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Re: Has anyone purchased from Vallart Gardens? (by Sylva B.):

Everyone seems to have slightly different variations of the same scam. We were offered only $1900/week, 4 times a year (total of $7600/year) to rent out our unit, but for a period of 5 years. They also threw in one free week at VG which made it even more appealing. It seemed like a no-brainer -- get a nice income per year and still have the luxury of staying for one week at the resort.

The property management company we were given was VP Services out of Brownsville, TX. Of course, there is no information on it, no BBB rating, located in a strip mall with a representative calling from CA. VP Services was supposed to sell our existing timeshare, plus rent out our weeks for the next 5 years or as many as we would like thereafter. The rep Cliff got very nasty with me when I told him that I wasn't comfortable with his company and basically said that I need to make a decision and stop wasting his time! I asked for a Certificate of Good Standing for VP Services from the state of Texas, and never received an answer from him. I emailed him a few times and he never emailed me back once. All he would do is call me and push me to pay the enrollment fee so he could get started on selling from timeshare.

Since I refused to pay the $1275 enrollment fee, which I was certain was included in my purchase price, we lucked out of losing that money. As soon as I realized that this was a scam, I immediately filed a dispute with my cc company for the downpayment I had given them, and then closed my credit card. I also informed VG that I was not comfortable with the information I had received from them since my return from Mexico because there were too many inconsistencies.

I told them to hold off from charging me the monthly finance charges that were supposed to start the following month.

I also declined the 25- Swiss Annuity that they were offering as an added bonus. I was told that it was optional. When I told the woman Melissa, who kept calling me to confirm that my credit card would be charged $1001 for the principle deposit, that I was not interested in the annuity, she got very short with me and said that I would have to take it up with VG and that it WASN'T optional and that VG has already taken it out of their price. This person actually called me on the Sunday of Father's Day at 8:30 p.m. What legitimate financial institution would do that? Plus, I had my friend who works in the financial field to look them up and she couldn't find anything on Swiss Alliance.

These people are despicable and have no moral conscience. I'm sure that the pictures of their children that they show us during the sales pitch aren't even their kids. It's an elaborate scam. Only thing to do is file a dispute with your credit card company and supply them with the countless pages from all the different forum posts on VG. Plus any other information on the property management company showing that they are questionable, etc. AMEX has ruled in my favor and there is a hold on any other charges that might try to come through in the future. It's not an easy process, and some people have been swindled out of a lot more money than others, but if we can all help each other in any way, we need to do that. I do know that there are a few people who are taking this to very high levels and will not stop until they are shut down and hopefully arrested.

Unfortunately, they will only open up again under another name and resort. Shame on the Mexican government for allowing this to go on, because they are very aware of the timeshare scams in their country.

I'm sure that they have their people checking all these posts on a regular basis...