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[2011] Villa del Palmar, Timeshare Scams,Universal Vacation Club

UVC Members

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This post is primarily directed to Universal Vacation Club members who have
attended a Villa Group sales presentation for the new Villa Preferred Access
(points) system. I am soliciting feed back from members who may think they
received less than forth right and dishonest “sales pitches”. During the
presentation, you were led to believe this was such a fantastic opportunity, you agreed to purchase and now realize you have basically been scammed.

In the last six months, I have been contacted by Club members via my website - www.universalvacationclubmembers.com - and other “social media” site postings. These members are advising me they they had been scammed and were fed lies and fraudulent misrepresentations by the Villa Group Developer sales staff. These fraudulent misrepresentations apply equally to “New Sales Presentations” for first time resort guests and also apply to “Update Presentations” for existing Club members. With the advent of the new Villa Preferred Access “VPA” memberships, there has been a push by some of the sales staff to promote the ease of renting your time for exorbitant amounts. The premise is with rentals, you are able to recoup your membership purchase cost or your additional cost to upgrade to VPA.
In addition to renting your regular points/weeks, they represent the VPA
membership will allow for renting your Preferred Time weeks. The third party
agencies being pitched are Enterprise Travel International, Phoenix Rental and Resale, Continental Connections and Regal Resales and Rentals. These agencies allegedly provide rental and resale services and do require an upfront “administrative” charge to set up your account. I have never heard of a successful rental or resale from members who contracted with these agencies.

Another situation with the sales presentations is the developer will represent
that these agencies could sell your current time share ownership (not UVC
membership) and you can then apply the sale proceeds against your purchase or upgrade cost. It is represented the sale of your current time share ownership will occur within 90 days to six months and you will again receive an exorbitant sales price. It seems that Enterprise Travel has been the third party agency of choice by the sales staff for at least the last year.

I have worked with several UVC members who were given this “pitch” and the
members ultimately realized they were scammed in their new purchase or their membership upgrade. Working together we successfully achieved satisfactory resolution with the developer. The new members were refunded their full purchase price with the contract cancelled and existing members who upgraded to VPA were refunded the associated upgrade cost and were reinstated to their previous Premier or Gold memberships. I have also worked with UVC members that were still within the five business day right to rescind and their outcomes were successful. There is no charge for my intervention and assistance. I achieve the ultimate personal satisfaction of turning this back against the developer and putting him on the defensive.

If you wish to contact me, send a private message via this forum or respond via the "Contact Us" page on my website www.universalvacationclubmembers.com

Jeff Robbins
 

nazclk

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Agencies of UVC

You mention that people call them to no avail. Are they really companies, or just names that UVC has pulled out of a hat.
 

navsails

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Villas del Palmar Flamingos

This post is primarily directed to Universal Vacation Club members who have
attended a Villa Group sales presentation for the new Villa Preferred Access
(points) system. I am soliciting feed back from members who may think they
received less than forth right and dishonest “sales pitches”. During the
presentation, you were led to believe this was such a fantastic opportunity, you agreed to purchase and now realize you have basically been scammed.

In the last six months, I have been contacted by Club members via my website - www.universalvacationclubmembers.com - and other “social media” site postings. These members are advising me they they had been scammed and were fed lies and fraudulent misrepresentations by the Villa Group Developer sales staff. These fraudulent misrepresentations apply equally to “New Sales Presentations” for first time resort guests and also apply to “Update Presentations” for existing Club members. With the advent of the new Villa Preferred Access “VPA” memberships, there has been a push by some of the sales staff to promote the ease of renting your time for exorbitant amounts. The premise is with rentals, you are able to recoup your membership purchase cost or your additional cost to upgrade to VPA.
In addition to renting your regular points/weeks, they represent the VPA
membership will allow for renting your Preferred Time weeks. The third party
agencies being pitched are Enterprise Travel International, Phoenix Rental and Resale, Continental Connections and Regal Resales and Rentals. These agencies allegedly provide rental and resale services and do require an upfront “administrative” charge to set up your account. I have never heard of a successful rental or resale from members who contracted with these agencies.

