Lifestyle Holidays Vacation Club Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic Ripoff Nightmare in Puerto Plata- Can they get away with this? Dominican Repub
I went to Lifestyle Holidays Vacation Resort in Puerto Plata on an RCI exchange from 10/18/2014 through 10/25/2014. On the third day of our vacation, my friend and I were having breakfast at one of the buffets and we were approached by a gentleman who told us he was looking for us to take us for our welcome package and he would be waiting for us at the buffet entrance when we were finished eating.
After breakfast, we met him and he took us to the VIP World building, gave us our welcome package and took us on a tour of the resort, showed us various accommodations, offering us drinks all the way. The resort was absolutely beautiful!
After the tour, we were taken back to the VIP Word where we sat through the high pressured sales presentation with more drinks. We were told about all the unlimited benefits of our now VIP status- members (VIP) exclusive restaurants, bars, beaches, all the money you could make by renting your unlimited use of the units, the great discount I was getting for being a timeshare owner, etc. We asked pertinent questions specifically about their cancellation policy. We were told that we had four days to cancel without penalty and that our credit cards would not be charged until the fourth day. Ha! We went over the contract, signed it and then were presented with a 30+ page book to initial, which we did.
We were given copies of the contract and when we asked where our copy of the book was, they said that it was on the two DVDs we were given. They then cut off our RCI bracelets and replaced them with the VIP bracelet, booked us in the VIP restaurants for the next two days and we were off to enjoy our VIP status.
The nightmare began when we went to our first VIP restaurant for the 8:30 sitting. We didn't get the VIP treatment that we were told to expect. We were one of the first guest to be seated. Our orders were taken and we were pretty much ignored. Patrons that came after us were eating and we were still waiting for our dinner which arrived cold. We sent it back and didn't get a hot replacement until around 10 pm. Each time we asked about our meal, we were told in an off-handed way that it was coming. A couple at the table next to us intervened saying to the waiter "what about them"? We also noticed that the two other tables of people of color were treated the same way we were. We left feeling cheated but hope that the lousy service was an isolated incident.
The next day we tried the VIP beach where we noticed that others got their towels spread on the beach bed, the attendants were constantly asking them if they wanted anything but we were treated differently. That night at dinner, again the 8:30 seating but in a different VIP restaurant, we were treated the same way as the previously evening and realized that we weren't going to get the VIP treatment the others were getting and decided we would cancel the membership.
Our VIP rep had left a letter of introduction in our room and told us to call him with any questions/concerns. We called him and told him we wanted out and he came right over to meet with us. He was fairly new to the resort but after hearing what we experienced he called the food and beverage director, who was also new to the resort and they both vowed to set up meetings with the employees to make sure our experience wouldn't happen to others. They set up various perks for us to compensate for what we had been through and took us to the VIP world to cancel.
We were put in a conference room with a video recorder and we waited at least a half hour before someone came to meet with us. She was representing her boss, the person we were supposed to meet with, and she came in irate. The meeting went downhill from there. We were told we were not getting our money back, we were going to be charged for anything we ate or drank at the VIP restaurants plus $100/day for the VIP bracelet and that it was a good thing we didn't take a golf cart. She also told us that we had to write a cancellation letter and if we didn't get back with the letter before 6:00, we would be changed for the bracelet for an additional day.
We called our credit card companies when we got back to our room and were told they had charged the downpayment the day we signed. They didn't wait util the fourth day like they said they would.
We got back to the office with our cancellation letter and were again put in that conference room, this time with the door closed and watched an armed guard walk back and forth past the room where again, we waited for a long time. We couldn't imagine what was going to happen next.
The person we were supposed to meet with the first time finally came to meet with us and reiterated that we were not going to get our money back and she was trying to offer us limited weeks so we would at least have something for our money. We declined. She took the letter to Legal and brought us signed copies for our records.
I neglected to mention that everything the male managers set up for us to compensate for how we were treated was cancelled by their female bosses- restaurants, massages, free transportation to the airport, etc. Security even stopped the taxi we were taking back to the airport to "cut our wrists". What he meant was he needed to cut our RCI plastic bracelets off but he kept saying he had to cut our wrists so of course we were horrified and wouldn't comply until he pointed to the bracelet. What could we possibly do with a plastic bracelet once we were outside of the resort?
I've been to the Dominican Republic twice before and have always been treated very well. After this experience at Lifestyles, I will never go to the D.R. again!
We now await the status of our disputes.
7 Updates & Rebuttals
Response to Ellie G
#8Author of original report
Thu, October 29, 2015
Ellie, I neglected to answer all your questions. All of the credit cards you used will charge you. I hope you disputed the charges with all your credit card companies.
I don't believe that your dispute can create a negative rating with the credit bureaus for as long the dispute is being investigated. I do believe that if your dispute is settled, but not in your favor and you don't pay, then I'm sure it will go against you. Double check what I just said because that is only my opinion. There is no negative notation from them on my credit report.
