Velas Resorts
Reviews and Complaints

We were pressured yo renew our contract. They said 15 minutes. It was over 6 hours. They would not let us leave the lobby until we signed. We've paid the loan. We want out! Maintenance fees are unbelievable and we cannot afford to stay there anymore. We are willing to walk away. We want our contract canceled and relief from the high maintenance fees. We will never go back. How do we get out of this ?

In November 2019, we attended a sales presentation at Velas Varllarta.
We were told that Velas would take our 3 timeshares and use them for a tax deduction, The money we would pay for 10 weeks vacation, $19, 000. would fund their construction projects and we would get a $61k annuity in 25years. We were told no maintenance fees because we were not buying only renting.

We were instructed to use Value Traders for the timeshares. We paid them and provided documents requested. Six months later Value Traders canceled.

We cannot afford both Velas and the 3 Timeshares.

I am a disabled veteran with PTSD and should not of been subject to pressure sales tactics.

We visited the resort on November 29, 2020. We decided to become a member and signed the papers. After leaving the resort we realized we made a mistake as a purchase like this could hurt our chances of getting a good interest rate on refinancing our house. we returned to the resort the next day, as the cancellation policy stated that you have 5 days to cancel with a full refund. We waited for over an hour for someone to help us, when the gentleman came down he tried to convince us to stay by offering a discount. We told him about our issue with refinancing. He brought us a piece of paper and told us to write down our reason for cancelling and to sign and date it. We asked for a copy and he refused, saying it's done and you will see your refund in 15 business days. We waited the 15 days and didn't see our refund. I called the resort and was tranferred to Monica in the legal department. She was very rude. She told me that the only option I had was to keep the membership and pay the additional funds. We filed a complaint with our credit card company and have tried numerous phone calls to get this resolved. I sent and email to Monica Velas and didn't receive a response from her. Instead I received and email from Monica in the legal department. We did what we were supposed to do. I would like to get our money back and move on. I would appreciate any help. Thank you.

On January 2, 2011 I purchased a one-week Premium Master Suite at Casa Velas in Puerto Vallarta, MX from Grupo Velas Hotels and Resorts based on Velas' promise to purchase my existing timeshare at Radium Hot Springs, BC, Canada. When I signed the contract with Velas I also signed a Global Vacation Trade Agreement to immediately transfer title to my existing timeshare at Radium Hot Springs to Global Vacation Trade . The total contract amount was $18, 160 and I paid in full at the time of signing the contract. My contract number is CV-00901. In addition, Grupo Velas offered me the opportunity to purchase a $70, 000 annuity for an investment of $4, 900 with Lloyd Share. When I explored this later, their offer proved to be entirely bogus. The promised one-year membership in the Registry Collection was also never provided. In February, when I had not received any paperwork from my timeshare company in Canada I contacted Velas through Sr. Garcia who said the matter was being processed. Subsequently, as maintenace fees were becoming due on my timeshare I contacted Radium Hot Springs and was informed that they had not received any title transfer documents and that my Radium Hot Springs timeshare was still in my name and that I was still responsible for all maintenance fees. Shortly after that, I was contacted by Jessica at Velas who said things had changed at Velas and they no longer wanted my Radium Hot Springs timeshare and wanted me to buy back my Radium Hot Springs timeshare from Velas for $2600! I refused since the timeshare was still in my name. In addition, I had not received any certificate of ownership from Grupo Velas for my Puerto Vallarta timeshare - as required by the contract. Based on this I attempted to cancel my contract directly with Velas through their representative Monica Dellagrave. When we were unable to come to any agreement after many emails back and forth, she suggested I contact Profeco - a consumer protection agency in MX. In May, 2011 I sent Grupo Velas a cancellation of my contract under Section 12 of the contract that provides that the buyer can cancel within 6 months and receive a 70% of refund of all money paid. Subsequently, Ms. Dellagrave acknowledged in an email that I was entitled to a refund of 70% of the contract price. Velas then cancelled my contract but I have never been refunded the money owed to me and have spent the last 10 years trying to get the return of the money that Grupo Velas effectively stole from me. Now Ms. Dellagrave tells me that since I contacted Profeco - which was at her suggestion - that she can no longer deal with me.

