Vallarta Gardens Timeshare Scam

Natasha I believe everyone here on this forum is either an owner, past owner, future owner, and maybe even some scammers that thankfully Don P. is on the lookout for, to all of our credit. Don't consider yourself alone. All of us bought timeshares willingly, expecting to solve some longing to have a vacation option available at a fabulous place for a relatively reasonable price. WE THOUGHT!

Well for me, reality set in when I got home and read the fine print.

Anyway, I'm out, been out and happy to be out of my contract. It was easy and painless.

For you, my advice is just walk away. It's scary, but guess what, you don't plan to purchase real estate in Mexico so what do you care about a bad credit rating there?

My L., Lance C. gave you an out. So, I'd take it.

You came here looking for help, well I couldn't have said it better than what Lance C. said.

Believe me, if you get more than 1 or 2 phone calls wanting to know where your payment (Which you will have stopped at your bank or credit card agency) is, I'd think that's one more call than they normally expend energy on.

They have way too many other people to scam. You're just like one of the fish that leaped out of the net as they were drawing it into their boat. Bueno suerte!

IT'S A SCAM!!!!

Imagine you're a fish, looking at a juicy worm laying delicately on a plate, in the middle of the ocean. Would you swim in and take a bite?

Well . . .

Their offer is that worm. And the plate is a big hook that will grab your wallet and you won't even know you're caught until it's too late. Bueno suerte!

We got our money back In a different Vallarta Garden scam... this was our experience posted 9 months ago on Red Week in a different forum.... "Anyone who has experience with Sapphire Holiday Collection weeks ?"

Sorry for the length.....

This is a lengthy description of our recent and hopefully final encounter with the folks with the Sapphire Holiday Collection group. While it may take some time to read it does have a favorable outcome and may contain some information for those looking to get some or all their money back.

We purchased our “membership” after rejecting the sales pitch to buy into Vallarta Gardens in October of 2017. We paid $4200. Like many folks on here, our first attempt was to cancel our credit card after SHC failed to meet any of the 30-day commitments. Then came all the fruitless phone calls/emails and being ping-ponged between SHC and the Marketing Travel Solutions. We pretty much gave up and stopped communicating with them.

The street agent that took us to Vallarta Gardens initially was Eva Gutierrez. She works at a shop across the street from the Westin Hotel on Av. Paseo de la Marina Sur Marina Vallarta. On our most recent trip to PV, which began on the 12th and lasted until the 26th of May 2019, we decided to pay Ms. Gutierrez a visit. She was “so glad to see us”, wanted to hear our story, wanted copies of email correspondences etc. etc. She insisted that we return to talk with her again. While we were with her, she forwarded a copy of a couple RedWeek posts we pulled up, to her contacts at SHC.

Our follow up with her was on Saturday the 18th. She was nice at first but said she had talked with the SHC folks and there was a “mix up” on our paperwork and that we needed to plan a trip to visit there. We told her that was BS, and that was as nice as our visit got. The rhetoric got very heated and the proprietor, a shorter older man with whitish hair, jumped into the screaming match and told us we needed to “get out” repeatedly, to which I responded “#$@&%*!” as loud as possible, down his throat, also repeatedly! Tourists, shop owners and passersby stopped at the open-air street shop to check out all the fuss. We were told that everything was being recorded on video and that they were calling the cops, to which I said, “I do not care, go right ahead!”

Quickly, officers arrived on bicycles and began questioning what was going on. It was EXTREMELY helpful that my wife spoke fluent Spanish. Officer Ceileo Pelayo began to assert himself in our situation. He was able to get a contact and a phone number at SHC to call. Officer Pelayo was able to speak with someone claiming to be the Gerente de Ventas (Director of Marketing). Whether they lied when they gave a name to the officer or they lied when we finally made a visit is unclear, but the name we were given was Miguel Diaz. He either does not exist or we never got to meet him.

Officer Pelayo was very firm with whomever he spoke with, told them this was a serious matter, that the area depends highly on happy tourist and asked the Gerente de Ventas what he wanted to do about it. The phantom Mr. Diaz responded: “fully refund their purchase” and then requested an account number for the transaction.

