Worthless timeshare ownership for sale

So I was searching around today to try and figure out how much 1,000,050 points are worth on the resale market. I'm going to sell my Wyndham timeshare ownership (eventually), but first let's figure out what they are worth if I sell it and what they are worth if Wyndham sells it.

I recently attended one of Wyndham's infamous "owner updates". These are humorous. When you check-in (as an owner), they tell you that you have to go get to the "parking pass" people over at another desk. At some locations, this parking pass is needed to get through security. So, these parking pass experts could care less about whether you get a parking pass or not. They work for the marketing department. They get paid commissions based on how many of us they can talk into showing up for an "owner update". I think they get $25-30 per person they get to sign up. Plus, they get to offer an incentive to the owner to go to this "update". If you ask them what an update is, they kindly explain that they want to get owner's feedback on the quality of the resort and any needed improvements. If you give them "they eye", stare them down, and roughly ask "is it a sales presentation?", they will look you dead into the eyes and say, "of course not, they are just trying to get your opinion". "And we value your opinion so much that we are going to throw in $75 worth of dinner gift cards", or whatever - usually worth between $50 and $100. "And it will take no longer than 45 minutes, guaranteed."

Of course, you want to "help out" the resort and fill out their questionnaire about the quality of the resort. Everyone likes to help, and everyone likes $75 worth of dinner gift cards for being such a good Samaritan, right? Well, of course just about anyone realized those "parking pass" people are straight-up liars. They get paid to get you into the sales-room and they are trained to tell you what you want to hear.

At least the salespeople are a little more obvious about it. They only spend about 2-3 minutes doing the "survey", and 90% of that has to do with how much you own and how often you travel, the lead questions into their sales pitch. You can never have too many points, they say. There are so many ways you can use your ownership, they say. The smartest owners all buy to the Platinum-level, they say.

So, my survey guy (aka SALESMAN) wanted to know the history of why I purchased to Platinum. I explained to him what I explained in "It's good to be Platinum" and he congratulated me on my wise purchase. He said the only thing that would be better is to get more. I asked what incentive I would have to buy more, as it would take purchasing an entire million more points even to get one additional "FREE" guest certificate. He said I would be able to rent more and actually make a profit -- traveling for free. I wasn't going to argue with his insane logic, so I decided to throw him a change-up.

I was thinking that if 1,000,050 points give me 30 free guest certificates, and 1,999,999 still only give me 30 free guest certificates, it would be smarter to buy an entire new contract for 1,000,050 points in a separate name. This would give me 60 free guest certificates. Math genius, I know.

So I asked this joker the best price my "dad" could purchase 1,000,050 points for today. He got very excited.... got together with his sales manager - then brought his sales manager to see me. The boss showed me a printout with a lot of numbers on it. Remember, I paid $$,$$$ for my existing points (five digits). The bottom line number (after mega-discounts) was $128,900 for 1,000,050 points. Just think about that - this is the cost of a 1500 square foot home in more than half of the United States.

Of course I told them I would have to talk to my dad and figure out if that might be too much money or not. Then I finally kicked my way out of the sales meeting and got my Red Lobster gift cards, with a promise to call back tomorrow. Good thing most of know tomorrow never comes!

Now, back to where I started. I checked how much a million points sell for on eBay. If I were to sell you my Platinum ownership today, I would be lucky to get $5,000 for it.

Here are some recently closed eBay auctions that sold their Wyndham points:

825,000 points at Myrtle Beach for $6580
500,000 points at Smoky Mountains for $2647
300,000 points at Destin for $1225
336,000 points at Bonnet Creek for $1098
308,000 points at Grand Desert for $1075
343,000 points at San Antonio for $1001
351,000 points at Star Island for $810
500,000 points at Grand Desert for $2027

So, as you can see, I would be lucky to get $5000 for an ownership that someone can go to any Wyndham sales office and pay at least $125,000 for. So, why is it 25 times more value to buy from Wyndham directly? Because they do not allow you to transfer your VIP benefits to another owner. So, if I sell my Platinum ownership to someone else, they are not longer Platinum. They don't get the discounts and upgrades I get. They don't even get those 30 guest certificates each year - they get ONE. But is that worth $120,000 to have those things? HELL NO!!!!!

That is one of the main points that has owners so upset. This company has devalued this product so badly that it's not even worth trying to sell. You can't really use it effectively, because they've killed all the benefits associated with it. And, you can't even sell it, because they have made it WORTHLESS. Completely WORTHLESS.

