Welk Resort Group Reviews

I texted Justin and he told us that what Welk said was wrong and that I can book any year. I saved that text because a woman named Ann helped us. She fixed it for us and said that we were right. She saw what Justin texted back to me and that he was saying that I could book it any year and that it didn’t matter because I signed up late. So she wanted to let me book something that I wanted to book for the previous year. She also gave us some kind of coupon for a free vacation, but you had to use it up in 30 days and we couldn’t go then. Every time somebody tries to fix things, they give you a certificate for a free vacation, but you got to take it so soon. I can't leave that quickly because it takes time to make arrangements with childcare, and my husband was working then.

When we had our first trip to Welk to stay at Branson, they made us wait so long to get in our room. We’re like, "We’ll take whatever is open. We don’t have to take the one that you felt we could have." The person at Branson said he'd see what he could do. Finally, he did that so we could get in because one of the reasons we did the Welk was to be able to stay. These places have kitchens. But I have a lot of food allergies and so we drove and I brought an ice chest full of foods that I could eat. While Branson is not allergy friendly, the restaurant at Welk worked with me and they were very nice to get me something I could eat because I couldn’t eat anything on their buffets. Other than that, we had to have somebody come in and fix mainly the TV since it didn't work. Also, there was a stove and a microwave but no oven. I thought there had been an oven in the unit they showed us before.

Another thing is that we had points we originally used with Interval. Interval sent us a thing that said if you paid, you get two more years with them. But about a month after we paid Interval for two years, Welk sent us a letter saying, “We’re no longer with Interval, we’re with RCI and you have a free membership with RCI.” I told them it would have been nice if they told me that a month earlier, so then I didn’t have to pay the money. But I did a vacation with my daughter and granddaughter with Interval and it was great and everything there went very smoothly.

I’ve also used the concierge with Welk a couple times. Sometimes it doesn’t work though. My husband was flying into Albany, New York and they knew it because the concierge people made the flight for him and then he wanted a rental car. When he got to Albany, there was no rental car. He had rented a big SUV and the only thing they left was a little Mustang, which couldn’t get him and all his friends in. It was bright orange, which is not my husband’s thing. It turns out they booked him a car rental in Albany Australia and they would not give us back our money.

I called to cancel it, but there were fees Welk wanted to charge me for the cancellation. I was like, “Seriously? It was your mistake. Why would you book someone in Albany, New York and get them a car in Albany Australia?” And they said it was booked in Florida because we live in Florida. I told them it was booked through them. Then I got e-mails from them that showed that it was booked from them. My husband just let it go because we were having so many troubles with Welk. Since then, we book stuff ourselves, so we have had a few problems with Welk in a short time that we’ve been with them.

Now that we're with RCI and we have some vacations we wanna take, they don't have places where we wanna go. Interval once had, but RCI doesn’t and I’m not gonna pay money again to Interval when I’m supposed to have RCI free. It’s tricky working it out and it doesn't help that we’re senior citizens and we’re not as tech savvy as the young people who have all the time in the world to spend doing their technology to find places. It’s really hard for us to get around the website. We can’t find stuff that we’re supposed to find. And last but not the least, when you call Welk, they say, “Oh, we can't take care of that. You have to call this number.” And then you’ll call that number and they'll say, “Oh, we don’t do that.” By the time you find the right people, it’s like “This is crazy. Is this really worth it?” I don’t think we’re saving any money with this.

She says, and I quote “that is ridiculous, nobody ever comes back to buy the 540,000 points.” Then she says, "Here’s one more deal you can try," and again tries to get us on the line for a monthly payment and some money down. We say, "No thank you again," and she says ok “let me check on your gift again and see if it is ready." She comes back and again tries to give one last Hail Mary for another deal, we say no. She gets really upset and says, "Ok bye then." No gift. Super weird. And you are right Kelly, we won’t be back for the points because you put such a sour taste in our mouths. And dangling the gift? Was that even real?

We asked why the auditions had so many restrictions and weren’t treated the same as a normal owner. I asked shouldn’t they be giving us a good experience if they wanted us to purchase but they didn’t have much to say to that. We were also notified that we can’t have our child with us at the sales pitch and to lie that our dog was a service animal to sneak them onto the property since normal pets aren’t allowed. I think we will just use up our remaining points and cut our losses. Can’t wait to use our remaining points based on the fine print.

Well, we arrived at 9:30 am and left at 3:00 pm (5.5 hrs later) which we were told would be only a 120 minutes = 2 hrs. In the introduction, the rep stated, "No high pressure sales would be involved, if the product doesn't feel right, we will shake hands and you can walk away with your free gifts that were promised to you."... That did not happen.

For the first 2 hrs our sales rep was nice, courteous but by asking what kind of cars we drove and what did we do for a living seemed like he was fishing for our financial condition. When the sales presentation ended my husband thought that he wanted it and I disagreed; boy did the Welk reps turn on me. Salem (the numbers guy) and our rep really hounded me and tried to make me feel that I was stupid by not buying into their sales pitch. They saw that I controlled the final say and turned their body/attention to me, they drilled me by making statements such as, "Do you not want to spend time with your family?" "Do you want quality time?" "Don't you want to make memories?"

I was questioned countless times as to why can't I just agree and told that I would be missing out. I can clearly say that they were only interested in their bank accounts and could care less of how we were going to afford this. They walked away a few times like a car salesman and would come back with a different offer or what they thought was a better deal and tell me that if we don't accept now then we would lose out. At one time, Salem came back with an offer of $20,000 and when he thought that he had the deal, we then asked for some privacy to talk because they just stared at us not giving us a chance to think. After 5 minutes I saw them returning but in the corner watching us and they were giving each other high fives and smiling from ear to ear.

I was asked again and I clearly stated "No". Salem's attitude changed to pouty and disrespectful and both were now very unhappy. We were told that if we don't do this right now it's going to be $600,000 instead of $20,000 and we would never be given the chance to jump in this if we did not make a deal today. I stood my ground and said no but they then started to play me against my spouse which we began arguing. They were very desperate for that sale. As we gave them our reasons for not wanting to buy, they continued to be persistent. They would walk away and say that they were going to get our free gifts but only return to try a different sales tactic. This happened four times. Each time they would supposedly go get the free gifts but only return with another strategy. Their facial expressions showed us that they were not going to take no for an answer.

We stated we had to leave for a doctors appt within an hour's time but the Welk rep ignored our statement and continued to pressure me in trying to change my mind since ultimately I was the one who was not buying into this. After numerous times of stating, "The time is not right, we are not interested." He lastly tried again stating, "I just can't give up on you guys, you need this." As if, he was doing us a favor. Long and short, we wasted 5 hrs, never got our gifts and argued over something that wasn't even worth it. In addition, we are still waiting for our $50 refund. If you don't believe our review, please check out the other reviews.

We finally gave in after hours and hours, and we had to put more money down, our payment went up AND our maintenance fees were much more. My husband recently got hurt at work and we were going thru financial difficulties so we called Welk hoping they would work with us, but all we got was, "go to your bank see if you can get a better rate" or "we can't help you sell, it has to be paid off before anything can be done." If it was paid off I wouldn't be calling! I even had a buyer ready to take over payments and they said no to that too, again it had to be paid off, so frustrating! I say DO NOT fall for this scam of a "family resort". Save your money and use other means of booking, there is such a wide selection on the internet and it will be cheaper too!

