Westgate Resorts Reviews

My closing officer told me NOT no hand my cancellation letter to anybody in the building because she'll be helping me out when she comes in the next day. I thought all the while that she'll help me, but I was wrong. She didn't accepted my cancellation letter insted she send another representative to give us a downgraded offer. We still refused the offer but then again she send another person, their manager, who again insisted me to buy a Corporate Account, in which he said a much, much lower price.

So with all these nice deals he gave me, which is 2bedrooms, float, every other year, lockout, in Westgate Blue tree Resort for $7,700, I decided to take the offer believing them that it was a better deal. We have agreed before that I'm cancelling my other purchase in replacement of the 2nd offer. They told me they'll mail my contract as soon as possible. But things got more complicated. I have been calling my closing officer to ask for the contract but she said they got a better deal (AGAIN) fo the same price. She said 2bedroom, float, lockout, every other year but it will be in the Westgate Town center. I was happy with the ofer so I told them to send me a copy of the contract.

Two weeks after, I haven'y receive any contract. Called her again, but then she said they can't make the contract because the price is too low for the deal. So they want to increase the price for $9,800. I was so disappointed with the situation so I told the that I'm not buying anything from them anymore. And that I hope that the cancellation I made after 3 days of purchase will be granted. But then again, they said I can't cancell it anymore because I passed the 10 day period. I told them that it was because of them why my cancellation got delayed.

I belive that what happened to me was a misleading sale and information. And this a way of delaying tactics. Until now, the sale is still pending. All those good deals they've promised is only to good to be true.

"On April 5th, I stayed a night at Westgate Town Center. I and several guests arrived to the room, which was beautiful, at around 6pm. (1) Almost immediately, we discovered that the toilet in the master bedroom didn't work. We called maintenance and they responded immediately and fixed the problem. That was great. (2) We left for a moment to go to the store, upon our return, we noticed the electricity shut down (which understandably can happen) due to electrical storm. I called the front desk to inform them of the problem and was told it was a resort wide problem. I then asked I was in the middle of asking the young lady a question and was abruptly hung up on. (In a 5 star facility, I'd expect a call back unless she meant to be rude.)

("3) Due to the fact that we had no electricity, we couldn't cook our dinner, so we sat on the patio, as this was the only place in the suite with a glimmer of light. As we are sitting on the patio, water began spraying up onto the floor from a sprinkler system or broken pipe (I don't know which) down below making it impossible to stay out there. We called maintenance; shortly thereafter the water stopped hitting the patio.

(4) "2 hours later, the electricity returned (with no apologies from management for the inconvenience regardless of fault) and we began to cook our dinner. On the stove, one of the burners was broken. We called maintenance again. They never came. (5) At around midnight, we heard a loud scream from one of my guests only to discover a large roach decided to join her in the shower. (We killed it and disposed of it)

(6) I went into my master bedroom for the night, only to discover I didn't know how to activate the tub. (no signage or instructions) (just a piece of advice.. please put a sign)

"(7) One of my guests from the other half of the suite came to my door and indicated that their bathroom didn't work. I advised them we would call maintenance the next morning and they could use my bathroom. (8) After a series of annoyances and inconveniences, the next morning, I called the front desk (as advised by two hotel front desk employees upon check in) and requested late check out. I was placed on hold and transferred. I again asked about late check out. I was then told (hold on) and transferred. once again I asked about late check out.. I was told "one sec" and transferred. I again asked about late check out. I was placed on hold for 5 minutes and transferred again. Eventually I found someone who knew the policy of requesting a late check out. (Your employees need to be re-educated and should ask if it is okay to place you on hold and transfer or place me on hold and find out who knows the answer to my questions before transferring. And introduce the person I am being transferred to)

"(9) After getting the "okay" from a very nice lady at the front desk, we continued making breakfast. As one of my guests reached for the knob to turn on the stove burner, it sparked, made a burn circle around the knob, made a loud pop and shut off the whole stove. (Our breakfast was sitting on the stove half cooked) We called maintenance (who never showed up from last nights call). About half an hour later, the maintenance person showed up carrying the burner we needed to have replaced last night. (So we know they got the first call). When the maintenance man tried to fix the stove it popped again.

"We were not going anywhere near that stove and therefore were not able to utilize the main reason people stay at resort locations--cooking your own food in a fully functional kitchen. The maintenance guy, in-turn, called another maintenance person and the other person showed up 20 minutes later. He then fixed the stove. I asked him if he could fix the other broken toilet, and he indicated he couldn't, but would call someone for us.

"(10) At this point, I felt we needed to speak to management about the continual problems we experienced in ONE night at your resort. I called the front desk and asked for a supervisor. The young man asked about the problems and I told him my story. He then said he would transfer me to a supervisor. He transferred the call to a phone line that rang continually and was never answered by a human or by voicemail. I hung up after 20 rings and called back. I advised the young lady that I am getting very aggravated and don't want to be blankly transferred again. She understood and placed me on hold to find a supervisor.

The call was answered by a supervisor and I again explained the story. She listened and understood and stated the people in charge of customer compensation were tied up with another guest and she would send a manager up to our room, or one would call us about the bad service. 45 minutes later, a manager came to our door and we again explained all the problems we were having (while starving) as he listened. The manager then proceeded to tell us that he is a manager of maintenance and he couldn't help us. (Why did I go thru all of this if he couldn't help us?)

The Maintenance manager stated he would call a customer relations manager who could help us. He placed a call from our living room phone and eventually asked me to take the call in the bedroom. I walked into the bedroom and once again explained the story to the manager on the phone. He then told me that he wasn't a manager; he was the security guard at the front gate. (By this time I'm extremely angry.)

