If you feel you were defrauded at a timeshare or
vacation package sale in Mexico, you can fight back for a full refund.
We have received many requests for help by American,
Canadian, and other tourists who feel that they were victimized by timeshare and
vacation package sales presentations while on vacation in Mexico. Most of
the people who have contacted us for help are complaining about the
experiences they had at the Mayan Palace with both the MP timeshare package, their "Discover the Dream" vacation package,
and now with their "Great Vacation Club" package. Visit our
Common Complaints webpage to see what some of the typical complaints that past tourists have had who have
contacted us.
--------IMPORTANT NOTICE -----
If you are here looking to cancel a contract
or find
information about how to get a refund,
VISIT OUR "REFUNDS" webpage to learn
more about what
you can do to get your money back.
NEW FIGHTING BACK NEWS
Are you looking to fight back against your timeshare
company? Have you read my webpages about fighting back and are wondering
if you can do this too?? NOW YOU DO NOT HAVE TOO.
I have found a couple of website designers who would be
willing to set up your website on a contingency basis. You would purchase
the domain name ($3 to $10 at www.namecheap.com) and the website hosting service
(should be around $50 for a year) and then negotiate a percentage of your refund
as payment to the website designer. The website designer will work using
your story and somewhat copying the resort's actual website to set up a website
that will warn future victims to stay away from the resort. Once the
website is up and running, you will have a better negotiating position to force
the resort to refund you the money they scammed you out of. Most of these
resorts have in the past given in when the victims have stood up to them and
threatened their future business. Given enough "bad press", you stand a
good chance of negotiating a refund and then you pay your negotiated percent to
the website designer as their fee. If this does not work, you are only out
the $60 in service fees which will be a lot less than what you would pay an
attorney, and this approach will probably be a lot more successful.
Visit our
"FIGHTING BACK" webpage to see what you can do.
NEW TIMESHARE SCAM
The timeshare companies have come up with a new scam to
prevent you from exercising your legal rights to cancel within 5 days.
This scam is being mostly reported in use at the Sunset Group Resorts. The
scam starts when you first figure out that you have the right to cancel within 5
days. The resort people will accept your cancellation request, tell you
everything is fine and you will get a complete refund, but they make sure that
there is no evidence that you actually cancelled. This is usually done by
having you write out a cancellation letter which you sign, but which they never
sign and you NEVER get a copy of. Once you leave the office thinking the
whole nightmare is over, all the evidence of your cancellation disappears.
Since you think everything is over, you never follow-up with an email, fax, or
anything that would prove you cancelled within 5 days. NOW ALL THE LYING
BEGINS. You get surprised days later when the resort denies that you ever
cancelled and since you are now outside of the 5 day period and have NO evidence
that you did cancel, YOU ARE STUCK WITH THE CONTRACT. You have to
realize, these Mexicans think it is perfectly fine to lie and cheat any
non-Mexican. Expect that everything they say is a lie. If you cancel
within 5 days, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE HARD EVIDENCE THAT YOU CANCELLED. This
means getting a signed copy of the cancellation letter with their person's
signature on it, and preferably on the resort's letterhead. Take your
video camera and videotape the whole transaction.
For final protection, email or fax the resort a
duplicate cancellation letter and copy PROFECO on the email. Do not
simple take their word for the cancellation, or this will be the second time
they have scammed you and they will be laughing at you, the stupid gringo, over
margaritas that evening.
IMPORTANT NEWS FLASH
We have recently a letter from an attorney supposedly representing Mayan Palace
(see actual letter).
