Dulene Amilcar et al. v Wyndham

Claims:

Former Wyndham Business Operations Coordinator Dulene Amilcar, Community Marketing Agent Barbara Cologgi, and sales representatives Christine Galvin, Martha Hassall, Bruce Knecht, Jody Knecht, Charles Langdon, Shelly Lightsey, James “Mark” Terrell, and Patricia Thompson filed a whistleblower lawsuit in which they claimed that Wyndham retaliated against them when they objected to and/or refused to sell Wyndham timeshares using unlawful, unethical, and fraudulent means, in violation of Florida state laws 475.42(1)(a), 475.42(1)(e), 475.42(1)(m) and 475.42(1)(n).

The alleged practices include:

• misrepresenting to prospective buyers their ability to use the timeshare, when in fact, many owners would be unable to use the timeshare due to overbooking to nonowner hotel guests;
• misrepresenting to prospective buyers that Wyndham would buy back their timeshare if they no longer wished to own it;
• misrepresenting to prospective buyers that a timeshare was an investment and that a timeshare’s value would increase over time;
• misrepresenting to prospective buyers the actual price of the timeshare;
• misrepresenting to prospective buyers their “refinancing options;”
• misrepresenting to prospective buyers that the property they would be touring was “not a timeshare;”
• altering prospective buyers’ income level in order to approve them for credit financing; and
• misrepresenting to prospective buyers that completing a credit application would not hurt their credit score, that it would only be a “soft hit,” or that was they were completing was not a credit application at all.