I received a "free" vacation offer (from purchasing a high ticket item) in September from Mexico Paradise Getaways (MPG). The theory was that they would receive the paperwork and deposit, then send me a survey asking "qualifying questions." From those two things, they would then arrange a trip to one of their participating resorts in Mexico within one year. I would be notified 45 days in advance of travel, and would then send money for the taxes and fees for the air travel. After the trip, I would send a letter requesting my $100 deposit back.
I sent in all the paperwork required, including a $100 good faith deposit, making sure to make photocopies of everything I sent in. I received the online survey invitation approximately one month after sending my certificate, all seemed normal at that time. When, after another 7 months I had not heard anything, I sent an email asking what I could do, because it was quickly approaching 45 days before the year was up. I received an email telling me to "create a help ticket" via their website.
So, I created the help ticket, and was told that I would receive a response "shortly." After four months, I attempted to cancel my certificate via their official "cancellation form" online, because the one year deadline for travel had passed, through no fault of my own. I heard nothing.
Since I was assuming that they had stolen my money, I filed a BBB claim. Unfortunately, in the past year while I was waiting for my trip (or a refund), so were hundreds of other people. I had checked BBB and Ripoff report when I signed up, and most of the complaints were about timeshare pushing and such—things I was expecting and could handle.By now, however, there were over 125 new BBB complaints, over 2/3 of which were unresolved.
The only response I received from MPG (Mr. Craig Snow) was "this has been sent." Unfortunately, I was not quite sure what he meant by that. Had they sent a check when I first canceled in June, but I never received it? Had they gotten the complaint and sent a check then? So I waited until the 10 days of my response time was up, and no check came in the mail. I told the BBB that I did not accept the response from Mr. Snow, they sent the claim back to him, and he obviously did not care. I have not heard anything since.
My next steps will be to sue MPG for my $100. Plus legal/court fees. Plus interest on that $100 and the legal/court fees. I have copies of EVERYTHING I have sent to these people. They are obviously just out there to take $100 from as many people as possible and run. If this were an individual, there would be criminal charges involved. I'd like to pursue that avenue as well—it seems like they are stealing from enough people.
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