Complaint Review: Lifestyle Holidays Vacation Club - LHVC - Lifestyle Hacienda - Tropical

End of November '08, we went to the small city of Sosua, near Puerto Plata for a vacation. This was our second time in 2 years. We love that place. We love the DR.

The day before the event, we were at the public beach of Sosua & noticed the Sosua Bay Hotel & thought it was nice & all. We thought it would be a nice place to consider for our next vacation choices.

The next day we went for a walk near our hotel (Casa Marina Reef) & were approached by a young guy who said he worked for the Sosua Bay Hotel. He asked very politely if we'd like to visit the hotel & when asked, he told us there was no sale involved & no need to worry. We embarked in his golf cart not realizing we were about to spend 6500$, get pressured & scammed by incredibly skilled, shameless sales professionals, into buying timeshare.

2 minutes after arriving at the hotel, the speeches begun. From then on & for the next 5 hours, we were pressured/tempted by 5 different staff member & lied to by each & everyone of them into buying what they called a membership. We asked many times about what we thought was timeshare, & every time they denied it was. We must have asked 100+ questions & each of them was answered with reassurance & positiveness. We couldn't go wrong! When asked where in the world we would like to go, we answered Spain, Portugal, Japan & Australia, to start. We were told we could go there with our membership without a problem, anytime we wanted, 5+star resorts, treated like VIPs, for 199$ US a week, anywhere in the world, no limits. We were also told that we could sell our unused membership to other people though the internet & make a business out of it! We were sold! And so lightheaded...

While we were denied leaving the premises for fear of loosing everything they were offering, bonuses after bonuses, we were also passively denied access to the internet (even though they had full wireless access on a laptop) & were not permitted to go through the infamous RCI book they were always referring to for more than 2 minutes at a time. For the whole time, about every 15 minutes, we were offered drinks. At one point, after 4 hours of talking, visiting & brain-hammering, incredibly thirsty, we accepted the offer & they brought us some beers. After 2 sips, my friend turned to me & said 'Don't drink that!'. I swear my head was spinning like crazy, & I'm used to drinking, I work for the SAQ for 9 years, a government-owned alcohol store line in Quebec. Go figure what else was in that drink, besides beer? Blood work, anyone?

I also like to say at this point, that i am not an imbecile. I'm used to deal with people & i never enter into agreements i don't feel sure about. These guys were ruthless professionals, & if i had a sales business, i would hire them anytime! They were gooood!

So we signed. 5000$ US (6500$ Can.). We were told we could change our minds & break the contract within 30 days, for any reasons, so we felt we had not much to loose, of course, not knowing about the (lack of) laws in the DR regarding contractual agreements.

Going back to our hotel, febrile about the 'deal' we just made & the money we just spent, we decided to go to the lobby & search the internet a bit. We first discovered that RCI was a timeshare business & that we couldn't go anywhere in the world without them & the availability of other's weeks in the places we would love to go to, if any, if available. So we said to ourselves 'Ok, we'll just come to the DR for the next few 25 years, no biggy, we love it!' The next day we were goin' to a 'fully-paid-all-day-VIP-extravaganza' offered as a gift for signing the deal. We were out all day so we didn't have much time to think of it all. The day after that, we were coming back to Quebec, and still not sure...

Back home, i searched the internet for hours & for others like me who had been blessed with this same membership. And I found this forum and many others. How blessed are we, people! really?

Back down on this god-green earth, I then proceeded to contact LHVC by phone & emails to ask for a refund. No answers what so-ever after 30 days. When reached by phone, after making me wait 20 minutes (at 2$ a minute), they were reassuring & told me i could do anything with my contract, even cancel it, i just had to contact them by emails. They are & were just buying time & this circus has been going on for weeks now, just like for many of you.

I then contacted a TV show (like 20/20) that takes care of f***ers & crooks like LHVC. I am on for an interview on the 5th of January '09.

So pls, send me your support, follow-ups, request, infos, testimonials, whatever, so i can get some leverage on these ruthless liars. I know i am not alone in this & that you guys feel as defenseless as we do. Take your chances. Reports on 20/20 with Royal Holidays managed to get customers their money back, so can we... we have NOTHING to lose!

So contact me: (((REDACTED)))or (((REDACTED))) before the 4th of January. the show is scheduled beginning of February '09 & they are looking for testimonials. Let get through this together, we can teach them a well-deserved lesson.

Thanx :)

Eric L

Eric L St-Hippolyte, Quebec
Canada

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