# [2009] Need help with timeshare fraud!!



## marie60 (May 5, 2009)

We have just returned from our vacation in Mexico and we are canceling our contract with Mayan Palace Regency immediately.  We were deceived and lied to in order to illegally and unlawfully obtain $25,000.00 U.S. dollars from us during our vacation.  We attempted to cancel our contract at the resort within the 5 day cancellation period but our request to cancel was not accepted. we are triying. canceling our contract with the Mayan Palace and we are demanding a full refund of $25,000 to our accounts immediately.

We were told that the Mayan Palace would purchase our two timeshare weeks from us.  They promised to pay us a total of $27,800 for the two weeks.  They had a contract with the prices they would pay for our weeks but we were not given a copy.  We were also not given copies of our credit application and we were not told that we were applying for Bank of America credit cards.  

Upon review of our paperwork, we realized that copies of important papers had mysteriously been left out of the notebook that we were given.  We also researched the Mayan Palace, their rental rates and sales practices on the internet at the resort.  We spoke with our sales representative and asked him for the missing paperwork.  He told us that he did not have the papers as they were already sent to Texas but in the same statement he said that we would be dealing with a company in Florida who would be buying our timeshares from us.  This same company, Luxury Resort Management insisted on charging our credit card account for $399 in order to process the listing of our two timeshares.

We told them that we wanted to cancel our contract since we could not afford to pay for the Mayan timeshare without the money from the sale of our timeshares

The Mayan Palace refused to allow us to rescind our agreement.  We were told that we could not cancel and we would lose all of our money that we paid to the Mayan Palace and that the cancellation period had passed, which was not true.


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## aliikai2 (May 5, 2009)

*Please read*

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61829

It covers what you need to do to unwind this error. 

fwiw,

Greg


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## Karen G (May 5, 2009)

Immediately cancel that Bank of America credit card that was opened without your consent and dispute any charges on it.  Follow through with Profeco in the link that is given in the post above.

Write down exactly what happened--give the dates you tried to cancel and were not allowed to since you were within your rights, according to Mexican law, to cancel within five days.  Give all that information to Profeco and you could also send a copy of that to Bank of America when you dispute the charges.


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## pjrose (May 5, 2009)

You probably already read the nearby thread, Urgent Help:

http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96547

Threads such as these are not unusual on the Mexico and, I think, Newbies areas. 

We are probably only hearing about a small fraction of these problems here on TUG.  With all the complaints this group must be getting, how are they still in business?  I guess the answer is that people keep buying.

Besides their sleazy tactics, the other thing that makes me mad about these posts is that their tactics gives timeshares a bad name.  

Marie60 - please know that there are timeshare companies that do not engage in these tactics, and that do not mislead people by leaving things out of contracts, not giving people copies of paperwork, etc etc etc.  Of course the least expensive way to buy is almost always resale, but even for those who buy from the developers, the process is not always this fraudulent. 

I sincerely hope you are able to get out of this, and I also hope it doesn't turn you off to timeshares.


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## stopfraud (May 6, 2009)

*Marie60:*
 I try to post a reply whenever I notice a victim complaining about Grupo Mayan on any BBS. Unfortunately, by that time, it might be too late for the victim to do anything about it. So, what I write now might not be good news for you. Also, note that I am not a layer, I just tell you my opinion, based on my experience.

I don’t condemn you, this happened to many others – including myself.  Not only Mayan Palace, but all the Grupo Mayan Resorts run the most aggressive, deceitful, fraudulent, and shameless time share sale operation imaginable. Their sales people are probably trained to mislead you, lie to you, intimidate you, coerce you, and trick you into buying time shares from them. That is why they get the huge commissions. They will promise you the stars - most of which will be blatant lies. They are also very skillful in preventing you from legally canceling the deal within the required 5 days - as they did with you.  I am surprised that you knew about the 5 day legal time to cancel: they usually tell you (as they told us) that once you signed, you cannot cancel.  There are specific steps you have to take in order to cancel within the 5 days – not just telling them.  These are spelled out in the law.  They will not tell you what you have to do. They don’t want you to be able to do it, so somehow they will delay you. And I don’t think you have much of a chance to cancel after 5 days. Whatever they told you doesn’t matter. They will deny it and you cannot prove it. They are very careful to protect themselves legally. Note that one of the items they asked you to initial on the sign-off sheet was that: "I have not received or relied on any promise, offer or inducement of any kind, oral or written not set forth in my contract."  And, by the time you discover that all those lies are not in the contract, it will be either too late, or somehow they will derail you in the cancellation process until it will be too late.

