Vacation Internationale

We used the vacation about three or four times. The rooms were nice, they were clean, they were not awesome, their pools were sub par and they were not as nice as our other time shares or a hotel for that matter. It was disappointing to know we paid 6K, $762 every other year for a rental timeshare. Don't let them talk the whole time while you are signing, read the tiny print in the contract. We definitely got bamboozled by a friend introducing us for the sale. We trusted that our friend wouldn't sign us up for an expensive lie on a presentation. We were wrong, I could have stayed at luxury hotels for less than what I spent for this rental ownership. Learn from our mistake. Would you spend more than $15,544 in 12 years on luxury resorts you can use every other year? Probably not.

We get in the main conference area. Loud music playing in the space and everyone is smiling and wearing Tommy Bahama shirts and khakis. Seem very islander and everyone is on vacation. Cool right? So we sit with a gentleman who starts out using profanity, often with us, I later believe was to make us feel comfortable. This 30 minutes was him asking us a lot of personal details about our lives, all pretty much hinging on our relationship. He mentions my make, model and year of my vehicle without me mentioning it or putting that on paper. How her and I would soon be marrying, wanted ages of our kids I had from a previous marriage and our child together. We are both in public service, what a weird coincidence, he's former military. I believe this was either a false story of his military time or they had him choose us for the public service piece and reliability.

There is ZERO talk about what they're selling us or trying to in this time. I call this the ice breaker time. We have our walls up. She's getting irritated. I am keeping my wits about me. The loud music was nauseating and disorienting. Jimmy Buffet cranked sorta thing. We're two feet from this guy and we're all yelling over the music. It's ridiculous. Constantly being interrupted by other salesmen coming up to us with nearly seemingly scripted banter they planned at certain times. Think 80's standup comedy but worse. We all, and by all I mean one other couple, pile into another area separated from where we were by a wall. Now is the presentation. "Presentation", ha.

It's another 30 minutes of listening to the actual sales pitch, sorta. It's a lot of dates and "the Bobs" (being their founders both having the name Bob) by a shorter male. He was nice enough but was cringy 90% of the time. We wrap it up, go back to our original tables with our former military guy. Then he is trying to tell us about the packages. Here is the sales pitch right? Hell no. It's more banter, his "boss" comes over, a lumbering tall Italian guy. They all have a story. His was having married a white girl who wasn't italian and his grandfather being racist and disappointed. Eye roll emote here. He evidently also has a developmentally challenged child which I seriously hope is NOT just a story cuz how messed up would that be?

Anyhow, the former military dude mentions him coming from a broken family... it was like this. All intended to make the potential customer feel pressured into buying. Relatability and making you feel bad is their goal here. I could not speak about how crap this was enough. So the Italian dude, he's cringy, stares at you when he makes lame jokes, just uncomfortable. We now are to follow him into his office. We walk in looking at the time being well over 90 minutes at this point from start to finish. We have kids waiting at home, things to do, better things to do like root canals or castration with a brick. We sit. We wait. He comes in, finally the sales pitch, no joke. It's finally happening.

$6K and change gets us the thing they're trying to sell us. Wait, you can't do that?! Okay, here's a special employee only deal, $3K. Can't do that either eh? Okay, super secret deal, I would get fired if they knew kinda deal. $1600, $170 or so monthly gets you points and this that and the other. We're done at this point. I ask him if he has a business card, can we circle back, his demeanor totally changes. Says "no, you can't. No, I have no business cards. This is right now commitment". I told him nope and we were leaving. He gets all huffy with us, "hold up, can't leave yet, I need to give you your free gift". I said no, that's okay and I wanted to leave now. He blocks my egress and says he has to have me sign off for the gift whether I wanted it or not. I am now looking at their lobby which has no door knobs to exit the front. Ah yes, when we entered they buzzed us in. I am now feeling like I am being illegally detained.

I am eyeballing the fire exit thinking what are they going to do. He comes back, we sign, he's very aggressive telling me he doesn't care if we use the Disney trip or not and to stay, let's talk more. I charge the exit door with my girl behind me ready to fight my way out if I need to. He follows, motions to the clerk up front to buzz the doors open and we walk out with him up my backside the whole way talking in my ear and then snidely says "you folks take real good care now" as he watches us leave the parking lot.

I felt completely violated both emotionally and psychologically. I felt like I needed to shower, no joke. The whole ordeal was intended to swindle people from their money. Relatability, manipulation. They also need you to be a couple. They will not see you if you're alone and they do not allow you to separate to discuss. It's all very intentional, organized manipulation. I studied psychology many lifetimes ago, this was all very well planned out, methodical and precise. Looking back everything was orchestrated to make us feel comfortable, let our guard down and be pressured into making a poor financial decision. It was calculated and intentional. Nothing was unscripted, everything was driving toward bilking innocent people out of their money.

