Las Palmas Travel Network

Avoid Bahia Turquesa Residences - (prev Coco Sunset Vacation Club) because of its obvious association with Costa Rica Private Residences. (Date of stay, March 5-12) We exchanged through Interval International for Bahia Turquesa Residences - (prev Coco Sunset Vacation Club) for what was to be my bucket-list trip and it turned into a nightmare. We know now that Bahia Turquesa is a collection of condo/timeshares which has been renamed to avoid association with time share scammers who have operated in this area for at least 5 years as noted on the web. Check-in consisted scanning my passport and inviting us to attend a complimentary breakfast at the Café de Playa and spend the day at their private Beach Club. I said we weren’t interested, we already had timeshares, and my husband jokingly asked if he would like to buy ours. It was hot and we were tired. We just wanted to get to our room, eventually we agreed. The presentation was for Costa Rica Private Residences: We were personally delivered to the “presentation” by Leonardo, assigned to a “salesperson” for a nice breakfast, immediate arrangements were made to move us to a nicer unit, and then we were taken to a table in their “club office”. Costa Rica Private Residences is supposedly an exclusive residence club membership with greater access than traditional time shares. Though it has been marketed for at least 2 years, they have not broken ground. Their main focus was in relieving us of our four deeded time share weeks, maintenance fees, and the need to deal with RCI and Interval. Within minutes, Lloyd Parrish, who described himself as the developer/contractor and seemed to be in charge, had all the information about our ownerships. Eventually, he offered us over $90,000, for the four. In return, we would purchase 8 weeks/year in Costa Rica Private Residences at a “discounted rate”, allowing us a sizeable sum leftover. Instead of maintenance fees, we would pay $895/occupied week and unlimited opportunity to exchange for exclusive hotel stays throughout the world thru a Life time membership in Holiday Systems International (HIS). Finally, for only $99 a year, we would be assigned a concierge to help coordinate travel, meet us at the airport and transport us to our resort/hotels around the world without additional charge except tip. Other perks included a guarantee of buy back after 3 years and right of first refusal, should we decide to sell, for the next 5. They even “guaranteed” in writing that we could continue day use at our local resort for 5 years. The promises were very attractive and their associated US companies they “used” were Stewart Title, Corporate Capital, and HSI all rated “A+” by BBB web search on the computer they provided. The short story is that we were pressured to sign and pay several thousand dollars that day before completing the contract on the following day. Unfortunately, we did so with misgivings and left with a list of phone numbers and emails to contact if we had questions or buyer’s remorse. As soon as we left, we realized the document we signed was not exactly the same as the verbal presentations. Major was the fact that the credit card charge was not to the residences, but to Sunset Coco Sharing––after they had denied all association Sunset Coco and their “shenanigans”. It did not go to the US company listed. My “down payment” had to be made today, but their payment to us was vague and would take at least 3 months. No one answered phone or email that evening. We returned the next day stating our desire to end the contract, declaring we would not sign further papers, and suddenly they were scarce. After hiring a local attorney to prepare and deliver a legal withdrawal, we returned the paperwork as demanded in the contract and were told by Cynthia Urena, who had signed all contracts, that our money would be returned and she would contact us on Monday-March 14, 2016, after our return. There has been no communication from them, until an email today, stating their attorney would be in touch with our attorney, "about the refund they promised". Though I immediately contacted Chase, to dispute the charge on my credit card, the dispute has been sent to their special time share investigation department and the charge remains on my statement. We are warning anyone who travels to Playa del Coco to BEWARE.

