Wyndham Points

[rfk318 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rfk318]

No points transfers

WOW. What a thread. I have transferred points several times when I could not use all of my points. The options from the VP are what I would probably use to extend my points if I have extra points. Putting points into RCI appears to be not as good any more and getting reservation and transferring it to DAE, TPI or Platinum Interchange will work but the cost of the week is the full 105/154k maintenance plus the cost of the exchange in the other service. With RCI a 28k, 42k deposit will be less costly in the long run if you can get a trade in RCI that you want.

It does look like Wyndham is going against the mega renters.

[ace1001 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ace1001]

"I guess someone will have to explain this affair to me like I am stupid."

OK then. Now you can only sell your unused points to Wyndham. There is no incentive to pay you very much for them. It is no longer a free market.
If you sell your timeshare, the buyer will know that the points are unmarketable, so now maybe you will have to PAY him to take it off your hands. Wyndham has reduced, once again, the value of your TS, bringing it into the Brave New World of negative worth. Ace

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

It does look like Wyndham is going against the mega renters.

Absolutely correct, on-the-money, you hit the bullseye! And do you know WHY Wyndham is going after the "mega renters"? It's because they HATE that word, "mega renters", in it's PLURAL form. Every change made to our ownership has been a systematic effort to protect the ONE mega renter most important to Wyndham. The ONE mega renter they are serving to protect is Wyndham itself. Wyndham's Extra Holidays is the real winner in all of this and the sad thing is that most owners can't see the wolf for the sheep's clothing.

Just my thoughts,
Allen

[4ARedOctober Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close 4ARedOctober]

You got that right. Good old 'points' is just like currency...remember.....except that the rules can be changed at anytime by the greedy gangsters that control it. It is not sounding so good now is it?

I own Wyndham points and I am not happy about this change. Weeks and Points are going to heck now.

What you have is something inherent to any points system - moving the goal posts.

The organization is undoubtedly so large and structured in such a way that the developer will keep a stranglehold on the BOD, so that it will always represent the developers interest and not the individual owner.

That why I always buy at sold out owner-controlled resorts.

[ace1001 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ace1001]

I believe TS is the future of family vacationing. I come from 40+ years of RV tradition, but we cannot afford to haul these mansions around the country in a fuel shortage world. We used to go where no man had gone before, but the undeveloped places are mostly gone so now you go where the place has been prepared for you. I camp primative a night or two in a National Park then go to a TS to clean up and recoup. Makes everyone happy.
It is sad that Wyndham greed is slowing down a shift in vacation styles that will save energy for this nation. Ace

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

I own Wyndham points and I am not happy about this change. Weeks and Points are going to heck now.

I'm cutting and pasting the below post from the Wyndham Owners' Forums, where it was cut and pasted from the old Yahoo group. The more ways to voice our opinions on the program changes, the better....

"I called VIP services just now & talked to a supervisor about our
account & during the conversation she made a comment about the new
changes to the program. Apperently they have been getting lots of calls
& she told me some of the people have told members to fax Wyndham about
how unhappy they are. She stated this is the only way Wyndham can see
the complaints of it's owners. I thought was interesting as Wyndham is
now recording all incoming calls & hear she was telling me to contact
them. Don't know if it will help change anything, but it can't hurt.
The fax number she gave me was 407-370-6328 & said to include our
member number when replying."

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

There is hope! (who to send complaints about wyndham changes to)

I would like to encourage EVERYONE to send a complaint to the Florida Division of Condominiums, Timeshares and Mobile Homes. This is where the FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL'S office is asking people to send their complaints. There is hope! Another owner filed a complaint and just received a response back. They are going to assign an investigator to the case and keep him informed of their findings! I think it's important that they receive a number of complaints, so it will help them to realize the severity/importance of the situation, and perhaps make them move quicker. We all make a lot of great points that perhaps they haven't been made aware of. Let's give them as much information as we can to help with the investigation! Here was the response:

Dear Complainant:

Thank you for contacting the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshare, and Mobile Homes regarding your concerns. This letter serves to inform you that we are in receipt of your complaint and that the issues are important to us. Please be assured that we will address each issue in your complaint, and we will be keep you appropriately informed as we move through the process.

At this time, we are reviewing your complaint and opening an investigative file. The Division’s jurisdiction and authority is somewhat limited, and as part of our review process, we will be evaluating your complaint for areas that we may or may not be able to help you with. It is important to identify these areas so that we can make an appropriate investigative plan.

Please remain confident that your complaint is receiving the attention it deserves. Once it has been reviewed, an investigator will be assigned who will then be in touch with you by both letter and telephone. Our goal is to assist you to the best of our authority and in a manner that is both timely and efficient.

Thank you again for the opportunity to be of service to you.

Sincerely,
Shelia Fields, Administrative Assistant II
Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, & Mobile Homes
BUREAU OF COMPLIANCE
400 W Robinson St, N908, Orlando, FL 32801 407-317-7226, 407.317.7230 (Fax)
Shelia.fields@dbpr.state.fl.us

Here is information on filing a complaint:
You may file a complaint with the Florida Division of Condominiums, Timeshares and Mobile Homes. You may download a "Timeshare" Complaint Form at DBPR: Home Page At the home page select "Direct to Our Divisions," scroll the page to find "Business Regulation" and select "Florida Division of Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes. Select "Division Complaint Forms and select the "Timeshare" Complaint Form. Send the completed complaint form to: Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Florida Division of Condominiums, Timeshares and Mobile Homes 1940 N. Monroe Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32399, or via facsimile at: (850) 488-7149.

You may call the Customer Contact Center at 850-488-1122 if you have additional questions or concerns. The hours of operation are 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Don't stop there....make sure you file a complaint with the Arkansas Attorney General as well. The VOA is based in Arkansas. I've already posted this on TUG and wyndhamowners, to make sure it gets out there to people. We need to be complaining about ALL of these changes made in the last several months!

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

o Points Credit Pool. If you know you will not be able to use some or all of your future year’s Regular Use Year Points, consider depositing your points into the Points Credit Pool. Those points will remain available to you for three years from the date you make the deposit.

o Guest Confirmations. Instead of transferring points to another owner’s account, you can book a reservation for someone else by adding a Guest Confirmation at the time of booking

Deanne Gabel
Senior Vice President
Owner Services
FSP Plan Manager
Wyndham Vacation Ownership

I have two questions;

-Why would I think that getting a guest certificate was a good idea when Wyn has decided to raise the cost of the GC so high?? In my experiance, most other TS systems don't charge for them at all, let alone charge >$100!

