Unlimited Vacation Club review: misleading and lies - I know because I worked there 238

I went to a presentation in Cancun about a year ago. It was at Secrets Riviera Maya. I was lied to about discounts and I feel "pressured" into signing a contract . Feeling buyers remorse I went back to this hotel two days later and tried to cancel this bogus contract. I was supossedly refunded my $5099 with an Am Ex credit slp by the mediator but the charge still appeared on my credit card for 10 days. I then filed a dispute with Am Ex and sent them all my documentation with names etc.. It was a done deal and the dispute department stood behind me 100% and the charge was removed. Stay away from VACATIONS UNLIMITED AM RESORTS! They are nothing more than scam artists!

My niece gets married in Playa del Carmen in September. We'll stay at the wedding resort for three nights then finish with four nights at Zoetry Paraiso de la bonita. We have booked it using "8 premier" nights. This is a 2 for 1 resort as contract states. No surprise when booking and all seems in order. No hidden fee. Our friends that went with us to Secrets The Vine last January are looking forward to next January staying at Secrets playa Mujeres. We went there for an evening dinner and were impressed. We plan to use our VIP weeks for them as I believe they have an expiration date. The VIP week will cost them $1500. Our friends plan to pay us $200 additional. I am hopeful for a great experience and will update as before when I return.

God I wish I would have checked this page out before being roped into a 6 hr marathon of empty promises. Stayed at Dreams Huatulco, Feb 2015, will never return because of am resorts/Unlimited Vacations!
As it turned out the good news was that it was the first day, and one of the empty promises was two weeks in hawaii to be booked immediately. They delayed and delayed until a booking in the industrial part of Mauii with terrible reviews was offered. When I demanded my money back I received several timely delays, refusals to refund, legal threats, etc, and finally with arduous direct conversations all but $400.00 was recovered. Thank you MasterCard. Whew!
These folks are crooks! Run, don't walk, when approached (and you will be) by these professionally trained dishonest people (word I wanted to use was censored)

I signed up for unlimited vacation scam February 2015 at now sapphire resort over in Cancun. ($4000/4years). Tried canceling membership as soon as I got home and found out that all I got was 25% discount. During "presentation of 5 hours" I was told I can book now sapphire for $57/night, it actually never drops below $250/night as I found out later. Obviously I couldn't cancel anything without paying $2000.
I called chase and disputed $1000 charge I placed during presentation.
Blocked their Miami office (that was calling me every day) on my iPhone.
Last week I got a letter from chase that I won the dispute.
I will never stay at any resort in the future that employes scam artists.

My husband and I purchased a White Pearl membership in September 2014 at the Breathless in Punta Cana. We paid 50% down $5000 and are currenty making monthly payments that they charge a foreign fee for each monthly transaction on my credit card. We did use UVC for a trip back to the Dominican to the Now Larimar earlier this month, we thought we saved some money on the trip compared to what our friends paid thru Apple, but they bought the preferred seating on the plane; which we didn't have the option to get so I don't really know if we saved anything to be quite honest with you. When you book the vacation thru UVC, you call one company to book and reserve the resort itself and then you have to call another number to book the air. All went well leaving St. Louis - Lampert Airport, but the flight back was a different story. When we arrived at the Frontier counter we were informed that our checked baggage would cost us $60. When we asked why, they told us that they computer said we had to pay for checked baggage and it might be because we purchased discount air tickets. We told them we didn't pay that when we left St Louis and they just shrugged their shoulders. What are you going to do but pay it in order to get your bags and clothes home. When I got home I called Frontier and also went on their web site. It looks like UVC booked ecomony seats and they do charge for luggage, which I didn't know because we had always used Apple. I just assumed checked baggage was included in all charter flights. My bad! . My question is: If UVC and Apple are now affliated, why are we as UVC members not afforded the same kinds of seats as someone booking thru Apple and why are we not given better discounts. (Luggage fees thru Apple are included in the price of the air ticket) Especially when we pay all this money up front. I don't feel like I am getting a good deal when I think of the out of pocket money we paid and now what I am paying monthly. Apple quotes you the entire trip(resort and air) they don't itemize it for you. So how are you suppose to know if UVC is cheaper than Apple? Why can't the entire trip be booked thru one UVC phone number? Also, we haven't tried to use any of the free days because we are trying to get a full week to use at one time, . I hope it works as they explained. We are still not sure whether we were scammed or not. We haven't and probably won't use the RCI portion of the membership because we don't earn that much vacation time each year and can't afford 4 or 5 weekly vacations each year. We try to take 1 week vacation each year and are trying to now go every 6 months. I am still on the fence an confused. At the Now they wanted us to upgrade for another $20000. No way, not until I understand exactly what we got. I have read thru the contract but it is too deep. Just when I think I understand it, I discover I didn't understand at all. I also think all the different websites you have to visit are confusing. There is UnlimitedVacationClub.com and UVCLifestylesCollections.com. Still not completely sure how to use the websites. The website they showed us to use at the Now doesn't look anything like the website I get in to. I guess I need to have someone explain it further.