I entered into contract 3/19 with Velas to trade my Worldmark timeshare in and purchase a Velas timeshare. I have paid all the fees required then and actually all the fees required for the 2020 year. Because of a planned vacation in a Worldmark location in December, 2019, I requested that the transfer not happen until the end of December 2019. My transfer was given to Value Traders to complete the paperwork necessary to close out the Worldmark transaction. The last time I heard from someone at Value Traders, Manuel contacted me on January 10, 2020. He needed 1 further document, which I provided. I emailed him on Jan. 23, 2020 and inquired if the transaction had been completed. No response.

It is now April, 2020. I have had 2 months of housekeeping fees paid by draft to Worldmark - $800. I contacted them yesterday, 4/16, feeling sure this was in error. They informed me that they have never received ANY documents from Value Traders regarding this transaction.

When I talked to your online customer service agent, she connected me to an attorney service that I was supposed to pay for before I talked with an attorney. Believe me, if I need to have an attorney handle this, I have my own.

Velas is who I went in to contract with. You are ultimately responsible for the people you subcontract the work out to - namely, Value Traders. They have failed miserably to complete this transaction although they had nearly a year to have all the paperwork in order and submitted. It has cost me additional money that I did not want to spend. If this is the way you do business, I would like to cancel my contract with Velas as you have not completed the transaction in a timely fashion.

Please contact me with something other than platitudes. I want to know what you are going to do to take care of this.

Linda Helton
428 Eileen Drive
Sebastopol, CA 95472
[protected]

Went to puerto Vallarta in June and were booked at the Mayan Palace where we bought into their timeshare.
At the airport, we were approached by a sales person about a cirque de soleil show and discount tickets. It turned out to be a
Velas Resort presentation. We were impressed with the place but we already had a time share with Vida Vacations only two years in. They assured us that would not be a problem, the salesman Mauro Quévedo and his manager Eduardo Herrera assured us that was no problem. According to them they would contact Vida Vacation and buy out our contract. We waited and 20 minutes later they were able to get how much we owed, they showed us a form with confirmation of a buy out and therefore we were free to buy into the Velas Resort time share. The place was an upgrade for us.

We gave them a $6, 000.00 down payment and for being a first time customer and we had already paid Vida for our week there, Eduardo gave us our week with an all inclusive. We were thrilled. It did not last for long, Vida sent us a bill for the remaining monthly payments and when I called them as to why, they said they do not do business with third parties. Called Velas and they DENIED ever having said such a thing. When looking over our papers the form with our "payOut" was not included! Instead we found at the last page (which was not there when we originally initialed )a notation that this was not a trade in. Tried to talk to sales, no help. I spoke to Monica Dellagrave their legal rep. Awful woman with justifications of the sales people behavior and that I wrote the no trade in clause. Not even my hand writing. Eduardo Velas Ruiz owns this company, is this how he does business? He has many accolades for accomplishments, unfortunately he is impossible to contact.

Now I'm stuck with two time shares in the same place with hotels blocks from each other. No one takes responsibility for this deceptive selling, they are liars and thieves. We feel like fools, we are angry and hurt. These people smile, make like they are doing a wonderful thing while they are stabbing you in the back. DISGUSTING! In Mexico as it was explained to me I, if I owe money to these timeshares and do not pay, I WILL BE ARRESTED.for owing money. I would not mind paying the first timeshare with Vida Vacation, as it was done in good faith. Velas is not truthful and once they have your money, you are done. Monica Dellagraves their legal rep, should be ashamed of herself, no customer service and even less skill handling an irate customer. Eduardo Herrera according to the verification loan officer is no longer with Velas, so I could not speak to him. Who knows if this is true. NEVER AGAIN. I will not be able to go to Mexico as I refuse to pay under these circumstances, too bad I loved the town. I will never buy another time share ever again, not worth the headaches.

