Has anyone purchased from Vallart Gardens?

Duke & Jeanne Dechter

Please let us know what you find out, and if there is any information that we can provide, we'll be happy to.

bradm170 wrote:

Vallarta Gardens Scam!!!

I would appreciate it if everyone that has been scammed by this resort please sent me your names and such. I am attempting to have them investigated and the more people the better for this.

My email address is hecy0@hotmail.com

Thanks

Brad MacDonad

marilyns 278 post sept 18th, sounds just like our scam Krystal in Puerto Vallarta,but add a bunch of drinks to the deal. was the salesman named Jim Luhrs? and a guy named Dale Blakes at van com? and Rosy Aguilar in the office? they are a bunch of greedy thieves and I can't understand how the powers that be in mexico let this kind of crap go on. It is truly a nightmare and we don't know what to do next, we've written PROFECO, THE MEXICAN CONSULATE, MEXICO TOURISM NO ANSWER FROM ANY OF THEM. TRIED DISPUTING IT WITH MASTERCARD,NO HELP THERE FOR THEIR LONG TIME CUSTOMERS. WE WERE THINKING ABOUT PAYING OFF MASTERCARD, CHOP THE CARD AND LET THE CHIPS FALL WHERE THEY MAY, ANYBODY TRIED THIS? WE ARE AT A STAND STILL.

Hi, We bought last Sept and within 2wks of purchasing we got an email from Dan Sauer with a terrific offer – we could get the remaining balance on the property paid for by letting the BVI Management Company rent out our place. Wow, sounded great – all we had to do was pay $2400 to Samuel Diaz at UVC. Does anyone know this company? Universal Vacation Company Then we received an email from UVC that since our place didn’t exist until 2014, the deal couldn’t go through. Now Dan knew that the condo wasn’t build, why would he even refer us… lies, lies lies!!! Samuel said we could get our $2400 back but when we asked for it, tried to reach him through emails and phone calls, NADA, ZIP , Zilch!!!

However, Jason Wilkey assured us it was all legit but the Deputy Director of Legal Enforcement of the British Virgin Islands emailed me that BVI Financial was a fraud. At that point I stopped making the $800 payments to VG. All phone calls to VG have gone unanswered, all emails have gone unanswered.

I’ve alerted Chase Bank of the fraud but they’re hands are tied. The wire transfer is just a straight shot to another place. We own 3 timeshares in PV and have for 15 yrs. WE love them and they are all legit. WE were very stupid and got taken. So what can we do at this point???

By the way, my sister –in law also bought when we did --- she’s also stopped paying and also got screwed by Dan. I cannot believe that our salesman didn’t know what a scam this all was.

Here’s some email addresses in case anyone wants to bug these guys:

Luis (sales rep) mhi1500@msn.com Dan Sauer - bookemdanno45@yahoo.com (pretty telling email address)

Virginia & Richard Gibbs

We were also scammed by Luis Marchedo, Cynthia Gonzolez. They both told us repeatedly over and over there was only ANNUAL fee of $800 to use the property. It was written and included in our file which mysteriously disappeared when we asked to have a copy for our own records. There is no toll free number to contact, we were contacted for payments which we refused to pay until everything was sorted out. As everyone else has reported, no one replies when you question their promises and ethics. Swiss Alliance were contacting us trying to get more money from us. Both Luis and Cynthia said that Swiss Alliance was paid by Vallarta Gardens and not us, we told Melissa at Swiss Alliance that info and refused to take any other calls or emails from her. She finally gave up after a few months of persistent calls. We were put in touch with Van Com Strategies, the company that was suppose to sell our weeks (Vallarta Gardens supposedly paid for this also) and we would recoup our monies. didn't happen and I guess after a year, we aren't going to see any money from rental income. We contacted the Prefeco and told them our story and told Cynthia Gonzolez and Luis Merchedo that we had filed a complaint against Vallarta Gardens and named them and Bob Stockton. Not sure what good it will do us as we are out our initial investment.

Yes it was Jim and Rosie but a different guy in Texas with Viacom.

