Any experience with Sierra Rentals and Resales??

Stefa · Mar 5, 2010

FMM said:
I also received an offer from Sierra. They tell me that this other firm is buying up as many shares as they can, "because it's cheaper than building a new resort." I asked them what their fees are, and they said I need to pay $1,500 for closing costs, to be refunded when the deal closes in a month or so.

My lawyer tells me that sellers don't normally pay for closing costs.

Originally they offered me $17,900 for my contract. Then a second saleperson called me back and asked if this comes close to the equity. I said no. She requested I send them the parts of my contract that indicate what my total equity is, because I incread the contract 2 years later, doubling my Plat. weeks. I sent them the pages via email.

The woman calls me back today, and their "expert" completely misread the contract. I had to point it out to her.

Others say that you should never prepay for anything in this biz, so this must be a scam.

Now I'm worried...they have my identity, my signature, my social sec. #, EVERYTHING...I was busy at work, and decided to quickly send them these pages...without closely looking at them.

I asked the original guy to send me an email by end of biz day confirming that he received personal info on me, and they were to destroy them (shred). He sent me the mail, but didn't word it the way I wanted, not acknowledging the nature of the info.

Am I an idiot or what? Not thinking too clearly...I'm going to make sure my Lifelock is up and running, and call the Velas ans make sure they know I'm NOT selling my contract to any other firm.

I'm going to inform Sierra that I'm not interested.

Please keep posting so I know how this turns out.

If you gave them your credit card number you need to contact your credit card company immediately in order to be sure they don't charge you the $1500.

FMM · Mar 6, 2010

I DIDN'T give them my card...they don't have any payment from me.

Just identity ...(YUCH!).

FMM · Mar 6, 2010

Yeah, "Kim" just called me to inform me that "the buyer" doesn't want my property. I informed her that I sent "Bill" an email last night pulling out of the deal, and to shred my personal contract documents.

This is clearly a scam...STAY AWAY....meanwhile I have to call the resort to inform them I'm NOT SELLING ANYTHING...so "Sierra" doesn't steal the entire contract from me...

chuckie7 · Mar 6, 2010

Yukon05 said:
FYI,

I chose not to proceed with their offers. I received different answers on the same questions from the same person, which gave me a bad feeling about this. I asked how many weeks they had left to fill for my contract type (Villa) and they said 7 one time and then 15 the next. This was back in early January I might add. If they are still giving you high numbers, I'd be leary of accepting their offer, as they said it should be completed shortly when they were attempting to lure me in.

Another thing, I called Joy A Residence Club when I was looking into this. I pretended to be an inquiring customer (didn't mention anything about Sierra). I asked what kind of business they do, etc. I forget what locations they said they deal with, but Velas Vallarta wasn't one of them. I told the guy I was most interested in Velas and if they had any plans of expanding there and he didn't make one mention of this transaction with Sierra to purchase time in Velas.

Anyways, my two cents worth.

I emailed Joy A Residence via their site's Contact Us and got no response. I emailed Resorts Advantage (the supposed escrow company handling this transaction) asking if they do escrow services for resale of any timeshare and they responded first asking what timeshare I own and my member number. When I responded they said they don't deal with Velas and don't resell timeshare contracts. I thought that was weird but I'm not sure if they're not the same one Sierra is using for this transaction.

chuckie7 · Mar 6, 2010

tapdancing said:
How did you reach Joy, everytime I call them it goes straight to Voicemail. But yea I mentioned this to Sierra a while back and they said that Joy is not suppose to mention this deal because of some legal agreement. Whether thats the case I dont know.

Does anyone know any way to get rid of this timeshare without having to pay an upfront fee?

Joy A Residence have mentioned in their website that they are expanding in Velas. That is very inconsistent.

gomezlor · Mar 6, 2010

I have no idea if it's a scam or not, but I did send them the money (via credit card so I can contest if it turns out badly), and have also received two "transfer updates" from the legal department. The most recent indicated that the title search had been initiated, Sierra had paid the taxes for the transaction, and they expected the "final transfer" in late March/early April.

