property exchange

Thanks for that, I have been in touch with Darren but to no

avail.

It seems they are not letting owners make winter bookings

because the supply of available apartments in low. They

prefer to rent them out rather than let owners occupy them

for free. Obviously summer is a quieter/cheaper time so

they have now become flexible on swapping winter for

summer, something they flatly refused to do last time I

asked.

Another year another shambles. Tried to make an exchange,

told to wait until February for a reply as my request was

late (December). Got told today that it cant be done as

winter season has already started. The only problem is that

winter season had started in December when they told me to

wait until February for an answer.

Now I've been told that I can take those weeks in summer,

which they previously point blank refused to do.

I really wish I could sell this place and be rid of these

jokers once and for all.

Last year once you made a booking (even for 1 week) the system locked you out. Is it still working the same way? In other words if I make a booking for one week and then try to come back in a few days time to do the others will I be able to get in?

That particular link doesn't work, for sure, but if you click on Occupancy Exchange in the blue menu bar (above Monsieur Pagès' head), that should be OK - well it works for me anyway, though I haven't tried to get any further than checking it kicks off OK.

I have to say that we had a much better experience last year with this online system than with the previous rigmarole, though it IS annoying you can't come back later and add more requests (we have 6 weeks' allowance a year and it's impossible to do them all at once!). But a much quicker verbal confirmation of our booking (basically because they had to phone to get the exchange fee!) and - may have been coincidence, but we got our first choice of exchange, unlike last time when we were given one that wasn't even on our list of 3!

Hope you have better luck too.

Another year has passed and the shambles that passes for P&V owners department has excelled itself again. Today I received a link to their new website where you can (in theory) make make your bookings and exchanges.

Unfortunately it doesn't appear to work, who would have seen that coming. So the website itself loads up but when you go to « Your Negotiations and Exchanges area » you can a server error.

Well the latest in the bi-annual booking/exchange saga is pretty much as expected. Monespacepro locked me out after I made my first booking. P&V then asked me to send my request by e mail, which I did on 22 Feb and I'm still waiting for an answer.

In the mean time I rang up the residence itself and asked if they were expecting me. They have a booking for 1 week instead of 2, it seems the monespacepro booking worked but the request to the P&V office has been ignored/refused/forgotten about. I am supposed to be going in about 5 weeks time and still cant book any travel arrangements.

Yes Alexandre is very helpful, if only they were all as helpful as him

I have owned an apartment in Les Carroz for 7 years (managed by P&V). Until this year I was always able to book or exchange quite easily, normally by e mail.

I dont know what is going on with the company but it is now almost impossible to get anything done through them. They have refused to accept any telephone, e mail or fax correspondence and require all communication by post.

I am currently trying to exchange some weeks but dont know if there is availability in the location I want. Their only solution is for me to send them a letter asking for the exchange, when they recieve my letter they will check availability and let me know. If there is no availability I will have to write them another letter asking for other dates/locations. I will have to repeat this process until my request is successful. This is a ridiculous system and can only have been implemented to discourage owners from exchanging weeks.

I have called P&V several times, on two occassions I was just told to call back tomorrow. On another occassion the woman on the phone suddenly started to speak French when I complained about the booking system, she then set the phone down. On another occassion I asked to speak to a supervisor, the person on the phone said he was the supervisor (unlikely), put me on hold and then cut me off.

I am just glad that I dont recieve any rent for this property, no doubtthat would be a nightmare as well.

I was able to log into monespacepro once, as soon as I booked one week it locked me out and said 'booking confirmed' or something, now I can no longer make any changes or complete my bookings. I will take your word regarding not being able to swop the mid season week.

I really thought having the online system would help make these bookings and exchanges easier, so far it has been useless I'm afraid.

pboyles40263.7600462963

I was wondering if anyone can confirm whether or not you can exchange 1 week medium season for 2 weeks low season, I was sure you could and in fact I think I did it once. However they are now saying its impossible, can anyone confirm this one way or the other?

I bought my place through a company which has an office in Regents St

in London, can't remember what they called themselves back then but

they appear to be called MGM French Properties now, the same woman

that I dealt with in 2004 is still there.

I'm wondering which agency you bought your apartment through, pboyles?

We bought our house direct through Pierre & Vacances - the salesman who originally dealt with us (in French, because I speak French - and he didn't!) was very helpful if slightly unenlightened during the purchase process, but has since disappeared off the face of the earth....

Also an update on our exchange - I emailed once to ask whether they could confirm our exchanges - no reply. Emailed again, this time playing the 'I don't know what to do; nobody loves us' card, and got 2 replies from P & V the next morning! Both confirmed our exchanges, with booking numbers; one apologised profusely for the delay, the other stated curtly 'We remind you that documentation is sent out one month before the departure date' - which is crazy when you have to book flights, and - in our case as we had given alternative dates and didn't know which one we would be given - request annual leave.

The exchange brochure used to say they would send confirmations for summer 'in April' which was vague enough, but now even that phrase has been removed.

Although we now have our confirmations, I must say I'm dreading next year......and selling our house is becoming ever more of a reality.

Latest chaos from the offices of P&V owners department.

Called the woman I originally bought the apartment off and told her what was going on, she apparently called someone in P&V and the exchange was sorted out. Still waiting for the confirmation letter but I'm sure its OK. Called them just to check and was told it was being posted 'tomorrow', the booking being for next Saturday, nothing new there, of course it hasnt arrived yet.

Given the recent chaos thought I'd also check on my summer bookings made last August, no record of them. I then took a chance and asked if I could make them now over the phone, no problem they said, just send us an e mail to confirm! I had a reply with booking numbers within 2 hours.

Maybe they have finally moved into the 21st century and are accepting bookings other than by post (like they always used to), or maybe I just got them on a good day.

This experience has shown me that perhaps a better way to put pressure on them is to complain to the agency you bought the apartment off, at least they cant pretend to not understand english.

The other thing to mention is that it took at least a year to 18 months for us to receive the proper exchange documentation, detailing equivalent accommodation/weeks etc - till then we were working 'blind' by email. Now we get a pack every autumn so at least you can see where you could (theoretically at least) exchange to. That is, if anyone actually dealt with your requests.....

Oh, this is all so familiar!! We have owned a house at PV's Port Bourgenay resort (Vendée) since 2003 and each year the exchange arrangement has been unpredictable to say the least. The first few years they couldn't seem to get our address right, merging our house number and street with a different town (and once, a different country!). We kept having to chase confirmations but at least they arrived after chasing (and correcting the address).

But last year and this have been particularly bad: we have returned our forms by the stated deadline (end of Feb for summer hols) and last year received our confirmation at the beginning of May (just after the early bank holiday) which is bad enough - but this year, nothing at all so far. I emailed last week but received no reply. I've just emailed again but having read the above post I wonder if there's anyone actually there? I am planning to write and complain to Corinne Durand who at the last count was in charge of the exchange bourse, but I really do wonder if anyone actually cares?

I must say it would be very hard for me to recommend a PV investment on this basis. We had hoped to offer our excess weeks to friends and family but it would just be too embarrassing to make them wait and wonder too.