Lost Mexican Vacation

by Neil Harrison

Modified on June 7, 2006, to remove all references to a particular resort. This modification was made in good faith that the resort will honor our cancellation letters and not in any way admitting to any slander or libel accusations. The story is true. It happened and is continuing to happen to us.

Due to the interest this has generated, please email comments on this story to the following: timeshare.nightmare@sueharrison.com

On March 25th 2006, Sue and I traveled to Cozumel, Mexico, for a long awaited vacation. We looked forward to snorkeling, diving, and just enjoying the sun. We were met at the airport by the typical timeshare promotion people and made the mistake of agreeing to attend a timeshare promotion at a resort in Playa del Carmen, a 30 minute ferry ride from Cozumel. The promotion offered to pay for ferry tickets (4X $11), supply tickets to Tulum (2X $12), give us a rental car for one day ($50), and provide a spa certificate ($100 credit) for just attending. We were required to pay $40 cash deposit of which $10 was refunded at the resort. Since we had never been to Playa del Carmen on our previous trips to Cozumel, we accepted the offer and caught the 8 a.m. ferry the next day, Sunday, the first full day of our vacation.

We arrived at the resort at 9 a.m. for what was supposed to be a 90-minute presentation and tour of the resort. We left the resort at 4 p.m. with documents that had us owning what was called a 2+6 2 bedroom timeshare. We had been talked into an elaborate scheme which included the trading of two timeshares that we owned and what I have since found to be the latest tactic, giving us 6 VIP weeks each year that we could use or rent through their broker for $1700 net per week.

We cannot explain why we agreed to the proposal. We have a lot of experience with timeshares and timeshare promotion and have been vocal opponents of retail timeshare purchases with our friends. We have enjoyed using and trading our existing timeshare weeks, but we never have felt they were or are a good investment.

Leaving the resort for our ferry trip back to Cozumel, we both knew we made a bad decision. The trip back and dinner that evening was very quiet. I had no appetite. Back at our hotel, we began to look through the package of documents we had received. We found we had separate contracts for a master suite and a membership in another club. Paragraph 13 on our contracts stated that we had a 5-day right to cancel with the resulting refund of all monies. We had authorized a charge to our credit card for what amounted to the approximate real value of the deal although we had also given up our 2 existing timeshares and signed a promissory note for a substantial additional amount.

On Monday, March 27th, I returned to the resort with our cancellation letter. After being placed in a room away from the sales room and waiting for 15 minutes, one of the sales people who had dealt with us the previous day entered with copies of 4 documents that we had signed. He stated that we could not cancel our contracts because we had already received services from the resort since they had already sold our timeshares and rented our 2006 weeks through their broker. The agreement that we signed to allow them to rent our weeks also contained a line that stated we agreed to give up our right to cancel under Mexican law.

After returning to our hotel on Cozumel, I found a website called www.thetimesharebeat.com which contained a link to Consumer Alerts. Under Mexico Timeshare Fraud Alert, I found we were not the first to have this experience. The link: http://www.mexicolaw.com/LawInfo24.htm#Cancellation explains that the 5-day right cannot be waived even if you knew you were waving it. The website also gave directions for "If you have found yourself a victim of fraud in Mexico," and we proceeded to find the Profeco office (Mexican Consumer Protection Agency) in Cozumel. They called the resort and then faxed our cancellation letter to them. We were told to return to the resort and get our money back since the cancellation was official and it was only the second day since the contract was signed.

Wednesday morning, we returned again to the resort. We were told that the only one who could approve our cancellation was their lawyer, but we were fortunate that he came from Cancun to Playa del Carmen on Wednesdays and would be in at 9:45. We were allowed to wait in the same room again and every 20 minutes or so, a salesman would come in and announce that the lawyer was almost there. At approximately 11:30 a.m., after 2 and 1/2 hours of waiting, we were told that there had been a terrible accident on the road from Cancun and the lawyer would not be able to make it.

We rented a car and drove to Cancun to meet the lawyer. President Bush was scheduled to be in the hotel next door the next day, so we encountered a lot of security checkpoints and army etc. On our way to meet the resort's lawyer. Their lawyer said we were entering a negotiation phase. He offered to allow us to reduce our contract to a 1+3 2-bedroom timeshare for the amount that had already been charged to our credit card or we would be taken to court in Mexico City and, with the appeals process in Mexico, could take up to two years to settle. Even if we won, we would have our money tied up for a long time and spend a lot more. We had left our hotel at 7 a.m. and since it was now 5:30 p.m., getting our timeshares back, removing the note, and having the same basic ownership, we agreed to the new offer. We were to drive back to Playa where the contract person would be waiting with a new contract. We became tangled up in closed streets at Playa del Carmen due to hurricane damage and did not get back to the resort until 9 p.m. to find the contract officer had left at 8 p.m.. The next boat to Cozumel was at 11 p.m. We had an ice cream cone while waiting for the ferry; this was the first food we had since we had eaten an apple while leaving our resort that morning.

