Wyndham's new "Ovation" program offers exit solutions for their owners... interested?

For clarification purposes the Grandview is not a Wyndham property. We stayed there one time when we could not get into the Grand Desert & was very satisfied & politely turned down the sales pitch. Eldorado Resorts are the owners.

Oops! My mistake.

pakyak wrote:

everything with wyndham is a scam. The ovation scheme does not return your investment back, just saves you from maintenance fees.

Nothing about Wyndham is a "scam"; that's a ridiculous and absurd statement. Wyndham is a long-established, profit-seeking corporate enterprise and business. They sell overpriced timeshares to willing buyers who voluntarily choose to make that overpriced purchase (which is not and never was an "investment" by any possible standard or measure or definition).

The Ovation program offers a free way out of a legal, contractual obligation which was once previously and voluntarily undertaken of one's own choice and free will. Ovation is neither designed nor intended to provide any "return on investment". It's not a "scam" simply because people freely chose to pay far too much money for far too little "product", having done little or no advance research and possessing no understanding that what they chose to purchase is worth between 0--2% of what they agreed to pay for it as soon as the ink on their purchase contract is dry.

A bad purchase decision does not make a valid transaction voluntarily conducted of one's own free will and choice a "scam". That very odd claim is just plain silly, with all due respect.

ken1193 wrote:

pakyak wrote:

everything with wyndham is a scam. The ovation scheme does not return your investment back, just saves you from maintenance fees.

Nothing about Wyndham is a "scam"; that's a ridiculous and absurd statement. ... bad purchase decision does not make the transaction a "scam". That odd claim is just plain silly, with all due respect.

Well stated. I'm no fan of Wyndham. But "scam" has a definition that simply does not apply to the Wyndham business model.

I think you are being way too kind. It's an absolute fact that the sales team stretches the truth (i.e., lies) and anyone who is an experienced owner and has gone to an "owners update" knows that to be true. So it's not too far out to call it a scam when you have a company that encourages lying in order to make a sale.

lollis3 wrote:

I think you are being way too kind. It's an absolute fact that the sales team stretches the truth (i.e., lies) and anyone who is an experienced owner and has gone to an "owners update" knows that to be true. So it's not too far out to call it a scam when you have a company that encourages lying in order to make a sale.

Well, you know what? You may be right -- I may have been too kind, tho I must hasten to note that my wife and I have been generally-satisfied timeshare owners for the better part of 20 years (and readily concede that "owners updates" are a form of self-punishment).

A definition of "scam" is "swindle," and "swindle" is defined as "to put forward plausible schemes or use unscrupulous trickery to defraud others; cheat." "Flimflam" or "flim-flam" is defined as "a trick or deception, especially a swindle or confidence game involving skillful persuasion or clever manipulation of the victim."

With those definitions in mind, think about timeshares this way: When someone buys a timeshare, whether from the Dreaded Sales Center or an ad on eBay or Redweek, he/she does in fact receive something. The difficulty is in the USE of that something. The good old fixed week/fixed week/deeded timeshare is a no-brainer. You pay your maintenance fee and show up. The variants -- (a) fixed week, floating unit or (b) fixed unit, floating week or (c) floating week, floating unit -- don't require much more effort except planning ahead. Points? Whole different ball game, unsuited for all but retirees with lots of time to learn how to play plus the flexibility to play the system(s) for all they're worth. Trouble is, most points buyers are NOT as just described. They don't know owning points is a game, a competition, with rules closely guarded by those who created the game (e.g., Wyndham, Spinnaker, etc.) and shared with the suckers -- er, owners -- only reluctantly.

So are points a scam, a swindle, a flim-flam? Probably not, IF and only IF you learn to play the game by yourself. Never, never believe the Flim-Flam Man.

Can you use this program if you are still paying the load for the credits?

Make SURE you wait until your new use year. Mine was in April 2019. I signed paperwork in Jan. They made my new use year in July 2019 showing my 527,000. Then they took the points (about 320,000 ) that I used in 2018 on my orginal contract and subtracted from my pts i am suppose to get in July. JUST ANOTHER RIP OFF FROM WYNDHAM!!!

Well I think by your own definition you nailed it as a scam; i.e. "game involving skillful persuasion or clever manipulation of the victim." Nobody tells buyers "they have to learn to play the game" in order to enjoy the benefits of their points. And they (we) have every right to be outraged when they find out. If you get a good deal on a resale then it may be worth the hassle but not if you've paid out many thousands of dollars anticipating a seamless reservation experience.