DeniseM · Mar 6, 2010

gomezlor said:
I have no idea if it's a scam or not, but I did send them the money (via credit card so I can contest if it turns out badly), and have also received two "transfer updates" from the legal department. The most recent indicated that the title search had been initiated, Sierra had paid the taxes for the transaction, and they expected the "final transfer" in late March/early April.

By early April, you will be past the date to challenge it with your credit card. You only have 60 days after it appears on your credit card statement, and since your first post was Jan. 20th, and you had already paid by then, you will be past 60 days before the end of March.

I am sure their timeframe is designed to prevent you from challenging it. They will keep stringing you along with meaningless updates, and once it's past 60 days, you will be stuck without any recourse.

gomezlor · Mar 6, 2010

I am very fortunate to have inherited my Father's status on my AMEX (member since 1972!), so I can contest charges for far longer than 60 days. Thank you for your concern though. It is certainly something others should consider when making this or any other purchase.

DeniseM · Mar 6, 2010

gomezlor said:
I am very fortunate to have inherited my Father's status on my AMEX (member since 1972!), so I can contest charges for far longer than 60 days. Thank you for your concern though. It is certainly something others should consider when making this or any other purchase.

You are going to need it - have you confirmed it with AMEX? You need to know what the last date to challenge it is, and when April comes and goes and you don't get paid, you need to be ready to pull the trigger with AMEX.

gomezlor · Mar 6, 2010

I just called AMEX to verify (thanks for the idea!). I can get a 100% refund through May 19th, which is more than enough time for me to figure out if this is for real or not. I encourage everyone else that has paid the upfront fees to do the same with their credit card company.

DeniseM · Mar 6, 2010

Good luck! I hope you will come back and let us know how this all turns out, to help other consumers.

Stefa · Mar 6, 2010

If you agree to pay for services such as a title search you may have a difficult time getting a full refund. Just because Sierra charges 10 times the going rate does not mean you can successfully contest the charges. This would be especially true for cardholders who don't have a long-standing relationship with the issuer.

arlingtonTX · Mar 8, 2010

I just read everyone's posts to this Sierra issue. We also have a Vellas time share (again the worst financial mistake ever made!!) and also bought a deal with Sierra to try to sell our weeks(that was 2 years ago- no sale has ever been made and weve seen NO money back). We also recieved this new scam deal from Sierra wanting to repurchase our time share just like everyone else on here....Thank you for the info because I will never send Sierra another dime.
I have a few questions: How do I report them and their bad business?
What is the best way to make use of our timeshare at Vellas (I disliked Vellas perhaps bc of buying the damn timeshare), -we belong to RCI/HSI and have not yet tried to switch weeks for another place using our Vellas weeks....Will I find that THAT is a scam too and not be able to go anywhere else besides Puerta Vallarta? Any help is appreciate in understanding this screwy system.

Disappointed :( · Mar 25, 2010

Same here!!

blb89 said:
This is a Huge SCAM. The money they want is for paperwork...paperwork doesn't cost $1900+. I have received all the same offers as the above posts for our Sandos Timeshare with Gibralter as the proported escrow agent. We have already been scammed by Sierra as they took $750 to sell our extra timeshare weeks on an annual basis for $1000...in two years we have not seen a dime!

I have Sandos too, and Sierra is still yet to rent out my weeks and I'm supposedly on the top of the list!! How's that possible?

DeniseM · Mar 25, 2010

Hi Disappointed - I'm sorry - but it's all a scam. This company makes money charging upfront fees - they don't care if they rent or sell your TS.

Disappointed :( · Mar 25, 2010

Same here!

gomezlor said:
I have no idea if it's a scam or not, but I did send them the money (via credit card so I can contest if it turns out badly), and have also received two "transfer updates" from the legal department. The most recent indicated that the title search had been initiated, Sierra had paid the taxes for the transaction, and they expected the "final transfer" in late March/early April.

