A.E.M. Real Estate Company, LLC Written Guararantee of Reimbursment - but how much do you have to send first ? Chicago, Illinois

Call the scammers bluff!  For a $30,000 real estate transaction, there SHOULD BE a face-to-face meeting between you, your attorney and their representatives.  Arrange a meeting, bring your attorney, and ask them if you don't mind if a cop shows up just to make sure the rumors of scammery aren't true.  Take photographs.

A.E.M. is a SCAM!  Don't send money or talk to these crooks any more!

We have no idea what the motivation is for these unjustified attacks against our company.  We have no idea who is making them.  However, we invite our customers to visit our office, to check our licensing, and to check our BBB Review to see for themselves that we are a legitimate company. We also cannot control what each resort has included in its Contracts, but each Customer should know what their specific timeshare contract contain as they signed the Contracts and have them in their possession.  We also cannot dictate policy to foreign governments any more than we could dictate policy to the U.S. government!

Notice how A.E.M. doesn't respond once the targeted victim posts information about how A.E.M. was trying to scam him/her further. 

Notice that A.E.M. doesn't respond once they're called out on not actually having an office.

A.E.M. Real Estate IS A SCAM!!!

SCAM SCAM SCAM

Shame on you!

FACT:  There is no Chicago office of A.E.M. real estate -- just a "virtual" office where mail can be received.

Quoting another forum:

The only argument AEM is putting forth that they are legtimate is that they have "been in business 6 years." It seems they really like to rely on that point. But where are the reviews from all of the last six years? How come the only references one can find to this company are within the last several weeks? Again, it just doesn't add up, as companies who have been in business for as long as AEM claims they have leave a much larger footprint on the web.

Adding further to the suspicion, the claimed address of AEM (22 W. Washington Street Suite 1500) is a "virtual address," meaning that AEM does not actually operate there but is just using the address as a placeholder to receive mail. Whoever is actually operating AEM would appear to be doing so from home, and potentially has no affiliation whatsoever with this address.

My resort has informed me that no title search was done yet to confirm that there is nothing owing and that the maintenance fee was paid.   I have also discussed with them the Foreign Investor tax/registration.  They have informed me that only applies to foreigners for ownership of property - not a lease for one week per year.   There is no profit involved.  I am selling my lease at a loss.   I understand there may be tax on capital gains if it is sold at a profit but that almost never happens plus this is a lease, not a deed property.  It is explained as follows:

"A timeshare is not an investment in anyway! Especially when you deal with a timeshare in Mexico! Mexican contracts are on Right To Use basis (pretty much a lease). The contract is typically for 25 to 30 years. The amount you can rent it for will most likely cover slightly over your annual maintenance fees. So it would take years of renting to make your money back never mind a profit! Timeshares are designed to save money on annual vacations not business investments."

The letter that A.E.M. sent me regarding the Registration Fee of $2562. USD is in Spanish as well as the "Government" form invoice.    I cannot read Spanish.   I wonder if I should copy and paste the same and maybe someone here can translate for me.  I will also ask A.E.M. for an English copy of the form.  How can I send their Mexican agent $2562. USD if I don't understand their invoice.

Also, I am still worried about the Mexican Government lean on my timeshare if I don't send the $2562. tax fee to Global Vacation System in Mexico.  As Peter Williams explained: "They
now place a lien against the escrow account and property until and unless their Foreign Registration Fee is paid, so we cannot proceed to closing until this is paid." (Note English grammar not too good). 

Will I be able to use my timeshare if this deal falls through?  I have already sent $995 to Global Vacation System for the title search.  I hope they do it soon since closing date is next week (October 19th, 2012). 

I will email Profecto - Mexican Government Consumer Agency to inquire about the the new Foreign Registration Fee with a copy of their letter.  I'm sure they will clarify if it is required.   Profecto oversees the Timeshare industry and any complaints of non-legitimate practices will be looked into.   If  this fee is not required,  the closing should go smoothly and I will report here that all went well.    I am a senior and I really cannot afford to lose the $995 fee for Title Search which i already sent and the $2562 which I did not send yet.  

Just as predicted, "buff" has no first-hand knowledge of our company and therefore cannot provide any first-hand information!  It appears "Buff" may have been victimized by scammers, and is now speculating that all companies reselling tiemshares are scammers.  Speculation, rumors and innuendos are supposedly prohibited by Rip Off Report, per the terms posted on this website!

Please note that rebuttals should NOT contain any of the following:

Profanity, obscenity, threats of violence, racist remarks, false statements, personal information (i.e., social security numbers, credit card numbers, home address(es) or phone numbers), or any other information which violates Ripoff Report's Terms of Service;
Rumors, speculation, or innuendo unless you have personal knowledge that your statements are true;
Trivial comments (i.e., Nice report!) which do not add anything useful to the discussion.

As you can see, personal information is NOT to be provided on this website!!  Our customers receive information and can easily check our credentials but personal information is prohibited from this website.  We will not fall for your "trick" request whereby we would violate Rip Off Report's terms!

Also prohibited are:  Rumors, speculation, or innuendo unless you have personal knowledge that your statements are true.  So again, we ask for your PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE, which has become quite apparent you do not have.

To:  Rip Off Report, 

We will not post personal information on this website, per your terms and our own policies.

So how about it Rip Off Report???  Are you going to remove these unfounded negative remarks from "Buff" -- as your terms state?  Or are you going to continue to permit your website to be party to "Buff's" slanderous unfounded statements about our company, even though this is "prohibited" per your terms, and even though it is evident that "Buff" has never had any dealings with our company? 

A.E.M. Real Estate Company, LLC

It's a very simple question -- who is your broker? Why won't you answer that?

