I received a call from Vacation Property Services on 9/12/09 regarding a timeshare that my husband and I have for sale. The man that called said his name was Don Rice and he had a buyer for our property. He sent me a Letter of Intent signed by the buyers and a witness. My husband and I had to sign it and send it back. We also had to send $286.82 by Western Union (money in minutes)for the taxes and title search. I sent the WU on 9/15/09 in the amount of $322.82 which includes the WU fee of $36.00. After sending this, I received another call from Mr. Rice on 9/17/09 stating that the taxes would be an additional $86.32 and I need to send it right away by WU again by (money in minutes). The total for that one was $102.31, including the $15.99 fee. In both cases the WU was to be picked up by a Duane Bean, owner of Vacation Property Services in Holly Hill, FL. We were to receive a package from Fed Ex on Friday, 9/18/09 between 3 and 5 pm for the settlement. I left work early and turned down overtime to come home, so I would be here when the package arrived. I did not receive the package on Friday and have been trying to contact Don Rice and no one will return my call. I have left 5 messages since 5:00 pm Friday. I would like a full refund for the $425.13 I have spent on this transaction. The phone number for Vacation Property Services is 757-470-2768 the address is 4001 Va. Beach Blvd., Va Beach, Va 23450.
Sincerely,
Carolyn V. McNeff
308 Carolina Pines Court
Leicester, NC 28748 (Less)

STOP! THIS IS A SCAM! This is not a reputable company! If you have already bought in, it is too late. You will not be able to get your money back. The PROFECO amnesty for buyers is over. Face the fact that you got suckered by another generation of con-men (the one before Doug Lockett got his thumb cut off by a dissatisfied customer so he couldn't sign anymore contracts, and subsequently retired). DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM BY THROWING MORE MONEY AWAY ON UPGRADES. This is the second level of the scam. "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me." I made friends with a former sales person. That person couldn't stomach the scams and left the country. He told me they prey on the fact that there is no available recourse for those such as us who have fallen for the scam. I was sold all the typical time share lies that you all reported, by Doug Lockett soon after stepping off the plane. When I returned to the USA and tried to make some money back on my investment, I realized I was scammed. It was already too late for the PROFECO action against them. I was on my own. So I asked them to just refund my money and I would give them back the paperwork. Monica Delagrava (replacement for Johnny Kno who was siding with us) said I could give up my ownership but they were keeping the money. She said "read the contract or hire an attorney to read it for" me and hung up on me. This scam pays well enough for them to satisfy the needs of the law and covers the few refunds they were forced to give. They will not willingly give up the scam or refund to anyone. The good guys who worked there have either been replaced or left. It seems the best success story in getting satisfaction from these people would be the gangster who cut off the thumb. That seems to be a tactic that Velas Vallarta and their staff respect.

If you are stuck like me, consider making up fliers and also advertise on craigslist and eBay type sites. Sell off your room nights and the cost of maintenance. Make your money back as fast as you can and get rid of this white elephant. Don't buy into the RCI, Holiday Systems, or any credit card or other stuff either. Just stop spending on it and sell it off ASAP.

Also, pass the word around to everyone that you can about the reputation of these liars and thieves. They do bad business. The only way to stop them is to make such behavior unprofitable for them. Otherwise, they get their way.

On another note for a different complaint, if the sales staff and managers can't be trusted, can their room staff be trusted? Are your possessions and money safe? How about your security? Are they corrupt as well? I don't know, but they sure were rude to my Mexican friends who would visit me when I stayed. This has been a pretty, expensive, and well packaged nightmare.

Please note that I report the scam in Puerto Vallarta Mexico. The company that is in Hollywood California is Desarrollos Tristicos De La Costa.

Beware! I also experienced this unconscionable timeshare scam at Velas Vallarta. The sales representative, Ken Waller, told me that Velas would take a trade-in of a timeshare I owned at a different resort to offset the purchase of a Velas upgrade from a studio unit to a one bedroom. He was essentially offering me the same amount for my other timeshare that I would be spending on the upgrade and closing costs. Mr. Waller referred me to Sierra Rentals and Resales for the closing services.

When I sat down to sign the upgrade documents, I could find no mention of the trade-in in the documents. I asked Mr. Waller why the trade-in was not in the documents and he told me that it would be on a separate document and that I would receive the confirmation of the purchase before I left. He said he expected the fax very shortly. I told him that my purchase of an upgrade was based on the trade-in and I would not be doing it otherwise. After signing the contract, I was ushered downstairs into the lobby. Mr. Waller came into the lobby with what he told me was my trade-in/purchase confirmation from Sierra and put it in my sales folder.

When I looked at this document after returning home, it stated the trade-in timeshare was being accepted into a listing inventory. The forms Sierra Rentals e-mailed were also not the closing documents I expected and appeared to be for the purpose of listing the timeshare for resale or rental. There had been absolutely no mention of listing the other timeshare for resale or rental in our discussion. Any discussion was solely about the trade-in to Velas. I did not sign these documents and requested the correct closing documents from Sierra Rentals and Resales. Sierra was unresponsive to e-mails and the customer service person from Velas acted as if Velas knew nothing about the trade-in. He stated that the issue was with Sierra. They said they had no copy of the fax from Sierra in their file. That was when I realized this was all a fraud!

When I asked Mr. Waller about a cancellation period before signing the documents, he told me that no cancellations were allowed on upgrades. This was an outright lie as I later found that Mexican law requires a 5 day cancellation period. This also applies to upgrades.

Velas Vallarta started calling about monthly payments for the timeshare and I refused to pay any more to the resort when they were not acknowledging the trade-in. I gave Velas ample opportunity to follow through with either their purchase of my other timeshare or the cancellation of my membership upgrade and the refund of my deposit which amounted to over $7000. They have not done so. Velas recently notified me that my contract was being cancelled.

Please do not do business with this company. Their lies and deceptive practices are plausible enough to believe. The resort appears to be upstanding on the surface and it can be very deceiving. Stay away!

We attended a time share presentation at Velas Vallarta in Puerto Vallarta Mexico in November 2006. We were very impressed with the property and because of the deal that our sales man was able to secure, we purchased the timeshare and left Mexico very happy. A few days after our return the nightmare began. The fraudulent sales tactics and horrific treatment that we have since endured has tarnished our view of Velas Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta and Mexico as a whole.

The facts about our “investment” were overstated, embellished and simply not true. We were told because we were purchasing a unit that had previously been foreclosed on we had to give up the 5 day cancellation rights. They can not do this. But the HUGE fraud came to us from there trade in manager Mr. Ken Waller who arranged for a broker to purchase a timeshare we owned in Minnesota. This was the only way we could afford to purchase his property. He gave us a fax from the broker confirming the deal that he had negotiated for us.

When we returned home and spoke with the broker that was purchasing our Minnesota timeshare we learned that they DID NOT send this confirmation fax to Mr. Ken Waller. This means Mr. Waller went into the back room and fraudulently drew up this fake fax for the sole purpose of getting us to sign this contract.

We sent a letter immediately off to Velas Vallarta and Mr. Waller. Mr. Waller called us and we spent 20 minutes listening to him rant and rave, telling us to get a lawyer and he then hung up on us. We received an e mail from a manager by the name of Johnny Noe which was equally unproductive and pointless.

All our letters to them have gone unanswered and we still are pursuing them for a refund of our down payment.

In closing, one has to wonder about an organization that allows there salespeople to represent them in such a fraudulent way and that resorts to illegal tactics to complete a sale. What other devious, illegal and unhealthy practices are they allowing to go on behind the scenes?