Another situation with the sales presentations is the developer will represent
that these agencies could sell your current time share ownership (not UVC
membership) and you can then apply the sale proceeds against your purchase or upgrade cost. It is represented the sale of your current time share ownership will occur within 90 days to six months and you will again receive an exorbitant sales price. It seems that Enterprise Travel has been the third party agency of choice by the sales staff for at least the last year.

I have worked with several UVC members who were given this “pitch” and the
members ultimately realized they were scammed in their new purchase or their membership upgrade. Working together we successfully achieved satisfactory resolution with the developer. The new members were refunded their full purchase price with the contract cancelled and existing members who upgraded to VPA were refunded the associated upgrade cost and were reinstated to their previous Premier or Gold memberships. I have also worked with UVC members that were still within the five business day right to rescind and their outcomes were successful. There is no charge for my intervention and assistance. I achieve the ultimate personal satisfaction of turning this back against the developer and putting him on the defensive.

If you wish to contact me, send a private message via this forum or respond via the "Contact Us" page on my website www.universalvacationclubmembers.com

Jeff Robbins

Jeff:
My Father just about to turn 80 just returned from Puerta Vallarta and fell for the "misrepresentations" you have outlined. He paid $8,000.00 plus $785 for "rental" fee with the promises of sale of 5 weeks to recoop his expenses. He realizes now that this was a big mistake and that the lies you have outlined are what has happened to him. please contact me at navsails@aol.com . Please help my dad is really hurting form the deception.
 

pjrose

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He should rescind NOW, following the directions in the contract.

He also should contact his bank or credit card company, whichever the money came from.

He should write down everything he remembers in terms of times, names, specific promises, etc, and keep details and copies of all correspondence. Profeco, a Mexican consumer agency, may be able to help; search the Mexico forum for "profeco".
 

navsails

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He should rescind NOW, following the directions in the contract.

He also should contact his bank or credit card company, whichever the money came from.

He should write down everything he remembers in terms of times, names, specific promises, etc, and keep details and copies of all correspondence. Profeco, a Mexican consumer agency, may be able to help; search the Mexico forum for "profeco".

Thank You! We have done all you have suggested. Rescind can only be done in the first five days. At least that is my understanding.
 

DeniseM

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Thank You! We have done all you have suggested. Rescind can only be done in the first five days. At least that is my understanding.

He can still contact Profeco for help, since he was scammed - Here is a brochure from Profeco.

They are a legitimate FREE consumer agency in Mexico. They are slow, but if you are persistent, they can help.
 

navsails

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He can still contact Profeco for help, since he was scammed - Here is a brochure from Profeco.

They are a legitimate FREE consumer agency in Mexico. They are slow, but if you are persistent, they can help.

Thank you! :whoopie: Do you have any info on G&G TimeShare Solutions? They contend they can recover and take a fee from any money recovered with no upfront fees.
 

DeniseM

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Thank you! :whoopie: Do you have any info on G&G TimeShare Solutions? They contend they can recover and take a fee from any money recovered with no upfront fees.

They are not well-regarded on TUG, and since they are in Mexico, if you have problems with them, you have no protection under US Law.
 

navsails

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Jeff:
My Father just about to turn 80 just returned from Puerta Vallarta and fell for the "misrepresentations" you have outlined. He paid $8,000.00 plus $785 for "rental" fee with the promises of sale of 5 weeks to recoop his expenses. He realizes now that this was a big mistake and that the lies you have outlined are what has happened to him. please contact me at navsails@aol.com . Please help my dad is really hurting form the deception.

:clap: Thanks Jeff! My dad is very happy with the conversations you had. Looks like he'll slept a lot better after talking with you. KEEP UP the good fight.
Steve
 

