1) Sunset contract # 24-3-75 2) Profeco complaint # 912 3) econsumer. Gov #26633968
We purchased a timeshare contract with Royal Sunset Beach Club after a VERY high pressure sales presentaion that lasted for several hours with our 2 small boys in tow (ages 5 & 1 at the time) July 22 at the beginning of a week long vacation in Cancun (we were not leaving until day #6 & there was no readily available means to further evaluate this contract plus the 6 month delay to even access any of the "proposed benefits" presented in the contract / presentation).in addition to the fraudulent timeshare contract fee (discrepancies noted below) we were also required to pay an additional fee of $549 to Resorts International Marketing Corp. For exchange purposes and for Sunset to use first several years worth of weeks as credit towards contract fee. This was also to be used for rental purposes to provide rental income for our timeshare as an investment.
As multiple issues became apparent with our contract, we referred back to pages 5-6 regarding clauses 12,13 and 14 that paraphrased states "Failure on the part of the "Promoter" to provide the service means the penalty is then that the "Promoter" is obliged to reimburse all amounts paid by the "Member" for the undelivered services. We attempted on a number of occasions to work out the issues with Sunset and their only solution was 1) either to continue to pay on the fraudulent contract or 2) to accept a contract cancellation with no refund of our monies already paid to Sunset (neither of those options were acceptable).
After multiple attempts to rectify the situation we escalated our complaint to PROFECO as well as registering our complaint with econsumer. Gov. Our primary problems are:
1. FRAUD (charge #1) - Pg. 1 of Membership Purchase Agreement shows balance financed as $9,815.00, however Amortization schedule, pg. 1 shows balance financed as $10,295 in addition to the fact that this was financed at a 6.9% interest rate. There is nothing stated in the contract
to justify the additional $480 added to the $9,815.00 balance.
2. FRAUD (charge #2) - Pg. 1 of Membership Purchase Agreement shows annual maintenance fee is $719 which matches the fee for Cancun Sunset Club (Royal Sunset - on the beach), however when 2008 week was paid for Royal Sunset, the week that space banked with RCI was for Sunset Lagoon which has a lower maintenance fee of $616 per the 2006 schedule. Therefore we are being charged a higher maintenance fee and receiving a lesser accommodation exchange with RCI.
3. UNAUTHORIZED ATTEMPT TO ACCESS OUR CREDIT CARD - 6/8 documentation showed verification from our bank that Sunset tried not once BUT twice to access our Visa Card for $822 on May 17 & again on June 1 (which Sunset denied the first time I notified them regarding
the May 17 charge, in an email dated Sat. May 22 @ 12:56 PM).
In addition to these serious issues, other problems noted, included:
1.interclub transfer was not just an even exchange for only $89 as presented - instead Sunset tacked on additional fees that basically came to the full price of a week long hotel rental at an Interclub resort. The majority of resorts available through the interclub program were some of the worst rated resorts in the RCI manual.
2. Resorts International Marketing Corp. Was not the rental program that was presented and that Sunset required us to pay an additional fee for. Once we initiated the contract dispute / cancellation, we were told that the RIMC fee would be refunded but after 2 unauthorized attempts to charge our credit card, I am leery of providing that information to them again.
3. Billing discrepancies of not charging the biennial maintenance fee when they had the credit card info on file and were charging monthly payments and then charging us a late fee. Charging our credit card for the monthly finance fee after we had contacted Sunset and told them specifically they were no longer authorized to debit payments from our card (late 2009). After this they charged our credit card and cashed a "check" payment for the same month's payment. This took several months to correct.
4. Multiple issues requiring emails and phone calls to get the RCI membership fee paid that was in the contract and also to take care of various other administrative issues with limited response.
While Sunset continues to argue their case to illegally keep our money through negotiations with PROFECO, we are continuing to present justification to prove our point of Sunset's failure to uphold the terms of our contract (clauses 12,13 and 14) and the fraudulent means they have taken to maintain this position. I will continue contacting approprate websites and agencies to present and/or post my case and the ongoing issues I have with Sunset and their goal to keep our money.
Thank you for your time and if anyone has any further suggestion regarding how to solve this, please let me know. Email
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