Guitarmom
Guest
Last night, we sat through the only kind of "Owner's Update" we're willing to: a phone call. We weren't on Welk's turf, and Welk wasn't on ours. We watched a Power Point presentation over the Internet while we all talked on speakerphone.
I thought that this would be another attempt to get us to give up our deeded floating week at Welk Villas on the Green and switch to Platinum Points. It wasn't. My other wild guess was that they'd say, "Pay us $5,000 and we'll take back your deed and you are guaranteed II trades to Welk for ten years." It wasn't that pricey, but it also wasn't that good.
I'm writing this so that any other Welk owners who get this call will know what it's all about and can save an hour of their lives!
It all started friendly, friendly, of course. We'll call our "Owner's Services" rep Butch (not his real name, but he sounded like a "Butch.") He claimed to be a retired airline pilot from Florida; he sounded more like surfer from California who'd smoked way too many cigarettes.
First, he assessed us, our age, what we owned and how much we used Welk. Given that I've never "lost" a week, he told me that I ought to teach classes in properly using timeshares. Butter, butter, butter. EVERYONE ELSE, of course, hardly ever uses their timeshares and they just waste their money year after year.
Next, he started with the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt method of Sales 101. He named a MF almost $100 over our actual MF and repeatedly stated that it was going to go up, up, up until it practically doubled. His reasoning was that Welk has such incredible amenities that we, the owners, have to pay for but that get used only by locals for Day Use. He said the city used to subsidize the two Welk golf courses, but that now Welk will have to cover all their own costs. He told us that we were getting up in age and that when we die, our heirs would have to accept the timeshare and be saddled with the ever-rising MF, that there is no way to get rid of a timeshare, even through bankruptcy. We were stuck, but he had our ticket out.
He zipped past a couple of screens in his Power Point, saying (butter, butter) that we already understood trading so we don't need to review that. Then he took us to the screen labeled "Program Overview." As quickly as he could, he took us through the bullet points:
- Pay as you go
- Allows owners to "trade in" their deed
- Using the network, members have access to thousands of resorts and hotels
- No more Maintenance Fees or taxes
- Only pay for what you use
- No depositing
- No waiting
- Simple to use: The Welk Discount Travel Network.
He then took us to https://www.vacationowners.net/membership/ where he showed all the fabulous hotels we could get at incredible prices starting today. They were all over the world. (Salesmanship 102: listen to your prospect, and when they tell you that all their family lives in Escondido so that's their vacation of choice, don't show them hotels in Mazatlan.)
"Butch, Butch, Butch," we said, "we vacation in San Diego, not Mazatlan. What's available at Welk?" He showed us hotel after hotel in San Diego; granted we'd said "San Diego," but nothing showed up at Welk. Note that the hotel prices were good, generally in $80/night range for a $150/night hotel, and generally about $40/night less than the great corporate rates to which we have access.
"Butch, what's available at Welk?" Sure enough, he showed us Welk ... Welk in Cathedral City (i.e. the desert) in July! Sure, the nightly rate was incredible, but we absolutely will not take a desert vacation in July. Call us silly!
We said, "Show us Welk availability in Escondido." He said he couldn't get back to that screen and took us to eBay to show us all the one penney timeshares for sale there. None of them were Welk. I told him that I search eBay regularly and that Welk timeshares go for $5,000 and up. He told me that this is his job, that he checks eBay every day, and that Welk is always up for sale for one penney (not that he could find one). I told him that if I wanted to buy one on eBay for one penney, Welk would exercise its Right of First Refusal and I wouldn't get it anyway. He grunted.
He finally got around to prices. He mentioned our $1000 MF and compared it to the Welk Discount Travel Network fee of $159/year. He told us that every day in the Welk Sales Office, they sell memberships to the Welk Discount Travel Network for $17,000, but he had a special price for us today: $3,695 and we're free of our deed and all future maintenance fees.
