Has anyone purchased from Vallart Gardens?

natalieg64 wrote:

Alice, I too fell scam to Vallarta Gardens with Cynthia Gonzalez and Joe Potter at the helm. I was in a similar situation having paid the down payment, but not yet paid the balance and just outside of the rescission period. I hired Mexican Timeshare Solutions and they recouped most of my down payment and cancelled the contract with the resort. I suggest you contact them and see what they can do for you.

natalieg64....what is your timeframe? When did you buy; when did you hire Mexican Timeshare Solutions (and, how do you contact this organization); and how long did it take MTS (Mexican Timeshare Solution) to achieve progress with your case. You had to have been operating within a short window. My issues began in October 2012 and I am still striving for resolution.

Alice....you stated "the other 3rd party that is involved is a co. called ETI -Equity transfers INt. They are supposedly transferring the resorts over to VG and out of our names ,and with one thing comes another,it's like dominoes ,you are stuck doing it all or nothing will work like they planned .Thats where Vancom Stategies comes in ,and they are supposed to help you pay for this with the rentals............

Yes, VANCOM will rent your properties....they quoted me a fee upfront of $1400 to cover a ten year period with no promise of success....only dependent on the market for rentals. I walked away from the couple of conversations I had with VanCom feeling that dealing with them would be as nebulous as dealing with VG.

Another possible discrepancy between "info divulged to you and info divulged to me ' ......."the other 3rd party that is involved is a co. called ETI -Equity transfers INt.

After a period of six months, I have recently received several calls from a guy who calls himself Tony Diaz with a company in Texas. He says he has been hired to perform the ownership transfer of a timeshare I owned that was supposedly 'traded-in' on the VG timeshare. There is no mention of the trade-in in the VG contract. Why has it taken 6 months for this followup to take place.

In the limited conversations I have had with VG personnel since my purchase in October 2012, Dan Sauer, Project Manager, implied he did not realize that Orlando Ramirez had promised/indicated a trade-in of a timeshare I owned with Bluegreen would be traded in on the purchase of the VG timeshare.

Has anyone tried to call VG during the day? My efforts resulted nil results trying to contact Cynthia Gonzales; Orlando; or Sauer. They will call at their discretion; but it has been difficult for me to reach anyone. This is a concern in itself that a resort area based on a business model such as this cannot be reached by " the individual timeshare owners.

This is pretty much a shoe string operation.

alicem105 wrote:

Paula,

Hi ,we also purchased at VG on Feb 20 .We have owned T.S for many years and have been to lots of presentations over the years ,so how did we fall for this one ? We purchased 2 bdr. and what we thought was 4 wks. of fractional with deed and we were told it is real estate with opportunity for resale in 4 years with Reimax . We also have not received a deed and tittle on paper. We also had our old T.S properties traded in as equity which they then took off the price of the purchase,but now that we are at home we see that the original purchase price is not in any of the paper work,making the final price we paid, the equity value of this contract ,which is fraudulent .

The other 3rd party that is involved is a co. called ETI -Equity transfers INt. They are supposedly transferring the resorts over to VG and out of our names ,and with one thing comes another,it's like dominoes ,you are stuck doing it all or nothing will work like they planned .Thats where Vancom Stategies comes in ,and they are supposed to help you pay for this with the rentals. Oh the head aches are only beginning !! They are so slick in the sales presentation,we didn't catch the other thing which is of great importance in any T.S contract,and that is we were introduced to 4 winter weeks and then he added 1 summer week for what ever reason,well actually I know now that it was to trick us into not thinking of the change he made , to all 5 weeks into summer with the option of 4 of the summer weeks anytime ! He was talking about 'anytime ' ,so we assumed that was the 4 winter weeks.They know exactly how to say everything to get you to think you have one thing but then they change it somehow to be another. Sad, very sad, these guys will do anything ,say anything to keep you interested,and confused,and they don't care. We also were told that Vancom would rent our weeks and pay us $2500 for the 1st. summer week to help pay for this all and subsequently for the next 5 yrs. when then the Resort could offer to buy it back.It sounds ridiculously too good to be true,but I guess when you are sitting in on a conversation like this it all sounds great and you find yourself trusting them too much. I don't know how they sleep at night ? I am thinking of hiring a Mexican Attorney and see what can be done. So far we have paid a down payment, {$11,000}and the balance is on finance starting in May,which gives me some time to investigate. Sorry to hear about your loss too. I 'll let you know what i come up with. AM