On the 17th of January the money was taken out of my account on the 18th of January with a confirmation number of **. So on the 22nd they try to take another 379.85 out of my account. I called and argued with several people on this incident. I then talked to supervisor and tried to explain to her the money was already taken out. After several raised voices (both of us) and some swearing on mine she said she was hanging up. I then went to my bank and had to refuse this payment they were trying to take out again, which by the way cost me $30.00. I then saw Carla ** at my bank and asked her to send the information that would explain to Tina that I was telling the truth and there was a mix up.

Before Tina I had talked to Evelyn and she walked me thru the way to put my payment in with right bank info. She said she took care of all of it and that was all I had to do. I think what happened was having me put info in my account. She had me put in a check number and they must of taken it again because someone didn't take the time to look this up. I am very upset and made me really nervous because that extra would have made me have an overdraft. I feel that you should give me that 30.00 back. I hope this is now cleared up! Thank you. I would like to be called back or a letter sent to me.

Escalated to corporate since customer service never can help. Director of Consumer Affairs for Welk said he would fix everything & waive the 2018 fee. Never heard back from him. He is ignoring my calls which I leave multiple times a week. It is now 7 months after I signed up and I can’t use my points because I have a late maintenance fee & late fee on top of it. They are about to send it to collections even though I pay my monthly fee every month & I still don’t have my owners packet or a call back with the fixes that corporate promised to make.

They will reply to this review saying. "We're sorry," and to write them so they can forward it to corporate but nothing will happen other than the same disappointment you feel when you're writing the bad review about them. I just want to get rid of this waste of money. Don't even care if you buy it back, just take it so I no longer have to pay for the maint. fees. If you can't satisfy that request then don't even message me back or reply to this post and waste my time. If I could give a zero star rating I would.

As I stood at the car rental counter I called the after hours line only to reach an individual that said I did not pay the taxes. Knowing I had paid them, otherwise, the cost of the rental car would not have been worth it, as parking at my hotel is $40 a night. I asked the gentleman from Experiences By Welk to send me a copy of the invoice with a breakdown of all costs, he stated there was no such invoice that broke down the costs. So I paid the $89 a second time for taxes and went about my trip, and would deal with the situation later with Experiences By Welk.

Upon my return, I have had three different email conversations with employees at Experiences By Welk and they all refuse to give me a copy of the receipt with the costs broken down. Instead, the last employee stated he took the liberty of calling Thrify and stated they told him these were additional taxes for the rental car. So now, I have paid $190 in taxes and fees on a rental care that was only about $100. I paid Experiences By Welk $189 for the total car rental prior to my arrival.

I have no problem admitting I made a mistake if they would produce the original invoice breaking down the per day rental car price and the taxes, but they refuse to produce an invoice. In my opinion, Experiences By Welk knows they are in the wrong and that is the only reason they can't produce a receipt they owe me by law, thereby they are committing fraud. I wanted to share this with other people so they don't find themselves in the same situation, and I am interested to hear if anyone else has had a problem with this company. Also, on their website there is no way to see your original car rental contract.

Barclays denied her on the spot (we got the email from Barclays before Joe made it back to our table) and Joe comes back with a post it note that has a phone number on it. He told my fiancée that she needed to call Barclays to verify a few questions. Straight told her to lie that she is a “vet tech” and say she makes $185k a year. They still deny her. He then tells us that he will do it for $1,050 down payment. What the heck? If this was the case, why would you ruin her credit with a hard inquiry by using lies if you knew you could do it for half the price to begin with. It hasn’t been 24 hours yet and I’m going back into the office to cancel in the morning. I’ve already contacted my bank about reversing the charges and put a stop payment from any future transactions from these clowns.

My most recent experience was a frustrated one. Had I been given better advice, I would have waited till 12/31 to roll over any remaining points to RCI. There seems to be no communication between Welk and RCI to clarify my record, which apparently have blocked me from using my points for the year. My take on this timeshare thing - if you are retired, and have unlimited free time and flexibility with schedule, that may be something to look into for the sake of their resort sites. Otherwise, I would never imagine how anyone could afford time/efforts navigating through this way, way too complicated system/process to use what they pay for.

Then as a Diabetic I wanted to make sure there is a refrigerator, there is a BIG sign pasted on the front of what they say is a refrigerator stating it's not a refrigerator but a "temporary cooling" system. What? Took pictures of those two as I could not believe a 4 star hotel telling me this cheap hotel crap! Breakfast is not served until 7:30 if they are on time, more likely 8:00 PM and then ONLY a buffet. Same for dinner ONLY a buffet at 5:15 and they don't open for dinner until 5 PM. Neither breakfast or dinner buffets were great with lost of dirty dishes, that they blamed on an autistic boy, that's just so sad to do that. Air conditioners on ALL floors are turned off at about midnight and not turned on until 6 Am in rooms, many guests confirmed same problem when we were there. It's rated a 4 star but it's really more of a 2 star at best.

No one helps you with luggage and food is not the best. Not to mention that other than the kids pool the other pool is full of leaves and debris. Then you get the hard sell timeshare with a guy with a W (Welk) ring that is gold and many diamonds trying to push you to buy a SMALL hotel room like timeshare that is 30,00-50,00 minimum. Read the fine print for sure as MORE are returned and oh they will sell you returned units too, just don't ask to see them. When you try to use the final leg of your FREE trip (which has already cost over 150.00 BEFORE you get there) they don't honor the coupon and if you can call and write letters, it does no good, no reply and they don't care.

Suppose if you purchase one of the overpriced hotel rooms (timeshares) you get better service. We were there in the height of tourism season and hotel was less than packed, ladies at the front desk were not nice and there is HUGE emphasis on purchase. Presentation is a joke as it's high sell and lots of fine print that you are wise to read and inquire on and bank on them asking to check your credit line BEFORE you sit down to tour. Just tacky all the way around! If you want to think about it even overnight your deal is taken off the table. They work on you NOT having time to think about it! As I say RUN and take your wallet with you! If you see this FREE trip in your city, don't try it. You will regret it. Sign me as St. Louis Visitor who wasted trip to Branson!

They don't help people if you're having any financial issues. They just retaliate and harass you. You try to make a reservation, and dates are not available. They charge you for canceling your reservation, even though you try to cancel weeks ahead. They will lie to you just to make a sale. Especially when they see you have good credit. They don't care about people, just the money. They treat people like you're not human.

When there is an issue with the room, service is prompt and courteous. There is also little things, like using colored rice to spell out happy birthday on the bed with palm trees on each side, along with a small birthday cake decorated and left to enjoy. Priceless! The grounds are kept immaculate, the pool has an amazing view of the arch that never gets old, herbs for the kitchen are grown on the property, and with so many unswimmable beaches in and around Cabo, having its own swimmable private beach is a treat.