 I doubt that Bank of America will let you out of paying – even if you cancel the credit card. You most likely did sign the charge slip, even if you did not realize it. They are very adroit in shuffling those papers for you to sign and initial.  After 5-6 hours of the “presentation” you will do almost anything just to be able to get away from them. And Bank of America must know very well what goes on there, but they will go along with it because they profit from it.

Also, don’t make the mistake of paying the $399 up-front fee to Luxury Resort Management (or any other company) for selling your time shares. It will be wasted money. The salesmen also GUARANTEED to us (of course not in writing) that they will sell our time shares within three months, but all they did was they referred us to a company called Regan which, for $349, listed our time shares for sale on their web site – and we never heard from them again.

Your story is so much similar to ours. Didn’t by any chance happen in Mazatlan? Maybe with the same sales team? I would be happy to share their names with you.

And PLEASE let us know what happens to you.  So many of the Grupo Mayan victims complain on a BBS.   They get advice – some might be useful, some not.  We will never know, if the victims don’t post the outcome – and most of them will not.  Presumably most of them will resign to the fact that they were duped; they cough up the money, swallow their pride, and try to make the best of their investment.  Which is not all too bad because most of the GM resorts are excellent. Hopefully, they also learn from the experience. One lesson is: don’t go to a GM presentation (or owners’ meeting, or whatever they call it) unless you decided beforehand what you will do there! Good luck to you!


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## marie60 (May 7, 2009)

*i found some help*

Well, I contacted PROFECO and they told me they are going to mediate the situation betwen mayan palace and us, also I contacted a lawfirm in Mexico called Gonzalez & Gonzalez, they gave me free advice on how my case looked. 

Does anybody knows anything about this law firm?


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## Karen G (May 7, 2009)

marie60 said:


> contacted a lawfirm in Mexico called Gonzalez & Gonzalez, they gave me free advice on how my case looked.
> 
> Does anybody knows anything about this law firm?


Nothing other than their attempt to post some free advertising on TUG. Their website looked very suspicious with misspellings, incorrect grammar, and an unlisted phone number in California.


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## marie60 (May 11, 2009)

*i found some help*

Hi, well I hired the services of gonzalez and gonzalez.
So far, when i called the resort nobody answered either responded my e-mails, now they called me ,and somehow they want to negotiate. I guess gonzalez is doing his job, but will see.
I will keep you inform of the situation.


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## Sentinels (Jun 6, 2009)

Any updates on the case or your experience with the law firm Marie?


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## Clintshare (Jun 28, 2009)

*Wow! what a problem*

I have heard similar stories and have come to this conclusion. If any timeshare rep says they will sell your timeshare, run for the exit.  

Seriously, has anyone got a story where a timeshare developer actually sold your existing timeshare? 

USA ???

In Mexico ???


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## Dave M (Jun 28, 2009)

Clintshare said:


> Seriously, has anyone got a story where a timeshare developer actually sold your existing timeshare?


Yes, some large reputable timeshare chains will take an owner's timeshare on consignment and try to sell it, if the timeshare is at a sold-out resort. Head over to the Marriott forum where you can read a number reports of such sales. Marriott takes a 40% commission, but sells the timeshare at Marriott's current pricing. Not a bad deal for many owners who want to get out.


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## pjrose (Jun 29, 2009)

Clintshare said:


> I have heard similar stories and have come to this conclusion. If any timeshare rep says they will sell your timeshare, run for the exit.
> 
> Seriously, has anyone got a story where a timeshare developer actually sold your existing timeshare?
> 
> ...



The Royal Resorts is offering the full original purchase price for a Royal Caribbean (maybe Royal Mayan too - not sure - but not Royal Islander) in trade toward purchase of a Royal Haciendas unit.


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## pgrrider (Jun 30, 2009)

Clintshare:

The Royal Resorts has a resale program and they charge 25% of the asking price when it is sold.


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## kathyth12 (Jun 30, 2009)

The Royal Resorts sold a unit for us at the Royal Islander a few years ago.  They did take a 25% commission, and it took almost a year for them to sell it, but we did get our asking price.  

The Royal Resorts, though, is an excellent, reputable company.


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## RIMike (Jun 30, 2009)

*what do you know about the residule value at RI?*



pjrose said:


> The Royal Resorts is offering the full original purchase price for a Royal Caribbean (maybe Royal Mayan too - not sure - but not Royal Islander) in trade toward purchase of a Royal Haciendas unit.



This has always been a challenge to get a straight answer...your help on this matter is appreciated.


