Welk Resort Group

I contacted welk Experiences to see why they never posted to be told you can't apply them to the maintenance fee. Ridiculous Since their website allows you to apply the points against the fee. No one can tell me where my points are. I want my points back. To back this is not an honest company and I am sure I will never see my points again. Time to book my extra travel with someone else who I will actually get a benefit from. Seems like if you change something you let people know. And if you website allows them to use it for things you aren't allowed to. Then the points get credited to your account.

We have been unable to make reservations as our membership did not qualify. We were never told that there were restrictions to these bookings! When we booked our alleged free cruise, there were so many out-of-pocket fees that it cost more than it would have been to just pay cash for the trip. To make it worse, this was cancelled due to COVID and it took about a year to get our money back! What kind of company is this??

We were told we could use the e-ticket number to rebook through Alaska. It didn't work. I contacted Alaska, and they said that number isn't an Alaska number it's a Hahn number and to contact Hahn. I tried them, they won't even answer the phone. I contacted Welk who gave me the run around that I needed to contact Alaska. I have told at least 5 different people at Welk the numbers don't work. Finally, one of their representatives tried the numbers and confirmed they don't work. They then said to find the flights I want and provide Welk the dates, times, flight numbers, etc and they will book it for me.

They got back to me and told me that in addition to the $1200 credit, I would need to pay an additional $218! These same flights are available on Alaska for $250 a piece right now and have been since I started battling with them. This doesn't make any sense. Does it? I have asked this question to multiple people in the organization and none can give me an explanation. I am very disappointed in the customer service of this company. I do not recommend using them for travel services.

I quickly faxed them a letter within the legal deadline to get out of my contract. They were quick to process my request and gave me my deposit back within a couple weeks so I figured good riddance. All of this was in July. But then on Aug 11 I received a voicemail from a Jennifer who was apparently trying to schedule us for a tour? I ignored it. Since August I have gotten a couple of missed calls from their number; in fact I got one today. I don’t even bother to answer or request that they remove me because I’m kinda curious how long the apparent lack of recordkeeping on their end will continue lol. Anyways fellow millennials, know that timeshares aren’t anything cool unless you have an aunt who has one that’s paid off where you can go. I am shocked this business model still exists!

When we got to the pool we were told there was no actual reservation just and email saying we want to make one but no one called me back; even after the numerous attempts I tried to call to reserve a spot. They stated they could put us on a waiting list but we may not be able to get in at all during our stay. So no one even made a reservation for us. The rec center said they found the email, while I was standing there, and said sorry you can try again tomorrow. After addressing our concerns for 2 hours (going back and forth from the front office to the rec center) we were finally told on Saturday they'll let us in for 2 hours.

Overall this vacation was more stressful and uncomfortable than anything. We sat in our gross room almost the whole time because nothing else was open. We came so we can enjoy the pool and was told we can make a reservation at the pool 3 times. I also tried calling and left a message with the assistant manager and never got a callback.

After showing us around, he took us to a room with numerous tables and other sales representatives and customers. There was never a two hour presentation like we were told. Instead, Brian was the only person who was talking to us. He started by asking if we traveled often and we told him that we never did. Then he proceeded to tell us a story about his family and how they never traveled either until he discovered Welk Resort timeshare. He basically created an estimate of how much people spend traveling without a timeshare and how much they can save if they had a timeshare. Initially, he wanted to sell us a timeshare that was worth about $30,000. We definitely refused stating that it was too much money and we were trying to save for a house and he kept showing us different packages that were supposed to fit our budgets.

As he kept showing us different packages and talking to us about how awesome the timeshare was and all the money we would save, we kept rejecting his offers. We also told him that buying a timeshare was a decision that we had to talk about for a while to decide if that is what we wanted since we didn’t really travel. We told Brian that we needed to go home and think about it but he insisted that if we didn’t act at that moment he would not be able to offer us those prices. We kept saying no to his offers and we wanted to go back home because it was about four hours into the “two hour presentation” and our baby who was being taken care of by his grandparents was crying so they kept calling us to see if we were on our way back. However, Brian kept insisting on selling us the timeshare, he kept saying he was going to talk with his manager to find out about other possibilities for our budget.

We told him that we were not thinking about buying anything because we did not have time to travel, but he left and said to wait and he was going to help us get a better deal because he really wanted us to have vacations and take our 2 year old out. Later he came back with a “better” deal. Now the price was reduced, and we refused the offer again. We specifically told him that we were planning to buy a house and that we were saving money but he persisted. We said that the timeshare was a big commitment and we didn’t want to be stuck with it. He mentioned that it was like a property that we were buying and we could pass on to our kids so they could continue enjoying it and traveling; he also said we could sell it and selling it back to them was one of the options so we could get rid of it anytime.

As an example, he said that if Gonzalo lost his job or I got sick and I was not able to continue working, we could just call them and they were going to help us. This really made us think that maybe we could try it out and see if we liked it since we could easily get rid of it if something went wrong. Still, we asked him to give us time to think because we needed more time and our babysitters were also questioning why the presentation was taking longer than we had told them. To convince us, he offered to give us a trip to Hawaii for a week with flights included, one trip to Cabo, and tickets for games with a certificate to buy pizza, and of course our $50 dollar deposit back. We told him again that we needed more time to think because it was a lot money. He looked frustrated and said that he didn’t want us to miss on this deal, that he was trying to help us enjoy traveling and save money.

