La Jolla is a small, relatively new resort in Mazatlan, Mexico. It is only partially built, and they are selling units on a pre-construction basis. The clients often complain about their lack of compliance with the 5 day cancellation policy and their lack of availability to book when they want to use it. They also use rental and resale scams to increase their sales. Find more information here: http://www.timesharescam.com/

if you DON'T buy a timeshare, is this a good place to vacation?

In October 2011, we were, for lack of a better word, scammed out of $11, 900 plus foreign transaction fees by Residence Club La Jolla. Same old song and dance as everyone else, they promised to buy our time at another resort if we bought a membership there. They have perfected this scam into an artform so even the most educated person can fall for it so don't think you are immune. They prey on those who already own time elsewhere and are paying high maintenance fees. Yes, we are gullible to believe their promises and that is what they count on. It is embarrassing to admit that we let this happen to us but we will not let it go. Bank of America rejected our dispute and are just as guilty of the scam by continuing to do business with Residence Club La Jolla. We have tried to negotiate with La Jolla and gave them the opportunity to return our money and cancel our contract. They have made their choice and now we are making ours by telling our story everywhere we can. We even referred two other couples to take a tour at La Jolla and they were treated very poorly because they had a debit card instead of a credit card. One of the couples had used their debit card to purchase time at Pueblo Bonito but La Jolla would not accept the card and without giving them breakfast or a tour or the incentives for their time, escorted them to the door and basically said good riddance. The other couple was taken to another resort and stranded after the couple were treated poorly there as well. If you are thinking about taking a tour at La Jolla, at least go in armed with the information that they aim to scam you out of your hard earned money. We recommend avoiding them at all costs.

those people will tell you anything you want to hear just to be able to close a sale. its sad to know that they are willing to let the name of La Jolla drop to the floor to make a few bucks.

here is another blacklist of La Jolla, you are not the only one being lie to get a sale done.
http://www.timesharescam.com/timeshare-scam-mexico/la-jolla-boutique-resort-25

jnhj, I was unable to find your group, I may be doing something wrong I am not that good with computers, I am interested and would like to join. My wife and I were terribly scammed by la jolla back in December 2010 we have since tried to reach an agreement with them but everything they offer is useless to us.

As a little background, we bought la jolla timeshare because they provided a written guarantee for the purchase of our previously owned timeshare for 30.000 dollars and we were supposed to receive a 2.000 dollar check every February for the rental of each of la jollas week we didn't use per year. No such money was ever received and when we inquired about this deal everybody acted like it this has never ever happened at la jolla. A total ripoff!

Getting together on this sounds great, count me in, I just don’t know how to formally join.

Now La Jolla is paying people or having their own employees use fake names to post that they bought at La Jolla and had a wonderful time there! And all the rest of us, hundreds of us [more likely thousands] are lying I suppose? Yeah, right! The staff at La Jolla have convinced themselves that everything they say is the truth and they will repeat it until you, the customer who got thoroughly scammed, believe it too. My husband and I will never believe one word they say. We may have walked into their trap once but will not do so twice! We are out $11, 900 plus foreign transaction fees. We tried disputing our bank charges but Bank of America rejected it immediately even though we have been a good customer for 20 years. Take a look at B of A corporate philosophy. Those of us who have been scammed by La Jolla know B of A is only interested in making a profit no matter what they want you to believe. By doing business with Residence Club La Jolla, they are as unethical as La Jolla is. Here's the link: http://investor.bankofamerica.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=71595&p=irol-govhighlights. We gave La Jolla the opportunity to return our money and cancel our contract before we went onlinen to tell our story. They made their choice. We're telling our story wherever we can. I started a blog at http://residenceclublajollamazatlanmexico.blogspot.com. Please come and read our story and leave your comments. If we all blog about it, it will hurt them where it counts. Please don't give up! They will continue to dupe people until enough of us build an army to put a stop to it. My husband and I stay at Pueblo Bonito Emerald Estates next door to La Jolla for a month every year and plan to spend our time telling everyone who will listen, about our experience at La Jolla. If we can stop one person from experiencing what we went through it will be worth it.

I invite everyone that has been scammed by La Jolla to join my complaintsboard.com group. At the top part of the page click under the Groups tab and enter in the search space; Residence Club La Jolla Fraud, I have recently created this group for all of us, please join if you want to justice to be made.

On Dec. 23, 2010 another couple, Mike and Leah Brendel, and myself attended a timeshare presentation at a resort named La Jolla Nuevo Mazatlan. The sales person, Vladimir Contreras made promises that I later found out were just not true. This person is actually the finance director. During the closing of my contract I hesitated in signing further documents and asked for further clarification of my concerns. He came by the table and told the closer that she was not to answer any more of my questions as he had answered them 5 times already. Unfortunately I finished signing the closing documents. On return to the El Sid Moro Resort the other couple and I met up at dinner to discuss our day. Needless to say we found that we were both very uncomfortable with the Presenters and their promises. We decided to return the next morning, which we did. Mr Vladimir Contreras greeted us and told us he would not have time to address our concerns until 3 hours later. He suggested we leave and come back later. We declined and after about one hour he sat down and gave the Brendels and myself each a pen and piece of paper and requested we write a letter of cancellation and the reasons that we wanted to cancel. He came back and told us that the manager of the resort would have to help us and we would have to wait. Shortly thereafter Mr Francisco Kelly greeted us and identified himself as the resort manager and developer representative. After about another hour he led us into his office where he told us he could not just cancel the contract. He then offered to do so for a fee of $2700 for myself. I declined pointing out that this indicated the level of dishonesty represented by himself and Mr Contreras. I told him that Profeco said there was a 5 day right of cancellation. He tried to discourage that avenue telling us we would have to make 3 trips to Mexico for the hearings. Again an untruth. To date I continue to work with my credit card company in dispute as well as Profeco. I can provide pictures as well as a letter from Mike Brendel verifying our return to the resort on Dec 24, 2010. I am writing this in response to a phone call I received from a Mr Juan Compreras on March 4, 2010 who indicated that once received he would present to the Board of Directors of La Jolla this week. Patricia L Moore email [email protected]