Wish I would have seen this before I went to Mexico! I am now the proud supposed part time owner of the two bedroom penthouse? Did anyone else get the one week Platinum and eight floating weeks? Has anyone been staying there since they purchased and how was it? Can you say kinda concerned? I received the Swiss phone call as well and told him to take a hike. Now to see if I can get the weeks I want, when I want? And has anyone seen the tower going up? How about the pier and such?

I purchased one Platinum week and 4 floating weeks in the Tower, which I don't think has even been started. I have been trying for weeks to book a villa for next March and have been getting the run around. I don't mind the purchase as long as I can use it, but I am having significant concerns that I will not be able to use my weeks. I ask questions that never get answered, and they have no formal system for booking or confirming reservations. I am worried...............

This organization only sells; they have no people in place to rent the property; no 800 numbers to call for assisstance; they are just selling....... What they are selling to unsuspected and duped customers is not intended to be used by the customer. Think about it....not only is a timeshare (vacation property) being sold; an insurance (annuity product) is also being sold that is probably worthless; (it supposedly at some point in the future pays for the property entirely); then, some company calls offering to rent your property for a substantial amount of money (Orlando implied this was done free by VG to help pay for the VG ts)---not so!!!! and then if you have a previous timeshare that was a 'trade-in', a company calls saying they are authorized to complete the transfer for a substantial fee.

Money on top of money. And no 800 or other dependable numbers where you can contact VG personnel.

Desperate..... I have a family member who most likely has been scammed with this operation at VG. It has resulted in a recent move and I am extremely concerned. Does anyone have a phone number to contact Tim Lester or Dan? Unfortunately, those are the only names I have and I have not heard from my family in some time now. My fear is the truth has come out and the scam is all too real!!!

paulah171 wrote:

This organization only sells; they have no people in place to rent the property; no 800 numbers to call for assisstance; they are just selling....... What they are selling to unsuspected and duped customers is not intended to be used by the customer. Think about it....not only is a timeshare (vacation property) being sold; an insurance (annuity product) is also being sold that is probably worthless; (it supposedly at some point in the future pays for the property entirely); then, some company calls offering to rent your property for a substantial amount of money (Orlando implied this was done free by VG to help pay for the VG ts)---not so!!!! and then if you have a previous timeshare that was a 'trade-in', a company calls saying they are authorized to complete the transfer for a substantial fee.

Money on top of money. And no 800 or other dependable numbers where you can contact VG personnel.

Vallarta Gardens Scam!!!

I would appreciate it if everyone that has been scammed by this resort please sent me your names and such. I am attempting to have them investigated and the more people the better for this.

My email address is hecy0@hotmail.com

Thanks

Brad MacDonad

There is power in numbers and the more of us that act as a group the better chances we have of doing something about this.

hecy0@hotmail.com

Where do you plan to complain to? I have tried my credit card - they say as long as the place is open it's a valid charge. I tried timeshare solutions - if you have already paid, they can not get your money back but they might be able to get you out of anything more you owe. Profeco -you can file a complaint but they will only arbitrate for you, not try to get your money back. If you find someplace that can really help, let me know. I don't mind paying for the timeshare as long as I can use it, but so far I have been unable to get them to commit to a written reservation.

I have also contacted the Mexican Consulate about them and have been told they will also look into the situation, as bad press has a way of showing itself in ways they do not wish to see.

I am like you, they have not confirmed any dates for my use of the facility. However, I could book rooms online if I wished through travel websites.

If we don't keep letting others know about this it will never stop.