"Great," we said, "but can we book at Welk?" He said, "Look at all these great hotels you can stay at, and you don't have to stay a whole week!"
We said, "We really need to see how many weeks are available at Welk." He countered that with my floating week, I have to wait for something to be deposited. "No, Butch," I said, "I don't care what week I look at, I can always book it." He argued with me, but facts are facts: I've never looked up a week at Villas on the Green without being able to book it.
That was when he admitted that he didn't know how to look up Welk and went to get help. An "Internet Specialist" took over the call and searched for any availability at Welk San Diego for the rest of the year.
One week, December 11 - 18, showed up for $849. I said, "Yup, I've already seen that week available on RCI or II for the same price. So what this means is if we join this club, we'll no longer be able to book freely at Welk." The Internet Specialist quickly turned the call back over to Butch.
My hubby asked Butch, "Is there any way we can join this club without turning over our deed?" The answer was a flat no. Then Butch launched back into Fear, Doubt, and Uncertainty and warned us that our MF was going to double and that we'd be sorry if we didn't get rid of our deed now.
Bottom line: We said "no."
One last note: https://vacationowners.net/membership is quite odd. First of all, if this is the Welk Discount Travel Network, why isn't "Welk" mentioned anywhere on the site? Furthermore, after the call was over, we typed that URL and it re-directed us to a different URL. True, it was a sign-in page, probably to be expected, but none of the fancy photos of happy, vacationing families showed up. I also Googled "Vacation Owners" and nothing remotely close to that URL showed up. Very, very odd. I find this "Welk Discount Travel Network" to be quite suspicious.
Conclusion: I believe that Welk wants to get back every deed that's out there. They'll then, internally, convert it to Platinum Points and sell another $40,000 package to some poor, overwhelmed couple who thought that getting free theater tickets was a good idea. When I asked here on TUG whether anyone knew what this Owner's Update was about, over 250 people viewed the post and not one person replied. No one knew! This makes me think that only those of us with a deed are being offered this. Welk must want to keep all its Platinum Points owners, but is desperate to get deeds back.
What do you all think?
I thought that this would be another attempt to get us to give up our deeded floating week at Welk Villas on the Green and switch to Platinum Points. It wasn't. My other wild guess was that they'd say, "Pay us $5,000 and we'll take back your deed and you are guaranteed II trades to Welk for ten years." It wasn't that pricey, but it also wasn't that good.
I'm writing this so that any other Welk owners who get this call will know what it's all about and can save an hour of their lives!
It all started friendly, friendly, of course. We'll call our "Owner's Services" rep Butch (not his real name, but he sounded like a "Butch.") He claimed to be a retired airline pilot from Florida; he sounded more like surfer from California who'd smoked way too many cigarettes.
First, he assessed us, our age, what we owned and how much we used Welk. Given that I've never "lost" a week, he told me that I ought to teach classes in properly using timeshares. Butter, butter, butter. EVERYONE ELSE, of course, hardly ever uses their timeshares and they just waste their money year after year.
Next, he started with the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt method of Sales 101. He named a MF almost $100 over our actual MF and repeatedly stated that it was going to go up, up, up until it practically doubled. His reasoning was that Welk has such incredible amenities that we, the owners, have to pay for but that get used only by locals for Day Use. He said the city used to subsidize the two Welk golf courses, but that now Welk will have to cover all their own costs. He told us that we were getting up in age and that when we die, our heirs would have to accept the timeshare and be saddled with the ever-rising MF, that there is no way to get rid of a timeshare, even through bankruptcy. We were stuck, but he had our ticket out.
He zipped past a couple of screens in his Power Point, saying (butter, butter) that we already understood trading so we don't need to review that. Then he took us to the screen labeled "Program Overview." As quickly as he could, he took us through the bullet points:
- Pay as you go
- Allows owners to "trade in" their deed
- Using the network, members have access to thousands of resorts and hotels
- No more Maintenance Fees or taxes
- Only pay for what you use
- No depositing
- No waiting
- Simple to use: The Welk Discount Travel Network.