testing

Andy Kerr, From your profile info it looks like you also bought into Hilton Timeshare, Bluegreen Timeshare, Festiva, Westgate as well as others and managed to get out of those as well. Just curious as to why you would keep buying in and then getting out? Surely after one experience you wouldn't want to keep repeating the same mistake! Just curious..

I have learned more than most people on these scams. You mention the Verification Officer, haha what a joke. the "VO's" job is to skim over the paperwork where the client cannot read everything. When the paperwork mentions "Usage is on space availability" they will chuckle and tell you "that means you can't call us on Thanksgiving and expect to stay at one of the resorts on Christmas". I made the VO and sales people eat their words, I got out of my contract and money back because of these lies. So Mr We have a Good Resort Company, email me and ets hash this out. But be aware I will copy and paste your lying words to this complaint thread. andykerr01@aol.com

Apparently we purchased within weeks of you and have had the same bad experience. They have repeatedly lied and every time I phone them I continue to get the same attitude, even to the point that their employee yelled at me on the phone and told me that the benefits I was to receive were the exact ones i signed for in our contract. After looking at contract, they were correct, but only because they had conveniently changed the verbage in the contract to something different from what we were told in the sales presentation. We were also told that we could visit our home resort anytime we wanted for "free" and the only thing that we would be charged for was approximately $82 per night per person for the food, because after all, it was an all-inclusive resort. That if it wasn't for that, then we would be able to stay there for free.

When I did try and book a vacation, just like some of the other complaints, It was a mere 25% off discount. If you take into consideration your large down payment and ensuing monthly payments after that, you would have been able to receive the same package (sometimes for even less), by just paying for your vacation outright. I CANNOT BE ANY CLEARER, THERE IS NO DISCOUNT HERE AT ALL.

I also tried booking a vacation through RCI and was told that this particular vacation club in not like all the others, in that you can log-on directly to RCI and transfer your weeks to be used within their system but for some unknown reason AM Resorts does not operate that way. That's because your weeks only costs $219 to book a reservation through RCI and that's it. Am Resorts charges several fees to deposit your weeks withing the RCI reservation system and then you still have to pay RCI an additional $219 to book through them. AM Resorts/UVC will not allow you to do it on your own because they want to make sure that they get their additional fees. It is one big scam! The comments on this site that are positive were obviously placed there by AM Resorts themselves. In reality, you pay your deposit, your monthly payments until your contract has been paid in full and then addtional fees just to book an actual vacation. When you add them all up, you have actually paid anywhere from $2500-$3000 for your actual vacation. That's what I paid cash for several months after we bought this plan just so I could have a place to stay in Paris last summer. Why did I not use my newly purchased vacation club you ask: It's because they lied to me in order to get me to sign the contract by stating that they had properties all over Europe and especially in Paris. Complete fabrication! They only list 5 total hotels in all of France and only 1 in Paris and it was just outside the city limits. Upon further investigation through one of the on-line travel sites, I found out the place was a complete dump and in a horrible part of town. Front office staff was not on duty most of the time and because of the neighborhood you had to use a keycard just to get into the hotel itself. The final straw was when I discovered that in order to catch the public transportation system you had to walk under a homeless bridge on a daily basis.

We were told that all accomadations that we would have access to, through the vacation club, would be just like the resort in Mexico we were staying in at the time. That is the biggest crock of bull I have ever been told, and yes, I was stupid enough to give some lying piece of garbage my hard earned money.

