Woman's timeshare swap turns out to be contract for sale

by By DON DARE 6 On Your Side Reporter

A Louisville woman who thought she was swapping an old timeshare for a new one tells 6 On Your Side she wound up signing a contract for a sale instead.

When buying real estate, you have to pay attention to the details. Most salespeople take their time, explaining what you're buying and how much it costs.

But that apparently wasn't the case when Jim and Neva Shirley were invited to Wyndham Vacation Resorts in Sevierville in March.

The couple paid $200 to stay in a villa. They were shown around the sprawling community, then asked to attend a seminar at one of the resort offices.

Neva said a salesman took them into an office. He knew they already owned a Wyndham timeshare in Nashville.

She said, "He asked me, if you did have the opportunity which resort would you take? I said if I had the opportunity, I would take Smoky Mountain. He said let me see if I can still get that through for you."

Jim has dementia and didn't participate in the conversations.

Neva said she was shown some papers with tiny print and was asked to initial some other papers. Then she signed the first set.

"Yes, I thought I was doing a swap." Neva thought $3,100 was a fee for that swap.

However, it wasn't. It was a down payment on a new timeshare. Neva was buying a condo at the complex costing her more than $20,000.

"You were never told it's a sale," 6 On Your Side asked. "No," Neva said. All along she thought "it's an exchange for a small fee."

"When my sister came up to spend the night with us at the apartment, she got to questioning me," Neva said.

Her sister, Betty Smith, is a retired real estate broker. When she looked at the contract, talked with her sister and checked what Neva had initialed, she discovered not much had been explained to the couple. "I said, this is not right. We need to do something about this."

"They just said, initial this. Initial this. They never explained what I was initialing for, what it said. I could not read it myself," Neva said. "They never explained anything at all. They just kept sticking papers and I kept thinking, why are there so many papers just for an exchange?"

Within 24 hours of signing the papers, Neva returned to the resort offices to cancel the contract.

"They wanted to make the sale. They didn't care how they did it," Neva said. "I told them that I could not do this."

Neva said the salesman wouldn't accept her decision. After the weekend, he even went to her home. "They never did address my decision that I wanted to cancel."

The rules regarding timeshares say you may cancel a contract purchased within 10 days from the date of the contract.

"It does not have to be in writing if it's done in the time period allowed," Betty said.

By the time the Shirleys wrote a letter to Wyndham's corporate office, several weeks had gone by. Wyndham said the couple bought a timeshare at the complex and wanted the mortgage payments.

"I haven't paid anything. They keep calling. I keep telling them it's canceled," Neva said.

After talking with Neva last week, 6 On Your Side called and emailed the corporate office of Wyndham Vacation Resorts and told the company about the couple's situation.

Wyndham responded in an email that says, "We're moving forward with canceling the contract."

"Wonderful, wonderful," Neva said. She's pleased the company came through after what she calls a "misunderstanding" on her part and the resort's.

Wyndham tells Neva it will re-instate her original time-share contract in Nashville.