Westgate Resorts Class Action Alleges High-Pressure Sales Tactics

Westgate Resorts uses high-pressure schemes to convince prospective purchasers into buying its vacation timeshare program, according to legal news.

A recent class action lawsuit alleges that Westgate fails to adequately disclose material and legally required information to prospective buyers and also doesn’t provide adequate access to their timeshares.

In addition, the timeshare owners claim Westgate fails to adequately train and supervise its sales agents, does not provide them with disclosures to give to prospective customers and encourages them to lie to customers with high-pressure sales pitches. 

Westgate also allegedly relies on its closing agents to provide written disclosures and provides them with a closing portfolio that contains a “secret pocket” where the closing officers can conceal legally required disclosures about the customer’s rights, including their right to rescind the purchase.

The plaintiffs contend that Westgate does not disclose to their customers that their timeshare interest will be subject to a “floating use” plan and does not disclose to customers the terms of the “floating use” plan. The “floating use” plan fails to provide purchasers reasonable access to their timeshares, the customers say.

“As a result of the common scheme, Westgate owners are left paying thousands of dollars in purchase price, upgrade costs, and annual maintenance fees, all on timeshare units they are frequently unable to use as advertised, and rarely, if ever, are able to use as reasonably expected,” the Westgate class action lawsuit goes on to state.

The plaintiffs say Westgate’s aggressive business model relies on the premise of selling shares in property units, not on customers using the weeks they have purchased in those units. They claim Westgate has a strong incentive to sell as many ownership shares as possible in a piece of property.

Westgate can further increase its profits, the timeshare owners claim, by limiting the owners’ use of the units so they can be rented out by the defendant for additional profit or used by the defendant as sample units to sell timeshare properties to new buyers. 

“Defendants uniformly fail to adequately disclose material facts to buyers and, as a result, fail to deliver what buyers reasonably expect, all in violation of Missouri, Florida, Nevada, and Tennessee common law and statutory law,” claim the plaintiffs.

The timeshare owners also say the timeshare industry’s record profits are driven by sales of ownership shares, not its customers’ use and enjoyment of the properties. The Westgate class action states that a timeshare business makes money every time someone makes a down payment or a monthly payment on a timeshare, including paying steep annual “maintenance fees.”  

“Selling units to new customers and selling nicer units to existing customers is the lifeblood of the timeshare industry,” the timeshare owners say.

According to the plaintiffs, Westgate sales agents pressure purchasers to sign a series of complex and misleading documents without giving the purchasers the opportunity to read (or in some cases see) the documents they are signing.

The Westgate class action claims that only months later, when the new timeshare owners attempt to reserve vacation time in “their” unit, do they learn Westgate sold them something entirely different than what the company told them they purchased.

The plaintiffs maintain Westgate agents approach vacationers on the street, in restaurants and at other public areas. The agents offer them free tickets to local attractions, discounts to timeshare purchases and vouchers for free meals in order to entice them to take a tour of the resorts.

Once the vacationers arrive at the resort, Westgate agents subject them to a high-pressure sales pitch designed to ensure they do not leave without purchasing a timeshare property, the timeshare owners explain.

“Westgate agents attempt to persuade prospective purchasers by telling them that a timeshare is cheaper than paying for future vacations, but that they must act immediately in order to take advantage of supposedly discounted prices,” according to the plaintiffs.

In addition, once they purchase the timeshare, owners face constant pressure from Westgate agents and employees to upgrade to nicer units, the plaintiffs contend. In fact, the timeshare owners say that once they purchase a unit, they are assigned a “concierge” who supposedly assists with booking and other transactions, but in fact is a salesperson who pressures the owners to upgrade their prior purchase.

Westgate fails to tell timeshare owners that they are routinely unable to book units in the resort with as much as 12 months’ notice, the earliest that Westgate allows owners to reserve their use of their timeshare, the plaintiffs say.

The owners claim “they have made repeated attempts to book a stay during their allotted time, only to be told by Westgate officials that there is no availability at the Resort.”

Did you purchase a timeshare with Westgate? Leave a message in the comments section below.

The plaintiffs are represented by Michael Sokolik of Consumer Law Protection Lawyers.

The Westgate Timeshare Class Action Lawsuit is John Hambacker, et al. v. Westgate Resorts Ltd, et al., Case No. 4:20-cv-00833 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

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