On a final note, I was told by RCI that if I wanted to travel to any top destination like Hawaii, San Francisco or New York, that I would have to make my request 2 years in advance. When I balked and told them that most vacationers don't plan that far ahead, I was told that you do with RCI if you plan on getting a decent place to stay within a popular city.

My point here is that I agree with MIJDM. We need to stick together and find someone that will file a class-action law suit on our behalf.

We are into our second year of being a club member and so far do not feel like they haven't delivered on what was promised other than the room categories. Be very careful you know at what level you are buying. We actually upgraded our membership this past March while in the Dominican, but since then we have been contacted by what I assume is a scam. They were able to get our personal email and personal cell numbers and know that we own at Secrets Maroma. This was very disturbing to me. I immediately contacted UVC and they have informed their legal department. My second most recent gripe is that we recently booked a stay at Dreams Riveria Cancun and are taking our 17 year old daughter. When I contacted UVC about adding her to our room as we are using reward nights I was told it would be an additional $79 or $93night for the preferred club. Since we always book in the preferred club I just assumed it would be the $93 then after I actually booked our stay and called UVC to add her I was told it would be $81/night. I thought sweet. BONUS! Then I just got a call today that I was quoted wrong on all three phone calls and it will. actually be $99/night. WHAT! You decide to increase it after I have booked my stay and she is 17 so considered an adult yet we can't stay in the adult only section of the resort. I really feel they should honor the price quoted at the time of the booking. Also, as of yet we have never been able to receive room upgrade which is supposedly part of our package as well. We will see what happens this trip. I'm not holding my breath.

sorry for witch... I want to say which

If UVC is as you say a great and honest organization they must not have swindler in their team. those kinds of people does not allow trust in the organization witch pay them

i am now really calm ... how i lost 150 euros ... because of the change wich was different and because we paid by visa card . they tried to swindle me because the sender Mister PROYER Severic Pascal told us that for the price of a room with 25 % less we have a suite and the access to the prefered club. that was the reasons we accept to to sign the contract . In reality all that was lies.

what do you mean by genuine "complaint"? They tried to swindle us and that is it the reality! Now we've lost a day of holidays and 150 euros; Thank you so much UVC and his swindlers' band. Sorry for my bad english but i'm french

To all of those with "problems" I can help sort out your misconceptions. The UVC is a great and honest organization. Send me your genuine "complaint" and I'll help you resolve it. Most of the complaints on this board are untrue. garrymo123@yahoo.com

Fierro (above) has made completely untrue accusations! A verification officer goes through every page of your Club contract to make sure you understand EXACTLY what your membership entails. And the 25% lie? That's the guarantee that if after making a reservation you happen upon a retailer with a lower price (sometimes as a last minute distress sale) the Club will refund the difference and STILL give 25% discount off the lowest price!

Bonjour à tous, nous aussi on a cru à leurs mensonges. Heureusement on a pu faire annuler le contrat dès le lendemain de la signature sur place . Une fois rentrès on a effectivement été remboursés de la somme versées mais avec des frais bancaires environ 150 euros partis en fumée (plus 1 jour et demi de vacances perdues sur une semaine ça fait beaucoup) . quelqu'un connaitrait il un moyen de les discréditer au yeux du public afin qu'ils ne puissent plus nuire à personne ces voleurs? Merci d'avance

Sunlovers, how did you cancel? I just send an email to the addresses on the package I bought it last Friday 4/4/2015 ... Did they refund your money?

Hi, I just agreed to pay 15, 000 DLLs with monthly payments after reading this I read the contract and its not what I agreed they told me I would get 65% off every time I stayed at any AMResort and on the contract only says 25% they also told me I would get 14 days free on any AMResort and 2 weeks with RCI for 199 a week up to 12 persons! They told me I would get that as soon as I made my 4, 500 DLL deposit It was a lie ! They don't let you read the contract they applied pressure so you sign... A total scam ! I need to cancel asap bit could find anything on the contract on how to do it ... Has anyone cancel this membership?

It is a joke...the benefits do not return on the investment...I cancelled within the 5 day cooling off period via email and also filed a dispute with my credit card company. Act fast if you can.