In 2008 we visited Velas Vallarta and went to their timeshare. The promised and put undue pressure on us to close immediately. Later, many things hey promised didn't come through. Well, we lived with it. Then this summer we were contacted by a Mexican lawyer that a class action suite has just come through.
Ready? Here was the process: In 5 weeks we
Send a complaint, copy of contract
Fill out a couple of forms.
Pay 25000 pesos for search
Pay 39000 pesos for tax
And now. $9000 usd needed for an underwriting

All looked ligitimate. All men had Mexican government email. I am not sure I want to continue because this is also a scam. The lawyer that contacted me was involved in other class action with other time shares.

On November 20, 2008, we were on vacation in Mexico and went to a timeshare presentation at Velas Vallarta. We were told we would get a free breakfast and tickets to an excursion of our choice. We should have said no and walk away; stupidly we didn’t.

When Mr. Jerry Ey, our sales rep realized we weren’t really interested because we already owned a timeshare through Interval International that was all paid for in full, he started throwing scenarios at us about buying at the Velas Vallarta, VV would rent our room out while we were not there and receive a BIG amount of money, which we would get back and could use to make our monthly payment, or several payments at once. He said they did that for all their timeshare holders, now I realized that they have scammed all their members with the same lies.

Monica Dallegrave ([protected]@velasresorts.com) is aware of my situation with the resort but she has offered a membership for the monies that I have paid so far, AN USELESS MEMBERSHIP. Do not buy anything from these people.

I received a call from Vacation Property Services on 9/12/09 regarding a timeshare that my husband and I have for sale. The man that called said his name was Don Rice and he had a buyer for our property. He sent me a Letter of Intent signed by the buyers and a witness. My husband and I had to sign it and send it back. We also had to send $286.82 by Western Union (money in minutes)for the taxes and title search. I sent the WU on 9/15/09 in the amount of $322.82 which includes the WU fee of $36.00. After sending this, I received another call from Mr. Rice on 9/17/09 stating that the taxes would be an additional $86.32 and I need to send it right away by WU again by (money in minutes). The total for that one was $102.31, including the $15.99 fee. In both cases the WU was to be picked up by a Duane Bean, owner of Vacation Property Services in Holly Hill, FL. We were to receive a package from Fed Ex on Friday, 9/18/09 between 3 and 5 pm for the settlement. I left work early and turned down overtime to come home, so I would be here when the package arrived. I did not receive the package on Friday and have been trying to contact Don Rice and no one will return my call. I have left 5 messages since 5:00 pm Friday. I would like a full refund for the $425.13 I have spent on this transaction. The phone number for Vacation Property Services is [protected] the address is 4001 Va. Beach Blvd., Va Beach, Va 23450.
Sincerely,
Carolyn V. McNeff
308 Carolina Pines Court
Leicester, NC 28748 (Less)

I welcome this opportunity to address this horrible experience; and tell to anyone that reads my public complaint, that we were DECEIVED AND LIED TO with DECEITFUL SALES PRACTICES from VELAS VALLARTA SALES STAFF. As soon as we got off the plane we were approached by a man who offered to us a �free breakfast� at the property known as Velas Vallarta. As we arrived at Velas we were greeted by a salesman named Morgan. He made a point of telling us he also is Canadian and that he would look out for our best interest and takes care of us. While talking and discussing about this �new concept� of fractional ownership we were told that we could vacation at any of their properties and only pay membership fee when we used our vacation week.

Initially, Morgan tried to sell us one of the fractional ownership weeks at Velas for $45, 000; but we declined because as we already owned 2 timeshares and we could not afford it. We were extremely pressured and reminded of the benefits of fractional ownership over regular time share ownership. They then came back to us offer that if we purchased their property for $35, 000 that they would purchase both of our existing timeshares, so in the end we would only have the Velas property.

Finally, with an offer of $15, 000 to purchase their property and after much PRESSURE, morgan guaranteed they would assist us in selling our timeshares through a company known as Regal Rentals and Resale. it would be no PROBLEM; it is very easy to sell both of our timeshares within 30 � 60 days. it was too good to be truth, we were very tired, and so we decided to sign the paperwork.

