8 guys putzing around the construction site today
Hello everyone,
I am a guest. I discovered your site when I did a search for the Belaire Resort in PV. I am here on holiday and almost every promoter that talks to me is raving about a new place called the Belaire. I have been here in PV about 5 times and had not heard of the Belaire. They said it was not time share and it was by far the best place to stay in PV. So, naturally, before signing up for a presentation, I did a quick internet search and found TUG.
So, I read the whole thread and by that time, I HAD to attend the presentation. In the taxi on the way to the Belaire, the promoter told me that there were 3 couples that had been disqualified before we arrived. They told us they only take about 5 couples a day and 3 of them had been disqualified. They assured us we would be fine and there would be no problems. We were coached by three different promoters/employees and screened by the salesman and by the manager to make sure that I didn't have any biases about preconstruction, that our income was above $100,000/yr, and that the falling economy wouldn't prevent us from making a purchasing decision. We passed the initial screening.
Our salesman took 50 minutes to get through the vacation survey before breakfast and then another 25 minutes waiting for our simple breakfast order. The salesman mentioned several times that he was hungry, and when the food came, he ate very quickly. He said, "Fair enough?" several times during breakfast.
After breakfast, I used the restroom and I discovered that after having used the toilet on the right, it failed to flush. I was a little embarrassed and quickly washed my hands and got back to the table. I overheard another woman on the tour ask what was wrong with the bathrooms. I chimed right in, saying that the toilet wouldn't flush. The salesman said that the toilets were not automatic and that it was required to push the button to get the toilet to flush. I also noticed that there was a housekeeping person that was carrying water in buckets into the restroom. I went back in and successfully flushed the middle toilet. Then I tried again, but it was out of water. It seemed that the housekeeper was manually filling the toilets with water to make them flush! I wonder if the sales team share their commissions with her, as she is helping them cover up there lack of plumbing.
We went onto the tour of the model. When I showed interest in the bidet and toilet in the model, he quickly told us that the whole building was a tear down and they didn't even hook up the water. I asked him about the loud planes flying overhead and to my amazement, he did not say they were going to move the airport, but rather said they have special glass coming that will take care of all of the noise. Then he told us other resorts were even closer to the airport and with more noise, so I shouldn't worry. I also asked where was the parking. He said that they were going to make underground parking and also storage units for ALL of the owners. Also, there would be lots of golf carts around. The funniest thing he said was that they were going to have a beach front restaurant, club house, jet skis and much, much more at the end of the golf course where there are very large red boulders near the bayview grand. He asked if I played tennis and when I said I did, he said that we could play at the bayview grand. He said, "nobody ever plays there anyway so our guests can use it." He said all we had to do was cut through the golf course and take the 5 minute walk to the home of their future club house.
We sat down at a table facing the golf course and the swamp. I watched the construction efforts. There were 8 guys out there 'working'. One was on the top level pacing. Another was one level down, hammering one of the metal beams, one was pacing near the entrance, three were talking the rest were just moving things around. I didn't see any building materials in use. I told the salesman that my family was planning a reunion in April 2010 and wondering if my unit would be ready. He said it was planned to be finished with the first building by April, so it would work out great. I asked, "what if your construction crew doesn't finish the building by then. He said we could stay at the Miramar and showed me a photo of it. He said it was the Beverly Hills of PV. Later when the salesman was out smoking cigarettes, I asked the closer the same question about the completion date of the first building. He said the date was October 2010 (6 months later). I asked, "how do I know you are not going to take my money and never finish this building?" He said there was a multimillion dollar bond guaranteeing its completion. I asked, "Where is the construction crew?" They said they were there, they're just waiting for a shipment of iron beams and glass from Monterrey.
The whole thing was marketed as an investment, rather than a vacation club membership. They said that we would NEVER have to pay maintenance fees and when the resort was finished, the new members would have to pay $900 per week for the studio. He said that in two years, they would buy our equity back at 1.75 times. He explained it was a loan. And that there was no way I could get that kind of return from a bank or other investment made in the US or Canada. I asked what would I have for collateral if I "invested" $69,900 US into their tiny property. The closer couldn't give me any concrete answer. He mentioned they were registered with ARDA then he spun out of control into a third party story about the day he solved all of his mothers financial problems by inviting her to invest and come out with 1.75 times her initial investment.
We had had enough. By this time it was 5 hours. I asked to look at the contract and the addendum, which was full of loop holes. One thing I found disturbing was a clause that said if the management cited a member for breaking the rules twice, the member/investor would forfeit their membership. When I asked the closer about this, he said it was just a way to control people because when you've made a big investment, you don't want to lose it. At this point, we had had enough. The price kept going down and the details were getting more and more vague. We stood up and said, "No, thank you. This club is not for us." They said it was OK and they would send someone to give us "whatever was promised to us." We waited about 10 minutes and I could see several members of the sales team talking about us. I had a bad feeling about it.
Finally, some young guy told us he was there to take us to get our gifts. He said he would have our gifts soon, but first he needed only 2 minutes of our time. So, he offers us small package for $3999. We quickly said no and he made no attempt to sell it anymore. He told us we did not qualify for the presentation and that we could not receive our gifts. We had been there for over 5 hours and we qualified at the beginning. I asked to speak with a boss. He said to stop raising my voice and to sit down. I refused to do either and mentioned that the same guy that tried to sell us one more time, had said we did not qualify when we said NO for the last time. There were one or two other couples that seemed to be buying in the sales room. Nobody would talk to us, only workers stocking shampoo for the soon to open spa. We went to the door of the sales room and three salesmen blocked us from entering. They threatened to call security and did. We didn't back down and demanded to speak with a supervisor and we were ignored. So my husband went through the back way by the non-working restrooms and demanded to speak with a supervisor. He was loud and had to be noticed by the other people that seemed interested in buying. It wasn't even about the gift, it was about how big of a scam the Belaire is. They eventually gave us our gift. None of the management had the nerve to speak to us; the made the 20 year old helper boy handle it. On the way back to our resort, the cab driver told us he knew someone that gave them $180,000 and can't get any of their money back. I am really sorry to all of the people who were victims of this Ponzi scheme. Something is clearly wrong with this "resort."
should somehow be bookmarked or highlighted at the very start of this discussion, so that every prospective visitor knows exactly how bad, dishonest, and worthless all their claims are.
Welcome to TUGBBS.
