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3.5 13 Reviews 12 Complaints
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The First Group reviews 13

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The First Group Scammers

Totally disgusted with TFG for scamming people of their hard earned ...bringing Dubai into disrepute. Properties overpriced, inflated projected returns, projects not operational and no returns on investment. What a shambolic company...disgrace to dubai...disgrace to humanity! How you continue to operate is beyond belief... bringing disrepute to your partners and brand ambassadors as well.

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The First Group complaints 12

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My name is Hussain, and I was on a trip to Dubai with my family in Sep 2017. While walking around, I noticed the many real estate development stands and booths. One of them was the TFG (The First Group). They seemed very authentic and arranged a trip for me to see their developments, then took me to their offices and presented the projects. They eventually...

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The First Group Cancellation of the membership at aria vacation club during the cooling off period

We are notifying you of our decision Of Cancellation of our membership at Aria vacation club with the contract we signed on 4th of March 2024, so during our cooling off period. Today we send all the documentation by air mail and we hadthat already notified it to our manager Maimuna Elessa, but she did not repaid back. in accordance with the contract, we only want to exercise our right to cancel the membership in the cooling off period in a correct way and at the same time we are contacting you in order to carry out the matter more effectively.

Claimed loss: 2500eur

Desired outcome: 2500eur

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Martina Boben
, US
Mar 16, 2024 8:42 am EDT
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I can confirm that now I was rebounded and i revived all the money back.

Regards

Martina Boben Bozic

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3:37 pm EDT
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The First Group Aria Vacation Club

We entered into a contract with the Aria Vacation Club on September 30th and cancelled the contract within the first 10 days by couriering written notice of our intention to cancel the contract in the form provided in the Contract, and returned the original agreement to the First Group. It has been over 30 days and our emails are being ignored and no return has been processed.

Claimed loss: $2500 USD

Desired outcome: Refund of $2,500USD deposit

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The First Group Is Ciel Towers by the first group a scam?

I went to Dubai in 2021 and was approached by the first group, ever since I’ve been making payments to their account accumulating to over 80k$, my business failed and I made the decision to stop and get refunded instead because I asked from the beginning, it was only the first payment that wasn’t refundable. Also in all the documents and contracts I signed, it was never stated that I won’t get a refund. I’ve been texting them, no reasonable response whatsoever and the representative that used to come to my dm to ask for payment is telling me to contact someone else while the new person I’m talking to never responds. I’m just wondering how this kind of fraudulent act is going on in the so called safest country. I thought it was a zero tolerance to fraud country. I’m seeing complaints that has been filed for years and no one has responded to.

Desired outcome: I need the money I sent to the first group from November 2021 till early this year. I worked hard for that money and I need it back.

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lol papalo
, US
Nov 11, 2023 7:44 pm EST
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This is scary! I am paying them right now on a 195K contract at 72K paid.

If they are not refunding, I am worried.

Can we get to some sort of buyer group tchat?

Here is my email

roomlandlord1@yahoo.com

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abdulai barrie
washington dc, US
Oct 24, 2023 9:00 pm EDT
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I have the similer situation, they take $13.000 from me, no one is answer my call I didn't what to do now

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lol papalo
, US
Feb 14, 2024 7:43 pm EST
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Please contact me so we can work together

Roomlandlord1@yahoo.com

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lol papalo
, US
Feb 14, 2024 7:44 pm EST
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Please contact me

Roomlandlord1@yahoo.com

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L.
, BE
Aug 02, 2023 5:04 pm EDT
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Did you try to speak to jurist in Dubai and go to the court? I have the similar situation, they are the horrible scammers

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11:16 am EDT
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The First Group How the first group dubai scam tourists

On 16th March 2023, I signed the Property Reservation Agreement at the office of First Group. I am compelled to cancel this agreement because it was obtained through deception.

>

> On 15th March 2023, I accidentally encountered individuals on the street who were promoting properties of First Group. Out of curiosity, I inquired about their offerings. They immediately insisted on providing me with a chauffeur to take me to the properties, even though I simply stated that sending an email would be sufficient.

