Allegro Vacation Club, Occidental travellers beware! Scam! Dishonest! Fraudulent! Complete lack of customer service! Ft Lauderdale Florida

When on a cruise in Cozumel, Mexico we were approached by a sales rep from allegro vacation clubs. In order to use their property for the day for free we just needed to tour it, and listen to their sales pitch. We had no intention of buying, but the sales pitch was so good (mostly lies as we later found out) we ended up buying a temporary membership.

As soon as we signed the contract they started back peddling. They showed us around a beautiful resort, then told us we would not be able to go to that one, but their sister resort we had never seen. Further, we were told we could use our weeks in Aruba, Turks and Caicos, etc. After the contract was signed they "realized" their mistake. They also told us we would be able to obtain an airfare of less than $200 to get there. Upon researching this on our arrival home nobody in the company had heard of that.

It gets better. We booked our all inclusive week at the Allegro Resort Cozumel in Sept for a vacation in Feb 2004. We received our confirmation and the customer svc person even told us there were still rooms left because we were going with friends. Our friends ended up booking through RCI for the same week at the resort we originally toured but were told we could not go to.

3 days before leaving we received a call from Allegro Vacation Club stating they had no rooms available for us and they were going to send us to Cancun instead of Cozumel. I call and explained that we were meeting friends in Cozumel and already paid for a car in Cozumel. They said they would call back within 15 minutes. No call came, so I called the following day explaining the situation again. They were going to call me back again but never did.

We got to the hotel and they had not rectified the situation. In fact we were forced into a taxi by hotel "security" and told we were going to Cancun. I refused to go and demanded to speak with a manager. After hours of waiting, and no one coming we went to our friends hotel down the road which is also owned by Allegro.

They kindly offered us to stay in their hotel room for the night. We were told we were going to have to pay for that night even though we were staying in our friends room! I couldn't beleieve my ears, but we were so exhausted and my child was acting up so we just did it. The manager told us they could resolve things in the morning. To make a long story short, every single day we were told there were no rooms for us and to come back the next day. We ended up spending our whole vacation trying to get a room from Allegro that we had already paid for. The real kicker is that I went to the operations manager to resolve things and she spoke with the Allegro Vacation Club main office in Fort Lauderdale.

Needless to say, I wanted my money back. She told me I could stay there the rest of the week (at that point there was only 1 day left) for free and she would generously give me back my certificate to use on another vacation but would not give me my money back. She told me I would need to resolve things when I got home. The best part is this.... Upon checkout I found out they charged my credit card $1200 to stay in our friends room for the week!!! Of course, the operations manager was not available and I needed to work it out when I got home. I was about to miss my plane so I had to go.

Of course, upon coming home I have endlessly tried to deal with Allegro Vacation Club to no avail. I am at my wits end and don't want anyone else to get caught it their trap. BEWARE!! There were so many other people also being sent to Cancun it was amazing. This is a common occurrence at Allegro---Make them put everything in writing because they lie endlessly and are unaccountable for the lies unless its it writing.

Cheryl
goffstown, New Hampshire
U.S.A.