Welk Resort Group

The very first time I bought, when I went back, it didn’t proceed the way I had anticipated. Then the most recent one, when I upgraded from 1,000,020 points to 1,500,000 points and talked with a more senior person that came in later, he did not seem genuine. It didn’t come across as being done in good faith, so it tainted the brand a little bit. I called the original person that I spoke to at Welk and he said that he didn’t feel very good about the way the whole thing was presented either and he indicated that he was going to take it up with the Welk management. However, I never heard anything more. But everything else with Welk Resort Group has been very good. I really enjoy their properties and they continue to grow and provide more opportunities.

We have 540,000 points and it’s about enough for us to do what we need to do with our family. But they’re always trying to get us to buy more and they’re pretty persistent about it. They hammer us when we tell them no and that we don’t really wanna buy anything more but that's the only bit of dissatisfaction I have with them. Other than that, I’m happy with Welk and we actually are gonna go to their Cabo location in November. You should check Welk Resort out if you wanna take vacations. However, it is an investment and we invested quite a bit of money into it, so it’s a long-term thing for us. If you just wanna do a vacation and go somewhere once every couple of years, it’s not something you should do. But we needed to be able to take vacations every year, so Welk Resort Group has been good for us and I would recommend them.

They’re gonna tell you how much something costs at the highest peak that it would sell for. It’s like whenever there’s a drug bust for police, they tell you how much they got if they were to sell it out individually and for A-plus material. Also it was like whenever we went to Serena del Mar, they would tell us it was gonna cost thousands of dollars to go there for a week but if you do it at the right time, you can find it on Expedia for maybe $300 a night. I understand how they go about explaining it but that still doesn’t take away from the value that I see in the actual property.

Also whenever they do the owner updates they say it’s only gonna take an hour and a half, but that’s a straight up lie. It ends up being like three hours. So if they could really adhere to that hour and a half that they say it is, that would be nice. But I understand that they’re doing their thing. Nevertheless, we like Welks. We think it’s a good deal. If you wanna try to vacation, do it outright. It doesn’t work for everybody. Everybody has to find their own little way of doing things but for us it seems to work. I might end up saving money in the long run doing it.

Two days before our appointment, I received a confirmation call. The lady was super nice. She went over all the gifts with me, asked if I understood I would get them after completing the tour, there was no stipulation to buy, we would only be responsible for the taxes on the trip. She also asked if we were married and I told her no, but the guy that signed us up said it was ok. She assured me it was. Ok, sounds great, see you in 2 days. (More lies).

The representative that gave us our tour/ presentation was nice enough at first. He again asked if we were married. I semi joking replied "well I am." (I have been separated from my husband for 8 years and have been with my boyfriend the entire time. We just never technically divorced). He then asked if we had kids together, and I said no they are mine. He brushed it off saying, "That's ok, I'm with a woman with 2 kids from a previous relationship also." We listen to the spiel and finish the tour 2 hours.

When we start to show signs of declining, he says he'll give us some time to think it over and goes away for 10 minutes. Upon his return, we tell him we're still not interested. That's when everything goes downhill. He gets snippy, saying, "so you guys aren't even married? I don't know how you even made it to my desk. Let's just quit wasting each others time here." Instead of recording us down to get our gifts, he sees us down in the elevator alone. When we get downstairs, all the offices are closed and the ladies that had been there gone. I tried to go back up and find our representative, but the elevator would not go all the way up to the 4th floor where we had been.

He finally comes down and I ask him where everyone is and what about my refund and other gifts. "It looks like they went home. I am just a tour guide, I don't know anything about the rest of that. Call whomever signed you up and ask them. Good luck" and he walked out the door. Called the main number on the pamphlet. That lady told me I needed to go to the concierge desk of the hotel to get my gifts. I go in and tell the girl there what happened and she looks horrified. She apologizes, but says there's nothing she can do, all the trip vouchers and whatnot are locked up over in the empty office. She then calls her off duty superior who happens to be on site.

She listens, apologizes, and after looking up my reservation in the computer, says that she doesn't have access to my trip vouchers and there's some funny note in there about me being married. She said she would email her boss about it but in the meantime, she could give me the restaurant vouchers. So, after this now 3 hour tour, we were sent on our way. We went back the next day, because I figured more would get done in person than over the phone. We're walked in and told the receptionist what had happened the day before. The rep. who had talked to us was behind her and a manager was there too. The rep. looked up and saw us, then took the manager aside and whispered something. She then comes over and asks us to tell her exactly what happened and what's this business about me being married?

