My fiance and I were suckered into purchasing a "vacation package/timeshare" and absolutely can't believe that we fell for this!
It all started the moment we stepped off of the airplane in Cancun, Mexico. We needed a cab to our hotel from the airport. I was directed to a lady at a counter where I could pay our cab fare there. I then noticed this same lady signaling another worker to direct us to one of the many kiosk type desks set up in the airport lobby. There sat another lady who showed us where our hotel was for the week and gave us a map of the area.
She then offered "free tickets" to area attractions (deep sea fishing, theme parks, snorkeling, diving, etc) if we would attend a 90 minute presentation over lunch the following day. Didn't seem like a bad deal to us. We should have known when she asked for a $40 deposit that would be returned to us upon completion of this presentation that something was up. We were at this so called "90 minute presentation" for the entire day, almost 8 hours! They fed us a nice lunch, we toured 2 very nice resorts, were served free alcoholic beverages and then it all began.
They presented a vacation package that was so outrageously priced for two people our age that we felt quite certain that we could just turn this down and be on our way. Not the case at all, they worked and worked on prices and packages for hours continuously offering more alcoholic beverages along the way. We wanted to leave several times, telling them that we were not interested but they wouldn't back off! Eventually got the price down to something we thought we could actually afford. After spending the entire day there with these pushy salespeople we finally agreed to purchase one of the packages.
My fiance and I looked at each other the entire time wondering why in the world we were doing this. We were told that we had time to cancel if we changed our minds so that made us feel somewhat better. After signing all of the paperwork, they did return to us our $40 deposit that we had paid at the airport as well as the cab fare of $24 that they promised. We received our "free trip" tickets but ended up not even using them because departure times and actual trips were so limited compared to what they showed us at the airport. We did continue our vacation and had a great time in Cancun.
Upon arriving back home we entered our house all to find out that the air conditioning unit had broken and that it would now have to be replaced. After being faced with such an unexpected expense my fiance and I decided that there was absolutely no way we could afford the "vacation package" that we had signed up for. Reading further into the many pages of documents that we had signed off on we find out that the plan had to be cancelled within 5 business days. You mean to tell me that I was suppose to sit in my hotel room reading documents during my vacation. We never would have dreamed that the deadline to cancel would be before our 7 day vacation was even over.
I was so mad upon reading this that we called immediately to complain and to see what we needed to do to cancel. Just sick to think that they get you right at the airport wanting you to come the very next day because they know if they can get you to sign that day that you will more than likely not read the pile of documents before your vacation is over.
We are now being told to write a letter to "the board" who will review it and see if we are approved to cancel our contract. We are also being told that even if we do get approved to cancel that we will not be credited our 25% deposit which is over $3,500. This deposit, which we didn't even realize was being applied to a credit card that they apparently opened for us. They had us fill out a form and told us that is was in order to get our credit pulled to see if we could get a better percentage rate on our monthly payments.
My fiance and I are well educated individuals and are absolutely sick at ourselves for getting suckered into this whole deal. My heart rate is through the roof as I write this letter and I get more and more upset as I look back to even proofread it.
I wanted to share this with anyone that might be planning a vacation to Cancun because I do not want you to be a victim to this company as well. Please be aware of these types of schemes. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out for us, but so far it is not looking good!
Signed,
Absolutely outraged!!
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