A couple of days after returning home, we tried numerous times to speak directly with a representative from Regal and had a great deal of difficulty. At this point we noted at least 12 timeshares from each place that we owned timeshares; so we realized our timeshares were not going to have a good chance of resale through Regal. At this point we started to get worried and we tried to cancel our contract, they told us that we would lose at least 50% of the $15, 000 US purchase price.

At this point, we started to get worried and we went on the internet and googled the name VELAS VALLARTA and to our surprise, site after site and page after page the words Velas Vallarta was followed by the word s ��SCAM� and �FRAUD�. We were shocked that there were so many others dealing with the same situations that we are dealing with.

Doug Lockett, Sales Manager for Velas Vallarta Timeshare Sales...1

"If you could buy a timeshare at Velas Vallarta that would cost you ZERO dollars, would you be interested..." was Lockett's opening line.

Lockett made false promises during a sales presentation:

1. Selling our existing timeshare:

we said we would not be interested in buying "another" timeshare at Velas Vallarta since we already had one in Florida - Sheraton Vistana.

The Promise: Lockett offered to sell our timeshare in Florida to a Mexican national who he claims needs to buy a timeshare (e.g. needed to have title to a US property) in order to gain entry into the U.S. He made a phone call to a broker, and the price he quoted us for our week in Sheraton Vistana timeshare was in the range of $17-20K.

The truth: There was no guaranteed "sale" arrangement, he was just handing us off to a U.S. based timeshare resale company. We had to assume the risk, and the sales fee, up front.

It was a carefully orchestrated sales presentation designed to make us believe Velas Vallarta was taking our property in Florida, and selling it to a Mexican national. The proceeds in the range of $17-20K would be applied to the Velas Vallarta timeshare sale. More weeks were added to the deal, and the weeks would be rented out, paying for the entire deal.

2. Renting out our weeks:

The Promise: Lockett said he could easily rent out timeshare weeks, and needed our weeks, due to high demand from company offsite meetings, etc. at Velas Vallarta. He said renting out our weeks would easily pay for the price of the timeshare.

The truth: There was no contract guaranteeing the rental of our weeks at Velas Vallarta.

Lockett and Velas Vallarta are very smooth. Watch out, they are NOT on the level...!

My wife and I went to Velas Vallarta this past summer, and we told them that we wanted to sell our interest in the time share, that we no longer wanted to participate. I was told that they wouldn't be able to sell our unit's use the way we had it - every other year (even # years), that we would first have upgrade to have the unit every year. We did so, at a cost of just under $8000. They assured me that now they would sell it for us, and would have a sale finalized by December of 2008, or January of 2009, which has come and gone. For the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to contact them to ask about any sales prospect. I received one answer, but only by our salesman to ask how he could be of service. When I reminded him of the promise to sell our one-bedroom unit and to give me any information on a possible sale, I never heard back. I have since sent several emails to him as well as one of his colleagues to ask for information, and they don't respond at all. I've said that if they will just give me certain pieces of information that would be needed for me to make the sale myself, that I would take care of it. But they don't answer me, and without the information, there is not way I can sell our interest in the property. I'm stuck! I even said that if they would just give me back out upgrade money of just under $8K, that I would GIVE them back the property and forget entirely about our every-other-year agreement! I definitely want to participate in a class-action suit against these people! Please contact me and sign me up! My email address is robert.[protected]@sbcglobal.net. I eagerly look forward to hearing from you! Thank you!