Coincidentally, I received written confirmation for my rental for next March today. They have been incredibly slow in responding, but I kept hounding - and made sure everything is in writing - so hopefully I will have no issues once I get there. I am actually going to be in Mexico in November and plan to stop by and have a chat with Dan and my salesperson. I hardly call anything they have done so far "outstanding service" - and I am interested to see if any construction on the towers has even started. You are welcome to add my name to the list when you speak with the Mexican Consulate. It is Deborah Rose, and I purchased a week plus 4 platinum weeks on Feb 6, 2013. Thanks

Update - so, I got them to give me a confirmation in writing, but I can not get them to take my money to pay for it????? This place ceases to amaze me. There has got to be someway to stop them.

Brad.

We are in the middle of a dispute with our credit cards re: purchase in Dec. 2012 with Vallarta Gardens. I've spent 5 months working on this now. Will let you know.

Pam

pamelaelf@yahoo.com

Don't hold your breath on the credit card dispute - my company (Chase) turned me down. The good news is that I managed to get some bad press on them onto a Facebook page and now I have them contacting me left and right trying to make me happy. I have a reservation in writing and I am meeting with the manager on my next trip down. As long as I can use the place, I'm happy. I was never unhappy with making the purchase, it was just the uncertainty of being able to use it.

I too have been scammed to the tune of several hundreds thousand US dollars in May of this year. Please add me to your investigation list.

George Richardson

Get the facts straight about your sales people at Vallarta Gardens. I hav owned there for over 5 years and bought 1 yr ago another 3 months of fractional.... We were able to market four of our weeks this past year and received over 7,000usd in profit.... Before you go burn any resort and sales people, get teh facts straight and DO NOT LIE about it

I purchased and I am ver Happy...

No lies. You are a very lucky individual....glad YOU are happy. Others have been burned!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Brad, My husband and I just purchased a 4 week partial ownership from Vallarta Gardens last week. We had no intentions to purchase this, but they sold it to us. Orlanda was one of the sales people and Doug and Michael were the other 2 sales people. The only reason we purchased this was because they promissed (and it is also in our contract) that they would market our 4 weeks for this year and for 2014 through Mercury Property Manamgent for $2500 per week. This way the money that we will get will pay for the purchase. I did not read any complaints about marketing the weeks. Do you know anything about that or have you heard any complaints about it. All these complaints are making me sick to my stomach. We already paid over $5000 of downpayment and if the marketing doesn't go through, we will not be able to pay for it. The contract says, they will pay us this money between 180 and 300 days. I feel so stupid falling for these scams. Please let me know if you have heard about marketing the weeks using Mercury. Thank you so much.

bradm170 wrote:

Vallarta Gardens Scam!!!

I would appreciate it if everyone that has been scammed by this resort please sent me your names and such. I am attempting to have them investigated and the more people the better for this.

My email address is hecy0@hotmail.com

Thanks

Brad MacDonad

Jonathan, when did you purchase the property? My husband and I just purchased 4 weeks last week and we were promissed that our 4 weeks for 2013 and 2014 will be used for marketing using Mercury Property Management. That is the only way we could have afforded the property. How long did it take you to get the marketing money and which company did you use?

Thansk

jonathant57 wrote:

Get the facts straight about your sales people at Vallarta Gardens. I hav owned there for over 5 years and bought 1 yr ago another 3 months of fractional.... We were able to market four of our weeks this past year and received over 7,000usd in profit.... Before you go burn any resort and sales people, get teh facts straight and DO NOT LIE about it

No one is lying about their experience. I was lucky, they bought my extra weeks up front, but a lot of the things they promised did not turn out to be true and it took me almost three months to get them to confirm a reservation. I do currently have a reservation for next March, and I'm just hoping to God all goes well. I bought here because I plan to personally use my unit twice a year, not for investment purposes. I have owned timeshares in the past, and this was by far the worst experience I ever had. Verdict is out as to whether I just threw away all my money. I will update in March after I use one of my weeks and let you know how it went.