Westgate Planet Hollywood Las Vegas

[Sweet621 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sweet621]

Hi Everyone!
My husband and I went to Las Vegas and eventually after being there from 2:20-8:00 purchased a timeshare. Aren't they legally only to have us sit through a 90 min presentation??? Yeah..went home and discovered online that this property may potentially go into foreclosure! I had my misgivings before and I called my husband and said we NEED to get our of this contract. Looking through documents, the Contract for sale states in bold caps that we have 5 days to cancel, not including legal holidays and the day the contract was executed! We had just enough time!! That night I frantically read blogs/suggestions on the format of the letter etc. THANKS!!! The contract was signed May 28th and we sent our letter by certifed mail June 3rd to the exact address per instructed, the developer. Memorial day, May 28th was not included in the calculation since that is a legal holiday. SO.. yesterday I got a letter from our friends at Westgate indicating that they received our intent to cancel and that we are not within our rescission period. This letter was not singed, not dated and it seemed very broilerplate and didn't give any real specifics ... I am beyond upset and think this is a scare tactic. That same day we got all our tickets to sent payment in, Due June 28th! Could you offer any advice. Thanks again!!

[Hobbitess Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobbitess]

I'm guessing that their argument is that you have to get the information to them within five days. The Nevada law of five days, rather than five business days, is not just a short time period but ugly. Nevada should be ashamed. But of course Nevada can just point at the states with three day rescission periods and feel good about itself.

I don't know what recourse you have at this point; hopefully someone more knowledgeable will post soon. Sorry you had to deal with this.

Good luck!

[Sweet621 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sweet621]

I think we are within the 5 day window. The contract states we have 5days not including legal holidays and the day you executed the contract. We signed May 28th and sent the letter June 3rd. Memorial day was not counted in the calculation, May 31st , legal holiday -so I think we are ok? Thoughts?

[Hobbitess Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobbitess]

I think it depends on how close you mailed it from is to Las Vegas. If you sent it certified mail, you should be able to find out when it was delivered, right? You can use your certified mail receipt to verify delivery online, is my understanding. It will have a code number on it. That's the first thing I'd check, anyhow. Meant to suggest that my first post.

[Sweet621 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sweet621]

Hi thanks for your help.. Forgot to mention this as well We needed to send the cancellation to Florida, where the developer is, not Las Vegas. The instructions per the contract said delivery or postmarked by the 5th day (excluding legal holidays and date contract was signed). We sent the letter by certified mail by the fifth day (excluding the legal holiday-Memorial Day). This is so frustrating that the are trying to deny us when we followed the cancellation instructions exactly and were within the window. I could see if I was trying a year later to cancel- but legally they need to give us our deposit back and cancel our contract per our cancellation letter!!

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

Send them a copy of their contract showing the agreement stated not including legal holiday's or the day the contract was written. Then count for them and prove to them that you're within your rights. If that doesn't work, take everything to a law office, show them your proof and have them draft a letter re-explaining you right to cancel is intact and, you've notified them you are exercising that right. If they stil don't back down, you'll have to go the extra mile and have an attorney draw up legal papers to go after them. My bet is if a law office sends them notice that you're within the timeframd to cancel, that will be the end of it.

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

If your next letter doesn't work, I would tell them you are going to contact the state AG's office.

[Hobbitess Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobbitess]

The instructions per the contract said delivery or postmarked by the 5th day (excluding legal holidays and date contract was signed). We sent the letter by certified mail by the fifth day (excluding the legal holiday-Memorial Day).

Oh, excellent! Then you have strong legal standing. Seconding Doug and Glitter Brunello that, if they don't back off once you lay out the law for them, your next step should be to pull in a lawyer or contact the Attorney General's office. Definitely a hassle you shouldn't have to resort to, but at least the law is on your side. And a lawyer's fee for sending Westgate a letter is a small price to pay to get out of that sort of contract. The attorney general may send the letter for free, I dunno, but I'd hire a lawyer for my own peace of mind. But either way should work.

[Sweet621 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sweet621]

Thanks everyone! Lluckily my father-in-law is an attorney
We scanned over to him the contract, our inital cancellation letter, return/ sent cert. mail receipts, and Westgates letter. He is going to send a letter on our behalf hopefully today !!! I think he has all he has all the info he needs . I will post when we know more info. What makes me mad is that some people seeing Westgates letter would probably "not fight it' even though the law is on their side. Guess Westgates stance is see if the give up.. Pretty sneaky!!

[PHILL12 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PHILL12]

[QUOTE=Sweet621;390783]Hi Everyone!
My husband and I went to Las Vegas and eventually after being there from 2:20-8:00 purchased a timeshare. Aren't they legally only to have us sit through a 90 min presentation??? Yeah..went home and discovered online that this property may potentially go into foreclosure!
==================================================


Sorry to hear of your problem in Las Vegas. Sad you didn't do your timeshare forum visit before going to Vegas and saved yourself time and money. The possible foreclosure has been talked about on all the timeshare forums for some time now.

