QUEJAS de Tiempo Compartido en VELAS VALLARTA

we were scamed out of $15,000 on our timeshare at Velas Vallarta.I would like to get rid of by canceling and receiving refund.

Hi I have a time share from vv  that appeared to be very good and paying them for 2 years now, however I never had the chance to use it and when I requested something from them they're attitudes were totally different then when they had me there 2 years ago wanting me to join. I have been recently contacted by a collection agency which spoke to me unethically and threatened to garnish my wages. I know now that something needs to be done.

RED FLAGS Waving

Is it OUR greed? Is it desperation to get out of the time shares we realize now  is like a money pit we just can't get out of? Maintenance fees increasing and with jobs going under we cannot afford the vacations we once so enjoyed?
I think it is all of the above.

I wanted to sell my time shares that I got talked into buying in the first place. Major heavy pressure, coercion to sign on the dotted line. Promises of extra vacation along with immediate gifts... like helicopter rides and ATV rides and more... yes, much more! They get you into such a frenzy of excitement you can't think clearly any more. Suckered in hook line and sinker! Then they keep you sequestered from others until you sign. You just want to get out of the holding tank they have you locked into! 5 hours of holding!

Then comes a phone call out of the blue. Cold call, unsolicited. My name is Andy Brooks (funny he is Hispanic with a heavy accent and his name is Brooks?)  He says he is with ParidiseVacationsNow.com and has a client who would like to use my time share week in Villas Vallarta Mexico, I say "Yes, I am interested in renting it out, in fact, he can buy it! I also have one in Vegas I would love to sell for that matter! He says he will present it to his client and he will find out the value and call me back. I said, "ok" afterall, he didn't ask ME for any money up front!

When he calls me back he informs me his client would like to purchase both the time shares and he will pay $38,000 for them! Whooo hooo! .... wait a minute... why would somebody give me that much money for my time shares when they could go to Redweek.com which has listings for time shares for a $1.00? Too good to be true? The voice of my Father ringing in my ears...IF SOMETHING SOUNDS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE... IT PROBABLY IS!

I am treading lightly, gathering more information. Again, he never asked me for any money up front. I continue to talk to him. He says he is going to email me a contract to sign. I get both contracts and they look more like a contract you might sign for his company party planning, not much like the verbiage when you think about the contract you signed when you originally purchased the time shares. I asked him for his web site address. Trying to Google it didn't come up. A Paradise Events site came up but it was not the same one he was connected to.

The only way for me to go to his web site was by clicking on the link in an email he sent me. When I did that a warning popped up asking me if I wanted to continue ... this site was not authenticated. No where on that sight was listed a Andy Brooks. There was an Angel Brooks so I naturally assumed that must be him! I still wanted to believe somebody out there was crazy enough to pay me that much money for my time shares. After all, I paid it!

I spent a couple days hashing through this in my mind. My fiance is very skeptical and he calls him up. He told him to send me a copy of his license.  He sends me a license which does not have his name on it, but some guy named Roger. When I asked him about that he says it is the license of his boss. He works under that license. Still leery we do more research. Turns out the research of that license shows it has not been in effect since 1981. It belonged to a different name as well. There was no such license of anyone with this name ever having been in effect...ever!  Looking at that license closer I realize I could have photo shopped my name into it with ease. 

Their address in Oakland, Calif. was listed on the site. We went to Google address search and there was no such address. The closest matching address was two numbers off. We did a search with the post office and there was no such address. (Why isn't this a surprise at this point?) We did a search with the real estate office next door and he knew of no such address or business either.