Not being the most reliable operation in the world, we certainly were not going to provide them with another account number, as transactions can travel both ways. We simply told them to refund the account that was originally charged.

Officer Pelayo told us he gave them until Thursday to refund the account or there would be subsequent actions. He told us, if the refunds were not received that morning, to take a taxi to Vallarta Gardens and request a meeting with Mr. Diaz. Of special note, the proprietor of the shop loudly objected to the officers not doing anything about our disruption to their business. The Officer told him, he was doing his job the best way he could, he called in the incident, but did not file a report. Oddly enough on Monday morning we received the following email from SHC after not hearing from them for ages:

Good morning, Mr. M******

We hope you are doing well. We are writing to you today to invite you to schedule a phone call that we would like to have to discuss some important matters between you and our company that needs addressing. We would love to hear your thoughts on this. Is there a day and time that works best for you this week? And, what’s the best number to reach you at?

We look forward to hearing from you.

Customer Service Staff.

We responded: Multiple attempts were previously made to resolve this issue, unsuccessfully. It's well past the time to talk. On Saturday 05/18/2019 , Gerente de Ventas, Miguel Diaz agreed with the Puerto Vallarta police officer, Mr Cecileo Pelayo, that our money ($4200) would be credited to our account not later than Thursday morning 05/23/2019. Reversing the charges on the credit card used in the original purchase is how to accomplish this. From our perspective, there is nothing further that needs to be discussed.

Of course, the money did not arrive, so we spent $400 pesos on a cab and arrived unannounced.

Getting through the guard station was not easy. While they had our name, and apparently knew we were trying to get our money back, the taxi driver said we were there for a presentation. After multiple conversations they said they were sending someone to take us inside.

We witnessed a small session going on between a few men, and then one came to our table. Claiming to be the Dir of Marketing for Vallarta Gardens. He was heavy set, mostly rude, kept interrupting, told us we had no beef against him, that SHC was shut down over a year ago that they had rented an office from VG, but they broke relations with them completely. Being a “talker”, my wife was beginning to buy into his story.

After his short rant, we told him what the officer had told us, and that if we didn’t not get our money to call 911 and file a police report. He responded saying: “I guess we are done here; I’ll call security to escort you out.” and he promptly left.

Sitting there, feeling deflated, no one was rushing to the table or to confront us, so we just sat there. Another man arrived nearby and was speaking with someone else we noticed in the earlier group. He turned out to be a key guy. Jesus Carmona _Director of the Operations for the hotel and has apparently been there over 6 years. While writing this missive I found his LinkedIn profile, confirming his position and tenure. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesus-carmona-2141158b/

While waiting to be kicked out, a fortuitous thing happened, after being told SHC was no longer there, I happened to see the SHC “lady” that sold us our package walking through the breakfast sales area. My wife forcefully went right up to the Mr. Carmona and told him that we were just lied to about SHC.

Mr. Carmona clearly was the guy we needed to speak to. Initially he wasn’t that accommodating, but we showed him the recent correspondence between us and SHC, he read the short response and pondered for long time. Finally, he said he wanted us to leave happy and that he would stay with us until we were. He directed the Controller, a fellow named Hector to do what was necessary to get us our money and stopped by to follow-up numerous times.

They operate through ResortCom (based in Las Vegas) as their transaction facilitator. Initially our transfer was approved, but while we were trying to confirm the transfer, they stopped the transaction. The expiration date on the card we used had changed plus the Merchant ID they used on the original transfer had changed as well. Even though the Merchant name was still RANGO Uno D. (We don’t have the full story, but the Merchant ID apparently change over a year ago, so maybe there was some sort of change in the relationship. Who knows?)

This mismatch made an electronic transaction impossible, so we settled for cash and left with nearly $80,000 pesos. In addition, we were asked to sign a letter saying our Membership has been cancelled. Whatever that means.

When we thought we would be escorted out, we did call 911. We were told that if we called (044) 221-2423 we could get instructions on filing a police report, which we still intend to do, and I suppose others can do as well.

Of course, we are pleased with the results and the way Mr. Carmona and Hector handled our issue while we were there. We also owe a debt of gratitude to Officer Ceileo Pelayo, who was incredibly professional, and very gracious to work with.