My wife and I stayed at your resort in September of 2014. I believe that the Bahia Turquesa resort should refund us $13,801.96 (including extra paid because the time share company was not able to sell another timeshare property, which I don't believe they ever intended on selling). At this time I would also ask Interval International consider DROPPING Bahia Turquesa from the Interval International Directory for their underhanded unscrupulous dealing with vacationers by promoting Las Palmas Playa Del Coco investment which is NON-EXISTENT. Bahia Turquesa needs to make good on this BAD investment that basically was a scam! Bahia Turquesa allowed this group to operate on their premises and promoted their illegal dealings and swindled many of the people that stayed at Bahia Turquesa. They even required every person staying at Bahia Turquesa to sit through a pressure sales presentation by this company. Losing the Interval International relationship will cost hundreds of times the amount of money that I would like refunded. Please have Bahia Turquesa refund the money or they will be bankrupt or I will take ownership of the complete estate along with other vacationers. I believe that the Costa Rican government would love to have Americans as owners. They promised five weeks of vacation anywhere for $395.00 for a week for a one bedroom unit. They promised Gold Membership upgrade with Interval International and one additional free week. I checked with Interval International. Interval International stated that I do not have a Gold Membership which was part of the Las Palmas Costa Rica deal. I also do not have a week in the pot for using which is on the signed agreement that I have. I know I told them that I wouldn't sell for two years (I realize that gave this company time to go away), but I would like to sell it back to you for what we paid and call it even including: •six months of payments at $3249.96 (includes April) •$8500 down payment •$2052 retention charge for not selling Aruba TOTAL = $13,801.96 .

Who ever reads this please be warned that the people in Costa Rica who claim that they are selling you a timeshare have taken my money and have given me absolutely nothing in return. They are 100% Criminals. Do not give them any money. They make promises that they do not keep and this is the biggest scam around. There is never anyone on a phone to help you when you have a problem and they have stolen my money without my consent after I have asked them to cancel any dealings with this fake company. I was told that I would be able to use the resort and after months of being run around to several different people and numerous letters I have never been able to use my vacation that was promised to me. They proceeded to take more money from my credit card after I canceled my membership and I had to close my bank account because they charged it 4 times for $400 after they took over $5000 and gave me nothing in return. No vacation, no help and no refund.

On December 27, 2014, while on vacation in Costa Rica, I regretfully purchased a time share from a company I believed to be legal and legit. We signed paperwork towards a timeshare deal and the manager(at the time) Randy McIntyre, stated that we needed to wait 90 days to receive the processed documents regarding instructions on how to schedule any upcoming usage of this time share. We have yet to receive anything. We have repeatedly tried to contact the company and can only access a voice message machine with requires a password to leave a message. In my frustration, I’ve searched the internet to find out that this company has been reported for fraud and is under investigation. Sales Person was "Bob" Roberto Ojinaga.

We purchased a 3-bedroom/3-level Private Residence through Las Palmas in Coco Costa Rica in March 2013. As part of the contract negotiations was a "Marketing Contract" with Timely Travel which "guarantees the marketing and resale" of our current timeshares and rental of half of our weeks with Las Palmas. There was a fee of $899 to go with this contract. The contract indicated the payment would be made in 300 days to allow for marketing and resale. At about day 280 you can no longer get hold of Timely Travel. I checked the Internet at that time and there were no negative comments about Las Palmas or Timely Travel. That is not the case today. Checking with South Dakota (their listed address), they do not have a license to do business. If you look at Google Maps, you will see the address listed on Timely Travel's contract (794 East 41st Street, Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57105) does not even exist. It was all a scam. There are two more reports to the South Dakota Attorney General's Office as well. I also filed a report with them, the Federal Trade Commission and IC3 (http://www.ic3.gov/), a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). Also, Timely Travel now has a D+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. Las Palmas has distanced themselves from Timely Travel in their contract documents we signed, but they justified this saying that since Timely Travel was not part of Las Palmas, legally they could not be responsible. However, all this took place in their offices at Café de la Playa (http://www.cafedeplaya.com/suites.html) in the town of Cocos. It was part of the contract negotiations. After signing, I asked to talk to the Las Palmas manager because I still had concerns. Bill (bill@***.net (407-574-****)) and I talked for quite a while about my concerns with the contract deal to include the guaranteed resale of my other timeshares. He reassured me all was in order. In fact his words were "if it seems too good to be true, be quiet -- good things do happen". Of course he now disavows everything and points to the contract. So if you are thinking about buying from Las Palmas, be very careful, especially if they offer to buy or rent any of your current timeshares to include any weeks of the Las Palmas timeshares -- it is most certainly a SCAM. By the way, the 3 bedroom villas we were buying into were just beginning construction in March 2013. They are still not finished and according to Bill, the Las Palmas manager, he cannot say when they will be finished --- hmmmm might be another scam????

