Bryce LeBaron and Helen LeBaron
1190 Allgard Road
Qualicum Beach, B.C. V9K 2G4
May 8, 2008
Dear Mr. Robert Paisola;
As per our phone conversation a few minutes ago, I am attaching copies of two letters which I sent to Ken Molinaro outlining our utter disillusionment and unhappiness regarding our purchase of "timeshare" at Playa Del Sol Costa Sur in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. You may not be surprised to learn that neither Molinaro nor the PDS board of directors to whom a similar letter of complaint was sent by (registered) mail have ever given a word of response or acknowledgment to my letters. I am extremely pleased to hear you say that a class action lawsuit against PDS is anticipated in the not too distant future. Please be assured that we will be most desirous of joining in that action whenever it is launched.
Thank you for your work in this regard.
Sincerely, Bryce and Helen LeBaron
Letter OneBryce and Helen LeBaron
1190 Allgard Road
Qualicum Beach, B.C. V9K 2G4
February 6, 2008
Mr. Ken Molinaro, CEO
Playa Del Sol Resorts
5080 Shoreham Place, Suite 100
San Diego, CA 92122
Dear Mr. Molinaro;
We sent you a letter dated November 8, 2007, but to date we have not had any response from either you or any of your staff. We are increasingly concerned about the lack of response to this previous letter and also to other communications by phone and letter to your customer service representatives and your board of directors regarding our great dissatisfaction around the issue of our PDS membership, and our inability to get reservations at Costa Sur, Puerto Vallarta, as we had been promised at the time of our purchase.
We currently are in contact with Mr. Robert Paisola and his Western Capital organization with reference to this matter, but before proceeding further into actions which would certainly prove detrimental to the PDS company image, it would greatly please us to resolve this matter promptly with you personally as requested in our previous letter. At the very least, it seems only good and ethical business practice to acknowledge receipt of our communications and address our concerns in some manner other than to simply ignore them. Will you kindly respond to us with some indication of your intent, what you are willing to do to give us a satisfactory resolution (cancellation of the contract and full refund of all monies paid to PDS Resorts).
It seems self evident that if the shoe were on your foot, if you had spent nearly $27,000 in good faith, expecting to be able to stay at Costa Sur (as promised) each year for several weeks, and instead had received nothing of value whatsoever, and indeed had been billed another maintenance fee for 2008 of $428, that you would be most unhappy. I remind you sir, that Mr. Joseph Potter, the PDS salesman at Costa Sur also promised us at the point of purchase, a rent back amount of $6,400 for each of the years 2007 and 2008. Clearly, since not a cent of that amount has been received by us to date, there was intentional misrepresentation (Downright Lying) and fraud on his part and through his agency by you and PDS Resorts. This is simply not acceptable behavior!
We look forward to an early response from you. Please do not disappoint us, sir.
Yours truly,
Bryce and Helen LeBaron PDS account #27693430
Phone (250) 752-8224
Letter TwoBryce LeBaron
1190 Allgard Road
Qualicum Beach, B.C. V9k2G4
November 8, 2007
Mr. Ken Molinaro, CEO
Playa Del Sol Resorts
5080 Shoreham Place, Suite 100
San Diego, CA 92122
Dear Mr. Molinaro;
On January 18, 2007 my wife and I were given a sales presentation at PDS Costa Sur by Mr. Joseph Potter, and we decided to purchase a two bedroom, triple lockout, one primary week and one award week membership. We were given 50 “breakaway” weeks as part of the deal. We made it clear to Mr. Potter at that time that we were interested only in staying at Costa Sur in the future, not in any other hotels or locations in the PDS system. We additionally made it clear that we wished to use our membership only during January and the first half of February each year in the future. Mr. Potter told us that we could use any number of our breakaway weeks for this purpose until they were all used up; that in the meantime we could lease back to the PDS company our primary and award weeks plus one breakaway week on an annual basis for the next two years at the rate of $6,400 per annum to help us pay for the initial membership cost beginning with the year 2007. Mr. Potter guaranteed to us that we were leasing back on these terms for the next two years, 2007 and 2008.
At the time of making this deal, we asked him for those terms in writing and he informed us that they would be provided in a membership packet which would come to us by courier after our return home to Canada. We asked him to him to help us secure our reservations for the year 2008, and he said that we could not do this until after receipt of our membership package and our ID number. He gave us the date of February 28, 2007 as the day on which this packet would be delivered to us with the assurance that we could make our 2008 reservations for Costa Sur at that time.
The packet did not arrive on February 28, nor has it ever arrived to date. However, a bill for $428.00 for 2997 maintenance fee was waiting for us upon our arrival home, and after several telephone conversations with a Ms. Jamie LaRue and Mr. Potter in late February, we sent PDS a check for that amount, on the assurance by Mr. Potter that it, the 2007 maintenance fee, is fully refundable at the beginning of 2008, since we have agreed to lease back our weeks for the year; all this in spite of the fact that Ms. LaRue stated to me that PDS shows no record of any leaseback agreement.
In late February, I called on the reservations phone line to ask for reservations at Cost Sur for Jan/Feb 2008, and was informed by the agent there that she had not received the 2008 reservations calendar so it was impossible to book time, but to call back about the middle of March. On or about March 15, I called again and spoke to a man named Britt who informed me that Costa Sur is completely booked up already for January and February 2008, and that it is impossible for us to stay there during that time. He also told me that breakaway weeks cannot be used for February bookings. I see in our contract that it states that there are space availability restrictions for Award weeks, but I so far have failed to find any restriction regarding the use of breakaway weeks during those months.
Regarding the restrictions on Award weeks; in truth, after nearly eight hours of negotiations with Mr. Potter, we were so tired that we failed to catch that clause, or to realize that it seriously impacted the possibility of our future use as we had stated to him. He, in his very charming manner continued to assure us that there was nothing to be concerned about and that we would be very happy with our ability to come to stay at Costa Sur during Jan/Feb each year. As it now stands, we are extremely unhappy and frustrated with the situation, since we have paid to your company in excess of $26,000 and so far have not been able to access any of the benefits that were promised to us. During the months of March through July of this year I have called several times to the PDS customer service center in Santa Rosa, CA to attempt to get some help towards resolving our concerns. No one has really offered anything other than to suggest that we try; to get alternate bookings at different locations through Interval International. That is most definitely NOT an acceptable solution. Several months ago we sent a registered letter to the PDS board of directors outlining our unhappiness with this matter and requesting that they refund our monies paid back to us and void the contract, as there seems to be no way that we can expect to use what we thought we were purchasing. To date, there has been no acknowledgement of receipt of this letter although we know that it was received by the board.
Mr. Molinaro, if we go to a store and purchase an item which, upon trial at home proves to be unsatisfactory for any reason, we have only to return the item for a complete refund with few or no questions asked. This is the situation which we have here. We, in good faith, purchased a PDS membership which we were assured would fulfill our needs and desires to be able to stay at Costa Sur each year during January and the first half of February. Clearly this is not how things have worked out. We feel very badly about this and see no recourse now but for you to refund our money back and terminate our contract with PDS because it is not providing us with the services we were promised.
Our expenses to date are as follows:
Down payment $7,650.00 by VISA
RC 695.00 by VISA
Principal balance 17,850.00 by wire transfer
Maintenance fee (2007) 428.00 by check
Total $26,623.00
We urgently ask that you give our request immediate attention and that you please respond back to us by return mail, rather than to simply ignore this and do nothing as has happened thus far due to inaction by others in your organization. We request that you show good faith and ethical business practice towards us by settling this matter quickly.
Yours truly,
Bryce LeBaron
Acct. # 2769343
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