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Re: Has anyone purchased from Vallarta Gardens? (by Michele H.):

I successfully rescinded the agreement and received all the down payment restored, but I took extra measures to ensure that successful resolution having read in this thread that someone had received difficulties even breaking the contract within the 5 business days required by Mexico law. So my extra steps beyond just disputing the charge to my credit card company were to notify Profeco of the dispute and to declare it as a fraudulent transaction to my credit card company. This required them cancelling my credit card number and issuing me a new one pursuant to their policies, but I wasn't willing to wait months for the "disputed transaction" to be resolved in my favor as if this was just a normal business transaction in which I'd changed my mind. What Vallarta Gardens offers to entice people into signing with them is fraud. Most people who buy with them are timeshare owners already (as am I) and the first thing Michael tried hard to do was get me to sell him my timeshare. They offer above-market cash in exchange for your transferring ownership to them. But the catch is they need a year to give you your money! What? So consumers need to give you a large down payment right now and make regular monthly payments as well to buy ownership in Vallarta Gardens, but Vallarta Gardens needn't send a penny until a year has passed? How does that make sense to anyone? That's how they make sure they get at least a year of your payments and your down payment locked in as a whole year passes before you realize you've been led astray and can rethink your choice. Your 5 day window of opportunity to rescind is LONG gone when you realize they aren't paying you for your other timeshare and/or will not be paying you for unused "marketing" weeks through this Arrow Group. I did receive phone calls from someone claiming to be an Arrow Marketing Group representative who wanted to discuss with me how and why their deal with me was real and true. I told him we had nothing to discuss as I'd already rescinded the contract so had no weeks of ownership he could market for me. I'm sure he's very sad he won't need to send me that $10,000 per year for the next 25 years.

The place is beautiful, the food is great, the staff are charming. I think a lot of people want to enjoy their ownership and choose to just ignore the fact they never actually got bought out of their other timeshare as originally promised. I spoke to one lady at least, on the beach our last day, who was a very happy owner regularly spending 3-4 weeks there. She just kind of brushed off the fact they didn't ever give her money she was supposed to have received back from them. If I were in a contract with Vallarta Gardens I'd probably want to do the same thing. Focus on the positives and just enjoy what I'd bought, instead of lamenting the lie and unfulfilled promises on their end. But I'm super happy that I diligently pursued every action required of me to just get out of the contract instead. Seeing this has been going on for a decade or more there without them going to jail for it ... I'll think twice about buying any timeshare in Mexico ever. Apparently truth in advertising laws aren't relevant there!