Has anyone purchased from Vallart Gardens?

to lilya11 You said the company is Mercury Prop Mgmt--did you call them & check them out. When we purchased last Dec2013 the marketing company was "Vancom" and I see in the comments here on RedWeek several different marketing companies--so is Vallarta Gardens using one company, then another, then another...? Also you said you just purchased..I'm curious...are they working on the new oceanfront units and how far are they? They are supposed to be ready the end of this year? Also, who was your salesperson? We are currently disputing our contract with our credit card and they want more info from us. Our main concern is that they were going to purchase our timeshares BUT that's the problem: the company they first said is "no longer a co", the 2nd one "no longer a co" and now a new one and you cannot contact anyone re: this timeshare buyout? We just can no longer trust what they say.

to lilya11 You said the company is Mercury Prop Mgmt--did you call them & check them out. When we purchased last Dec2012 the marketing company was "Vancom" and I see in the comments here on RedWeek several different marketing companies--so is Vallarta Gardens using one company, then another, then another...? Also you said you just purchased..I'm curious...are they working on the new oceanfront units and how far are they? They are supposed to be ready the end of this year? Also, who was your salesperson? We are currently disputing our contract with our credit card and they want more info from us. Our main concern is that they were going to purchase our timeshares BUT that's the problem: the company they first said is "no longer a co", the 2nd one "no longer a co" and now a new one and you cannot contact anyone re: this timeshare buyout? We just can no longer trust what they say.

What promises did they give you? I feel like we made a huge mistake purchasing from Vallarta Gardens after reading all these reviews. But at this point we are stuck with paying what we signed up for. We purchased a 2 bedroom villa, 4 weeks every other year. We were told we could use our weeks any time without any blackouts. We were also promised that we can resell the property to them after 2 years. We actually have a signed agreement for the resell. But at this point I am not sure if they will value their signature when the time comes. We also have a guarantee for market our weeks for 2013 and 2014 through Mercury Property Management. This was the only way my husband and I could have afforded the property. We really liked Vallarta Gardens. It is beautiful and we felt it is a good and a safe place for us to vacation with our 6 year old son. I would really appreciate it if you tell me what they promised you and why do you think this is your worst experience. All these stories are making me sick and I am having a hard time sleeping at nights because of the financial damage this may do to our lives if the marketing money doesn't come through as they said it will between 6 months to a year.

I did call Mercury Property Management and they said the same thing that we were told in Vallarta Gardens that as our agreement says, they are guaranteeing marketing our weeks for this year and for 2014. As I mentioned before, this is the only reason my husband and I purchased the property because it is the only way we could afford it. They are located in St. Louis. I don’t know how many places they use to market their property. This is really strange. After reading all these reviews, I am very skeptical. I just pray to God they will come through and do as they promised on the paper. Did you have to pay for Vancon to market your weeks? We paid $1000 to Mercury to do that. As to answer to your other question, NO, they have not even started the oceanfront units. They have a picture of it in the office. It looks beautiful but they told us it will not be ready until 2014 or 2015. They are however building 2 bedroom and 1 bedroom villas. We saw the constructions. Our sales people were Orlando and this newer guy Doug. I really hope you can dispute your contract. I will keep putting updates on the site and will check the reviews. Reading these reviews make me really sick. I would really appreciate it if you let me know whether you also paid to market your weeks and how long did it take you to get your money. Good luck to you.

Yes, I understand how you feel - I felt sick for weeks. I bought this place for the same reason - it's beautiful and I had every intention of using it. My problems began when I actually tried to book a reservation a couple of weeks after I got home. It took me several tries to even find a number that worked, and then I would call and leave messages and email and no one would respond. When they finally did, it took me months to get them to put the reservation in writing. It was at this point the first lie came out - they told me several times during the presentation that I could book a larger unit (I bought a yet un-built studio) for my maintenance fee plus half the maintenance fee of the larger unit. This turned out not to be true. They did however honor it for me just this one time. I was also told that if I booked all my weeks in one call I would only have to pay my fee once - that was not true either. Like I said, I was lucky that they bought back 3 of my 5 weeks upfront, because I honestly would not believe any marketing company saying they can guarantee to rent them. I too have a contract saying they will buy the place back in two years - but I'm guessing if it doesn't get built there will be nothing to sell them - or they will devalue the property and we'll come out with nothing anyway. Same with the annuity - I think that is a big scam - not worth the paper it's written on. Until I actually go there in March and try to actually use the property, I will not feel at peace. I still feel like I'm going to get there with all my friends and we'll have no place to stay......