November 2007-timeshare presentation with the added enticement of free extra weeks that will be rented for you by Sierra rentals in Nevada[$600 fee]. Chris Rogers[manager] and his cohort[jerry Ey] made the pitch-too good to be true. I could go on and on and say the same as everyelse. But I am adding something--I have been in contact with the Attorney General and the FBI--they suggest that everyone contact their local FBI office and file a complaint. We may not get our money back, but may prevent others from being scammed. I too agree that the only way to recoop our loses is to institute a class action lawsuit against Velas--so someone must have the legal mind to help us

Much to my regret, I purchased a 1 BR "villa" at Velas Vallarta. Besides getting taken for a huge amount of money for the purchase, I am now saddled with a maintenance fee that is growing faster than the contract allows. The contract states in clause "Seventh": Maintenance fees "may not increase by more than the percentage increase in the consumer price indes from September to September of each year as published by the Banco de Mexico, minus the percentage of devaluation in the Mexico peso against the U.S. dollar for the same time period."

I checked the numbers. Since my contract began (2 years), the increase in the Mexican CPI (the "UDI") has been 7.67%, and the peso has devalued 1.45%, so my maintenance fees should have grown by 9.12% over two years. In fact, my maintenance fees have increased by 12% over that time period. The 4.34% unjustified mark-up (so far) amounts to $34 additional fees plus 17% tax or $39.78 each year times 24 years. That's almost $1000 more that I will be paying with no justification in the contract and no accountability on the part of the resort.

Velas Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta, Timeshare Scam. The scam starts the moment you walk through the door. The sales person will introduce them self to you and their name may be the last truthful thing you will hear from them. Our sales person was Michel De Lisi from Quebec (supposedly). Our scamming is near identical to everyone else’s postings so there isn’t a great need to go into all the sordid details. Given the similarity of the scammings by so many different sales people it serves as a testimony to the pervasiveness of this fraud throughout this company.

The 90 minute Timeshare Presentation we agreed to was a scam from the get-go and it lasted several hours. As a Canadian you expect and account for sales people exaggerating claims of their product. The Velas Vallarta sales staff do not exaggerate, they look you in the eyes and out and out lie to you. It is fraud by all definitions.

If even half of the things they tell you were true it would be a reasonable deal. This is the premise under which we bought, factoring in sales embellishments of 50%. Unfortunately for us the embellishments we had factored for were fraudulent lies.

It’s a great investment that will appreciate over time. LIE / Fraud. You can easily rent your weeks for more than your purchase price. LIE / Fraud. Your purchase comes with an Annuity that will return your entire Timeshare investment in 25 years. LIE / Fraud.

Velas Vallarta Corporate Representative Johnny Noe it seems has recently been replaced by Contract Manager Monica Dellegrave. Don’t think for one moment that this will change the sales practices of this company. From a deceitful corporation point of view why change? The scam collects millions with minimal risk of paybacks.

My wife and I have come to the resolution that our “investment” is gone forever. We would have done better if we had invested in Enron. What we wish is to get this message out as far and wide as possible so that no one else suffers the same fate as us.

DO NOT attend a Velas Vallarta Timeshare Sales scam unless you get great entertainment from hearing enormous lies. But most important is DO NOT PURCHASE a Velas Vallarta Timeshare. If you feel for any reason that you must have ownership in a Timeshare do yourself a favour and purchase it from the secondary Resale/Rental Market at a fraction of the original sale price. Better yet, rent the week you want from the secondary market for less than the yearly maintenance fee.

Spread the word to everyone you care about.

We were suckered into a timeshare speech and fell for it hook, line and sinker. We had purchased a Bluegreen Vacation Club to find we could never get into any of the resorts always "booked" but could find that we could get into the resorts through another means ie: RCI. Paul Rado was our big power speaker, also went to see what we would get for our Bluegreen, came back with a good figure, promised us we would NEVER encounter "booked" and find options through other means. This was great a place we would be able to go to without a hassle! Signed on the dotted line.

Well we tried to book our time and have now been told they are can you guess it... "BOOKED" and I can now get there by means of RCI, Apple Vacations, Funjet Vacations, MLT and get this... Velas Vallarta website! HA HA! HA! Another US Citizen screwed over. We must have SUCKER on our foreheads or our brains are frozen from the cold. Our Bluegreen is still listed in our name and we are still responsible for the fees. Title was never transferred.

