I bought in 2005 25 year vacation plan in Breezes Puerto Plata for $10,000. For several years sol de plata has been shut down and the owner neither wants to sell or reopen that resort. Does anyone have experience what I should do next? As it is there is really no one to go after and nothing to exchange or use anywhere else.
- Thread starter BigDaddy
- Start date
vacation club scam
If you used it 10X, you broke even, kinda like The Made Off victims that tripled their investment and lost the principle!
Some friends bought this as well, I was there and I tried my best to stop them but to no avail.
Are you not, at least, able to trade within the "vacation club" (RCI I think) ?
ggparts
I found it funny when I had my friends check in to sosua bay hotel a few years ago and they were pushing this type of timeshare and they where playing around with the amount of trips you could purchase....I kept tell my friends to listen but don't buy anything !! because my friends showed interest, they figured they had a sale and kept sweeting-ing the offer... ex... 60 weeks turned into 100 weeks and then 200 weeks turned into a lifetime... now to a normal person, u think that's a very good deal since it started at 60 weeks...what you don't factor in is the "the Dominican way" of promising you something that they have no intention of paying !! 60 weeks or 60 years or a lifetime didn't matter to them.. cuz as soon as they made enough money they were closing shop and off to the next scam.. leaving "you" the buyer having to fight for what you paid for... needless to say everyone got screwed!! good part of story was my friend sold as many discounted rooms as he could during the time they were opened and made most his money back... I will bet he was the only guy to do so...but don't ever-EVER-EVER trust a Dominican to keep his end of the bargin unless you have something they want.. for ex. if you lease a car or truck and have a contract...ur good...but anything like a ...credit card that once the limit is reached...you can forget they will continue to pay !!
I tried to BUY some days from a friend of a friend on Facebook, he may even be a member here on the board . He is from North Carolina,maybe he will post something if he sees it.
... They wanted me to pay $150 additional for " name change documentation" of some kind.. So even if you tried to help someone out by using up the days and put a little cash in his pocket to offset his cost
.. they made the transaction totally not feasible , it was cheaper to Pay cash at the desk than to buy his Days
. bottom line is it was a total SCAM from the begin.
the same Club was selling REAL hard at the AI in Las Galeras, they would hound people as they were leaving from a meal.. real hard sell. The price was the same $10 K to get in, they have no shame.
Sounds like you were scammed good. Be careful, down here when they see how easy it is to scam someone like you, people will be lined up around the block to "help you" get your money back. For a small fee of course.
No help there. But for another $5K I can sell you another timeshare for TWENTY years! How's that for a deal? 
This kind of scam is all too common in the DR, sometimes on places that haven't been built yet.
This kind of scam is all too common in the DR, sometimes on places that haven't been built yet.
All depends. Sure I would NEVER buy timeshare, but I happen to know an american couple that bought MARIOTT timeshares years ago......and it turned out a great deal......for them ( and all the people they invite to go with them....
I agree, it can be a really good deal if you have the flexibility to travel in off peak times of the year and know how to use the system. We have had ours a few years now and I would say I got my 10 k worth in the first 3 years.
well... its not exactly the timeshares of old...but because there were no rules to this type of deal.... it was made perfectly clear that if I bought the unlimited package...I could resell my room or rooms for whatever I wanted as long as the house got there $25 a night.. they r so stupid that they think they got over on me by selling me unlimited... but as a whole, my friends stayed there every time we went to sosua weeks at a time, sometimes as many as 5-15 guys at a time... the owner of the timeshare could have been gouging everyone at $75 a night and still been a better deal than every hotel in sosua.... instead he gave the room to everyone $40 bucks a night and paid the hotel $25 while keeping $15 to make back his layout for the 10k package... it only worked out cuz we have so many friends goin down and he just barely got even... and then it all fell apart cuz the owner closed up shop n next guy didn't honor old deals... so much for unlimited....
I have never bought a time share / vacation club. I did visit lifestyles in Cofresi and did their tour. The red flag for me is the have no prices or explanations on their website or printed anywhere. They seem to size people up and see what they can get out of them. It is also high pressure and it must be bought today. When I told our salesguy I would think about it he didn't want anything to do with us.
He didn't want to get my number or give me his number. He wanted that sale done right then with him just writing some numbers on a piece of paper. I told the guy I research anything before I buy. He told me one price then the "manager" came by and they lowered the price.
You still have to pay the all inclusive fees. I think the all inclusive fees made it cost about the same if you book the deal on cheapcarribean.com. But then you are suppose to go to some member only places.
He didn't want to get my number or give me his number. He wanted that sale done right then with him just writing some numbers on a piece of paper. I told the guy I research anything before I buy. He told me one price then the "manager" came by and they lowered the price.
You still have to pay the all inclusive fees. I think the all inclusive fees made it cost about the same if you book the deal on cheapcarribean.com. But then you are suppose to go to some member only places.