Oh, and I was told my oceanfront unit would be built and ready to use by August of 2014. I'm guessing that won't happen either. I was told if it was not available I would get a larger unit for the same price - we'll see how that goes. I am still suspect of the whole operation. Which is unfortunate, not only because of the loss of money, but I genuinely liked the property and wanted to use it.

Lilya, Please email me at pamelaelf@yahoo.com and we can talk...Pam

Lilya, We paid $927 to Vancom to market our promo weeks and IF they rent them we will get $2500per week x 3 weeks. We purchased 6 weeks (3 to use and 3 to rent) and they also added a summer week to the contract and I think they changed something when they went into the private room--I agree with I think Paula said it: "They are so slick in the sales presentation,we didn't catch the other thing which is of great importance in any T.S contract,and that is we were introduced to 4 winter weeks and then he added 1 summer week for what ever reason,well actually I know now that it was to trick us into not thinking of the change he made , to all 5 weeks into summer with the option of 4 of the summer weeks anytime ! He was talking about 'anytime ' ,so we assumed that was the 4 winter weeks.They know exactly how to say everything to get you to think you have one thing but then they change it somehow to be another. Sad, very sad, these guys will do anything ,say anything to keep you interested,and confused,and they don't care." I don't believe anything they told us is true on that presentation day. I cannot believe we were so taken advantage of. We have owned timeshares for 27 years and we wanted to get rid of 4 of them and that was the reason we went along with the deal because they were going to take these timeshares in on trade and get rid of them for us wth Equinox. That part was completely a hoax and I kept calling them about it and Cynthia kept saying yes they are going to be working with a new company soon.....soon...and then they said they lost our paperwork re: taking the timeshares in on trade. And then in April (we bought in Dec.2012) we get an email saying they found the paperwork...??? This paperwork was re-written by Vallarta Gardens and was not signed by us. Well of course I said we were not going to to believe anything they say anymore and we were not going to give them any more money (this company-Equity Transfers International was the new company??) Well the first company was EquiVenture Group and I tried to find this company online and you cannot contract them. And Vancom (out of Houston Texas) does not return my calls. I called Vancom right after we returned home from Mexico and spoke to a "Dale" for about an hr discussing this program of "flybynight" marketing that they use to get people to go to the Vallarta property. He also was very convincing. But now I think they just take our $927 and pocket the money. So I'm assuming Vallarta Gardens is now using Mercury Property Mgmt because they no longer work with Vancom--and before it was Swiss Alliance--they just keep changing companies. I was told they would market my 2013 weeks and in Oct. I would receive a check---well they won't even return my phone call so I'm not counting on anything to go thru with them. So Lilya I don't know about Mercury marketing your weeks. I wouldn't give anyone any more money. If you paid $5000 down to Vallarta Gardens you might never recoup that money (unless you put in on your credit card--then dispute it). I too lost alot of sleep over this also and I'm still working with our credit card companies to get our money back (we put money on 2 different credit cards) Visa has sided with us (and credited our acct back) after my sending tons of paperwork to them regarding all my phone calls and letters, etc. And American Express denied our request but I have appealed it and they have re-opened it after I said Visa sided with us. This has been going on now for over 5 months. Someone on this website said to contact Mexican Timeshare Solutions to get out of the contract but they can't get your money back. If anyone has the info on how to contact them, please let me know. Now I just want out of the contract. Who knows what is valid in the contract. And because you said you just purchased, obviously they are still selling and scamming people. Good Luck!

I tried disputing with my credit card company - they credited my account while the dispute was going on, but in the end they denied me (Chase) and I had to pay them. VG never gave me any information on how to use or exchange the extra weeks either - I got 1 summer week and 4 anytime weeks. I'm just glad they bought my 3 weeks a year for 5 years upfront - but I wouldn't have bought the property if they hadn't. I knew that part was a scam. But, I'm still out $7000. I will keep updating and let you know it goes for actually using the property. I tried Timeshare solutions - they said they had not had any luck recouping money from VG, but they might be able to get you out of the contract.

The one constant theme throughout these postings (except of course for Jonathan and his terrible spelling) is fraud and deceit. And I suspect Jonathan is a 'Plant".

In all of my adult life, this is probably the most deceitful organization I have ever ran across...and to know they are still in operation is an affront to the Mexican consulate and Prefecto organization.

Problem is....the heart is a hard thing sometimes to manage within the confines of business acuity. We see this beautiful idealistic and romantic locale and we want a piece of it. This is the current Vallarta Gardens 'business plan'. They know that by the time a buyer becomes suspicious, he has usually returned to his 'far-away' homeland which in itself makes it difficult if not impossible to remedy the financial fiasco with any success.