Andy Brooks calls me back saying he needs $1,800 to open escrow.  I said to him, WHAT? I have never heard of anyone paying to open escrow... just at closing time. I have bought homes in the past and never was asked for even a dollar to open escrow. Now I am in total control of myself and no longer seeing any $ signs coming in, only $ signs going out! He informs me the fees must be on a credit card too. Oh sure... get my credit card info and possibly my identity too and run with it! No, No I tell him. I am not paying any money up front. You can take it out at the close of escrow. By the way, what escrow company are you using? He tells me it is in Mexico. RED FLAG!!! He tells me it has to be affiliated with Mexico because no escrow or title co. deals with the properties in Mexico. He gives me the names of  3 different title companies they did business with and none of those existed in the states they said they were in.. At least I have the presence of mind to know I don't want to deal with a co. in Mexico where my rights are not particularly cared about!  That's no excuse however to use Mexico title co. for the property in Vegas. Besides, Vegas escrow would charge about $50 to $100 not $1,800!

We let ourselves become too vulnerable to these frauds because we want so badly to believe they are true. We think we were naive to give that much money for the time shares we purchased so maybe somebody else is too?

Bottom line is take a lesson from my Dad who never would entertain the idea of purchasing a time share... if it sounds too good to be true, it probably (or most likely) IS!

My next stop is to contact the reporting agencies of this scam. Maybe, just maybe I can help somebody else recognize they are being scammed and what to look for.

NUMBER ONE RULE : There should never NEVER be costs to open escrow. Escrow charges are taken at the end of an escrow.

NUMBER TWO RULE: Never give your credit card info EVER!

NUMBER THREE: Always run a check on their address and their license to sell real estate.

NUMBER FOUR IF YOU SHOULD GET PAST THE FIRST THREE: Don't let them make you feel pressured to hurry and return the contract.

