We went to Los Cabos Mexico for a family vacation this summer. It was our first trip to Mexico. Despite arranging for transportation prior to arriving, it seems individuals from another company, probably hired by Universal Vacation Club and Constructora Los Arcos del Cabo, insisted they would transport us to our resort. But first they had us talk to another person who indicated that we would get reduced prices for multiple activities if we attended a short breakfast presentation at Villa del Arco.
We went to Villa del Arco the next morning with our daughter. We were taken to breakfast and then around the adjacent property (Villa del Palmar Cabo San Lucas) by a 'nice' american sales person (Natalie Overman). She then took us back to Villa del Arco where multiple families were being pressured into buying a vacation club membership with UVC - they would pop champagne when somebody bought a membership.
We were very skeptical and certainly had no intention of buying. We already owned two timeshares (Marriott and Bluegreen Corporation) and had no intention of buying another. However, Ms. Overman and her boss proceeded to engage in a high pressure sales pitch that ultimately, we belatedly realised, involved outright lying. We were not happy with our Bluegreen timeshare and they told us we could exchange our timeshare for their vacation club membership provided we bought two weeks.
We ended up buying two weeks of a 1 bedroom unit and signed an 'Equity Exchange Agreement' to get rid of our Bluegreen timeshare. They gave us a credit of $13,200 for the Bluegeen timeshare. Ultimately our bill came to $39,900 for the 2 weeks of a 1 bedroom unit. We paid $10,890 as our down payment. We were explicity told on multiple occasions that we could not back out of the deal once it was signed. To emphasize this they pointed to a 'liquidated damages' clause.
I had big time buyers remorse the next day, but we were under the impression that we could not cancel the deal. Once we returned back to the States we reviewed all the documents, including the 'Membership Purchase and Security Agreement'. While reviewing this document I came across a clause for 'cancellation rights'. This was on the back side of the contract which did not require a signiture and consequently we were not aware of it. Of course the sales representative and the 'verification officer' repeatedly lied to us that the contract could not be cancelled. They also lied by telling us that we would loose our deposit if we tried to terminate this agreement as specified in the 'Liquidated Damages' clause on the front side of this document.
As it turns out, we had a right to cancel without penalty under Mexican law and that this cannot be waived regardless of what the resort representative said.
We then tried to terminate this agreement.
Unfortunately we were not able to prevent my credit card company from paying my down payment to Constructora Los Arcos del Cabo. We sent a letter to Robert Kristner, President of Universal Vacation Club. My wife received a call that same day from a Valerie Newman that we could not cancel the agreement. I spoke to several other individuals at UVC and they kept repeating their mantra - "no right to cancel'. They did not respond to any of our detailed complaint of how we were lied to and misled into buying this membership. We even spoke to 'Sergio' at the resort since our sales representative (Natalie Overman) no longer works there.
Of note, we have yet to hear from Holiday Equity, LLC who were supposed to take our Bluegreen timeshare under the 'Equity Exchange Agreement'. The whole reason we ultimately did sign the purchase agreement was to get rid of our Bluegreen timeshare. Apparently that is not going to happen - another piece of evidence how unethical these people are as they prey on American families who are trying to enjoy their vacation. We have never heard from or received any materials from Holiday Equity, LLC, so now we own our BlueGreen AND the Universal Vacation Club.
We only bought the property because we wanted to sell the Bluegreen property, and we were told that the second week, that we didn't need or want, could easily be rented. Natalie Overman mentioned a company that would even handle the rentals for us, and assured us that the rental income would pay for the maintenance fees on both weeks. We have found complaints on-line regarding this and other aspects of this companies practices (complaint, timesharecrooks.com, and Complaints Board). Some of them are very similar to our experience suggesting this is a 'modus operandi' for this company.
I will be contacting the US consulate in Mexico to look into both Universal Vacation Club and Constructora Los Arcos del Cabo, S.A.De C.V.
The consulate does have a mechanism to investigate and utlimately report to the Mexican Government about problems US citizens report experiencing. Also, of note, according to the California Business and Professions Code Section 11225, which deals with time-shares - "Immediately prior to the space reserved in the contract for the signature of the purchaser, the association or managing entity shall disclose, in conspicuous type, substantially the following notice of cancellation: (All in Capital letters): You may cancel this contract without any penalty or obligation... Any attempt to otain a waiver of your cancellation right is void and of no effect." This purchase agreement clearly was designed to mislead the purchaser by placing a cancellation clause on the reverse side of the document - a place where no signature is required. This clearly is not consistent with CA code 11225. UVC in conjunction with Constructora Los Arcos del Cabo have clearly conspired to design this contract in such a way that they can hide actual Mexican and US legal rights from potential victims. I will be sending this to the California Attorney General's office.
This whole experience has left a bitter taste in our mouths. These guys are truly unethical and need to be shut down or forced to change their methods. Certainly the State Department should consider warning US citizens who are traveling to Mexico about this company - a point I will try and emphasize to the US consulate in Mexico.
We have begun the process of trying to get our money back from UVC. I don't know if we will succeed - if we don't, we will do everything we can to expose this company for its unethical practices.
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