I'll leave you with these happy thoughts for yet another day

Wyndham Petition

Hello everyone! Yes, both of you....."hi".

I was reading on the Timeshare User's Group (TUG) board this morning about a petition that Wyndham owner's are circulating and signing. It was only published just two days ago, and already has 200 signors. This is just one more example of the responses Wyndham owners are taking against Wyndham in response to these insane changes. The petition itself is pretty non-specific. Here is what it says:

The petition:
We, the undersigned Wyndham owners and other supportive
parties, petition Wyndham Vacation Ownership and the
Fairshare Vacation Owners Association to restore and retain
inviolate and in perpetuity all duly obtained and purchased
Fairshare Plus Program Options and VIP Program Benefits
as listed in the 2006-07 Member's Directory and/or as
delineated in the applicable directory at the time of an owner
making a qualifying purchase; options and benefits which were
the expressed basis for making initial and subsequent
Wyndham timeshare purchases. In particular, we petition
Wyndham to keep the Fairshare Plus owner option of
transferring points between owners and to restore free (without
charge) guest confirmations for VIP Gold and Platinum level
owners, both of which were key elements in the sales
presentations and timeshare purchase agreements at the time
qualifying timeshare purchases were made and which have
been an option and benefit of said programs for a decade.

Links:
This site contains detailed information about Wyndham's
business practices which defraud Wyndham owners of the
benefits promised at time of purchase
http://www.wyndsham.com/
a Wyndham owner shares his viewpoint on Wyndham http://www.wyndhamvideo.com/
and THE site where some 4,500 Wyndham owners share their
viewpoints on all things Wyndham
http://www.wyndhamowners.org/
Each of these websites have some very powerful information to
share about what is going on among Wyndham owners. I
simply do not understand why Wyndham, nor the FairShare
Plus Board of Directors do not care more about what they are
doing to their 400,000 plus owners. It baffles me (and not in
a pleasant way).

Click here to go to the petition

But the fact that 200 owners signed this petition in 48 hours is not what I find remarkable. I don't even find it remarkable that the author knows of something that baffles him "in a pleasant way". Ok, I admit, that is slightly remarkable. What is amazing is what the respondants are saying when the sign the petition. First of all, out of 200 people who have signed there is not even one of they usual "naysayer" who will pop in a statement like "I fully support all of these changes". You see that sort of crack-pot in just about every petition, but not this one. Leaving comments is not required, but many owners have gone out of their way to not only take then time to sign the petition, but have left some very strong comments (without dictionaries).

Check out what they have to say!


A key element in making the decision to purchase and now you want to charge for our guests that we want to purchase as well. Is your decision based on greed as so many other coporations are doing. Why are you so dead set in following a bad practice? We have been loyal customers and have brought several others. This is how you thank us!!!

After my parents first purchase of Fairfield(now Wyndham), they attended several other sales meetings (suppodedly owner updates). they were sold on the fact of being able to rent out points/reservations for extra money and help pay the annual maint. fees. Wyndham, through their own Extra Holiday

Rentals are duly trying to take this benefit away from all of us.

As a past developer purchaser, I would no longer consider purchasing a Wyndham timeshare product in the future for fear of losing rights and priveleges sold to me at the tine of purchase.

cendent gets richer and the owners get screwed harder every years

Fairshare Plus Platinum VIP owners with resorts in Virginia and Florida

Give us what was promised at the time of the sale. It was those things that "encouraged" us to buy. It is not right to take them away after using them to gain a sale

Hi I wanted to rented out my points for the first time in 20 years as we ae senors almost 70 and cant alwaystrave The income would have helped as we are on a fixed income

Hope this helps-there is strength in numbers

I agree with this petition! WE are VIP Platinum and have lost many benefits in the short time we have owned. We would like to see all of the lost benefits of the last 18 months restored. Plus, we would like to stop getting harrassed by the sales staff when we stay with our points. We are done with Wyndham sales staff liars! Sleazebags!

I am a VIP Gold member and have owned since 2001. The benefits that were taken away I have never used but was considered using in 2009. I am worried that more benefits will dissapear soon as well. What will they take away next? Wyndham needs to give back and enhance value to our investment.

I am a VIP member and have decided not to purchase anymore Wyndam points until I see a significant change at the corporate office. In addition to the references in the above petition how about better telephone and web page service. How about Wyndam having more interest in servicing the needs of existing owners and less interest in selling ownerships that the current infrastructure cannot handle.

