Sapphire Residences

anyone been to this resort?

Aug 17, 2013

It did say that the contract is abusive (Article 34) and null if they don't present clearly (Article 42) to you... I'm so mad!


Sergio R.
Aug 17, 2013

Nothing about those two.. I only knew about article 40 based on a previous post on this discussion forum and researched it more to cancel our contract. Are you within the 8 day window? Can you call your cc company to stop the payment?


Jen F.
Aug 18, 2013

I bought July 16th, and sent emails a few weeks ago asking questions and concerns but heard nothing. I know I'm outside of the eight days, because we were still in Costa Rica during those eight days. We were NOT told about this opportunity to cancel if we wanted to, it was never even mentioned to us. At this point, I cancelled my credit card to stop the second payment. I'm just worried about them coming after us, even with all the fraud. We were clearly swindled, but I'm sure they would say they held up their end of the bargain. Ugh.


Donald F.
Aug 18, 2013

I sort of have the same feeling about Monique. She acted all sympathetic and now won't return calls or e-mails. Do you have any e-mail or contact info for Baldini? I sent a long e-mail to him via Monique. She has said nothing and when I e-mailed again to ask if she passed it on, nothing again. I'm thinking the Costa Rican Ministry might be the best bet. Any contact information for them? Or just Google? thanks. J


Jinger M.
Aug 18, 2013

To the opposite of all of you, I've email Monique and my sale person ( Martin ) to explained my cancellation and I've received several calls from them. They said they don't understand why I pretend it's fraudulent and said it's not possible to cancel. We are not sure what to think, are we gonna be able to travel and have our money back ( resail from time share and weeks )? Someone have a positive experience ??


Karine V.
Aug 19, 2013

You will NEVER hear anything possitive about this place. You have been scammed like the rest of us. It is a loosing battle with them also. They know exactly what they are doing. I am walking away from a $16,000.00 purchase and the resale sale of our timeshare for $28,500.00. They will never get another penny out of us. Take it as a learning lesson. Time Share and Fractional Ownership is for uninformed people like ourselves. They will paint a pretty picture to get the sale but their word is worthless. Oh, if you do hear something positive it's from an employee there posing as an owner.


Daniel T.
Aug 19, 2013

OMG! When this happend? When were you suppose to get your money from the resale of your time share? With Coco Sunset or Bahia Turquesa ? So many questions. I'm upset!


Karine V.
Aug 20, 2013

Sorry to tell you but the resort will just tell you they had no idea anyone promised to sell your old time share and that they didn't know we set up something to rent our units out. It is frustrating beyond belief. I like the idea of contacting the Costa Rica government that someone else did.

Jinger


Jinger M.
Aug 20, 2013

Yes, they do act like they know nothing about the resale of our timeshare and the rental of our fractional owenrship but the leg we have is that the contract signed for the resale and rental is dated the same as the purchase contract. The resale agreement and rental agreement was signed on their property. They say they do not deal with a third party but Douglas Jensen from Omni Crook Corporation was in the office at the time of our purchase. So, they do deal with a third party proven by the dates of all contracts.

We were quaranteed $28,500.00 for the resale of our timeshare within 300 days of the signed contract. It has been well over 400 days now. We were quaranteed the rental of our fractional for $2500.00 a week starting in July 2013. We haven't seen a penny.

I do believe that we might have a winng case against both CocoSunset, Bahia Turquesa (whatever their name is) and Omni Crook Corporation.


Daniel T.

Last edited by danielt130 on Aug 20, 2013 10:39 AM

Aug 20, 2013

In Costa Rica, the Ministry of Economics, Industry, and Commerce oversees the timeshare industry. Here is a link for the address:

<http://www.meic.go.cr/index.php?option=com_ckforms&view=ckforms&id=13>

It is best to write to them in Spanish. If enough people complain and say that they are telling everyone they know to avoid Costa Rica specifically because of Coco Sunset and Bahia Turquesa's scams, perhaps the ministry will fine them. Or better yet, they should shut them down. I am sorry to tell you all, though, but the local government officials in Guanacaste has been bribed by these creeps. I am doing research for a news story that I hope a national broadcasting corporation will air.


Susanne B.
Aug 21, 2013

Of those who have used what they paid for at Coco Sunset/Bahia Turquesa/whatever, how has that worked out for you? I just tried to book for next year and they told me I had to pay next year's maintenance fee. This fee came out of my Credit Card in January and we never did use our 4 weeks this year, now I want to at least try and use some of what we were scammed out of, but if I want to use two of my units I have to pay two maintenance fees! RRRR, this really can't get much worse. Plus they can increase this fee every year for 30 years by 3% or whatever they feel like aka "upkeep of the property." Anyone exchanged for somewhere else?


Elisa T.
Aug 24, 2013

So jen were you able yo get your full money back?


Ryan L.
Aug 24, 2013

We opened a claim with the credit card company to cancel our down payment with those scammers. we tried to cancelled with them and, of course, they said we couldn't because we were after the 8 days. (we tried to contact them after 10 days to cancel). they offered different plans of payments like 12 or 24 months with interest from 15 to 25% (CRAZY!!!). I read the Law 7274 mentioned in the contract (actually contract has no address in it) and here is the link: http://www.pgr.go.cr/SCIJ/Busqueda/Normativa/Normas/nrm_repartidor.asp?param1=NRTC&nValor1=1&nValor2=26481&nValor3=92463&strTipM=TC Also we wrote a complaint letter to the Costa Rica embassy in the USA. Here is the person and email: Erick Marin (emarin@costarica-embassy.org). We should keep writing to people and complaining, specially to the Costa Rica government. I was thinking to create a page on Facebook to become public all the problems in there so they can take some action. What do you guys think? Please let me know who you guys are sending letters (besides the scammers) so we can all fill their inboxes.


Sergio R.
Aug 24, 2013

Yes, the Facebook page is a great idea.


Susanne B.
Aug 25, 2013

Bahia Turquesa Residences SCAM - Costa Rica is the page...


Sergio R.
Aug 25, 2013

Yes this is all a scam, and it hasn't stopped. It looks like Cindy Kidd has updated her Linkedin page to remove the timeshare info.. Not sure who she is ripping off now. http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/cindy-kidd/8/39b/b62


Jim W.
Aug 25, 2013

Yes, including the second payment they took out recently that they shouldn't have. The only money we did not get back was the cost of the upgrade. You have every legal right to cancel within the 8 day period so we were able to walk away.


Jen F.
Aug 25, 2013

Cindy Kidd is still at Playas del Coco luring people into the Bahia Turquesa scam.


Susanne B.
Aug 25, 2013

Hi Everyone,

Once again, PLEASE go to Trip Advisor and report what has happened to you. Here is the link:

<http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g291982-i813-k5676989-o190-Bahia_Turquesa_Residences-Costa_Rica.html>

I seem to be the only one writing about how I was scammed, and the Bahia Turquesa trolls are posting on this site about how wonderful the "resort" is. If more people report on Trip Advisor, perhaps some smart people will decide not to drop any more American dollars at this dump.

All of you have had your money stolen by these creeps. Keep writing about it. Our postings do help other people from getting scammed.


Susanne B.
Aug 26, 2013

That's interesting. (About Cindy Kidd still in Costa Rica) It shows on LinkedIn that she went to Marriott Time Shares in June. Maybe that was just to throw off the angry mobs!

Jinger


Jinger M.

Last edited by jingerm on Aug 26, 2013 10:52 AM


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