He then took us to https://www.vacationowners.net/membership/ where he showed all the fabulous hotels we could get at incredible prices starting today. They were all over the world. (Salesmanship 102: listen to your prospect, and when they tell you that all their family lives in Escondido so that's their vacation of choice, don't show them hotels in Mazatlan.)
"Butch, Butch, Butch," we said, "we vacation in San Diego, not Mazatlan. What's available at Welk?" He showed us hotel after hotel in San Diego; granted we'd said "San Diego," but nothing showed up at Welk. Note that the hotel prices were good, generally in $80/night range for a $150/night hotel, and generally about $40/night less than the great corporate rates to which we have access.
"Butch, what's available at Welk?" Sure enough, he showed us Welk ... Welk in Cathedral City (i.e. the desert) in July! Sure, the nightly rate was incredible, but we absolutely will not take a desert vacation in July. Call us silly!
We said, "Show us Welk availability in Escondido." He said he couldn't get back to that screen and took us to eBay to show us all the one penney timeshares for sale there. None of them were Welk. I told him that I search eBay regularly and that Welk timeshares go for $5,000 and up. He told me that this is his job, that he checks eBay every day, and that Welk is always up for sale for one penney (not that he could find one). I told him that if I wanted to buy one on eBay for one penney, Welk would exercise its Right of First Refusal and I wouldn't get it anyway. He grunted.
He finally got around to prices. He mentioned our $1000 MF and compared it to the Welk Discount Travel Network fee of $159/year. He told us that every day in the Welk Sales Office, they sell memberships to the Welk Discount Travel Network for $17,000, but he had a special price for us today: $3,695 and we're free of our deed and all future maintenance fees.
"Great," we said, "but can we book at Welk?" He said, "Look at all these great hotels you can stay at, and you don't have to stay a whole week!"
We said, "We really need to see how many weeks are available at Welk." He countered that with my floating week, I have to wait for something to be deposited. "No, Butch," I said, "I don't care what week I look at, I can always book it." He argued with me, but facts are facts: I've never looked up a week at Villas on the Green without being able to book it.
That was when he admitted that he didn't know how to look up Welk and went to get help. An "Internet Specialist" took over the call and searched for any availability at Welk San Diego for the rest of the year.
One week, December 11 - 18, showed up for $849. I said, "Yup, I've already seen that week available on RCI or II for the same price. So what this means is if we join this club, we'll no longer be able to book freely at Welk." The Internet Specialist quickly turned the call back over to Butch.
My hubby asked Butch, "Is there any way we can join this club without turning over our deed?" The answer was a flat no. Then Butch launched back into Fear, Doubt, and Uncertainty and warned us that our MF was going to double and that we'd be sorry if we didn't get rid of our deed now.
Bottom line: We said "no."
One last note: https://vacationowners.net/membership is quite odd. First of all, if this is the Welk Discount Travel Network, why isn't "Welk" mentioned anywhere on the site? Furthermore, after the call was over, we typed that URL and it re-directed us to a different URL. True, it was a sign-in page, probably to be expected, but none of the fancy photos of happy, vacationing families showed up. I also Googled "Vacation Owners" and nothing remotely close to that URL showed up. Very, very odd. I find this "Welk Discount Travel Network" to be quite suspicious.
Conclusion: I believe that Welk wants to get back every deed that's out there. They'll then, internally, convert it to Platinum Points and sell another $40,000 package to some poor, overwhelmed couple who thought that getting free theater tickets was a good idea. When I asked here on TUG whether anyone knew what this Owner's Update was about, over 250 people viewed the post and not one person replied. No one knew! This makes me think that only those of us with a deed are being offered this. Welk must want to keep all its Platinum Points owners, but is desperate to get deeds back.
What do you all think?
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