It appears that “Las Palmas Travel Network” (LPTN) may be a new scam connected to what’s going on at Coco Sunset Vacation Club (aka Bahia Turquesas). ** Coco Sunset Vacation Club (aka Bahia Turquesas) in Costa Rica seems to be somehow related to “Las Palmas Travel Network” (LPTN). Here’s my experience, as well as the things I’ve learned about them over the past three days (August 17, 2013). You can decide for yourself if this appears to be a scam. Here’s what happened: My wife and I were initially reeled in by “Jock”, a lively Scotsman who’s turf is Playa Hermosa near the Condovac (a timeshare resort affiliated with RCI). We were turned over to “Matt” who qualified us over breakfast at the Café de la Playa (http://www.cafedeplaya.com/suites.html) in the town of Cocos. Matt took us up to the shark tank where we met sequentially with three other closers, who came at us with ever-decreasing packages for us to buy. We left (without buying), and were taken to the El Pueblito commercial center in Cocos where several timeshare companies have their offices (you’ll recognize the names: Coco Vacation Club, Bahia Turquesas (the new name for Coco Vacation Club as of March 2013), Miramar, and others). We thought we were done for the day and just needed to sign out at the Coco Adventures Travel Agency (which seems to be owned by Bahia Turquesas), but Matt handed us off to “Blake Lindsey”, who said he was with “Las Palmas Travel Network” (LPTN), and who had a “program” he wanted us to look at. Here’s where the story gets interesting. The sound bite is that “Las Palmas Travel Network” doesn’t seem to exist, and there’s no way to reach them once you’re back home. The LPTN “program” has two aspects: (1) It reimburses current timeshare owners for their Maintenance Fees (sounds too good to be true, right?). It refers to this as “Cash Exchange”. (2) It also has other travel booking benefits (some sound remarkably similar to RCI’s), as well as “guaranteed rates” for 1 BDR and 2BDRs at hotels and timeshare locations around the world, including Leading Hotels of the World. Example: 2 BDR at the Crillon in Paris for $545 for a week. Again, those room rates sound too good to be true. Blake offered us membership in this program for $2,299, plus $249 annually (waived the first year). It looks like a no brainer, because it doesn’t take long before you break even on the maintenance fees that they reimburse you for. Six weeks after you sign up LPTN sends you a Welcome Package, which has details on how to get your MFs reimbursed, and how to book the travel deals. Lured by the idea of getting our MF’s reimbursed we let Blake charge our Visa card. He gave us a flimsy looking contract (saying that’s all there is), and we left with mixed feelings. Then went online to do a little due diligence. After doing some research, here’s what I’ve learned about LPTN: Las Palmas Travel Network is invisible – and may not be real at all. The green flier he showed us states that Las Palmas Travel Network been in business since 1993. But if you search for the company on Google you will find nothing. It’s my opinion that LPTN is a new scam. According to the contract, LPTN’s website domain name is www.thelaspalmastravelnetwork.com. This domain name was purchased just 3 weeks ago, on July 9th, 2013, and only for a one year period. (Go to www.godaddy.com for details). There’s no website. It seems to me that an established ten year old company should have a website, especially in an industry that is short on credibility and trust. Oddly, there is a website at: http://www.laspalmastravelnetwork.com/home/. But that’s not the url on the contract. And it’s a very skinny site, with almost no info on it. Las Palmas Travel Network is unreachable. It’s not possible to contact LPTN when you are back home in the States. So there is nothing you can do if your Welcome Package does not arrive. Can’t reach by phone: The phone number on the contract is in Costa Rica: 506-**** ****. You can never get through to this number – I tried eight times, at different times of day, over a three day period. There’s an outgoing message – in Spanish only – and unless you know the extension of the person you are calling, you cannot leave a message. Blake does not have an extension number. Why would a company that services Americans not have an outgoing message in English? And why can you never get through to a real person? Blake insisted you can get through, but you can’t. Incidentally, this 506-**** **** is