shalom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2010
I too have contacted the BBB about a legitimate complaint before and after it was all said and done, nothing ever showed up on the BBB site about the company.
If I remember rightly, what the OP said was that she had talked to someone at the BBB, and they said there had been other complaints. It's entirely possible that there have been complaints about VS that were reviewed and BBB decided that VS hadn't done anything wrong. The record of those may have been visible to the person Amy talked to, even though they don't show on the website.
I think a big part of the problem is that the OP doesn't really understand how VS works. She says things like VS didn't pay Wyndham and that Wyndham told her that VS are just some strangers on the Internet; she wouldn't be saying that if she really understood how TS brokers work. I expect VS does get reported to the BBB pretty often, but their "crime" is like the many timeshares slammed on TripAdvisor for not having daily maid service -- the customer was expecting things to work as they do in a motel, and that's not what the company they're complaining about does.
Plus, VS is not just a Timeshare, but a TS broker -- meaning there is a sense where they compete with Wyndham for customers, so it's not surprising some random person at Wyndham was not gung ho about them. VS doesn't pay Wyndham; they use Wyndham owner points, so there is no money exchanged between VS and Wyndham. They hold Wyndham accountable, and their owners have agreements and contracts with Wyndham, but there's no reason to think the two companies are buddies. Calling Wyndham for a problem with VS is not a sensible move if someone knows how things work.
I am guessing that the complaints BBB gets on VS are all of this kind -- a customer who doesn't understand what they were purchasing. Since VS is not doing anything wrong, the complaint is not substantiated, and they maintain their good rating. A good rating with BBB does not mean there are no complaints -- it means there are no complaints that have been substantiated. Complaining that VS is not a hotel and doesn't work like one should not have any impact on VS's rating, because VS is not a hotel!
As with so many things Disney, a big part of the problem was wrong expectations. Although, for a change, this time it wasn't Disney creating the false impression! It may also be that VS blew it or some automatic generation of a hold promised on a reservation that wasn't made, it may be that the OP believed the promise of one reservation was still guaranteed after they made a change, I dunno, but whatever started it, the OP expecting VS to function as a hotel does made the problem a lot bigger than it might have been otherwise.
I don't think there's any evidence Amy was lying when she said she called the BBB and they said there had been complaints. She was clearly upset, but I think she told the story as she saw it. I also don't know for a fact that anyone with VS posted "their" side of the story -- however, just going on Amy's posts, it's clear she didn't understand what she was buying. One of the reasons you can get such deals with TS rentals is that the customer carries some of the load -- if you get the details wrong or change your mind later, no one is going to rescue you. Considering the difference between a hold and a reservation is one of the details you have to watch for.
I join those hoping things work out and that the OP and her family have a great vacation!