• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 31 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 31st anniversary: Happy 31st Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $23,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $23 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

[ MERGED ] Michigan family jailed in Mexico over timeshare dispute

pierrepierre said:
The law is THE LAW. Defrauding any government...and then posting he was a police man &*^&$#@:? he should know better! Then posting what they did.... Maybe they should stay there a little longer, and have Father Brown (PBS) visit them. We purchased from Palace Resorts, did our research checking...they were on the up and up and a fine company to purchased thru. That was 28+ years ago and have been VERY HAPPY & PLEASED with our purchase. Never went to an update unless we had an idea to upgrade.
Click to expand...
I have owned at Palace Resorts even longer. I am glad you are happy with your purchase. We were happy initially as well. However, once the owner died and the son took over there was a dramatic change in the integrity of the company in our eyes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tia
LannyPC said:
Were the Akeos notified that there was a warrant out for their arrest in Mexico? If so, why would they want to return to Mexico? That would seem foolish.
Click to expand...
No, they didn't know. Obviously, Palace Resorts didn't want them to know. They were visiting for a reservation at another resort.
 
$1.4 million, 18 membership upgrades, 1,570 bookings???? ... wow that's an expensive and extensive project with obviously some major downsides. In Mexico of all places. Doesn't look good for anyone involved.
 
cheech said:
No, not anymore. They split some years ago. From what I understand, the 2 brothers were given control of the palace resorts from daddy, they had a falling out, and they split the properties between the two of them. Hard Rock Riviera Maya, Hard Rock Cancun, Hard Rock Punta Cana, Los Cabos and Vallarta all went to one brother, the other kept the palace resorts.
Click to expand...
True. The brothers ownership is completely separate from each other. We bought when it was one company. Then they split and we can still go to either side, but the treatment we receive is very different. We're still happy with the Hard Rock side, but find the Palace Resorts side to have done everything possible to take advantage of the "subject to change" clause in the contract.
 
trippka said:
True. The brothers ownership is completely separate from each other. We bought when it was one company. Then they split and we can still go to either side, but the treatment we receive is very different. We're still happy with the Hard Rock side, but find the Palace Resorts side to have done everything possible to take advantage of the "subject to change" clause in the contract.
Click to expand...
Same, I have a palace premier and legendary, don't use the palace anymore, too many new levels and everything in the contract that was "subject to change," indeed has....
 
Something doesn't seem right about this. Palace Resorts has a USA address in Miami per D&B


Why wouldn't they litigate this in the USA and affect their credit record? Something doesn't add up.

I am skeptical about "18 upgrades" claimed by Palace info above. Maybe they went to a lot of presentations and got the goodies and upgraded based on sales incentives? Why didn't sales stop them from upgrading? I think we all know why.

The million dollar amounts cited are probably rack rate for the rooms so overstated - could be excess inventory so that could be discounted. It also does not claim that buyers didn't pay their maintenance fees to pay for their rentals against their contract so Palace likely received payment for those rooms AFAIK based on the benefits of the buyers contract.

Not a good look for either party.

It sounds like from the info below that Palace acknowledges that they had a contract that allowed such benefits and although buyers pushed the benefits as a megarenter (aka "entrepreneur" or "sales channel" as we call them in USA - not criminals) it appears that Palace unilaterally changed the contract. See wording below:

1743095730076.png
 
Last edited:
I have been a member of Palace Resorts for over 30 years. We loved it in the beginning, but we have not been happy since the owner died, and his son took over.
I was a member of Christy's FB page where owners expressed disappointment in how we were being treated and the "subject to change" clause of the contract was repeatedly invoked. I agree there are two sides to every story, but a lot of the speculation here is completely off base.
Here is what I understand of their story. Obviously, it is her side as she shared on FB. She and her husband spent over $1M for a Palace Resorts contract. (Moon Palace Grand and Le Blanc are two better known resorts in the chain.) The contract specifically offered benefits to them for "referrals", i.e. getting people new to stays at the resort to stay there. They were extremely successful with their referrals, and she was able to stay there for months at a time for free based on the credits she received from the referrals. However, Palace wasn't happy with how much free time she was earning, so they told her they were ending that part of her contract. She had just booked a huge set of reservations for her son's bachelor party, and they canceled the reservations with short notice before everyone was supposed to arrive. They sued, and Palace came back with some sort of "agreement" that the Akeos agreed to in order to keep from disappointing the bachelor party guests. Then Palace failed to honor this agreement. The original contract had some sort of clause "subject to change" so they couldn't really fight that. However, they follow-up agreement didn't have this clause, and it was with this second agreement that they went to American Express to get a refund of the all-inclusive fees that were paid for these canceled reservations. American Express gave them the refund since they did not receive the villas paid for due to cancellation without cause.
Clearly Palace was fighting dirty, but they resorted to extreme measures once Christy started the FB page with thousands of unhappy members highlighting poor treatment. Obviously, lots of other people had had similar experiences and were sharing them as well.