After I tell her what happened and how extraordinarily rude her representative was and how we didn't get any of our gifts, she leaves us waiting for 20 minutes. Then she comes back and says, "I'm sorry, it doesn't show in our computer that you were supposed to get any gifts. You'll have to call the person who signed you up and take it up with them. And your reservation refund will be automatically credited to your card. It will take 7-10 days." I said it was funny that the confirmation lady knew what my gifts should have been and the ladies at the concierge desk knew yesterday, and all of a sudden there's no record of any of it.

I asked about the $75 reimbursement for staying up there. She tried to pass that off too but I pressed and showed her the card that stated it and the requirements. She reluctantly got me that money, but made me wait another 20 minutes for it. She asked for all my contact information, saying she would email the situation up the chain and someone would reach out to me by midweek. As I left the office, I was still pretty upset with the whole situation and being lied to, so I called back the number that I had received the confirmation from. Although the recording said I was first in line and a rep would be with me momentarily, I sat on hold for 40 minutes with no answer before I got fed up and hung up.

I went back in to talk to the concierge ladies, and asked why the other people were suddenly throwing a fit about us not being married. We had seen other obviously not married people taking the tour. She said, "oh you don't have to be married to take the tour but for some of the gifts of you are married, you have to bring your spouse." So if they had no record of me being owed a gift, what difference would it make if we were married or not?? Lies. It has now been over a week. No one has emailed me, I have not received my automatic credit refund and I do not recommend doing business with this company or wasting your time going to a timeshare presentation. Super unprofessional staff and horrible customer service. Even if we weren't buying, we could have stayed there in the future and still spent money. Now we won't, ever. Ruined my beautiful Tahoe birthday weekend.

The housekeeping, while cleaning other unit, never came back to clean our room after we removed "DO NOT DISTURB, COME BACK LATER" sign. Upon removing the sign, I approached the housekeeping attendant just outside of our unit trying to give him the bag of trash. He told me to dispose it at a public trash can and pointed at their BBQ picnic area, the complete opposite of the building I was staying at. I walked across the 8-unit building with a bag of trash. With my complaint, no one bother to come to check the carpet or furniture odor I complained about. I cleaned the carpets with cans of carpet cleaner to be able to sleep. Don't be fooled by the looks of exterior and its amenities. Think of lack of quality of life during vacation, a filthy and smelly bedrooms to sleep in and living area where you sit and chat or watch TV or movies.

The salesperson told me that it was ridiculous for me to ask for such a thing and essentially called me a liar when he said he highly doubted that I run all of my major financial decisions by my financial planner. He demanded examples of the last major purchases I made and whether or not I ran those by my financial planner. When I told him that these purchases were personal and that I was not going to share them with him, he snapped back: "Listen to me Young Lady, I'm not going to give you an opportunity to let your financial planner talk you out of this." I found his tone rude and combative.

Even when he was giving us a final copy of our receipt for our gifts, I asked him a simple question about the amount of the travel reimbursement, and he impatiently/defensively snapped back that Welk is not a "scam company," and that "they have been in business for over 50 years and could not have done so if they were not operating with honesty and integrity." This had nothing to do with what I had actually asked him which was that I had been told we would receive our travel reimbursement in cash, by the Welk employee who had booked our trip. That item was not included on our list of gifts for attending the presentation, so can this please be corrected?

If you want to be a company that has integrity and cares about people, stop pressuring them to sign on the bottom line without consulting others. We all need to realize that if we sign with Welk, we are buying property, and why would any honest company who cares about its customer or "family members" as Welk refers to them, refuse to give those people a chance to have their own professionals (a real estate agent, a financial planner, a lawyer, etc) looks over the contract you are signing which will impact the rest of your life?! Would you buy a house without fair representation/advising?

Once we left, we did our own calculations and realized how "creative" the numbers Welk gave us were and how unsound of a financial decision this would have been. We are elated that we did not sign anything. Their "creative math" is deceptive at best. Run as fast and far away from them as you can! This was easily one of the worst experiences with a company I have ever had!!!

Four years and $13000 later, we have never set foot in a Welk Resort or associated property. Their “points exchange system” lacks transparency and is designed in such a way as to discourage use with the endless variety of hoops you have to jump through. Unlike their faulty advertisement this is no way a 5 star resort. Any traveler would fare better at a Motel 6 where there are at least some standards for customer service. This organization is predatory in its business practices and once the ink is dry on the contract bleeds “owners” dry. In short, buying into a Welk Resort property is equivalent to investing in a Black Hole, with the exception that the Black Hole has scientific value at least. Buyers beware.

