The Playa Del Sol- Another Victim 2008- Robert Paisola Responds

Robert:

I just finished reading your articles and comments from other victims of the playa del sol time share scam. My wife and children and I were also victimized by this scam just before Christmas.

We were in Mexico, vacationing at the Playa Del Sol, Costa Sur from Dec. 19 to Dec. 26, 2007 by purchasing a week of a time share from a friend who has owned a time share in Mexico for many years. On Friday, Dec. 21st, we were signed up to receive a 90 minute presentation about purchasing a time share. We were taken to breakfast at 8:30 am and finally left the office with a contract in hand at 2:30 pm. Every time we tried to say we weren't interested, or that we had just been there too long to make a rational decision, there was food, drink and even alcohol brought in to keep us longer.

We were shown broker advertisements to show us how we could make some money by renting out our unit to fishermen and golfers who would "spend any amount of money to get to spend a week in paradise". We finally agreed to purchase a one bedroom unit that was listed as a foreclosure at a special price that was approved by the sales manager, a lady named Candy. Our salesman, a Canadian named Clayton then popped open a bottle of champagne and all the sales people toasted us as new owners while another Canadian, named Tracy typed all of our paperwork. We then met with Tracy and signed a contract that has proven to be the biggest mistake of our lives.

We were told that a broker would be calling us the next morning to set up a time to meet with us so that he could start advertising our recent purchase. The next morning he called and said that due to his busy schedule and the holidays, he didn't have time to meet with us, but that he had our phone number from our contract and he would contact us the first week in January and get everything set up. That call still hasn't come.

After realizing that this is not what we wanted, we set out to attempt to cancel our contract. Upon signing, we were told that we would for sure have questions and all we had to do was to contact their office at Playa Del Sol and they would be glad to help us with any and all questions. We tried to contact their office every day for the rest of our stay and were only able to get through to an operator with a different excuse for every time; they were closed, they were sometimes there, sometimes not, your sales rep is sick, it's Christmas, no one is answering, they must be busy, and on and on it went.

We tried one last time to contact the sales office on the 26th, just before we had to leave. Again, the operator said that they were closed.

After arriving home, we started calling and leaving messages for Clayton, our sales rep, and Tracy to call us back. We left our home phone, my wife's work phone and extension and my cell phone number so that they could be sure to get in touch with us. Finally, on the 13th of January, Clayton called and stated that he had been ill for some time and that he had tried to call my wife at work several times, but that her extension was not a valid number. I might add that my wife receives dozens of calls each and every day at work and that her extension was working. He said that he would call my wife at 10:00 am the next day at work to get everything straightened out. That call never came.

My wife then started calling each and every day to playa del sol and also e-mailed Tracy to try to get a response. Tracy finally called back over a week later and wanted to argue about us accusing Clayton of not calling. After a mildly heated exchange of words, Tracy told us that she could not cancel our contract without Clayton's approval. When she asked to speak with Clayton, Tracy told my wife that he was busy with another client and would have to call us back. He did actually call us back about an hour later and told us that he could not cancel our contract without approval from Tracy. When we told him what Tracy had said, Clayton told us we would have to deal with her, and, of course, she was busy.

At the end of January, Tracy finally answered one of our e-mails in which we detailed how we felt we had been ripped off and how frustrated we were at the whole situation. She stated that we had passed the 5 day cancellation period and that since we had stayed so long in the office for the presentation, we must have been interested. She said that after all of our phone calls about cancellation, she had presented our case to the board of directors and they had refused to cancel, however, they would sweeten the pot with more time and a smaller suite with smaller payments. She stated that she would continue to argue our case.

I e-mailed Tracy right back and detailed which days we had called and their office was closed and that by Clayton's own admission he had been out of the office for an extended time and that she had told us earlier that Clayton would have to approve the cancellation. I also asked if they counted calendar days or business days or days they were actually open when you tried to call to set up an appointment. I also pointed out to her that we had found the name and number of the playa del sol company in California and were told what to do to cancel. We followed the instructions we were given and sent the cancellation request by certified mail on the 3rd of January. The letter was never signed for. After that e-mail, Tracy has not responded.

In an earlier exchange with Tracy, I also requested the name of the broker that was assigned to us. She stated that they did not endorse any brokers and that the charge of $549.00 to our credit card was our responsibility. I replied that the only way a broker could have gotten our information was through their paperwork and that he must be representing their company. Also, during our presentation, Clayton strongly suggested using a broker to maximize the potential of our purchase. She did not respond to that. I also stated that we had tried in good faith to handle this cancellation and that it was impossible to deal with a company that kept erratic hours and chose to communicate only when it benefitted them. I stated that with all that we had tried to do in a timely fashion, the burden should be on them and not us.

We just finished reading about other people on the internet who have been ripped off by playa del sol. I hope that there is something we can do to recoup our losses. Robert, any advice and help you could give us would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Thanks
Don
2-10-2008