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  • Report:  #475452

Complaint Review: Lifestyle Holidays Vacation Club -lhvc Lifestyle Holidays Escrow Inc. - Cofresi Beach

Reported By:
- wakefield, Massachusetts,
Submitted:
Updated:

Lifestyle Holidays Vacation Club -lhvc Lifestyle Holidays Escrow Inc.
Cofresi Beach,puerto Plata, Dominican Republic Cofresi Beach, Dominican Republic
Phone:
809-9703653
Web:
N/A
Categories:
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
my wife and i are so happy to have finally found an avenue to discuss our displeasures concerning lhvc. in may 2008 our family and two friends booked a vacation at the villa in cofresi beach. we found the info about the resort on-line and proceeded to rent a villa thru a vip member.

when we arrived there seemed to be some sort of mix up with our accomodations.

we believe another party was placed into the villa that we were supposed to be in.

the employees at the check-in desk talked among themselves in spanish. we had no idea what was going on. after a short while we were shuttled to the villa where we would be staying. we were assured by the owner that we would have the equivalent of

a four bedroom unit. they placed us in a three. we spent the first two nights in this unit.

when an employee came to deliver us our golf cart [ which we paid an additiional $100.00 for thru the vip member] he took us for our tour of the property. yes, you

probably knowwhat transpired. we were taken to the sales office for the big sales pitch.

we never thought we would end up purchasing a membership, but i'm sure you know the rest. we purchased a platinum villa package. supposedly there were three of these packages left. we were also offered a gold package from their resale program. that package had too many restrictions. oh, did i mention that we were then moved into a villa that suited our needs and we were supposed to be in from the start. i have to say that our stay was enjoyable forthe most part. we thought the food was average at best.

the sales department promised us everthing that they promised to all of you unfortunate buyers, so i won't rehash that. on the day of our departure we were introduced to our customer service rep. we are know dealing with our fourth or fifth.

upon returning home, we proceeded to e-mail them to book a stay in las vegas.

what an ordeal. three e-mails before we ever got a response. we already had our next customer rep. over a week had already passed and he promised to have info for us within three days. at this point we thought we would wait to see how long it would take for them to get back to us, but lost our patience after two more weeks.

it was then that we decided to call the person that we rented the villa from to see what her experiences were with lhvc and her membership. she was very informative and offered up much info. she had just upgraded her membership to a platinum supreme

lifetime package for an extraordinary amount of money. she had a great repore with the customer service department as well as others associated with lhvc. she openly admitted that their business practices leave a bit to be desired. when i asked her why she upgraded, she replied, and i quote " i upgraded just to stay in the game ". this was coming from a member who uses the home resort frequently, has a web site where she rents to others. she never ever trades thru rci, too much aggrevation.

my wife and i were under the impression that we had purchased the highest level of membership that was available. that is what we were told by the salesperson.

this pyramiding of memberships eventually leaves you closer to the bottom of the totem pole so to speak. do you think the members that purchased the higher level

packages get the preferential treatment when it comes to bookings accomodations etc.,

do you think? we contacted the customer rep. with our concerns and they just danced around every question, never giving us a straight answer. we also would receive

conflicting and contradictory info between the customer reps. and their supervisors. their booking practices are ridiculous.

after careful consideration we decided to request a refund of the nearly 40% of the total cost of the membership. of course the deadline date for a refund had since passed. we then filed a dispute with the bank of america for the deposit amount.

dealing with them was almost as unpleasant as with lhvc. after months of phone conversations and faxing of detailed info regarding the case, the bank ruled in favor of the merchant, not the consumer. so much for so called consumer protection!

we then requested that our membership be placed into the resale program as stated in the contract. it sits in the resale program for 8 months now. we have no

clue as to what the status of it is, and niether does anyone else at lhvc. if it is such a great package, why doesn't it sell' it was certainly purchased for far less than you can buy one for today. let me give you our opinion. they have already collected 40% of the total cost,we can't use the membership because we refuse to pay any of the remaining balance which is due Dr. Jesus Garcia. what would their incentive be to

sell this membership rather than the higher priced packages. they want you to sell it.

they also promote the starting of a web site. this would help their business, they have it all figured out. i also think that the credit card companies, especially bank of america from what i read from others is as criminal as lhvc. they continue to finance these

memberships when i believe they know of the fraudulent acts by lhvc. but then again isn't this one of the same lenders that the government just bailed out for their poor business practices. don't you wish someone could do this for us? sorry for being so long winded, but we have been waiting for over a year to share our disgust with this company. we are no better off today than we were a year ago. we feel helpless.

i guess the bright spot is that there is a common denominator here. maybe together we can do something about it! looking forward to anyones responses and updates.

thank you,

frank

boston,mass.

Sparky103

wakefield, Massachusetts

U.S.A.


2 Updates & Rebuttals

Jessica

Florissant,
Missouri,
Resolved?

#2General Comment

Wed, May 08, 2013

We also got ripped off from this company and are wondering if we should even pay it. What is your advice and have you got anywhere since you posted this ripoff?


Jetsetter

Upton,
Massachusetts,
U.S.A.
in the same boat

#3

Mon, August 17, 2009

I am in the same boat with this company.  The promises lasted just up to the point we signed and then everything was gone.  We bought a platinum supreme that we cannot use FOR ALMOST TWO YEARS due to over-booking at the resort.  We also have gotten NO WHERE with B of A.

 

We are exploring lawsuit actions.

 

Trista Blanchard

Upton, Ma

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