What is the correct strategy to legally get out of a fully paid, up-to-date with maintenance fees timeshare? Please kindly advise. Thanks!

angelar285 wrote:

No Wyndham is trying to diffuse the millions they are paying in foreclosure maint fees. Process is so long they would rather bulk sell the deeds they take back add they do this anyways add it takes a year to recycle thru legal for resale. One way they make money. 2. They want udi properties back they can use in rental before bulk selling. They rent privately much of owner inventory which is why you can't use! 3. They settle with owners for misrepresentation to include all fees paid in the multi million dollar range every year and if you accept their offer this will legally prevent you from seeking any reimbursement. There are credible people who do this all day getting owners refunded entirely so if they give you market rate at .008/pt they ate making out through all their income sources.

helend156 wrote:

What is the correct strategy to legally get out of a fully paid, up-to-date with maintenance fees, timeshare? Please kindly advise. Thanks!

Which timeshare? Where? THIS forum is about Wyndham's Ovation program, which is a quick and easy way to get rid of your Wyndham timeshare by giving it back to Wyndham ... IF they want it.

If you have some timeshare or another elsewhere, you might want to start your own forum here in Redweek to see what others think and have done. BTW, TimeSharing Today magazine has had some articles relevant to your inquiry; you might want to go to tstoday.com and/or email the TimeSharing Today editors.

We are new owners December 18, 2018 In January my husband's job decided to retire him. Now the money we were going to pay the timeshare with is gone. Therefore we are very interested in getting out or payment being cut in half and only maintenance fee when we use the timeshare. Would like you advice and for you to follow us. Our second payment is due now and we don't have it but don't want bad credit just getting out of bankruptcy

There is probably ( my guess would be definitely ) no program to suit your situation. If it were me, I would call Wyndham finance and tell them I can't afford the payments due to a major change in circumstances. I wouldn't make any more payments to them and concentrate on keeping all other creditors current.

I am a Wyndham owner and I'm interested in going through the Ovation program to release my timeshare. Are you still looking for owners to follow through the program? If so, please let me know as I plan to contact them this week.

Thanks! Angie

Well, after they made the last changes to the program, which I had just gotten comfortable using, I decided it was time to give up. They started to charge for a lot of the resorts that used to be included in our program and took away some of the good stuff while telling us that it was an improvement. It sure was not an improvement for me so I gave up. Until then, we sure enjoyed using the Worldmark and RCI resorts, which unfortunately, we cannot anymore.

I'm just glad that we are free from the maintenance fees and can still have a good time in Vegas at the Grand Desert...it's always nice there.

Wyndham Sr. VP Legal, Jason Gamel, testifying at the Florida HB 435 workshop March 12 in Tallahassee, made the following statements at the workshop I attended. You can listen to his actual testimony, but as I understand, Mr. Gamel claims,

99% of inventory is eligible for Ovations (for those who qualify/no loan/fees current). There is no need for a Wyndham owner to seek services from an exit company because Wyndham has a hardship department.

Due to disclosures, I don't want to publish the link to Florida HB 435 workshop held March 12, but the recording can be easily found at https://thefloridachannel.org/. Search the workshop by entering 3/12/19 Business and Professions Committee. The first 1 ½ hours is about beer and spirits distribution. The timeshare workshop can be found by fast-forwarding to the session’s last hour. The disclosure said the link cannot be published for campaign or advocacy purposes.

I would appreciate your feedback, and please state if you would allow me to publish your comments in an upcoming article that we will send to the Florida freshman representative who sponsored the bill. All but one Florida representative, in an extraordinary show of consumer support, asked Mr. Gamel to provide actual figures, which he said he would do. The representative who asked for this information said he had to file for bankruptcy in 1995 to get out of his timeshare. Not feeling the love, ARDA filed an identical bill in the less consumer friendly state of Nevada March 18, the last day to file a bill, so we would also send your comments to the two Nevada Senators sponsoring Nevada SB 348. A Wyndham owner sent us a letter to the editor in response to an article I wrote about the workshop. He vigorously disputed Mr. Gamel's statements. It would help if we had more than one person share their story, like Mr. Sherwood. His experience seems to dispute Mr. Gamel's assertion as to the hardship dept. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEHBhtGlbQI&feature=youtu.be

I will be waiting to see if irenep59's message generates any response from Wyndham.

Wyndham members are needed to forward comments from Wyndham members to Mr. Gamel or Wyndham media. I can forward comments and ask for a reply.

I have been an owner of Wyndham SP for over a decade and now I am 80 with various disabilities and am not able to use the services because I cannot travel and I have no one to transfer my ownership. However, I am also not in a position to pay the management fees. I wonder if there is a reasonable solution for me to exit. Ralmp

Read all the stuff in this Forum. It's all here in black and white.

ralmp wrote:

I wonder if there is a reasonable solution for me to exit. Ralmp