- What is "Points Credit Pool"? I've never heard anyone use that term about Wyn before.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

I have two questions;

-Why would I think that getting a guest certificate was a good idea when Wyn has decided to raise the cost of the GC so high?? In my experiance, most other TS systems don't charge for them at all, let alone charge >$100!

Because if you use it yourself, you would expect to think that the trust will get extra income from that which is not seemly affect you (until you send out your family, or work with family and friends to get a get together), thus will reduce you club due.

I am pretty support to cut a share to the trust if you use the point for renting business. It is pretty heavy stuff, may as well encourage the people work there work better to support business with extra income. But it should be reasonable, not try to kill everyone type of reasonable.

- What is "Points Credit Pool"? I've never heard anyone use that term about Wyn before.

How about "credit pool"? It is a service managed by the trust that requires $30 where you can put your excess points before the use year starts and have its life for 3 years subject to the points available in the certain use year when you want to use it, instead of just have the life of your point 1 year?

Jya-Ning

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

My correspondence with Deanne (LONG)

I had posted this at wyndhamowners.org, but thought I should post it here, too. I would also like to state that I am not a "mega renter," but do rent things in order to afford to stay at home with my daughter.

Here is my complaint and the correspondence between myself, my husband and Deanne Gabel since then (Deanne's responses in red):

January 7, 2009

Deanne Gabel
Fairshare Vacation Owners Association
8427 SouthPark Circle
Orlando, Florida 32819

To Whom It May Concern:

I write this letter to not only complain about changes Wyndham Corporate has made to our Fairshare Plus plan, but to urge Wyndham to rethink these changes. With all of the media attention on the “big three” auto makers and on corporations like Lehman Brothers and their corporate greed, I thought that other large corporations, like Wyndham, wouldn’t want to attain the same reputation. I was unfortunately wrong. When Wyndham did away with unlimited free guest certificates, thousands (if not tens of thousands) of us were surprised and outraged. That wasn’t the worst part, however. Not only did you, Wyndham, take away the unlimited free guest certificates, but you increased the fee by 500%! The new $129 fee is drastically higher than other timeshare companies charge, and Wyndham took away one of the benefits we were “sold” on when we bought into the program. When I think about how many millions of dollars Wyndham will make each year just because of this fee increase, it makes me sick to my stomach. The other change made was instilling a new policy about adding guest names to reservations that are within 15 days of check-in. Now, if I have a reservation that I cannot use, I have to fear that Wyndham will cancel the reservation and I’ll lose my points if I add a guest name. What gives Wyndham the right to do this on something that I OWN? We’ve been told by multiple people at Wyndham that the reservation won’t be cancelled unless we have another reservation with overlapping dates at the same resort. Is this in writing? Of course not, so how can I even trust anyone at Wyndham? We can only assume that this new policy is to help Wyndham’s business – Extra Holidays. What’s really exasperating: we’ve had countless guests have problems checking in, because the guest names were never sent from the mainframe to the resort. We CERTAINLY shouldn’t have to pay for a service that’s not being provided.

With the holidays approaching after these changes, our family decided not to let it bother us too much. However, Wyndham then came up with an even more outrageous change – no longer allowing the transfer of points between different accounts. In the announcement letter, the reason given for this change was “for security reasons.” If this was truly the reason (which we of course know is not), then we should still be able to transfer points between our own accounts. Wyndham won’t even let us do this, in spite of the fact that we are forced to have multiple accounts due to a billing glitch in Wyndham’s system (not being able to correctly bill more than 14 contracts [or so] on one account). We believe this change is a result of you (Wyndham) realizing the mistake you made when you increased the rental point fees. Because the owners were not willing to pay $8-$10 per thousand to rent points from Wyndham, we (the owners) were able to rent them from other owners for considerably less. Once you realized this, you got greedy again and decided to put an end to that as well. Thousands of owners have been up in arms about this new policy change and we’ve been coming together in discussion online and even on the phone. Many people were sold more points than they could possibly use each year, with the promise from their “advisor” that they could transfer their points to another owner and be compensated for them, to cover the cost of their maintenance fees. Now what are all of these owners supposed to do with their abundance of points? There are also some people who don’t vacation every year. What are they supposed to do with their points that year? With all of the mileage reward cards, it certainly wouldn’t be worth it for people to use their points for airfare. I’ve looked at the airline partner program, and airfare through this would be much more expensive than purchasing airfare on a discount travel site. Another thing that Wyndham hasn’t thought about: if owners have thousands (or even millions) of points that they can’t transfer to another owner, they will be forced to rent out reservations using their points. Because so many owners don’t know how much to charge for reservations, and because they’ll want to get rid of the points they can’t use, they will rent those reservations very cheaply. This will most certainly take away a lot of business from Extra Holidays. Considering Wyndham is clearly making all of these benefit/policy changes to help their own rental business, this would be pretty devastating to you.

While all of us [owners] have been upset about the new policy that will eliminate the transfer of points, you (Wyndham) have been thinking up a new change to devalue our timeshares: charging for guest certificates for multiple, consecutive reservations. This was a big concern when the new guest certificate fees were announced, but we were assured by numerous people at Wyndham that we would only have to pay for one guest certificate when the same guest has another consecutive reservation. We just had to add the guest name online, then call to have the guest name added to the second reservation. This was ONLY FAIR, since many reservations HAVE to be split to get the desired dates. Clearly Wyndham doesn’t believe in what’s fair, and has no respect for its owners. No other timeshare company does this – if you have consecutive reservations at the same resort, you are only charged one guest fee. Why would we be charged more than one fee? What is Wyndham’s cost for this? Also, because most of Wyndham’s weeks only run Friday-Friday, Saturday-Saturday, or Sunday-Sunday, many reservations have to be split, particularly weekend reservations. I was told that if we add the guest name at the time of booking, we would only be charged one guest certificate. Here is the problem with that: your online reservation system is not set up to recognize this, so we will still be charged for two guest confirmations. That means we HAVE to call Wyndham, and because you have so greedily decided to charge $30 extra for adding guest certificates through the call center, this means we don’t even have the option to add the guest names ourselves [for split reservations].