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## pjrose (Jun 30, 2009)

*Re Royal Resorts' Residual Values*



RIMike said:


> This has always been a challenge to get a straight answer...your help on this matter is appreciated.



Re the Royal Resorts residual value agreements, I'm going to start a new thread as it really doesn't belong under a "fraud" thread.


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## mempho_to_diego (Jul 21, 2009)

[Duplicate posts are not permitted on TUG. - DeniseM Moderator]


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## Clintshare (Aug 11, 2009)

*Good Luck*



marie60 said:


> We have just returned from our vacation in Mexico and we are canceling our contract with Mayan Palace Regency immediately.  We were deceived and lied to in order to illegally and unlawfully obtain $25,000.00 U.S. dollars from us during our vacation.  We attempted to cancel our contract at the resort within the 5 day cancellation period but our request to cancel was not accepted. we are triying. canceling our contract with the Mayan Palace and we are demanding a full refund of $25,000 to our accounts immediately.
> 
> We were told that the Mayan Palace would purchase our two timeshare weeks from us.  They promised to pay us a total of $27,800 for the two weeks.  They had a contract with the prices they would pay for our weeks but we were not given a copy.  We were also not given copies of our credit application and we were not told that we were applying for Bank of America credit cards.
> 
> ...




Yikes    

MP contracted to buy your other TS weeks for 27,000? C'mon. Of course, such a clause would dissappear from the contract. There is NO WAY any time share company would guarantee to purchase another time share for a stated price. They might say they will LIST the other time share for a stated amount, but the odds of getting the other timeshare sold at that price are about as good as hitting the Powerball for 250 million.....The TUG BBS has, unfortunately, too many instances of this situation. 


And more   They had the gall to hit again for a listing fee???

I hope you are made whole in this.


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## dollydaydream (Mar 1, 2011)

*On my way home.*

Hello everyone,

I have been taking a look at this thread, may I ask what was the outcome ?
Please let me know.

Thanks  
Dolly


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## Karen G (Mar 1, 2011)

This thread was started by a guest in 2009 and the last time she visited TUG was in July, 2009. You can click on the name in blue on the left of the post and send a private message or email, but I doubt that original poster will see your question otherwise.


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## dollydaydream (Mar 2, 2011)

*My update.......*

[Dolly - You need to have Karen's permission to post her private messages in the forums. You are welcome to post your own update - and I really hope you will, because we would love to know how it's going.  When you got home, was there any communication from Grupo Mayan? - DeniseM Moderator]


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## dollydaydream (Mar 2, 2011)

*Thanks for your concern.*

Dear Tropical Lady,

I am learning more and more about this fascinating subject, and how untrue that old addage [You get what you pay for] is.......!!!!!!  Clearly many people get much more for very much less - I suppose it is a bit like an airline, some passengers are paying top dollar, some are on buddy passes, others travel with miles and many just buy thinking that because online the airline says guaranteed lowest price on their web site that is 'gospel truth' - I suppose it happenes in many industries but one would think that the highly regulated travel related players would be more transparant.  I am still curious about this thread, would you know the best way to activate it again or could you advise me of any one who may know what happened to the purchasers.

Thanks Dolly.

PS I will give another update when I hear back from the resort.


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## Karen G (Mar 2, 2011)

dollydaydream said:


> I am still curious about this thread, would you know the best way to activate it again or could you advise me of any one who may know what happened to the purchasers.
> 
> .


As I said in post #20 above, the best and only way to know what happened to the person who originally started this thread is to contact that person. She hasn't been back to TUG since 2009.


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## dollydaydream (Mar 2, 2011)

*Still getting the hang of this.............*

Thank you Karen, I will attempt to do just that.

Dolly


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## DeniseM (Mar 2, 2011)

Dolly - Please note that your original thread has been reopened - please give us an update - thanks!  CLICK HERE -> http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141508&page=8


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## apram (Sep 21, 2011)

Hi Marie60:

Do you succeeded cancelling your TS contract and recovering your money through Gonzalez & Gonzalez?

Are they dependable?

Thanks in advance.



marie60 said:


> Hi, well I hired the services of gonzalez and gonzalez.
> So far, when i called the resort nobody answered either responded my e-mails, now they called me ,and somehow they want to negotiate. I guess gonzalez is doing his job, but will see.
> I will keep you inform of the situation.


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## DeniseM (Sep 21, 2011)

This thread is from 2009, and Marie60 has not been here since 2009.  When you use the search function, please notice the date of the thread that you are responding to.

In your other thread, I provided a long list of posts about this company - http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1177601#post1177601

You can contact individuals privately, by clicking on their blue user name.


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