We attended a festival event in Breckenridge and learned about the time-share opportunity there. The marketing staff explained that they would take a $50 deposit on our credit card, which Welk Resorts would "refund the second you walk in the door". When we arrived at the Preview Center, we checked in and sat in the lobby. We wanted to see if what the marketing person told us was true, so we asked the receptionist about our refund. She said we would get that at the end of the presentation. The money is a non-issue for us, but the principal of the thing made a difference. That started the day off on the wrong foot.

Furthermore, the marketing team offered us “free flights and hotel” to tropical locations for agreeing to view the presentation, only to find out later that there are so many “hoops” to jump through to bring the flights to fruition, it is not worth the effort. You must travel on the dates and times the travel company determines and the trip is for 3 days and two nights. The marketing person who lured us in specifically told us we could extend our trip and still benefit from the round trip flight. This is a lie.

We met our host, Rich, and he walked us to the discussion area. The area is just numerous dining tables with four chairs around each. There is loud music playing overhead which makes it difficult to hear any of the audio content they play on their little iPads. We had looked around outside while waiting for our scheduled time. We happened upon a map on the fence showing what the property would look like upon completion. You should know that this was the only time throughout the presentation that we saw a map of the planned property. The only representation of the property was a small floor plan of the rooms around 2x2".

Our host, Rich, explained to us that he was “new” and said we were going to have fun. Rich was a nice person but he was clearly not prepared to meet with potential buyers. He mentioned several times that he had a real estate license but couldn't discuss pricing yet because he was new. My husband knew more about time-share details than Rich did.

In fact, Rich started taking notes as my husband explained things to me. He must have said more than ten times "Oh that's great information; I'm going to use that one". Rich could not tell us square footage of units. He did not know how the points rolled over from year to year. He could not explain the exchange program with RCI. He spent more time talking about the benefits of RCI (partner group) than of Welk Resorts. He asked us the same questions repeatedly, failing on numerous occasions to write down our answers. He tried to demo the owner’s portal unsuccessfully because he could not figure out the log in information.

During the entire presentation, I can only describe Rich’s actions as fumbling and confused. Our presentation duration was supposed to be 120 minutes. It began at 11:40 and we did not leave until 2:30 because Rich had to leave repeatedly to ask questions. He was unable to answer fully on his own a single question we asked. Down the street from the property, there is a large, permanent cement plant with unsightly structures and dozens of cement trucks. Since the plant is in direct line of sight from the property to the mountain views it claims as a benefit, we asked what the future plans are for that area. Neither Rich, nor the supervisor, nor the sales director could give us an answer.

The Sales Director visited briefly and seemed somewhat knowledgeable but then she handed us back to the supervisor whose name I cannot recall. The supervisor started off friendly and accommodating but the more questions we asked, the shorter and more abrupt she became. I explained that we would like to see one of the Welk properties before making a decision. She rebutted that “you can see what’s here” meaning the Preview Center which is essentially like the lobby of a hotel. She also asked why the “pictures were not enough”.

The points they wanted us to buy for a "two bedroom" (240,000 points for $33,000 over 10 years) we found out were not even enough for a week at the very resort we had the presentation. One week in a one bedroom was 300,000 points. Absolutely ridiculous. This does not include the roughly $1200 per year "maintenance" fee that you must pay regardless of staying or not. At that point, we politely declined the offer and watched as she became visibly angry and rude. We left shortly thereafter but only after telling two more people we were not interested.

Do not visit this property or any of the other Welk Resort properties to consider a time share. Read the reviews and do your homework. This is the worst customer experience we can recall having. It makes sense why their reviews are as follows: Overall Satisfaction Rating out of 114 reviews: 5 stars - 45, 4 stars - 3, 3 stars - 3, 2 stars - 9, 1 stars - 54.

Basically we only had 18 months to use it, and that all around the world narrowed down to 7 places, most of them right here in U.S.A and one of them the so-called San Diego destination is 15 minutes away from us. But just as they pressured us into buying after that 5-6 hours we were there at the first presentation, they also pressured us into choosing quickly one of those 7 places to stay, so we decided right around Christmas 2017 to visit their San Diego spot, which is really like Escondido or Fallbrook areas. We called and complained while we were there because all the activities they said they had were all broken down, closed or just plain ole non-existent. So, we really just wasted our points there.

By the way, the first place I wanted to go when she “serpents” called in March of 2017 I said “Hawaii” she told me that destination would not be available until around October so call back to schedule then, it really wasn’t until that time I found out there was only 7 places we could go in this package. Now, we’ve wasted money big time because I think at least four of the choices are California destinations and one in Branson Mo, and only one out of the country... Mexico. Now I told Serwen, "It's it kind of funny you guys got Mexico on the sent people to place and the United States are advising people not to go there?" She ignored me and said, “one of her friends just went, and she had fun.” While I’m thinking a whole family just went and never returned.