I hope I answered them now. Your response is not visible while I'm responding so I can't be sure.
Again, good luck!
Response to Ellie G
#8Author of original report
Thu, October 29, 2015
Hi Ellie,
I'm a little confused. Did you buy into Lifestyles Vacation Club or RCI? You just mentioned RCI. I went to Lifestyles through my RCI exchange but I bought into the Lifestyles Vacation Club which is who I had the problem with when I tried to cancel.
At any rate, I didn't sign anything Lifestyles sent me to approve the cancellation fees. I sent them an email just once telling them their fees were not acceptable to me and I wouldn't be signing anything except a document for a full refund. I never communicated with them again. My credit card company took care of everything.
Have you asked your credit card company for a status report? Are they holding you liable for the charges or will they reverse them if Lifestyles doesn't reply to them within a certain time?
Have you contacted the Consumer Affairs Department? I certainly would contact them to see if they can help.
Ellie, I hope this is resolved to your satisfaction soon. Please keep me posted. Good luck!
Ellie G
Norristown,Pennsylvania,
USA
Thanks so much!
#8Consumer Comment
Thu, October 29, 2015
Thank you so much for creating this post. It kind of guided me through my process. I failed a dispute with two of my credit card companies and so far one accepted the dispute. I am waiting for the reply from RCI and hope everything gets resolved. Now, I am wondering: since I used these cards as a downpayment, will they charge me the cancellation fee and for the use of the "upgrades" we received during our stay?
Do you know if it gets reported to the credit bureu? I have contacted all my credit card companies and told them to block any further transactions. Since I technically paid about $9500 for the downpayment, will they report to the credit bureu that I owe the difference? They did say that my Amex card will be charged $50 on a monthly basis until the remainder of the time share is completely paid.
I did, however, contacted the person in the cancellation department and after the crazy charges, he sent the cancellation contract, which I refuse to sign because I cannot agree with none of the fees. Do you know if we need to ccontact them again to finish the cancellation process or does the credit card companies handle it?
Again, I cannot thank you enough for the advices provided here. I will post my individual experience once everything is finalized. You really gave me some hope and I have learned my lesson!
Response to Ellie G
#8Author of original report
Thu, October 22, 2015
Hi Ellie. They tried to get me to sign to approve their settlement charging me all these fees but I didn't sign it. I told my credit card company everything that happened from the beginning and they were aware of all the time share ripoffs. They even have a special deartment to deal with time shares. My credit card company contacted Lifestyles and told me they had a certain amount of time to respond to them. In the meantime, Lifestyles kept sending me emails with different and so-called better settlements. I didn't accept any of them. I told them I wouldn't accept anything but a 100% refund. I never heard from them again and my credit card company refunded my money.
I wish you the best because it is truly a nightmare. Please keep me posted.
Ellie G
Norristown,Pennsylvania,
USA
more tips please
#8Consumer Comment
Mon, October 19, 2015
Hello, thanks for your reply. I have contacted Lifestyle within my 4 days cancellation period and they want to charge me alof just for cancelling almost $5,000 for something I never got the chance to use. what exactly did you tell your credit card company? i had to open an account with bank of america to pay for the downpayment of the time share.
This has been a complete nightmare for me and it has become a back and forth thing. They sent me the final cancellation and I need to sign it to finally cancel but I do not want to settle and do not want to pay those $5,000.
Response to Ellie G
#8Author of original report
Mon, October 12, 2015
Hi Ellie,
I'm so sorry to hear they are still at the ripoff game.
Since I charged all the downpayments on my credit card, I called my credit card company while I was at Lifestyles to dispute the charges which Lifestyles had put through right away. My credit card company handled the dispute. Lifestyles emailed me to offer me a minute amount of my money back but I didn't accept it. My credit card company told me that they contacted Lifestyles and if they didn't get back to my credit card company within a specified period of time, the charges would be reversed. Lifestyles didn't respond to my credit card company and the charge was reversed.
Good luck in recovering your money.
Ellie G
Norristown,Pennsylvania,
USA
Same thing is happening to me
#8General Comment
Fri, October 09, 2015
I went through the same horrible experience you went through. It is a complete nightmare. I got my membership recently on oct 4 2015 and have requested a cancellation since oct 8, 2015. I experienced horrible customer service and was treated poorly. They want to charge me a bunch of fees such as taxes, admin fees and for the upgrades they offer. Is this even legal?
I wanted to know if your issue was resolved or if you have any advice for someone who is going through the same thing as you are. I requested a cancellation from over seas since I had to leave by the 6th of october. They do not even have a toll free contact number and I have to buy international calling cards and wait 15-20 minutes just to get someone on the phone.
I also did somem research and they are not even recognized by the BBB and have an F grade due to the amount of complaints filed in the last year. If you have any useful information, please let me know.