We are here to report that the NH Krystal Resorts and their sales staff, specifically Rafael Septien, are deliberately and maliciously providing inaccurate, misleading information in an effort to defraud consumers into buying timeshare packages. This practice is being legitimized by Bank of America through an RCI Credit Card offer which pays this group up front and leaves you the consumer holding a large debt once you realize that you have been the victim of a scam.
Bank of America is well aware of this unethical business activity, and continues to this day to provide unbridled credit to unsuspecting consumers. It is also being propagated by a U.S. Based timeshare brokerage company Resort Solutions, Inc., specifically Brian Jackson, who will lie to you about their success rates for selling/renting NH Krystal timeshare weeks. These people are engaging in unethical, misleading and what we believe is fraudulent business practices. We seek assistance with resolution.
Summary of our complaint:
On 6/11/08, while staying at the NH Krystal Resort in Cancun, we attended a required timeshare presentation, which included a tour of the facility, but not all of the areas because they were under renovation. Upon learning that we were from Texas during the tour, Jose Aspero, our tour guide, asked if we would be interested in meeting Rafael Septien (former kicker for Dallas Cowboy's who played on the 1978 Superbowl Team) As my wife is an avid Dallas Cowboy fan, this was very appealing. After being introduce to Mr. Septien and making some small talk, we told him that we were not interested in the timeshare because we already owned one elsewhere, but were required to attend this presentation. Mr. Septien then began telling us what a great money making investment opportunity this was and to let him show us how it really worked.
He continued to press on about how this was a different type of timeshare/vacation club. The difference was that you did not own a specific week, but 25 flex weeks that you could rent in advance with the assistance of their brokers under a program called accelerated rentals. Maintenance fees were only paid at time of use, so if we rented the units through the broker, we would never have to worry about paying the fees. For an investment of $25,900, we could buy 25 weeks of a two bedroom suite. To further sweeten the deal, he would throw in 25 Krystal Plus weeks which we could also rent under the accelerated rental program. He laid out in writing how we could sell 5 weeks of the 25 weeks of the 2 bedroom suites for $2,100/week and 5 weeks of the 25 weeks of Krystal Plus for $700/week over the next 5 years for a total of $70,000 for a 25,900 investment. He continued to insist that this was a great investment opportunity, and his broker could help us easily rent these units plus the broker could also sell our existing time-share.
He continued to intentionally mislead us by insisting that through his recommended broker, we would receive $7,000 every 6 months, which would be $14,000/yr in 2013. We asked how he was so sure the units would be able to rent out, and he stated that they had an excellent rental history through their recommended brokers. We were skeptical of this, so Mr. Septien immediately went to the phone and got his recommended broker, Brian Jackson RSI, on the phone to confirm this for us. Mr. Jackson indicated that our existing timeshare was in a very hot selling location and could draw $20,000, and that the NH Krystal was one of their top properties which would rent quickly. Both Mr. Septien and Mr. Jackson stated that they had a solid rental history of the NH Krystal property. (intentional misrepresentation of facts!) we asked mr. Septien to put this in writing, which he did on the broker's form and sent to RSI for confirmation, which was received. To further entice us, Mr. Septien indicated that the entire thing could be purchased with a Bank of America credit card with 0% interest for 6 months, and with the rental of the weeks and the sale of the existing time share, this opportunity would pay for itself by January. Since we have owned other condo's with an active rental agency with success, we considered the investment. Based on these expectations, we decided to sign the documents.
Upon our return to the US, we contacted Brian Jackson RSI regarding the sale of our timeshare and the rental of the unit at NH Krystal. He again re-iterated the items discussed above, and had us sign up with his company and pay their fees of $595 for listing both. We should hear from them soon. With this in mind, we continued to pay our payments on our Bank of America account. After several months of not hearing from RSI, we began trying to contact Brian Jackson who never called or emailed us back. Then, we received our maintenance fee bill in the mail from NH Krystal Cancun which indicates it is to be paid by the end of February. Upon further research it has been discovered that this whole thing has been one big con. We were intentionally misled to obtain signature for the purchase of this so called Vacation Club.
We have retained the services of The Owner's Advocate to help us to get the contract nullified and our money refunded. It is a shame that that a once respected professional athlete has resorted to this type of misleading behavior. This taints the entire Cancun vacation experience. We will never go back! Beware timeshare fraud at the nh krystal resort in cancun, quantana roo, mexico, & do not trust rafael septien.
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