Welk Resort are scammers. Their presentation is something else, and they take you so far away from your car that they have to pick you up and drive you to the place they hold these presentations. So, there is no way you're going to just walk out, especially when it's uphill and you 48 and hot flashing every second. So, my husband and I sit there for hours trying to get out and ended up buying that trial and got had. By the way, the last six months I’d been thinking about suing them so I paid late a few times. In April we got a bill with a balance of $198.00 so I sent $210 and I look at my credit report. They claiming I have $8.00 past due. So now that they’ve taken us through all this, there is NO doubt in my mind I am calling my attorney to get a suit in because these people are frauds.

So, I call my friend and ask her if she wanted to try out this resort in Florida for $99.00 if we go to a presentation, because I’m thinking not everybody is like Welk Resort, she says, "Heck no... That’s Welk, we just sued them last year for the same thing and I do think I told you about it." I didn’t remember, but now I have a witness that these people are pure frauds and we can’t allow them to keep doing this right in my neighborhood. This audition package is a fraud, they kept us there almost 6 hours after we said no at least 20 times, we told them, "If you don’t get me out of here I’m going to scream," then as you say that they’ll go get someone who’s suppose to be leading you out the door who is really just trying to sell you again. Welk Resort doesn’t deserve any stars, all inclusive trips are way better and they are hassle free.

When I called to confirm I was coming I was told that the kids' club had a climbing wall. That was a total lie. So, we showed up, our host came to meet us, and we dropped our kids at the kids' club. We went upstairs to the sales room, which is a very crowded loud room with a bunch of tables. First thing our host (whose name was Mimi BTW) does is try to get us to agree to more than 120 min (saying, "I'd you have any questions etc., it will go over the 120 min"). We politely stated that we had two young children that we had promised would only have to spend two hours in that room. She immediately got hostile and tried to pressure us, and said something along the lines of "so you guys aren't really interested". I firmly stated that we were told two hours was what was expected of us and that is what we were willing to give. She accepted that and started her presentation.

Let me just say, she was a horrible salesperson. She did nothing to make the "opportunity" seem the least bit enticing. Anyway, we sat through her spiel, did the brief tour on the golf cart, and came back to the sales room. At this point it was past 120 minutes. We made it pretty clear that we weren't going to buy, and that we needed to get our kids (I had been communicating with my 10 year old daughter by text, and she said she was getting a headache from a little kid there that was crying and was very eager to be picked up. We told this to Mimi several times). So, time's up, we told her we wanted to get our kids and leave... and here is where her true evil psycho colors began to show. As I said it was well past the 120 min at this point and she knew exactly how eager we were to get our kids. She said she just needed a manager to come over to sign off on our paperwork so that we could get our free gifts.

She walked off to get said manager, and disappeared for about 10 min, then she came back saying this manager still wasn't available. Then she'd walk away, come back after a while and say that she got one signature but still needed another, oh and guess what "you know how I said I was new here, well there's some stuff I forgot to go over". She said this in such a blatantly sarcastic way that it was obvious she was trying to ** with us. She knew we were getting impatient and she basically started antagonizing us, saying "well why did you even come here." My husband and I were absolutely appalled at the way she acted. She became absolutely overtly hostile. All we said is that we really needed to get our kids, and she started saying "wow, I've never experienced this before" acting like we were being unreasonable and belligerent. It was absolutely bizarre.

My husband and I looked at each other, like is this seriously happening? You wouldn't believe the things she was saying to us, like implying that if we didn't buy in, we were breaking promises to our kids and our family would fall apart. What kind of nutcase would that work on? She thought she had us over a barrel, and that we would just eventually walk away without our "gifts" and the $50 deposit. When I again said I needed to get my kids, she said in the snottiest most sarcastic way possible "oh yeah, don't forget your kids". I looked at her and said "you're a mother (she had mentioned her 3 boys, who I feel terrible for since their mother is a psychopath, multiple times), do you feel good about yourself".

She just rolled her eyes at me. Well, my husband and I aren't idiots (she actually tried to throw my husband's PhD back in his face, as if he was being an elitist or something when he said absolutely NOTHING condescending), and I'm not one to take ** lying down... so, I made a scene. I warned her first, but I don't think she believed me. I went around to several other tables where these pitches were happening and told the people they were being scammed and they shouldn't expect anything, loudly saying that this was a scam. I then decided that it was most important to get my kids. As we were walking out, I came across a man with a name tag. I asked him if he was a manager, and said I wanted to speak to a manager. I was clearly up in arms. I went to get the kids while my husband waited for the manager.

