# [ 2013 ] Puerto Bahia Villas, Puerto Vallarta - Scam?



## dononlake (Jan 22, 2013)

My wife & I were in Puerto Vallarta in early January, and bought into a Private Residence Club named Puerto Bahia Villas & Spa. We were told we would receive 1 week at the resort each year, plus 3 additional weeks through RCI each year. We put down $15,000, with another $12,000 due February 5th. Since returning home, I have read several articles on the internet (most a year or so old) indicating that Puerto Bahia is unable to convey clear title to the property. Our salesman Todd Dehn, also told us that we could relinquish our weeks to Mercury Property Mgt. in St. Louis every year for 5 years, and receive $2,600 for each week we surrendered, however there is a $799 upfront fee to do this. Mercury, will also supposedly sell our 2 timeshares we currently own for $22,000. We are very dubious about these claims, and deeply regret ever buying in the first place. I called RCI to verify the number of weeks we have, but they don't have us in their system yet. They said Puerto Bahia is a Gold Crown Resort, their highest level resort. We were also told we would be able to stay in high end resorts in the Registry Collection, but RCI hadn't heard of this. I plan to contact a Mexican Law firm in PV, that I read brought criminal charges against Puerto Bahia for fraudulent & deceptive practices in October 2011. I'm now wondering whether  we should tell American Express to block the final payment due February 5th. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated....


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## Passepartout (Jan 22, 2013)

Have you read the stickies at the top of the Mexico forum. I think the time to be dubious would have been within 5 or so days of signing on to this, when you could rescind. We have heard of many of these 'trade-in-your-TS' schemes. They don't seem to pan out. And as to why you should pay the resort $800 to rent your week. Why should they even sell it to you if they could rent the week for $2600. Think about it. It appears that you should either read about how to get the most use from your new timeshare, or if you think you can prove fraud, contact Profeco, the Mexican consumer protection agency. I think hiring a Mexican attorney is chasing good money spent with more good money. 

Best wishes, and Welcome to TUG.

Jim


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## gilrob (Sep 18, 2013)

dononlake said:


> My wife & I were in Puerto Vallarta in early January, and bought into a Private Residence Club named Puerto Bahia Villas & Spa. We were told we would receive 1 week at the resort each year, plus 3 additional weeks through RCI each year. We put down $15,000, with another $12,000 due February 5th. Since returning home, I have read several articles on the internet (most a year or so old) indicating that Puerto Bahia is unable to convey clear title to the property. Our salesman Todd Dehn, also told us that we could relinquish our weeks to Mercury Property Mgt. in St. Louis every year for 5 years, and receive $2,600 for each week we surrendered, however there is a $799 upfront fee to do this. Mercury, will also supposedly sell our 2 timeshares we currently own for $22,000. We are very dubious about these claims, and deeply regret ever buying in the first place. I called RCI to verify the number of weeks we have, but they don't have us in their system yet. They said Puerto Bahia is a Gold Crown Resort, their highest level resort. We were also told we would be able to stay in high end resorts in the Registry Collection, but RCI hadn't heard of this. I plan to contact a Mexican Law firm in PV, that I read brought criminal charges against Puerto Bahia for fraudulent & deceptive practices in October 2011. I'm now wondering whether  we should tell American Express to block the final payment due February 5th. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated....



I have been searching for someone else who has many doubts about Puerto Bahia----finally I have found you
Same salesman, different rental service---Platinum Services who have now disappeared
I am starting to realize that the 11 weeks that could be used for rental/exchange have no value and cannot be used
What further actions have you taken since this posting------perhaps we can combine forces and find others and jointly take significant action


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## LannyPC (Sep 18, 2013)

gilrob said:


> What further actions have you taken since this posting------perhaps we can combine forces and find others and jointly take significant action



Well now that you've made your intentions public in a forum like this, you will probably be getting a lot of calls and e-mails from questionable or fake law firms trying to sign you up.  They'll make all sorts of claims as to what they can do for you in situations like this.

Of course the big catch is that they will ask you to pay some fee up front.  Some of these are just continuations of previous scams targeting desperate, disgruntled, and vindictive timeshare owners.


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## RR46 (Feb 22, 2014)

*Puerto Bahia scam*



gilrob said:


> I have been searching for someone else who has many doubts about Puerto Bahia----finally I have found you
> Same salesman, different rental service---Platinum Services who have now disappeared
> I am starting to realize that the 11 weeks that could be used for rental/exchange have no value and cannot be used
> What further actions have you taken since this posting------perhaps we can combine forces and find others and jointly take significant action



We too were scammed by this offer of rental of the 3 weeks by a broker called Timely Travel using a South Dakota phone number and address that was non existent. I did not enroll in this bogus marketing firm but still have a down payment on a credit card that I am disputing. The resort claims the down payment is non refundable according to the contract but the credit card company is going try the dispute process anyway. I suspect i will lose the down payment due to this misrepresentation and fraud.