My husband and I just fell for this scam at Secrets Aura in Cozumel on Saturday March 28. Luckily we came to our senses and sent a few email cancellations, filed a dispute on our Credit Card, and went back to the sales office before we flew back to the USA on Tuesday and made them sign and date our cancellation email. When we did this, they offered us an additional 7 night certifcate at any of their resorts if we would give them a second chance to earn our business, which we refused. The price of our silver package was $22310 and there is a $1199 closing cost fee. Our silver package included 5 premier weeks or 35 nights prepaid, 2 VIP weeks @ $1500, 4 bonus weeks with RCI, $1500 travel credit with Lifestyles collection, 10yr yacht club membership, 2 yr RCI membership, 2 yr Lifestyles membership, 30 yr Unlimited Vacation Club membership, and 350 exchange nights...sounds too good to be true, huh. They also gave us an upgrade for the remaining 3 nights of our current stay (which ended up feeling like a downgrade, the internet did not work) and $200 leisure cash to take our sales person to dinner...more like us take her to dinner! I now have to wait for my credit card company to remove it, they put the money on hold. In Mexico there is a 5 business day cooling off period, the trick is to make sure you do your homework before that period is up. The company that can help with these complaints is Profeco in Mexico, you can review their rules on line. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this whole ordeal will be behind me soon. We have never fallen for one of these traps before and we vacation 5-6 times per year. We paid 50% down plus the closing cost so in total $12500...that is a lot of money to waste. This is a discount membership, nothing more, so unless you plan to stay at only the AM resorts exclusivley for the next 10 years or so it is hard to recover your money. Personally we prefer Marriott and Sheraton hotel chains, except in Mexico we prefer Secrets Resorts, they are extremely nice. However, we go to Mexico probably once per year, Europe once per year and then we do a few domestic trips in the USA to Miami, San Fran, and NOLA. I hope the word gets out and more people do not get sucked into this trap, their sales people know how to sell and they hit people when they are feeling eutopia and have just started a luxury vacation and defenses are down! As I said I have always steered clear of any sales pitch in the airport or at any resort becasue I do not want to waste my precious vacation time...I have no idea how I got sucked in this time and am disappointed in myself for being vulnerable and doing something I said I would never do! It will not happen again, that is a promise!

I to bought into this scam. I bought my club membership in Cancun last September. I just called to book a cruise and was quoted 958 for 4 day cruise. SUPPOSEDLY.. that included my deep discount. I went on Carnival cruise website and got a quote for 913. for the exact same cruise/ room. As a member, I should not have to be the one to research other sites to get the best price. Then I was told that I need to activate my account with lifestyles. This fee is ONLY 2999 one time fee or $250/ year with ability to go up with inflation. I was told that I got 2 free years with life styles and is now told that I have to pay now after just 6 months. I am not signing up for any thing more!

I was told that when I book with Unlimited as a member I would always get a price 25% cheaper than any public price. While staying in Cancun I asked several couple what they paid and if they were members. None of them were members and booked through apple vacations cheaper than what I could get directly through Unlimited. I called an complained what good does it do to be a member when you are offer lower prices to apple and other online agencies and what good was my $30k membership program when I could book cheaper with apple and not have the membership fee? This company is am absolute joke stay at the resorts just don't join Unlimited Vacation club.

Trust me, UVC can't ruin your good credit, US CC companies are SMARTER than UVC. Lucky you, you only lost $1, 000. I paid them 12, 499, it took me a while before I realized I was scammed. They charged $5, 000 on my Amex, when Amex rejected it, they did a bogus charge as if I bought some expensive merchandize in Mexico. They did not dislose this to me, just found out when I received the statement. This was a red flag that I ignored. I continue to pay, until Margarita told me that they have nothing to do with ETI. It was them who made the transactions, and now they have nothing to do w/ it? I'd rather loose what I already paid than give them another penny. To those who had an awesome experience with UVC, I wish you many more wonderful experiences.

