ask-redweek-wyndham-ovation-help-owners-get-out

I joined Wyndham in 2000 and am on the points system. My deed is in Las Vegas and I finished paying for the deed years ago. I, a 76 year old woman, am the sole owner of the deed. In Dec, 2017, I learned about the Ovations Program through the quarterly publication that Wyndham sends to all its owners, and on Dec. 29, 2016, I applied to the program on the Option 3 mentioned above and was told that Las Vegas is one of the resort places that Wyndhan is willing to take back. But I was not given any details as to what I should do or not do during the application process except that I should stay current on my monthly fees. In late Feb, 2017, I spoke to Minerva who works with the Ovations Program and told her I had no info on where my application was. She then told me that I had made a reservation at the Smokey Mountains Resort in early March and this was not permitted while my application was in process. I told her that no one had told me this. So she suggested that since I was so close to the date of the visit to the SMR that I keep my reservation, then reapply to Ovations after I got back from the trip. At the SMR, one of the sales people told me that since my application to the Ovations Program had been approved in late January, 2017, I could no longer be considered a Wyndham owner but no one had even told me that my application had already been approved. In mid March, following Minerva's advice, I reapplied to the Ovations Program. But again I have not heard further about where I am in the process. To complicate communications further, since May I have not been able to speak with anyone in the Ovations Program office. Wyndham says it has a new web system of operations and while I am holding on the phone, I am being told over and over that the company recommends that we deal with our web page to make reservations. Now it is virtually impossible to speak to anyone at the company. I have called first thing in the morning, and throughout the day, but the lines are always busy. Since I applied to the Ovations Program in Dec, 2017, it is now seven months later and I am still having to pay my monthly fees. I am concerned that I am being scammed. In the seventeen years that I have been a Wyndham owner, I have enjoyed my vacations at Wyndham properties but lately the company has changed dramatically. The latest issue of the AARP magazine has a lengthy article on the scams that are operating in the time-share industry and this has alerted me to the fact that Wyndham too may be scamming its owners. The two times that lately I have been lucky enough to speak to a reservations agent, after holding for 40 minutes on the phone, I have mentioned that while Wyndham is no longer able to provide its promised services to its present owners, the company keeps selling to new owners. The reps who are trained to do their job well tell me that I should just have patience and that the company is trying to work out the kinks in their new IT system. I rather smell that a class action law suit against Wyndham is forthcoming. Meanwhile I am required to keep paying monthly fees and I have no way of speaking to anyone at the Ovations Program office. If I dial the number directly to Ovations, I am connected to the Reservations Dept and all day long I get a busy number.

My timeshares predate the points system. I have three weeks based on winter availability . I purchased under the Shell Vacations system and did not see the need to upgrade. Are these units (3) eligible for the Ovation program? I've been using my every-other-year options since 1996.

Had the wrong name . fredericw4 , not williamsf4. Still would like concrete contacts for Ovation.

We own two properties in Shell Vacation Club. I called SVC today to see if there was a rental program. They referred Mr to Ovations by Wyndham. I will be calling to see what options we have. I realize this article is over a year old, but if you still want to follow people pursuing this option, we would be willing.

My first attempt at Ovation was to contact them via a telephone number provided to me by Wyndham customer service. It turns out that the telephone number is not valid. The number given was 885-312-9040. I've contacted Wyndham again to ask for a verifiable number. Waiting for their reply.

I am a co-owner of 84,000 annual points and we want out. It is incredibly difficult to get a reservation unless you are looking at least a year or more in advance. We have had to change or downgrade our plans several times when trying to use the Wyndham system, and even stayed at a Wyndham hotel that we had to reserve outside of the system (as non-members) when we could not get in as members(!?). We are paying MF all year, and can't use the properties, and they also hit us with some Perks program fees and we never find anything in that program that makes it worthwhile. I can't figure out how to cancel that on the websites. We are frustrated. The closest we could get to our dream vacation to Mount St. Helens next May is over two hours away. And we had to create that last year ... this whole thing has been a important lesson in high pressure sales tactics, and we just want to sell it. Has anyone has any luck getting rid of a points only membership? I really don't want to spend money - or pay Wyndham - to get out of something that I paid for, should have some value, and that Wyndham will just resell if we transfer ownership back to them.