We have tried to settle this with Velas with no success, numerous phone calls and e-mails. Paul Rado's e-mail account is now suspended. Mr Vargas the head of Reservations that Paul Rado had referred us to can't even handle his own e-mails or phone calls, he has one of his girls do the dirty work.

I'm sure the annuity that we were told we had... the $20,000.00 is also a LIE since they wanted $2.000.00 for administrative cost.

What a shame it was a beautiful resort.

We attended a time share presentation at Velas Vallarta in Puerto Vallarta Mexico in November 2006. We were very impressed with the property and because of the deal that our sales man was able to secure, we purchased the timeshare and left Mexico very happy. A few days after our return the nightmare began. The fraudulent sales tactics and horrific treatment that we have since endured has tarnished our view of Velas Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta and Mexico as a whole.

The facts about our “investment” were overstated, embellished and simply not true. We were told because we were purchasing a unit that had previously been foreclosed on we had to give up the 5 day cancellation rights. They can not do this. But the HUGE fraud came to us from there trade in manager Mr. Ken Waller who arranged for a broker to purchase a timeshare we owned in Minnesota. This was the only way we could afford to purchase his property. He gave us a fax from the broker confirming the deal that he had negotiated for us.

When we returned home and spoke with the broker that was purchasing our Minnesota timeshare we learned that they DID NOT send this confirmation fax to Mr. Ken Waller. This means Mr. Waller went into the back room and fraudulently drew up this fake fax for the sole purpose of getting us to sign this contract.

We sent a letter immediately off to Velas Vallarta and Mr. Waller. Mr. Waller called us and we spent 20 minutes listening to him rant and rave, telling us to get a lawyer and he then hung up on us. We received an e mail from a manager by the name of Johnny Noe which was equally unproductive and pointless.

All our letters to them have gone unanswered and we still are pursuing them for a refund of our down payment.

In closing, one has to wonder about an organization that allows there salespeople to represent them in such a fraudulent way and that resorts to illegal tactics to complete a sale. What other devious, illegal and unhealthy practices are they allowing to go on behind the scenes?

The 90 minute presentation we attended turned out to be between five to six hours. Once we got down to signing the contract we were rushed through to "get us back on vacation." We were told the timeshare we were buying was previously owned and therefore we wouldn't have the right to rescind. Violation of Mexican law.

The sale of our existing timeshare was a condition of purchase at Velas Vallarta. The salesperson misled us about the guarantee to sell our existing timeshare for $60,850. We didn't get the guarantee until we were leaving after signing the contract. The guarantee was for no more than to list the property for sale for $60,850.

We talked about the RCI bonus weeks we were getting. We talked about the cost of $169 or $189 a week. Nothing was said about having to pay maintenance fees first.

We were told we were getting a $80,000 annuity. We then found later it was an "anticipated" annuity.

I purchased what i thought was an investment property in velas vallarta puerto vallarta, mexico last year. The pitch was sold for investment and they knew it from the start of the sale. Everything promised has not come true. I turned the situation into profeco in mexico in january of this year explaining the situation that i was ripped off and i have not made any money from the investment and when i spoke to the salesman he informed me that he did the pitch he was suppose to according to the managment of the resort and profeco states that if it is all in writing they will take action but these people do not put everything in writing when they are selling it and many of the things promised were not true as i found out later and i spent almost $60,000 for a delux villa suite or 3 bedroom unit which was to generate x dollars of income over the life of the program and this is totally been a lie and they want close to $1100 a year fees for maintenance which was ok when the return on investment would be well above that according to them. I wrote a letter to the resort mr. Johnny noe who is in charge and a man named ramon who was the manager and i believe still is. I have requested cancellation because of fradulent material and lies and i have not heard anything as to what the results were by the resort or profeco in mexico city. I need to have action against this resort before time elapses much monger and no one is doing anything. When the property was purchased it was investment only as i stated to the salesman allan. I would like this put out on timeshare scams websites so other people are not sucked in to these traps particularly this resort which is known in the area of puerto vallarta as ripping consumers off. Any help in getting this out there would be appreciated and if you have any avenues for me i would appreciate it very much.