Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Still Considering The Playa Del Sol? Think Again! by Robert Paisola

From our International Site at:
http://www.mycollector.com/news_playadelsolscam.html

Our Worldwide Readers:

Last week as we were in Mexico, we received a phone call from a representative of the Playa Del Sol Chain of hotels, George Triggs, a Low Level Manager within the property. This article is a capture of that call between Robert Paisola, the CEO and President of Western Capital and Mr. Triggs. The review that we will be talking about is printed in it's entirety below.

ALL MEDIA INQUIRIES REGARDING THIS MATTER OR REQUEST FOR A PERSONAL INTERVIEW SHOULD BE E-Emailed to Robert.media@mycollector.com

He stated that it was his opinion that our confidential review of the property should have been presented to him and his staff PRIOR to the posting of the review in order to let the property Remedy the damage that has been done to this author by the abuse and neglect of the Playa Del Sol and its employees.

He was also concerned because we utilized the services of the wonderful staff at the Marriott in Puerto Vallarta, that we avoided dealing with his property directly. The Senior executives of the Marriott spoke to a Senior Sales Manager named KIRBY (see below) who treated the employees of the Marriott in a very unprofessional manner as well as this writer.

We explained that current and former employees have been contacting our offices and he attempted to explain that "former employees are self serving"

He also was clear that the fact that we presented our corporate training video at the Mayan Palace Hotel, appeared to him as a conflict of interest and "self serving". To this we disagree.

We explained that we were concerned about the thousands of other Americans who were mistreated in this same way, and he said that was impossible, as they have a 24 hour customer service turnaround time

Further, he stated that "We have a GREAT relationship with all with all of the legal organization here in Puerto Vallarta" AND All of the government organizations in PV. And he stated that the government officials in Puerto Vallarta are aware of the complaints against the properties and they also know that the Playa Del Sol Organization "Takes care of these kinds of things"

He agreed that there was nothing wrong with providing you, our readers with a list of the qualifications (See Below) and the prices.

His biggest issue was that Western Capital featured individual employees on our review sites and "That is not fair to them"

"This problem could have been solved well before you decided to do all of the (SIC) International News Media sort of thing"

We again asked him if he spoke to RORY, the associate who helped us from Texas. "NO" He said. not. We asked him if he spoke to the Sales Manager KIRBY, who was involved..."NO" He Said.

He further said "I want to know what your motivation was behind this? Was it to help the public? because the Playa Del Sol that you are describing in your review IS NOT the Playa Del Sol that We are" Hmmmm

Playa del sol is not the kind of organization...that you describe.

We then said " If We were to tell you that current and former employees of your company have talked to us and sent us emails from YOUR PROPERTY, would that surprise you?"

He stated that FORMER EMPLOYEES ARE HIGH TURNOVER IN SALES. HE SAID THAT FORMER EMPLOYEES HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WAY YOU WERE TREATED BY MY HOTEL, AND TO GO WORLDWIDE FOR SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED HERE DOESN'T FIX ANYTHING"

We then explained that KIRBY slammed the phone down on this writer and the managers at the Marriott. We suggested that he speak to KIRBY once again and he said "I am NOT GOING TO USE MY TIME TO SPEAK TO KIRBY" because....

It was YOUR choice to try to go this route (providing the worldwide media of this incident) , and that is a poor choice" because IF you were mistreated, we would really have tried to work with you to make you a happy person.

He continued "THIS IS NOT JUST ABOUT PLAYA DEL SOL - IT'S ABOUT PUERTO VALLARTA"

"AND THIS IS A PLACE OF BUSINESS FOR NOT ONLY ME, BUT FOR THE MAYAN PALACE , WHO HAVE A LOT OF EMPLOYEES, AND A LOT OF OTHER PROPERTIES WHO SELL TIMESHARES.

"ALTHOUGH YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE TARGETING THE PLAYA DEL SOL, YOU ARE TARGETING THE WHOLE MARKET."