It is clear that Wyndham is trying to “shut down” the mega-renters, which would be a huge mistake. Not only does Wyndham make millions of dollars each year off of the fees that renters pay, but renters supply Wyndham with a large amount of prospective owners at no cost to Wyndham. Wyndham is constantly giving away free weekends at resorts in exchange for attending a timeshare presentation. This obviously costs Wyndham money. The renters use their own points to give you potential owners. In fact, we’ve had one guest (that we know of) make a large purchase from Wyndham when she stayed at the Grand Desert last year. (Also, what would happen to the extra inventory if you were to “shut down” the mega-renters? Give the inventory to Extra Holidays so Wyndham can make even more money off of what WE own?) It really doesn’t make sense that Wyndham would care so much about what the owners do with their own points, so long as their accounts are current. If I buy the house next door, whose business is it if I decide to rent that house? So long as I pay the mortgage, taxes and HOA dues on that house, that’s my business. We owners do have a problem with the biggest mega-renter: Extra Holidays. Why is it that a company created by Wyndham can dip into our inventory and not pay any fees for them? I also understand that none of the money goes into the VOA trust.

I’ve had several people call and/or e-mail me over the last year to ask my opinion of Wyndham. Up until two months ago I recommended the program, but now I couldn’t possibly speak positively of Wyndham Corporation and of the Fairshare Plus Program. I still believe the Wyndham resorts are beautiful, but I am completely disgusted with Wyndham Corporate. I used to train quality assurance for a large corporation, and I know that it is between five and fifteen times cheaper to retain a current customer than to obtain a new one. Not only that, but if one person has a bad experience with a company, they will likely tell 10 other people. We owners have had multiple bad experiences with Wyndham, so how many people do you think we’ve all told each time? Word of mouth is amazing, and reputations can either be ruined or made great because of it.

Again, I urge you to rethink your decisions about the guest certificate fees and transferring of points. There has been a lot of discussion about a class action lawsuit against Wyndham, and I don’t believe this is something to scoff at. In spite of the fact that, according to the trust agreement, Wyndham has the right to change the policies at any time, it is absolutely against the law to use hook, bait and switch sales techniques. We were sold Fairshare Plus points and an upgraded membership based on special benefits. Once we bought in, Wyndham was quick to put an end to those special benefits because of your (Wyndham’s) own self-serving greed. When I read Wyndham’s “Code of Business Conduct and Ethics for Directors,” I truly believe the Board of Directors is violating this code and there is plenty of conflict of interest. How is it okay for Stephen Holmes to be on the board, when he is also the CEO and making plenty of money off of all of these policy changes? The Extra Holidays program also has “conflict of interest” written all over it. All of this is corporate fraud and we owners will not stand for it! It is laughable to hear the recording on Wyndham’s phone lines or to read in Wyndham’s e-mailed responses: “we truly value you and want to ensure that you, your family and friends may fully enjoy all that your vacation ownership with Wyndham Vacation Resorts has to offer.” I am 100% convinced that ALL of the changes made in the last few months are to strictly benefit Wyndham Corporate and the Extra Holidays program.

I will be sending a similar letter to the Florida Attorney General, to numerous consumer advocates, and to multiple news stations in the area. I am completely disappointed with Wyndham Corporate and hope that you make amends with the owners soon.

Sincerely,
Laura _____

cc: Stephen Holmes: Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer
Brian Keller: Director, FairShare VOA
Gary Byrd: Director, FairShare VOA
Peter Hernandez: Director, FairShare VOA
Bill McCollum: Florida Attorney General
Florida Better Business Bureau
Florida Division of Condominiums, Timeshares and Mobile Homes
Tom Martino – Troubleshooter
NBC News
ABC News
CBS News


Dear Mr. and Mrs. _______,

I appreciate your email communication, and would like to have the opportunity tos peak with you. Is there a number where I can reach you possibly, on Monday?

In the meantime, please allow me to share with you a communication that I have shared that explains our position a little more in detail. Of importance to note, none of the fees that are collected in the program are collected by Wyndham Corporate. They are all remitted to the FSP Trust to support the cost of operating the program. This shift has allowed us to keep the FSP Program Assessment to a 1 1/12% increase in a very tough financial year for the club.

I look forward to hearing from you, so that hopefully we can have the opportunity to talk through your genuine concerns.

Thank you for your email, and your sincere concern regarding your FairShare Plus Membership. It is with great consideration, and our sincere care for all owners, that we implement any changes whatsoever to the FairShare Plus program. Only when it becomes clear that new events within the current business environment which negatively impact the FairShare Plus Trust, do we feel that consideration regarding change is necessary. As we have shared in the past, as stewards of the Trust, it is our responsibility to always ensure that the rules and fees are equitable for all, so that a few owners or external businesses cannot find loopholes to take advantage of club offerings, which negatively impact your membership.
§ The decision to eliminate the transferring of points feature was based on several considerations, most especially, ensuring the security of our owners’ accounts.
§ We have discovered several incidents of fraudulent transactions that have occurred as a result of transferring of points, either by other owners or 3rd party companies.
§ We have received countless complaints from owners regarding their being solicited for the resale and transfer of their FairShare Plus points, as many of these groups represent themselves as a Wyndham company.
§ Additionally, based on our records, during the first 11 months of 2008, less than 3% of our owners have used this feature. There are also several owners who are abusing this feature in connection with their commercial rental businesses, the most volume being an individual who has received 740 transfers into their account this year alone.
§ Based on this data, this feature has been taken advantage of to the average FairShare Plus member’s travel detriment, as the corresponding reservations that this type of point usage represents, are only at the most popular resorts.
§ As we never want to be in the position to negatively impact any FairShare Plus member, The FairShare Plus Board will take into consideration your comments and concerns, and determine whether a limited Points Transfer feature is appropriate.
§ If you used the Points Transfer feature in the past, please consider one of several other options still available, including:
o Worldwide Exchange. You may use your points to deposit a week into your worldwide exchange company. You’ll receive a deposit to use to confirm a full week stay with your exchange company for up to two years from the date of deposit.
o Converting Points to Maintenance Dollars. This option allows you to convert your Regular Use Year points during the first 3 months of your Use Year to maintenance dollars that will be applied to your FairShare Plus fees.
o Points Credit Pool. If you know you will not be able to use some or all of your future year’s Regular Use Year Points, consider depositing your points into the Points Credit Pool. Those points will remain available to you for three years from the date you make the deposit.
o Guest Confirmations. Instead of transferring points to another owner’s account, you can book a reservation for someone else by adding a Guest Confirmation at the time of booking

