Wyndham Screws Current Owners

Welcome to another manic Monday…..

Two nights ago, I talked a bit more about the new fee structures for the FairShare Plus Program. I hope I was able to explain what is going on enough that anyone can understand.

I told you about the quintuple bummer of the 516% fee increase. Typical Wyndham stuff these days, so no big deal.

I only slightly mentioned the effects about what the guy in the YouTube video was talking about, the elimination of point transfers.

I explained previously about the concept explained to me by FAIRFIELD (and now today under their new name, WYNDHAM) sales persons; to buy to a higher level of ownership (i.e., Platinum) and rent off whatever you and your family can not use. Well, those extra points are what thousdands of owners are MAD about. This really doesn’t affect me too much, because I have been renting out reservations instead of points. I can certainly see why everyone is in an uproar though, because it’s a lot easier to rent points to another owner than it is to try and find someone to rent your unit. You have no idea the headaches this has caused me in the past!

So, I don’t really have a big complaint about the loss of being able to transfer points to other owners, except it makes my ownership “investment” worth even less than it has already sunken down to.

Another thing --- last year, I watched the annual owners meeting on the computer. It was in May in Orlando (wish I had been there, but at least the had the prescience to have a live video feed). During this meeting, they specifically told everyone they were going to start charging owners to add guest certificates and that the new price would be $49. Owners were livid about this increase, which for Platinum owners meant to go from NOTHING, NADA, ZERO, to $49. I received an email from a guy who said he put 1000 guest certificates on reservations during 2007 --- that would work out to be $50,000 in charges under the new policy!!!!!!!!!!!! OUCH!

But, as you already know (or you should if you have been paying attention), Wyndham didn’t stop with this crazy 100% price increasse. Even before they had formally implemented the announced increase to $49, they increased it again to $129. I often enjoy frivolous expenditures, but the only way I would be happy with this 516% increase is if I were married to Franz Hanning (the CEO of Wyndham Vacation Resorts) or was his “lover” with blackmail-able dirt on him (I don’t think his wife would like to know he was sleeping with an auspiciously good-looking younger man!!!).

But as it stands, I’m not his wife or his male lover (and I'm not very sure I would want to be!!). I’m just a guy (happily married by the way) who expected to be treated fairly by this company, but was let down. I’m a guy who dedicated his entire life to public service, retired, and then hoped to be able to enjoy the dream of vacationing. Not any more --- thanks to Wyndham. With these new fees, I honestly should sell my timeshare ownership and go get a greeter job at Walmart!

There are also some fundamental issues with what Wyndham has done. Some of it you have already watched on the YouTube Guy’s video, but I can explain that even further. Before my current life, I wanted to be a powerful trial-lawyer and hoped to work in torts. I started my law school, but could not handle the commitment (way too many LADIES for me at the time to be worrying about scholarly education; I had “other education” on my mind). I did finish pre-law, then got a job working in corrections (yah, glad Mom & Dad spent that money so I could bust up fights between dirtbags fighting over their inmate "rights"!!). Eventually (I got out of prison and..), I retired as the master bailiff for ____________ State Justice Department (no, I didn’t make that blank space long to suggest I was referring to Washington DC, Minnesota, Mississippi, or any of those LONG states; that was just how long my finger touched the _ key).

So, I wasted all of my pre-law studies to live with "legally challenged" guys (see how PC I am) every day, then worked my way up to escorting these same scum-bags (lost PC for a minute) in and out of court. One thing this did was give me a very discerning outlook about scum. I can spot scum from nearly seven miles away. And, I’m a whole lot closer than seven miles to the folks at Wyndham Vacation Resorts!

There is just so much these people have done illegal that it is not even funny. They have violated their own marketing principal of not eliminating their bowls in their own back yard. 65% of their sales were to CURRENT OWNERS. How many current owners do you think will buy from these people again? How many current owners do you think will refer them to other people? The only person I would refer to them is Mrs. Hanning. Perhaps if she were an owner and could see what Wyndham has done to 360,000 dedicated owners, she could help him make the choice to do what is right, instead of opt for UTTER GREED!

As happens every night these days – I need to go to bed. Good-night.