During the week of May 9 we stayed at the El Cid Marina resort and were enticed to attend a timeshare presentation with the offer of a free breakfast, a trip to Deer Island and a Mexican Fiesta dinner. At the outset of the sales presentation we informed our sales person that we were not interested as we already owned two timeshares and did not need a third. They explained that the points program had the following advantages over our current fixed week plans:
Flexibility: We would no longer be limited to just Interval International properties to reserve from. Your service would allow us access to eight different agencies (4 condo's, 3 - hotel and 1- cruise)
We would no longer be limited to just one week blocks; we could break it up to as few days as we wanted by booking at hotels.
To further entice us you offered the following:
The cost for your points would be offset greatly by the sale of our existing timeshares which they would sell for us. They offered an upfront credit of half of their wholesale appraisal of our existing timeshares off the cost of the new point system to entice us to close the sale. I expressed doubt that you could sell these units for these prices but I was assured by them that through their network they would not only be able to sell them for these prices but that they would be able to do it within six months.
They gave all five members of our party the all inclusive meal/drink package and three free massages.
Based on the above assurances and enticements we signed your contract and gave you a deposit. After we signed we were told that we could not cancel this contract and if we tried we would have to forfeit this deposit.
Upon our return home we immediately filed a claim with our credit card company to dispute the deposit and began doing some research into El Cid and all of the above assurances and have found the following:
Flexibility: According to your reservations department and an email we received from our sales person we only have access to RCI for condo's, ICE Gallery for hotels and Seven Seas, OVC for cruises. This does not offer the flexibility we were sold on.
One week blocks: While it is true that we can break these blocks up into days it does not work as smoothly as described. We can only reserve RCI units for reasonable point's usage. We tried to book a hotel in Hawaii since no RCI units were available and were told we would need 97,000 points for one night. At this rate we could only stay 2 nights without exceeding our 254,000 point's. Again this does not provide the flexibility we were sold on.
Sale of existing timeshares: Based on research we have done with local agents the wholesale pricing that you quoted is not achievable. We have found out that the property we have will only bring a fraction of what they promised us. Based on these types of returns this deal makes no financial sense for us.
Cancellation: Despite their claim we were actually entitled to a 5 day recession period and they were not entitled to keep our deposit as claimed.
Based on all of the above I would strongly urge anyone considering doing business with El Cid to reconsider. They have a high pressure presentation filled with half truths and outright lies. If their product was half as good as they claim they would not need to resort to such tactics and would allow you to give some thoughtful consideration to their offer and not threaten you with possible lawsuits and the confiscation of your deposit money.
We have contacted El Cid and requested our deposit back as well as the cancellation of our contract. So far they won't even extend us the courtesy of a reply.
Beware of el cid!!!
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