The First Group
Reviews and Complaints

Beware of The First Group LLC: A Nightmare Investment Experience

I am writing this review to express my deep dissatisfaction with The First Group LLC (TFG) regarding the purchase of a unit for 1.7 million

AED. The entire experience has been nothing short of a financial and emotional nightmare.

Firstly, the hotel development project was delayed by an astonishing three years. This delay caused significant financial strain on my

family, as we had planned our finances around the promised completion date. The compensation offered for this extensive delay was minuscule and did not come close to covering the losses incurred.

Once the hotel finally commenced operations, the return on investment (ROI) was less than 1%. This is a far cry from the 7-8% ROI that was promised in writing by TFG. Such a discrepancy between the promised and actual returns is unacceptable and constitutes a breach of trust and contract.

Communication with TFG staff has been exceedingly frustrating. Their responses are nothing more than tactical delays filled with excuses that do not add up. This back-and-forth has left my family in financial turmoil, and it seems TFG is more interested in stalling

than in providing real solutions.

Furthermore, selling the property is not a viable option because it was sold to me at more than 50% above the market value. This overvaluation also makes it impossible to get a mortgage on the unit, trapping us in a financially burdensome situation with no easy exit.

Given these issues, I am demanding a full refund of my investment. This is not just a matter of unmet expectations but a clear case of financial misrepresentation and contractual failure on the part of TFG.

My partner and I joined the Aria Vacation Club nearly a month ago. Within the 14-day cancellation period, we duly submitted our cancellation request and received confirmation. In Austria, it is customary for the initial deposit to be refunded under consumer protection laws. However, we were informed that in Dubai, this right only extends for 10 days.

Despite this, the full second payment was deducted from our account even after cancellation, and since then, we have received no response. We felt pressured into signing the contract, although ultimately it was our decision, and we take responsibility for that. However, the current treatment of customers is unacceptable, and we feel it's important to warn prospective members/customers about this.

We kindly request that Aria Vacation Club addresses this issue promptly and resolves it to our satisfaction. We hope that this feedback will lead to improved customer service practices in the future.

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Kind regards,

Christina and Gernot from Austria

Totally disgusted with TFG for scamming people of their hard earned ...bringing Dubai into disrepute. Properties overpriced, inflated projected returns, projects not operational and no returns on investment. What a shambolic company...disgrace to dubai...disgrace to humanity! How you continue to operate is beyond belief... bringing disrepute to your partners and brand ambassadors as well.

I paid almost 160,000 AED and due to financial issues I will not be able to continue with further payments. I will request the first group to refund my money paid so far. I have the receipts of the two payments which I made.

I have health issues and also facing financial issues and will not be able to continue with the payments.

Mohammed Khaleel Ahmed

[protected]@gmail.com

[protected]

Oakville, Ontario

Canada

STILL No Refund

I am in contact with Ms. Maimouna Elessa since February this year.

We complied with everything for the cancellation of the membership with Aria Vacation Club. Submitted the cancellation form and adhere to the 10-day cooling off policy. Submitted all the documents to them via DHL.

She said they cancelled the membership and we will get the refund in 15-20 days. It’s now end of April.

I filed a dispute with American Express card and according to them they didn’t receive a refund for the amount of €2320,77 (AED 9000). I get another answer from Ms. Elessa that the refund should come from IFA, apparently the mother company of TFG.

Please can someone answer us.

We are notifying you of our decision Of Cancellation of our membership at Aria vacation club with the contract we signed on 4th of March 2024, so during our cooling off period. Today we send all the documentation by air mail and we hadthat already notified it to our manager Maimuna Elessa, but she did not repaid back. in accordance with the contract, we only want to exercise our right to cancel the membership in the cooling off period in a correct way and at the same time we are contacting you in order to carry out the matter more effectively.

We entered into a contract with the Aria Vacation Club on September 30th and cancelled the contract within the first 10 days by couriering written notice of our intention to cancel the contract in the form provided in the Contract, and returned the original agreement to the First Group. It has been over 30 days and our emails are being ignored and no return has been processed.

I went to Dubai in 2021 and was approached by the first group, ever since I’ve been making payments to their account accumulating to over 80k$, my business failed and I made the decision to stop and get refunded instead because I asked from the beginning, it was only the first payment that wasn’t refundable. Also in all the documents and contracts I signed, it was never stated that I won’t get a refund. I’ve been texting them, no reasonable response whatsoever and the representative that used to come to my dm to ask for payment is telling me to contact someone else while the new person I’m talking to never responds. I’m just wondering how this kind of fraudulent act is going on in the so called safest country. I thought it was a zero tolerance to fraud country. I’m seeing complaints that has been filed for years and no one has responded to.

On 16th March 2023, I signed the Property Reservation Agreement at the office of First Group. I am compelled to cancel this agreement because it was obtained through deception.

>

> On 15th March 2023, I accidentally encountered individuals on the street who were promoting properties of First Group. Out of curiosity, I inquired about their offerings. They immediately insisted on providing me with a chauffeur to take me to the properties, even though I simply stated that sending an email would be sufficient.

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> The following day, a First Group employee chauffeured me to the properties and spoke about the benefits of purchasing a unit in the hotel, assuring me that the minimum ROI was 10%. They claimed that the 4.25% mentioned in the contract was a worst-case scenario, referring to the period of COVID.

