WorldMark by Wyndham
reviews and complaints

I am an owner of Worldmark and have use them for several years. A month after COVID hit I was laid off and reached out to Worldmark to discuss my account. I was informed there was not a plan for maintenance dues only loans. I was 60 days late on bill and was sent to collections. I paid the outstanding bill but I am getting harassed by Blackwell Collections. I originally spoke with the representative and he said he could cut the fees to $50. I then reached out to World Mark and spoke with Vonchell, I explained the situation. She said to call back in 7-10 business days once they request the account back to see what they could do about the fees. I explained this to Blackwell, they requested an email which I sent. I am disappointed for several reasons, 1) that I was sent to collection on an issue I discussed with worldmark and they had no resolution at the time 2) I keep getting harassed about a fee on an account that is paid. 3) I am getting harassed over $50 that I was told would be resolved. If I could I would sale my timeshare. I had to cancel trips due to COVID and I still paid my dues. If there was a program for maintenance dues I never received notification. This is not good customer service. As a wordmark member I do not feel valued.

I've been waiting for vacation planning to answer the phones for over 4 hours. TheIr customer service is the worst. I've been trying to get through to verify a waitlist request that has come available. This has happened before. Worldmark needs to more people to answer phones! The first thing they say is "we are committed to providing excellence service." That's a lie.

I am a owner my name is Eileen Major. I have used your services with personal choice everytime I used it something was always done wrong with reservations. This time . 3rd time totally unexceptable. My parents and I planned a trip to Sadona AZ. My father has dementia and I have a terminal illness so this trip was very important. To start we arrived at our hotel in which we had to prepare myvfsther for every detail if u are fimilar wth dementia you know routine and scheduling are very important. No rooms but one which I had to pay for because the person in personal choice messed up. That threw my dad off for the whole trip. Then sadona reservation was made a day later but we got lucky had a unit in bison for us which used more points . On our trip home back I had reservations once again had me in a totally wrong hotel . Again had to bbn use my points again for Indio. No one seems to care and I've paid alot to be at my level. I call but owners care says it's the travel department. You promote using this personal choice whice is so screwed up and you cant help to recertify this screw up . For 3 days on vacation I was on the phone . I have been very happy being an owner but this is unexceptable. I will not just sit here and brush this away . I am very disappointed in the way I'm being treated and I would appreciate someone contacting me in this matter. My email [protected]@gmail.com

See below... Absolutely no customer service or personal regard for the issues us owners go through... Tried.. To find out about selling dredits due to financial hardship today and got referred to timeshare brokers that have a horrible better business bureau report... Really... We have paid over
$ 20, 000 in last20 yrs for this [censored]... Not ok... Still trying to get rewards owed on visa card and referral for reputable... Timeshare brokers... What a scam...

This company touts luxury dream vacations with just one call, but that could not be farther from the truth.

You will spend hours on the phone trying to get in. They will always be full when and where you need to go. It does not work like they present.

They also force-feed you upgrade sales meetings, described as "owners info meetings". At every possible vacation, they can squeeze out of you.

They use deceptive trade practices and then act like it's you that can not get it to work as they said. They talk you into upgrading. You still have the same problems.

You will waste a full day of your vacation for them to nag you until you buy more.

The maintenance dues are increased each year and never stop. So the free vacations you are so excited about, will never come to fruition, because they intentionally mislead you with the word "free"!

You can tell them no a million times but they hold you hostage until you relent.
They always have some amazing deal which will go away if we do not take it. They always have some repair to do on your last contract too that makes you resign and pay more.

It is more work, more money, less happy to use this company. They are not who they make themselves out to be.

