New User, Want out of Mexican TS

[Passepartout]

Nope, all cash, no credit cards involved, and it's solely for the MFs. It takes me by surprise, a bit. It's just shameless greed on their part, after scamming us out of so much $ already.

This is something we've never heard of. The M.O. of every Mexican RTU is they simply terminate the membership. The End.

 

[deFraudlk]

Seachange, I wanted to let you know that we also got scammed-- in exactly the ways you're describing-- by El Cid. (We had two salespeople, a woman with the British accent and a guy who said he was from Tennessee... I vaguely wonder if they were the same ones you had!) It's so embarrassing. They lied on basically every single aspect of the sale.

Anyway: ours is paid off and we're defaulting on the maintenance fees. It's not because it's too much, it's because the company is so vile and we can't stomach giving them another dime. I checked the boards today to see about credit score impacts as they apparently sold our maintenance fee debt (like $500, but accruing $100 and change each month) to a US collections agency. I will come back and post more about how it goes with them. So far, nothing is on our credit reports and our scores are 810+, so it will be interesting to see how this goes. My biggest worry is that there could theoretically be a continued stream of collection items with each year of unpaid maintenance fees; I have no idea how it works.

Have you also received the scam calls to sell the timeshare? We had some referrals to "Sphinx FInancial" (but it has has many names, with identical websites) originate directly from El Cid. I know I should probably report them to the Mexican authorities for it. They had the audacity to populate their databases with an email address that I only gave to the scammers for fun.

Yes received several scam emails and phone calls - El Cid Vacation Club.com - not a valid Email address - Alan Valdez scammer and David Martinez scammer plus 2 others. Bilked us out of 1800 and we stopped maint fee payments in Dec 2024

 

[deFraudlk]

Yes received several scam emails and phone calls - El Cid Vacation Club.com - not a valid Email address - Alan Valdez scammer and David Martinez scammer plus 2 others. Bilked us out of 1800 and we stopped maint fee payments in Dec 2024. Tehy keep using an outdated email and their phone numbers don't match. One scammer used the email address"@elcids.mx" Email from el cid does not have an s on it.

 

[deFraudlk]

They are chasing us for maintenance fees via "Monterey Collections" in Oceanside, CA. I worried a bit that simply talking to them (only to say I didn't acknowledge it and El Cid was a scam) could be held against me, but since nothing was in writing, that's probably a paranoid thought on my part. Now I'm debating if I just mail their letter back with the line "The attached is not acknowledged as valid." Or would even that be too much involvement? No email address was provided, and they're not emailing us. I suspect maybe this is a trick, because I am invited to "create an account" on their site. **If I simply create an account, I think that could be seen as acknowledgement of debt?** I mention that to you because I would recommend a) not talking to them, just hang up, assuming Monterey calls you, and b) don't create an account. That simply echoes the advice given by EasyRider above to not cooperate in any way, but I thought it was worth echoing.

I wish we could find all of the other victims. There have to be plenty!

They are chasing us too - long story on another thread about a scam with people using el cid info to bilk us out of money - they have info that only El Cid has so they are working with the scammers. They do not answer emails and specifically state by phone that we can't get out of the maint fees unless we die.. Billings have gone from Monthly to weekly. We stopped paying due to the fraud, the inability to travel, health and financial limitations - they don't care.