I am sorry to see all the speculation here about a gift from attending a presentation, etc. etc. I agree that it should hurt the business of Palace Resorts given how they treat guests. However, I am sure many people will blame the victim as I am seeing here so people will continue to go to the resorts.
 
From what has been posted on Reddit and Facebook (take with a grain of salt), they didn’t just charge back their payments on AMEX, she’s been s%*t posting Palace Resorts on their sites for awhile, and giving advice to others on how to cancel their contracts. One Palace group had 8-10K followers. She also knew that Palace was monitoring her posts.

I wonder when/if we’ll get the whole story? I suspect the U.S. govt will step in, and they’ll have to sign a non-disclosure to get back home.
 
cheech said:
View attachment 108317
Click to expand...
Notice here that the Akeos spent $1.4M with Palace. They were huge customers with a huge list of referrals for "fresh meat" to the sales department. Then Palace started canceling their reservations for guests and that is when things got nasty. I have posted more details in a separate post.
 
Last edited:
dioxide45 said:
The laws are more favorable to them in Mexico?
Click to expand...
I don't know the answer, but I do know that there are several "separate" companies involved in the Palace Resorts organization. The contracts are with the Mexico company.
 
Fido Chuckwagon said:
Given the amount of press this is getting, this can and should significantly damage the Mexican timeshare industry in general. Say what you want about scammy American timeshare companies, but I can't imagine even a company like Westgate ever trying to do something like this. It is incredibly short-sighted.

Also, I don't agree that this is a "US laws don't apply in a foreign country" cautionary tale. I'm relatively confident that the same facts applied to someone who owns a timeshare in Canada, or Europe, or Australia, or most other first-world nations does not ever end up with the timeshare owner sitting in a maximum security jail cell. This is definitely a "beware timeshares in Mexico" specifically story.
Click to expand...
This is also lowering my interest in ever exchanging to anything in Mexico.
 
@trippka thanks for shedding light on this. It sounds like their actions to call a sales referral program they devised and recognized in writing in their contract as "fraud" and the national news generated about jailing is damaging their reputation far beyond a small FB group where they cite negative coverage.

Many, including me, have never heard of them before, nor saw this group on Facebook, but now many more across the USA have now heard of them because of this negative news. And are now many in USA are fearful about stepping foot on one of their properties and risking ending up in a Mexican jail - regardless of who is right.

Perhaps the buyers went too far with the sales referral program. But Palace overreached their response and would have fared much better offering the buyers a settlement and an NDA.
 
Last edited:
easyrider said:
Indeed they do and it's totally fine to accept them. My point is this follows the same pattern of unconstrained self interest as the people in jail.

Bill
Click to expand...
One thing in all this is - usually they push you to go to the presentation. I have never asked to do a presentation, but I've been pressured to various levels to do one. Even after I've said I'm not interested they still try and convince me. If I were to decide to take the deal - I can't feel sorry for them. In no way did I ever even imply I was intending to buy anything and their sales rep on check in *knows* this and still says go and get this money after. This isn't my greed here. This isn't anything negative on my character. If you offer me a deal that is bad for you, AND I TELL YOU THAT - and you still push it and then I accept - I don't have any trouble sleeping after that. TBH, I don't really feel compelled to tell anyone I think their deal that they're offering is bad for them - why would I? Very strange PoV to me. Especially when the other entity is a large company.
 
CalGalTraveler said:
Something doesn't seem right about this. Palace Resorts has a USA address in Miami per D&B


Why wouldn't they litigate this in the USA and affect their credit record? Something doesn't add up.

I am skeptical about "18 upgrades" claimed by Palace info above. Maybe they went to a lot of presentations and got the goodies and upgraded based on sales incentives? Why didn't sales stop them from upgrading? I think we all know why.

The million dollar amounts cited are probably rack rate for the rooms so overstated - could be excess inventory so that could be discounted. It also does not claim that buyers didn't pay their maintenance fees to pay for their rentals against their contract so Palace likely received payment for those rooms AFAIK based on the benefits of the buyers contract.

Not a good look for either party.

