Wyndham Smokey Mountains Resort - Wendy Burchfield Bald face lied to upgrade us to VIP status Sevierville Tennessee

My husband, and I a few years ago, attended a presentation and purchased some Timeshare points from Fairfield. These annual points are useable at any Fairfield property in the world. After the first year, we decided we liked this timeshare thing and purchased more points, but this time we bought them from a third party through Ebay at a fraction of the cost of buying directly from Fairfield. These points are identicle to the developer points- they are actually a real estate purchase.

The only difference between buying from Fairfield directly, and buying resale, is that with resale points, you are not able to qualify for VIP status (VIP status is based on number of annual points owned). VIP status has some additonal owner perks.

This past August, we were at a Fairfield (now Wyndham-they purchased Fairfield) resort. Each time you go to one of the resorts, Member services checks in with you "to see if everything is ok"(translation - sell you more points).

While we were talking to Wendy Burchfield (cell # 865-414-4822) from Member Services, she proposed that we buy more points so we could move up to VIP status. It says all over the literature that if you bought "resale" points that you are ineligible for VIP status with those points. I repeatedly and explicitly questioned her about the policy.

Wendy assured me that because of the changeover from Fairfield to Wyndham, they were trying to "clean up" some of the accounts, that this additional 26,000 point purchase for $5,200 would qualilfy us for VIP status. That was a bald face lie. Oh- Wendy Burchfield said to be sure and call Wendy Burchfield's cell phone (865-414-4822) if we had any questions, and she would be oh-so eager to help! So we paid up. She said she was on her way out of town and running late so she rushed us through the paperwork. She gave us a VIP ball cap, and sent a "thank you" a fruit and bakery tray to our room the next morning.

Well, it is now December, and we are not VIP. I have repeatedly called Wendy Burchfield - who at first assured me we were VIP, and that sometimes it takes a while to show up on the system. Months later, no system shows us VIP at all. I could have spent the $5K on resale points and gotten WAY more for my money.

I called both Wendy Burchfield (865-414-4822), and her direct superior, Bernie Reed (spelling?) (865-286-6000) numerous times for help with this and neither one will return my calls. Once I got a hold of Bernie and she said she would "check on it" and call me back but that was last month.

I consulted with the guy who sold us our original points with Fairfield, and he has been very helpful over the past few years. He is of the opinion that she lied to make the sale, and that we would never be VIP based on the purchase of these additional points because of the policy prohibiting resale points counting towards VIP status.

He suggested that we call/write the legal dept and the Director of Sales at Smokey Mountains Fairfield (her name is Bernie Reed-not sure on spelling). He suggested that we point out that we made this purchase based on an explicit claim that this purchase would quallify us to become VIP members. Give them 2 weeks, or 30 days or some time frame to upgrade us to VIP status, and if that does not happen, that we request our money back or we would pursue litigation to get our money back, and that they would pay court costs, my time, ect.

I will be pursuing this avenue and will report back.

Taken for a ride....
Elgin, Illinois
U.S.A.