Let me explain -  you don't have a broker.  You aren't a real estate company.  You aren't even a company.  You are a cluster of rip-off artists. If you DID list a broker, people could easily investigate whether that person is real or not. 

I am surprised that Rip Off Report does not monitor its website more closely, and that an individual who has never had any business with our company is permitted to post scandelous false statements on its website.

We have been in business for a little more than 6 YEARS WITH NO COMPLAINTS.  This can be easily confirmed online.

Poor "Buff" may have been the victim of another company or a scam artist, but that does not give him or anyone else the right to post lies about another company of which they have no real first-hand knowledge.

For the third and last time, I ask "Buff" (notice he won't even use his real name) to tell the world when and how he was scammed by our company!  I am sure this is not true, as we have never had even one complaint. 

It is obvious that "Buff" has no real first-hand knowedge or dealings with our company, or he would POST SOME REAL FACTS here, rather than ignoring questions and answering with only more questions and derrogatory remarks!  If he was scammed by another company, that does not give him the right to attack our company when he does not know what he is talking about.

If any of our customers or potential customers would like to check our credentials, feel free to contact us and we will give you simple instructions on how to confirm our legitimacy online.

And NO, Buff, we will not post bank account information on this or any website!  Are you trying to rip us off???  Why would you ask or expect us to post bank account information on a public website???

Seems to me Rip Off Report should have stepped in by now, if this is a reputable website.  Your website instructions prohibit attacks on a company with no basis whatsoever.  So, how about it, Rip Off Report??  Or do you permit anyone to post slanderous remarks when they have had ABSOLUTELY NO DEALINGS WITH A COMPANY???

So how about it Buff?? How about some real facts about how you were scammed?????!!! 

Just as we thought, no facts -- only questions and derrogatory remarks will follow.

What records are you talking about? The name and license number of your real estate broker?  What is it?  Post it here! The number to which you advise victims to wire money?  What is it?   Post it here!  Where does the money go?

The fact is, you are a fly-by-night cluster of scam artists who are currently trying to steal money from seniors.  You don't do "business."  You never have.  You have been trying out your scam for three months and you're about to close up shop with your stolen money. 

You are just HOPING that people don't read this! SCAM! Shame on you!!!!!

As I asked before, please respond here as to what first-hand experience you have had with our company.

The fact that we changed web providers 3 months ago does not change the fact that we have been in business for 6 years with no complaints!

The only one calling us a scam is you, "Buff".  Yet you have never had any business with our company.  Unless you have had any negative dealings at all with our company, you have no right to be calling our company a scam!

As for your allegations, they are exactly that - allegations.  Our customers can easily check the records to confirm our license and length of time in business.

SCAM! 

No, your "business" is not five years old.  The A.E.M. website is only three months old.

The broker listed on A.E.M. "contract" doesn't know anything about A.E.M. and doesn't work for them.  You see, these scammers picked a real agent and listed him with the hopes that the people being scammed won't contact him.

Other consumer sites have identified A.E.M. as a scam.

No one will report being ripped off by A.E.M. to the BBB until the scammers have stolen money, packed up, moved on, and shut off the telephone. 

Shame on you!

I would like to ask "Buff" to contact our company and let us know more information about his experience with our company.  We have been in business for 6 years and have NO complaints from any customers.  We continue to have an A rating with the BBB.

We realize that there are a lot of scams in the timeshare industry, but that does not mean that ALL companies are scams.  Obviously some people do successfully sell their timeshares.

We do not believe that 'Buff" has any first-hand knowledge of our company, but rather is assuming that all companies that sell timeshares are scams.  If "Buff" truly had any relationship with our company, let us know how you were dissatisfied, and explain why this was never voiced to our compnay.

Regarding the original questions (NOT A COMPLAINT) from "acerviewpav", please note that this customer is simply asking a question.  When a foreigner purchases a timeshare in Mexico, the resort is should register the foreigner(s) as foreign investors, which carries a fee.  This should be done when the timeshare is purchased.  In this particular case, records indicate that the resort did not register this customer as foreign investors, so this must be done in order to sell the timeshare and enjoy a profit.  The negligence lies with the resort.  The customer reported that his resort told him that they already registered him as foreign investor when he purchased.  However, there are no records of this registration or of the payment with the government, and so far, the resort has failed to provide the customer with proof of payment/registration. 

If the resort did, in fact, register them as foreign investors, they can simply provide proof of payment of the fee/registration, so that the government records can be updated/corrected.  We do not believe the resort did as they say, nor that the resort will they provide proof of payment/registration, as to date the customer has not received said proof.

Classic timeshare scam.  Do not send any more money.  It will be as good as gone.  The post above was written by one of the scammers. There is no buyer.  There is no "Peter Williams."  There is no Mexican agent.  There is no deal with Elite.  There is no lien against your timeshare.  There are only crooks who set up accounts and websites to steal money. 

My wife and I recently sold our timeshare through A.E.M. Our timeshare contract requried that we pay a considerable transfer fee, which we deposited into escrow with Elite Escrow. We also had to pay half of the escrow fee, which we also wired to Elite Escrow.  

We did not have to pay the foreign investor registration fee because our resort had already registered us when we bought the timeshare. Elite Escrow found this out when they searched our records.

We received signed guarantees of reimbursement from AEM when each of these payments were requested. We received our sale price, less AEM's commission plus the reimbursements. They even reimbursed us the bank wire fees.  

We researched both companies before going ahead and signing the contract with AEM and found both companies to have business license which were active and in good standing for 5+ years and both companies had no complaints with the BBB or anywhere else that we could find. Both companies had excellent ratings with the BBB, so we went ahead with the contract and are very glad we did.

We got a very good price and AEM was easy to reach. We are comletely satisfied with our dealings with AEM and Elite Escrow.