I would like to begin by stating the only reason I am adding Carnival Cruise Lines to the list of companies, is so that anyone pulling them up will see this report and be warned about Royal Holiday. Our cruise with them to Cozumel was fabulous! The entire crew could not have been more accomodating.
We heard about the private beach resort through our waiter at dinner, and I can only belive he had no idea what we were getting into.
Upon arrivng at the resort, which we only wanted to pay to enter for the day, we were approached by sales staff and told that the entire day would be free if we would take a tour of the facilities and that it would only take 30 minutes. We agreed. (1st mistake)
After a wonderful tour, then came the margaritas and the salesman Dirk Henrotte, from Germany. After three hours, several drinks, and unknowingly at this point several lies on the part of Dirk, we (myself, my wife, and another couple) agree to purchase the vacation plan. After all, Dirk made it sound too good to pass up. (2nd mistake, it was too good)
Lie # 1, we were told that if we put the down payment on our American Express card, there would be no interest charged, as they had and "agreement" with Amex. Upon returning home, and checking them out, I found out through Amex that not only was there no agreement, they did not even know who this company was, or why they were using them as a selling tool.
Lie #2 When we asked if we could take time to think it over and call them back in a couple of days, we were told that once we left, all of the bonus items promised, airfare, cruises bonus credits, would all be off the table. We later found out through researching the company, that other folks have called and gotten the bonus items at a later date.
Immediately upon discovering lie #1, we contacted Amex and disputed the charge of our down payment, and called Royal Holiday to cancel membership along with sending it in writing and the reasons for cancellation. We were told that they NEVER cancel a membership. (lie #3)
Enter Jason, the customer service representative that uses good faith, handshakes, and everything but Mom's apple pie to make you think he is trying to help you, until he slips up and says that his company (and I'm quoting) will go as far as to give a judge in Mexico a free lifetime membership in order to assure that we would lose in court if we chose to take it that far.
At that point they started threatening us with the big bad creidt bureau. The were going to call the other gentleman that entered the agreement with us, and tell him that we were going to ruin his credit. When I laughed, and told them to go ahead, he had already filed bankruptcy, before they sold us the memberhip, Jason then turned me over to Gabriel Arreola. This kinda got things going for a while. The membership did evetually get cancelled, however, they refuse to refund the down payment of $6,430.71 which was charged to the Amex card in separate drafts at different times while we were waiting to receive the cancellation letter. The letter came nearly 2 months after we were told it would be her in three business day via overnight mail. It came regular mail from Mexico 2 months later after daily calls to find it.
I feel that Amex dropped the ball through their dispute resolution process, as they paid the entire amount after we told them that the contract was being cancelled.
For us this has just begun, this is but our first step. The next step is to contact the State Atty General of Arizona, Federal Trade Commission, and the President of Royal Holiday, Mr. John Siegenthaler. I will also go on the other websites that allow postings of this sort and will mention all others where postings can be found, beginning with consumer complaints. Through this we should reach 2 million on the web, and through Tom Martino The Consumer TroubleShooter, which airs to about 10 million per day. Maybe I can get my $6,430.71 back. That's all I want! We never used any of their facilities and wound up spending our only day in Cozumel getting screwed, but not in a good way.
I have now started to receive phone calls from RCI, which I believe to be the parent company of Royal Holiday as well as credit card offers.
I would not take it lying down if I were to buy a new car only to find out I had been lied to, and this is no different. I will not stop fighting them until I feel this is resolved.
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