March 2
Attention: royal holiday vacation club
On Feb. 16 we arrived in Ixtapa and were approached by a travel information representative from Royal Holiday who offered us a cab for $60 upon which we would receive a free breakfast, have half the cab returned and an excursion to Los Gatos Beach.in return we would listen for a half hour presentation. We agreed to go the next day. The same guy picked us up out in front of the Melia where we were staying. We met Alonso from member services who was very friendly, took us to breakfast than showed us around the hotel. He took us up and showed us the nicest rooms "we would be staying in". After that we were lead into the presentation area where we were shown, on the map, all the places we could go.
We were then shown a short video explaining the briefest explanation of their program. That you controlled your vacations. You can go wherever, whenever, with whom you want and as long as you want. Then Alonso explained this was not a timeshare that it was a vacation club. More like using a travel agent to book your vacations.
When it was time to start talking about the details, he brought over Oscar Meza, a sales manager who began explaining the program. You can purchase vacation points to be used for travel, hotel stays, cruises etc... He told us that purchasing 15,000 pts would give us that many each year for 30 yrs. It would give us 1-3 weeks depending on when, where, size of room, availability every year. That paying up front, $15,950. Would lock us into a rate of $71.19 per night for 14 days a year. ($15,950. Divided by 30 yrs. = $531.66 per year $465. Maintenance fee divided by 14 days = $71.19 per night). This he said would never go up. That this was the whole idea behind paying up front. If we didn't use all the points, they would carry over to the next year. He told us we would be able to stay at his resort, the Park Royal in Ixtapa as well as many other places, including the Bahamas for one week for 7500 pts.in a 1 bedroom suite, 15000 pts for 2 weeks. That usage would be non all-inclusive. If we wanted to do all-inclusive for a week we could pay the rate of $60 per person/per day and receive the room etc. We were given many scenarios of how we could use our points. If we wanted to use more than our 15000 we could pull them off the back end and shorten our 30 yr. Term to 29,28 etc... Yrs. He told us a studio for 1 week would be 5000 pts. A 1 bedroom for 7500 and a 2 bedroom for 11,250. He also informed us the maintenance fee for the 15000 pts. Would be $465. Per year, not just next year. We kept all the notes that Oscar wrote down on paper that he used to explain all of this.
He left us alone to talk about it, we told him we wanted to think some more, then he brought out the extra bonus certificates/points, airline tickets and cruises. He explained all the extras would not be offered tomorrow and why it was such a good deal.
Needless to say, after 4 hrs we signed up. At the time of signing there were plenty of distractions. Never were we left alone to read the contract before signing. They had people coming to the table to offer us drinks, to thank us for becoming members, a new person to actually sign all the papers with us, offers to save money if paid in full.
We opted to keep all the package info to read over at our room. Upon reading some of the information, we noticed right away there were some discrepancies. Where we were told we could have 1 week in a 1 bedroom for 7500 pts. At the Park Royal in Ixtapa, the resort guide showed for 1 week was 23750 pts. It would take almost 2 yrs. Of points for a 1 week vacation.
We called Oscar to cancel our contract Feb. 18, and 19, before the first five days. Oscar said he had Wednesday off, so we set up a time that Thurs. Feb 21st to meet. He told us that 23750 pts. Were to be used with only the bonus points certificates. That for our points we would get 2 weeks for 15000. He made out a letter stating that we could get 1 week for 7500 and pay the all-inclusive rate for the second week in 2009. Also a letter stating that the all-inclusive rate for Ixtapa and Acapulco would be $60 per day/per person not the $80 stated on the back of our Privileged Member certificate. He also brought out more certificates for more trips. After clarifying all seemed ok we left feeling good about our decision.
Upon returning home on Feb. 23, we had received a call from John Nunez welcoming us to the program. We asked him how many of our points for 1 week at the Park Royal, he told us 23750. When we showed (via fax) him the letter Oscar Meza had signed he told us that Oscar cannot say we can have the week for 7500. We sent John an email stating that we had agreed 7500 pts. Would provide us with a 1 bedroom suite for a week non all-inclusive for 2 weeks, that Oscar assured us this was the case. If it was not the case we want to terminate our agreement and have our deposit returned. We found out the next day that John had been transferred. Now we are dealing with LuLu. We have not received any benefits from Royal Holiday and want our deposit returned.
The program was misrepresented to us. Our rights as a consumer in Mexico are to receive sufficient and truthful information. This was not the case.
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