The Security guard said he would call a manager and have them come talk to us. "Clint", very nicely hung up, called a manager and called us back to let us know a customer relations manager would be up shortly. In the living room, the maintenance manager (I was told) stayed on the phone and was laughing during our conversation which is very rude. (11) We waited an hour and no one came. It was now 12:15pm and my guests had to leave hungry and late for their babysitters. We called the front desk again to ask about the manager and a very wise person at the front desk said you'll receive better service if you come down to the front desk.

"(12) Immediately, we went down to the front desk and asked to speak to a manager. Ms. Rodriguez, from the management team, sat us down and listened to our woes. Her response was to offer us pizza hut coupons. I was incredibly insulted. First of all...half my guests already left hungry. we spent hours waiting in the room and on the phone and still received no satisfaction. the facility amenities were not useful for the full duration of our stay and customer service was sorely lacking--and she offers us pizza? Ms. Rodriguez stated that no one could offer us anything more. I asked for her manager and waited another hour.

"(13) Johnny Meola and Brian Grabowski arrived with Ms. Rodriguez. Once again we told our story, and whilst we were explaining what happened to us over our stay, Brian Grabowski conducted himself unprofessionally. He proceeded to interrupt me while telling the story and make excuses for each problem. His body language and his tone indicated he decided he was talking to the homeboys back in the ghetto and he was down. He made no attempt to observe our perspective and was not concerned about one of their guests not receiving what was promised by your hotel. He made it seem as if we were street thugs, trying to get something free and didn't deserve to be compensated for our bad experience. We felt Johnny Meola should have asked him to leave.

"(14) Johnny Meola was very nice until he asked if I was an investor. When he found out that I wasn't an investor and I was only owner of a trial package (4 weeks), he seemed to lose interest. My money spent here is just as important as any owner--or is that the way you treat people who are deciding whether or not to invest in your properties?

"(15) We left the hotel after Johnny Meola assured us a full investigation would be put forth which included - listening in to recorded calls to locate the person who hung up on me - checking the history of the suite for maintenance issues - checking the phone records to see how often I was transferred - and contacting the Corporate Headquarters because the lack of customer service is a corporate issue. Mr. Meola indicated someone would call or email me...12 days later, I'm still waiting.

"(16) A couple of days later, I realized I'd forgotten my brand new denim jacket in the closet. I immediately called the lost and found and they didn't have a record of it. I spoke with Elonka who stated she would speak to the person who cleaned the room and see if they found it because they didn't log it in and she would then call me back tomorrow because that person left for the day. I never received my call back.

"Mr. Normington, I have to say that this was one of the worst experiences I've had at a resort. My family and I were strongly considering Westgate as a facility to invest in, however in light of your company's lack of caring, we may have to reconsider. As a business owner, I know the importance of customer service. I hope YOU will take the time to consider the importance of every guest and respond to my email promptly as I still wish to be compensated for my ruined birthday celebration and my guests' dreadful experience. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. "

I did not receive the usage of the facility that I paid for, horrible customer service, simple aggrivation on my vacation, my birthday party was ruined, my brand new jacket lost, food not eaten and wasted and extra babysitting fees paid because we were late getting home while waiting for management to act.

I pay $82.00 a month for 4 years that I get one week every other year. I bought the property because we were told we could use the resorts, but you can get hotels cheaper then what they charge. I am disabled at this time awaiting surgery for my neck, so my income is limited. I feel we were misled by their sales tactics.

The phone rings at all hours of the day very early in the morning until almost 9pm at night. All day long while I am at work, I have had to turn my phone off on several occasions because this company calls so many times.

We were told we could save our week and use it in 2007 -- when we tried to book a reservation in 2007 we were told we had missed our week and would have to wait until 2008. We were told that the company could 'resell' our week if we decided we didn't want it... we are now being told that is not true.

We have paid nearly $15 and still counting (annual fees, mortgage interest).

We were sold one for 13,000 with a 17 percent interest rate. We tried for hours, days, weeks to get thru to someone. We sent letters. We got no where, but in the meantime we kept up with the monthly payments, maintenance fees, taxes. We have spent over 5,000 already and have not even used the timeshare - we attempted to this year, but again could not get thru to reserve it. It literally took weeks with hours at a time to get thru, only to be told we had to pay an additional 150.00 to use another resort, which we paid and then had to cancel because it would have cost us over 2500.00 for transportation.

We called again for weeks to cancel, only to be told we could not get a refund, or use the week. We were told as a courtesy that we could pay another 150.00 to use it next year. This is totally a scam, they saw us coming and took advantage of us and our vacation. We were told we could deed the timeshare back to them, and just walk away - something that the management states it is not true. We don't know where to go with this. At this point, we are thinking about letting it go into foreclosure and ruining our credit. Can anyone help us with this mess?

continued financial strain, with nothing to show for it. We were told we could cancel within 3 weeks, but conveniently no one would help us.

When we came back to New York I contacted their 800 number on July 11, 2002 to make sure thay they have refunded my credit card $579.00 i spoke to a man named Manuel Luke at ext.10549 he said that it is noted in the account that i have returned all the materials but he did'nt receive my written cancellation, i told him that i have done all of this in Orlando. So then he asked me if i could send him another one CERTIFIED and i said no problem. But on July 29,2002 Manuel contacted me at home to notify me that they have receive my written cancellation LATE. I told him that first of all its not my fault that they lost or misplace my first cancellation letter second, its a favor that i have sent them another one to be put in my file and third i just cannot afford it right now. He then threat me that we will be reported to CREDIT BUREAU. I don't think its fair, just because they wanted to save the the SALE they wiil ruin me. PLEASE i need HELP, all i want is this to be CANCELLED.