The very fact that their partnering 'marketing companies change so frequently is totally by desing.....to make it plausible and give them credence to claim ...'they no longer work with that particular organization".

Vancaom....Mercury....just two in a string of propety management companies. And when these companies dissolve or go away, you have lost those funds on top of the purchase funds; the annuity funds; the reservation funds; etc. Of course these companies want these funds upfront also. Vancom offered to market my timeshare for 10 years....for a onetime upfront fee.

After paying the annuity company $1500 upfront (which they removed from my checking account through Cynthia's assistance---she gave them my checking account number), I realized the transaction had taken place only while viewing an electronic statement). If that was not illegal, please enlighten me as to what is illegal.

Apparently, it may take some more time but this company too will go down at some point in time. Jonathan......what do you have to say? And, possibly, you may be the one customer, they have kept their promise with. The current manipulators of Vallarta Gardens sales need to go down and hard when they go.

I am really sorry about that. We are in the similar situation as you are. However, the company they said it will market our 2 bedroom is Mercury Property management. They told us the same thing that they will market our 2 bedroom for $2500 per week. We told them that my husband is going back to school so we are down to 1 income and we have a 6 year old son. So this is the only way we can afford this place. They promised us the marketing money will come to us between 6 months to a year. Did you ever get your $2500 per week or was that a scam as well? We just purchased ours 2 weeks ago so I won’t even be able to try to dispute our down payment yet.

Vancom was offering to rent out the three weeks over a period of 10 years for a one-time upfront fee of $1,000. Their promise included the restriction "...as long as it rented".... so, in essence, they were promising to 'try' to rent the property over a period of 10 years for a handsome fee with no promise of actually renting the property. Companies such as this are a dime a dozen that "list" these properties on a website....that's all. Vancom is no longer in business. I would go ahead and alert the company through which the down payment was made as to the concerns you have regarding the investment and be ready to move on requesting a return of the down payment. You may receive fair and just treatment.....or, you may end up in the same boat as the ones have who have posted on this site.

not vallart gardens but krystal pv mexico, yes after hours of saying no, the shister(a white American) came up with van com, and the deal of making money on our investment,this was last feb/13 I just got a bad feeling and thought i'd contact van com could not get through by email or phone, contacted krystal by phone said their man conned us they basicly said we are responsible, now begins the battle, its a nightmare, these people should be in jail. I think if enough of us stood up together maybe we could make these bastards pay. what do you think?

how do you this please tell me i'm having a breakdown over this. thanks

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but no one, including myself, is ever going to see the money they invested in this property. Do not pay to have your weeks rented out - that is most certainly a scam - or rent them out yourself. The nice thing is that if you don't use them, you don't have to pay the maintenance fee. My suggestion is to use the weeks you can and enjoy a nice vacation at the property. No one should ever buy a timeshare as an investment, hoping to rent the weeks. I bought mine because I plan to use it myself. Now I only hope that I CAN use it - I had great difficulty getting my first reservation booked. I am going in March - I will update on how things went.

how do you cancel and eat the loss so far, I could not enjoy a vacation there. I just want out

Sorry to hear about your problem Aprilh116. So did you purchase a timeshare at Krystal PV, Mexico, not Vallarata Garden? What promisses did they give you? I was just told by Vallarta Gardens yestserday that they used to work with Vancom but because they did not deliver and I guess are no longer in business, they switched their marketing company. Now their marketing company is Mercury Property Management.

You can try contacting Mexican Timeshare solutions. If you haven't paid for the whole contract, they might be able to cancel it. I tried them, but since I paid in full, they were not able to help me.

not vallart gardens but krystal, the salesman said vancom for a fee of 900 some odd dollars, we could pay for the time shares plus make some money of course van com is gone it was a big scam and now we're fighting it out with krystal, because they were sold to us under fraudulent conditions. I also can not sleep, and on the verge of a breakdown,because of the financial damage this is doing to us.honestly these people are shisters and should be in jail.good luck, it seems so hopeless.

If you paid the fee for Vancom on a credit card, you should be able to dispute it since it's no longer in business. Believe me, I feel your pain. I tried disputing the timeshare with my credit card company, but because they are open and in business, they would not return my money. Timeshares should never be purchased as an investment, instead it should be looked at as a pre-paid vacation. I decided to put it behind me and just use the property and at least get some value out of what I spent. Unfortunately there is not much more you can do than that.