More strikes of false advertising at Alma resort

This time they accuse the company of putting their name on a project that they do not own, confusing customers.

TNV, a customer from Ho Chi Minh City, saw that the voucher given to customers attending the conference to introduce the Alma project mentioned Alma Villa Dalat-Sacom Resort Tuyen Lam. He said this was the reason he signed the contract to own vacations, thinking that he will have a chance at a holiday at Alma Villa Dalat.

However, after reading the articles on VIR raising suspicion about the project, he set out to check the information the company provided and found a lot of opacity.

The voucher offers two adults (with no accompanying children) one night at Alma Villa Dalat-Sacom Resort Tuyen.

V thought that this villa—Alma Villa Dalat at no. 49 in section A of Sacom Resort in Ward 3, Da Lat city, Lam Dong province—is owned by Alma. However, after a more thorough look, V discovered that the company has headquarters in Hat Giang, Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa, and a branch in Dalat (the above mentioned address). The Sacom Tuyen Lam resort is developed by Sacom Tuyen Lam JSC. It is unclear whether Paradise Bay Resort Co., Ltd. owns the villa.

The Alma brand on the vouchers and gift cards that Paradise Bay Resort Co., Ltd. handed out causes confusion among customers.

V then asked Paradise Bay Resort Co., Ltd. for his deposit back and to nullify the contract but the company refused.

Lawyer Tran Duc Phuong from the Ho Chi Minh City Lawyers’ Association said that with these vouchers, Paradise Bay Resort Co., Ltd. intentionally confused customers into thinking that it owns the Dalat villa. This made the scale of the project and the mechanism of exchanging vacations between these two locations even more obscure.

Being unable to exchange their vacations for other domestic locations poses a disadvantage to customers, because few people choose to go on vacation in the same week every year at the same location for 45 years. If they want to sell their vacation rights, they will have to spend a lot of time looking for people to sell them to. Moreover, renting for the purpose of re-renting is risky in Vietnam at the moment because it is not legalised.

The vouchers do not specify till when the vacations at Alma Villa Dalat are valid. The villa is part of the Sacom Tuyen Lam Resort and customers will have to comply with the rules set forth by Sacom Tuyen Lam JSC, not Paradise Bay.

The 2010 Law on Consumer Protection stipulates that businesses are not allowed to cheat or confuse customers through false advertising, hiding information or providing inaccurate information about (1) the goods and services that they provide and (2) the prestige and the ability to provide these goods and services.

Phuong said that people who signed the contract can sue, asking for the contract to be nullified and for the company to return their deposit.

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