It’s still disconcerting that SHC still exists and that so many others have been unable to be refunded their hard-earned money. I hope this helps others and that no negative consequences come from this note. (except to those that deserve it) Harry

Last edit by phyl21 on May 30, 2019 09:01 PM.

REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE Avatar for Harold E.Harold E.

5 months ago

I made a stop payment on my credit card. Vallarta Gardens has 30 days to reput . I will let you know the outcome....

Anthony, you did 50% of what you needed to do in order to kick them to the curb. The important part you neglected, in order to tell them to kiss off, is to write a letter rescinding your contract with your timeshare outfit.

By just clearly defining the name, location and identity of your timeshare, along with your specific member number(s) and any other identifying references (so that they know it is clearly you, that's escaping their grasps), this will set you free. Believe me, it may seem scary, but think about what's going on here.

You're just one fish caught up in a huge net, that's sitting on their ship. You must be that fish that flops the heck out of there! (back into the sea of independence and freedom).

That letter needs to be mailed to them, and also to your banking institution, (in order to formally notify them of your cancellation with them. Of course your bank will do as you say, they work for you).

Bueno suerte!

i dont understand how can i get 2 vacations in usa trading for 1 mexican week?

joer402 wrote:

My wife and I have owned time shares for over 30 years. We are using them differently now and rather than vacation, since we are retired, we are wintering most often in Puerto Vallarta. We went to a timeshare presentation to Vallarta Gardens. We own two timeshares in Florida, and since we do not spend that much time in Florida, we were interested when Vallarta Gardens offered to buy a Florida Timeshare as the bulk of a purchase toward one of theirs. This was the only reason we bought as it made sense that we could use these for more time in Puerto Vallarta.

I was thrilled at first. They even offered to set up a follow up meeting for any questions we might have. Even after a few contacts, the meeting was not set up until more than a week later, not where we had discussed but at the resort with the Manager, the person who had offered the meeting. This was well after the 5 day cooling off period.

I googled their website as I wanted to see if they had pictures of the type of unit we bought as I had some questions for our meeting which was now set up. Out of the corner of my eye I noted some other links and what caught my attention was the word scam next to Vallarta Gardens. After reading all of the information I felt ill. I had checked out Vallarta Gardens on Trip Advisor but there was nothing that would have raised red flags about the information I later found.

While there were many issues, including units not being built, dissatisfaction bout alternative units that people were placed in etc. etc. the most frequent and common was failure to sell the resort as part of the payment for Vallarta Gardens and then the buyer is stuck paying the whole amount.

I freaked. I went on the TUG (Timeshare Users Group) and read something about Mexican Timeshare Solutions. The receptionist and Carlos were fantastic. They responded immediately and gave me advice. In the meantime I contacted VISA who advised me they had a cooling off period of 15 days so I immediately sent notice to Vallarta Gardens that I wanted to cancel. They fought it all the way to the end. It took about 6 months but VISA upheld my cancellation and returned my deposit, preventing further payments. But, this did not fully cancel the contract. This whole time I was also working with Roberto Guzman at Mexican Timeshare Solutions.

He was in regular contact with me. I was guaranteed no payment to them unless they got the contract cancelled. They were as good as their word. Never once did I get asked for a payment until finally Vallarta Gardens agreed to cancel the contract. That was well over a month after VISA decided in my favour.

Roberto was fantastic throughout the time that he worked on my case. He explained things to me, was very patient and was very responsive to my emails and questions. It was only after the contract was cancelled that a request was made for payment. I was happy to comply.

I am thrilled with the services that I received and it was a small payment compared to what I might have been liable for had the contract not been cancelled.

My wife and I had the opportunity to stay a couple of days with some own fractional owners at this resort. We loved every aspect of it, the homes are large and very well appointed ours had a private pool as well. We actually own a restaurant 5 minutes walking down the beach in the Marina which seconds as our home. For me it was a beautiful place to stay on our short vacation. my friends own timeshares, fractions or homes down in this area and all are happy they purchased in this area it truly is very beautiful. Where all are happy my friends who own at Vallarta Gardens are the happiest, never have I heard even one negative comment from any of them. I was just looking at the reviews and noticed all of the negative reviews had nothing to do with a stay on the resort. They were written by people who were paid to go to a morning sales presentation. I see in their writings they had no intention of purchasing or any real interest in looking at resort, their interest was to get the money the resort offered.

