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Anybody else have trouble with Garza Blanca Preserve Resort?

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We were staying at nice resort in Puerto Vallarta which we were very happy with and we wanted to book some excursions through a tour booth in our hotel lobby. The sales people there informed us we could get a discount card worth 20 - 60% off regular excursion prices, if we simply went to The Garza Blanca Resort to listen to a 70 - 90 minute no-commitment presentation on how to book trips ourselves from home without going through a travel agency. We agreed, and in no time at all we were in a cab, with one of the Excursion Salesmen, on our way to Garza Blanca.

We turned off the road and went up a steep drive where we were dropped off. He ushered us into a small lobby where a woman took charge of us and the Excursion Salesman left. She had us fill out a form and sign the bottom. After a very short wait a young man that walked with a cane entered and she sent us with him. He took us to the restaurant where he joined us for a pleasant relaxing lunch before the presentation. He was very nice company; kind, wholesome, funny, and I could tell he had a good heart. After lunch he took us up the tower on the north side, the one on the left of the three towers. He showed us a very beautiful two bedroom apartment show suite, then sat down at the table and asked us to give him six questions about the property. One of our first questions was, “When are we going to be shown, as promised, how we could book our own vacations from home without the aid of a travel agent?” He was confused at our question until he figured out that we had been given the wrong tour. We had been given the tour of the Condo building instead of the Hotel, which is the center tower. Until that moment he was under the impression that we were there to buy into a Condo timeshare deal. (Which, by the way, they don't like you to call it timeshare. They claim that it's not a timeshare, it's different.) To get to the bottom of the mix-up he asked me to write down exactly how it all happened in my own hand writing. Who said what and when they said it? It seemed that this sort of thing had happened before and it was upsetting to him. Afterwards, he surmised that either, the excursion salesman that delivered us there had not told the lady at the desk what we were there for, or, she got confused as to why we were there and called him instead of someone else. Our nice young host with the cane then said, "Okay, let's go back downstairs and kick some butt!"

He instructed us to wait at a table outside a large lobby or sales office where other people were sitting with salesmen. Not more than one minute later a very brash Australian salesman came out, followed by the young man with the cane, and they sat down at the table. They arrived so fast, that I'm sure there wouldn't have been time for our young friend to explain about our situation with the mix-up, let alone read the statement I had written. I don't think he knew that we weren't there to buy anything, because he started in on us with his best sales pitch lines. He said the resort that we were staying in was very substandard and the food was atrocious, to which we were a little offended because it seemed that he was saying only lower class people stay there. After two or three minutes of insulting us and our lifestyle, he told us the price that we would be expected to pay. I'm still not sure if he was trying to sell us some sort of timeshare, or if that price was what we would have to pay to book our vacations ourselves. Either way, we were amazed at the amount. He asked what we did for a living and after I told him that I was a Realtor he seemed to think I should have no problem paying that price. He said he did his nieces taxes and she was a Realtor and she made $800,000 last year and if I wasn't making that kind of money then I should find a new line of work. Naturally, again, I was offended. I explained to him that only the really big Realtors make that kind of money and that it is common knowledge that 20% of the Realtors get 80% of the business and 80% of the Realtors get 20% of the business. I wasn't able to finish telling him why I'm okay with that because he cut me off and continued with his high pressure tactics. He then made a comparison that he thought would sell us for sure; He asked if we would rather have a steak or a hot dog. Now, in retrospect, I understand he was again comparing Garza Blanca with all other resorts, but my first thought was the two food items themselves. I do love a good steak, but if I'm out camping, sitting by a campfire, there's nothing better than cooking a wiener on a stick and making your own hot dog. Or if you're at any kind of sports game you simply have to buy a beer and a hot dog. It's tradition. So I answered his question with, “Sometimes I like a hot dog instead of a steak.” That was when this arrogant Australian high-pressure ultimate-closer lost it on us. He simply couldn't handle the rejection and lost his temper. He SLAMMED the table with his book and jumped up yelling that we were being totally uncooperative and instructed the young man with the cane, "Don't even give them their complimentary discount card and get them the hell off the property!" He then stormed off into the sales office, leaving us wondering what just happened. We got up to leave and the young man with the cane escorted us over to a driveway. I worried about how we were supposed to get back to our resort. It was such a shocking traumatic experience that my wife couldn't hold back the tears saying she had never been so insulted and belittled in her life. The young fellow just hung his head, and then also went back into the sales office. I stood hugging my wife for a moment, thinking how rotten this guy could be to treat other human beings that way and it all stemmed from a big misunderstanding. I decided to go inside to find our young friend again to see if he could explain to this Australian Super Salesman (A.S.S.) what we had told him upstairs and thus we didn't deserve that type of treatment. That it was all a mix-up. As soon as I came through the door the Australian saw me and started coming at me and yelling to get out! There were other people sitting at tables with salespeople and they all looked at me with fear in their eyes like I was some sort of bad man causing trouble. To alleviate their fears and show them that he was in fact the bad guy, I asked him in front of all of them, “Why do you have to be like that? You made my wife cry.” He was coming at me fast and I was suddenly afraid this crazy man was going to hit me. Scared for my safety, I started backing up to leave when he yelled, "Get out of here before I call the police. This is Mexico; you don't want to deal with the police in Mexico. They don't fool around!" I turned toward the door saying, “Okay, I'm going, I'm going. You don’t have to be like that." It was obvious I wasn’t going to get to talk to the young man with the cane again.

Back outside he gave a porter some money and told him to get them off the property. I was a little relieved that at least we were going to get back to the safety of our resort. On the way down in an elevator I asked the porter if that guy was one of his bosses because I was going to follow it up with, this must be a terrible place to work. He told us that man was a sales manager and the guy we had been talking to was the developer's son. We climbed in a cab and the porter gave the cab driver money and said something in Spanish to him.

On the road we started telling the cab driver what had happened. We asked him to tell everyone to stay away from Garza Blanca. After we were getting close to the city he asked us where we wanted to be dropped off. We told him the name of our resort and he said, "What?!" I asked why? Where did the porter say to take us? He said the porter gave him 150 pesos and told him, "Just get them out of here. Get rid of them." I asked if 150 pesos was not enough to take us to our resort. He said 150 pesos was only enough to get us to the downtown area, but he was, although, kind enough to take us all the way to our resort. Once there we went straight to the Excursion Sales booth and told them what happened. They said the nice young man with that walks with a cane is the owner's nephew and the owner used to be the mayor of Puerto Vallarta. Also, we found out that the same company owns many tour companies in the area as well.

We will be telling everyone we know and posting our story on every site we can find to get our message heard that Garza Blanca is a place to stay clear of.
 

icydog

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Make sure you post this on Trip Advisor

What a really, really awful story. I'm so sorry this happened to you. MX Timeshares have the Worst salespeople and you're lucky you got away with your wallet and credit cards unscathed.
 

silentg

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That was a scam from the moment you agreed to going to the presentations. Luckily you weren't cohearsed into buying
 

Tia

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It's on tripAdvisor, read it yesterday there in the timeshare/vacation rental area.
 

WalnutBaron

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So sorry this occurred. I wish you'd gotten the name of the A.S.S. Nobody like that should be managing any kind of business, least of which should be someone in the hospitality industry.
 

KarenP

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I'm betting it was a set up from the very first. The people you thought were kind were probably in on the whole thing. Sorry.
 
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