I am a VIP Platinum owner with over 3 million points. I bought more and more points over the last 10 years based on the outstanding resorts at the time and faith in the benefis assured to me. I am dismayed and concerned about the rapid deterioration and removal of the options I was promised. I heartily agree with this petition and will fully pursue the restoration of these promised benefits, or at an open and honest explanation of why they were removed.

I am a Wyndham owner who lives in California. I own 518,000 points, all resale, so I am not VIP.

I am an Alabama resident and have been an owner for over 10 years - over a million points. Fairfield had an awesome product before selling out to Cendant. Now Wyndham has taken all the promised owner benefits away and raised fees up to 500%. Their corporate greed must stop. When will an Attorney General take notice and issue an immediate cease-and-desist order against them? Hopefully before they have taken everything from us owners to support their own corporate ventures!

I am an owner of 303,000 points. The ability to transfer/trade points with other owners is a key feature I had counted on.

I am from Iowa and I wholeheartly support this petition. When I originally purchased this was one of the benefits I was sold on was free guest certificates and transfer of points. There have been other benefits also taken away that should also be returned to us.

I became a Platinum owner with Wyndham (nee Fairfield) primarily to obtain the benefits being offered for that level of ownership.

I cannot believe how greedy Wyndham is - taking away benefits, increasing fees......all of the changes benefit only one party - Wyndham Extra Holidays. Shame on Wyndham!!

I fully support and agree with this petition as stated above as a Wyndham VIP Platinum Fairshare Plus Program owner since 2004. I am very concerned with the many policy changes that have clearly diminished the value of our original purchase as outlined when we purchased our timeshare.

I have been happy with Wyndham ownership up until all these changes which have taken away our privileges.

i object to the elimination of owner transfer of points. it was the main reason why i purchased points with wyndham. i am not interested in renting just want to share with family.

I own 630K points at Ocean Walk and I agree that a lot of the reasons why I decided to own are now being taken away.

I own a small deed of 154,000 points used for family vacations, and Wyndham is consistently and systematically making it near impossible to use. They are taking away all of the rights promised to us by their own sales staff.

I used to be a supporter and now I tell everybody to avoid Wyndham as it has become a rip-off. If you want owners to help you sell more timeshares, then stop scewing us over!

I was sold a Gold VIP membership that included the above options when I bought it in 2005. This "VIP" membership is now essentially worthless. I feel that I have been defrauded by Wyndham Sales and Wyndham corporate and request that the benefits that were sold to me be restored.

I wholeheartedly support this petition.

I will not be buying any additional points because of the erosion of benefits. I have owned wyndham-fairfield resorts for over 10 years and am a gold vip . I have purchased additonal points over the years but will not buy more. I am especially unhappy about the inability to transfer points to other owners after march 1st.

If the present FSP Board and staff continue to abuse the fiduciary responsibilities they have to the owners and NOT to Wyndham, they should be asked or forced to resign by the collective owners. I have asked Deanne Gabel several times for the 2007 and 2008 FSP Board Minutes and have been told she is working on getting them. I have also asked when the Board elections are and how do you run for the FSP Board with no response.

It is hard to fathom why any owner would want to abolish the ability to transfer points. Having that ability does no owner any harm and can be a signficant advantage to ownership - which was promised when the purchase was made.

My home is in New Mexico. We own in excess of two million FSP points and have been owners since 1989.

My parents are VIP Platinum Owners and I attended the various sales meetings when they made these purchases. This was for family vacations and for the flexibility for my daughter and I to take vacations separately. I had planned on buying points also to supplement what my parents own. With all the negative changes that have taken place I definitely will not be making a purchase. Taking the unlimited guest confirmations away was a really bad move. Wyndham has done nothing to display that they care about their owners. The 15 day cancellation policy has also had a great impact on us for obtaining last minute weekend getaways. This program use to have great flexibility and that has been ruined by all of the policy changes Wyndham has made.

Myself, my wife and her sister own 336K annual points and 131 EOY points. It is an important feature for us to be able to transfer points between our accounts, for our PERSONAL use. Never for sale or rent.

Never dreamed that so many of the benefits we purchased for, would be eliminated one by one.

Not affecting me directly at the moment, but agree with the petition. I believe members who bought before the new rule came out should get to keep the benefits they bought and signed for

owner 3 years - lost all benefits - want them back

Owners since 1999 and want to retain all VIP benefits that were promised.

PLEASE work for the benefits of owners without reducing benefits! Thank you!

Respect for Wyndham Corporation has fallen just about as low as it can get.

Restore owner rights and benefits!!!

