The Playa Del Sol- Stay Away! Robert Paisola Responds

Hello Robert,

I read your posting about your experiences with Playa del Sol and tried to contact you via the About.com site a couple of months ago. I am having problems with using my timeshare at Playa del Sol and have been writing to George Triggs since last November without substantive response. Can you help direct me to ways to get some action? Do you know if Playa del Sol is a member of ARDA? My telephone number is *******. Thanks for any suggestions you can offer. Namaste, Gayla

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

Another Playa Del Sol Rip Off, Posted by Robert Paisola

Dear Mr. Robert Paisola

Hope the new year is off to a good start for you.

My Wife Rhonda and I have limited experience with time share travel, but until recently all of our experiences were positive. We are Worldmark / Trendwest owners (11 years) which has now been purchased by Windham. We have had no problems and would recommend them to our friends for many reasons.

We have used RCI in conjunction with our Worldmark points with much success as well.

My only other experience was the Paradise Village in PV Mexico. I have worked for my employer for nearly 20 years now and he allowed me to use his time share in PV as he had just purchased a villa and would not be using the Paradise Village now that he has a home. My employer and I had a bet as to whether or not I could get our employees to vote the Teamsters out of our transportation division.

I won, and as a result I gained access to his time share. My only regret was that we did not bring the kids along. Paradise Village was great to say the least. I really wish I could afford to purchase my own time with Paradise Village.

My major regret come with the purchase that I did make.

I purchased with Playa Del Sol. Bad bad move on my part in retrospect! I purchased in Jan of 2007 and have had nothing but trouble with Playa Del Sol thus far. Here are some highlights:

Got back to the U.S. and tried to book for the next year. Called many time over the next couple of months but was told that nothing was available. "Booked up"
Started questioning as to whether it was red season or just a bit of a scam. So I tried to book in the middle of summer which is the hottest time of the year and least traveled in PV or Cabo.

Was again told that nothing was available. I then said, "OK every time that I chose is not available, so you tell me what is available and I will tell you whether I want it." I was then told that they have an inventory problem and are not taking any new reservations until after their audit. I asked how long would it take for the audit? I was told that the audit would take about a month. Called back over a month later and was told the audit was still not complete.

Went on to their web-site to try and book on-line several weeks later and found that all of the resorts I wanted had limited inventory available, but did have inventory available. The web-site would not allow me to book the time. Maybe it was my error, and maybe I was missing something, but no matter what I tried it would not allow me to book as an owner and required me to pay full price using my credit card. The next day I called and tried to make a reservation for the inventory I found the night before on-line. I was told that this invetory was not available for owners and was reserved for cash customers.

This really pissed me off! I asked how much of the inventory was reserved for owners and how much was reserved for cash customers. They told me that this was confidential and that they could not tell me. I said that as an owner you are telling me that I cannot be told this information? I was then told that well it depends and fluctuates all of the time. I asked for this representatives name and asked for a manager. I was put on hold and another rep picked up the call. I asked if they were a manager and was told "no..all of the managers are in a meeting and are unavailable"

I called again the next morning after I had not received a return call from a manager. I asked why I had not been contacted by a manager as promised. I was told that they would look into it. I asked if I could talk to a manager now? I was again told that the manager was not available. This rep asked for the name of the rep I had spoken with. I gave them the name and employee ID# only to be told that such a person does not exist. This rep was polite and told me that she would have a manager call me as soon as possible. I was sent on a trip to the Middle East through the US Dept of State and the American Council for Young Political Leaders (ACYPL) and was gone for three weeks and kind of put the problem on the back burner for some time.
Was told by this polite rep that if I wanted to book for Dec 26th of 2008 I would need to call on Dec 26th of 2007 and I would have no problem getting what I need.
I wrote several e-mails detailing the fact that they had employees who gave false identification and that I was yet to get a manager to call me back. No reply to date.