Deanne Gabel
Senior Vice President
Owner Services
FSP Plan Manager
Wyndham Vacation Ownership
8427 SouthPark Circle
Orlando, FL 32819
(407) 345-6417 phone
(407) 370-6375 fax

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

My correspondence with Deanne continued (LONG)

An addition to this complaint:

Before Christmas I received a call from a couple who were thinking about making a purchase from Wyndham, wanting to know my opinion. I was honest and let them know about all of the changes made up to that point, and urged them to do some research on the internet before purchasing. I was very surprised to find out that their Wyndham “advisor” was trying to sell them a platinum membership and more points than they could use in a year, promising that they could rent out weeks at Bonnet Creek for $2000! Not only do weeks not rent for that much, but this “advisor” was trying to PUSH them to rent, which Wyndham clearly “frowns upon.” When these two new changes were made regarding the transfers of points and split reservations, I called that couple back to fill them in on Wyndham’s corporate greed. They hadn’t gone through with the purchase after talking to me the first time, but were especially grateful and happy they didn’t make a purchase after I called them back with the latest news.

It’s time to repair Wyndham’s reputation and make us owners love you again.

Thanks for your feedback on this one. We do not tolerate this type of misrepresentation when discovered.

Deanne Gabel


Deanne,

I am very hesitant to speak with you on the phone, because then I have no “proof” of our conversation. If we had a phone conversation, I would want to record the entire thing. I’ve read on many forums that you’ve said one thing on the phone, then “take back” what you said later. For example, apparently you personally told some owners that they would only be charged for one guest certificate for split/consecutive reservations, then a note went to the VC’s from you saying the owners will now be charged a guest confirmation for each reservation.

It’s getting late, the babysitter’s here and we’re late for an office party. Let me sleep on it and decide if a phone conversation would be wise at this point.

Thanks,
Laura

************************************************** *****
Hi Deanne,

I would like to speak with you on the phone, but please note that I will be recording our conversation. (Not only to have “proof” of what’s said, but since memory doesn’t always serve us humans as well as we’d like.) I do have a two-year-old daughter, so the best time for me is about 3pm Mountain time while she naps. (Otherwise she will just get upset if she can’t talk on the phone, too.) Let me know if this works for you. If there’s not time Monday, I’m flexible with the day as long as it’s during my daughter’s naptime.

Thank you,
Laura

Ms. _____,

Thank you for your offer, but I must decline. It does concern me however that you feel the need to record the call.

While we read the blogs as well, please know that we have 360,000 FSP owners, most of which are not running rental businesses. Many of those that you are hearing from are operating independent rental operations, which is in direct conflict to the “Statement of Understanding” when our product is purchased. Many of the changes of late are to address some of the concerns that have arisen from these business operations. These individuals while terrific owners in a great many respects, have business practices that work against the general operating needs of the balance of our ownership base. It is important to note that the fees that are defined in the program are all paid to the FSP Trust or club operation, and not the Wyndham Corporation.

It is very much true that you only need one guest confirmation when booking your guest…..when you place the name on the booking at the time of booking, and we recommend that you add the guest at this time. Most individuals traveling for personal or family purposes, do know this information at the time of booking.

Again, my apologies for not being able to speak with you, however I did not have any intention of recording our conversation, and cannot agree to being recorded.

As a side note, I do just want to share with you, that it is our fundamental purpose to be sure that the majority, if not all of our owners are pleased with their ownership. As such we make decisions to be sure that each and every one of our owners is protected and able to use their product as defined. It would be entirely contradictory to do otherwise. It is of course our intention to want to sell more product, in order to continue to develop great new locations for our owners to travel to and experience. We truly understand the need to be sure that our owners are extremely happy with the products that they buy from us.

Thank you for your time, your ownership, and your sincere interest in your membership.

Deanne Gabel


Deanne,

I am COMPLETELY disappointed in the fact that you now won’t have a phone conversation with me. “It does concern me however that you feel the need to record the call.” The fact that you will NOT have a phone conversation with an owner if you know the phone call is being recorded shows exactly why I wanted to have the phone call recorded in the first place. Countless owners have complained about you going back on your word, both after phone conversations and after VOA meetings. I don’t know how I can have any respect for you if you won’t discuss things on the phone with me, after I spent HOURS putting together an articulate letter. I also spent HOURS putting together a list of items to be discussed (see attached). If you are truly grateful for “my time, my ownership and my sincere interest in my membership,” you should do me the courtesy of answering my questions, and shame on you if you refuse to.

The bottom line is that none of the changes are justifiable, and I’ve made several points in the attached document. “Many of the changes of late are to address some of the concerns that have arisen from these business operations.” Why are you not stating this to the mass majority, instead of sending out “careful” communications with lies about the reasons for changes? With that statement, you have proven my point that you are trying to shut down renters so that Extra Holidays no longer has competition. If that’s not true, why not shut down the Extra Holidays program? The Extra Holidays program is certainly in “direct conflict” with what’s in the best interest of the owners.

How can you write, “it is our fundamental purpose to be sure that the majority, if not all of our owners are pleased with their ownership” and not reverse the changes recently made? “As such we make decisions to be sure that each and every one of our owners is protected and able to use their product as defined. It would be entirely contradictory to do otherwise.” I agree, which is why none of the changes make sense. ALL of the owners are affected by these changes, and hundreds (if not thousands) of people have complained. As I stated in the attached, the people who haven’t yet complained fall into one of four categories:
1. They haven’t had time because all of these changes happened during a very stressful time of the year (with the economy falling and the holidays).
2. They don’t know enough about timeshare to realize the significance these changes have on devaluing their ownership.
3. They don’t feel like Wyndham listens, so they don’t see the point in complaining.
4. They don’t know about the changes yet.

“It is very much true that you only need one guest confirmation when booking your guest…..when you place the name on the booking at the time of booking, and we recommend that you add the guest at this time. Most individuals traveling for personal or family purposes, do know this information at the time of booking.” I knew this information yesterday when I tried to make a reservation, and I was STILL charged for two guest confirmations!!

Please note that I do rent units, but am not a “mega” renter. We have an abundance of points, so I rent out units to cover our maintenance fees (something you recently SUGGESTED owners do) and to make enough money to justify staying home with my daughter. I know exactly who I’ve been “hearing from,” and no, most of them do not have rental operations. This shows me how out of touch you are with your owners and what’s best for them. It seems as though you have a personal problem with people who rent. It’s clouding your judgment and causing you (and the board) to make ridiculous changes to our program. What makes the renters bad people? You make them sound like criminals, for heaven’s sake! It’s not the renters who “have business practices that work against the general operating needs of the balance of our ownership base,” it’s Wyndham itself!

