Playa Andaluza

[trudd]

I have 3 weeks in Playa and feel that I was effectively tricked into buying the third week. I am very happy with my 2 weeks and love the resort to bits. However I didn't need the third week and was tricked into buying it by Colin Knowles. Has anyone had any dealings with Colin (either good or bad) as Marriott are putting a wall up and I feel disappointed and cheated.

 

[bazzap]

How recently was this?
I am fairly sure we first met Colin many years ago at Marbella Beach and then again earlier this year as senior sales guy in Paris.
I don't believe he has been at Playa for a long time.

 

[trudd]

Hi Barry

It would be about 3 years ago and I heard he had gone to Paris but I understand he has since moved on from Marriott. He basically promised the earth on the 3rd week and didnt deliver at all and I finally came to the conclusion I had been tricked. I was just wondering if anyone else had had a similar experience as I heard mutterings that he had upset quite a few people. However, I suppose understandably, Marriott are denying any problems.

Tom

 

[bazzap]

Hi Tom

I am really sorry to hear about your bad experience.
He must have left Paris very recently then, as we saw him there only a couple of months ago in May.
On both occasions with us, he seemed quite pleasant and not overly pushy.
I can't recall anything particularly misleading that he may have said.
He did strongly stress the advantages of buying developer (disadvantages of buying resale), when we highlighted the excessive premium price for doing so.
This was just the standard MVC line though and not pursued when we made our position very clear about how little extra we would actually benefit for the huge price difference.
You don't say what promises were not delivered on with your 3rd week purchase and unfortunately it will always be difficult challenging a "we said" "they said" situation, especially with a purchase from some time ago.
I would suggest though, if you have not done so already, raising your specific detailed issues with
customer.advocacy@vacationclub.com
Good luck.

 

[ACP]

Hi Trudd
I like Barry know Colin, he has sold us a few weeks and always found him very helpful and informative.

I understand he is still based at Paris, but not directly working for Marriott, as previously mentioned, it would be good to know what was not delivered to comment further- the only thing I would add is that Playa has not been selling weeks for some time, so whatever the problems you are having must have been happening for a while?

Hope you get it sorted

 

[DB-Wis]

It would be about 3 years ago . . .

Just curious -- what is prompting you to raise this concern now, three years after the purchase? If he made an empty promise to deliver the "earth", surely that became apparent long ago.

 

[Pompey Family]

I had some issues with our saleswoman who sold us Harbour Lake whilst we were at Son Antem. They weren't outright lies but it was misrepresented what the ability to exchange would be. We were led to believe that exchanging into any other Marriott resort during our preferred holiday period (August school holidays) would be easy however we all know that's not entirely true.

We have accepted that we fell for the sales patter and should really have known better and we've learned our lesson and bought resale since. I wouldn't consider complaining to Marriott though as that would achieve nothing and besides, as Barry pointed out earlier, how could we prove exactly what she told us?

We paid a lot of money for Harbour Lake, been there once but have exchanged it for some great places and will continue to do so. In a few years I believe that we will have had our moneys worth and will continue to have some fantastic holidays in the years ahead. Unless you're having difficulty with the maintenance fees or cannot use the weeks then I see no point in pursuing any sort of case where you believe you were mis-sold a week, best to accept you were misled and move on to enjoying what you have.

If you still don't want then I'll happily take it off your hands.

 

[trudd]

Thanks for all your replies. Its not a major problem and as I mentioned we love the Marriott holidays. I was just interested to know if there had been a lot of people who had been promised things by Colin, that was all and it doesn't appear so. We bought a third week from him on a dream that we would travel around the world business class as he said there was a way he would help us do that by becoming one of his personal clients. Basically we were sucked in and naive and it never came to pass. We didn't need the third week and best advice at the time would have been not to buy but at the end of the day he was a pushy salesman and we fell for it. He was charming and knowledgeable but it was for his best interests that he did the sale, not ours and I suppose you have to chalk it up to experience. We we told it would be in our best interests to build up the reward points which we did with the purchase of the third week but then they introduced destination points and downgraded reward points (over the last year the reward points have been devalued by a certain percentage). I'm just annoyed that we could have had several big holidays as well as all the benefits of our existing 2 weeks rather than plough all our money into Marriott. All correspondence with them just tows the party line except one person who empathises with our experience but couldn't go against their bosses. Basically if you are going to buy a timeshare do all the research beforehand and stick to orange juice on the day!