They are under construction but to improve, I hope to return to see the finished work.

We absolutely loved our time at Vallarta Gardens and would recommend it to anyone. The villa set up is so much better than a hotel room when vacationing. The housekeeping service, the grocery delivery service and our fabulous chef Carlos made it seem like a real vacation from the chores of everyday life. We had no worries at all, and were able to focus all our time on enjoying each other and spending time. A wonderful opportunity.

It's refreshing to hear someone enjoying their timeshare . I have one on the Las Vegas strip that I go to every year . I think that is the key . Use it and don't trade it . I bought my Las Vegas timeshare to use every year or two . I got rid of two that I used to trade after corporate greed denied me the desirable locations . My advice to anyone looking to purchase is to purchase a deeded week at a resort that you plan on visiting every year .

this happy owner is for sure a vallarta gardens employee trying to clean up their SCAMS people buy on the false promises made and out of stupidity,NO time share is worth the aggravation you can get a real great hotel accommodation anytime you want for cheaper than a maintenance fee and without being obligated to pay those , please do not let your self be conned by scam artists at vallarta gardens

kareemb3 wrote:

My Wife and I Still a happy owners at Vallarta Gardens and that is that.

Whatever happened to your ENDLESS VICTIMS, well… I don’t know…

All we have to tell you Sir is that we went there, we liked it, we bought it, we use it, and we are happy with the purchase.

I’m here to tell you that we pay $45,000 for the fraction at Vallarta Gardens, we love it, we use it, and we have never in all of our years of timesharing our contracts had ever sated as much as we did in Vallarta Gardens, it is gorgeous…

I’m aware of the stretches that a salesman can go to get his sale, but Sir you would have to be complete mental case to NOT be able to know how much truth is.

Come on…

Please don’t tell me that you are as gullible as to believe that you are going to get $1,000,000 USD for the timeshare contracts that you paid $3,000 USD…

Come on…

When the salesman told us precisely that, we laugh about his proposal…

We purchased Vallarta Gardens, because… WE LIKED VALLARTA GARDENS and the exquisite higher level of vacation possibilities via REGISTRY COLLECTION, and nothing more.

We bought Vallarta Gardens because we loved Vallarta Gardens, and that is that.

The salesman was a salesman, and I Sir, was a buyer, and I don’t buy stupid things as I am not buying your negativity.

We still have 3 of our old timeshare contracts, and up in the crown of our timeshare experience is my procurement in Vallarta Gardens.

You get $45,000 USD to luxury purchase a property of this caliber, maybe that day you would stop Tying One On in the obscure corners of a negative timeshare website and explore what the world has to offer.

Good day

I have read reviews from others about Vallarta Gardens. I believe they are just plain complainers who weren't bowed down to, or "plants" from other "timeshare" companies. I have "vacationed" here MANY times and NEVER ran into any circumstances that are mentioned in those "reviews".

Although the time I spent in the presentation was hell, I made a good decision by not leaving, this place is wonderful. All I can say is, they are exceptional, friendly and go out of their way to make the experience a perfect vacation!

I guess you are part of the reputation office at VIDANTA. I know for sure that VIDANTA has an office in which a lot of hackers work every day to create bad reputation against other resorts.

vgs3 wrote:

this happy owner is for sure a vallarta gardens employee trying to clean up their SCAMS people buy on the false promises made and out of stupidity,NO time share is worth the aggravation you can get a real great hotel accommodation anytime you want for cheaper than a maintenance fee and without being obligated to pay those , please do not let your self be conned by scam artists at vallarta gardens

kareemb3 wrote:

My Wife and I Still a happy owners at Vallarta Gardens and that is that.

Whatever happened to your ENDLESS VICTIMS, well… I don’t know…

All we have to tell you Sir is that we went there, we liked it, we bought it, we use it, and we are happy with the purchase.

