On 9-23-09 I took a vacation in Cancun, Mexico. While getting our shuttle to our hotel we were talked into attending a timeshare presentation at the Krystal Cancun Hotel & Resort. We had a free breakfast with a sales person that got our back ground information and gave us a tour of the hotel. He then took us to an office where his boss, Eric Guerrero explaining the program to us.
He stated we would be buying a timeshare at the Krystal for $11,000 with the option to set us up with a rental company to rent out our 13 rental weeks for $700 a week, plus 20 Krystal plus weeks. He explained that the profit we would make would cover the loan amount we would be taking out with Bank of America.
When we hesitated he would sweeten the deal by adding additional rental weeks into the deal. He stated we would be paid $9,100.00 for the 13 power weeks, 7 K-plus weeks for $4,900.00 and 13 k-plus weeks in 2010 for $9,100.00. He explained that the hotel needed renovations and the bank requires a certain dollar amount down for renovation costs secondary to fears of decreased tourism with recent fears of swine flu out breaks in Mexico.
The sales person explained that 20% of their hotel rooms had to be rented as timeshares for them to keep ownership of the building. He stated that if they rented all the hotel rooms out they could not technically own the property. Thus, they set VIP members with the timeshares and Krystal Vacation Club as a form of stock like ownership in the company.
Mr. Guerrero assured us there would be no problem renting the weeks. When questioned about people ever having problems renting out their weeks he stated no one has ever had problems renting out the rooms. He then stated if we were unsatisfied we could get full refund within the first year; however we would loose our lifetime status as VIP members. He explained the VIP program travel benefits as what we know as the platinum ICE vacation club. He used the terms interchangeably. We recently found out by the platinum Ice vacation club that it is only a 2 year membership has restrictions not explained to us by Mr. Guerrero.
The high pressure sales pitch lasted over 5 hours. With all his assurances about being able to recoup costs through the rentals, dealing with a well established banking firm like Bank of America, and having the option of canceling for a refund, we regrettably signed the contract.
When we returned home communications with both the Krystal and Regal started to raise concerns. Things didnt seem to add up and at first I thought I just misunderstood. However, after going through all the paperwork, I realized our salesperson and a fax from regal was intentionally misleading making the offer seem legitimate. I soon got a bill for $661.25 from the Regal Resale and Rentals for their management fee.
Eric Guerrero made it sound like this fee was included in the price of the timeshare and that was why he was giving us paperwork from Regal resale and rentals. They are listing the rental at $1250 a week. The fax I received from Regal in Mr. Guerreros office stated the listing price at $700/week. Mr. Guerrero also stated they would list them for $700, a price guaranteed to draw renters.
Expedia and other sites list the rooms at a much lower rate than $1250/week. Further more Regal now states there is a ~$550 maintenance per week. Mr. Guerrero stated the fees were incorporated into the listing price of $700, not that there would be an additional fee of $500 per week. As of this date we have heard no word of our weeks being rented by Regal.
I emailed my concerns including what we were told by ours salesperson concerning cancellations, refunds, the travel club, and rental issues to the quality assurance manager, Ray Rubio, about a month after our purchase. He failed to respond or elaborate on the issues brought to his attention.
I sent another email and again asked about the ability to cancel and get a refund as promised by Mr. Guerrero. Ray Rubio responded by listing clauses in the contract and stated that they take allegations against their sales people very seriously and will investigate. Again, he failed to give me a direct response to my request to cancel for a refund.
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