My only complaint used to be the distance to town, only because of the taxi prices which led me to rent cars for the last few years since it was just about the same price, but now that Uber has come to Cabo, and round trip prices to town being just over half of a one way trip with the taxis, the need to rent a car may be gone. Hopefully the resort will keep its current policy of letting the Uber drivers drive up to the lobby area. It makes things so easy. I could go on and on, but there is a reason I visit here 3 times a year, and anytime someone comes with me, they see what I see, and can't wait to come back, as did my brother after our trip last week.

Lastly, if I do have to complain, it would only be that Welk should go ahead and just finish the 4th building at the resort, especially after learning that allegedly the property in Hawaii contains ancient burial grounds, thus making it impossible so far to get any permits to do any kind of building. I met maybe half a dozen couples last week that were all current Welk owners but had never been to Cabo. They were all saying that they couldn't wait to come back. It's already getting more difficult to book time here at this resort, and with more people discovering the resort weekly, IMHO, adding the 4th building would not only relieve some of the booking congestion, but it would also generate that much more revenue a lot faster than what it would take to get anything built in Hawaii. Other than that, I've already got my next trips planned for next May, and probably October as well, when I'll be able to spend time with my family.

After closing escrow, we quickly found that Justin had made several inaccurate and misleading claims. After gaining access to the RCI website, we were unable to find any onsite Disney World properties available. Calling RCI and speaking with a Welk representative and an RCI representative offered even less promise. We ultimately ended on going to Welk to meet with someone in Owner Services. We met with Lucy on November 10, 2018 who told us that Disney World is a high demand property and that it would be unlikely that we would be able to use our points to book a Disney World property. Additionally, she told us that even if there were onsite Disney World properties available, that we did not even have enough points to stay there.

Finally, she told us that our bonus weeks would not work to book onsite Disney World Resorts as there are many limitations on the bonus weeks. Lucy told us to consider secondary options such as other vacation locations or staying “off property” at Disney World. She was upset with how the sales team miscommunicated the RCI program. She took down Justin’s name and said she was going to speak to sales. Justin promised us Disney World and there is clearly a contradiction between what was promised to us from Justin and what the reality is as described by Lucy.

I sent Welk owner services an email later that day (11/10/18) to which I received no reply. I contacted the Better Business Bureau and filed a complaint on November 13, 2018. I also emailed Welk again on November 13, 2018 requesting a reply. I received a response from Ann ** on November 14, guaranteeing a reply by Friday November 16, 2018. I am still waiting on that reply.

On November 14, 2018 I received a call at 11:06 AM from Hutch who is the Director of Consumer Affairs at Welk. He said that he had received our BBB complaint and had some questions for me. His questions consisted of how we were going to use our points and the dates in which we could travel. Additionally, he offered a bleak outlook for onsite Disney World properties as he said they are high demand properties. He told me that he was going to contact the Director of Owner Services (at Welk) and would get back to me by Friday, November 16, 2018. I received a follow-up BBB message from Hutch stating that he would be out of the office during the week of November 19 due to the Thanksgiving Holiday and that he would follow up during the week of the 26th.

On November 28th, Hutch sent me another BBB reply in which he said that he had confidence that RCI and Welk could handle my usage of RCI. Hutch told me to expect a call from a senior member of RCI soon. The next day (11/29/18), I received a voicemail from an RCI representative. The caller mumbled during the entire message, and it was clear he was not a senior representative of the company. I would have never signed an agreement with Welk had I understood the exchange program. Justin fraudulently misrepresented the exchange program to me, misrepresenting both the ease and ability of using the program to stay at onsite Disney World Resorts. Welk has been unresponsive to my concerns and only the involvement of the Better Business Bureau has resulted in minimal communication and effort to address the fraudulent activity.

(5) Hawaii location is Honolulu, HI aka Oahu (not worth the 8 hour one way flight). (6) The 2 day accommodations they advertise to you is in the location that you fly out of. NOT in the place you are vacationing in. Do not waste your time with this presentation unless you are interested in purchasing a timeshare with Welk Resorts.

We were told we had to pay 50$ to secure our spot but that it would be fully refundable upon completion of the presentation. The lady at the booth stressed that the representatives at Welk were more concerned with having an audience rather than selling. “They just want to see your faces,” were her words. She also said we would have 12 months to choose our free trip afterward. This woman, whose name is Sunny by the way, was so brief with her description of Welk that I truly didn’t know what to expect. So my husband and I felt pretty great after that and looked forward to being rewarded for practically nothing. So on November, 20, 2018 we made the 3.5 hour drive down to Escondido and arrived about 1 hour before our appointment. It was about 1:00 p.m. We just gave our names to a lady at the front desk and were told our guide would be with us shortly.

We waited about 5 minutes and then we met Marilyn. Marilyn showed us the bathrooms and the refreshments then took us to a large room filled with tables where people were talking or listening intently while their salesperson jabbered on and on. We began the presentation. Which included a PowerPoint style presentation on a tablet, 2 videos, one tour of the actual resort, and going over paperwork as Marilyn sloppily jotted down our answers to questions such as “what does vacationing mean to you?” “How often do you vacation?” And “what do you look for in a resort?” Then came the ever confusing rambling about what the resort consisted of and the supposed benefits we would have after becoming owners.

Later on we met with Fernando a salesperson. Fernando tried luring us in by telling us his kids were dressed like the Kardashians and had braces and that he took luxurious extended “Gucci” vacations as a result of being an owner at Welk. My husband and I saw through these people from the moment we walked in so all the arrogance that was displayed from both of them was quite funny. It stopped being funny once the meeting went on for 4 hours. They wouldn’t take no for an answer. They wouldn’t let us walk out without a relentless fight. We never had intentions of buying anything. We just wanted our gifts that we were promised so all of this was a complete waste of our time and theirs as well. Which we were upfront and honest about. Still they wouldn’t back down. At times they were a rude, patronizing, and stuck up. Then finally they gave up and let us walk away after signing a paper stating that we were presented this offer and refused it.

Our credit scores were checked before that which made me nervous because I didn’t want to put down my Social Security number but I did nonetheless. Once we were all done with everything we realized we were the last people in the room and it made us wonder how many of those happy buyers were actually real. They cheered and popped champagne when they made a sale which sadly was really often throughout the meeting. We felt bad for this people. Once we got the gift I realized the expiration date was set for 3/31/19. Not 12 months like we were promised by Sunny.

I left feeling mentally exhausted and truly mad at myself for giving those leeches my time of day. I won’t be claiming my “gift” after reading some of the reviews on here and elsewhere, I think that’s a trap as well. Stay far far away from this place! They are only looking out for themselves and will waste your time and give you a headache! Oh and I still have yet to be reimbursed my 50$.

It’s too difficult to book your ideal room even 4 months ahead! We finally managed to book a room for Lake Tahoe (not in high season of course) and now that there is just one week before the trip they are trying to cancel it by presenting false claims. It’s unbelievable! It was not easy for my husband and I to take some time off together! They are ruining our vacation for us and they couldn’t care less about it!

After all of these problems, we decided to cancel our membership, but they did not accept it as well. We paid $4000 in cash and we could never get any of the services! They don’t give us my money back and they make reservations nearly impossible. After 9 month we still haven’t been able to use their resorts even for one minute. We are Very frustrated with their client communication and misrepresenting their packages. We don’t recommend this company at all. Very shady business and lots of lies. They won’t let you down on ruining your vacation for you.