the exact same phone number that’s shown on www.Ripoffreport.com – for “Las Palmas VC Coco Sunset Vacation Club” (April 2013). http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Las-Palmas-VC/Playa-Del-Coco-Select-StateProvince-/Las-Palmas-VC-Coco-Sunset-Vacation-Club-I-was-not-shown-the-whole-contract-and-now-they-wi-104**** Can’t reach by email: There’s an LPTN email address on the contract. But when I sent an email it bounced back. Here’s the error message: Sorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address. Blake Lindsay did not provide his business card with contact info, nor did he have letterhead in his office. When pressed for the addresses of the Call Center and the company’s HQ in the USA, I was given two handwritten addresses from a torn off yellow legal pad. The addresses seem to be bogus: It turns out that 804 Pine Avenue, Carlsbad, CA 92008 is a house in a residential district. 7690 West Cheyenne, Las Vegas, NV is the office of HSI (Holiday Systems International). LPTN does not have a business relationship with HSI and is not listed at that address. Blake’s office is in the El Pueblito shopping center – a small room immediately adjoining the “Coco Adventures” travel agency, which is where they finally sign you out after your timeshare presentation. Blake did not volunteer this but you might be able to get to him (and to Coco Sunset Vacation Club aka Bahia Turquesas and “Las Palmas Travel Network” through the travel agency. Here’s their email and website: carolina@***.com, and http://bahiaturquesaresidences.com/cocoadventures.html. Not affiliated with Carnival. Blake said that LPTN was “a part of” Carnival Cruise Lines. The term “part of” suggests that it’s a subsidiary. But according to Hoovers it’s not. When I called Carnival’s Trade engagement department (on 800-327-****) they said they have no ownership of or affiliation with LPTN. In fact they had not heard of it. Unclear business relationship between LPTN and RCI – if any I went online to see if the credit card purchase had posted. It had. The vendor name was Las Palmas VC. But the confusing thing is that the phone number associated with it is 619-683-****. That number belongs to RCI – not LPTN. So, I wonder – did I purchase something from LPTN – or from RCI? Why is LPTN using RCI as its credit card vendor? The benefits listed on the contract are RCI benefits. The only difference is the “World Famous Cash Exchange Program”. The “World Famous Cash Exchange Program” sounds too good to be true If LPTN has been around for 10 years, and since timeshare owners are desperately looking for a way to not have to pay Maintenance Fees on timeshares they can’t use, how can it be that this truly incredible program is not known, or publicized – and why the black box? Who is Blake Lindsey? Just for fun take a look at Blake Lindsey’s profile on LinkedIn: cr.linkedin.com/pub/blake-lindsey/52/ab/309. None of this inspires confidence. Related posts: There are several forums discussing what’s going on at Coco Sunset Vacation Club (aka Bahia Turquesas). I don’t know, but it appears that LPTN is a new scam. http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Las-Palmas-VC/Playa-Del-Coco-Select-StateProvince-/Las-Palmas-VC-Coco-Sunset-Vacation-Club-I-was-not-shown-the-whole-contract-and-now-they-wi-104**** http://www.pissedconsumer.com/reviews-by-company/coco-sunset-vacation-club.html http://www.pissedconsumer.com/reviews-by-company/coco-sunset-vacation-club/fraudulent-representative-201303****5040.html http://www.redweek.com/forums/search?query=coco&forum_id=all&search_by=threads&submit=Go http://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowTopic-g291982-i813-k295****-o150-Coco_Sunset_Vacation_Club-Costa_Rica.html So where are we? Can someone please post a reply so we all know the status? Thank you, all. **

went to presentation at Bahia Tequesa formerly coco sunset at cafe las playas in Costa Rica. They offered to buy my timeshare for more than I paid for it plus give me extra eeks I could rent out via Mercury property management guarenteed for 5 years . found out poor travel exchange company and scam artists. Cancelled contract. Charged me a fee initially disclosed as closing costs, suddenly became administrative costs of $2000 for cancelling and wont return additional $10000 owed to me even though I cancelled within time allowed by contract. they sell you a package that not only sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true.