I have just spent the better part of the evening, reliving the same experience as most of the posters here, except for those UVC plants, Like "Wheat1" and "GarryM". The timeshare industry represents 10.8 billion dollars in sales per year, that is Billions, with a B. So, for RCI, UVC and the British Bank Barclay, it is no surprise the amount of misinformation can be seemingly validated by individuals that make their living using deception to relieve all of us of our hard earned cash. Everything I have read from people who discovered they were spoon fed lies is true. I have owned Palace Resorts for 15 years, and have had very good service and experiences. But my experience with UVC is just the opposite, the cost to use their "product" is just silly. Our payment is $300 per month.. To use one of the "free" premier weeks requires us to make four (4) payments for the use of ONE night. So, to use seven nights, we have to make 28 payments, or $8400 dollars for ONE "premier" week, or $16, 800 for the use of the two premium weeks. That is the total cost of the package. Once you have used the premier weeks, you are back to paying rack rate minus their advertised 25% discount, so can you see, how after reading the fine print, after coming down from the tropical high, and overdose of sun and tequila, why all of us are freaking out. So, we contacted UVC, and said, NO, not paying you a penny. Go ahead, try to ruin my credit score, We contested the Credit card charge of $4000, from a bank that we have had a stellar record with for over 20 years, and the pulled the money from UVC, then we contacted UVC's "quality" department and spent some time with Justino, who offered to cancel the contract for $6000, we said, nope, we are not going to pay you anything, you have our initial $1000, go ahead and keep that, for your troubles, but nothing else. What I suggest to EVERYONE is to just stop paying them, force them to the table, bankrupt them if we have to. UVC has already moved their office in Florida to a new location, (google maps is awesome). It's a shabby office building in a sketchy part of town, not some lavish corporate office complex, and the employees speak very weak english. And everyone should know, the company is based in the Dominican Republic, not in Mexico, so, the company does NOT have to honor Preveco rules. They honor the 5 day cancellation rule, but they do not inform you you have that right. That is the sales staffs crime in the process. If you know anyone going on vacation, ANYWHERE, advise them, never, ever attend a timeshare, or vacation club presentation. There is no free lunch. To quote the words of timeshare guru, Mary Lorenzo (google her) "If we didn't offer free stuff, no one would show up". There are youtube videos on timeshare techniques that would make your blood boil. The deception is pervasive, and its all about sell, sell, sell, no matter what it takes. Every one who has been victimized by UVC just keep up the pressure, keep telling your stories, keep telling the sales staffs NO, keep refusing the presentations, keep spreading the word. Lets use the power of the pen, the internet, the press, craigslist, any social media you have to spread the truth about your experience with UVC. Tell your story about being detained for 5 hours, having your personal information like credit cards and drivers license kept from you in another room, with no cell phone or internet access to fact check anything they say. Being shadowed in your resort by sales persons, to your room, to your restaurants, all part of the process of getting you to sign before you can leave the country. We even had a sales person coming to our room, and our table to get us to sign our contract. They kept our documentation for six hours, and the one credit card has already been used fraudulently, and the only time is was used on the trip, was when the UVC sales staff had it. I would not recommend the company for your travel and lodging needs.

UVC, GBS, ETI, Discuentos Vacationales are synonymous to LIES, FRAUD, SCAM, EMPTY PROMISES. Stay away from them if you don't want to lose your hard earned money. Refund? No such thing!

Thank you all for you information, I sat through there grueling sales pitch all day I lost my first day of my vacation. They had me locked in 100% until at dinner when a couple I didnot know at all over heard what I was doing and strongly advised me against the purchase that I was about to make. They said they had nothing but problems from day one. I was feeling very uneasy and nervios about the entire thing already until they talked to me. I went back into the negoshiating table where they had all of the contact in hand for me to sign and lock me down for 42000. I told them I needed an overnight to sleep on it. They tried everything they could to stop me from leaving short of retaining me. I went back to my hotel looked up complaints after complaints I felt uneasy because they charged my credit card three time for small amounts as to not get my card company to shut my card off due to me being out if the country( very suspicious) they wanted permission to check my credit to open a card to cover the 50% down payment to get the contract done. Turns out they actually got me to sigh an authorization to charge my new card 18, 850 that I didn't even realize they opened it. I really thought I was only sighting an authorization to check status on my credit . I came back the next day told them I was backing out thank goodness I didn't sigh my contracts I i only needed to get them to debit my card and the new card they falsely opened up on me. I am crossing my fingers on the debit transactions to go through. So thank you to the couple from Michigan that was so kind to step in and warn me THANK YOU