I've recieved the same update, and I replied to the email a week ago, asking if they had an approximate date of closing and haven't got a reply yet. I just called tonite too and had to leave a message, so hopefully they will call me tomorrow. I was pretty syked about this offer, til I started reading all these complaints...... I had recieved a call from Destination Resorts today saying they wanted to rent out my weeks, and I told them about this Sierra offer, and they said to check the internet because Sierra was such a HUGE scam. So now I'm really worried about this and how it is going to turn out! I sent them a check for the fees, not my credit card so I wonder how that will turn out?

DeniseM · Mar 25, 2010

Destination Resorts is probably the same scam. These companies that call and offer to rent/sell your timeshares for a big fee are not legit.

There are a lot of scammers out there taking advantage of desperate timeshare owners these days. Most timeshares are selling for 0-10% of retail, but that's a bitter pill to swallow, so owners grasp as shady offers, hoping they are for real. Legitimate resellers charge a commission after the sale, but the scammers all ask for a large upfront payment.

Here are some warnings signs with these kinds of companies:

1) Do they say that they already have a renter/buyer for your timeshare? (or an established market like people attending conventions.)
2) Are they offering to rent/sell it for far more than the market value?
3) Do they want you to pay a large up front fee?
4) Do they want your credit card number before they send you a contract?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, then this is the usual scenario:

Once you pay the fee and receive the contract, you discover that the company has only promised to advertise your resort, not to rent/sell it, and they don't mention having a renter/buyer in the contract.

Then, you won't hear anything from them for a long time, and when you contact them, they will tell you that the renter/buyer backed out, but they will advertise your timeshare on their over-priced website.

Finally, when you try to get your money back, they will point out that you signed a contract, and it's only for advertising.

When you try to challenge it with your credit card company, they will tell you that you only had 60 days to dispute the charge, and that it's too late to do anything.

Please see the articles at the top of the Buying, Selling, Renting page entitled "How to Sell Your Timeshare." - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44

tapdancing · Apr 13, 2010

Hey all, I just got a call last night from the Sierra group again. It appears that now they are trying to charge us the same price but take the enrollment fee we paid for Sierra intially out of the price, so now they are saying they want me to pay 1100 instead of 1700. They said that this is part of the second batch and that they are sending money to the 1st batch right now. :hysterical: I havent heard anything from our folks, so of course I dont believe this lie.

williaml · Apr 19, 2010

Sierra time share

Any new word on the sierra timshare selling scam or real deal.

DeniseM · Apr 19, 2010

williaml said:
Any new word on the sierra timshare selling scam or real deal.

If you have read all the posts in this thread, how can there be any doubt in your mind?

Nashville Contact · Apr 24, 2010

Nashville Contact

Google in Joy A Residence Club, go to their website, click DEVELOPMENTS.

They explain that they are expanding in Velas Vallarta & are working with Sierra Rentals & Resales.

DeniseM · Apr 24, 2010

Is there some reason you can't just TELL us what it is?

What is your interest/involvement in this "project?"

Don't you find it odd that not a single person has come back to this thread to tell us that they got paid?

OK, I looked - there is nothing on the website that convinces me this is a legitimate offer. Any smart operator could set up a website to make Sierra look legit.

Here is some info. that sheds some light on this company - Complaints Board

A little more research shows that their website is barely a year old.

intelligent? · May 14, 2010

I find it odd that people seem to go to the first web site they find and listen to what ever the stranger there spoon feeds them.

intelligent? · May 14, 2010

After seeing how some of the people were treated, I'm surprised any of them came back. What resort do you work for?

DeniseM · May 14, 2010

intelligent? said:
I find it odd that people seem to go to the first web site they find and listen to what ever the stranger there spoon feeds them.

Are you referring to TUG? Do you have a connection to Sierra Rentals? I see that you are posting from Mexico. If you have FACTS that support Sierra Rentals, we'd love to see them!