I would appreciate a response to the attached document, in writing. I will only have a non-recorded phone conversation with you if the attachment is responded to first. With God’s help I have been able to put my anger aside to really look at the changes. I pray that God will give you the strength to look at the changes with a more open mind and with anger towards the “mega renters” set aside.

I will wait until tomorrow to submit the rest of my complaints to the Attorney General in Florida, Arkansas, and the rest of the agencies I plan to submit complaints to.

Laura

************************************************** *******
Deanne,

I would also like to add that as I have been writing these letters, e-mails, and points, I do not pretend to know everything there is to know about timeshares. However, I do know the difference between right and wrong. I am not a litigious person, or the type to complain about a lot or about little things, but I am very passionate about what Wyndham is doing to the owners and I will stand up for what’s right. For every complaint you’ve received, I guarantee they are speaking for at least 10 people who are stewing in silence.

We owners shouldn’t have to spend this much time and effort to get you (and the board of directors) to see the mistakes you’re making. I should be spending my evenings with my family . . should be happily planning my daughter’s birthday party . . . should be looking forward to our trip to San Antonio next week. I should NOT feel upset over changes to something WE OWN, particularly when the something we own is supposed to bring us years upon years of happiness.

Laura

My husband's e-mail to Deanne:
Deanne,

You have been communicating with my wife, and I have a few things to add. First, let me state that I echo every single one of her points. We are completely disgusted with Wyndham at this point.

Another member just sent me a document from October 2008 that was sent by Wyndham to some select owners. It reads: “Therefore, we ask that you kindly remove, at your earliest convenience, all of Wyndham’s Marks and copyrighted materials from any advertising materials you may be using . . . Please understand that we are not asking you to cease renting (to the extent that rental activities are permitted by your Purchase and Sale Agreement to the FairShare Plus program) or selling your vacation ownership interests or those interests that belong to others, but merely to cease using the Wyndham Marks and copyrighted materials for these commercial activities.” This statement is VERY contradictory to what you are stating in your communications to my wife.

Also, an amendment to my wife’s previous statement: there is a FIFTH type of person who hasn’t complained to Wyndham: the type who is fed up and is just “getting out” and selling their contracts. Disgruntled owners are paying postcard companies $3K+ to get rid of them, then they are selling on eBay. The postcard companies are devaluing our ownerships, and that is a big problem. Walking away IS some owners’ way of complaining.

For Wyndham to increase fees and revoke benefits because they feel renters are taking advantage of the benefits and are hurting the program is completely ridiculous. Why are you now saying that renting something we own is a “direct conflict” with our “Statement of Understanding,” when less than 3 months ago you were agreeing in writing that the rental activities are permitted since we own the timeshares and bought into the program?

Isn’t it your job to look out for the best interests of the owners? How are these changes going to help the “average owner?” How are these changes going to help ANYONE but Wyndham and Extra Holidays? I would really like to know how you feel the elimination of transfers helps ANY of the owners. Who do you think transfers points into other people’s accounts? The “average owner” who was sold too many points than they could use each year, with the promise that they could “rent” the points to another owner. (Or the “average owner” who just doesn’t vacation every year and can’t do anything with their unused points.)

Something else my wife didn’t mention: we had been discussing (with Wyndham) another large purchase until these changes were made. We’re no longer interested since Wyndham can’t keep promises and constantly changes the benefits. That’s $20,000-$100,000 that Wyndham just lost, and I’m just ONE owner. Who knows how many other current owners were considering another large purchase before these changes were made.

We do sympathize with the fact that you are having a lot of complaints to respond to, especially since the board isn’t responding to ANY. It seems as though the board has left you to fend for the company AND the VOA. We would appreciate written responses to all of the points made above and in the e-mails my wife sent. We are both filing complaints with the Attorney Generals in Florida and Arkansas.

Since Wyndham’s best interest is what seems to be on the minds of yourself and the board of directors, it would do you all some good to look at how all of these changes are going to ruin Wyndham’s reputation.

Sincerely,
Bryon


I will post all of my "points" that I had written out to Deanne in just a bit...

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

Points about Changes/Wyndham

Any Wyndham/Deanne remarks I used are in red, quotes from other owners (some of you!) are in green, and additions since sending this to Deanne are in blue.

Guest Certificate Fees:
• Unlimited free guest certificates was something that sold us on a Platinum membership.
• The 500% increase was shocking and completely unjustifiable. NO OTHER timeshare company charges this kind of fee. Here are what the other companies charge:
o RCI: $59
o Interval: $39
o Disney Vacation Club: FREE
o SFX (San Francisco Exchange): FREE for Platinum members, $39 for Gold
o DAE (Dial-an-Exchange): FREE
o Platinum Interchange: $35
o Trading Places Maui: FREE
o Trading Places International: $25-$39
o Hawaii Timeshare Exchange: FREE
• Please realize that the guest certificate fees above are for EXCHANGES, NOT for owned weeks. We own many other timeshares at non-Wyndham resorts, and we NEVER have to pay a guest certificate fee when we’re not using the week. Because we OWN these points, just as if we were to own WEEKS/SPECIFIC UNITS, why should we have to pay a guest certificate fee?
• Most of the timeshare exchange companies who charge guest certificate fees exchange FULL WEEK stays. $39 for a full week certainly isn’t as bad as $129 for 2 nights at a Wyndham resort. If we are going to be charged guest certificate fees (which we shouldn’t be at all), it should be based on how many nights are used.
• Most owners are NOT mega-renters, so now when we want to let a family member or friends use our timeshare points, they now have to pay that extra fee. Not a good way to “sell” our friends/family on Wyndham.
• Many times when we’ve had guests, they’ve still had trouble checking in because the guest name was never transferred from the mainframe to the resort. (As a side note, the resorts at first didn’t accept responsibility for this problem and made it sound like WE didn’t add the guest name.) Why should we have to pay for a service that’s not being provided?

