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As a retired couple from Chico, Tom and Donna Crook love taking vacations to San Francisco. So four years ago, they thought it appropriate to buy a timeshare from Wyndham Vacation Ownership for a room at the company’s Canterbury Hotel.
“If you buy a timeshare, take time to read through all the documents and see what you’re getting into,” warned KGO’s Michael Finney in a report for ABC7’s 7 On Your Side.
After purchasing the original timeshare, the couple claims they were tricked into purchasing additional timeshares that landed them in serious debt – $96,000 worth. The couple has since filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court, claiming that Wyndham sales staff were intentionally targeting senior citizens with deceptive sales tactics and locking them into expensive, unaffordable timeshares.
Working alongside the Figari Law Firm, attorneys for the California Civil Rights Law Group are representing the Crooks and other seniors who have since come forward as victims of similar fraud by Wyndham.
In addition to the consumer class action, the two firms are also representing employees who claim they were wrongfully terminated after blowing the whistle on what they saw to be fraudulent sales practices. Patricia Williams and Marty Whitney both worked on the sales staff for Wyndham and recall being told to keep quiet after raising concerns that salespeople were preying on elderly clientele. Along with two other employees, Williams and Whitney claim that they were wrongfully terminated when Wyndham retaliated against them for making a complaint.