Lloydwa1

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UVC/Jeff Robins Web

Hey Mr Robbins, We bought into the Villa Group in 2008 and have enjoyed many visits to all of the Villa Resorts. Leaving for Loreto in 2 days. We were scheduled to visit Loreto in Feb but were put in the Hotel Santa Fe because they were not ready for the resort to be occupied.
The first lie we were told on our original purchase was that they would show our investment as owners of Villa Del Arco. When we got the deed we found that we were shown as owners of Villa Del Palmar. I know about the UVC membership but dissapointed in not being able to reserve time in Arco. We told the salesman that we never plan to stay in Cabo/Palmar.
Then on every visit we attend the owners update to learn of the latest Villa news and to receive the discount. Every sale person tells the same lies. I have complained to the very nice CEO's at the annual meetings and they seem to be aware of the problem. I wonder if the sales persons wages/commisions require them to tell the stories they all tell. With the advent of the internet, the car salesmen had to retrain themselves. With the great resorts the Villa Group offers and the very good service staff, I have hope that this problem will become a thing of the past. Just like the auto industry. Thanks for posting your web site Jeff. I plan to join on our return. As members we owe it to ourselves to make the developers aware of what they can do to make the resorts what we had hoped we had bought into.
I'm already missing not being able to attend the annual meeting. I have met very many great Villa managers. I have high hopes for the Villa/UVC ownership. Lloyd Olbricht
 

UVC Members

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Reply to Lloydwa1

and a "hey" to you Lloyd. You made an interesting post and I have added my comments into the body of your post. Jeff

Hey Mr Robbins, We bought into the Villa Group in 2008 and have enjoyed many visits to all of the Villa Resorts. Leaving for Loreto in 2 days. We were scheduled to visit Loreto in Feb but were put in the Hotel Santa Fe because they were not ready for the resort to be occupied. I have heard of this several times where UVC members reserved at Loretto but then put up at the Santa Fe.The first lie we were told on our original purchase was that they would show our investment as owners of Villa Del Arco. When we got the deed we found that we were shown as owners of Villa Del Palmar. This is not deeded property but simply a membership into the UVC.I know about the UVC membership but dissapointed in not being able to reserve time in Arco. We told the salesman that we never plan to stay in Cabo/Palmar. As a Gold or VPA member, you are a member of UVC and do not have a designated resort. The developer will always allocate the unsold inventory from less desireable resorts first and the most desired resorts last. As a result, the developer has better controls of the del Arco inventory. As long as members keep surrendering their memberships, these surrendered inventories will be the first to be sold again by the developer.Then on every visit we attend the owners update to learn of the latest Villa news and to receive the discount. Every sale person tells the same lies. I have complained to the very nice CEO's at the annual meetings and they seem to be aware of the problem. They most definitely are aware of the problem but do nothing to discourage the lies. They realize it cast a cloud over the organization but consider the sales lies as justification for increased sales. I wonder if the sales persons wages/commisions require them to tell the stories they all tell. With the advent of the internet, the car salesmen had to retrain themselves. With the great resorts the Villa Group offers and the very good service staff, I have hope that this problem will become a thing of the past. Just like the auto industry. Thanks for posting your web site Jeff. I plan to join on our return. As members we owe it to ourselves to make the developers aware of what they can do to make the resorts what we had hoped we had bought into. Many club members have determined they were scammed and taken. Feel free to send me a personal message and we can discuss possible options and remedies. I'm already missing not being able to attend the annual meeting. I have met very many great Villa managers. I have high hopes for the Villa/UVC ownership. Lloyd Olbricht
 

DrewJ

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thanks for the info

Jeff, I have just posted a new thread in the Mexico region area and also emailed you, we just purchased a VPA membership at the end of September and would very much like to speak with you and get some advice.
Thanks,
Drew
 

navsails

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:clap: Thanks Jeff! My dad is very happy with the conversations you had. Looks like he'll slept a lot better after talking with you. KEEP UP the good fight.
Steve

:clap: Just received ltter from Villa Del Palma Flamongos cancelling contract and returned credit to CC. Thank You Jeff Robbins!!!!:cheer:
 

NAKONECHNY

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another victim of Villa group

Hello Jeff

We are a couple that just bought a studio suite thinking it was from Del Arco in Jan 2 2012. We have been mislead and did try to cancel within 5 days with no success. Shane told us we would loose our down payment. We had bought a much larger package so instead of loosing it all he convinced us grudgingly to take an entry package. Upon arriving at home I tried to book in the Del Arco and the earliest is August. Also many discrepancies as to what we were told and what the booking agency is telling us. In fact my conversation with RCI ended up with them hanging up on me. Any suggestions as to what we can do?