Adding Guest Names to Reservations Less than 15 Days Out:
• Why are we no longer allowed to add guest names to reservations that are less than 15 days out? If I fall ill or have something happen that doesn’t allow me to vacation, I should be allowed to add a guest name to that reservation. Again, we OWN the points, so it shouldn’t matter to Wyndham if I want to add a guest. Wyndham threatening to cancel a reservation that’s less than 15 days out is ridiculous.
• For the people who do rent reservations: if they want to “risk” holding onto a unit in hopes that it will rent, isn’t that their choice? They are risking losing all of the points for that reservation, so again, what does Wyndham care?
• Is it true that the reservation will ONLY be cancelled if there are units reserved with overlapping dates at the same resort?
• My guess is Wyndham cares because they’d rather have that inventory for Extra Holidays. I’m sure this is also the reason the cancellation policy changed so that owners lose their points for anything cancelled less than 15 days out.

Guest Certificates for Multiple Reservations:
• When we no longer had unlimited free guest certificates, a big question on EVERYONE’S minds (including the VC’s) was “what about split/consecutive reservations?” We were ASSURED by numerous people that we just needed to add the guest name to the first reservation online, then call to have an agent add the guest name to the other reservation(s) without using more guest confirmations. The fees increased shortly after this blow, and then this policy changed as well. However, I was told by Owner Relations that if we make multiple/consecutive reservations at the same time and add the guest name at the time of booking, we’ll only be charged for one guest confirmation. I called today to book 9 nights at Bonnet Creek for a friend and was told I had to use two guest confirmations, in spite of the reservations being consecutive, being made at the same time, and adding the guest name at the time of booking. I was then told that that “exception” to the new policy ONLY applies to “split” reservations. The gal I spoke to at Owner Relations (Yorleni) said if you have consecutive reservations that total more than 7 nights, you will still be charged for two guest confirmations, since they consider that two separate reservations. I asked her how that's considered separate reservations when it's the same guest occupying the same room for the entire stay? I then told her that Bonnet Creek (and the other resorts) considers that one reservation and keeps the guest in the same room. She said that they have different rules than the resorts, and if the resorts decide to keep the guest in the same room as a courtesy, that's up to them. (By the way – this isn’t just a “courtesy” to the guest, it’s less work for the resort to not have the same guest checking in/out of multiple rooms and more units cleaned than necessary.) Isn't that the exact same thing as a split reservation?? It really is up to the resort if they'd like to keep the guest in the same room for a full week when the reservation is split into 3 and 4 nights. I don't see how this is different at all!
• 15 guest certificates per million points are not enough, PARTICULARLY if we have to use more than one confirmation for the same guest. Also, because of a billing glitch in Wyndham’s system, we are forced to have a second non-Platinum account, so we don’t get any of the Platinum benefits for those points. (Once we spend tens of thousands of dollars to buy into Platinum, Wyndham shouldn’t care so much about us adding resale contracts.) And what about those people who don’t have that many points to get more than one free confirmation and can’t use their points each year? They can no longer transfer points to another owner, so now they’ll have to pay $99-$129 per reservation just to use up their points.
• RCI points (I’m using RCI as an example since theirs is a point system also) does not show when weeks are split up, though they obviously are all the time. We are charged ONE guest certificate fee, regardless of the length of stay or check-in/check-out day. We can also search for more than 7 nights.
• The online system is not set up to recognize only using one guest confirmation for split reservations. This means we HAVE to call to make the reservation, and since Wyndham has greedily decided to charge $129 instead of $99 to add the guest name over the phone, that means we don’t even have the option to add the guest name ourselves online to save $30! Also, it is a HUGE pain to contact the call center. It often takes 10 minutes to get someone on the line, most of the time the agents don’t seem to know what they’re doing, the guest names are frequently spelled wrong by the agents in spite of spelling out the names slowly, and we’re constantly put on hold for 15 minutes while they get a supervisor to add a guest confirmation back to our account. So, not only are we getting charged $30 extra to contact the call center to add a guest name, but we are being extremely inconvenienced. How is this fair to the owners? Not only that, but just since this new policy went into place I’ve problems with the guest confirmations not getting added back to my account. Solution: DON’T CHARGE FOR GUEST CERTIFICATES. It’s less hassle for EVERYONE involved if we just go back to the way it was before the unlimited free guest certificates were taken away.
• Quote from another owner: “In fact, in May of this year, Deanne stood in front of the Owner's Group meeting in Orlando and laughed when someone suggested that WyndSham might charge two guest fees for this. She said, "no, of course not, we are reasonable, obviously if it is for a split reservation we will only charge you one guest fee." Guess what? She lied. Today, they told me that Deanne Gabel sent out an internal memo on Christmas Eve "clarifying" the policy for split reservations. In order to only use one guest token or guest fee for a split reservation, all parts of it must be booked at the same time and the guest name added during that same phone call! Merry Christmas sucker owners! No more adding a day to an existing reservation without paying for another guest fee. So, I have a four night reservation that cost me 36,000 points (or about $180 worth of my maintenance fees). This nice gesture of "giving" a unit to my sister ended up costing an ADDITIONAL $297 to have her name added to it!!!”
• We get our 50% discount at 60 days prior. Often times the dates we need are split, so I can only get PART of the week at a discount. I have to wait for the other part to be discounted as well. I have to book the first part as soon as it’s discounted, before another owner or Extra Holidays takes the unit out of inventory. This means I cannot make the reservations at the same time, so I will be charged a guest certificate for each reservation.

