WorldMark TravelShare

Now, let's talk about the waitlist and reservation process. If a name is not added to the reservation, it will be canceled within 48 hours without any notice or reminder. I even had a reservation for a room and requested an upgrade for it. And yes, a name was attached to it. Several months later, I received an email saying my upgraded room request was fulfilled. I accepted the offer and they asked me where to charge the fees and I told them to charge to the CC on file. Well, apparently, going back to their incredibly substandard processes, they did not transfer the name to the new waitlisted reservation. They didn't call or email me notifying that it didn't happen and automatically canceled the reservation! I had no idea it was canceled until I checked my confirmation numbers 2 days before my trip as I was planning to leave.

I called customer service and after being on hold for 45 minutes, talked to a completely useless representative who justified it as saying it was standard policy and a letter was sent to all owners 2 years ago specifying this would be the new policy! This is 2021. Are you telling me you can't create a system or process notifying owners their reservation will be canceled if a name is not added to the reservation. This is one of the absolute worst companies I've had to deal with, right next to the DMV. We haven't even gotten into the Maintenance Dues which increase 3-8% per cycle. STAY AWAY!

Today I planned to stay on line as long as it takes to reach them, as this trip is coming up quickly. After an hour of listening to their annoying recording, a voice finally came on. But, it wasn't a travel agent. It was a recording asking me to answer questions about their service!!! Basically, after an hour they bounced me out of their on-telephone system. It appears impossible to reach them to make travel changes. These travel reservations can't be changed on their website. I will never use their Travel Agency again after this experience.

They absolutely took advantage of my naivete as I knew nothing about timeshare. I should have walked away right then but there was so much going on! They never told me about the actual cost of ownership, the true interest rate on the loan, or told me that I had time to cancel. Had I known about the cancellation period I would have taken advantage the next day! Instead, I am stuck with this awful “investment” and subjected to multiple “owner meetings” every time I travel where I have been heavily pressured into upgrading. Do not accept any offers from WorldMark. They cannot be trusted!

When we arrived to Las Vegas, a lot of the shows were still on hold due to COVID, so the Welcome Center staff modified our package to include the following items, as long as we attended the whole presentation and tour the property we would receive: a $300 casino & restaurant credit, a 3 day stay credit back in Vegas, and the discounted price of $169 on our current 4 day stay. If we did not attend the presentation and the tour, we would be charged full price for the casino stay of a king suite and would not receive the casino & restaurant credit or a 3 day stay credit. When we arrived at the Welcome Center (a little after 10am), the staff reserved our timeshare presentation for 12pm that day.

On 1/7/2021 at approximately 12pm, my partner and I arrived at the timeshare presentation which was located at 8589 Las Vegas Blvd S. When we entered the building, we were greeted by a female staff who signed us in after requesting our driver's license, which she informed us that they had to verify and record for their records. We waited in the waiting room until we were called by our assigned Sales Rep. He spoke with us briefly, as he walked us to where the snacks and coffee were located. We grabbed some snacks and then he escorted us to the presentation area. After attending the 30 minute presentation, we sat back down with our Sales Rep. He spoke to us about the different locations that WorldMark had across the country and in other countries. He asked us how often we took vacations and what our dream vacation would be.

After about 20-30 minutes, he then informed us that before he could show us the property, he had to run our credit. We question this, as we have never experienced this before from a timeshare presentation, but he stated again that in order for him to physically show us the property, he would need to run our credit. We agreed after that since we didn't want to lose our discount on our current stay in Vegas, as well as the additional casino, restaurant & 3 day stay credit. We provided our information to the sales agent.

After providing our information to the sales rep, our sales rep went to grab his “Supervisor” and they both sat back down with us. His “Supervisor” spoke about the added benefits of WorldMark and the credit program. We spoke with the Sales Rep’s “Supervisor” for another 5 minutes or so prior to seeing the property. The “Supervisor” said he would run some options for us and when we got back from viewing the property would have them ready to present to us. The Sales Rep then took us to see the property, which we spent probably 20 minutes or so viewing. After seeing the property, we sat back down with the sales rep & his “Supervisor” and they spoke to us about the different options.

