On my 60th birthday on March 28, 2015 my wife and I had planned and paid for a week vacation in Dominican Republic at the Ocean Manor located at Cabarete Highway in Dominican Republic. We were told by the Ocean Manor staff that the resort would have a driver to pick us up at the Santiago Airport at 1-AM on the early morning of March 28, 2015.
This was a 7-day vacation but two days of the seven was just for travel. The vacation week was Friday to Friday. The trip from the Santiago Airport was over an hour and we arrived at Ocean Manor around 3-AM on 3/28/15. We went for a late breakfast around 11-AM. After our first meal at Ocean Manor we were approached by a Black man with a very strong native voice, he did not speak good English, but he and a person from Ocean Manor seem to be close friends.
This strange man and the Ocean Manor Host both told my wife and I that we should visit the best resort in the Dominican Republic and if we did not do this now, we would lose out on the best offer ever. We did not want to go, but was told that the other location was the greatest and we can transfer to this resort for the same price as what we paid for our one week at Ocean Manor. We were told that lunch and drinks was free and if we do not like the place, we would be returned with no problems.
We were told that it was very close and it would be easy to get back. We had no idea that it was over an hour away and the sales person from Lifestyle Holiday Vacation Club (LHVC) had told us lie # more than one. This sales Shark had the cab ride already set up. We have no idea what was being said by the cab-driver and the Sales Shark, they did laugh a lot, and we did not like their manors’.
The sales Shark delivered us to the main sales office for LHVC in Puerto Plata. We were placed in line with a lot of other vacationers. A sales person was assigned to show us a video and then take us for a meal and drinks during our visit of the huge LHVC Resort at Puerto Plata. I informed this salesperson that we are owners and also in the points system with RCI since 1986. I explained to him that we have been travlers for years and we did not come on this vacation to buy into another vacation club. The sales person insisted that we at least see the place and take advantage of the free meal and anything that we want to drink. I told him that I did not drink beer or much alcohol due to my medications.
After 30-min's of talking back and forth, we agreed to the meal and drinks. In order to do this we were taken to a golf cart and driven around the resort for over an hour. We did like what we were shown. The day was flying by and we wanted to get back to Ocean Manor. The sales shark took us to one of the many places to eat a burger and I decided to drink a beer. My wife and I both had meals and drinks. The drinks were served in a glass and this is where I believe we were drugged by open drinks at the Bar.
We were ready to go back to the Ocean Manor but the sales shark insisted that he take us to the Crown Villa's. He had set it up for us to see the units that were being made ready for some owners that were to arrive on that day, March 28, 2015. I did not want to, but my wife began to have a different attitude about this place and by the time we got to this huge villa’s we both fell in love with the place. (The drugs began to take over).
After this sales shark showed us the beach's and the villa's and Penthouses and then showed us the nice 1-bedroom Presidential Suite that we could stay in to make up our mind, that we could transfer from the Ocean Manor to LHVC. We were overwhelmed and drunk. We were told that if we sign the papers that they would take us back to the Ocean Manor to pick up our belongings and return to LHVC as visitors and have three or four days to back out of the contract that we signed on March 28, 2015.

I had a headache for hours and all I wanted to do is sleep. We did the transfer and on Sunday and Monday I wanted to read about LHVC. I found a lot of negative press and reviews about LHVC. I was very unhappy about what I had read and it appeared that we had become victims the same as many American’s that have vacationed in Puerto Plata at LHVC.

I sent an email on Monday March 30, 2015 to the customer service person by the name of Naomi Bogle at LHVC and also to the manager at Ocean Manor. This email was sent on Monday 3/30/2015 at 3:21 PM. The email stated that we wanted to make arrangements to be returned back to Ocean Manor ASAP. The email also stated that we had seen issues and complaints with LHVC on the internet and we no longer wanted to become members of LHVC. We wanted to cancel all dealing with LHVC. I provided attachments that explained our reasons for requesting this transfer.

After this email was sent to LHVC I received a phone call from Naomi Bogle. She ask that we stay Monday night and she made arrangements for us to have a meeting with her and her boss Mrs. Stacey Smith, it was too late to do anything on Monday. We agreed to stay one more night and meet with them on Tuesday March 31, 2015 around 10-AM.

The meeting on Tuesday March 31, 2015 was the worse day of this vacation. We were informed by Ms. Stacey Smith that if we cancel our contract that we would be removed from LHVC and our credit cards would be charged over $15,000.00 according to the contract. I got so upset that I called both people in the room sharks, referring to Ms. Smith and Ms. Bogle. We wanted out but we had nowhere to go. The funds for our meals (all inclusive) and money paid to Ocean Manor via RCI in the amount of $2450.00 for exchange fees and $1120.00 meals fees had been transferred to LHVC.
We were coerced into signing on March 31, 2015. My wife and I had a choice of being placed into the streets of Puerto Plata with our plane tickets back to Dallas TX for Friday on Tuesday. We could not return to Ocean Manor because they had a relationship with LHVC that they worked together to take advantage of U.S. Citizens that had traveled to the Dominican Republic.
We did stay because we had paid for this vacation and when we did make it home to Dallas TX. I canceled once more with LHVC / IEA. They LHVC/IEA made a total of $36,701.37 charges to three of my and my wife’s credit cards. They charged our Discover card $6551.37, Wells Fargo Visa Card $2900.00 and Sam's MasterCard $27,250.00. LHVC/IEA is not the people to do any business with. They are one of the biggest RIP OFF Artists that I have ever seen. We may need to hire an attorney to get the charges off of our credit card accounts. We have canceled with LHVC/IEA three times since March, 30 2015.