Rights should be grandfathered to the very first contract purchased.

SC residents - we purchased to VIP level at Glade in 2006, based on recommendation from son and benefits promised by salesman and sales manager of being able to transfer points, add guests to reservations for free, and get free newspapers. Now all we have left is a 50cent newspaper! Please restore our ownership back to what we were promised.

Shame on you "W" for taking back what we paid for. Owners in Kentucky, and no longer proud.

Since Wyndham has taken over I have seen that I get less then what I had signed for when I bought.

Since Wyndham took over Fairfield its all been downhill for owners. They seem more concerned with Extra Holidays and marketing than owners!

Stop ripping off owners for your own corporate greed!

Stopping the transfer of points is like stealing our rights. Next they will try and stop us from being able to transfer our deeds.

the cancellation change has directly hurt me. two years ago i praised fairfield. now i condemn wyndham with everyone i meet and i meet many timeshare owners

The degradation of benefits has had a negative impact on our Wyndham ownership. We can no longer fully enjoy our ownership and will no longer be an advocate for this company.

The timeshares I own have been devalued by the actions of Wyndham. Not being able to sell points is absolutely the wrong policy.

The VIP benefits that were promised to us at the time of purchase were the ONLY reason we bought retail points from Fairfield/Wyndham. It is unethical that they are being taken away one by one, without any input from the owners

This benefits mentioned above have been offered to me at least two times during sales presentations. Luckily I did not buy into them. I certainly feel for my fellow owners, however, and these changes will certainly not inspire me to buy any more wyndham interests (points) that offer any such benefits that are revoked and changed at will

Very upset that we are constantly told by Wyndham that "we, the owners have asked for these changes." No Way!!

We are totally discouraged and disappointed at the way we are being treated after spending more than $60,000. on out 518,000 points. The people now running Fairfield Resorts should be sent to prison for what they have done!!!!! It is nothing short of stealing our money and telling us to shove it. If we could get our money out of this program we would sell it in a second!!!!!!

We like to travel with family members who are also owners, but with fewer points than we own. We use the points transfer option in order to book one reservation using points from both families. This program change will negatively affect our ability to share reservations in this way, and we are extremely angry about it! We purchased these points for a large amount of money and should be able to do with them what we please!

We were sold on the promis of these extra benefits. That is the reason we bought devloper points to become platinum owners. Now Wyndham is taking away all of our benefits, that we paid a high price for.

What an idiotic idea - most of the signers of this petition do not understand what they are signing or saying.................

When we purchased, there were specifics that were not optional. Now that we have purchased, you want to eliminate some of the very features that helped in determining to make the purchases. It is not ethical as business owners to eliminate these benefits, now that you have our money!

without these options being restored, the sales pitch given to us would be false. Please restore our privileges

Wyndham Corporate--Please rethink & then rescind your actions.

Wyndham has defrauded thousands of us. Act like a good corporate citizen and restore our owner benefits.

Wyndham is contiously taking all the benefits/reasons ,why we purchased so many devloper points ,to become a platinum owner.

Wyndham is taking all owner benifits away and continuing to increase fees for no reason except corporate greed!

Wyndham Management - I appreciate the need to contain costs. But it is unethical to remove rights that were part of the original purchase contracts. These contracts should remain in force. If you feel the need to curtail benefits, please do so for any future contracts with new Owners.

Wyndham,You on the board are killing this timeshare program.

You have removed the benefits that made Wyndham worth it!

You, wyndham, have taken away some of my benefits that were paid for by my purchase of property you sold me. I want this stopped and the benefits restored, as promised.

Your taking away our right to transfer points has ended our family vacations. We and our parents have been owners at Fairfield since the Glades first stage and were enticed to points as a way to share so our mother could travel after our fathers death. One year ago, mom paid thousands to turn her original weeks to points so we could all share. She is now out her original weeks, and does not have enough points to get out of Michigan for the winter. We cannot pool our points with hers, or afford to pay for week upon week of guest fees if we book on her behalf. There is absolutely no excuse for this change, I do not want my "safety" protected thereby making my ownership worthless. We have spent 50,000.00 for a cadillac that you have swapped with an old Pinto. Please explain why it is worthwhile to continue with Wyndham.

It is hard to fathom why any owner would want to abolish the ability to transfer points. Having that ability does no owner any harm and can be a signficant advantage to ownership - which was promised when the purchase was made.

We are platinum owners and sometimes cannot use all our points because of time constraints. Renting point to fellow owners is a simple & useful option. To change the rules of the game after it has started is hardly just or reasonable.