I’m here to tell you that we pay $45,000 for the fraction at Vallarta Gardens, we love it, we use it, and we have never in all of our years of timesharing our contracts had ever sated as much as we did in Vallarta Gardens, it is gorgeous…

I’m aware of the stretches that a salesman can go to get his sale, but Sir you would have to be complete mental case to NOT be able to know how much truth is.

Come on…

Please don’t tell me that you are as gullible as to believe that you are going to get $1,000,000 USD for the timeshare contracts that you paid $3,000 USD…

Come on…

When the salesman told us precisely that, we laugh about his proposal…

We purchased Vallarta Gardens, because… WE LIKED VALLARTA GARDENS and the exquisite higher level of vacation possibilities via REGISTRY COLLECTION, and nothing more.

We bought Vallarta Gardens because we loved Vallarta Gardens, and that is that.

The salesman was a salesman, and I Sir, was a buyer, and I don’t buy stupid things as I am not buying your negativity.

We still have 3 of our old timeshare contracts, and up in the crown of our timeshare experience is my procurement in Vallarta Gardens.

You get $45,000 USD to luxury purchase a property of this caliber, maybe that day you would stop Tying One On in the obscure corners of a negative timeshare website and explore what the world has to offer.

Good day

Yes, it’s a wonderful place to stay, but a horrible place to buy a timeshare from.

I have a membership for a couple of years, I must admit that at the beginning its administration was terrible, but I don't know what happened, I think they changed administration, I don't know, but now it's more accessible and less confusing. My membership works and is worth every penny. They had construction so there was some noise and dust. I hope they finish for my next visit; the building looks so promising exclusive for members.

williamc1019 wrote:

My membership works and is worth every penny.

Color me very dubious about the legitimacy of this post, which most likely actually originates from a Mexican RTU rep or other shill.

"Worth every penny" has been said NEVER by anyone who ever overpayed for any of these assorted Mexican RTU "memberships".

Yes, of course, it is expensive, but I love being here, unless you are from another timeshare seeing if they put positive things about vallarta gardens and commenting the same thing over and over again.

So, I got this call that I was almost going to disrespect the person and hang up, however I decided to give a listening ear. Well this is my experience and now even when I’m busy I try to lend a listening ear. You never know what you will be missing. So, Vallarta Gardens Resort is definitely an excellent hotel with excellent location located on a beach front property and extremely clean & comfortable. We arrived after a short drive from the airport and the staff could not have been any more helpful and pleasant upon arrival, we were warmly welcomed by the friendly receptionist with cocktails I think her name is Jessica, she made our trip more interesting with her advices & tips about the city, supermarkets, shops, restaurants, bars and different night events that are within walking distance. We had a room that over-looked the lovely trees and luscious garden filled with assorted beautiful flowers. The room was amazing value for money, although the cost was to die for, fully equipped, impeccable and spacious. The bathroom too was large, even had a built-in magnifying mirror, selection of teas and coffees fabulous, even had decaf coffee and blue mountain peak coffee kind of remind me of my Sandals Caribbean vacation. Restaurant food was amazing, lovely dining experience both dinner and breakfast buffet style, although we had the option of choosing whatever we wanted to be prepared by the chef assigned to us. Meals at the restaurant were excellent and what took me by surprise was when my concierge told me I can have the meals delivered to me anywhere on the property. It's a true sample of excellent hospitality and what a 5-star diamond resort should be, my husband and I were glad we didn’t bring the Kids and for my next stay it’s definitely no kids. Thank you again Jessica and Raúl for going just that little step extra for us. Nothing was too much for the staff to help us. Would highly recommend!!!

I went to the timeshare presentation, a really long presentation, I felt like I was in a prison but anyway, in some point I said "is a nice place, i guess" so I give a chance. buy membership to try it, the benefits are drinks, food, bar and such amenities. In some cases the service is slow (call them again), they have a beach in front, pool, bar, restaurant... are different types of memberships and you can do this, you can't do this, so change to full membership to avoid chattering. From there on everything is fine. annoying rules but obviously if you don't want “rules” you have to pay a little more.