A few months ago my wife and I took a dream vacation to Cancun our first to Mexico. Upon exiting the airport we were greeted by tourism officials who presented us with an offer to receive a nice meal and receive a free excursion to a Cancun hotspot of our choice if we listened to a 90 minute timeshare presentation. We agreed and went to the Krystal International Vacation club the next day.
The sales rep Eric presented us with the opportunity to purchase a 2 bedroom suite for about $17,000 to which we expressed our inability to purchase something that expensive. We were then given a opportunity to purchase a one bedroom business class suit designed for convention travelers for just under $10,000.
This option was presented to us as a money generating property that Krystal would sell to us and assist us through the convention center across the street and with the help of a broker to quickly rent out years into the future. When I asked why they would do this Eric explained that whey were building a whole new tower on the hotel and were allowing people this deal to raise cash for the expansion.
I was still reluctant until Eric further promised us a 4 digit travel agent access code we could use to book travel through Krystal's exclusive travel agency giving us 20-40% of discount on airfare, and hotels around the world but we could only book travel for our family not friends.
The final promise that pushed us over the proverbial edge was Krystal arrangement with the RCI Bank of America MasterCard offering a 6 month 0% interest rate that would be plenty of time for us to receive plenty of rental income to cover the entire purchase price. We agreed to make a purchase.
During the purchase Krystal disclaimed there guarantee to the rental income, the sales representative Eric noticed my pause when I read that sentence and quickly explained that a hurricane hit Cancun a few years back and that Krystal's lawyers started including that clause for that reason, then he reassured us we would be back to purchase another property from them once we had our rental checks in hand. Unfortunately we continue to sign.
When we returned to the U.S., I Googled 'Krystal International Vacation Club' in hopes to find the website to book travel with my 4 digit access code.instead up came complaint after complaint of how promises were made that turned out to be lies the same promises I received.
I contacted the people who posted these complaints who were happy to call and share there story with me. I quickly entered into a dispute with Bank of America and sent a cancellation letter to Krystal International expressing my concern. I attached many of the letters that I found online to my dispute and even had people send hand written copies of there experience into Bank of America on my behalf. Several people online expressed using the exact same credit card I ended up using.
A few months have passed now I pay interest on my Krystal card charge and have been unsuccessful in getting my charges removed. All Bank of America says is that it is difficult to dispute a credit card charge concerning a time share purchase but can give me no other reason. However the funny thing is that I like many others are now paying bank of America 12-18% on these charges while still trying unsuccessfully to dispute them. Why would Bank of America want to assist me in returning money to me when they can make so much money off my fraudulent purchase?
I sincerely hope you can print this story to make others aware of what is happening at the Krystal International Vacation club so they won't have to endure the same heartache I am going through to pay down these credit card charges and save my credit.
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