I think that the changes made over the past year with doubling fees, and taking away member benefits is a disgrace. Wyndham clearly is not concerned about providing their owners with a flexible product. Major decisions regarding fees and member benefits are changed without input from the owners and then we are continually lied to with explanations that this is what owner requested.

Please don"t take away the privleges that we had at the time of our purchase if i wanted a chevette i would have bought a chevette.

Wyndham has been reducing the value of my investment. They have been eroding the benefits for which I have paid thousands of dollars. Only corporates on the board

Click here to go sign the petition

So, we've learned a couple of things from this two-day old petition. One, the people at Wyndham have apparently abandoned hope of being able to solicit any current owners for future sales and completely disregard anything they have to say. Two, owners are PISSED. and, Three, you don't have to spell very well to be a Wyndham timeshare owner.

Until next time ---- happy vacationing.

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.

516% Fee Increase!

So, on Thursday night I talked about the new fee structures for the FairShare Plus Program. Last night I talked about my "first comment". Forgive me, I must have been sleep-typing, because that seemed very strange, even for me, when I just went back and read it. Haha. But I did locate that misspelled tag and correct it. I hate when something I wrote has errors in it -- but it rarely bothers me when I read typos from others. Remember, I've got adult children - they STILL don't know how to spell anything. Unbelievable!

So, lets talk about those fees.

To recap; Wyndham gave owners under a week's notice about new fees for all who own within the FairShare Plus Program. Increased fees are always a bummer, but these are double-bummers at 100% jump and, and in one instance, a quintuple bummer!!! Here’s what I mean:

Referring back to the chart in Wyndham’s letter, which I received in my mailbox on October 13, 2008, they notified me that two days later the following fee increases would take effect for all owners:

Reservation Transaction went from $25 to $49 – a 100% increase.
Points Credit Pool went from $30 to $39 – a 33% increase.
Express Window Point Rentals went from $5 to $10 – another 100% increase.
PIC deposits went from $50 to $89 – a 78% increase
Guest Certificates went from $25 to $129 – a fricking 516% increase!!!!!

Can you imagine two days notice to tell owners about a 516% price increase? Since then, we’ve also learned that if it takes two reservations (they call it a split-reservation), then the fee is doubled. This sometimes occurs when you have to book over weekends. You might have to book two nights in one unit and one night in another to get a three-night stay. So, now to do that, it is $258 to add a guest’s name, which is a 1032% increase from prior to October 15, 2008.

“Bargain hunters beware….. this is one blue-light special from hell. Thank you for your patronage with Wyndham, where your money is now ours!”

So, you’ve watched the video about the cessation of transferring excess points…and you’ve seen the fee increases from October. I wonder what’s next! They'll just want me to turn over my American Express Card number and randomly charge whatever they feel. Same difference, there's just not much I could do about it either way.

Bed time for me again….it seems like I have to do that every night!

The YouTube guy was right!

I am sorry. I seriously intended to blog every day about what owners are doing to fight against Wyndham and their disgusting, nasty, corporate greed. Tonight I will not be able to say a thing. I did call to verify that the guy from yesterday with the video was correct. Once again, I have lost something else from my ownership. And, this time, I didn't even get notified about it until I ran across a video on YouTube. What a great way for a major resort developer to deal with their owners!

So, anyway, tonight will be a break for me. I'm fairly disgusted with this company, even though I do see a very organized effort among owners against them.

For me though, I'm going to go to bed for now and ponder this.........

Wyndham Owner's Video

One last thing - while I was searching for the amount of "Fairfield Scam" and "Wyndham Scam" links in Google, I ran across an interesting video. It actually pretty much pissed me off, because it taught me a couple of new things, which, if true, have destroyed my ownership EVEN MORE than I thought when I started this blog.

I nearly posted a link back to my blog, but I already promised I wouldn't do that. And since I am talking about the unethical behavior of a lying, cheating, stealing company, it would not be too cool for me to not keep my promise. I did leave the following comment though:

WyndhamNemesis (1 hour ago)
It is so sad that so many people fall for this crooked company, that used to be
the best in the industry. So sad... Want my Platinum of 1,000,050 points, that
has been degraded to being nearly worthless??? Let me know what you'll pay - I'd
love to get rid of it and get rid of this thieving company!

So, for all of the insomniac timeshare owning late-night blog-surfers that might accidentally stumble across my silly blog - DEFINITELY check out this video from an educated Wyndham timeshare owner.