VERY concerned on how this company operates if this is how they start! I recently learned that their Method of Operation has not ended, as months later, they continue to make Promises regarding their promotions without Disclosing the Truth as to how difficult it is to redeem the Certificate! Hopefully, this post will get some attention to rectify the issue!

The most frustrating part was how they sell you on how easy it is to use their system to book rooms - anywhere, anytime. But after consulting friends and family who are members of Welk, they confirmed it's almost impossible to get exactly what you want unless you book REALLY far in advance; which is not what we were sold on. We were sold on "give me Welk one week for nonpopular times of the year, and for popular give me 3 months notice and we can get you in, no problem." Maybe for people who have the ability to book so far in advance, this is a good program, but for most working couples this is asking a lot.

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.

I finally heard today (less than three weeks from the 1st date and roughly 7 from the alternate) that neither date was accepted and I could pick new dates for after June 3 or "upgrade" to a trip to Mexico. If Welk can't follow through on their promises in their presentation, how could you ever expect them to deliver on their product? (By the way, the timeshare deal was an ultimatum, "right now or not at all," which isn't great financial practice, but I had no intention of ever purchasing. I'm quite glad now as I would hate to be associated with such a shady business that runs scams on a daily basis.) For those looking to visit the resort, the property and rooms seemed nice from what small bit I saw. It is quite far from San Diego proper though (~45-60 minutes), so it would really depend on what kind of San Diego vacation you wanted as to whether the resort would be a good fit for you.

My husband and I tried to get into a 1 bedroom on the Big Island when it's the lowest demand for the island, and in three weeks, RCI has contacted us by phone 8 times and 110 emails all for a 2 bedroom unit at the same resort and for the same weeks when we keep saying we only want a 1 bedroom. Very poor service and now we have become so frustrated with Welk that we want out now! Sad that even contacting Welk is of no good either, either they give you the same answer or they just don't care about owners any longer.

I really feel scammed by Welk. They not call back or answer emails. I am waiting on a call back now and have been waiting for three hours. I cannot get into the owners lounge to pay the fees. I finally got a woman who gave me a generic password to get into the account. Are you seriously kidding? Do you think that I am going to pay you almost two grand on a generic password. You have no password reset. This is a real ripoff. They have converted to points without telling me. They have partnered with the ripoff Queen in Indianapolis, RCI, who has partnered with Wyndamn hotels. They have colluded so that past persons cannot use their timeshare except at resorts that they have chosen. Has anyone sued these people to get their money back?

Weeks are better than points!!!! How can they get away with this kind of theft? I bought a diamond, only to be told I now have a CZ? I called them and no one knows how to answer my questions and how to fix the problem! They used the bait and switch and it's not good business practice! I see a Class Action soon! I understand many owners are not happy! I'd like to be a part of such a lawsuit! If anyone knows of this egregious action, please let me know!!! Stay away from Welk! Your timeshare will not be of any value! Trust me!

When our time arrived, we were greeted by a young (30ish) man, very pleasant. We filled out a brief information packet and we BOLDLY circled that this was the very FIRST time we had been on a timeshare event. We were new to the process, we paid the $99.00 at the sporting event so we could get the free night stay in Branson and the free trip to Vegas (you only have to pay the taxes on the Vegas flight, I'll get to that later). Anyways, we listened to the presentation and looked at the 2 demo timeshare rooms they had on site, remind you this guy was very kind, understanding and so forth. When it came time and he asked, "So can we sign you up?" And we politely declined... It went down-hill from there.

We all understand body language right? He sat back in his chair, folded his arms across this chest, his smile turned into a frown. I advised him that we had some things in our lives that had changed and although we would love to able to afford the timeshare, we couldn't. I also reminded him that when we filled out the questionnaire prior to the presentation, this was our FIRST time attending a timeshare presentation. He became "curt" and stated that he needed to advise his boss of our decision. It had already been a little over the 2 hours. We waited while he retrieved his boss/finance guy. His "boss" came to the table where my husband and I were siting and proceeded to advise us the following... "We know you can afford this, we check your credit prior to your arrival".

Again, I advised him that we were unable to purchase at this time, due to some financial changes. He said "are you telling me you can't afford $13.33 a day?" I advised, "that is correct". He became demeaning, and quite frankly RUDE. With all this being said, we got out of there with the voucher for the free Las Vegas trip... We filled out the required form for the Vegas trip in the allotted time, 45 days after receipt. (Ours was mailed after 30 days). We never heard anything back. According to the instructions, we would receive a statement/bill for the taxes on the trip. We did not, I called the number on the voucher and spoke to a customer service representative, Ms. **. She said, "Our computers says that we received your vouchers that you sent, and we sent you the bill for the taxes in June and have had no response, so the voucher is no good".

Well, I advised her the following "we didn't even go to Branson for the timeshare presentation until the end of July and that's when we received our voucher. We had 45 days to return it to you, which we did after 30 days, you told me that you received our returned voucher, and that a letter was sent out to us. (Which would have been the end of September). I am calling you now to let you know we didn't receive the letter". Ms. **'s response "we sent that to you in June".

My response "we didn't even go to Branson for the timeshare presentation until the end of July, therefore we didn't even receive the free trip voucher to Vegas until then". Her response "well, it's no good". Bottom line guys, if you are going... Be prepared!!! If you think you are going for the free trip and a 2 hour timeshare presentation, it's not going to happen. For those who are going, I wish you the best. I assure you, this experience has turned me SOUR to the thought of ever owning a timeshare.

The rep stated on the 16th that our contract would go to underwriting and that once it was funded then our package would be sent out to us. When we had to make the choice to cancel we read the contract so that we could see how we needed to take care of canceling the membership. In the contract there was a form that need to be sent via fax or US Mail and we signed it on June 25th. 2017 and tried to send the form, only to get an error message saying the fax had "No Answer." After 4 failed attempts we decided that we would try again in the morning thinking that they must not have the fax machine up due to it being a Sunday.

So we tried again to send the fax on June 26th, 2017 again to only be told "No Answer." I then contacted the number that was on the front of the folder of our contract and advised the rep that the number that we were given was giving us an error message and that we wanted to make sure that the form was sent. I was placed on hold and was given another number to try to send the form and it worked on the first try. I figured that I would hear back from someone, but gave it the day and called again on June 27th, 2017 just to confirm the form was received and that our cancellation was being processed. I then was told that it was being reviewed and that I should be getting a call shortly.

I have called everyday from June 26th to July 11th, 2017 and I have spoke to a dozen people to only be told that my account was being reviewed and that I would get an answer soon. Now we are going to be filing bankruptcy and I wanted to get this taken care of prior to filing but I guess this is going to have to be included. I can not believe that a business built on the values of its namesake could treat people like this especially when they are trying to do everything right. I am reviewing this business only to hope that there is resolve for myself and my family as well that if someone else reviews this that they spare themselves the headache.