I sent in my contract # 0002100195650. It was received at title service 9/5/2017. I am still being billed for Wyndham Cypress Palms that i gave to Ovation. William W. Brewer

My husband and I went to a Leisure Getaways Inc. meeting at a local restaurant. It was billed as an update meeting but they offered us a plan to end our ownership of our timeshare in Newport, RI. We have owned it for 29 years; we have used it and exchanged through RCI for many years but it was becoming more difficult to get to the places that we were interested in traveling to and our maintenance fees are now over $1000 per year. We own a fixed floating week. If we paid Leisure $9000, they would take over our deed and then give us yearly points to be used for travel. We wanted out, not points. They then switched us to a travel plan for $6000. We agreed. We charged this fee to our credit card and went home. Next morning I called Wyndham; they told me about Ovation. No fee, just turn over the title and be free. Sure beats paying someone. Called Leisure Getaways Inc., they wanted us to come back to the restaurant and talk about it. I put my formal cancellation in writing (CT state law, cancel within 3 days) and we went to the restaurant. Leisure said it was a scam; Wyndham will not take it back and we will be sorry to cancel. What did I have to lose? Cancelled and waited for the paperwork from Ovation. Arrived by email in about 2 to 3 weeks. Filled it out, notarized it and mailed it to Elizabeth Olander at Wyndham Title Services. I have just received confirmation that my ownership has been transferred and I am no longer a time share owner. It served us for 29 years, sometimes good and sometimes not so good. I gave it away for free but at least I did not have to pay anyone any money to get rid of it. I would encourage any Wyndham owners to give Ovation a try. I have read many reports through the years that timeshares are impossible to sell so this is a way out. In retrospect, our timeshare was good for the vacation trades but bad because you just cannot get rid of them when you want out of the timeshare contract. There really should be a legal and ethical company that will assist with timeshare sales; this company would make a fortune as many owners want out after a certain period of time. I am not sure why a legitimate company has not picked up on this market.

I was able to give back two of my timeshares - one a large number of points and another smaller unit I bought to facilitate trading. They would not take back my last unit although I may try again. I had rented out many of my points and had to wait until all of that had cleared. It's been about six months now and all has been going smoothly.

We were scammed by Wyndham in February of this year. They took us for the run around as I am sure they do everyone, and used the fact that we are young and want to travel against us. We have since come into some serious financial needs and can not afford the payments. We haven't even been able to use the resorts! We just want out and hope there is a way for Ovation Program to work for us. We are running out of options and are worried what they will do after months of payments not being paid.

We were sucked into the pathways exit option. Has anyone used Pathway to get rid of their timeshare and did they get $ as ‘promised?’ What is the status—we read only negative things . We can not afford it and do not travel due to health issues and were counting on this little return in May 2019

i wanted to be done with a floating week that I had had for 11 years and found out about Ovation. I gave them a call on about the 24th of October and received the documents by email the 2nd of Nov. I followed all instructions and sent them in the 3rd. On Nov 14th I received an email my contract was cancelled and was thanked for being a customer. On Nov 25th I received the Maintenance bill for 2018, contacted the billing department on the 27th and was told I owed nothing as my contract was cancelled.

I own fixed week 21 at Wyndham Riverside Suite in San Antonio, TX. It is paid in full and MF are up-to-date. I want out of Timeshare because it no longer meets my vacation needs.

On Dec 8th, I visited with Chris Matzenbacher (ReedHein) with Timeshare Exit Team. He offered help to exit timeshare for $4,545.00...but first exhaust your efforts to get Wyndham to take back. I was also contacted by Walter Gard from Resort Release, who could also help me exit timeshare for $5,600 and mentioned that Timeshare Exit Team are not as reputable as Resort Release. When I informed him that I was taking Chris's advice to call the Wyndham Exit Team first before proceeding with TET or RR; he informed me that I was making a BIG mistake and that I would be calling him back to exit timeshare.