I am going to research this a bit. If I am really as screwed as this guy says (and he certainly looks serious), then I am really screwed. And if I'm really as screwed as he says, I will probably turn this blog into a "FOR SALE" blog.

More later - might not be having such sweet dreams now!

Platinum turns to coal..

Yesterday I discussed my brilliant plan to purchase timeshares to a high enough level that I could actually recoup much of my annual maintenance fees --- and have enough ownership that upon my retirement I could travel more extensively with my ownership. After spending $$,$$$ to obtain Platinum status, I was able to spend 30 days a year vacationing for about $50 a day. Not too shabby!

... until the Platinum turned to coal!

The parent company for Fairfield Resorts was Cendant. In 2006, Cendant purchased the brand name Wyndham and spun off "Fairfield" as Wyndham Vacation Resorts. Now don't get confused with the upscale hotels named "Wyndham". Most of those reverted to high class management and NONE of them are actually owned by the company that now holds the name Wyndham. Talk about confusing!

So, this company called Wyndham, that owns nothing named Wyndham, decides to rename all of their resorts (formerly called Fairfield) to Wyndham. Wow! I wonder why the great charade of musical name changing? Perhaps it was because the name Fairfield shows up 36,300,000 times when you type it into Google. And, most of those entries are not very favorable for Fairfield's great name. For instance, if you add the word "fraud" to the search, there are 871,000 hits. If you add the word "scam", you'll get 381,000 hits.

Now, I obviously have some extra time on my hand, but I certainly can't look at these millions of entries to itemize the major complaints against this company, but they were certainly extensive. So, it is no wonder Cendant came up with the brilliant idea of confusing the hell out of everyone and making the public think that these timeshares are part of the luxury hotel brand - Wyndham. Let me repeat though - Wyndham does not own even ONE Wyndham hotel! Damn, this corporation is good! Now, if you go back to Google and type "Wyndham and fraud" you only get 174,000 hits - and with "scam" it's 111,000. So, in a year, just by buying a reputable name and dumping their tarnished name, they were able to go from 1,252,000 negative reports to only 285,000. That's 1/4 as much bad publicity overnight, with deniability of even being part of the bad seed - Fairfield.

In truth, the product was 1000 times better under the leadership of Fairfield, prior to Cendant's involvement. Even before they came up with the scam of changing names to Wyndham, they were killing the benefits of ownership of the Fairfield timeshares. The founder of Fairfield must be rolling over in his grave as he watches these heavy hitting corporate thugs destroy an innovative idea and perfect vacation ownership concept.

I don't even know where to begin to discuss how much this company has taken away from owners in the last few years. I guess one of the main problems is that the company decided to start renting out units themselves. If you think this hurts my ability to rent the handful of rentals I do each year, you are mistaken. I am still able to rent a few weeks and recover some of my maintenance fees, but I'm not really able to go on my own vacations anymore, because now the company is renting off the very weeks that I have been able to reserve previously. I questioned how they are able to do this. You won't even believe this if I told you, so I'll show you instead. Here is what the Trust Agreement for my timeshare ownership says:

11.08 Wyndham Use. In addition to the right of Wyndham, as a Member and owner of Points, to make reservations using those Points at any time, Wyndham, in its
capacity as the developer of resort communities and Vacation Plans, may
reserve available Accommodations up to 60 days in advance of the first day
of anticipated occupancy, for its own purposes, including renting to the public,
provided it pays or otherwise causes a third party to pay the occupancy related
expenses of such Accommodations for each night to be used. All such occupancy
related expenses shall be determined by the Trustee. As a result of Wyndham's
use there will be less space available for Member use; however, Wyndham may not
reserve the last 10% of available occupancy for a type of Accommodation until 30
days prior to the first day of intended use. In addition, to the extent more
points are available in the Plan than are allocated to Members other than
Wyndham, Wyndham may sell or lease Points on such terms as Wyndham and the
Trustee deem reasonable. The purchasers or lessees of such Points shall have
such Membership rights as Wyndham and the Trustee deem appropriate.

Sounds crazy, but it's true. They started this a few years ago in small batches, noticeable to some, but not too devastating to owners, who were still able to make reservations.

But, let's keep in mind what I discussed yesterday - this company sold thousands of owners on buying up to the Platinum level (which I already explained is more vacation time than any normal family can use) on the promise of booking inventory at a 50% discount at the 6o day window and renting out what you can not personally use. By the way, they call this inventory "distressed", because nobody has booked it yet. Most timeshare owners book months, sometimes years in advance. So, they offer this distressed inventory at a discount to Platinum owners because they would rather have "heads in beds" than an empty room. Remember, every warm body that walks through the doors is a prospective buyer, so they were quite happy to have Platinum owners use our excess inventory to rent out reservations within the 60 day window.