The sales rep spoke to us that only the monthly payments would show on our credit report and that it would not affect our credit, since we were concerned about the additional debt of a timeshare after purchasing a home this year, which includes home improvement efforts and launching a nonprofit for **, indigenous and people of color entrepreneurs. We were there for another 2 hours and decided to decline the timeshare option at that time due to our current commitments. At this point, the time was anywhere between 330p-4p. We were then informed that another sales rep will speak to us to provide us with a survey on our experience.

That 2nd Rep never provided us with a survey but spoke to us about reserving the original deal that the 1st Rep & Supervisor spoke to us about. He stated that he could provide us with 20,000 credits for $3,129 at a low cost of $99 a month. We would have 2 years to test out WorldMark and decide after if we would want to pursue purchasing a timeshare. He wrote this on the back of the survey he was supposed to provide us with. We reflected on the 1st sales Rep’s feedback about not impacting our credit and only showing the monthly service charge of $99 on our credit. We decided to try out the discovery program. At this time, this conversation (about 20 minutes) took place at the same table in the large sales room. When we agreed to the trial package, the 2nd Sales Rep told us that he needed to grab the iPad and to follow him out of the room.

We waited for him near the stairs/elevators to return. After several minutes, he returned with an iPad. He repeated what we were signing, which as 2 years, 20000 credit, $3129 for the 2 years which would be $99 a month. We were standing in the hallway at the same place we entered near the stairs when he instructed us to enter our name, email address and electronically initial the identified spots on the electronic form. He handed us the iPad as we each completed his request. We signed the iPad and continued on our vacation. We returned back to Minnesota on midnight of 1/11. By 1/13 our credit monitoring programs alerted both of us about 2 hard credit inquiries each. We were also notified about 2 reward credit cards being applied to our names without our knowledge. My partner’s credit decreased by 100 points, as well as my credit decreased as well.

My partner immediately called the rewards credit card customer service line and reported a fraudulent credit card, as he had no knowledge of how it was applied. He informed me about the situation, which I then spent 3 hours on the phone that following Friday January 15th trying to get a hold of someone at WorldMark to resolve our concerns with credit cards that we did NOT agree to and the 2 hard inquiries on our credit report. I filed a BBB complaint that same day January 15th and filed complaints at all 3 credit bureaus to remove the credit card from my credit report. I didn’t hear from anyone until January 25th when a rep followed up with me on my BBB complaint. I ended up speaking with the rep the following week and she informed me that she needed to pass my information onto the WorldMark Customer Care department.

It took about 3 more weeks before I spoke with Rachel ** again on February 16th. She refused to acknowledge that our credit scores were impacted and even stated that we would not have noticed any credit pull on our credit report (WRONG!). She also informed me that “I agreed to a credit card, otherwise, how else did I receive one?”. This is also WRONG, as we never agreed to and none of the 3 Sales Reps (1st Rep, 2nd Rep- Supervisor, 3rd Rep- Closer) discussed anything about a credit card with us, not to also mention running our credit TWICE! All of WorldMark's practices with us was deceptive. They lied to us about having to run our credit prior to showing us the property.

Legally they did not have a right to not show us the property 1st prior to asking us after if we were interested and THEN run our credit. The sales practices was deceptive and we were SCAMMED into applying for a credit card WITHOUT our knowledge or agreement. WorldMark committed deceptive sales practices by running our credit twice and not disclosing that they would sign us up for credit cards. We have ZERO faith or trust in the practices of WorldMark due to our experience and the harm they have caused to our credit. We do not want to be associated with them now or in the future. We want this issue to be resolved by cancelling our timeshare discovery package and removing these inquiries from our credit reports.

We were led to believe that this was a real estate investment that we could pass down to our children, so we decided to give into one of their offers. We found out later that they not only ran both our credit reports without our consent, but they also opened a credit line in my name without my knowledge! What kind of legitimate company does this? We tried to call the sales staff we met with to cancel this within the period allowed by law, but they never returned our calls or answered the phone. Now we are stuck in this purchase with no end in sight!