In January we were pressured into purchasing timeshare with verbal promises that were not incorporated into the written contract.
We were told that the purchase of 90 000 vacation club points could be combined with weeks from another timeshare we own to qualify us for 300 000 points, the magic number for VIP membership. We would get all means of upgrades by doing so.in addition whatever time we didn't want to use ourselves would be rented out for us for $1960 per week thus paying for itself within a few years.
We told the salesman that this was too rich for our meager pension income but they persisted for several hours sweetening the pot with all manner of inducements. They stressed that this was an investment so after hours of duress (the day after a long flight with several changes of aircraft and one of us just on the mend after a bout of Norwalk virus) we knuckled under. The next day we pointed out that there was a problem because all the verbal promises were not in the contract that we had signed. We we "assured" that they would mail us an updated contract once we got back to Canada.
The bottom line was that we made an initial payment of $7 175 with the agreement to pay the remaining $10 801 after 3 months (during which our propoerty would have been rented out at the aforementioned rate thus helping us to cough-up the balance. Things just didn't seem to be unfolding as Mauel Altamirano, the salesman, had promised.in a blonde moment we sent off the balance in the form of credit card payments. BIG MISTAKE!
After that we found that it was impossible to combine what they had sold us with what timeshare we already owned due to deadlines for depositing weeks/points differing between the two companies. When we telephoned to get things sorted out we found out we did not have this VIP membership and what we'd bought was totally unusable.
After many phone-calls and promises of getting back to us, Johnny Montalbo called us and said that the only way we could make our purchase usable, would be to buy even more points (210 000) for which we could pay by the sale of our other time share (Mayan Palace) which he GUARANTEED to sell on our behalf for a minimum of $39 900. This would be done within 180 days. We agreed because it seemed to be the only way we could recoup the loss. We made certain that the contract was conditional upon the sale of Mayan. We submitted all the documents necessary for the sale. Under this new contract, we had to agree to make loan payments to them using the existing money as a downpayment.
After the 180 days when nothing had happened, we telephoned again and found out from a Don Dinsdale that these fellows.Ru Veloso and Johnny Montalbo, were not working on El Cid's behalf because El Cid is not in the business of selling properties and that we could NEITHER cancel our contract NOR quit making maintenance fee payments. Our contention is that as long as they were calling us from the El Cid telephone and telling us that they were representatives of the company, El Cid is responsible for every penny they have scammed from us.
We quit making payments on both. While we were in Mxico this past January they left a lot of dunning messages on our answering machine. The total they owe us is $20 232.65 in US funds. This is not including our expenses of long distance telephone calls, making copies of documents to submit to PROFECO, and the stress involved in the ruin of our vacations in Mxico.
Rosa
Calgary, Alberta
Canada
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