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> Later, I was brought to the office where, without giving me a chance to think, they insisted I sign the contract. Throughout the evening, an employee of the group followed me, constantly asking if I had received any money and urging me to make a transfer.

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> Believing that I would have a good passive income, I transferred 65000 euros to the company's account. Later, I discovered that the actual returns were not 10% as promised, but only 3%.

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> Furthermore, I received a contract by email, outlining conditions and obligations of which I had no prior knowledge. For example, it stated that the construction could be delayed by 24 months and that in the event of the hotel's non-profitability, I may receive invoices that I would be required to pay within 10 days, among other things. Such matters should have been discussed before signing the contract, but it was sent to me when I had already paid nearly a third of the price, leaving me feeling as if I had no choice but to sign it.

>

> Considering the aforementioned circumstances, I demand the cancellation of the agreement and the refund of my money.

these were my savings for many years of work and savings for my pension fund

Now the First Group company just totally ignore all my text messages, mails and phone

They use extreme high pressure sales techniques to get inexperienced investors to buy overpriced property and they push very hard to get a deposit the same day.

The First Group has a product named Aria Vacation Club that is a scam.

A salesman called us when we were walking in the metro station towards the Dubai Mall afternoon of June 11, 2023. He was kind and introduced himself and the company and said the firm had this great experience totally free of charge to go see the tallest Hotel in the world that is in construction. He said it was only for marketing purposes so we believed it.

After that, a BMW Series 7 picked us up, me and my brother and it first took us to the First Group head office. They gave us a form to fill and then we waited to see the "Hotel", but never got to see the hotel. Instead, he took us to a Resort, to show us an investment opportunity... We got to the resort, he bought us launch then took us to see an amazing apartment. He said we could own the apartment for a good price.

After he showed the apartment, he then set down and started his pitch into this vacation points program they have in which you pay 41.000 to buy a 30-year-long apartment subscription that you can use for 3 weeks a year and 60.000 points/year to use anywhere in the world. He made it seem like you are buying an apartment, but when you listen closely, you understand you are just buying a subscription. Which is confusing.

The pitch ended and they started to pressure us to make a downpayment to reserve the apartment because units were finishing. We bluntly said "NO" because no one makes a buying decision so fast without information.

Then, all that "smoothness" ended. They started to get really pushy and hostile. At first, they were kind, then started to get arrogant and hostile and started really pressuring us to pay a minimum downpayment to reserve the apartment.

That's when we noticed it was a scam...

They try to scam you into thinking you are first "visiting a hotel", then they trick you to think you are "buying" an apartment, and then they try to take from you a minimum deposit of $500 to a $1000 to secure the investment. When you say NO, they get hostile, and all the sympathy from the beginning ends.

On our way back home, they assigned a car, the guy that made us the pitch, got disrespectful and tuned the music in the car very uncomfortably high without caring anymore.

What started well ended in such bad fashion. And, because we got very uncomfortable, we decided to drop off in an unknown location and picked up a metro to get back home.

Please don't fall for this SCAM, it's a ridiculous way of trapping you to give them a $500 deposit that may never return.

Stay safe...

Please do NOT fall for the trap of buying their so called 50,000 "Vacation Points" for over U$D 41,000.

I visited them on the understanding that this would be a introductory trip to their upcoming hotel and investment opportunities within their real estate portfolio.

Driver picked me up in BMW X5 (later I learned they have 67 full time drivers all with BMW and Mercedes to pick and drop clients - just imagine the scale).

The agent assigned to me was a young man. (I noticed around 15-20 agents working the clients apart from a large number of admin staff. You will be treated like a celebrity until you say no you are not interested. Then they will suddenly lose interest and even get hostile.) First question he asked me "Are you ready to take a decision?" On my surprise he started his sales pitch. Asking me questions about my family's vacation activity and assuming the answers himself. To cut the long story short he wanted to sell 50K points by which I can stay in any of their hotels worldwide for 30 years for only one payment of U$D 41000 approx.

All of this is a scam and hook you up for life. Check out this company's similar scams by searching Wyndham resort scams. They operate in US and Australia as well that I definitely know. I'm sure other place as well.

Needless to say on insistence on knowing more and seeing the contract before I "Take a decision" I was shunned out of the door 🙂

SCAMMERS IN DUBAI!

This real estate is a scam that will spoil the reputation of Dubai, this set of rogues are professional liers, that drain people of there hard earned money without any pity, its a pity that pilot trust is also working hand in hand with them by taking the one-star review off that would save innocent people been getting trapped with this set of thieves named first group.

I am writing this review to update people on an alternative place where you can put your complaints on Facebook, first group victims we are planning to open and we are trying to open another Instagram to reach out to innocent from getting trapped by this thieves, group of gangs stealing in a professional way.

Firstgroup Real estate Dubai is Scam. heartless scammers and most of them are women.

I am very dissatisfied with the way TFG is managing the hotel. I have serious doubts about whether they are providing accurate financial reporting to their investors. For example, while I was paying for my room in installments, I was receiving around AED 29,000 per year. Once I fully paid for the room, I suddenly started receiving around AED 7,900 per year. I consider this to be fraudulent. This means that the financial report can be manipulated in a way that is not beneficial to investors. An independent financial audit of the hotel is necessary.