Well, we actually got what we were promised (only time will tell if the Hawaii voucher works, but I can tell you that the wine tasting voucher did work). I ran back upstairs because I needed to see this woman's face one more time and tell her what I thought. She was being talked to by a couple of other people possibly managers) and looked like she might cry. I told her managers that we were treated in an abhorrent way and they needed to train her better. They politely apologized and escorted me out to quiet me as quickly as possible. Wow, that's about all I can say. Unbelievable experience. So, if you go for this presentation, mentally prepare yourself for guerilla warfare.

Second, I tried to use our time at the Welk resorts only to find that they are constantly booked and impossible to reserve. Lastly, I have been waiting over a month for a supervisor at Welk to call me back about a cruise exchange that I attempted to do, but wasn't told I couldn't do. I wanted to take my family on a cruise and was told to exchange my Welk time to Interval. I called Welk and told them what I wanted to do. I then found out that Welk made a general exchange and not a cruise exchange. I called Welk to fix this mistake and was told that a supervisor would need to hear the phone recording to verify that I requested a cruise exchange. I was never called back by a supervisor so I called again. Same response, same promise to have a supervisor call, no call.

I called again and was told the same thing and was now told that there are few supervisors and that I should feel sorry for them. I told the lady that I paid over $20,000 for my timeshare and under no circumstances do I feel sorry for anyone at Welk. I asked for a supervisor to do their job, check the phone recording and to call me. To this day...nothing!! Please don't waste your money on Welk. If it was only once bad incident, I would totally overlook it. But for over 4 years now I have had nothing but massive problems. Pick any other company, just don't pick Welk.

I knew going in I wouldn’t be interested in a timeshare but I was curious. First off, the whole thing took 4 hours. After leaving the presentation my boyfriend and I just kept pointing out how misleading and predatory their sales pitch was. If you are thinking of going be aware of the following things ahead of time: They mention in the middle of the presentation before they talk to you about any other pricing that there is a VOA fee of either $1000 or $1500 a year. They mention it early in hopes you forget about it when they show you other pricing at the end of the presentation. Keep in mind this is charged EVERY YEAR even after your timeshare is paid off.

They will emphasize the pricing that they are showing you is only some small amount such as $33,000, $15,000 or $12,000 over the course of 10 years. What they fail to emphasize is the 15% APR that they charge on your monthly payments which quickly skyrockets this price to an insane amount. So something that they claim is only $15,000 (which will get you one week a year in a one bedroom facility) is actually $15,000 x 15% APR = $2,250/year or $22,500 over the course of a 10 year payment plan. $1000 VOA fees a year which adds up to $10,000 over the course of 10 years. There are only 6 Welk resorts and the benefit is really access to a ton of other resorts through RCI. If you want to stay at any of those resorts there is a $249 transfer fee for each week.

There are additional fees at the resort for their activities and amenities. So the total over 10 years is really more like: $15,000 + $22,500 + $10,000 = $47,500. EVEN if you pay up front and don’t incur the $22,500 in APR fees you are still spending $25,000 over 10 years for one week of vacation a year. Doesn’t seem like such a good deal anymore does it? That means you pay nearly $50k over 10 years to take one week of vacation a year. And keep in mind this doesn’t include airfare, food, activity costs or anything else. This is just the cost of having a place to stay for one week a year.

They like to sell you on the idea that you are an “owner” but really you don’t own anything because you are not gaining any of the profit they make from getting people to sign on to this ridiculous deal, you are just paying out a ton of money. So don’t be fooled by friendly agents. Your first agent might be friendly but we had a somewhat demeaning second salesperson who tried to push us after we said it's not for us. Obviously it did not work.

Also I can’t verify this but they left out a speaker with the tablet they gave the presentation out as my boyfriend and I had some time to talk while they pulled together a new offer for us. I really feel like it was a listening device because we were discussing how insane the 15% APR was and he immediately came back and said “Now I know you guys are concerned about this APR…” Very weird.

We have not booked our free trip to Hawaii yet but I imagine it will be a headache to go through the travel agency to do it. It's also only for two days so we are thinking of supplementing it with one-way flights to extend the trip. The “free tablet” we were promised was actually a voucher to get a tablet worth about $50. But the catch is we have to send in a registration and a check for $30 shipping and handling. I’m sure a lot of you know but after going to the presentation I felt like it was very misleading and predatory. They emphasize certain costs and de-emphasize HUGE parts of the agreement. Please run through the numbers before making a potentially damaging financial decision on spot.