",MAYAN PALACE IS A BIG PLAYER IN THIS TOWN AND YOUR REVIEW HAS "BUNCHED US ALL TOGETHER"

"AND IN ALL ACTUALITY, THE MAYAN PALACE AND US WORK TOGETHER"

Speaking for the entire industry in Mexico, he continued "WE see what you are doing as attacking Puerto Vallarta, not just Playa Del Sol"

And the purpose of my call is to be DIPLOMATIC about this whole thing" (The Truth Hurts)

I have been told and realize that MY CEO (Ken Molinaro) of this company has been in contact with your staff and he is not going to "TAKE THIS (REVIEW LIGHTLY)" and he FEELS LIKE YOUR COMPANY HAS SLANDERED HIM AND HE IS GOING TO TAKE "THAT KIND OF ACTION" (SOUNDS THREATENING TO THIS AUTHOR) because the things in your review are grossly exaggerated (Notice he did not say false!) and he also accused us of being 'self serving'

So we again asked him how all this was possible if he did not even talk to his employees? No Answer...

We wonder what Antonio Moreno (The President) will have to say about this conversation....

Note that the gentleman from the property who we are talking with represented himself as the "person who does the verifications" and he has not even taken the time to research this matter. We wonder what Ken Molinaro will say when he reads this!

We then asked him AGAIN "WHY WILL YOU NOT TALK TO YOUR EMPLOYEES WHO WERE INVOLVED" HE REPLIED " Fro one thing, I have known those employees for many years and I have seen them work under great pressure...and I KNOW the particular person you talked about in your review, NINA BAUTISTA, the travel agent from hell" "She is THE SWEETEST PERSON YOU COULD EVER MEET (Ask Rory about that when you visit PV) "I never once in all of the years that Nina has worked for me, have had a complaint against her (Ask Rory about that when you visit PV)

We AGAIN asked him to speak to RORY and he said "Rory is a fairly new employee with us (That does not discredit him) and I do not know Rory that well, and I appreciate the fact that your review had something GOOD TO SAY ABOUT RORY, but however, you know, KIRBY HAS BEEN WITH US FOR MANY MANY YEARS"

BUT you need to understand that as I read your whole story, that you reacted publicly and to me it looked like you were promoting the Western Capital Trainings (We do not need to promo to our timeshare trainings, we have so many clients around the globe that we can not handle all of the bookings!) Here is the video that he is talking about!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7890558632918597748

And While We are Giving Things Away: See http://www.mycollector.com/news_playadelsolscam.html

-Here is a copy of the MAYAN VLO Training Manual on the No Refund Close

- Here is an OFFICIAL TIMESHARE SALES SCRIPT

- Here is the Official Krystal International Waiver Letter (oops)

- A full book on Mexican Timeshare Fraud and How to deal with the system

- Sample Cancelation Letter One

- Sample Cancelation Letter Two

(Disclosure- These documents did NOT come from the Playa Del Sol, but you will need them no matter what! Thanks to www.mexicantimesharefraud.com )

Back to the story!

And that is GOING TO BE OUR POSITION IN THE WHOLE THING. YOU KNOW, I AM CALLING YOU TO SAY "IM WILLING TO WORK WITH YOU, IF THIS COMES OFF THE INTERNET TODAY"

The call concluded with his request for a face to face ( he said eyeball to eyeball) meeting and by the end of the conversation we had essentially agreed to disagree. He further said twice that he refused to "run scared" because we put this stuff on the internet"

(We guess that is one way to describe a worldwide press release)

The next thing he stated was that anyone could go to www.tripadvisor.com (A VERY POWERFUL WEBSITE IN THIS MARKET) and write anything they wanted.

(So if you have a similar problem, post your complaint on www.tripadvisor.com to get results!) AND EMAIL US A COPY AT INVESTIGATIONS@MYCOLLECTOR.COM

He kept saying that his company the Playa Del Sol Organization, wanted to FIX the problems, and he stated that " I will start talking about that when your company takes some action to REMOVE THESE THINGS FROM THE INTERNET.

"Your company is the one who did the 'sideswipe to us' without any notice, without any written notice saying this is what we are going to do"

(Can you say FREEDOM OF THE PRESS?)

"You did not give us a chance at all.. you even had The Marriott contact us!"

"ALSO , I AM THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON TO TALK TO HERE" and YOUR REVIEW IS DOING MUCH MORE DAMAGE TO ME THAN WHAT KIRBY COULD BE DOING"

"You have taken a timeshare organization that takes their customer service and follow up very seriously AND YOU HAVE PICKED ON THE WRONG PEOPLE. (Will they kill our staff if we keep this review live for the American Public?) ... This is getting scary!

