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Vallarta Gardens Timeshare Scam

My wife and I have owned time shares for over 30 years. We are using them differently now and rather than vacation, since we are retired, we are wintering most often in Puerto Vallarta. We went to a timeshare presentation to Vallarta Gardens. We own two timeshares in Florida, and since we do not spend that much time in Florida, we were interested when Vallarta Gardens offered to buy a Florida Timeshare as the bulk of a purchase toward one of theirs. This was the only reason we bought as it made sense that we could use these for more time in Puerto Vallarta. I was thrilled at first. They even offered to set up a follow up meeting for any questions we might have. Even after a few contacts, the meeting was not set up until more than a week later, not where we had discussed but at the resort with the Manager, the person who had offered the meeting. This was well after the 5 day cooling off period. I googled their website as I wanted to see if they had pictures of the type of unit we bought as I had some questions for our meeting which was now set up. Out of the corner of my eye I noted some other links and what caught my attention was the word scam next to Vallarta Gardens. After reading all of the information I felt ill. I had checked out Vallarta Gardens on Trip Advisor but there was nothing that would have raised red flags about the information I later found. While there were many issues, including units not being built, dissatisfaction bout alternative units that people were placed in etc. etc. the most frequent and common was failure to sell the resort as part of the payment for Vallarta Gardens and then the buyer is stuck paying the whole amount. I freaked. I went on the TUG (Timeshare Users Group) and read something about Mexican Timeshare Solutions. The receptionist and Carlos were fantastic. They responded immediately and gave me advice. In the meantime I contacted VISA who advised me they had a cooling off period of 15 days so I immediately sent notice to Vallarta Gardens that I wanted to cancel. They fought it all the way to the end. It took about 6 months but VISA upheld my cancellation and returned my deposit, preventing further payments. But, this did not fully cancel the contract. This whole time I was also working with Roberto Guzman at Mexican Timeshare Solutions. He was in regular contact with me. I was guaranteed no payment to them unless they got the contract cancelled. They were as good as their word. Never once did I get asked for a payment until finally Vallarta Gardens agreed to cancel the contract. That was well over a month after VISA decided in my favour. Roberto was fantastic throughout the time that he worked on my case. He explained things to me, was very patient and was very responsive to my emails and questions. It was only after the contract was cancelled that a request was made for payment. I was happy to comply. I am thrilled with the services that I received and it was a small payment compared to what I might have been liable for had the contract not been cancelled.