The inventory manager tried the same pitch, showing us pictures of his family and kids at the resorts... Another sales tactic! We are a family of 4. We were offered the basic; we would end up paying over $400 a month for 10 years and over $1000 in Vacation fees a year for LIFE. We politely declined only to have the inventory manager, sales rep and some other guy who I didn't catch his name return one by one to make further attempts. Worse than a car salesmen! If you go: Don't let them waste your time with chit chat. Get in and out! Buy if 1 week of vacation a year at 400 a month is good for you! The resort is beautiful and well taken care of. I have yet to book the flight to Hawaii but will write an update on that experience as well.

I was trying to stay friendly but the smug little man trying to sell to us was condescending and rude. The offer almost sounded good but his attitude when we asked too many questions was so bad I just couldn't be nice any longer. The stay was fun, rooms were very pretty. The place was nice but not a lot of things to do for a family with young children. Not worth the price and the fees were crazy.

The worst part was when we decided this wasn't the deal for us they continue to send other people over, offer more "trips" and even say condescending rude comments about being bad parents and spending our money frivolously, trying to either guilt you into paying or trying to get your ego. In the end we still spend over $200 just to stay the night up there since the restaurants were pricey and the closest place off the resort was 45 minutes away.

Also we went on off season and everything on the resort was closed or not working. Plus, the Mexico trip we were supposed to get just for going has yet to be given. We had to pay$300 for supposed taxes and they have declined our dates 4 times and it's been well over a year and we are still waiting for this Mexico trip... Plus it turns out it is a mid week, Tuesday -Thursday trip that only gives one full day since the flights are late on Tuesday and leave early on Thursday and again we paid the $300 upfront to book and they still HAVE NOT BOOKED the trip going on 16 months out.

I gave them my credit card for the rooms and picked out our package (the Disney one). Well the next day I got a confirmation email. It did not list the room I received or the amount I paid. You also don't get something for nothing. The Disneyland package was a joke with extra fees and limited days. But I figured we would at least get to stay at the resort for a good price. I did call the agent back because I was concerned that the room was not listed on my confirmation. She returned my call saying that is just how they do it but that I did have a two bedroom suite at the hotel. I thought all was good until I got another call that night from the agent's supervisor saying that actually they had booked that room but the hotel told them it wasn't available.

All they had was another two bedroom with a little more room but it would be significantly more money, or they could put me up in sister hotel. At this point I was even more leery and told them to cancel everything. How shady to promise one thing and not deliver. If this is how they deal with just getting people to their presentations I can only imagine what a nightmare it would be to own one of their time shares/condos etc. Don't bother. It is not worth the hassle or the prizes that they offer. I feel like we escaped even more hassle once we got down there.

5 months later I lost my job and business card account, I contacted Welk requesting to cancel without a refund. They not only refused but were extremely rude. I only missed 1 payment then I got another job and started sending them cashiers checks of $150 to $400 a month. After paying $1200, I tried to plan a trip, Welk declined indicating we had to pay $1450 before using any points. On several occasions, accounting contacted us indicating I owed late fees because my payments were going to the CA office (address on the invoice) not the AZ office. I refused since the payments were in Welk's possession. Confirmed through USPS Return Receipts. Nothing else was said about it. So over the next few months I paid the account off in full then booked a Palm Springs weekend trip. It was wonderful, no issues. I tried to book a 2nd trip for Cabo Sirena del Mar but was told Cabo was booked until after Memorial Day 2017.

I booked for June 2017. No problem! In April I purchased our airfare then 6 days before departure, Welk called to advise my account had been closed and the trip was being cancelled for non-payment of the $35 late fee. As I listened to all their lame excuses as to why they waited until my trip to make such a declaration, the response was it takes time to update all our files!!! I plan to let my attorney handle this one!!!

Owner Services on the phone are so professional and friendly. There is really a knack they have for helping people that have no idea what they are doing. They are so helpful on the phone, like a second pair of eyes watching out for you and reminding you of things to do with your points, like rolling them over. They have been Johnny on the spot! My owner update today was fantastic, very informational and friendly. They have been sometimes a very hard sell in the past but this one was about my needs. It was wonderful.

Once I said no, then another offer was made to me for a cheaper price and a week a year instead of the higher price and one week every other year. The yearly maintenance fee that was explained to me was changed several times throughout the presentation as well. They offered me 2 round trip tickets to Hawaii on top of the prizes that were already offered to me and at the end when I finally got them to take no for an answer the manager said to me..."well you will never get to Hawaii, I can tell you that." I was offended and disgusted with the way that they treated me. I feel like they used my emotional situation as a way to try to pressure me in to the deal. I told them I did not have $1500 to put down as a down payment, and they had me fill out an application to help me with this. Once they did this and saw that my credit was good they really put the pressure on. Two people pressuring me at one time.

I would not recommend this to anyone. I enjoyed my stay in the hotel on the property and I would more than likely return to that resort, but for the time share, it does not seem to be an up and up offer. If you can offer a better deal/program then why not offer that from the beginning? Please make sure you do not give them any information that they can use to try to manipulate you. They really played on my situation, single mom, wanting to spend vacation time with my daughter. Told me what a rip off the Disney experience was and that I could have had a way better experience with them. I personally believed my Disney experience was incredible. I just hope that others don't feel the pressure that I felt with these sales reps. I know it is their job to sell but not to make someone feel bad.

While the people I talked with were polite, I got the impression that my concern was not really a priority. In addition to this disappointing experience, the maintenance fees are high and go up each year, it has been extremely difficult to navigate the point system, and "owner updates" turn out to be a long sales pitch meeting. I feel as if what I was sold in the sales meeting does not match up with the experiences I have had.

1) That it was a great investment. It's not. In the 4 years and $14,000 plus dollars we've paid to Welk so far, we have been able to use it twice. Each new property that Welk acquires, the "points" needed to get a time slot for that area is so high, what you purchased seems to diminish in value. You end up needing "more" points.

2) Interest Rates. We were told during our presentation that you can refinance a timeshare. You cannot. You can get a loan from another lender, pay off your Welk Balance and pay the lender but you cannot refinance the loan. Welks Interest rates are outrageous and they keep going up. 3) Annual Dues aka: Maintenance Payments - We were told that our payment would be a certain amount. What they don't tell you is that they can be raised every year without telling you. Ours was supposed to be about 1000 a year based on the plan we owned. In the last 2 years, they have raised it by almost 30%.

4) Once you're in, you can't get out without suffering the consequences of hurting your credit for at least 7 years. Welk will not work with you, they will not offer you a buyout, you cannot offer it back to them (we tried), they will not help you in anyway financially. They will not help you with the 15+ percent interest rate. Nope, and once you start to dispute with them, the "collections staff" are rude, have insulted my pregnant wife calling her dumb, unintelligent, and irresponsible; the only happiness and pleasant experience you will get from them is if you are paying them on time. If you're not paying them or are in dispute... good luck. And yes, they actually said those things to her on the phone.

5) Every "owners update" meetings we went to, they made attempts to "hard sell us" in purchasing more points or to get a credit card. Why couldn't they just be updates, I don't know. You would think that paying Welk over $8,000 a year would buy you some stellar customer service and awesome. 6) There are so many "restrictions" on what you can use your points on and time limits and slots, it almost makes it exhausting at times trying to book anything. 7) We were told that Timeshares are tax deductible just like a regular mortgage. They are not; we checked with 2 different certified tax professionals in the State of California.