Until their business started getting a bit shaky. Of course the economy took a toll on the hospitality industry. So what, I don't own a hotel room - I own a condominium timeshare. Why should I care? Well, since the company was failing, they decided to step up their tempo of pulling out this free inventory and renting it. Lots of it ---- nearly all of it. They even worked some system loopholes so they could get it at 62-63 days before check-in, just to make sure no legitimate owner was able to book it before them.

No way! That would be theft. Nope, not when they wrote it in the Trust Agreement that they were able to have it without paying a dime back to the owners of the timeshare interests. So, 100% of the rental money goes in the greedy corporate executives bank accounts. Wow, why didn't I think of that?

Come to think of it, who did think of that? I checked my deed and ownership information and found out that I belong to the FairShare Vacation Owners Association (VOA), which is a non-profit corporation established in 1991 and based out of Arkansas. I don't even belong to anything called Wyndham. Oh, wait, just saw in that Trust Agreement for the VOA that Wyndham appointed themselves to run the VOA - FOREVER - and allowed themselves to make, change, modify, whatever to the terms and conditions of the Trust. In fact, it turns out that when I signed that I agreed with what was written in the Trust Agreement back in the 1990s, all I really signed was that I agree that they can do whatever the hell they want, whenever they want, and for whatever reason they want, without me or any other owner ever being able to stop them, challenge them, or even have their decisions justified.

Wow, my mother always told me to read the fine, fine print. I guess I should have listened better. But, it really was a great ownership until these greedy crooks decided to start robbing inventory from the owners and renting it on their own.

In fact, even after they started robbing this inventory, I was still able to go on vacations - I just had to plan it a bit better and pay more points than usual. Oh, or I always had the choice of going to the company's rental department, called "Extra Holidays" and renting from them some of the inventory that should have been available to me as an owner. In fact, they sold me to my current ownership level on the promise that this inventory would be there for me. They sort of didn't lie. It's still there, I just can't book it with my ownership anymore. Now, if I want to use the inventory that belongs to me (in the VOA that I belong to), all I have to do is pay them and rent it from them. Great deal, eh?

Sorry about the tangent. As I was saying, everything was still ok at this point. I'm tired again, so will have to wait until tomorrow to finish up about how Wyndham Vacation Resorts went even further than just stealing our inventory. In fact, I'll share with you how they knocked the owners to the ground, then stabbed each and every one of them right in the back.

Happy dreams to all.... Good-night.

It's good to be "Platinum"

It was a great surprise for me to log back in here today and not see a huge fan club gathering in response to my highly suspenseful first post! What a major disappointment. I should call my family and have them log in and write how interesting this is.

Seriously, I have decided to not promote this blog in any way at all. If it gets discovered through search engines, that is fine. If not, that is fine too. Sometimes talking to yourself can actually be healthy, so maybe this is just therapeutic for me. We retirees sometimes need therapy!

So where was I when I fell asleep last night? I was telling you how great my timeshare ownership was and how it brought my family much closer together. The last point I made was that we continued to purchase more ownership in the FairShare Plus Program until we owned enough to spend about 30 days a year in timeshares.

I actually understated that slightly. We fell for the sales pitch that encouraged us to purchase MORE than we could actually use, so that we would get big discounts. Yah, sounds like going to the grocery store during a sale and buying six months worth of milk because it’s so cheap. Can you drink it all before it sours? With the timeshares, can you use all the vacation time before the end of the use year?

Well, let’s expand on this a little. Theoretically, what the sales folks told me was economically sound, considering I did want to travel at least a few weeks annually. An average week at one of these resorts gives you between 126,000 and 254,000 points in the FairShare program, which can be used to trade into other resorts in the program. If you purchased over 300,000 points you were given VIP status, which gave a small discount on future bookings and free daily newspapers while on vacation in the Fairfield/Wyndham resorts. That wasn’t too attractive to me though, I’m a southern boy and don’t even know how to read, let alone read newspapers!