My Wife and I were in San Francisco on vacation with my parents on Dec 26th of 2007 and brought our owner information with us so that we could make our reservation on this date as directed. We wanted two one bedroom units and were told that they were booked up and that they only had (1) one bedroom unit available. I asked for a studio. I was told that there was nothing available but the (1) one bedroom unit. I told the rep that I found it hare to believe that every unit was reserved today. I was told that all of the units were booked up two to three weeks ago. I asked how that could be given the fact that we were told that you can only book one year to the date in advance.

I was then told that these are guests that were booking three to four weeks of travel and that they booked in the first week of December and extended their stay into January. I asked if this was true for all the units? I was told "yes ..this is the only way this can happen". My renewal with Playa Del Sol is the first week of 2008 and the only think I was allowed to use was my primary week and I could not use my award week.

We went ahead and told the rep that we would take the one unit for now and would look to another resort to put my mother and father up in. We gave the rep our American Express card to get our maintenance fees up to date. No sooner did my Wife get the credit card number out of her mouth before I told her not to book it, and that we would transfer our Playa Del Sol time over to RCI and combine that credit with the Worldmark credit we would roll over to RCI to get a reservation that we could use with my parents. Of course even though only one second had transpired we were told it was too late and they could not reverse the transaction.

My wife then asked for a manager and was told.....you guessed it "all of the managers were in a meeting". My wife called back again several hours later and was again told that all of the managers were still in a meeting.

To date I have never been able to speak with anyone who will identify themselves as a manager!
The first day of business in 2008 I call RCI and Interval International to see what they would see for inventory. I thought that if I took what I was told was the last unit then there should be no inventory left at Playa Del Sol Cabo. Well what Interval International found was a great deal of studios available. So I grabbed a studio through Interval even though I have a week as a Playa Del Sol owner that they will not allow me to use.

Back to the purchase I made while at Playa Del Sol in PV:

I was told that I could rent out my time and make money! FALSE

I was told that I could easily use my primary week with my award week so that we could bring my parents down with us. FALSE

I was told that the purchase was final and that I would forfeit the five day cool down period if I accepted the award week they were offering to give us. FALSE

I was told that I could use the 20 "break away" weeks they gave us and book a week at the same price as our maintenance fees. FALSE

I was not told that cash customers have priority over owners. Who in their right mind would buy into a program that made you a second class customer?

We were asked to come visit Playa Del Sol by an independent guy standing on a street corner who showed us Playe Del Sol ID. He explained that he would pick us up at Paradise Village and give us $200 cash for coming out on top of the tequlla and blankets and tour they would give us at the presentation.

He also agreed to pay our cab fare to and from. The security guards at Paradise Village took his picture when he showed up to pick us up and asked what it was that he promised us. The gentelman who was setting up the presentation told us not to tell Playa Del Sol that he was sweetening the pot to get us to go because he would get in big trouble. He said thay he could afford to give us $200 because it would get him a bigger bonus for getting five people there in one day. Paradise Village asked us when we would be returning and took a picture of the cab driver and said they were trying to protect us. This I believe they did!

To his credit the gentleman that was setting up the presentation lived up to his end of the bargain and gave me the $200 in US cash as soon as I got in the cab and also paid for the cab ride to and from Playa Del Sol.

We were sold our package by a guy named Israel who we really liked and trusted. He showed us pictures of his wife and new child. He showed us pictures of he and his wife at the WorldCup soccer matches in Europe and he explained that he traded his Playa Del Sol credits through RCI to travel like he does. He went into great detail about how easy it is to use his Playa Del Sol ownership to travel the world when he isn't going to Cabo or Costa Rica.

I would love to take the money we spent on Play Del Sol and spend it with a place we know we can trust like Paradise Village or Worldmark. Have you any suggestions.

Frustrated in Kalama

Shannon Barnett

Do not EVER BUY from this resort or any of its affiliates. I am currently in Moscow Russia doing a seminar, and this letter was so important that I am taking a break in the middle of the night to post this for my readers and listeners around the world.

Robert Paisola