Playa del Sol Condominiums- One Hell of A Scam- Robert Paisola Investigates

My family and I vacationed in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico through a timeshare exchange to Playa del Sol Condominiums. When we got thru customs at the airport we were immediately taken to a counter where we were told we could arrange for transportation. Unfortunately by the time we got out of the airport I handed over $240 for discount tickets and a timeshare pitch at another resort.
When we arrived at our room we were very disappointed with our accommodations. It was a very small one bedroom. After our concierge showed us around she immediately wanted us to show her our coupon we got at the airport. The man at the airport told us not to show it to anyone because they will lie to us. She told me that if we met with this man that we would spend 4 to 6 hours there. She promised that if we changed to PDS that it would only last 90 minutes tops. After all was said and done we had changed to Playa Del Sol Grand for a timeshare presentation because she said they would also reimburse our $240.

At 9:00 AM we met Dianne Gayle (PDS Sales Rep) for breakfast with the only intention of getting our $240 back. We discussed fractional ownership, “secret inventories”, breakaway weeks, golf packages, triple lock downs and tax write offs for almost five hours with Ms. Gayle and her sales manager. Each time we said no they upped the ante. My wife and I were very tired. In a moment of weakness we asked the sales manager if he would consider moving our accommodations for the week from PDS Condos to PDS Grand. He said he could make that happen if we said yes. We did.

We met Brian MacDonald to review all the paperwork. At this point in time, I had serious reservations with this purchase. Mr. MacDonald called for Ms. Gayle and between the two of them tried again to reassure us that we could sell our week at our home resort and rent our breakaway weeks in order to pay for the timeshare. In fact, we were given two more breakaway weeks to rent in order for us to complete the deal. We were told we had five days to cancel the agreement. But if we did we would lose our $2,493 down payment. We walked out of the sales office around 5:00 PM. Can you say 8 HOURS?

After several uneasy days, my wife and I walked back into the sales office and found the sales manager who we had talked with on Tuesday. We told him that today was the fifth day and we wanted to cancel the agreement. He told us he would have to calculate the amount we would owe in order to cancel our membership. He said he would have to charge us for staying at PDS Grand. He asked us to speak with Mr. MacDonald again who basically told us the same thing he did on Tuesday. Near the end of our conversation, Ms. Gayle walked into Mr. MacDonald’s office. Mr. MacDonald exchanged with Ms. Gayle what seemed to be a very unpleasant glance. Ms. Gayle nervously began to try and convince us not to cancel our membership. I told them I wanted to see the figures the sales manager came up with. After a moment a women brought in a paper with the amount we would lose if we canceled our membership. The total amount was $4,637 for the down payment, closing costs, golf package, and PDS Grand upgrade charge. I told my wife that was ridiculous and that we couldn’t afford to lose that much money. Reluctantly we decided we had no choice but to keep our membership.

When we returned to the States, we read the “Membership Purchase Agreement”. The Playa del Sol sales representatives did not comply with Clause 9 that states “The member may cancel this agreement without penalty within five business days following the signing of the present agreement.., the club shall reimburse member with all amounts delivered as initial payment ...”

This was so illegal. We have retained the services of a local attorney to fend off the collection agencies and try and get our money back from Mexico. However, if there is any class action proceedings in the works please let us know. We would definitely be interested in participating. There is strength in numbers.

Thank you,
Larry