I purchased my UVC membership at age 30 and I love it. The only issue anyone should have is the price that you pay for the membership you want. I was lucky to get a silver membership for aroung 15k. I use my membership several times a year and the room rates are always 25% or less than any other room rates offered on any website. I was able to submit I price match that I found on another site and UVC honored it. I don't really plan to use the time share days because i'm more of an all inclusive guy. To anyone seriously considering a membership I say go for it if you can afford it. Make it work for you, your family and friends. Just this week a friend had me check rates at Secrets in Jamaica, the room is $3000 or more on the websites, my membership gets the same room for $1600. I do not work for this company, I'm a hard working law enforcement officer and enjoy taking all inclusive vacations. I live in Maryland. I hope this helps someone

To all the complainers . . . you obviously do NOT know what you bought, yet you condemn with vitriol. UVC and its affiliates, Lifestyle Collection and Wyndham Workdwide, offers the lowest prices in the travel world and if all three elements are used the average family will save much more than 50% a year on travel. Within 3 - 5 years you'll have saved more than you invested and if you have first-visit incentives such as free stays, annual travel cash, etc, your return on your investment is IMMEDIATE WITH HIGH DISCOUNTS FOR THE REST OF YOUR TRAVEL LIFE.
The UVC is designed for those who TRAVEL, VACATION and spend money doing so. If you only take one $2000 vacation every couple of years the Club is NOT for you.
Anybody who is actually spending money on annual vacations and is either complaining or running scared because of the confused complainers, I'm prepared to help you sort it all out and show you how to make the program work really well for you. Address any questions, concerns, fears of "lies" etc to: garrymo123@yahoo.com

We just booked our first membership stay at Now in Punta Cana and we were able to use 13 of our free nights with no money required. We were able to get two rooms and take our kids. This is the first time we have booked and it all seemed to go smoothly. We will see if we get the free upgrade when we get there. We did pay for our membership in full when we purchased it so I can't speak to having the 50% down in order to use the free nights. We felt we were treated fairly and love the resorts so can't wait to visit most of them. We have owned a timeshare for several years so are used to trading with RCI and were given an ample number of weeks to do that. We are excited to be going on this trip in March and hope it is everything that was promised.

Okay...Just returned from our trip to Secrets "The Vine" in Cancun and here's my update as promised. IT WAS FANTASTIC! I am so thankful to write that. If you've read my other posts you'll understand as I too had very similar concerns. Our friends who were with us are well traveled and had rave reviews of the trip. We had our upgrade as promised to the Master Suite. If you haven't stayed there, you need to and you'll understand. Met with the sales manager again and came home feeling very good about our investment. Visited another Secrets resort for dinner. Ditto, beautiful and delicious. The 'free' yacht excursion was as promised. Great time. Hope you all have your concerns alleviated as well. I will continue to read this blog and update with each trip we take.

I keep reading all the negative comments here in awe. We bought the membership last September while we were in Cabo and are just beginning o plan our first vacation with the membership. I hope our experience is not as bad as some of you have described it here. If we (my wife and I) walked into a scam, shame on us for not reading the fine print or going with our gut feeling that what sounds to be so good is usually not. I guess we can live with whatever they offer and that is our punishment for being naive.
My concern now is the list of people that I have that are so interested in giving this a try. If what I am reading here is true, there is no way I will recommend my family and friends to fall for something like this. I am so confused right now.

@Jaa112 - I will join the suit - let me know when you've made progress

Well, this Saturday I'll be at Secrets The Vine for my first experience as a member. The biggest issue, and I am guilty, is the sweet promises made by the rep. Indeed the fine print is a different story, thus all the remorse from those posting. I must say that UVC has been very responsive in email correspondence with me. The "free" yacht is reserved for an excursion with our friends. I will be frosted if we get to the boat and find they need some type of payment. I am holding them accountable for all the sweet promises and upgrade. I'll post an update in a couple weeks.

I am interested in joining a class action suit.

I'm reading this and i do regret buying but i was lucky i kept saying no, no and no but i still got taken for 8500.oo for a pearl membership. I should've done research especially with the free wifi but never again will i sign for anything.

We signed the contract in 2012. The company kept calling to offer discounts to see we want to pay off rest of balances. The company also sold our information to others. All we get is endless sales calls. We just want to get out of contract, and put this company to do Don't call list. Could anyone tell me how to get out the contract, and get our money back? Thank you!