Westgate BAD!

[Luv2trav]

We decided to cancel our Westgate reservations due to all the bad reviews we have been reading about lately. Well they are refusing to give us back 119.00 dollars of our money. Our deal we paid for was 440.00 and we had to do the presentation. We decided to switch to Wyndham Resort for an extra 400.00 and that would be worth not having to go through a timeshare presentation..

Well Westgate is refusing to give us back 119.00. They said we signed a copy of our deal and the ONLY PAPER we signed says NOTHING of about keeping 119.00 if you cancel. The only thing this paper says is if we cancel within 7 days prior to arrival we would be charged 1 nights stay. We are cancelling 19 days in advance...

We are definately taking this to the BBB. This is ridiculous... I should have know....

Does anyone have any advice on how we can handle this? We tried speaking to a manager and she told us that they do not take calls?? ***??? (Excuse my language) What kind of company is this? I know I am making a big deal about 119.00 but it's not about the money at this point... Then we called back to get our cancellation number and they said they do not provide those and the money will be placed back on our card tomorrow. I told DH to call his credit card company to see if they can do anything but I doubt they can because we paid for this over 2 months ago. So I am sure they credit card has paid them their money...

 

[DianeV]

Call your credit card and file a dispute. Tell them you cancelled within the guidelines and they refuse to refund all your money. Tell them you can supply the form you signed if needed. Credit cards are usually pretty good about this.

Also the company that owns Westgate is CFI in Florida. Maybe you can get a number for them? Central Florida Investments is what it is I think.

 

[Aubrey]

Credit card companies are generally excellent about reversing an unfair charge even if the money has been paid. They have the opportunity to withold payment on a subsequent charge to make up for unreturned disputed funds.
Even if you did not get your $$ back, (though I think you will if you are persistant) I suspect this would be just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how Westgate could ruin your vacation if you had stayed there. Very bad customer relations.

 

[Metallicat]

I tell ya, Westgate will do ANYTHING to force a timeshare sales pitch on people, but this takes the cake.
Here they are harrassing and bullying yet another person who has not even set foot on their property. This is nothing compared to how they treated me last month. Consider yourself lucky you didn't have to meet with them because they are a hatefull bunch of people who all need to be fired. also, those units are not all that nice and the first time I walked into the bedroom, I had to find something to kill a spider that was crawling on the dresser.
And, every elevator that I stepped into, the certificate of operations had expired 6 months ago. I took pictures. you can hardly even find a parking spot because they have their little golf carts parked in front of the buildings. well, enough ranting. I hope you get your money refunded. (those crooks!)

CFI (Central Florida Investments Inc.) 5601 Windhover Drive Orlando Florida 32819 Toll free 1-800-925-9999 Fax 1-407-352-2237
I really hope this helps. I have had these numbers for at least 10 yrs so I hope they are still good.

 

[Luv2trav]

Thanks for your replies...

This is very frustrating. I am not going to loose sleep over 119.00 dollars however I would have been furious if they ruined my whole vacation..

I cannot believe a company like this can still operate. It's too bad because there are a lot of reputable timeshares out there...

 

[DianeV]

Please persue getting your money back. Dont let them get away with it..I'm sure your credit card will help and also contact CFI

 

[Belle1962]

Attorney General of FL refers you to the Fl Dept of Ag Consumer Affairs((???????))) 1-850-488-2221 to file a complaint. But they will send a complaint form to you and investigate.

 

[Metallicat]

I agree, persue it. $119 is alot of money which you could use for souviners or dining out. Don't just give it to David Segal (unsure of the spelling of his last name) he is rich enough believe me.

If you have done all you can and they still won't refund your money, at least now you know where is absolute worse resort/hotel is in Orlando and you will know to avoid that place like the plague. (tell your friends too)

The people at Interval International (exchange co.) say they are getting all kinds of complaints against the Westgate properties. I just wonder how long until they pull the plug on their 5 star status?

 

[BarryHom]

I would do this:

1.) Contact the credit card company and get the charge revoked.

2.) Contact the Better Business Bureau and the State Attorney General's office.