After sending this $647 thru WF Bill Pay, they still kept sending me emails that I haven't paid. I opened a claim with WF BP to investigate where this money went (VI took the money but never credited it to my account). I tried to call them many times, sent emails, and left voice mails to let them know about my findings but to no avail. Nobody responded. I think that I should report them to the District Attorney. I am surprised these people haven't got sued yet. I even called their management company, EQUAINT, but they're the same. I waited over an hour and nobody comes on the line to speak to you. Do yourself and your family a favor, STAY AWAY from these creeps.

We have about 3 weeks worth of points (almost all bought on the resale market and then transferred in when Pacific Shores went belly up) and we have found VI resorts timeshare program to be excellent. Their resorts range in quality from middling to good and the value is always excellent. If you are content to work within their system, and you get up to the platinum level of their prestige program, the value can't be beat.

When we used to be RCI members - it seemed like we were always paying too many extra fees - A typical holiday might cost $300-600 to book (RCI membership, transfer points, extend points, high booking fees etc.) so we quit that entirely. Now at VI we pay $20 for each booking - that's it. If there is a change, they are usually very keen to make things work. If you cancel more than 30 days out, you get your points back (or 24 hours if you choose to pay for last minute cancelation insurance). If you have another timeshare that you don't want to use one year, you can deposit it and get a fair return in points. Been a VI owner for about 10 years and very happy with the product value and service.

There is a legitimate third-party (Anderson, retired gentleman’s hobby) site that is free that sends a newsletter out listing points for sale and usually needs odds and ends that are unused for other people who don’t quite have enough. Think family reunion. In my years of experience, both the resort staff and VI phone staff are wonderful, courteous and respectful. Part of my enjoyment is seeing the same staff at the resorts time after time. Management finally put restrictions in place to keep other other timeshares (Diamond, etc.) from claiming all of our locations were in their system and disallowing block advance reservations. I feel like we have our timeshare back, to some extent.

Virtually all of the negative reviews are from people who thought they could get something for nothing, then when the third party sales people did not provide all that was promised and were rude, they blame VI. The reason they can’t tell you what company they are calling from is that they are calling for so many different ones. We do not have a property in Cabo, or several others that were mentioned. Additionally, the owners own all of the properties in trust. When another company TRIED to take us over and stole lots of Torres Mazatlan property, it cost us quite a bit to get it all back.

We now no longer farm out to another management company and strictly keep it under our control. Part of the reason it is hard to get into some of our original resorts is that we have bailed out so many small failing timeshares to keep them out of bankruptcy. Consequently, we have lots more run down properties, or otherwise not prime, with many more members. Additionally, management has finally put restrictions in place to stop other timeshares (Diamond, etc.) from claiming our properties as part of their inventory.

They also stopped “block” advance reservations from these same companies. So, please do not blame VI for scammers using our name to get you in to these horrible time-wasting presentations. Not that I want more members - I just take it personally to see all these negative reviews from mostly people that have never used the program, whereas you will note that nearly all of us owners give VI 5 stars.

When we arrived, the establishment was hardcore about practicing social distancing precautions (which is good, right?). You had to wear your mask, they were checking temperatures, they wiped the pens down after people touched them etc. However... As soon as our names were called, we were greeted by the infamous Chris who did not have a mask on and was very vocal about his right to "Not be told what to do with his body." Okay... That is already strange but whatever, we kept it pushing.

As soon as we sat down with Chris, he gave us zero information. We were both very vocal about the fact that we were skeptical about the whole operation so he knew that we were already on the fence but nonetheless willing to listen. He proceeded to ask us personal questions and because I told him I was just there to support my fiance, he kept asking us questions about how long we've been together, where we met, if we had kids together. Oddly, the conversation reared in the direction of covid and social distancing. He then proceeded to tell us that he didn't believe in social distancing and that he doesn't feel like anyone can tell him what to do with is body...Which was all fine besides the fact that we spent 10 minutes in the lobby upon arrival being screen, poked, and prodded for social distancing purposes. It made no sense that he was clearly anti-social distancing. Anyhow....Another red flag we noted but ignored.

While he proceeded to talk about nothing related to why we were there, I was on my phone texting with my son. Chris then proceeds to ask me to put my phone down and "Participate." First of all Chris, I'm not 5 years old and perhaps if your pitch was convincing, I would have been more engaged. Secondly, he had no business telling me to put my phone down. Longer story short...Chris and this entire establishment are a joke. When my fiance asked him if all prizes outlined in the email he received would be honored, Chris' response was "Well I don't know...I don't know what was in the email." So basically, whoever gets you in their door is a completely separate entity and they clearly do not communicate with one another.

I ended up telling Chris that he was way out of line and we got up and left before having to sit through the 90 minute presentation which basically suckers you into purchasing timeshare through them. Chris was so flustered after I told him that he was way out of line that he stood up and said "I'm going to get my manager." Why? For what? Because you have no responses for people who aren't naive and gullible? Save yourself the time and don't waste 90 minutes of your life on this nonsense that you will never get back again. I'd rather watch paint dry for 90 minutes!! Not today VI...Not today or ever, lol.