Thanks Deb








This post is primarily directed to Universal Vacation Club members who have
attended a Villa Group sales presentation for the new Villa Preferred Access
(points) system. I am soliciting feed back from members who may think they
received less than forth right and dishonest “sales pitches”. During the
presentation, you were led to believe this was such a fantastic opportunity, you agreed to purchase and now realize you have basically been scammed.

In the last six months, I have been contacted by Club members via my website - www.universalvacationclubmembers.com - and other “social media” site postings. These members are advising me they they had been scammed and were fed lies and fraudulent misrepresentations by the Villa Group Developer sales staff. These fraudulent misrepresentations apply equally to “New Sales Presentations” for first time resort guests and also apply to “Update Presentations” for existing Club members. With the advent of the new Villa Preferred Access “VPA” memberships, there has been a push by some of the sales staff to promote the ease of renting your time for exorbitant amounts. The premise is with rentals, you are able to recoup your membership purchase cost or your additional cost to upgrade to VPA.
In addition to renting your regular points/weeks, they represent the VPA
membership will allow for renting your Preferred Time weeks. The third party
agencies being pitched are Enterprise Travel International, Phoenix Rental and Resale, Continental Connections and Regal Resales and Rentals. These agencies allegedly provide rental and resale services and do require an upfront “administrative” charge to set up your account. I have never heard of a successful rental or resale from members who contracted with these agencies.

Another situation with the sales presentations is the developer will represent
that these agencies could sell your current time share ownership (not UVC
membership) and you can then apply the sale proceeds against your purchase or upgrade cost. It is represented the sale of your current time share ownership will occur within 90 days to six months and you will again receive an exorbitant sales price. It seems that Enterprise Travel has been the third party agency of choice by the sales staff for at least the last year.

I have worked with several UVC members who were given this “pitch” and the
members ultimately realized they were scammed in their new purchase or their membership upgrade. Working together we successfully achieved satisfactory resolution with the developer. The new members were refunded their full purchase price with the contract cancelled and existing members who upgraded to VPA were refunded the associated upgrade cost and were reinstated to their previous Premier or Gold memberships. I have also worked with UVC members that were still within the five business day right to rescind and their outcomes were successful. There is no charge for my intervention and assistance. I achieve the ultimate personal satisfaction of turning this back against the developer and putting him on the defensive.

If you wish to contact me, send a private message via this forum or respond via the "Contact Us" page on my website www.universalvacationclubmembers.com

Jeff Robbins
 

TSCH

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another Villa scam victim

Jeff,
As with many others, it seems, I was lied to and scammed by the Villa Group into trading in my Marriott timeshare fro what seemed like a good trade in value and purchasing a two bedroom timeshare at Villa del Palmar Flamingos, with the promise of recieving rental income through Enterprise Travel International which would quickly make up and well exceed the purchase price.
I went through all of the paperwork and arrangements in Aug and Sep 2011. I have paid for the Villa timeshare, paid the maintenance fee for 2012, and it appears to be available to trade through Interval International. However, after paying search and closing fees to sell them my existing timeshare through a company called Vacation Trade World, nothing has yet happened with my existing property.
After several calls to Steven Girard at ETI, who always promises that the rental is imminent and a check should come through within the next 4-6 weeks, of course nothing has happened.
Jeff Moore, the original salesperson, also promised several other things to close the deal, including a free cruise for two, and provided a coupon, which of course was not valid for a free cruise. There was also misrepresentations of the Interval International status and trading ability and costs.
Of course I would like to cancel all of this and get refunded, with any transfer of my old timeshare cancelled.
Villa Properties appeared to be a large, reputable company, and the resort properties were nice, so I never expected such a scam. When I call the Villa Group, they basically say that if it is not in writing, then tough luck.
What are my options and can you help?
Thanks, Tom
 

tourdog450

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Scammed

Jeff,

I too have a similar situation to others on this forum. I was wondering if you would be able to help me figure out the best course of action for getting out of my contract with Villa Del Palmar as well? Any help or guidance you can offer would be much appreciated.

