World Mark By Wyndham Be Careful Redmond, WA 98052 Redmond Washington

Be careful of this company. In many lights they will deceive you and mislead you- maybe not intentionally- but it does happen. In certain aspects, I'm sure, this company may be worth its money, but in most others it is a rip off. My case isn't so sad, but it was incredibly disappointing. I went to the presentation, signed up for the trip to Las Vegas with air fare. The trip to Las Vegas has never happened, because once we signed up to be owners of the company, we never got another word out of them about it.

It was a great presentation and full of fun facts, nice looking figures, and friendly people. The sales associate made it sound like we would be paying a one time down payment fee, followed only by yearly maintenance fees. Although it was a bad time for more payments to happen (my fiancee and I were saving up for our wedding), it sounded like such a good deal. Here's what WE WERE TOLD it would break down to: $972 down payment, nicely discounted for being a student, followed by $350 a year in maintenance charges with a total of 5000 credits which is nearly a week of vacation. In every light that would be a great deal!

Two months after we signed up I got a call saying we'd missed our payment. I checked, and no- there was a notice from my bank saying they'd taken the money from my account. So I told my account manager and he said, no that was for the downpayment. On top of that we'd be having to pay the same amount for the normal yearly charges. So I asked, "Oh, you mean the maintenance charges?" His response was "No, you will owe yearly $972 dollars in credit fees and $350 in maintenance charges. You are responsible for your $9,000 and some dollars membership fee." I stuttered something along the lines of "But I was told it would only be $350 after the donwpayment," so he had me pull out my contract and there it was- $972 every year. Then I saw another shocker. It was a 10 year contract. At no point, whatsoever, did anyone make known to me that it was for 10 years.

I told this to my account manager and he said "Well, it is a membership, and there is always a time line." This is understandable, but I asked him what I should do if I hit a hard spot. He recommended first that I try to sell my credits to someone else. I'm sorry- but that is not going to happen. I am currently paying about $200 a month in fees and thats for a grand total of a week of vacation. I can't ask someone to pay me $250 dollars so they get one day at a resort- with travel charges and food- that isn't a good deal at all. Besides, with my total bill of about $2400 a year, that's still only a week of vacation. For that amount, I could go to any normal hotel and spend two weeks at least- maybe it wouldn't be hawaii, but I can't afford to fly there anyways.

So I asked about cancelling. I was given three numbers, and the second told me that, after the five day cancellation fee, there is no way. I protested, because there has to be a way. Apparently there isn't. The only way to cancel is to stop making payments, at which point the $9,720 (or however much you owe) is sent to a collection agency, even if, like me, you've only been an "owner" for two and half months. I haven't even used my credits yet, and maybe I'll be more open minded once I have, but I think I'll still be pissed for using deceptive ploys to skip over important information that everyone ought to know. Shame on the company.

So- if you plan on going to one of their presentations, 1) be very careful and make sure you have the money for it. Don't factor in just the price for rooms, think about air fare, dinner, location, etc. 2) And don't sign up because it seems like they're doing favors for you- like lowering the down payment because you're a student or anything- because in the long run you're still paying more than you normally would for a good old fashioned hotel room. 3) if you are having any second thoughts, whatsoever, cancel within five days of signing up- cancel by phone, email and send in the paper that they'll probably take three days mailing to you. Outside of that time frame you are legally responsible for one of the flashiest, friendliest scams I've seen yet.

Andrea
caldwell, Idaho
U.S.A.