 

[bazzap]

Thanks for all your replies. Its not a major problem and as I mentioned we love the Marriott holidays. I was just interested to know if there had been a lot of people who had been promised things by Colin, that was all and it doesn't appear so. We bought a third week from him on a dream that we would travel around the world business class as he said there was a way he would help us do that by becoming one of his personal clients. Basically we were sucked in and naive and it never came to pass. We didn't need the third week and best advice at the time would have been not to buy but at the end of the day he was a pushy salesman and we fell for it. He was charming and knowledgeable but it was for his best interests that he did the sale, not ours and I suppose you have to chalk it up to experience. We we told it would be in our best interests to build up the reward points which we did with the purchase of the third week but then they introduced destination points and downgraded reward points (over the last year the reward points have been devalued by a certain percentage). I'm just annoyed that we could have had several big holidays as well as all the benefits of our existing 2 weeks rather than plough all our money into Marriott. All correspondence with them just tows the party line except one person who empathises with our experience but couldn't go against their bosses. Basically if you are going to buy a timeshare do all the research beforehand and stick to orange juice on the day!

All I can offer is to say that we have often used to very good effect
- MR points for Travel Packages with Business Class flights to both Asia and the Caribbean
- DC points for long stays at Caribbean resorts, with a really good return compared to what
we get for our European resorts
So don't despair, there are decent benefits available if you spend a bit of time searching for them.

 

[MALC9990]

Thanks for all your replies. Its not a major problem and as I mentioned we love the Marriott holidays. I was just interested to know if there had been a lot of people who had been promised things by Colin, that was all and it doesn't appear so. We bought a third week from him on a dream that we would travel around the world business class as he said there was a way he would help us do that by becoming one of his personal clients. Basically we were sucked in and naive and it never came to pass. We didn't need the third week and best advice at the time would have been not to buy but at the end of the day he was a pushy salesman and we fell for it. He was charming and knowledgeable but it was for his best interests that he did the sale, not ours and I suppose you have to chalk it up to experience. We we told it would be in our best interests to build up the reward points which we did with the purchase of the third week but then they introduced destination points and downgraded reward points (over the last year the reward points have been devalued by a certain percentage). I'm just annoyed that we could have had several big holidays as well as all the benefits of our existing 2 weeks rather than plough all our money into Marriott. All correspondence with them just tows the party line except one person who empathises with our experience but couldn't go against their bosses. Basically if you are going to buy a timeshare do all the research beforehand and stick to orange juice on the day!

Like Barry, we have successfully used the 5 day travel package option availabble for owners to use MR points. However, the rosy picture painted of the RTW Business class travelmopportunities soon turned to a harsh reality of availability and what it actually costs if you live in the UK and BA are your airline of choice. However we have managed to burn our way through 2,766,000 MR points in 11 years as owners and had some great vacations flying business class to Asia, USA and the Carribean. What the sales guy said is strictly possiblebut it takes a great deal of planning and a great deal of luck. We managerd once to get to Sydney and back in First with BA using a travel package and a BA 2-4-1 voucher but that was a one off. Now we use the 5 night package to top up the AVIOS and take the 5 nights somewhere like Dubai and then try to use the AVIOS to upgrade Premium Economy seats into Business.

 

[Pompey Family]

We managerd once to get to Sydney and back in First with BA using a travel package and a BA 2-4-1 voucher but that was a one off. Now we use the 5 night package to top up the AVIOS and take the 5 nights somewhere like Dubai and then try to use the AVIOS to upgrade Premium Economy seats into Business.

I take it you're not travelling at peak times? We have 400,000 Avios points to use but we cannot find any flights during the summer holidays with the exception of Angola! There seems to be a reasonable amount of economy tickets but the business and first class are non existent.

We've used our Virgin points and money for upper class flights to Miami next year but the only problem is that we don't receive any additional points for that flight so once the account is empty we have no particular reason to show allegiance to Virgin when we go to book our next transatlantic flight.

 

[bazzap]

I take it you're not travelling at peak times? We have 400,000 Avios points to use but we cannot find any flights during the summer holidays with the exception of Angola! There seems to be a reasonable amount of economy tickets but the business and first class are non existent.

We've used our Virgin points and money for upper class flights to Miami next year but the only problem is that we don't receive any additional points for that flight so once the account is empty we have no particular reason to show allegiance to Virgin when we go to book our next transatlantic flight.

Peak times are where it gets especially difficult.
As Malcolm says you really need to be on-line the day/time flights are released and it is not easy even outside of peak season but fortunately it is possible.
It is a pain that you have to plan so meticulously, but the results can certainly be worthwhile.