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## gilrob (Feb 28, 2014)

RR46 said:


> We too were scammed by this offer of rental of the 3 weeks by a broker called Timely Travel using a South Dakota phone number and address that was non existent. I did not enroll in this bogus marketing firm but still have a down payment on a credit card that I am disputing. The resort claims the down payment is non refundable according to the contract but the credit card company is going try the dispute process anyway. I suspect i will lose the down payment due to this misrepresentation and fraud.


I posted this message a year ago and have had very little response. I am continuing to confront the Bahia and our next step is to take it to the Mexican BBB. We would like to join forces with others who have been scammed by Bahia. Are you interested in joining forces and see what we can do?


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## DNP (Mar 7, 2014)

dononlake said:


> My wife & I were in Puerto Vallarta in early January, and bought into a Private Residence Club named Puerto Bahia Villas & Spa. We were told we would receive 1 week at the resort each year, plus 3 additional weeks through RCI each year. We put down $15,000, with another $12,000 due February 5th. Since returning home, I have read several articles on the internet (most a year or so old) indicating that Puerto Bahia is unable to convey clear title to the property. Our salesman Todd Dehn, also told us that we could relinquish our weeks to Mercury Property Mgt. in St. Louis every year for 5 years, and receive $2,600 for each week we surrendered, however there is a $799 upfront fee to do this. Mercury, will also supposedly sell our 2 timeshares we currently own for $22,000. We are very dubious about these claims, and deeply regret ever buying in the first place. I called RCI to verify the number of weeks we have, but they don't have us in their system yet. They said Puerto Bahia is a Gold Crown Resort, their highest level resort. We were also told we would be able to stay in high end resorts in the Registry Collection, but RCI hadn't heard of this. I plan to contact a Mexican Law firm in PV, that I read brought criminal charges against Puerto Bahia for fraudulent & deceptive practices in October 2011. I'm now wondering whether  we should tell American Express to block the final payment due February 5th. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated....


Have you had any luck geting a refund from Puerto Bahia ?


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## DNP (Apr 11, 2014)

I did hire a Mexican attorney. He did submit the case to PROFECO. PROFECO ruled  in our favor.  Now we have to decide what to do next.


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## pacodemountainside (Apr 11, 2014)

*Where Are The Assets?*

Based on my limited  experience in reading TS/VC  contracts  there  are generally  several entities involved.

Often the one  at top is  shell corporation   that immediately transfers  any cash to  another entity rending it Judgment Proof.

Piercing the  Corporate Veil is prohibitively expensive  when one is footing legal bills.

Weigh  your options  carefully!


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## gilrob (May 4, 2014)

I hope your credit card company wins the dispute for you. I pulled all my material together, did a lot of research and now have submitted a full brief to Profeco (in Spanish no less) and am waiting for a response. After a subsequent visit to Puerto Bahia, I am now convinced that they are scammers of the first order. Their weeks to use with RCI (not the title week) are totally bogus according to RCI except for the left over inventory that any experienced person would not pay for. They are smart, talk an excellent line and it is all lies and slights of hand-----as a senior person at RCI told me----RCI is being inundated with calls from Bahia owners who are shocked to learn that none of the promises made are actually true. ----as she put it----there is no Bahia inventory and never has been!!!!!!! totally fraudulent
Anyone who wants to create a resource group for those of us stuck with one title week for mega bucks ----contact me at srobinson67@sympatico.ca


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## LannyPC (May 5, 2014)

gilrob said:


> They are smart, talk an excellent line and it is all lies and slights of hand-----
> Anyone who wants to create a resource group for those of us stuck with one title week for mega bucks ----contact me at..



Timeshare sales people are notorious for being deceitful, yet proficient.

By the way, I would suggest you remove your e-mail address from your post.  Now that you've made it known in a public forum like this what your plight is, you'll start getting a barrage of e-mails from scammers and questionable law firms claiming they can initiate some sort of legal action if you pay them an upfront fee.  There's a 99+% chance that these are scams.