January 12, 2020
To Whom It May Concern:
I would like to provide some feedback on what has become an ongoing major disappointment related to our WorldMark ownership.
Between April and December 2019, to the best of my recollection, my wife and I attended owner updates at each of the following locations:
• Depoe Bay
• Seaside
• Bend Oregon
• Seattle - Camlin
• Angel's Camp
• Branson
• South Lake Tahoe
• Las Vegas Blvd. - Las Vegas
Given the fact that we've attended MANY updates, we feel pretty qualified to make the following observations and provide feedback.
We have experienced an incredibly wide range of presenters and update related personnel across the locations noted above. Some have been outstanding but the vast majority and I do mean the VAST majority, have been bad or worse. Some of the things we've been told include:
• the ability to use our points for stays within a larger than AirBNB-type entity here in the US (this was interesting as a member within the audience ended up arguing with the presenter who was both arrogant and vehement in her claims but nevertheless was unable to show or support what she said - frankly, it became rather embarrassing) - as of this moment I still don't know definitively if this is true though have no reason to think it is
• reps and updates given at each location are different and so you really need to attend each - the passport for the Oregon/Washington resorts (and I understand other areas have similar things) is an example of this - clearly owners are, at worst, pressured, at best, encouraged, to attend
• reps and updates given at ANY location except Branson, Las Vegas, and Orlando (if memory serves me correctly) are WRONG because they aren't corporate offices so the reps aren't qualified or simply don't know stuff (incredibly demeaning and divisive destroying confidence in other parts of your organization)
• if you weren't signed up for or eligible for certain programs at the time you last upgraded, you might not be able to participate in them now - I'll see what I can do but I can't promise you anything (just imagine how that made us feel having spent more than $30k on an upgrade less than six (6) months earlier) - BTW, this was pressure to have us agree with the rep (not the check-in personnel) to do an owner update with him (which we did NOT do)!
• do not attend any more updates - flatly turn them down unless you want to buy more points
• don't attend updates unless they give you at least 30k Wyndham Rewards points
• you should consider getting a Club Wyndham ownership to compliment your WorldMark ownership
• you don't need and should absolutely NOT consider getting a Club Wyndham ownership as it in no way compliments your WorldMark ownership
Some of the more common themes included:
• how you can reduce or even totally eliminate your ~$500/mo. maintenance fees
• via questions, a comprehensive discussion of our ownership history - when and where did you first buy, how many points did you buy and how you've done subsequent upgrades, etc.
• via questions, a discussion of our typical usage
• the need to get additional points now before prices rise
• the need to get additional points now to be able to take advantage of the likely but pending new 100k level with potential benefits at the new level including discounted stays and free upgrades at check-in
• some have questioned why we're not using the five (5) ways to reduce maintenance fees (I still don't know what five (5) ways there are to get such discounts) - (1) Wyndham Rewards credit cards (including the need to get the new card as opposed to the old card - which I currently have was/is unclear), (2) attending owner updates, (3) buy-back/rent-back weeks reserved but not needed, (4) my Savings ?, (5) ?
Anyway, enough of general truths and items discussed. What I haven't said heretofore is how all of this has impacted us and our view of our ownership. Over the course of my career, I owned two (2) successful small companies - let's say that I have learned something about the difference between "good" and "bad" customer service and relations. I've become aware of and sensitive to how I'm treated as a customer.
My wife and I routinely leave owner updates with a sense of insecurity about how we use our ownership - questions about whether or not we're missing out or not taking advantage of things we ought to typically abound. We routinely feel pressured to buy more points or feel like we're missing out under the threat of not doing so will cause us to absolutely jeopardize offers we've been given as well as future ones for that matter. There is significantly more to this but in the interest of brevity I will not articulate them now.
Despite these things, the fact that the reps themselves and the check-in personnel are fully aware of how offensive it is to owners makes it that much more egregious! They are aware of the pressure and its impact on owners but they persist - I can only conclude that they do so because that's what they've been incented and/or advised to do. It is unfortunate that this has become the predominant culture of our ownership regarding check-in and owner's updates. Bottom line, it is adversarial in nature and not constructive. I checked in to a site yesterday on my own (i.e. without my wife) - at check-in I was encouraged to do an owner's update as I was told (more-or-less quoted as follows), "since your wife isn't here with you, you can't make any purchases/changes to your ownership so there will be no pressure to buy more points or any of that kind of stuff during your update". That is blatantly reprehensible but perfectly demonstrates my point. Enough said as I am 100% confident that none of this is news to you!
Perhaps I'm naïve on the specifics, but it is a shame that this level of customer relations exists when it could be avoided very simply. If I'm going to attend an owner's update, the rep who meets with me could, via management's help, have done some homework by spending 15 or so minutes reviewing my account and history before I arrive. Such a review could include how I've used points and reservations, what programs I've used or failed to use, etc.. Then, rather than having the rep question me to get information that I've shared many times before and could easily be known via such a review, I would welcome and could be greatly benefited by their observations and suggestions via their wealth of expertise. It is really inexcusable that each rep starts from scratch and has no more knowledge of me than those who have come before. As an example, why do I have to repeatedly explain why I haven't used Personal Choice when my account shows that I borrow credits each year? Trying to sell me points or encourage me to use Personal Choice which isn't the optimal way to use points anyway is NEVER going to motivate me to buy more credits. I am using Personal Choice as an example only in part because it is so very obvious yet happens at EVERY update I attend. Once explained, my account could be noted so as to help the next rep somewhat intelligently address any possible wrong thinking or potential solutions to any of the issues discovered. This is NOT rocket science! It IS simple respect and customer service 101! If it isn't viewed as such, fire everyone involved and make a serious change of culture and direction! You might find owners are more responsive to logical and well thought-through answers and ideas than threats and off-the-cuff common sales pitches.
It is reprehensible to know that customer relations exist at or have even been fostered to be at this level. I've ended up defending my ownership to my own grown children and others we've run into who have witnessed or have been part of these updates or interactions. I could not be more disappointed in this aspect of our ownership.
While I've not named names here, the last "update" we did in Branson (12/2x) (which, BTW, was deceptively billed as a survey about the check-in process), was nothing short of horrific as it included comments about the incompetence of other reps and offices, threats about not following through with recommendations they were making (including statements about marking our account noting our denial of the help offered), etc.. Had we not experienced that interaction, I probably wouldn't be writing this letter. Be that as it may - given that interaction as the final straw, I'm fed up with this culture and its effect on our ownership as it has soured what has otherwise been a highly valued part of our lives. Such divisiveness within the corporate ranks is beyond inexcusable.
I implore you and anyone you have influence on/over to CORRECT this and to do so by aligning your needs (corporate or sales or whatever) with those of your clients - i.e. the owners.
I sent a slightly modified version of this letter to the elected officials of WorldMark The Club in the hopes of garnishing support for meaningful change.
Sincerely but incredibly disappointed,
Robert Odell
Platinum Owner
Owner Since 2003