I do wonder why you would sit there for more than five hours listening to mostly lies. You don't need their permission after the ninety minutes to walk out. Sadly I would guess your actions or questions led them to think you really had interest in buying. Major mistake because at that point they will hit you from every direction and bring in their closer to make the sale.

Hope you do get this deal canceled and your money back. With all the talk of Las Vegas being number one in foreclosures and job losses I'm shocked anyone would even go to a presentation in Las Vegas. Many do it for some cheap freebies and because these people are very good at their job they buy a timeshare for double the value and will be paying for years.

Timeshare ownership is still good value if you buy where your family likes going each year or you want to exchange only when you buy resale. No one should ever finance a timeshare and this way your yearly expense is maintenence fee and that is it. Just remember timeshares are not to make profit but for vacation use. When timesharing started this was the reason and still is.

PHILL12

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Thanks everyone! Lluckily my father-in-law is an attorney
We scanned over to him the contract, our inital cancellation letter, return/ sent cert. mail receipts, and Westgates letter. He is going to send a letter on our behalf hopefully today !!! I think he has all he has all the info he needs . I will post when we know more info. What makes me mad is that some people seeing Westgates letter would probably "not fight it' even though the law is on their side. Guess Westgates stance is see if the give up.. Pretty sneaky!!

Wastegate is THE WORST organizationb in all of timeshare and the Planet Hollywood Tower of Terror is the one that seems to be (finally) bringing that corrupt group to its knees. DO NOT let them bully you & do everything to get out as it would be a bad deal no matter what you heard or paid.

They will try everything & anything to keep you hooked so don't fall for it. You did well to figure out you don't want it. Good luck & beat them!

[Hobbitess Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobbitess]

[Sadly I would guess your actions or questions led them to think you really had interest in buying.

I think it's less that people who follow the unwritten rules of politeness and stay put delude the salespeople into thinking they've got someone who is honestly interested in buying, and more that it gives salespeople the impression that they can bully the person into a sale. It isn't that people are sending a confusing signal - instead, they're sending the signal that they're vulnerable. Which, alas, is often completely accurate.

[Sweet621 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sweet621]

yeah we should have known better.. I should have listed to my gut instinct-something just didn't seem right! This was our first, and LAST timeshare presentation that we will be attending!!! As they say, Hindsight is always 20/20. Legally they need to cancel our contract and hopefully with the letter from our lawyer and documents/ certified mail receipts indicating our letter was sent within the rescission period will bring the beast down! They think we will give up, guess again! Thanks for your help!!!

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

yeah we should have known better.. I should have listed to my gut instinct-something just didn't seem right! This was our first, and LAST timeshare presentation that we will be attending!!! As they say, Hindsight is always 20/20. Legally they need to cancel our contract and hopefully with the letter from our lawyer and documents/ certified mail receipts indicating our letter was sent within the rescission period will bring the beast down! They think we will give up, guess again! Thanks for your help!!!

Just don't make the mistake of lumping all timeshare companies into the same catagory as Westgate. There are good companies out there. If you read through these forums, you realize most of us are happy timeshare owners. You just need to be educated so as to not fall into the traps that are out there.

[Hobbitess Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobbitess]

Just don't make the mistake of lumping all timeshare companies into the same catagory as Westgate. There are good companies out there.

Exactly what I was going to say. Not to say that we're huge fans of the sales staff associated with our chain, but we do love the units and the resorts and so many other aspects of the system. And it's easy to avoid the salespeople. In our case we did buy the one time we dealt with a TS salesperson, but we bought a one-year contract that was less than a $1000, then went home and researched like crazy. Although we bought into that system, we bought resale, which is often much, much cheaper (although it also doesn't always come with all the perks of buying direct).

The key is to do your research first and know what's out there, know what you want, and decide for yourself what you're willing to pay. There are so many more options than the salespeople discuss - we knew exactly what aspects of the system we loved, and for us it turned out that we could get what we wanted for about a tenth of what it would have cost to buy from the developer. Mind you, we don't get all manner of perks the developer offers - but none of that interested us anyhow. And we admittedly got a better deal than most. We're thankful we sat through the sales presentation because we love the basic concept of points and being able to get a condo for a few days at a shot without having to trade and whatnot, because we had no idea that sort of thing was out there.

But once the salesman introduced the concept, we loved it and still do. Just not at the price he was offering. And we know we're with the chain that's the best fit for us, because we had time to compare the various points systems out there in terms of how the points are managed and where the resorts are located and things, since some people love the concept of points but end up in a chain that isn't well suited to their needs. I hope you take this opportunity to see what's out there and find something (probably not Westgate, because from all I hear their salesforce continues to be a major pain for owners), that can work for you.