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## gilrob (May 16, 2014)

gilrob said:


> I hope your credit card company wins the dispute for you. I pulled all my material together, did a lot of research and now have submitted a full brief to Profeco (in Spanish no less) and am waiting for a response. After a subsequent visit to Puerto Bahia, I am now convinced that they are scammers of the first order. Their weeks to use with RCI (not the title week) are totally bogus according to RCI except for the left over inventory that any experienced person would not pay for. They are smart, talk an excellent line and it is all lies and slights of hand-----as a senior person at RCI told me----RCI is being inundated with calls from Bahia owners who are shocked to learn that none of the promises made are actually true. ----as she put it----there is no Bahia inventory and never has been!!!!!!! totally fraudulent
> Anyone who wants to create a resource group for those of us stuck with one title week for mega bucks ----


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## gilrob (Jan 31, 2015)

*puerto Bahia scam*

Good news!!!
As reported,we worked with Profeco,and they were sucessful at getting a settlement for us with Puerto Bahia.  -----which we actually received!!!!!!!
It of course was not the full amount------but a great deal better Than nothing


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## jconeal9 (Mar 18, 2015)

*Lets work together*



gilrob said:


> Good news!!!
> As reported,we worked with Profeco,and they were sucessful at getting a settlement for us with Puerto Bahia.  -----which we actually received!!!!!!!
> It of course was not the full amount------but a great deal better Than nothing



I'm a Puerto Bahia owner. I got duped by platinum services as well which promised me that they were going sell my weeks for $2600 and that they were going to sell my other Timeshares as well. This never happened. I've tried to make reservation and I don't even get a call back. They said they don't even show til 12pm, this is insane! I will say that I have seen them have inventory on RCI before.  They said I would be with the registry club and they said would have 4 RCI weeks. I've already paid off 16,000! please show me what to do!


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## TUGBrian (Apr 15, 2015)

anyone here still active that had "dealings" with this company?  a news story is about to come out about them and the reporter is looking for a few more folks to interview!


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## faithriley (May 19, 2015)

*please help....*

I am in the same position with puerto Bahia...infuriated with all the false claims and am now stuck with an overpriced timeshare.  Any information anyone can pass along about dealing with a mexican attorney and profeco would be greatly appreciated.  I am not even sure where to start and who to contact regarding my fraudulent claim.
Thank you in advance for any help with this matter.


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## Karen G (May 19, 2015)

faithriley said:


> I am in the same position with puerto Bahia...infuriated with all the false claims and am now stuck with an overpriced timeshare.  Any information anyone can pass along about dealing with a mexican attorney and profeco would be greatly appreciated.  I am not even sure where to start and who to contact regarding my fraudulent claim.
> Thank you in advance for any help with this matter.


Profeco would be the place to start. Check out the information & links in the sticky posts at the top of the Mexico forum page, especially this video for  more info.


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## richzollinger (Jun 17, 2015)

*Puerto Bahia owner scammed like others seeks advice on upcoming trip.*

Just about 3 years ago I bought ownership into Puerto Bahia under the pretense that Platinum Services would provide rental income and sell my timeshare.  Unfortunately I have paid the full amount due so I doubt i can recover anything.

I have tried to talk with the company but they disavow responsibility for salesman they fired.   In July I am going down to stay and have requested a meeting with a management official. What I am trying to determine is what exactly do I own??  They have been pressuring me to sign a deed agreement but I am dubious because it will make it much more difficult to sell in the future.  

Has anyone had success at selling their ownership in Puerto Bahia property?? If so how did you do it.

Has anyone had success at renting weeks thru the resort OR thru RCI?

For those that received a settlement with the help of Profeco, was the main basis of your argument the false representations of the sales organization.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated as I go there in July.  I hope I will enjoy the resort but it clearly looks like they are way behind in plans.


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## LannyPC (Jun 17, 2015)

richzollinger said:


> Has anyone had success at selling their ownership in Puerto Bahia property?? If so how did you do it.
> 
> Has anyone had success at renting weeks thru the resort OR thru RCI?



First to clarify, Puerto Bahia is likely a Right-to-Use (RTU) so you probably don't have ownership but rather a membership.  That's the way it is with the majority of Mexican and Caribbean timeshares although there are a few exceptions to the rule.

If you want to sell it, make sure you are well aware of the resale value.  Here's a hint: it's nowhere near what you originally paid for it.  The original TS salesperson probably convinced you that you could sell it for the original price, or even more, but chances are that your membership is worth about zero dollars.  If that's the case, try advertising in TUG's Bargain Deals section that you want to give it away.  Do not pay any entity a large, upfront fee that claims it can sell or rent your TS for mega-bucks.

Renting through the resort is sketchy.  The resort cannot guarantee a rental and, even if it does, it will take about a 30% commission plus it might not get what you paid in MFs.  Despite what the salesperson told you, the rental market and demand in Mexico is not through the roof.  It's more like through the floor.  

As for renting through RCI, that is a no-go.  RCI is an exchange company, not a rental broker.


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