I can be reached at [protected] as needed.

In Jan 2016 in San Diego I signed a contract for $10, 599. The sales person was Michal Hodge. I later upgraded over the phone through Sue Case on March 10th, 2016 and Ashely Hilton on September 29th 2016.

After signing the first contract I was not able to access the website and mailed you with questions about how everything worked. By the time all my questions had been answered and I understood what was happening, I wanted to cancel but you told me it was too late to do so. If we couldn't access the product until the rescission period had passed and did not hear from you about our questions until too late, how could we make an informed choice about whether we wanted to cancel or not?

In the first presentation, Michal told me we'd be able to take our kids to Aulani, Hawaii. This was one of the biggest reasons for buying. After the cancellation period several representatives told me it was extremely difficult to get Hawaii. I could have taken my family 3 times already with the money I have spent on WorldMark. Instead we have not been on any quality family vacations or even done a staycation at a local hotel because we simply cant afford it given the amount of money we have paid and still owe to Worldmark. The two Worldmark vacations we have done in the last 2 years were lacking accomodations to say the least.

I am also extremely unhappy about being incessantly contacted every couple of months about upgrading. The sales reps say I have to call them because things have changed at WorldMark but it's just to get me to upgrade. As result of upgrading, our mortgage has more than doubled with barely a lowering to the high interest rate that we were enticed into signing with. We cannot afford upgrades that do not deliver what they are supposed to but instead end up with our fees at a rate we did not know they would become.

I have paid $6671.27 in down payments (the initial purchase was $2649.80 then the unnecessary upgrade down payment of $4021.47). Maintenance fees grew from $72.55 to $91.41 currently. I was not told they would increase. Loan payments started at $181.33 per month, until I was pressured into believing I would never vacation on those points I had even though I clearly stated that was all I could afford. Payments then went to $258.04 per month, then to $314.48 per month currently and I have no idea how that has changed. Something happened that I wasn't aware of during the upgrade with Sue Case apparently. She never told me my fees would not be going up so much. I only purchased 9000 more credits on top of the 10000 I already had, plus paid $4021.47 down so how could our loan be over $18, 000 still? It seems like she didn't apply my down payment. The credits I bought in the upgrade were also supposed to be heavily discounted and I paid HALF down. If that was the case, how did the loan more than double? During the upgrade, Sue Case also told me I would receive 3 lots of 4000 points to use plus FOUR "extra weeks". They then told me I would receive these points in intervals over time. I have the email chain with Sue Case with her telling me what I was getting. Along with the phone calls being recorded, she called me after the upgrade and told me she was "mistaken" about my bonuses, and she feels bad but I would not be given what I was promised. I was furious.

