleading, and certainly not forthcoming.  A customer service supervisor informed me that at the time of the sales presentation, the representatives do not have time to cover all of the fine points of the contract.  When I responded that, since the points banking and rolling forward for future use (you can upgrade and take a BIGGER vacation!) was a key point in sales pitch, and a decision factor for me that I thoroughly discussed with the sales rep, and that the costs and restrictions appeared to have been purpoosely omitted from the conversation, the supervisor had the unmittigated gall to say that when you buy a $30,000 car, the salesman doesn't explain how to operate it.

Club Wyndham seems to be using sleight of hand to gain sales, add costs, and is less than forthcoming in its marketing presentation.  I received no satisfaction from my interaction with Customer Service or CS supervisor.

If presented with the opportunity to buy in to Club Wyndham, knowing what I now know, I would run away, quickly.