This now convinces me that all attorneys are scum. The material referred
to is a copy of a sales manual that supposedly comes from Mayan Palace. Of
course Mayan Palace can claim that it is a fake, and unfortunately, I received
it third hand so I can not vouch 100% for its authenticity. I initially
removed this material to avoid a legal fight, but several people have asked me
about it so I am re-posting the material with the following explanation. I have to
admit that the material reads exactly like the sales presentation I received
when I was at Mayan Palace. The sales manual instructs salespeople to tell buyers that they can cancel within 5 days,
but their
deposit is non-refundable (this is not what Mexican laws says). This
manual also contains a sample of what to say to a
buyer concerning rental income, future timeshare value, and how to use these
values to show what a "good investment" a timeshare is. Many people have
said "I don't know how we were convinced to buy this timeshare". Reading
through this material will help people understand the how and why of their
purchase, whether it is a fake or not. If you can verify or vouch for its
authenticity, you may wish to include it as supporting evidence in a formal complaint to PROFECO if you decide to fight back. This information is now available for
your viewing and downloading on our new Timeshare Material page. We are
also including on our new Timeshare Material page a copy of a Purchaser's waiver
form used by Krystal International. Anyone having similar material that
other purchasers could use as backup material in their formal complaints to
Profeco or in letters to Mexican Government Officials are welcome to send me a
copy so the material can be posted for others to use.
P.S. I have one visitor take the email address off of
this attorney's letterhead and write her telling her what a scumbag she was.
That really made my day!
Our Mission
To assist tourists who feel defrauded with their purchase of timeshare or
vacation packages at Mexican resorts. We have received many complaints
about Mayan Palace timeshares and the Mayan Escape and MP Discover the Dream
vacation packages.
If you have purchased a timeshare or vacation package within the last 5
days, you have the un-waiveable right to cancel your contract for no reason at
all. Even if you signed a release giving up your 5-day cancellation rights,
these rights can not be waived and you can cancel. The timeshare company
HAS NO LEGAL RIGHTS to keep your deposit no matter what paperwork you have
signed. If you are in this situation and you wish to cancel your
contract or your vacation package purchase,
you must immediately notify the seller that you wish to
cancel and you want a full refund of your money. Go to our
CANCELLATION PAGE for details on how to proceed.
If you are in Mexico and are cancelling in person, take your videocamera to
document your effort to cancel. Without physical proof, some timeshare
companies simply claim that you never attempted to cancel. View the
videotape of my effort to cancel. It was only because I had this video to
prove I tried to cancel that PROFECO awarded me a full refund.
If you are outside of the 5 day cooling off period, you
can still fight back, but it will be a tougher fight. Although you will
not have much of a legal position, go to our ADVANCED REFUND PAGE for more details on how
to proceed.
Your Rights
To help tourist understand their rights we have translated
key portions of Mexico's Federal Consumer Protection laws that w have applied in
the past in support of formal complaints filed with PROFECO. You can find
these listed on the YOUR RIGHTS webpage.
Past Success
To date we have helped over 150 people in their fights with
Mexican timeshare and Vacation Package companies. In Fall 2003 a group of
about 38 tourists fought back against Mayan Escape's Discover the Dream and
netted a total of over $140,000. In early spring 2004 we had a second
group of over 75 people who received over $200,000 in refunds.
A recent tally of our vacation package efforts and our
timeshare efforts has yielded that our refund total have grown to over $1,800,000.
This includes the original people we helped at Mayan Escape's "Discover the
Dream", and more recently timeshare victims at Mayan Palace, Pueblo Bonito
Sunset Beach, Pueblo Bonita Monte Cristo, Hacienda Encantada, Krystal
International, El Cid Vacations Club, and Playa Grande.
I have also recently been accused by two different Mayan
Palace employees of having a vendetta against Mayan Palace. Duh? I
wonder what their first clue was? To be honest, I started this effort
because a Mayan Palace - Discover the Dream sales manger insulted me when I
tried to cancel within 5 days. That incident got me fired up and started
this crusade. The only reason most of my activities continue to be against
Mayan Palace, is because most of the people contacting me have complaints about
Mayan Palace. We have also gone after Krystal International, Pueblo
Bonita, and Sunset
Lagoon when people have asked for help with these resorts.
Fighting Back
Whether you have gotten your refund yet or not, there are
many ways to fight these timeshare and vacation package companies. Visit
our FIGHTBACK webpage for ways to
start. The more people who fight back, the more pressure will be put on
these companies to clean up their business dealings.
Contact Information
MESCAM
- Postal address
- Los Angeles, California
- Electronic mail
- General Information: mescam@mescam.com
Webmaster: mescam@mescam.com
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