We did not purchase at Vallarta Gardens, we purchased at Puerto Bahia just North about 2 miles. We were promised that Mercury Property Management would give us guaranteed $2600.00 for our 10 weeks for 7 years. WOW, what a good deal..... TOO GOOD and it was NOT SO! Mercury is not out of business as of two weeks ago, but should be. It is run now out of a call center. The address on their letterhead is bogus, it's a vacant lot and they don't have a telephone number for their Customer Service, you can only contact them by email. Apparently these people are all connected and have 3 or 4 different "fly and buy" companies that they lie to you about. All you have to do is google some of names associated with the Vallarta Gardens, Miramer, Crystal and Puerto Bahia -- it's sickening. We have invested over $43,000.00 and just recently shut off our credit card so they can charge no more. We will pay no more to this group. We recently found out that the contracts that we signed to trade in equity for two other properties were lost. We have emails that indicate they did receive them and were in perfect shape, and all we had to do is sit back and wait to receive our money and then we could make the payments and pay more to them. No one ever notified us that they were gone and our agent is no longer with Mercury Property Management. They also are not listed with the BBB. What a mess!

lilya11 wrote:

So I was told by Vallarta Gardens 2 days ago that Mercury Property Management (the company that markets the weeks) went out of business. I contacted Mercury yesterday and they said NO, we are still in business and still with Vallarta Gardens. I don’t know who the hell is lying to me. I called Vallarta Gardens again today and they told me they found another company that can market the weeks. They no longer work with Mercury. I told Vallarta Gardens that I am sick of their lies and I want out of the contract. They said, you are out of luck because if you want out, you have to pay 50% of the price of the property. They also said I cannot dispute the charges because they have no affiliation with Mercury so I can't do anything. Are they really right? In the contract that we have with Vallarta Gardens, there is nothing indicating that they work with Mercury and that Mercury will market our weeks. We have a contract with Mercury and the name of Vallarta Gardens is on that contract. Any advice from anyone?

Don't chop up your credit card. Just ask the cc company to block that transaction and ask for a new card with a new number. That is what we did and it works great! We now have in 3 disputes, but don't expect to get the money back. However, they will get no more!

I have been reading all these responses and have a question? We were told from the onset by our Salesman that we could never mention Mercury Property Management to anyone in the office. Because they (the resort) wants to rent the places themselves and give us (the owner) a lesser commission. This was said to us over and over. When signing the final papers our Salesman even walked down to the office with us and all the way down, reminded us over and over....."now you can't mention anything about Mercury Property Management".

When I first contact Mercury Property Management about turning in our 10 weeks for their "fly and buy" rental program, I asked how they MPM knew if it was ok to take them for rental and how did they would know if I was using them myself. The Agent at that time told me that MPM had to call the Resort Customer Service to confirm that the owners were not using their weeks.......Does this make sense to any of you? How could they call down to the property when the propety managers are not supposed to know anything about it?

Wh

Lilya11,

I am interested to find out who you talked to at Mercury Property Management and have you called them recently? If your agent was Matthew Day..... he is no longer with the company. Also, they are no longer at their previous address, which was a vacant lot anyway. They don't have a telephone number for their Customer Service. When you call the current number you can hear phones ringing in the back ground and people talking. It appears to be a call center.

Just google Mexican Timeshare Solutions and it will come up. Beware, when you enter that site you will see many more of the same exact scam stories..... it's depressing!

The sad truth here is that the marketing program IS a scam and it is unfortunate if you got caught in that. The reality is that the resort exists and is open for business, so the credit card company will not return your money for the purchase of the time share. You might be able to get out of paying anymore to the marketing company though. I have resigned myself to the fact that my money is gone, so now I'm just going to use the resort as much as I can and at least get some enjoyment out of it. It IS a beautiful property, and as long as I can use my weeks - or rent them out myself, I will be happy.

what have you been doing about the scam any help would be appreciated, I've asked several times if Jim Luhrs has been fired for his behavior but can't seem to get an answer on that one, I guess that would be admitting that he was scamming people. Has anyone stopped payment or chopped a credit card? can they come after your pay check? Krystal is now offering us to down size to pay it off quicker and some liquidation fee for damages etc. I don't know what to tell them.

I am sorry to heard all those stories, thank God my case is different,maybe im lucky but I am happy and the place is awesome. I have the number of member services, maybe you guys can find a solution. ps be carefull with those "attorneys" that says they can help you it can be a scam. Is always better to contact the resort itself. USA the number is 855-353-5859 ext 123 It is in the web page of VG.