I was given a Wyndham credit card because Michal said I could get credits for housekeeping and other fees but have only ever received a $50 Amazon gift voucher after using $7584 on it. I eventually had to refinance the debt because of the 26% interest rate. I find this a shocking abuse of trust and one that has caused me to end up paying yet more money than I would have liked to.

Apart from the financial aspects and lack of clear information that I am unhappy with, using your product has also been difficult. Every time I had a location I wanted to go to (Hawaii, Florida, Tennessee, California, Nevada, Colorado), even with flexible dates, I could not find a unit that would suite my family's needs. I don't know how many times, but I have spent HOURS on the phone and on the website trying to find something with NO LUCK. I was told more than once that I could go to Mexico anytime easily; the thing is I never wanted to take my family to Mexico. It is not safe and for that to be my only easy options for booking, had I known this, would NEVER of joined.

I wanted to cancel before but you said I couldn't. In light of this, I have tried to use the product but am not getting the use out of it that Sue and Michal said I could. I feel I have been pushed into upgrades that have again not delivered what they were supposed to. The payments are also far too expensive and more than Sue indicated they would be.

Aside from that, during my initial presentation, which was supposed to only last 90 minutes, My husband had to leave to get out children out of school on time. They keep me there, even though I told them I had to go and basically forced me to sign without my husband present. This was sneaky and conniving to say the least. They were aware we didn't have the money for this type of purchase but told me anything I wanted to hear to make it sound like it would give our family more vacations and more memories and in the end has only caused extra financial stress and LESS vacationing for my family. It has basically taken away from my children's lives and their future. Shameful.

My credit information was submitted without my permission. The sales rep insisted on turning in my information because we had a conversation during her presentation. She relayed that she had to submit my info to her manager. After three hours of deliberating with the agent on why I said "no" to their proposal, she still wanted me to sign the vacation package with Worldmark, Barclays and the Visa credit card company. The credit inquiry was a hard hit on my credit report and they wouldn't give my personal information back to me as I exited. *A very uncomfortable situation for me.

Long story short; when I abruptly said no for the last time the sales agent inched in to my right and said; sign here just sign here. She was still getting me to sign on the dotted line as I walked away. This part of the organization should be shut down.

****Predatory sales practices and tactics. The stronger the customer the more disrespectful and aggressive they are.****

The last contract we used ducu sign we did not receive the link to the contract, I have requested one to be sent to me and have not yet received confirmation that it have been sent. I have talked to them several times to discuss the financial burden we are in. We just cannot afford to pay them anymore. They will not and do not have any options to cancel our contract. I am to the point where I am considering just not paying anything at all and letting go into foreclosure.

In the most resent upgrade, we were not informed that 1) the loan would reup for ten years 2) that including the interest and dues over the 10 years would cost us $112, 944.40. 3) the concept of travel share was misrepresented, in as though the exchange rate from points to cash was made to sound like a great way to use points, In reality using points in this way would be paying over twice the cost if we were to buy such things with cash. An example of this would be a round trip airline ticket to Hawaii would take 38, 000 credits. That is the amount of credits we have for the year so we would be paying over $17, 00 for that ticket. 4) it is a financial burden for us to be paying the monthly lone of $684 plus the dues of $237.24. ($932.24) per month. This amount times 12 is 11, 052 per year. Thinking about that I wonder if I was to book a three-week hotel stay at $200 per night that would cost. $2800, leaving with over $8000 for other things we may like to do while on vacation. 5 ) We were told that with a wyndom rewards card we would be able to offset some to the fees. This being true, that offset is only $50 that I seem to be only able to use every three months of so. Not a great savings.

This company is rotten to the core.
Red light bulb: When the salesmen tell you not to pay other bills and only pay them! That is outrageous.
This was sold as an affordable way to vacation when and where we want to. The truth of the matter is that you can not get into where you want to when you need it. So the money we waste on supposed priority booking over other guests is so far from the truth. We have spoken to people on vacation that we're able to book something that took us years to get into, a week prior. This happened on more than 1 occasion. But yet, we can rarely get into anything even 9 months before our trip. Something is not right there. When we pay all this money to have ownership and Joe Shmoe has ease of access over us. They already got their money form us so who cares about us.
We could take way better vacations with the money we pay Worldmark by Wyndham without the hassles.
Another issue for us was the maintenance fee increases. At first, they are not so bad but over time you realize how they do not ever stop going up and They sold us on our children and Grandchildren vacationing for free once it was paid off. THEY TOTALLY LEFT OUT THAT THEY WILL PROBABLY BE PAYING MORE FOR THE MAINTENANCE FEES THEN WE PAY FOR BOTH THE MORTGAGE AND MAINTENANCE FEES BY THE TIME MY
YOUNGER GRANDKIDS WILL BE USING IT. That is far from Free. That was some fervent slight of the hand for us that only after time, we recognizing the details that were maliciously left out in our decisions climbing up the timeshare status ladder.
The excuse this company says as to why their resorts are always full "Because investors are buying up chunks of points for little or nothing to rent out blocks at a time to make money" Now with hindsight, I can not believe we fell for that. No investor would squander money away for maintenance fees when you can not even use it have the time. We have had this long enough to know the reality of their lies and it's disgusting the continual rate in which the lies go on, from the sale to the customer service.
They also leave out other fees, Like to clean! And they will charge you if you do not go to an owners information meeting.

