At the airport in Puerto Valllarta my husband and I were greeted by a group of people asking us where we were staying. I thought they would direct us to our free shuttle bus so we told them. We wound up agreeing to attending a 90 minute time-share presentation in exchange for an excursion of our choice.
The next day at 9:00am our presentation began. A young woman from Vancouver showed us around. We filled out a paper asking us how much we usually spend on our vacations and what we valued (all part of the bait for later on.) It was a beautiful property, much nicer than the one we were staying at.
After awhile she passed us off to Gareth Jones At the airport in Puerto Valllarta my husband and I were greeted by a group of people asking us where we were staying. I thought they would direct us to our free shuttle bus so we told them. We wound up agreeing to attending a 90 minute time-share presentation in exchange for an excursion of our choice.
The next day at 9:00am our presentation began. A young woman from Vancouver showed us around. We filled out a paper asking us how much we usually spend on our vacations and what we valued (all part of the bait for later on.) It was a beautiful property, much nicer than the one we were staying at.
After awhile she passed us off to Gareth Jones from South Africa, a personable, likable young man. Immediately he told us how his brother & parents were also in the business. When he found out we were from Chicago he introduced us to Brian, a fellow Chicagoan, who told us his mother who was from our native Evanston and a former real estate agent of a well known firm, also worked there.in this manner he attained our trust.
Gareth showed us the different size rooms available. Afterwards we sat down to talk about how this is not a time-share but a "members vacation club". He showed us a chart of the top 25 resorts to stay at & Villa dal Palmar ranked #5. He said since it was listed in the top 25& it was ocean front property that it rented out at close to 100% and only during 9/11 did it drop below the usual 100%. Also Universal Vacation Club rents out only 60% of rental weeks available, not 110% like most time-shares do. He laid the foundation with the high rental rate the hotel itself charges $490 a night for a studio. If we were to use the hotel to rent out our studio, they would take a 35% commission however, and he did not recommend that. He recommended a third party: Regal. With Regal we could expect to receive $1600 per week because they use rentals throughout the U.S. And world for conventions all the time so there is absolute certainty that it will rent out with them.
We had not even discussed the purchase price when he presented this idea to us. We were then told the price of a studio was $25,000. We were ready to leave, this was way too much for us. It was also now 2:30 pm (6 hours had passed) If we bought it we wouldn't be able to vaction for several years we told him." Just let me run a credit check, we promise it will just show your credit rating, not your income, maybe we can get a better deal for you."
Brian ran the report. It came back as excellent. Then Brian came back with an owner who wanted to sell a studio. They offered it to us for $17,000. Still too much. Gareth assured us that we could easily earn $1600 a week if we rented out our winter week & we could still even have a vacation week in the summer if we wanted. Also the room fits four (in the contract it says 2 adults, 2 children, not what he said) so we could even have the other two people pay for the food portion if we wanted to save that way. We asked him over & over are" you sure we could make $1600 renting it out?"In that way we could afford to do it." Yes, 100% certain. But, the hotel won't like it if I tell you that as they want to make their 35% commission so this is off the record. If they find out I told you this I will get a 30 day suspension" Wow what a red flag, but we missed it. He tricked us. We were also told that with Interval International we could save up to 40% on airfare.
The next morning we met with Gareth again to go over any questions. My husband felt very nervous now so we spent 45 minutes talking about how we really wanted to be certain about renting it out. No worries! He justified how it could pay for itself. He assured us. If we wanted to get out of the contract we would simply pay the fee the hotel charges for the week, $490 per night & lose our $ 4000.00 deposit ;since they had moved us there from our former hotel so we could experience the Villa del Palmar right away. (Bait)
Gareth never mentioned the 5 day time period law in Mexico in which to cancel our contract. That was inconspicuously written in small print in the back of the contract. It is misleading and violates California Business & Professions code section 11225. UVC was supposed to give us a welcome call on day five. It was in the contract. They called on day seven.
The last evening of our stay we spoke to a woman who was renting at Villa del Palmar. I told her we had just bought there and how happy I was. "No, you didn't!" she said. She explained that I could have paid $3000 for it on redweek.com. That the salemen charge up to 41,000 onsite and I could have bargained it down to $9999. I was shocked and angered. "You will never be able to sell it for what you bought it for and you wil be lucky to rent it out for more than $500 a week! I always am able to get a rental for about $500 a week here." What a scam! We were defrauded into buying with Universal Vacation Club.
Furthermore, upon looking up UVC on usacomplaints.com, com I found many such stories. I also looked up Regal and they charge a $ 349 fee up front to rent out your time-share and they do not specifically post your listing, so they buyer has no where to look at each listing. They have also been involved with the Velas Vallartas timeshare-scams. They look pretty shady to me.
Do not buy a time-share with Universal Vacation Club!!! It's a scam!
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