The highest VIP level is called VIP “Platinum”. Now doesn’t that sound impressive? Platinum. Just say it a few times to yourself and you will get a small tingling feeling all about you. Platinum. Yes, that’s what I wanted to be. Platinum. Platinum owners need to purchase a million points, which works out to be about 6-8 weeks of vacation time annually. But, it doesn’t stop there. In addition, they gave us all sorts of other benefits, which were certainly fitting for the term “Platinum”. If we booked out of the leftover inventory at 60 days before check-in, we got our reservations for a 50% discount AND (yes, AND) we could also get free upgrades. So, for half the price of a one-bedroom condo, we would be able to book a two-bedroom or larger condo. Yes, it certainly does seem to be good to be Platinum.

Since we had purchased a total of seven weeks of ownership – or 49 days, in 2BR units, we now owned a whopping 1,000,050 points. VIP PLATINUM! Yippee! “Ladies and gentleman in the sales presentation room, I have a very special announcement – please join me in congratulating our newest VIP Platinum owners.” What an exciting time for me --- more exciting than having a daughter but not quite as exciting as having a son. Hahaha, that was a joke. I guess I can’t invite my family here now! But, seriously, it's good to be Platinum.

If you are a math-wizard, you’ve probably already figured out that if a Platinum owner books all of their vacations within the 60 day window, that they number of days of ownership doubles. So, to be a Platinum means we could have up to 98 days of vacation….even more if able to get upgrades from 1BR. And all of this for the great bargain of over $$,$$$. No, there are no decimal points there, just lots of dollar signs. Seriously, I don’t want to tally up the total amount initially invested, I might get sick and not be able to finish tonight’s topic.

And in addition to that alarming amount, we pay about $390.83 a month for maintenance fees (forever, and forever increasing). That sounds cheap, right? A mere pittance to pay for great family bonding vacations. Until you realize that for 12 months that totals to $4,689.96 and that my family is only able to use 30 of those 98 days of vacation that we pay for!

That was where the salesman had me hook, line, and sinker. He explained that almost all owners who purchase to the Platinum level actually could never use all of their vacation time. He lowered his voice, so as not to be overheard by lowly “non-Platinum” owners and said that the only reason to buy to this level was to reap the great discounts (50% is a great) and upgrades (I once got an upgrade from a 1BR to a 4BR!). He continued (even quieter this time) that Platinum owners generally rent out their extra vacation time to help defray the cost of their maintenance fees.

Wow, great idea, but how? “That’s simple, sir, these units rent for at least $1000 a week all over the Internet, or you can use any vacation rental company and pay a commission, but renting is easy.”

So, back to the math. For about $5K a year I get about 98 days (14 weeks). My family can use four weeks, which leaves ten weeks to rent out at $1000 a week. So, my net cost of vacationing works out to be -$5K a year for 30 days of vacation! Now, that is an easy sell and certainly encouraged me to spend the $$,$$$ to purchase much more ownership than I needed. Yep, a Platinum!!!! That’s me. Yes, it's good to be Platinum.

Ok, back to reality. Yes, renting turned out to be fairly easy, but unless you are talking about 4th of July on the beach, $1000 is NOT gonna happen, and it really worked out to be 7-8 extra weeks (due to prime season), so that was a bit of an exaggeration as well. But, the salesman was right. It was possible to cover a lot of the expense of my annual maintenance fees by renting out my excess ownership.

I had no problem renting my 7-8 extra weeks out for about $500 a week. Minus advertising costs, I was able to recover a little over $3500 each year. Now, my four weeks of family vacation each year is down to under $1500, or about $50 a night for a 2BR condo at a first class resort. Yes, I was very happy with being Platinum. I even considered buying a Platinum-colored Speedo bathing suit to show off at these resorts during vacations. Just kidding.

If you disregard the $$,$$$ initial investment (at a high interest rate), this all seems like a genius way to get the best value for your vacation dollar and still be able to visit some quality destinations. That is what we did for several years.

Have I built up the suspense yet? Probably not, but at least you must think I’m pretty smart for figuring out how to travel and get paid back for most of it. You just have to forget about the $$,$$$ and it all does seem fool-proof.

Tomorrow I will tell you how this all changed. I’ll tell you some secrets about the seemingly physical impossibility of turning Platinum into Coal.

For those who were counting, I was able to use the word Platinum a total of 20 times. That is probably not the key word that I want the search engines to find. Let me try this instead:

Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks!

There, I would much prefer for this blog to be discovered by someone typing in the above key words. You'll understand more later. Honestly, I'm a nice guy and don't use that sort of disrespectful language without real cause.

Have a great night and don’t forget to say a few prayers for our nation, since the Presidential Inauguration is tomorrow. It is going to take a bit more than some great theatrics to get this country back on its feet. I pray that Mr. Obama is up to the challenge.