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> The following day, a First Group employee chauffeured me to the properties and spoke about the benefits of purchasing a unit in the hotel, assuring me that the minimum ROI was 10%. They claimed that the 4.25% mentioned in the contract was a worst-case scenario, referring to the period of COVID.

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> Later, I was brought to the office where, without giving me a chance to think, they insisted I sign the contract. Throughout the evening, an employee of the group followed me, constantly asking if I had received any money and urging me to make a transfer.

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> Believing that I would have a good passive income, I transferred 65000 euros to the company's account. Later, I discovered that the actual returns were not 10% as promised, but only 3%.

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> Furthermore, I received a contract by email, outlining conditions and obligations of which I had no prior knowledge. For example, it stated that the construction could be delayed by 24 months and that in the event of the hotel's non-profitability, I may receive invoices that I would be required to pay within 10 days, among other things. Such matters should have been discussed before signing the contract, but it was sent to me when I had already paid nearly a third of the price, leaving me feeling as if I had no choice but to sign it.

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> Considering the aforementioned circumstances, I demand the cancellation of the agreement and the refund of my money.

these were my savings for many years of work and savings for my pension fund

Now the First Group company just totally ignore all my text messages, mails and phone

They use extreme high pressure sales techniques to get inexperienced investors to buy overpriced property and they push very hard to get a deposit the same day.

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ado0om
Muscat, OM
Nov 02, 2023 4:09 am EDT

My dad is in a similar situation, have you considered going to court?

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10:06 am EDT
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The First Group Aria vacation club scam

The First Group has a product named Aria Vacation Club that is a scam.

A salesman called us when we were walking in the metro station towards the Dubai Mall afternoon of June 11, 2023. He was kind and introduced himself and the company and said the firm had this great experience totally free of charge to go see the tallest Hotel in the world that is in construction. He said it was only for marketing purposes so we believed it.

After that, a BMW Series 7 picked us up, me and my brother and it first took us to the First Group head office. They gave us a form to fill and then we waited to see the "Hotel", but never got to see the hotel. Instead, he took us to a Resort, to show us an investment opportunity... We got to the resort, he bought us launch then took us to see an amazing apartment. He said we could own the apartment for a good price.

After he showed the apartment, he then set down and started his pitch into this vacation points program they have in which you pay 41.000 to buy a 30-year-long apartment subscription that you can use for 3 weeks a year and 60.000 points/year to use anywhere in the world. He made it seem like you are buying an apartment, but when you listen closely, you understand you are just buying a subscription. Which is confusing.

The pitch ended and they started to pressure us to make a downpayment to reserve the apartment because units were finishing. We bluntly said "NO" because no one makes a buying decision so fast without information.

Then, all that "smoothness" ended. They started to get really pushy and hostile. At first, they were kind, then started to get arrogant and hostile and started really pressuring us to pay a minimum downpayment to reserve the apartment.

That's when we noticed it was a scam...

They try to scam you into thinking you are first "visiting a hotel", then they trick you to think you are "buying" an apartment, and then they try to take from you a minimum deposit of $500 to a $1000 to secure the investment. When you say NO, they get hostile, and all the sympathy from the beginning ends.

On our way back home, they assigned a car, the guy that made us the pitch, got disrespectful and tuned the music in the car very uncomfortably high without caring anymore.

What started well ended in such bad fashion. And, because we got very uncomfortable, we decided to drop off in an unknown location and picked up a metro to get back home.

Please don't fall for this SCAM, it's a ridiculous way of trapping you to give them a $500 deposit that may never return.

Stay safe...

Desired outcome: Investigation on this First Group Company

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CityGirlToronto
, CA
Nov 03, 2023 3:44 pm EDT
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Be careful entering into this contract. It will be very difficult to get the return of your deposit (I have been waiting for over a month and there has been no answer from the company).

You have 10 days to cancel the contract and you must courier the notice of cancellation along with the original signed contract (which shouldn't be legal but probably limits your legal remedies to sue).

Best thing is NOT to enter into the contract.

There are so many falsehoods and misrepresentations that are stated during the pitch. The initial sales contract seems straightforward but the actual Terms and Conditions contain the fine print -- you have to book in 7, 14, 21 days increments, make your reservations at least 6 months in advance, any changes will result in losing a significant portion of your points so your one vacation a year is not even guaranteed if you dared change the dates, the annual maintenance fee can increase every year and there is no guarantee with their supply of hotels outside of Dubai so unless you plan to vacation in Dubai very year this is very risky 30 year commitment. I can go on.