3.) Go straight to the top -- find out who the President of the hotel is and send an angry, but stern and polite letter.

 

[Luv2trav]

Oh we are not letting this drop.. We are only laying low right now until they refund the other 340.00 dollars first.. I want to make sure I get that back first... THEN we are going to fight this as far as we can. We already registered a complaint with the BBB...

Thanks for all your advice. This company is so deceiving..

 

[Metallicat]

The guy at the very top is David Siegel. he is the president over all of the Westgate properties. I own a week at the villas (hate it too) In their last magazine it was full of pictures of him hob nobbing with celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Gates, Colin Powell and others. it seems like he needs to pay more attention to his REAL job..
My daughter claims he looks just like Bilbo Baggins from The Lord of The Rings

 

[Robinrs]

I would raise cane for 119 cents! Please let us know when you prevail!

 

[allicat]

We had an issue like this with Hilton Grand Vacation Club. We were scheduled to stay there and see the presentation but we ended up buying into Disney Vacation Club so there was no way we were sitting through any presentation.
We explained over the phone that we already purchased elsewhere and had no intentions of buying so we wanted our deposit back. They told us yes it would be refunded and then called back and said No it wont!
We called Visa and they asked us to put it in writing and long story short, they took the charge off.
Dont let it go!They probably get away with this type of thing all the time because people dont persue it.
By the way, we stayed at Westgate with friends and didnt care for it at all.

 

[Badger Brent]

Here's my dilema. We are booked there in Aug. and had our whole trip put on a visa and we had two weeks to cancel and get a full refund. Well, I was waiting for the material from them containing more info and all the freebie stuff. That was around Feb. 3rd. The package didn't come and I called and they promised me a new one. Well, the two weeks have passed and I'm sure with all of the neg. feedback, we will be canceling our request in the next couple of days. I will let you all know how it comes out. They haven't lived up to their end of the deal, and we haven't even arrived yet!! The rate was really great, but is it worth the timeshare spiel? I had no intention of really buying the timeshare, they use you to buy into the deal, I thought I would use them for the nice rooms and rate. Any opinions on what I should do?

 

[emmalgin]

Westgate Lakes - When they had the old hotel (Holiday Inn I think), we signed up for the 5 day, 4 night. I reviewed and the Hotel in brochures got 4 stars and pictures were nice.

Arrived and went to the old, ugly 2-br, that were soon to be torn down. Pool area, bad need of work and activities only for Unit owners. Meanwhile next are the spanking new buildings and pool areas.

We moved to a different unit, still bad and suffered. Asked multiple times to be moved. They said if we buy a unit, we can move straight in to the new buildings. Sat through the 2 hour timeshare and their incessent high pressure sale and could not get out.

Lesson learned and won't make the same mistake again.

 

[erinch]

We stayed in one of the villas in 96 (they were Sonesta Village when we booked with them.)

The stay was a nightmare marked by the whizzing of golfcarts up and down the walks every morning seemingly trying to mow down toddlers and seniors.

My DH and DS called them "hustlebuggies."

 

[Luv2trav]

Just an update.. We called our credit card company and they are going to start the fraud process...

 

[cinamin27]

Good for you Luv4trav!! **no one** should be able to get away with that, keep us posted!

 

[Golter]

I stayed at Westgate Lakes in October and had a very pleasent expierence. No Problem at check in, no problem at check out, basically no problems at all. The rooms are adequate. Ours was very clean but nothing spectacular. I know that you had a bad expierencem, we all have had them. But, I would stay there again if the right deal could be had.

PS We did not have to do a presentation, and were never asked to attend one.

 

[PhotobearSam]

We were thinking of staying at Westgate Vacation Villas in December...Is this the property you are talking about?

Is it that bad of a place?

The pics I found on the internet seem really nice.

http://www.yourhotelfinder.com/condos/westgate_villas.shtml

Is this the same place.

We don't mind sitting through the timeshare presentation but if it unclean or horrible, we won't go and will go back to Orange Lake that we did like this time...

Please let me know.