"Your review says bad things about people who are not bad people"

We then invited Mr. Triggs to issue a formal reply to our posting and he refused saying "I just want the (sic) thing off the internet" and "I do not want to go into a PUBLIC WAR, but me (sic) putting up a written statement ' is like putting a rebuttal on the back page of the newspaper" "That doesn't do any good at all"..... "I am not going to turn this into a media war with you!" " I am not in the media business and I do not care about a media war with your company. I sell quality timeshare memberships to the public and I service my membership base very well"

Oh, one more thing he said... "YOU HAVE NO PROOF, THIS IS A FABRICATED STORY!" THAT Statement and all of your letters and voicemails are all the proof we need! Not to mention all of the recorded statements with current and former employees!

At the conclusion, we essentially agreed to disagree. There was no resolution. We were forced to move rooms in the middle of the night for fear of our lives and the last thing that was said was that they would "consider" paying for another vacation FOR ONE PERSON- Not the 4 who were effected- Oh, "and we would prefer that you not stay at our resort"

So now, to you, our International Readers , we realize our obligation to you, and based upon all of your feedback, we are again, presenting our full review on the Playa Del Sol Resort.

We wanted to take a quick moment to let you, our readers know that we have been receiving all of your emails and stories regarding our review that was published on the Playa Del Sol Hotel in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and on the International Press Wires.

Within the next 72 hours, we will be able to provide you with all of the answers to your questions that you have submitted.

Please realize that this is a VERY SERIOUS MATTER, and we take our responsibility to you, the American Public, deadly serious.

We are in the process of having conversations transcribed for your review. And rest assured that all of your questions will be answered as soon as possible.

To the employees of this property, please realize that we have to be 100% sure of the content that is posted here and on other sites around the world. And remember EVERY EMAIL THAT YOU SUBMIT TO investigations@mycollector.com are completely confidential.

We recently published this open letter, and are reposting it again for your review:

This news release has caused utter chaos in this town of Puerto Vallarta. We have been contacted by media around the world and former and current employees of this property are emailing, calling and visiting our offices in New York and Beverly Hills. We had absolutely no way to tell that this investigation would turn out to be so hostile. We want you to know that we have absolutely no intention of offending the wonderful citizens of Mexico and we are humbled that you have entrusted us with the additional information that has not yet been published.

To the Employees of this Resort; we hear your cries and pain as you tell us story after story of what you have seen. We want you to know that your confidentiality is assured and anything that you say to us is protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

To those who fear of retaliation due to the comments that they have made to our investigators, you do not need to worry. We have worked diligently with the local officials to ensure your safety.

The bottom line is that Puerto Vallarta is a National Treasure to the citizens of Mexico and tourism is the primary venue for business. That is why it is essential that you, our worldwide readers know the truth, so you can make the best decision for you and your family as you Vacation in Mexico.

To Your Continued Success,

Robert Paisola, President
The Western Capital Foundation
http://www.mycollector.com/news_playadelsolscam.html

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I only wish we had seen your story on the Playa Del Sol before our trip to Puerto Vallarta! It would have saved us a half a day of our vacation. Unforunately, although your experience appears to be from 2006, things haven't changed. We arrived after having been told that our presentation would take 90 minutes, only to be informed that it's 90 minutes "after lunch." Of course, we weren't offered lunch when we arrived, and had to wait until we had already spent 45 minutes with our salesperson. We repeatedly reminded them that we had been told 90 minutes, that we had children waiting for us back at our resort, but they made no effort to move things along. Long story short, after we said "no" to our salesperson and her supervisor, we were told we were being escorted to the room to pick up our gifts. We were repeatedly told that our gifts were "on their way" up to us, but of course while we were waiting, we were given the sales pitch by two additional employees for a "vacation plan." When we finally convinced these two people that we weren't buying anything, we were informed that we'd have to go track down our gifts--they were apparently never on their way to us at all. Of course, when we went to the office where we were supposed to get them, it was locked and no one was there. When we went back to the room where we had been, the individuals were rude and incredibly unhelpful. After learning of how dishonest they were about the little things, we were very grateful we got out of there without committing to anything.