Also do not fall for the VIP Dubai Experience either. It is only good for 1 year, and the Wyndham hotels are not ideal.

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Sorina14
Dover, GB
Aug 18, 2023 4:54 am EDT
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Hi ! It happened to us as well , same approaching style, but unfortunately we fall for it. A car picked us from our hotel, the agent took us to have brunch, they treated our kids very good and after he started to explain what are they doing. So basically as a member they give you 50.000points to be spend/year in their resort or anywhere in the world , whenever you book a holiday you have to pay 249$+points depends which holiday you choose. Now the salesman explained us that per year we basically own that apartment for a week, so we can rent it or come ourselves , was up to us what we want to do and after this we have the 50.000 point . The cost of all of this was 32.000$ payable in 2 years and we can benefit for the offer for 30 years. Me and my husband we thought this is a very good opportunity for us , as we can rent the apartment, as a investment and also go on 2 3 holidays a year, as per the agent in 50.000 points you can take 5-8 holydays/year. Anyway the big boss came, talk to us, telling all about his holidays and his precious time with his family and how good and benefit is this offer. We fall for it and paid £1000 to secure it . The next day we had to go home so we started to look into it . When we sign the contract I asked if we can cancel it and that lady said yes, of course. Anyway when we read the contract we had 10 calendaristic days to cancel it . In this time my husband was everyday sending msj, asking question to try to find out everything and we also asked to have a login details for the membership, called RCI, just to see how many points, approximately, will be spend on holiday. They give it to us straight away, one lady call us and again explaining , but this time nothing was matching on what the agent said . Basically she said we have only the 50.000 points ,which we can spend in Dubai, in their resort or anywhere in the world. This was not good for us anymore as was not a investment as we though. Meantime my husband is messaging the agent, and of course he doesn't reply. We went to RCI website and we started to look for a holiday to Thailand , as a example, and was costing us 40.000 points , so basically 1 holiday per year. We message the lady, who said will be looking after us and any questions to contact her , and of course she didn`t reply untill the next day evening, when our 10 days finished . My husband send a email with one days before telling them we wanna cancel as we don`t really like the offer and this is not what the agent told us in the first day. She is calling us the next, we start to argue over the phone, we told her we want our refund back and she is telling us its not possible as the 10 days are gone . All of a sudden they were not the friendly people which we met and "try to help us" . We mention to her we cancel it by email, pretending she hasn't seen the email, and also she told us we have to send back the contract so the deal can be cancel, otherwise no refund, anyway this is their tacting of taking people money . I want to mention, on the contract it does say about 10 days and to send the contract but not clearly, like for us , as English its not our first language we couldn't understand that, even if we read it before sign it ,absolutely confusing. We are not sure if we will ever recover our money , but please do no fall for this . I feel so sorry for myself as I normally don`t accept this kind of offers. My only hope is the credit card company , we phone them , explain everything and hopefully they can do something about it. The "Vacation Club" is called Aria, The Palm, membership RCI and the company The First Choice . Apparently we are not the only ones who fall for this , many complaints about them so please be careful . Thank you and sorry for the long post , this is just the short story. Stay safe!

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10:41 pm EDT
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The First Group Vacation points investment scam

Please do NOT fall for the trap of buying their so called 50,000 "Vacation Points" for over U$D 41,000.

I visited them on the understanding that this would be a introductory trip to their upcoming hotel and investment opportunities within their real estate portfolio.

Driver picked me up in BMW X5 (later I learned they have 67 full time drivers all with BMW and Mercedes to pick and drop clients - just imagine the scale).

The agent assigned to me was a young man. (I noticed around 15-20 agents working the clients apart from a large number of admin staff. You will be treated like a celebrity until you say no you are not interested. Then they will suddenly lose interest and even get hostile.) First question he asked me "Are you ready to take a decision?" On my surprise he started his sales pitch. Asking me questions about my family's vacation activity and assuming the answers himself. To cut the long story short he wanted to sell 50K points by which I can stay in any of their hotels worldwide for 30 years for only one payment of U$D 41000 approx.

