Help with Villa Group Contract - 1st Time Purchase

[For the Love of Sun]

My husband & I just returned from Puerto Vallarta. Like many others, we did not expect to buy into a vacation program and have questioned the costs involved over the last couple of days. I found Tugbbs when doing some research on our way back home. I read several of the articles but am having trouble finding some of your original threads so I can compare to our contract. We signed our contract on April 11th, so we are still within the rescind timeframe.

The contract we signed is for 1000 anytime/yearly points, with an additional 1000 points to be used during the summer season. We were also given unlimited getaway weeks. Maint. Fee is $435. The purchase price is $16,675, which I'm guessing is retail based on some of the posts I've read.

We are a married couple in our mid forties with 2 children in their 20's. We will primarily travel without the kids due to them being in college and our schedules, however, there will be times they will join us. We tend to travel in March/April due to my husband's job. Eventually, we hope to travel more in the winter months. We usually take 1 trip a year but hope to travel more in the future.

We love the idea of the The Villa Group and it seems to be a great group to join. Our main concerns are if we paid too much (probably yes) and the exchange program. We have visited Cabo, Cancun and now Puerto Vallarta and do see ourselves traveling back. We are interested in traveling to other locations like Belize, Costa Rica and other Caribbean destinations so were hesitant if we would be able to find anything in those locations without having to book out years in advance. We also have spent a great number of our vacations on the Florida Gulf Coast and know that would be a place we would like to frequent as well.

I have emailed the rescind letter today in order to make sure we are wihtin the 5 business day time period as we signed on April 11th. I have been contacted back from our salesman asking us why we decided to cancel. We liked our salesman and had an overall good experience. I'm assuming they would want to maybe negotiate with us before we cancelled. I have not replied to him as of yet.

I wanted to reach out to you since to get your input and to see if you also agree with the cancellation based on the terms we were given. We would be open to purchase a resale option as well if we can find one.

Thanks in advance for your reply!

 

[Laurie]

Yes, absolutely do rescind. But you probably need to mail a copy, and have proof of mailing - follow the contract rescission procedure to the T. You also might need to return certain materials.

I would recommend not replying and certainly not negotiating, until the rescission has been processed and you have your refund.

Then take some time learning about various options, before jumping into anything, even resale. There are hundreds of ways to accomplish your travel goals, without saddling yourselves to something you may find difficult to get rid of later. TUG is a great resource.

We have been timesharing for 20 years - several trips per year - and have loved it! These are trips we never would have made, or been able to make, without timeshare-trading. Fortunately, we rescinded our first "retail" purchase which like you, we hadn't intented to do, but were sweet-talked into it by a clever salesperson. We still own a few timeshares.

 

[Karen G]

Here is a quote from Profeco, the Mexican consumer protection agency:


"By law, you have five business days to cancel the contract after you have signed it. If you decide to cancel the purchase within this period, notify the developer by email and certified mail. Keep the receipt as evidence you cancelled on time.

You should receive a prompt refund of all the money you have paid, without any cancelling penalties, within fifteen business days.

If the developer refuses to do so or agruments you resigned to this rigth when signing the contract, you may contact extranjeros@profeco.gob.mx. To submit a formal complaint, you must send the following paperwork: a brief description of the problem, copy of the contract and of your ID."

Your email to the salesman might just go to him and not the developer or owner services dept. Be sure to send your certified letter of rescission so that you have proof you sent it in time. The salesman will not be likely to help you rescind--he will want to do everything he can to convince you NOT to rescind so further emails with him won't help.

If you used a credit card for your purchase, notify the credit card company that you are rescinding your contract and dispute any charges made to it by the developer.