 

[ACP]

I totally agree with the other guys, I usually find that you book your location first as you can do this 12 or 13 mths in advance depending on your status. But the airlines do not open flights until 11 months ahead and there are so many (not just Marriott owners by any stretch of the imagination) who want to use BA/Virgin points that you have to be right on the button. Often I find having to take flights to a different location (Mainly USA) just to fly First or Business Class and then get a connecting flight, but then you have difficulties with luggage allowance or over night stay. But we always manage to get something that suits using good old MRP. Sat here in Playa at the moment, sun is up and beer in the fridge - enough said. Cheers to You all

 

[MALC9990]

I take it you're not travelling at peak times? We have 400,000 Avios points to use but we cannot find any flights during the summer holidays with the exception of Angola! There seems to be a reasonable amount of economy tickets but the business and first class are non existent.

We've used our Virgin points and money for upper class flights to Miami next year but the only problem is that we don't receive any additional points for that flight so once the account is empty we have no particular reason to show allegiance to Virgin when we go to book our next transatlantic flight.

I guess we are a bit off the original topic now but I thought that whilst having lunch on the patio here in Son Antem, I would add some more comments.

Getting AVIOS award flights is notoriously difficult at the best of times and requires forward planning that would make that required to snag a prime Marriott week look a piece of cake. However it can and does work for us most of the time. Yes we do not need to go in school holidays, indeed we avoid them and as far as possible other public holidays such as Chinese New Year etc. BA open flights for booking 355 days in advance and do so each day of the year. So I start looking for flights at that point on a daily basis and early in the morning aswell. I have been know to sit up after midnight awaiting the release in the early hours of the morning.

Tying AVIOS award flights to an MVCI booking is also a challenge - 13 months ahead for the multiple week booking is too early for the flights. I always book at 13 months if posible for Phuket and then hope that the flights materialise. However Phuket, at the times we like to travel there does not book out so quickly (apart fro CNY which we try to avoid but not always successfully). Being flexible with the flights is a must. This year we flew to HKG on a BA AVIOS flight using my AMEX 2-4-1 in F and then just paid for flights with Thai from HKG to Phuket. With a night at the Marriott Sky City at HKG at either end of the journey we were confident of our connections and all was well.

Next year we will go via SIN since those flights came available when nothing was available via HKG or BKK (BKK is a very difficult route for AVIOS). No F seats available so we will be in CW but that is fine - F is rather overrated to be honest, nice but I would not pay cash for it.

Cobining II exchanges and award flights is a nightmare and now we typically do not even try but using DC points with AVIOS award flights is easier - mainly because you can cancel and rebook using DC points so easily, providing there is availability.

The one other big advantage BA have over other airlines is that you can use AVIOS to upgrade a flight if availability is there - so if there are CW seats available for AVIOS you can buy WT+ seats and then use AVIOS to upgrade to CW. You still earn AVIOS and Tier points for the WT+ you paid for but travel in CW. From what you said it seems Virgin are not so generous.

 

[Rossholidays]

re: original post Playa Andaluza

I've only just joined this forum after searching for the name Colin Knowles and marriott in Google, specifically for the purpose of finding out if there were any others who felt Colin misrepresented wildly the benefits available. We are in a similar position to the original poster. We bought 2 weeks in Paris, without going there and without particularly wanting 2 because of his promises of rental potential being so significant, that he would personally book the best weeks for us, book our flights, basically manage everything for us. Whilst i appreciate that these issues are now some years old but the promises he made needed time in order to see if they can true or not. We have just come back from 2 weeks in Playa Andaluza where we voiced our concerns with the sales team. The message we received was sympathetic and the person we spoke to intimated that our situation was not unusual and that there had been a number of complaints about him. They have encouraged us to contact Marriott and make a complaint. Hope this helps.
BTW very happy with our 2 weeks in Playa although very expensive compared to resale prices.

 

[bazzap]

I am pleased to hear you are happy with Playa, as we are, but sorry to hear you have not got what you were promised.
Sadly, there are plenty of tales here on TUG of promises being just words unless they are in your contract.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, we never bought from Colin, but we did meet him a few times (including whilst staying at the Paris resort last year, before he apparently left) and he actually always seemed to be one of the more informed sales guys!
To be honest, it is difficult to see what sort of positive result you can get from making a complaint to MVC, other than highlighting the issue and hoping they will take it on board.
Good luck though.