All of this is a scam and hook you up for life. Check out this company's similar scams by searching Wyndham resort scams. They operate in US and Australia as well that I definitely know. I'm sure other place as well.

Needless to say on insistence on knowing more and seeing the contract before I "Take a decision" I was shunned out of the door 🙂

Desired outcome: Stop swindling innocent people.

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Lizandro Chissupa
, US
Jun 12, 2023 9:40 am EDT
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It also happened to me yesterday: 11 June 2023.

We were picked-up by a BMW-7 Series just outside Dubai Mall, then we got to the office of the First Group, then the salesman took us to a resort to see a "investment" oportunity. He even bought us launch. Then made his pitch. We said no, he got hostile, even rude.

Its a complete scam, dont fall for this...

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The First Group Scammers

SCAMMERS IN DUBAI!

This real estate is a scam that will spoil the reputation of Dubai, this set of rogues are professional liers, that drain people of there hard earned money without any pity, its a pity that pilot trust is also working hand in hand with them by taking the one-star review off that would save innocent people been getting trapped with this set of thieves named first group.

I am writing this review to update people on an alternative place where you can put your complaints on Facebook, first group victims we are planning to open and we are trying to open another Instagram to reach out to innocent from getting trapped by this thieves, group of gangs stealing in a professional way.

Firstgroup Real estate Dubai is Scam. heartless scammers and most of them are women.

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The First Group Financial report manipulation

I am very dissatisfied with the way TFG is managing the hotel. I have serious doubts about whether they are providing accurate financial reporting to their investors. For example, while I was paying for my room in installments, I was receiving around AED 29,000 per year. Once I fully paid for the room, I suddenly started receiving around AED 7,900 per year. I consider this to be fraudulent. This means that the financial report can be manipulated in a way that is not beneficial to investors. An independent financial audit of the hotel is necessary.

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I have invested around $750000 with The First Group. After long delays and it becoming clear that is company is very dishonest and is cheating many people, I decided to opt out of the investment. I went to Dubai and told them in person and they said they would work out how much I would get back and then contact me. I have tried emailing, phoning, text...

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I invested in a property Avalon Towers / Unit 1202 in Dubai thru The First Group at Jan 2018. Paid 70% money till jun 2018, had to cancel due to financial issues. Been running behind them since 1 year but no response. Please advise how to get my money back. They change their legal advisors / personal advisors every now and then. Complete team has been...

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I am doing research to develop software to sniff out fake online reviews, to get the software to work I need to tell it what is makes a fake review stand out from real reviews. To do this I have spent a lot of time looking for and researching fake reviews, boy oh boy! with The First Group, I found the mother lode. If you are doing research and looking to...

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About The First Group

Over the past two decades, The First Group has forged a reputation as one of the hospitality industry’s leading innovators, providing groundbreaking investment opportunities to clients and partners, while delivering exceptional, memorable
experiences to hotel and leisure guests.

Bolstering our reputation as the region’s premier end-to-end hospitality solutions provider, we operate a diverse, high-value
asset portfolio ranging from award-winning upscale hotels and residences to exciting F&B outlets and lifestyle venues. Our visionary, trailblazing approach to hotel and hospitality asset management has made us a trusted partner of some of the industry’s leading global brands. Discover more at www.thefirstgroup.com

Overview of The First Group complaint handling

The First Group reviews first appeared on Complaints Board on Nov 10, 2018. The latest review Avalon Tower JVC was posted on Apr 6, 2024. The latest complaint Cancellation of the membership at aria vacation club during the cooling off period was resolved on Mar 09, 2024. The First Group has an average consumer rating of 4 stars from 13 reviews. The First Group has resolved 8 complaints.
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  1. The First Group contacts

  2. The First Group phone numbers
    +971 44 550 100
    +971 44 550 100
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    +971 42 464 825
    +971 42 464 825
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  3. The First Group emails
  4. The First Group address
    The First Group 22nd Floor, Tameem House, Barsha Heights, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  5. The First Group social media
The First Group Category
The First Group is related to the Residential Sales category.

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