Transfer of Points No Longer Allowed:
• Thousands of people were sold more points than they could possibly use in a year, with the promise that they could transfer them to another owner and be compensated by that owner. If these people can’t transfer points, they will have an abundance of points to use. I don’t see any practical options, even in Wyndham’s response to owner’s complaints. One option was to rent out units . . .
 First of all, Wyndham clearly frowns on people renting the units, so I don’t know why this was even given as an option. (Evidence in mass response to complaints: “so that a few owners or external businesses cannot find loopholes to take advantage of club offerings . . .” and “There are also several owners who are abusing this feature in connection with their commercial rental businesses.”)
 Second of all, people will rent things cheaply because they won’t know what to charge and will just want to cover their maintenance fees. This will do two things:
1. Drive the value of our timeshares down and cause Wyndham to lose sales. Who will want to buy Wyndham points when they can rent for dirt cheap? (Many people will also be selling their Wyndham timeshares now. Why should people spend tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy from Wyndham when they can buy for $100 on eBay from a disgruntled owner?)
2. Take major business away from Extra Holidays.
 Third of all, many reservations are split to get the dates people need, but to get desirable dates to rent out, the reservations must be made in advance. This means owners will be charged two guest confirmations since they won’t be adding the guest name at the time of booking.
• The reason given for this change was to “ensure [our] accounts are being securely and accurately maintained.” If there was a security problem, then it sounds like the agents in Owner Relations weren’t doing their jobs to make sure transfers were done properly. Why should the owners be penalized for a problem within Wyndham staff? Quote from another owner (paraphrasing): “How many errors in how many transactions? How significant was it and how do we fix the problem? The existence of errors is part of being human and errors occur all the time, all over. Discovering errors is part of quality assurance and allows improvements to be made. Wyndham should be looking for ways to improve the handling of transfers rather than completely eliminating feature. Is Wyndham going to stop billing us for maintenance fees because they have made more than several errors? Of course not, that would be silly.”
• I believe Wyndham realized they made a mistake when they increased the fees for rental points to $8-$10 from $5 per thousand. Wyndham made a LOT of money on the rental points, so this was definitely a mistake. People stopped renting from Wyndham and starting renting from other owners for much less. Once Wyndham realized this, they eliminated the transfer feature.
• Response from Wyndham: We have discovered several incidents of fraudulent transactions that have occurred as a result of transferring of points, either by other owners or 3rd party companies.
If this was really a major problem, then why hasn’t there been ANY mention of it on any of the forums or any notice in a newsletter? There are PLENTY of other things Wyndham can do to protect owners’ accounts rather than take away a benefit:
1. Create a password for the accounts for verification purposes, rather than just verifying the name, e-mail address and zip code. The current verification procedures are not secure enough, and passwords are very typical for any type of account transaction with other companies. (This is something should be implemented right away since member numbers are on the guest confirmations.)
2. Charge a small fee for transfers.
3. Limit the transfers to maybe 25-50 per year.
As far as fraudulent transactions in the past: one of the two owners involved in a transfer had to be the cause of the fraudulent transaction, and obviously Wyndham has record of those members – why doesn’t Wyndham go after those specific owners?
• Response from Wyndham: We have received countless complaints from owners regarding their being solicited for the resale and transfer of their FairShare Plus points, as many of these groups represent themselves as a Wyndham company.
Again, I haven’t read/heard this anywhere. Even if this was in fact happening, why would you penalize ALL of the owners for something a VERY small fraction of owners did? That would be like a principal punishing an entire school of 1000 kids just because he/she saw one kid being a bully. Quote from another owner (paraphrasing): “First, define ‘countless.’ Does it mean undocumented? How many companies out there are doing what you describe? How many of these companies were reported and still exist? Second, how many of the people that complained actually wanted the transfer feature eliminated? Third, there is nothing forcing anyone to transfer their points. Fourth, the right answer is not elimination of the program but fixing the problem. We receive scam e-mails every day, and many people are swindled out of thousands of dollars. Would your solution be to eliminate e-mail?”
• Response from Wyndham: Additionally, based on our records, during the first 11 months of 2008, less than 3% of our owners have used this feature. There are also several owners who are abusing this feature in connection with their commercial rental businesses, the most volume being an individual who has received 740 transfers into their account this year alone.
First of all, if less than 3% of owners used the transfer feature, why does Wyndham care so much to take away that privilege? If only 3% used the feature, how many fraudulent incidents could there really have been? I’m sorry, but I don’t believe that one person received 740 transfers into their account in one year – that’s two transfers a day! EVEN IF SOMEONE DID have that many transfers, how is it “abusing” a feature that was allowed? And, honestly, what does Wyndham really care?? Also, if Wyndham is using the low percentage of owners using the transfer feature to make a point about the feature, why is Deanne pointing out a rare case of ONE owner out of 360,000 members? On the other side of this, what are those people supposed to do with all of those points they once transferred to that one individual? I think you know that the options given in your mass response are not viable. Quote from another owner (paraphrasing): “This is probably your most flawed argument. Measuring the number of members using the program is clearly the wrong measure. The correct measure would be the percentage of total points owned by people using this feature. This is similar to when a company takes a shareholder vote - the number of shares is counted, not the number of shareholders. As you know, that is what ownership is all about. Many Wyndham timeshare owners don't even use their timeshares. Does this mean that the timeshare program should be eliminated?”
• Response from Wyndham: Based on this data, this feature has been taken advantage of to the average FairShare Plus member’s travel detriment, as the corresponding reservations that this type of point usage represents, are only at the most popular resorts.
Again, how is it “taking advantage” when this is something that was allowed? I fully believe that Wyndham has decided to eliminate the competition of Extra Holidays. Does the “average” FairShare Plus member know about Extra Holidays and the fact that Wyndham takes THEIR inventory at the “most popular resorts?” Probably not. Wyndham has convinced “average” members that the mega-renters are hurting them, meanwhile doing the same thing on a MUCH larger scale with things THEY own.

All Changes:
 Response directly to me from Deanne Gabel at Wyndham: Of importance to note, none of the fees that are collected in the program are collected by Wyndham Corporate. They are all remitted to the FSP Trust to support the cost of operating the program. This shift has allowed us to keep the FSP Program Assessment to a 1 1/2% increase in a very tough financial year for the club. This is not just a “shift.” These changes are going to make Wyndham millions (maybe billions?) of dollars a year extra, not just from the increase of fees, but possibly in the extra rental profit from Extra Holidays. It doesn’t matter who is “collecting” the fees – they all end up at Wyndham. Also – it’s been a tough financial year for MOST people. By charging these extra fees and by eliminating the transfer feature, Wyndham is being selfish. Why are Deanne and the board of directors more concerned about Wyndham than they are about the owners? Aren’t they being paid [by us] to look out for our best interests?? Wyndham is hurting all of the owners financially during an economic downfall by taking money out of OUR pockets. We as owners have put our trust in Deanne and the board to protect what we own. Not only has what we own been devalued by decisions Deanne and the board made, but we can no longer trust anyone at Wyndham. (Perhaps it’s time for a change in the staff at Wyndham and members of the board?) These fees have been random and ramped. The fees are not customer-oriented fees; they are company-profit-oriented fees. If the cost of administering the program has gone up, you should increase the program fee by $.05-$.10 for everyone, instead of randomly choosing fees to increase that don’t make sense. We know why – to get rid of the “mega renters” and help Extra Holidays.
 Perhaps these changes are not so random – if people can’t transfer points to another owner, they’ll be forced to rent out units which requires guest certificates. Most people don’t get many free guest certificates, so they’ll be paying a LOT of fees to Wyndham. Where EXACTLY are all of these fees going?
 Shutting down the “mega-renters” would be a huge mistake:
o Wyndham makes millions (maybe billions) of dollars off of the fees and assessments that mega-renters pay each year.
o Renters give Wyndham prospective owners at NO COST TO WYNDHAM. We’ve had one guest buy from Wyndham (that we know of, possibly more). Why not take advantage of this so Wyndham doesn’t have to give away so many free weekends and other free gifts?
o Why does Wyndham care if an owner rents out reservations? If I buy a house and rent it out, what does it matter so long as I am current on my mortgage, taxes, and HOA fees?