This company should be held liable for all of its misdealing and some type of protection should be made into a law for consumers from their special brand of bold trickery.

If you get a call that you won something, HANG UP. Take it from us, you will regret going to the presentation.
They rarely make good on the "perks" of being an owner. They promise you the sun the moon and the stars and you have to spend hours on the phone with them just to get a spec of dirt.
Some of the promises that were broken:
Bonus weeks, estimated value, accessibility, resort amenities, minimal fee increases, better booking power, priority booking power on desired dates, this is a good investment.

What we are getting with our ownership:
Hours on the phone to try to plan a vacation.
Can hardly ever get the resort you need. Settling far away from where you need to go.
To have to pay out of pocket due to availiability issues and can not use the timeshare, so the fact they say never pay for a vacation again is ridiculous.
The prices are so overpriced by the developer, They told us the prices would increase and that we were getting a wholesale price, BUT... you can get these online for so cheap, this was a total misrepresentation of the facts.
They told us we can make alot of money renting. That could not be farther from the truth.
They told us if we sold this timeshare we could also make alot of money. What a joke.

Our biggest complaint with Worldmark was when they upgraded us to Diamond they told us we were getting the points at the same price we purchased it. But when we found our original paperwork it was only $1.45 a point. We signed the contract at 3.50 as we did not have it on us and when we found our paperwork to go back to have them fix it, they refused to fix that. So then we asked to cancel and they refused to cancel us.
When we upgraded as well they told us that our guest would be able to vacation with us for free. That was not true. The cost is $129!?!
When you do get a case opened there is a lot of chasing them around to get responses. They REFUSE TO CALL YOU BACK.
We never got out Platinum cards from Wyndham, even asking for them.
Now We hate the update meetings. We do not want to buy any more from Worldmark and we do not consider them taking half a day to try to squeeze more money out of us a good method to keep happy owners.
We rather enjoyed Trendwest managing the ownership. NOW WITH WYNDHAM THEY ARE HORRIBLE.
We have had to shell out cash when we have used our RCI and Interval International. This is not what we were told. SO there are hiding things from you to get the sale.
When you have an issue booking ON THEIR WEBSITE. Corporate tells you its your problem and does nothing to remedy the issue.
This and more are why we suggest to others to run far away from Timeshares.

Time share/points/credits
My two sisters and I inherited our Worldmark account from our parents that have passed. We have enjoyed family vacations/reunions every year together. We have been very successful at going to the ownership meetings and not purchasing any more points, but two years ago in Steamboat Springs, we, unfortunately, were lied to. We have two different accounts, since you cannot have more than two owners on an account. My account is 12, 000 points, from timeshare angels (which is not worth as much as the other account that we inherited from our parents of 20, 000 good points). Nick Brozovich was the sales guy who suggested that we purchase the minimum 10, 000 more points to become silver members so that we could tap into all the benefits at that level. He suggested that we get a lawyer and get a trust made so that we could merge our two accounts and it would all be under the trust. That way all three of us would be equal owners. Needless to say, we purchased the points and proceeded to get a trust set up and called the title company, because we were ready to proceed merging our accounts into one. They said you cannot do this - it is not even a possibility. We had been lied to. The lady at the title office says she has heard this happen more than she likes to admit. The whole reason that we purchased more points was so that we could all be on one account together. You know how you feel when you've been robbed and you get that sinking feeling in your gut? That's how we feel. I don't want anyone else to believe these lies. You cannot get a trust and put more than two owners on any account. I don't know how people live with themselves when they'll do anything to get you to purchase more points. Don't believe the lies.