8) During the presentation at the Escondido location, they told my wife and I in multiple occasions that they own the land that the resort is built on and because of that, there's no "mortgage payment". I say that loosely as I'm not familiar with the exact terminology. They also told us that because of it, that they can be more profitable allowing more opportunity and cost reduction to their points owners. However, we have seen an increase in Annual dues, removal of non-resident privileges for the pool and fitness center, increase in interest rates and increase in points needed for the "newer" properties.

We have tried to play nice with Welk. We tried to amicably resolve our disputes with them but we have discovered that the 5+ people we have spoken to about our complaints and problems have basically (but indirectly) said, "you are screwed. You signed the contract, you are screwed and there's no way out." To my knowledge, Welk will not hold their employees accountable for misleading statements and false reports in their sales presentations and they will defend these falsities to the death.

Sorry, I wish I had better things to say. Had Welk truly and properly acknowledged our complaints and offered us a way out, I would not be writing this. They chose not to. Let me make one thing clear, we signed the contract, we made that mistake but I pray that you don't. Don't sign it until you fully understand what you are signing. You are locking yourself into it permanently.

The "Free" tablet had to pay $35 for shipping, which I found the exact same generic Chinese Android tablet on Amazon and it cost--$30 (free shipping)! It was run by a 3rd party company with bad complaints, so we never used any of the "free" gifts. Waste of 4 hours of my life (including round-trip driving). At least the coffee/soda/snacks were good!

Today I received another call from a lady named Tina that works at their San Diego office and her customer service was so deplorable we are contacting an attorney to proceed foreclose on this property. She was above and beyond rude! My husband has already made payment arrangements for the late payment and she threatened me with collections and when I asked about having to possibly foreclose with the assistance of an attorney she stated that we should be paying our payments on time and not wasting our money on attorneys and that if we would pay our payments on time then we shouldn't need an attorney.

Again I'm stating that this type of customer service is what we now expect from Welk Resorts after being LATE, not missing, LATE on a single payment. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do yourselves a favor and if you are considering buying into this timeshare DO NOT fall for their schemes and save yourself a lot of money and headaches!!

Oh yeah, and if your credit is less than perfect, that down payment goes up about $1000.00. They don't tell you that until you look at the contract and notice a change. Now, they are slick. They do have a great resort... But the sales tactics really keep you in there for 5.5-6.00 hours. I missed a visit with my husband's mother who has terminal cancer, and we told them that, we miss our dinner date, and we told them that. Then we went outside, waited in line in the cold when some woman who works there and drives a white car comes past my husband and I, goes to the front of the line, literally looks my husband up & down, and we sit at the back of the go-cart in the dark, in the cold... Wow! I thought, "how rude..." But I laughed!

How can they allow such arrogance in a place like this? If only she knew that look was a testament to the place. In other words if she works there with that attitude and behavior, she ain't the only one. This happened Saturday evening 10/15/2016 about 6:40 pm. She was dropped off to her white car. I believe it was a four door and she had long dark colored hair. She also had like a briefcase with wheels.

Let me elaborate, so I am in line and I get cutted by ** folks and the employees saw and did nothing. I am at the pool purchased squirter guns for 3 of my invited guest and a ** guest called me out saying that I took her squirter guns. Thank God I had my receipts. But of all people who had same squirter guns, me. Then this place has no one trained to accommodate wheelchairs, no shade no ramps for wheelchairs waiting for the Damn trolley that takes you around. Trained one old ass man that took longer to put my sister up on the ramp than going to our room.

On the second day got switched to another room, took two hours of my family time moving things because they couldn't get their computers to stop glitches. Arrived to the room and not even clean yet. Gross. But when I went Back to get a charger I forgot to the other room. Come to find out it was all cleaned and ** folks arriving, mean as can be - yelling on why I took two parking space. Because I have a wheelchair and this place doesn't accommodate. In my personal opinion this place is not worth the headaches. Vacation was not a vacation. I can afford better than this and not have a headache. Thank God I didn't get hooked on being owner. I have nothing against ** people, but after being at Welk Resort I felt Trump everywhere. Just sad.

We are unable to use our points unless we want to pull our children out of school during the middle of the year, and the closest we could get to our destination that we wanted to go was about 8 hours away. I spent 18000 on a timeshare that I am now seriously debating on selling to a company for 1200 just to get out of it. 1300 every 2 years in ownership fees. I could have used that money alone from the fees and gone to the place I wanted to vacation and saved myself 18000. So please, if you read this review, please do not get suckered into buying their scamshare.

I liked it, I was sold, until it came down to the end and the "high pressure" tactics of their "supervisor" and backed up by the sales guy whose personal story, although sad, had a number of holes and contradictions. They said that the "special" was available then and only then, no ability to look at paperwork before hand, no ability to leave and come back, no ability to have an attorney or real estate agent review it, no ability to conduct business as is done with every other real estate transaction.

I should have been more suspicious earlier in the presentation when the sales guy said often how he was just a sales guy and he doesn't know the pricing so he used the points system to describe the units. All of the numbers were the "points" that were obviously well rehearsed and all written down on blank paper by hand. Their little workbook was well designed to direct people in the right direction, once again, all hand written info. No rate sheets, no spec sheet, nothing resembling a product sheet.

It wasn't until almost 3 hours later that the true dollar amount came to light, about 15k for 1 bed, 20k for 2 and 25k for 3. The membership fees were around $1500/yr. All and all the pricing wasn't unreasonable and well within my price range. The two were quite adept at keeping the numbers flowing yet not quite adding up. Oh and those numbers were all without the inability to obtain 3rd party financing. They require you to get their 14.9% financing first then you have 30 days to get 3rd party financing.

The supervisor made quite the point that everything he was doing was legal and above board, which it was, 100% legal, just very manipulative. They wouldn't let the product sell itself, they felt the need to push the sale. I could literally give a dozen different ways it could work different and better. Welk Resorts missed out on a sale today. Well maybe, found dozens of memberships for sale on 3rd party timeshare sites. Maybe I can pick one up for a fraction of the original amount. For those who are interested in this, ask for the paperwork up front to review. When they don't give it to you, there's your ability to walk away. Oh, if Welk Corporate wishes to contact me, feel free.

The part that gets me the most is how they pushed the purchase through. Because we didn't have the money for the deposit, they applied for a credit card with Quorum Federal Credit Union for me, so that the deposit could be paid for with this line of credit. And then, they set up the payments for the timeshare to be automatically withdrawn from this credit card. This just seems incredibly unethical to me.... feels reminiscent of the sub-prime home loans that led to the housing bubble bursting and the 2007-2009 recession in the United States.

We couldn't even qualify for a $10,000 small business loan at that time, so how did we qualify to purchase a timeshare that cost $13,000, with no down payment?? I remember thinking, man this guy is gonna do whatever it takes to get this sale, and by the end of it, I felt bad that he had spent so much time with us, I felt like we owed it to him to follow through with the purchase!

That was in 2014, it is now 2016 and we haven't used a single day of our timeshare. Why? Because we can't afford it! We live on such a tight budget that we can't take time off. We have been on Medi-Cal health insurance for years because we are below the poverty line. Welk continues to put the timeshare payments on the Quorum credit card they so strategically provided for me, but we are only making the minimum payments on it and we haven't been able to pay our maintenance fees, so at this point I'm guessing we will be headed toward foreclosure. If anyone can confirm that these practices were illegal, please respond. I am considering pursuing a class action lawsuit against the Welk Resort Group.