This comment is long, but very detailed, so bear with me. I added in a lot of details in case you had a similar experience and can relate.
My boyfriend and I attended a timeshare presentation hosted by Grupo Velas in Puerto Vallarta, and after the timeshare presentation, my boyfriend and I decided to purchase a timeshare with Grupo Velas. During the timeshare presentation, Grupo Velas made several claims that we discovered, afterwards, were untrue.  The major reason why my boyfriend and I decided to try to cancel the timeshare contract with Grupo Velas is because we decided to purchase a Lloydshare annuity with our timeshare so that in 20 years we would get $35,000 back. Without the annuity, the timeshare deal simply did not make sense to us (why pay a total of $12,500 in timeshare expenses, administrative fees, and maintenance fees plus extra fees to actually be able to stay in the timeshare or hotel over the next 20 years if we are only allowed to use our timeshare for certain times of the month and we don't actually own anything)? But, when the $35,000 annuity was thrown in with the deal, we were sold because $12,000 today is worth almost $35,000 in 20 years when inflation is taken into account, and we figured that the timeshare would be worth it.
During the Grupo Velas timeshare presentation, we were told by a salesperson and a manager that Lloydshare, the company that would issue us our $35,000 annuity within 20 years, is affiliated with Lloyds of London, and we were actually shown the Lloyds of London portfolio. I commented during the presentation that we wouldn't get our annuity if Lloydshare goes out of business ("that the annuity would actually be worth as much as the paper that it's written on"), and we were told by the timeshare salespeople that the British government backs the annuity by 90% of its value. When I returned to the U.S., I researched Lloydshare, and I discovered that we had been lied to.  Lloydshare is not affiliated with Lloyds of London, Lloydshare is not backed by the British government....heck, I'm not even sure if the company has a real office in London. Basically, my boyfriend and I now believe that Lloydshare is a shell. We don't think that Lloydshare is going to be in business in 20 years, which means that we won't get our annuity payment, and so we want nothing to do with the timeshare. We could be wrong, but we really don't want to risk making a $35,000 + $12,500 mistake.
We were lied to during the presentation about other things besides Lloydshare (I didn't realize at the time that we were being lied to, but now I know that we were lied to) . Once I'm lied to by a salesperson, I do not trust anything else that the salesperson has to say ever again. There are two specific instances (other than the whole Lloydshare thing) that I remember being lied to about. First, the Grupos Velas manager said that since we are buying the timeshare as a foreclosure (I'm not even sure if he was telling the truth about that), our 5-day cancellation period would be waived. At the time, I had no idea as to what he was referring to as a "5-day cancellation period." We had not discussed it, and so it struck me as completely random as to why he would mention it. Lo and behold, I discovered that the 5-day cancellation period is still in our contract despite the "foreclosure", and then I realized that he had lied to us.
The Grupo Velas manager also told us that even though a certain part of our contract states that we would only be able to use our timeshare on certain months (May, June, or September), we would actually be able to use it on most of the other months within a year because we had signed an addendum stating so. Being restricted to only using the timeshare on May, June, or September is actually not a big deal to us; we loved visiting Mexico in September when it wasn't as crowded as usual. At the time, I couldn’t find the addendum that he mentioned, but I figured that it was somewhere within the paperwork and that I would find it later. Well, I searched through all of our paperwork (all, like, 30 pages of it) when I returned to the U.S., and I never found an addendum. So, we had been lied to, again. Like I said, the May, June, September restriction was not a really big deal to us, but I simply hate being lied to, especially by a salesperson.
But, the biggest reason why we wanted to cancel our timeshare is because of the Lloydshare annuity. I'm 99% sure that the company will not be in existence in 20 years. I scrutinized the company’s website and, although its website is impressive because it's organized well, has flash video, and has classical music, it doesn't have anything of substance in it. I'm expected to believe, according to Lloydshare’s website, that the $2,500 extra fee that we will pay for our annuity is going to grow into $35,000 in 20 years through “off shore" investing, specifically on “investments” linked to “European property purchases” “based on banking loans which are linked to stock market investments”? And, my money is monitored by "(o)ff shore experts"?  And that Lloydshare "uses Lloyds TSB corporate bankers" (these are all direct quotes taken from its website as of Oct. 26, 2011)? I visited Lloyds TSB Banking's website, and Lloydshare annuities are not listed as one of Lloyd's TSB investment products (surprise!). I don't believe any of it.
When I discovered that we had been lied to multiple times by the timeshare group, I knew that we were going to need professional help to be able to get out of our contract (I've graduated from law school and passed two state bars....sometimes even attorneys need outside help). I was afraid that Grupo Velas would claim that it never received our cancellation letter or would simply not accept it. I also knew that we did not have a lot of knowledge about Mexican law, and we had time and distance against us (we are in the U.S., Grupo Velas is in Mexico, and we only had a couple of days to act to get out of our contract). I was also afraid that Grupo Velas might try to ruin our credit if did not start payments on our timeshare, despite the fact that we wanted to cancel the contract. So, we decided to hire G&G Mexican Timeshare Solutions.  Without the firm's help, I honestly don't think that we would have been able to get out of our contract. Even though we had hired G&G Mexican Timeshare Solutions, Grupo Velas still tried to give us the "run-around". However, we did exactly what our attorney asked us to do, and, eventually, we received our deposits back and our timeshare contract was cancelled.
If you come across message boards with posters stating that G&G Mexican Timeshare Solutions is a "rip-off" and "scam" like I did, well, many of the posters are probably timeshare companies who don't want you to use G&G Mexican Timeshare Solutions because the firm's attorneys get the job done. Just the fact that G&G Mexican Timeshare Solutions will only ask for their payment after the contract is cancelled and the fact that they disclose all fees before they start any work should tell you that this company is a high-quality company that has your best interests in mind, and that its attorneys will work hard to fight for your rights. 

• Elle Abril 12, 2012, 10:17 am

  So, in case you were wondering, we were able to get out of our contract and receive 100% of our timeshare fees refunded, but only because we contacted G&G Mexican Timeshare Solutions within the 5-day cancellation period and we sent our cancellation letter within the required time-frame. We just BARELY made the cut-off. If we would have waited one more day, it would have been too late for us to have received a full refund. So, if you have any doubts about keeping your timeshare, I suggest that you contact G&G Mexican Timeshare Solutions ASAP to discuss your options.