Thursday, we returned to the resort and signed the new contract. We did not like the wording concerning the cancellation of the old contract and transfer to the new contract but were told that it was just the way it was done. We kept asking, "Why would you want unhappy owners?" We were told that after a couple of times using the resort, we would be happy. We had also been told by the salespeople that if it were not working out for us after one year, they would buy the timeshare back from us at full market value which would probably be 22% higher.

We had planned on spending Friday on the beach at our hotel. By noon, we decided that we should not have to own something that we did not want, and that since we were not allowed to cancel as the law allows, we would once again send another cancellation letter. Back to Profeco in Cozumel with a second cancellation letter. Profeco put their stamp on our letter, called the resort's lawyer, and faxed the new letter to them. Their lawyer told me they would not accept the cancellation letter and that they were prepared to take it all the way.

We left Cozumel at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

On Wednesday, April 5, we received a phone call from the lawyer stating that they will not accept our cancellation and that they will take us to court in Mexico City. He said he would call Monday to see if we were willing to keep the last contract or whether we would go to court.

We contacted the office of our Congressman and we received a quick call back from a staffer with information on whom to contact in the State Department. We have been contacted by the State Department and told that the first line of defense is with Profeco; and that since we are already dealing with them, we are ahead of most of the people who call with similar complaints. We were given the contact person in the US Embassy in Mexico. We also received the following response from Profeco: "Regarding your complaint you have the right to be refunded your deposit if you canceled the contract within the 5 working days from the signature, then, they have the obligation to refund you within 15 working days from the cancellation notice, even if you have signed a waiver."

Monday April 10: The lawyer from the resort called to see if we were willing to keep the contract or go to court. I told him we would stay with Profeco and wanted our contracts canceled and our money back. He responded "See you in court."

May 30, 2006: The lawyer from the resort called to tell us that he had spoken with our bank and refused to give back our money. He offered one more chance to reach a compromise before going to court. He stated "you will not get your money back."

June 6, 2006: The lawyer from the resort called to tell us that he had found our story on the web and that we were damaging their business. If we do not remove the story, we will be sued.

Our story is simply our story as it happened. We would only consider removing our story from the web when we receive confirmation that our cancellation of all contracts have been accepted and our Visa company receives a credit for charges as Mexican law provides.

June 7, 2006: We received another threat from the lawyer stating that our story is causing them damages of approximately $150,000 per day. He said if we do not take away our slander from the Internet they are going to take this money away from us plus the total cost of membership.

Since we have only asked to be allowed to cancel as the Mexican law allows, and do not want to hurt their business, we have removed all references and names of their resort. There are hundreds of resorts in the area so this should not cause them a problem. It is still a factual story.

June 12, 2006: Received hard copy threat of lawsuit and collection by Resort Management International of North Carolina.

June 13, 2006: Phone call from a young lady claiming to be a lawyer thanking me for removing the names from the website and offering to compromise on our contract. After me telling her I wanted nothing to do with their timeshare and wanted my cancellation honored, she proceeded to tell me they had not received my cancellation letters from PROFECO. Interesting, since I talked to their main lawyer at the time he received one by fax. He stated at that time that they would not accept the cancellation. It was obvious that she was in a call center for I could barely hear over the other voices on phones.

I will advise and update the story as we proceed.

Nov, 2006: Certified letter from their legal department in Florida again threatening us for this story. We removed all references and names of their resort on June 7. We have no legal obligation not to inform the public of the actual resort that we were involved with. Since we removed all references to that resort, we have gone much further than we should have to appease them. If we continue to be harassed by their lawyers, we will add the name of the resort and organization back into this story. They never responded to our request for written confirmation of our cancellation of all contracts, but our CC company reversed charges saving our money.

We have received many emails from people with the same experience with various resorts in Mexico. Many happen to complain about the same resort that we experienced. I highly recommend that anyone thinking of buying a timeshare in Mexico should do a search for "Mexican Timeshare Fraud" and read of the various scams that are currently being used. Unfortunately, it is hard to do such a search while on vacation and being scammed.