Thats it we will be off.........

Hi

Did any of you pay 700 euros to join Parador Owners' Club?  We did and are very disappointed.  If I had heard about this forum (which has been very informative) prior to joining the Owners' Club,  I would not have joined the Club.

We purchased our property on Jardin 2 through Parador 18 months ago and at the time it seemed like a saviour to have someone hold your hand through the buying process but we too have been disapointed.  One example is that I rang them in early January to say that it looked like completion would be earlier than the end of the year (as read on this forum) but they tried to convince me otherwise.  I rang Polaris myself the same day and they were able to tell me that completions would commence from May onwards!  So much for them keeping us up to date at all times.  They still haven't officially notified us that completion will be earlier!

We are going to Spain this weekend and have made them do some handholding on NIE and Power of Attorney as well as arranging a visit to the site (even though we probably don't neeed them there ) but we are trying to get our moneys worth and a free lunch!!

On a positive note, the initial inspection trip was excellent - no hard sell and we were looked after very well  (that technique worked) but  we have more than paid for it with the €700.

 

Hi All

I absolutely agree with everything stated so far, we paid 900 Euros in September thinking that the level of service would continue as it had been with the inspection visit, which was excellent in every way.

To say they have done nothing since we came back would be untrue, they have sent us some bank account application papers in Spanish, so I phoned them three times, each time they tell me they will send me out English version but each time don’t, so I am sorting my owe bank account.

They have given me a link to look at progress reports on the member’s area of the web site but when you go on the site no reports and the pictures that are on the site are about 6 months old.

We was told they would be able to arrange us substantial discounts on things like Air Con and Furniture, well so far they have introduced us to a furniture store which isn’t cheap and would have given us any discount they are offering anyway and they have sent us a quote for Air Con and Con would be the relevant word being just slightly cheaper than Polaris World quotes and twice the prices you will be able to gain for your self.

Good idea to have them take you to do the inspection visit, I think I will do the same, I will not be able to recover the rip off cost for receiving less than no service, but will have the satisfaction of telling them what I think of the Owners Club.

Thank God for EOS.

Phil

This message was last edited by PGM on 3/26/2008.

We also joined the owners club and agree with all the points below about it not being worth it. They didn't even tell us about the show apartments being open, we found that out on this forum. I sent them an email to complain when I found out about the show homes and they rang my husband to try and convince us that they will help us with completion and snagging so I'm hoping we'll be able to get something from them at that stage. Will wait and see...

My dad has also bought through them on a different site and seems to be getting much better service though - regular updates and they also took him round some furniture shops when he was over recently.

We joined when we put down a deposit in Los Naranjos in Nov 07 and the whole trip was a whirlwind so you think - yeah we have someone to help. They haven't done much for us so far but to be fair completion is so far away there isn't a lot they can do at the moment. We've found talking to Polaris / our solicitor / the bank direct much more helpful.

We sent an e-mail with questions following the NIE form they sent out and my husband had to call before they answered it. To be fair they have been quite responsive since and are arranging to take us out to the site etc when we visit in September. We're staying in Torrevieja cos we've been there before but they have offered to arrange appointments with the bank, solicitor, furniture shop etc and take us there so make the most of that I say - especially if you aren't staying close to these things and don't want to hire a car or drive.

I think part of the problem is that they look after you so well on the inspection trip they do raise expectations. We also found that there was some 'contradiction' between what our guy told us on the inspection trip and what the owners club will actually do for you.

I definitely think we would have considered more carefully if we had known about this site before hand.

 

Interesting comments all round. We have bought at Los Naranjos through Parador, who were excellent at the time of the inspection visit - no hard sell and I think we surprised them when we said we were buying! However we decided against joining the club. My reasons were that it seemed quite a lot of money for something I always thought I could get through dealing with PW direct. Had we been dealing with a small developer I think we would have joined, but PW is so vast surely they can handle most things? So far we have found PW easy to deal with so long as you persevere. Although we are not members we are still receiving information from Parador - the air con offer for example. Interestingly, our Parador rep, when we were signing up with PW, advised us against buying air con if we were planning to rent out. He thought the electricity costs would have a serious effect on rental yields. I have not decided on this yet but I thought it was interesting advice from someone who claimed to have bought himself on other PW sites. So I don't regret not joining the Parador club - and judging from other comments I am glad to have hung on to the money!