Brian said that if we decided to buy the timeshare later he was not going to be able to give us any of the deals and the upgraded free trip or prizes that he mentioned, just the regular cheap trip that was promised. He said he was going to leave us alone for a few minutes to talk things out and think about it. He left for about 10 minutes and came back with his manager who tried to pressure us to buy the timeshare as well. By that time, our babysitters were upset because about 4 hours had passed. The manager insisted that he was giving us the best deal and asked us what was stopping us from buying the timeshare. We told him that the interest was very high and that we did not want to be stuck with the loan if we were to buy a house. Again, the manager and Brian said that we could sell back the timeshare if we had to, or if we didn’t like it.

They said that it was like a property and to think of all the prizes that we were getting and that by buying the timeshare we were going to be forced to travel and enjoy our lives more because we needed vacations. After long minutes of negotiation and their promises that we could get rid of the timeshare easily, we decided to buy it. Brian immediately said that since he had heard us speaking in Spanish, he was going to take us to talk with Marcela. She was going to explain to us the contract and all the paperwork because she spoke Spanish and that way we could communicate better. Our conversation with Marcela was very quick, she was flipping through pages so fast and not giving us time to read a single page. She basically was holding the paper and talking about the information that was in the paper moving quickly to the next.

Our real concern all this time was on how to get rid of the timeshare in case we bought a house or had financial problems. We asked Marcela as well that in case something went wrong or we didn’t want it, if we were going to be able to sell it back or get rid of it, and she said that we could sell it back. However, they had the right to buy it back from us before anyone else. She made us sign all the paperwork and gave us a USB that had the information she reviewed with us, as well as copies of the contract that we signed. By this time our babysitter was calling us and questioning why the presentation went from 2 hours to almost all afternoon. We had traveled from Stockton CA to Lake Tahoe so by the time we got out from the presentation it was really late and we had to work the next day. We had to drive back almost 2 hours!

On April 10 2020, Gonzalo lost his job due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 12, we tried to contact the timeshare to let them know that we wanted to sell back the timeshare due to financial issues. They were very rude and told us that selling back was not an option unless we had paid off my loan in full. They said that we were given 7 days after the purchase to cancel the timeshare and now there was no way we could get rid of it unless my loan was paid in full. During this call, I also mentioned the free trips that they gave us and how we never had a chance to travel. They told us that they could not find any free trip in the system and that sales representatives “were notorious for making promises.”

That same day, we emailed them explaining our financial situation and they replied with an email saying that someone was going to contact me about options and that it could take up to 3 days. Until this date no one had contacted us about the situation. We emailed them again on April 23rd asking them about the response and to let them know that we were told that I could get rid of my timeshare anytime. We also told them that we thought it was wrong how they mislead people to buy the timeshare with lies, and until this day they have not answered us.

We stayed our nights, checked out and proceeded to the owner update where we were met by a nice and pleasant guy who kept saying he was not there for sales but to let us know what we originally bought and to help us get what we want. So for most of conversation/ presentation the guy was nice other than saying inward basically lying when I would answer one of his questions and at the end when he said, "You know you have a flag on your account," I said why so he went to find out and what he came back with was that what they sold me wouldnt be enough points and I was supposed to have this brought to my attention in April except for covid but it was no big deal.

What it really was is that they wanted me to use my price guarantee so they would have to honor it any longer so he presented the pricing to upgrade to what is actually usable vs. What they sold me to begin with (which in his words was just sales team making a sale and just wanted to get us to by something and that we agreed to it so we knew what we were buying). (Always feels good being told they were just selling you what you were willing to spend rather it be useful or not.)

So back to pricing and upgrading as it was presented to us my wife and I reviewed and I told them it seems to me I have until the 9th of August to decide if we want to purchase more points and that's when the different attitude came out by him and the so called sales manager Jimmy and I was told nope I only had that day to make the decision because I had a meeting with them which then all they could muster is, "It's in your contract and you should have read that part." And I bought it and it's mine so that's that.

As soon as I was told that I asked what would it take to dissolve the entire ownership as I dont like sneaky things like that to get people to purchase something that really isnt even usable and was told, "Sorry you bought it. It's yours and you should have read your contract all the way." Then was told, "You can go." By the none salesman that only wanted to sell us more time. Cant believe this is how owners are treated regardless of how much they have bought, owner is an owner. I do not blame the sales team from when we bought other than saying a few things that are not true like things with exchanging and free time and things like that but no big deal. I was still ok with everything until this experience.

It's sad when Welks wants to sell me more time at the price guarantee I had at that time for another 15k for 120k more points but I can also think back to Oct 2019 and received a call from welks and could have doubled my points then for another $6200. Crazy how much they want to get out of people. And now I look and I can literally buy what I already have for $5 from a very reputable company and only increase my maintenance fee. Do the math and no matter what it's cheaper than what welks wants from me. Hope they can make it right in my eyes before I hand over to lawyer to handle and dissolve.