Thanks!
 

beach.bar.bob

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Jeff,

I too have a similar situation to others on this forum. I was wondering if you would be able to help me figure out the best course of action for getting out of my contract with Villa Del Palmar as well? Any help or guidance you can offer would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Jeff hasn't been active here for over a year - although the TUG stats shows activity in his account...perhaps he's lurking. I've previously had private contact with him but all subsequent communications have gone unanswered. Jeff once had a website(see earlier message in this thread for link) that hosted UVC rentals and a UVC members page but that now points to the UVC home page. All this leads me to believe that he came to some accommodation with UVC and as part of that had to discontinue posting. My point being don't expect help form Jeff.

If you acquired a membership very recently and you don't want it rescind immediately. If you acquired the membership recently and have missed the rescission window not sure what you can do unless they materially and factually lied to you...perhaps them Profeco can help you...see comments earlier messages on this topic. If you've had your membership and it is paid for and current and you want to get out from under the maintenance fees you can surrender your membership to UVC. If you're unhappy with your membership because you can't make it work for you let us know your challenges...several of us here can help you use it effectively.

FWIW.


bbb
 

tartanwood

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,,,,, If you've had your membership and it is paid for and current and you want to get out from under the maintenance fees you can surrender your membership to UVC. ...

bbb

We are enjoying our current membership and hope to for several more years, but I am thinking ahead to the future.

When we upgraded to VPA points a couple of years ago, the 30-year clock was reset, and it is not due to expire until we are 92. I hope we can continue to enjoy traveling for another 15+ years, but I doubt we will be hopping on planes to Mexico at age 90+.

Are you saying that we can just surrender our membership and be free of maintenance fees when the time comes to stop traveling?

Also, what happens if we die before the contract expires? I don't want to pass on a burden to our son.
 

beach.bar.bob

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Are you saying that we can just surrender our membership and be free of maintenance fees when the time comes to stop traveling?

Also, what happens if we die before the contract expires? I don't want to pass on a burden to our son.

1) I'm not saying it...UVC is saying it on their website. I've never done it so I can't validate that it works. The following was lifted from the Ask a Question section of the website. I can't link to it as you must log into your account via the ResortCom site...go the the last tab "Ask a Question" - this content is on about page 14.

"UVC: Contract/Membership Cancellation
Answer ID 68 | Published 02/06/2005 08:29 PM | Updated 07/02/2008 10:31 AM

UVC: What is the procedure for cancelling a contract?
Contract Cancellation

UVC does not cancel contracts. If you wish to cancel, your only option is to surrender your week back to the developer and lose the money that has been paid toward your account. In order to surrender loan must be paid in full and all maintenance fees must be current."


2) I have no clue what happens to a UVC membership should you die. There have been several threads here on TUG about the subject where others with far more legal expertise than I have weighed in. Search for it.

Safe travels.

bbb
 

BADTS

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VILLA GROUP - Jeff Robbins

Jeff does not answer and either was part of the villa group or was bought out by the villa group his link now goes to the villa group web site. Do not expect help from him, however I would bet Villa group is getting the emails. Private messages are read but never responded too . . . .

As noted in the prvious post comments on Shane,
(see NAKONECHNY's post on him) He did the same to us . . . .

But we will now have to make best use of the plan . . .
 

KAPS

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Yes, I too just found out that Jeff does not respond to his private messages...we too were misled and pressured into purchasing a trial membership with the villa del palmar and have been trying to have our money refunded from the next day that we purchased it...months later still having no luck. Anyone have any luck???
 

easyrider

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Yes, I too just found out that Jeff does not respond to his private messages...we too were misled and pressured into purchasing a trial membership with the villa del palmar and have been trying to have our money refunded from the next day that we purchased it...months later still having no luck. Anyone have any luck???

K, what exactly is your problem with UVC. In a different post you said they lied. What exactly is the lie ?

I am a satisfied owner of several UVC contracts and have attended owners updates ( presentations) every year, sometimes twice. I have never heard of a trial run membership that you mentioned on your other post. Can you explain how that works ?

Bill
 

vmm54

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Villa Group

I've signed the contract on Sunday, May 19.
As I understood the cancelation should be made in 5 working days.
So what is the last day I could cancel it Friday or Sunday ?
 

DenverSteve

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I joined today and am feeling a little wary after all the reports of issues herein. According to the contract, you can cancel within 5 days after signing the contract. I feel the timeshare system is a good fit for me as I vacation a couple of months per year. I am just wondering about the Villa Group and these complaints.
 
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