On Dec 12th, I reached out to Wyndham Exit Team member, Monica. I will be getting more information in 2 weeks (12/26). Today, 12/18th I called Jill from Wyndham Care to get clarification on process. Dec 26th, I should get email from Wyndham Exit Team to see "IF" I qualify for OVATION process to exit . In the meantime, I must stay current on 2018 MF so mail $50.00 check to Wyndham Vacation Resorts, ATTN: ASO FW EFT, 10750 West Charleston Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89135 (Like Ryan from Finance instructed). Keeping my Fingers Crossed in Texas!!

My husband and I purchased our time share in Destin last January, and it was the worse decision we ever made. We are in our 70's and had just retired when we were offered a free week to listen to the presentations. We really had no intention to buy because we were unsure of living on a fixed income of Social Security and STRS.. The manager at the time was very delightful and she miraculously was able to find a timeshare in inventory that we thought we could afford at the time. My husband was approved for a VISa Card of $10,000 that wouldn't cost us anything at the time. Based on our income and debt ratio I have no idea how we were even approved. I guess we were so vulnerable and excited to be retired that we didn't look ahead to the financial burden this Time Share would incur on us. We visit Destin every spring, so I guess our thoughts were that we spend the money anyway renting in Destin every year so why not have something to show for it and leave our children.Not only is it next to impossible to find availability in Destin during the times we want, but we also cannot afford it. The $586.00 a month payment is 20% of our monthly retirement income. At the time we purchased, we had some money in the bank but we didn't realize the expenses of moving and living on a fixed income. We just cannot afford this Time Share, and it is not what we expected for our life style and destination goals.I did read above that this Ovation program is designed for people that have already paid their mortgage, and we do not meet this criteria. This time share has cost us $10,000 which we are paying through another loan and I have paid $6,000 for the year in mortgage and monthly maintenance fees. Is there something we can do based on our age and the financial burden it has on our monthly cost of living expenses? PLEASE PLEASE HELP

I have been a Shell Vacations owner for approximately 13 years, a points based ownership at the Paniolo Greens resort in Hawaii. We have been looking to exit this timeshare for at least half the time we have owned it. It has been paid off within a few months of purchase. We have exchanged the points for a couple of other places over the years, banked and lost the majority of what we have accumulated. Now retired, the yearly maintanance fee has been a burden for a long time, but after wasting $500 with a re-sell scam about 6 or 8 years ago, we have been careful when looking at other avenues of escape. Well, I found out that the ownership transfers to my heir upon our passing and that made my mind up....I had to find a way to get rid of it. I contacted Timeshare Solutions and Resort Release and got the same basic response: "Shell doesn't want to deal with returning the timeshares and only legal action will work", to the tune of around $5000 to $6000 ! I was close to taking the plunge, I am that committed to getting out of this burden. Then I spotted the link to this Ovations review page. I then went to Wyndham's Ovation page, called the Ovations direct line and after talking to a Case Specialist, was advised I qualified for the program. The next day I spoke to one of the program specialists, she has started the process. I have been assured that there will be no fees, no additional costs and in approximately 3 months I will no longer own the timeshare, be responsible for maintanance fees beyond keeping them current until the release is final. They are taking the timeshare back. I am not receiving any compensation, but that is fine with me. It sounds like this will be painless and I will be saving $5000-$6000. I would strongly suggest anyone with a Shell Vacations or Wyndham timeshare that they want to get out from under, go to: https://www.clubwyndham.com/cw/discover/ovationbywyndham.page and see which avenue best fits your needs. They have at least three or four options, but if your timeshare is paid off and you are current on your maintenance fees, the Ovations program can get you out painlessly. I will follow up in 3 or 4 months with the rest of the story. ***UPDATE*** : So as promised, an update. We went through the Ovations program and it was indeed painless and handled via email. We now are free of the timeshare as of early-April 2018 at no out of pocket cost whatsoever. Yes, we gave it back without receiving anything in return, but that was exactly what was promised and after years and years of trying to get out and numerous offers to get us out from under the timeshare for $5000 to $6000, that is all we wanted. The people at the Ovations program were easy and professional and followed through on all promises. It all starts with a phone call. Remember, this was a paid off property....no mortgage. Good luck all!