It sounds like from the info below that Palace acknowledges that they had a contract that allowed such benefits and although buyers pushed the benefits as a megarenter (aka "entrepreneur" or "sales channel" as we call them in USA - not criminals) it appears that Palace unilaterally changed the contract. See wording below:

View attachment 108319
Click to expand...
My understanding is that they paid $1M upfront for the contract so that they would receive incentives for referrals. I am assuming the other $400,000 mentioned is the all-inclusive fees they paid toward these referrals.
 
pierrepierre said:
The law is THE LAW. Defrauding any government...and then posting he was a police man &*^&$#@:? he should know better! Then posting what they did.... Maybe they should stay there a little longer, and have Father Brown (PBS) visit them. We purchased from Palace Resorts, did our research checking...they were on the up and up and a fine company to purchased thru. That was 28+ years ago and have been VERY HAPPY & PLEASED with our purchase. Never went to an update unless we had an idea to upgrade.
Click to expand...
It seems very much like they didn't defraud anyone. They followed the contract till Palace broke the (second) contract. Telling people about good deals certainly shouldn't be illegal - or we all on TUG with the sightings forums and various lounge topics etc are breaking the law. Same with any of the multitude of Amazon price trackers or articles about WalMart flash sales on CBS.com etc. I would be even more concerned about ever entering Mexico if a post made outside the country could be used to jail me.

In the US (at least so far) you can certainly complain about a company online. If this is different in Mexico - again - see above - I'll never go there.

In terms of the "how to" - this again seems like what TUG is all about. Or any of a million YouTube videos about drop shipping, or whatever other get rich quick scheme they sell.

Personally, without more info, I don't even really understand Palace's problem here. They were getting paid per their offered terms for stays. One presumes these payments should make Palace sufficient money for those stays and they really shouldn't care how they were booked. If they're losing a lot of money on them - that's a business problem, and they could change their process. But let's assume Palace isn't stupid and makes money on the MFs. "Not getting all possible money" is a crazy standard various companies have come up with. This seems to me more like Penguin Books being mad because B&N makes "too much profit" when they resell their books.

No - what happened here was Palace wanted to offer a bunch of stuff in a contract they were never expecting to fulfill - like the Red Lobster All you can eat shrimp debacle. The right lesson here is - don't get mad if one person actually manages to use the "extras" that you didn't expect they could - instead plan for some amount to actually fully use them. Ideally, you'd also plan to be OK if EVERYONE took advantage, just hoping many won't. Kind of like mail in rebates.
 
Fido Chuckwagon said:
Perhaps, but I could change “timeshare” to any other service that someone signs a contract for, makes a bunch of payments for, ends up having a dispute over, and then does a chargeback for, and that ending with that person sitting in a jail cell for fraud is ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Again, different country, different rules. And probably a different legal definition of "fraud". Yes it is ridiculous if this situation would have happened in the US, but Mexico is free create their own rules, just like the US is free to create their rules. Comparing the two is pointless, IMO.

Kurt
 
What is curious is that it sounds like the buyers paid $1M upfront for this program? Yikes. Where did a retired cop find $1 million to support this without a loan? It would have been obvious to Palace when they ran a credit check during the contract signing that they had insufficient income to cover maintenance fees and possibly the $1M loan and had to rent commercially to cover the costs.

Reminds me of the guy who paid $290k to buy a lifetime pass on United. Did he maximize it? Sure. Does United hate having to honor it 45 years later? Of course. But life goes on, United is still in business making money elsewhere (Lesson learned and they don't do this anymore).

(I recognize @PigsDad statement about Mexican laws, and agree. However such overreach will damage the Mexican Tourism industry and they have historically been very protective of that revenue source.)

www.businessinsider.com

In 1990, Tom Stuker bought a lifetime pass from United Airlines for $290,000. He has since flown 23 million miles and calls the purchase the 'best investment' of his life.

A United lifetime pass that Tom Stuker purchased in 1990 has helped him fly 23 million miles. His frequent-flier miles have unlocked major perks.
www.businessinsider.com www.businessinsider.com
 
Last edited:
jp10558 said:
It seems very much like they didn't defraud anyone. They followed the contract till Palace broke the (second) contract.
Click to expand...
Only one problem with this -- if Palace had the "subject to change" clause in their contract, then by definition they didn't break the contract as it was perfectly legal to make those changes.

Kurt
 
This is a very positive story for Mexican Timeshare. Two words..Buyers Beware.

Does Mexican Timeshare Resorts belong ARDA ? IF so, what are their response to this subject?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top