I invite everyone that has been scammed by La Jolla to join my complaintsboard.com group. At the top part of the page click under the Groups tab and enter in the search space; Residence Club La Jolla Fraud, I have recently created this group for all of us, please join if you want to justice to be made.

It is just amazing to me that the Mexican authorities allow this kind of abuse of their biggest industry(next to drugs, I suppose) to occur. Must feel good to places like La Jolla to rate right up there. Patricia Moore

It may be that Profeco cannot force an agreement between resort(LaJolla) and the victim. However, I maintain that Mexican law is that there is a 5 day right of recension in a contract in Mexico. Not only did the representatives at LaJolla refuse to honor a contract recension within 24 hours, but there seems to be no other recourse in Mexico to force them to do so. My experience with these people has been nothing but untruths and plain out lies. I have 2 other people who were with me the morning after I entered a contract with La Jolla and attempted to cancel it, who would happily send affidavits as such. Profeco and Residence Club La Jolla call this disputable evidence. In the US witnesses to crimes are an asset. In Mexico they are 'disputable' as are pictures of the resort "players" and their initials on a written recension letter. Also, I am pretty sure that all victims are not treated equally in resolution efforts. Patricia L. Moore

I have been trying to work with Profeco as well as a representative with Residence Club La Jolla since my last post in October 2011. There has been no headway and really what I would call them dangling a carrot and then pulling it back. This has certainly been a lesson in futility. One of the really sad things is that Mexico continues to show a disregard for enforcing their laws and allow their citizens to scam tourists without consequences. Profeco will tell you that they cannot force the scammer to repay you. Please if you go to Mexico, do not go to Mazatlan...if you go to Mazatlan DO NOT GO TO RESIDENCE CLUB LA JOLLA. Patricia L Moore

Recently, my husband and I went to Mazatlan, Mexico and went to a timeshare presentation at Residence Club La Jolla and got misled into purchasing a timeshare. We purchased the timeshare on a Sunday, 2010 and we went to the Mexican Consumer Protection Agency, Profeco, on Tuesday, 2010 to cancel the order (under Mexican law we have a 5 day right of rescission). We had the official certified letters sent to cancel and we have copies to prove this point. We also went to the American Consulate and got advice from them. I was also advised by lawyers to make more copies and send the documentation by Fed EX and other carriers to make sure that it gets delivered.

During the presentation we were told that they were only going to charge our Citibank credit card $3250, but when they brought the receipt back they had charged $9, 900. Then they said that they had to charge the entire amount, because we would have to pay an additional $1, 450 for closing costs. The sales person confirmed repeatedly La Jolla is an American Company based in Phoenix, AZ and we would be under the US regulations in this process. They also stated that we have 30 days to cancel the purchase if we wanted to do so (we found out its only 5 days in Mexico). We also asked during the presentation to take the contract with us first, so we could read it thoroughly and they would not let us take the contract.

When we got online the next day we knew that this was fraud. I read online from a realestate person in Mazatlan that we are all just stupid people for believing in these lies...Did we check our brains at the plane? I believe I checked my brain when making reservations to visit Mexico. I really cherrish people that chime in and defend the criminals as opposed to the victims. It is a great society when criminals get defended and victims get abused for writing what they experienced to help others.

You’re lost! Nobody that has been scammed by la jolla, would like to ever go back to Mazatlan! Specially knowing that Mexican authority does not have any interest to prevent the scam these timeshare developers are running in Mexico. Timesharing is a wealthy industry and apparently is ok to scam tourist in order to obtain their business.

Go get business somewhere else.

My wife and I attended to their time share presentation on March 30, 2011 at which time we agreed to purchase a timeshare. Upon return to the US I did some research and found out that there are many complaints against La Jolla for these exact broken promises around the sale of existing timeshares. Since we were still within the 5 day recession period; we were advised to mail a cancellation letter. On April 4th we mailed our written request to cancel the agreement via ups, 3 days later we received an electronic notification along with the signature of the person that received our package, to date we have emailed 7 times la jolla requesting the confirmation of the contract cancellation and the refund of our money and the only response we get is an automated message for mail delivery failure.

I have received confirmation from the credit card company that they are looking into the matter; they are positive to be able to recover the $18, 950.00 we paid to them. What a shame that we have to go to this extents!

La Jolla misrepresents every aspect their product. Not a trustworthy company. Stay away!

Looking for a great deal in Mazatlan?

this is your opportunity, visit our website and discover that there is no need to own a timeshare to enjoy your holiday. Instead of paying a high maintenance fee every year, we invite you to see there are great places to stay at for an affordable price.

Check it out at:
http://www.greatdeals2mazatlan.com
**For the moment our website is under maintenance but within the next weeks places would be ready to be shown to people interested in local rentals.

Sincerely, Mazatlan Vacation Rentals.
"Renting with the locals, vacationing as one".