Lilya,

I have been posting messages in the forum for a couple of months now and wonder if you or anyone else has had any dealings with Mercury Property Management in St. Louis? I don't want to be redundant with my complaining about the scam that went on at Puerto Bahia Resort and Spa, but I am curious if anyone at all has received any services from Mercury Property Management. Our purchase will be a year old in December and we were told it would take only 60-90 days for them to liquidate our equity properties. In addition by mid-October of 2013 we would receive rental income at the rate of 2600.00 per week for 10 weeks. As I stated in previous messages, my agent from MPM is no longer there. This is a typical response that many or possibly all customers are told. Either that or their representative was promoted for doing such a good job. In our case, I was told in late August that the contracts that I sent in for liquidation and rentals last December ('12) were no longer in the system and were "pulled" by the Agent last April 2013. There is no record of why he did this.

I don't care if it's Vallara Gardens, Chrystal or Puerto Bahia..... they are all using the same fraudulant selling tactics. As a matter of fact, we were contacted by Jose while eating dinner at Claudio's on the Beach in Bucerias. We were offered Vallarta Gardens, but opted to see Puerto Bahia......by the way.... JOSE took us to Grand Mayan 8 years ago. He didn't realize and I didn't mention that I remembered him from 8 years ago when he took us to the Grand Mayan. Eight years ago he showed us a picture of his wife and family, ranging from a little child to his son that was in college. Ha Ha, he showed us the very same picture last December. I thought about making a remark about his still being in college after eight years...but I didn't. We are planning a trip to Vallarta soon. I'm sure Jose is still hanging out at Claudio's and that is the first place we will be visiting. It's going to be a loud conversation that everyone in the restaurant will be able to hear!

Has anyone in this forum ever received any money from Mercury Property Management?

lilya11 wrote:

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.

Yes, we did in June on Father's Day from Orlando and have yet to receive any kind of Welcome Package or Private Residence Club Membership acknowledgement as of October 10th ! And we have paid nearly half of the Cost with the rest on Bank Credit Cards; so one of my questions would be why did your Master Card refuse to dispute the Purchase. Perhaps you need to print these 5 pages of Complaints and submit them as part of your dispute which I am seriously considering doing with Discover Card, but am calling them first to see what kind of reaction I get !

Mercury Property Management will be next because I have not given Swiss Alliance any money !

Larry Miller

aprilh116 wrote:

marilyns 278 post sept 18th, sounds just like our scam Krystal in Puerto Vallarta,but add a bunch of drinks to the deal. was the salesman named Jim Luhrs? and a guy named Dale Blakes at van com? and Rosy Aguilar in the office? they are a bunch of greedy thieves and I can't understand how the powers that be in mexico let this kind of crap go on. It is truly a nightmare and we don't know what to do next, we've written PROFECO, THE MEXICAN CONSULATE, MEXICO TOURISM NO ANSWER FROM ANY OF THEM. TRIED DISPUTING IT WITH MASTERCARD,NO HELP THERE FOR THEIR LONG TIME CUSTOMERS. WE WERE THINKING ABOUT PAYING OFF MASTERCARD, CHOP THE CARD AND LET THE CHIPS FALL WHERE THEY MAY, ANYBODY TRIED THIS? WE ARE AT A STAND STILL.

I was hold that he no longer worked there and they some of them lie to get sales.

Yes we did this past June and have not ever received a Welcome Package or access to the Private Residence Registry to trade our weeks if they are in fact available; so we are also distraught with all these goings on and the validity of what VG is doing or supposed to be doing. They have all their funds because we had used Bank Cards with zero interest and zero foreign transaction fees, but that does not help to get what we are paying for ! !

Larry & Teresa Miller larrydavidmiller&gmail.com

Good Morning, We have found comments that are not even from our members, if you have any question regarding your contract please contact Vallarta Gardens member services department, open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm from monday through friday.

US: 855-353-5859 can 855-267-8963

Regards.

Mrs. Deborah, Im sorry to hear your story, it seems you are confused we are available in members service department from Monday Through Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm you can contact us.

855-353-5859 usa 855-267-89-63 can ext 123.

Looking Forward to hear from you.

I have tried numerous times to contact your "customer service" NO ONE answers and emails are ignored.