Hello Mary, give me a call and I'll look into your situation with Wyndham. Jeff Weir 310-801-3479. I work with RedWeek on owner issues. Your case is unusual because you've only owned a year and you've got a loan on your purchase. Wyndham might be willing to take back your timeshare, but they cannot forgive the loan because timeshare mortgages are typically held by third parties. In meantime, suggest you list your timeshare for rent and sale on RedWeek. Renting is a great way to cover your expenses.

R.MARTIN Wish I'd read these and many other comments about Wyndham's lies and scams to us timeshare owners before buying more points on Dec 2016. Was most impressed with their "new" ovation program to sell back my timeshare units. Like most timeshare owners, received weekly emails and phones call from many companies offering to "help" get out of my timeshares. Only to find they usually want me to pay $2,000 + up front or just "give" them my units!!. Very happy when the New Orleans reps told me Wyndham will now "buy" my timeshare units back if we ever want to sell. I even asked the question twice -- "Wyndham will buy my timeshare units when we want to sell??"" Agent said yes. I asked if it was equal to what we have paid and reply was: " Cannot say as will depend on current market value!" Sounded right was my response and we agreed to buy another $21,000 value of units!! OK -- one year later when calling the Wyndham Ovation reps I was told they do NOT buy any timeshares but would refer me to a timeshare Realestate company!! The New Orleans Wyndham rep had totally lied to us and now we own over $35,000 of units that the Realestate company said they could sell for about $1,015 . and we'd be charged about $500 sales fees!!! Like many Wyndham owners we're going broke with the increases in the maintenance fee yearly!! Wish there was a Class Action suit against Wyndham for all the lies their reps make when selling us timeshares! I'd join it today!!

R.MARTIN Wish I'd read these and many other comments about Wyndham's lies and scams to us timeshare owners before buying more points on Dec 2016. Was most impressed with their "new" ovation program to sell back my timeshare units. Like most timeshare owners, received weekly emails and phones call from many companies offering to "help" get out of my timeshares. Only to find they usually want me to pay $2,000 + up front or just "give" them my units!!. Very happy when the New Orleans reps told me Wyndham will now "buy" my timeshare units back if we ever want to sell. I even asked the question twice -- "Wyndham will buy my timeshare units when we want to sell??"" Agent said yes. I asked if it was equal to what we have paid and reply was: " Cannot say as will depend on current market value!" Sounded right was my response and we agreed to buy another $21,000 value of units!! OK -- one year later when calling the Wyndham Ovation reps I was told they do NOT buy any timeshares but would refer me to a timeshare Realestate company!! The New Orleans Wyndham rep had totally lied to us and now we own over $35,000 of units that the Realestate company said they could sell for about $1,015 . and we'd be charged about $500 sales fees!!! Like many Wyndham owners we're going broke with the increases in the maintenance fee yearly!! Wish there was a Class Action suit against Wyndham for all the lies their reps make when selling us timeshares! I'd join it today!!

I've owned a Wyndham Time Share Unit at Washington National Harbor, MD since 2012. It's fully paid off, but I can no longer afford the monthly maintenance fees as I was recently laid off from my job. I'm hoping Wyndham/Ovation will agree to take it back. I've been reading all the comments posted at this site and plan to call Wyndham tomorrow to see what options they can offer me.

I have two Wyndham properties as a home base. When I contacted them about this program, I was told that I didn't have the type of loan that they could do this with. Really Wyndham? You haven't changed a bit with your tactics of luring people into your properties, lying, deceiving, etc.