Wyndham Timeshares Being Devalued:
• Disney Vacation Club and Wyndham Vacation Ownership were both started 16 years ago by the same individuals. Up until about 4 years ago, the rules were pretty much the same for both. The difference now? DVC timeshares often have a higher resale value now than when they were originally purchased. Wyndham timeshares sell for pennies in comparison. DVC also allows point transfers, charges no transaction fees, no housekeeping fees, no guest certificate fees, and you can cancel up until the day of the reservation without penalty. DVC also doesn’t accuse people of being mega renters or try to stop resale.
• Several lawsuits are already out there against Wyndham, including a new LARGE lawsuit against Wyndham Ocean Walk. This is certainly not good press for Wyndham.
• It is 5-15 times cheaper to keep a current customer than to obtain a new one. Considering sales are probably down already due to the economy, why isn’t Wyndham doing more to please the current owners??
• When someone has a bad experience with a company, they are likely to tell 10 people about that experience. I personally experience problems with Wyndham on a weekly basis, so I’ve probably told hundreds of people about the problems.
• I’ve had many people contact me to ask me for my opinion on Wyndham. Up until a few months ago, I recommended the program. I can NO LONGER recommend Wyndham to ANYONE. A couple contacted me before Christmas asking me for my opinion. I told them about the increase in rental point fees, the change to unlimited free guest certificates, and the increase in the guest certificate fee. I advised them to research Wyndham before making a purchase. After the last two changes – the elimination of points transfers and being charged for multiple guest certificates for consecutive reservations – I called them back. They hadn’t made the purchase after talking to me the first time and doing their own research, but were EXTREMELY relieved and felt great about their decision not to purchase after finding out about the new changes. (As a side note – why are advisors pushing people to buy more points than they can use, promising they can rent out weeks for $2000? First, hardly any weeks don’t rent for that much. Second, Wyndham CLEARLY frowns upon renting, especially as a business. The resort staff/advisors/sales staff probably can’t even keep up with all of these changes, so people are still being given the wrong information.)

Extra Holidays:
 Why is a program created by Wyndham allowed to dip into our inventory to rent to the public?
 Why doesn’t Extra Holidays have to charge guest certificate fees?
 I wouldn’t have AS big of a problem with Extra Holidays if I could still book things that show available in their inventory. When the public searches for availability through Extra Holidays, they shouldn’t get MORE options than the owners get. There are constantly things I can’t get that Extra Holidays has. It is SO disrespectful to the owners.
 Since these are units that WE OWNERS pay for, where is the money going? If the cost to run the ownership program has increased, why isn’t the money from Extra Holidays going back into the program? Are our fees being used to pay for the website and marketing for Extra Holidays? I would like to see financial records.
 Someone called me today (Sunday) who had gotten a quote from Extra Holidays and wanted to see what I would charge. They asked about the program and wondered why Extra Holidays had things available that we didn’t. I used this as an opportunity to tell them about Wyndham’s self-serving greed. She ended up canceling her reservation with Extra Holidays and rented from me.
 We owners can only book at resorts up to 10 months in advance. However, Extra Holidays is releasing OUR inventory to the general public for reservation ANYTIME. For example, I cannot get anything for Christmas or New Year’s of 2009 right now, but if I search on Extra Holidays, I can book it.
 The bottom line is that the Extra Holidays program is in direct conflict with the best interest of the owners. We (the owners) are paying for a program run by Wyndham and are not getting any money back – it ALL goes to Wyndham. The program also takes away from our inventory.

Closing Thoughts:
• We do not feel like valued owners in ANY way. Unless Wyndham reverses all of the changes made in the last several months, we will continue to spread the word about what an awful corporation Wyndham is. I’ve only been an owner for a little over a year and am already fed up with Wyndham. That’s really terrible considering we made these purchases with the mindset that we’d own them forever.
• The board of directors for our Vacation Ownership Association is paid by Wyndham, so they have a major conflict of interest when it comes to making decisions that affect the owners. Why won’t they allow any owners on the board? It seems that most vacation association boards are made up of owners who VOLUNTEER.
• Deanne Gabel refused to have a recorded phone conversation with me regarding Wyndham’s policies and my membership. If I contact the call center, owner relations, or am contacted by someone at Wyndham, I am recorded. If I ask not to be recorded, they end the phone call.
• From what I understand, no one from the board of directors has responded to complaints people have sent in, which I believe is just cowardly. As far as I can tell, executives at (and people paid well by) Wyndham are just as bad as the AIG execs who spent $400,000 on a weekend retreat after just receiving a government bailout. Perhaps the board doesn’t feel like they’ve received enough complaints to justify a response. The people who haven’t yet complained fall into one of four categories:
1. They haven’t had time because all of these changes happened during a very stressful time of the year (with the economy falling and the holidays).
2. They don’t know enough about timeshare to realize the significance these changes have on devaluing their ownership.
3. They don’t feel like Wyndham listens, so they don’t see the point in complaining.
4. They don’t know about the changes yet.

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

It's about time Wyndham points program acted to protect the megarenters from making money by sucking up a majority of thr prime weeks at the expense of the users.

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

While the prior post to yours is somewhat regretable because it focuses so much on renting issues I also fail to understand yours.

Mega renters are not, as you say, sucking up prime weeks, it is just not what they do. They have no advantage in that area over other owners.

I've seen you express that thought on other threads and it is just plain wrong and needs to be challenged.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

It's about time Wyndham points program to protect the megarenters from making money by sucking up a majority of thr prime weeks at the expense of the users.

I really have problem to understand you. You claim you are not Wyndham point owner, yet when I explain to you the restriction on the transfer points so it will be very unlikely be used in prime week reservation, you continue use your imagation to claim it will be used.

Do you know some way to make these points work in the ARP period?

Jya-Ning