We have been to Branson Welk Resort 2 times and will be returning again in July. The Lodges at Timber Ridge, The Mountain Villas San Diego, and Cabo San Lucas have similar floor plans which are simply wonderfully unique. We love Branson with the beauty of the Lodges, wonderful staff, large dining area, theater, water facility, and all the live performances in Branson. In addition to the performances, restaurants, and shopping the lakes are amazing. For a recent birthday we were at Welk Palm Springs Resort. The staff was very informative with a special thank you to "Vic" who was especially helpful. Our Palm Springs stay was very nice including the Palm Springs Tram ride up Mt San Jacinto.

Since purchasing we have had the opportunity to visit some other resorts by utilizing the Interval International exchange program along with, Welk Resorts in Cabo San Lucas twice & Branson, Missouri too many times to count since we only live about 4 hours away from this location. Our future trips to a Welk Resort will include Cabo San Lucas, Sirena Del Mar as many times as possible, Hawaii when construction is completed, Breckenridge, CO, Lake Tahoe, CA, and San Diego. The vacation you receive from Welk Resorts is AMAZING!!! If I were to purchase these vacations as a consumer and not an OWNER I would pay much more over time and would not be able to afford these kind of trips twice a year or more. The staff at every location we have visited make it a point to get to know you personally and keep you happy!

We wrote this review because so many people are quick to post the negative and not the positive about legit companies around. I would strongly recommend giving a Welk property a visit to see what you're missing! I would be happy to answer any questions to anyone that would like to know more about this timeshare company. If you need/like to vacation you will thank yourself for joining Welk and not another timeshare company.

I always believe that you shouldn't judge a business by their mistakes, you should judge them based on how they fix those mistakes. In 20 years, I have had my issues, but I have also worked them out professionally, and that makes all the difference in the world! I plan on a lifelong relationship with Welk and when I die, I plan on leaving the legacy of vacationing as a family to my two girls, who will inherit our Welk ownership! After paying off our loan, we will be able to vacation every year, 4 times a year, for $1200... What a deal!

Upon realizing that we had clearly been victim to a Timeshare Scam, we contacted the resort in Branson, who categorized this as a mistake, and stated that they had realized that morning that they had left this information out of several sales packets. Note that no attempt to contact us was made. AGAIN, KEEP IN MIND THAT THESE PAGES WERE OMITTED FROM TWO DIFFERENT DOCUMENTS, AND NOTHING ELSE WAS MISSING! Fortunately, we had taken the time to review our purchase information immediately, and we are in the process of exercising our right to cancel our contract as is allowed under Missouri State law. I am sure that most are not that fortunate. While we felt and still feel that we would have gotten much use out of our timeshare, there is no way we would associate ourselves with a business that uses these shoddy business practices, with clear intent to defraud the consumer.

They didn't try at all to help me, in fact they told me that every detail was well explained to me - FALSE!! So I told them to check the entire conversation between me and the person that made my reservation - Rose was her name. They supposed to return to me the next day but nobody had the courtesy to call me back. So I called back and spoke to Adriana. She couldn't even remember why I was calling - very bizarre because she was the one that I spoke the day before. She placed me on hold and then told me - "yes!! I heard the recording and our salesperson was very accurate in her explanations" - FALSE!! They are very A TOTAL SCAM! Do not buy nothing from them. In fact look for other reviews if you may! I also never got a receipt from them, only the tour schedule in which they try to sell timeshare to their resorts. A such dishonest business. Very hard to reach anyone for help.

Buying a timeshare is a commitment. You pay a lot in interest if they finance you so the best thing is to buy one with money saved or maybe with a credit card that you can actually pay off in a short amount of time. I think Welk does an amazing job entertaining guests with things to do and is very family oriented with their pools and activities. Kids love it there. The rooms or resorts are very nice and well kept. Don't buy with the intention of selling your points to make $ back. Most people don't know how to and it's not as easy as they make it seem.

BUT here is a real perk to owning. You can get AMAZING deals as a Welk owner through interval.com. You don't even have to exchange your points. You can buy a "getaway" week to almost anywhere for less than half of what the resorts charge regular people. And interval is always giving away a "free" week. You normally pay 265.00 at the most (not including tax) for 7 days at a nice resort with their weeks. Room size vary, but we are going to Park City in May for a wedding in Utah and staying in a 2-bedroom Marriott for 294.00 TOTAL. You can also buy these deals for guests for 50.00. We bought a timeshare at the Welk because we own our home and our mortgage is low. We don't have an HOA and we use their pools year round at Welk in Escondido since we live close. I work to pay for our timeshare and it's totally worth it for us. Sooo there's my two cents lol!!

In order for me to not lose more money, I usually try to rent it to cover basic costs. Even then, I dont get the full amount to cover it. Even then, I have to deal with Welk Resorts incompetence. The final issue was recently. After months of trying to get my check from them to cover the cost of ownership, they mailed me an unsigned check. Ive been upset with them. And instead of helping me with my complaint, they threaten to hang up the phone. They said "the call is recorded". I want the calls recorded so their management knows how incompetent they are.

I want people warned that when they are trying to get you to buy, they are very nice and make you many promises. However, as soon as you are an owner, the professionalism changes. They are harsh, disrespectful, and then really tell you what you actually are an owner of. By then it's too late, you lose money, are treated poorly, and basically are told you can sell it at significant lose to yourself.

Dont make the same mistake I made. If you plan to buy a time share, research the contract word for word and have them explain it to you in that fashion. Dont just take the sales representative at their word. Read before believing anything that comes out of that persons mouth. If they promise you something, make sure that exact wording is in writing. Be aware that they can raise their association fees significantly over time. Do you have the budget for that unknown risk? I dont.

Anyhow we were already there and wanted our deposit and free stuff as promised. We walked up and of course, the place was beautiful! We waited in the lobby for our tour guy or whatever they're called. We went in and spoke with a man named Ron. He was really friendly, outgoing type and, of course, told us everything we wanted to hear. After getting into the cost, I told him that I work in retail and only made minimum wage. But my boyfriend did make more than me, so Ron suggested we use my boyfriend's income which wasn't even as much as he said. After running credit Ron said that my credit was a lot better and he couldn't use my boyfriend for the loan. He was only going to use mine. However though if anyone asked for me to tell them that I work as a store or district manager because he got me a good deal. YEAH RIGHT!!!

He then told me that they would need down payment which I then told him I did not have that kind of money on hand or even in my checking account. He of course, had a plan for that too. He ran my credit for a credit card through them, and of course I was approved for a $5000 credit limit and was then able to make the down payment and first few monthly payments at $270 a month. I kept telling him I didn't know If I could pull it off. He then told me that he truly felt that I was a good person and from talking to me, he knew I could succeed at working with Welk doing what he does. And then explained to me how much money they make for getting a sale. He told me he guaranteed he could get me a job with them and gave me his cell phone number to keep in contact. That way I would definitely be able to afford the payments and for me to really consider it.

