On October 2, 2012, we two couples, attended a time share presentation with sales representative Valerie Knickle of The Villa Group, Universal Vacation Club, Villa Preferred Access, Beach Resort & Spa, .
An offer was made of two (2) studio units at the Villa del Arcos Resort. This offer was only made if we acted on their offer at that time. We accepted the offer and each couple paid a deposit of $1577.50. The remaining balance was to be paid over the next 13 months. Per the contract, we purchased two (2) studios for the price of $23,639.00 with a trade value received of $10,240.00 for another time share owned elsewhere. The final remaining price was $13,395.00.
Upon further review of the contract and sales documents, we discovered nowhere in the paperwork/contract was the 2nd studio mentioned. On the following day, October 3, 2012, we met with Valerie for breakfast and had some questions for her that we needed further clarification on. She said that she was "late for a meeting" and would find us at the pool area later that day to address and answer our concerns and questions. We were at the pool area until around 3:00 PM and Valerie failed to meet back with us. We called her at 3:55 PM that day and told her we still needed to talk with her. She stated she was not available for the rest of the day and also was off work for the next 2 days. At our insistence she agreed to meet us on October 5, 2012 at 10:00 AM at our resort.
In the interim we decided to cancel our purchase using the 5 day (#16) in the Membership Purchase and Security Agreement. It states "may cancel within 5 business days with no penalties". Both couples signed and dated a letter canceling this purchase. The letter and signatures were also witnessed and signed by two other people. This was hand delivered to Valerie Knickle on October 5, 2012, at 10:00 AM in the lobby of our resort.
Immediately after meeting with Valerie we met with Cesar Castillo, Verification Officer at Villa del Palmar, and gave him a copy of our cancellation letter. He then told us we would need to deliver this to Villa del Arcos sales office.
Upon arriving at Villa del Arcos we gave a copy of our cancellation letter to Manuel Galica , Account Representative!. He told us we would need to speak with Justin Burrage, Account Manager at Villa del Arcos". We made an appointment to return in a couple of hours to meet with him:. Upon meeting with Justin Burrage, we handed him our cancellation letter and then verbally told him we were canceling our time share purchase". He informed us we were within the time limit of cancellation however, he was withholding our deposits for "liquidated damages".. We asked for an accounting of these damages and were refused!. We advised him we were going to dispute this when we got home?. His remark and I quote "go ahead, we have never lost one yet!"
We left but when we got home we did dispute this with our credit cards companies and fortunately we were refunded the money'.
Jackie and Bill Steimke

366 Brockmont Dr
Glendale, CA 91202
818-903-3247
steimke@sbcglobal.net 3138f64