I thought my this man is really trying to help me (yeah help me into a hole that I couldn't get out of). So I agreed. After all he promised me a job, lied for me to get the loan and applied me for their credit card. I then signed my life away to these con artists. The fees are ridiculous. I couldn't afford to pay the one from last year so they take $200 a month from my account. And now I have the new from this year and of course cannot afford it either! And to top if off I got the forms for all the free stuff and it too was all fake. These people shouldn't force people if they say they cannot afford it. They shouldn't offer lies. Also offering free stuff to people to attend says "yeah we're desperate." I emailed the man that handles disputes for them, and of course I didn't even get a reply. So here I am.

The sales staff at the Escondido Welk Resort Group were deceptive, used high-pressure sales tactics, and fraudulent claims to coerce me into purchasing a timeshare. They told me that they'd give me a free ticket to Jamaica to see my mom after I told them I hadn't seen her in 4 years. They made promises that they would buy back my timeshare if I wanted to sell it, and that it would be an "investment" and that I would be able to rent my timeshare easily to make up for the big costs. I believed it all and my boyfriend and I were so caught up in the promises and champagne that we barely realized we were being swindled.

It's virtually impossible to book a week when you need it. Some certificates state that we have 60 days to use it but there weren't any locations or rooms available so they ended up expiring. This isn't enticing to people when we ask if they want to use our week so we have trouble renting it out. I have attempted to call Welk to resolve these issues but they have been distant and not of much help. They informed me that they would not buy back my timeshare, nor did they respond to my initial complaint by email.

Fast forward a year, my boyfriend loses his job and we can't afford to make these payments on the balance of the $16k loan. We've been sent to collections and are considering bankruptcy due to a compound of this and other factors. Please do not buy a timeshare based on their claims. I was young and foolish and went against my investigative nature so I could see my mom. Do research first!!

Our trip (for a dance competition for my daughter) eventually ended up being cancelled due to a school function for my daughter. A representative from Welk Resorts called to confirm my "appointment". I explained to him that I was no longer going to be making the trip to the Fallbrook area and needed to cancel. He attempted to reschedule me for another day. Since I live over 2 hours away, it was going to be a financial and time issue for me to attend any future events. He informed me that I would not get my $40 back as the salesperson told me I would because I was not coming to presentation. I was not told that during the transaction.

After a bit of back and forth and me expressing what a scam I felt this company was to swindle people out of $40, given the fact that it would be a waste of their time and mine (not to mention the expense to travel to hear about a product that I knew I would not be able to afford), he eventually said the $40 would be refunded back to me because he wanted me to know they are a good company that doesn't scam people out of their money. I told him I appreciated it and this would greatly influence my opinion on the company in a positive manner. That was 3 months ago and GUESS WHAT??? My $40 was never refunded! So I was right, they are liars and thieves that take people for a MEASLY $40... but I guess if you trick lots of people, that $40 multiple times adds up to a lot! NEVER AGAIN WILL I FALL FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS!!!

Justin, our sales person, told us that once we signed the contract, the paper would be included and it would hide our timeshare purchase for a year, which at that point our divorces would be over. After we signed the contract and left, we realized that we were never given the form to "ghost" our purchase. We tried to call that day, but it went straight to voicemail. We figured it was the weekend, so we didn't worry too much. Later that week, we decided to try again, and left a voicemail with the signer of our sales contract. We called multiple times, but it always went to voicemail. Even after leaving messages we never received a call back. We also contacted our salesperson, who asked "what was up" and we told him we needed to cancel the contract due to the fact that our purchase would not be hidden. He never replied after that.

We continued to try to call customer service, the Tahoe Welk purchasing offices, and left multiple messages saying we wanted to cancel and that we were never offered the paperwork to keep the purchase off our credit for a year. No one ever returned our calls after trying for a week. We finally gave up and decided to just send a letter saying we wanted to cancel our contract. We faxed it in, and never heard anything back. It was two days, after the 7 day limit to cancel our contract. However, we had been trying to cancel since the day after our purchase, but we had been trying to talk to someone about it showing up on our credit report, and to speak to someone about the fact that it had been promised it would be hidden. No one EVER called us.

We continued to call, and finally reached someone who told us that our contract had in fact been cancelled and that we didn't need to worry about anything. We asked to receive something in writing stating that it was cancelled. We were told that they couldn't do that, but that it was cancelled. We ended up calling several different people over the next few days to make sure it was really cancelled and that we wouldn't owe anything. We talked to several people who confirmed it was cancelled, and finally had one person send us an email stating that it was in fact cancelled.

We asked about having our down payment refunded. We were told that anything we had been charged would be refunded and that it would take between 30-60 days to go through. This came from several different people through the customer service number. No one would provide anything in writing. This made me nervous, however, after we received the cancellation email, we assumed that if we waited the allotted time period, we would have the money refunded to our card.

Two months later, I followed up, and was now charged late fees on my card, and the amount had not yet been refunded. We followed up with the credit card company, and were told that they would put it in dispute and we needed to send the information in. We also called Welk again, and were now told that instead of receiving our full payment back, we were only being payed back 50 dollars, and that we owed the 1125 as the down payment because of our failure to cancel in time. We told them that we had spoken to several people about our concerns, and that they had all told us we would receive the full amount back due to the issue of being able to contact anyone with our concerns. We called multiple times insisting on Welk keeping their word that we would receive our payment back, and are now being refused any of it.

I am very upset with the lack of customer service, with the fact that it has been extremely difficult to ever reach anyone. Your messages aren't returned, you don't get calls back, and you will not receive anything in writing. If we were still responsible for a certain amount, why wouldn't we have been told that when we cancelled our contract? The multiple people we talked to reassured us that the full amount would be refunded to our card automatically, and that the credit card would also cancel on its own. If I would have known this was not true, I would have been working on disputing this sooner. Now everyone is telling us that we owe the full amount, there is nothing they can do, and that we're lucky it was cancelled at all.

We are very upset with how we have been treated, and mislead as to what is going on. If we were still being charged, we shouldn't have ever been told that the full amount would be refunded. There is no reason we should have been promised a full refund if that was not the intention of the company. We needed to cancel our timeshare due to unforeseen medical expenses and hospital stays, and now we are having to battle the company that promised us a full refund. I don't understand the deception and lies that were used. The company should have been honest and straightforward and able to give updates in writing, rather than just verbally. I was afraid that something like this would happen, and now it has come true.

Manny, aka "Captain Fun," was pleasant, engaging, and a perfect hire for his position to help entertain the guests. Music by the pool, snorkeling, aqua aerobics, putting contests, and cannonball contests are a few of the activities he hosted during the week. The concierge was amazingly helpful and helped us get anything we needed at the resort and helped us book excursions. We were able to go fishing, caught a huge sailfish, and had it cooked for us when we got off the boat. YUM! The pool/spa was amazingly situated at the edge of the property overlooking the water. There was also a private beach where you could snorkel and enjoy the sand. The taxi to downtown wasn't too expensive, but we had several people suggested to rent a car. Maybe next time, but honestly, we didn't even need to leave the resort -- oh except that we forgot to pack my daughter underwear -- that required a trip to the local Wal-Mart.