Sunset Lagoon Cancun Timeshare Fraud

[djaco]

I purchased a timeshare a few months ago at Sunset Lagoon in Cancun, Mexico. I was given a written "guarantee" that I would receive rental income for two years and that Sunset Lagoon's US subsidiary would sell my existing timeshare for $10,000 within 90 days. As it turns out, the US subsidiary is not a part of Sunset Lagoon at all, they are just a marketing company and have no record of any guarantee made by Sunset Lagoon. Sunset Lagoon now tells me that the document I received is not a part of the contract and refuses to cancel the contract and give me my money back.

Sunset Lagoon lied to me and scammed me out of nearly $10,000, and has stuck me with a timeshare that I certainly do not want. I have filed formal complaints with my credit card company, the FTC, Profeco, econsumer.gov, RCI and the Attorney Generals in NC and FL (where Sunset Lagoon maintains an address for purposes of collecting money). At this point, I'm just waiting to see what comes of this and looking for any advice anyone can give me. If anyone has been in this type of situation, I would appreciate any help you can offer.

Needless to say, I advise everyone to stay away from Sunset Lagoon, Sunset Beach, Royal Sunset, Fishermans Village or Sunset Clubs while in Mexico. These resorts are all owned by the same lying theives!

[mjbgonzalgo]

I am a victim of this timeshare too and I have been paying every month for more than 3 years now. This time, I wanted to cancel my membership because of the bad experiences that I have with this company, and for charginng me unathorized amounts. I am so desperate to really get out from this trap. This Sunset Lagoon company is worst. I also read numrous complaints about this timeshare scam which made me want to stop my membership asap.

[joecarrillo]

Please help me!!!
We are in a desperate situation!!!

I went to PV with my wife on March. We end up purchasing a Mayan Palace week there and when we got back and were reading the papers we found out that none of the verbal promises about renting our weeks and selling our other timeshares were in the contract.

We got scared and call them to cancel right away. They told us to relax because they would send the cancellation letter to us but we never received it. Now that I called, they told us that we should have sent a letter of cancellation within our five days cancellation period. We were taken advantage from Mayan Palace twice.

We felt frustrated and taken advantage of. While checking with other victims of Mayan Palace on the web, I found a law firm in Mexico. We were so desperate that we end up hiring their services.

Does anyone have any experience with this company? The name is Gonzalez law firm. Please if you have any past experience with this company or with Mayan Palace, let me know about your case. We are crossing our fingers because we can not afford another timeshare.

[aliu2]

The following describes our encounter and bitter experience with NH Krystal, their sales staff and manager between the dates of September 2007. Upon arriving at Cancun airport on September 8th we were greeted near the airport exit by Diego Carballo Sandoval of NH Krystal. He initially answered our questions about where we were going and then offered us free tickets to popular tourist attractions in exchange for attending a “celebratory” presentation at his hotel on the morning of September 9th 2007. When we asked if this was for a time share, he said no, it was not.
At the hotel, their salesman Eric Guerrero offered to sell us membership to their Krystal International Vacation Club (KIVC). When we asked again if this was a time share, he said no, it was not, it was a “vacation club” and “something better.” They offered us 13 “Power Weeks” and 17 “K-Plus Weeks” at their club that he said we could rent out for ~$700USD net per week guaranteed.

(A) He described this as a good investment opportunity because we could get all our initial payment back and more within 3 years.
(B) He said also there were no annual maintenance fees and we would only pay when we use our weeks.
(C) We could rent a room at all the expensive hotels in the R.C.I. book for just $399USD per week for up to 6 people.
(D) To sell the existing time share in Las Vegas for a good market value and the proceeds from that would repay her money back for the purchase of the KIVC membership.

When we asked again if the rental money is guaranteed, their salesman Eric Guerrero said it was guaranteed. He said that their partner Regal Rentals and Resales would be able to list and rent out our weeks with no problem.
We paid a total of $9, 900.00USD ($4, 950.00 was paid from Mr. Au’s MasterCard and $4, 950.00 was paid from Ms. Liu’s Visa card) for the purchase of the Krystal International Vacation Club membership. We were told would also receive an invoice from Regal Rentals and Resales for listing fees of our 13 Power Weeks, 17 K-Plus Weeks and Ms. Liu’s time share in Las Vegas when we got home.
At this point, we thought we could relax and enjoy the rest of our vacation in Mexico and then enjoy the benefits of the KIVC membership when we got home. However, when we got home and went on the I.C.E. web site, we discovered that the hotel discounts their salesman told us about were not there. Most of their listings were at market rate and the maximum occupancy per room was 2 people. Furthermore, our membership info was incorrect and if we tried to change/edit it, it resulted in an error on the web site. There was also no apparent way for us to add our family and friends to use it. The I.C.E benefits were nothing like what their salesman Eric Guerrero described.
We also never heard anything from Regal for over 3 months. Ms. Liu’s time share in Las Vegas was not sold as it was promised it would and there was no rental money for our weeks at NH Krystal. It was not even apparent that the Las Vegas time share and our weeks were listed at all by Regal. To make matters worse, on January 4 2008, we received an invoice for maintenance fees for 2008 even though we never used any of our weeks. To our dismay, all the benefits their salesman Eric Guerrero said we would get with the KIVC membership were turning out to be untrue. When we looked to our contract to see how we could cancel after a year to get our money back, we were shocked to discover that we were not given a copy of that paper of the contract.
All the other contracts and papers for KIVC, I.C.E. and R.C.I. were there except the one that their salesman Eric Guerrero said would let us try it out for 1 year. When we called Krystal to complain, the Quality Assurance manager RAY RUBIO denied the existence of any such document and was rude to us.
We felt completely betrayed and worry constantly that the sensitive information we gave them during the purchase of the membership would be abused, we were DECEIVED and LIED TO with their DECEITFUL SALES PRACTICES and MISLEADING INFORMATION.
We feel that the contracts we signed with NH Krystal and Regal Rentals and Resales should be cancelled and our money returned to us because they have not given us what was described and promised. They deliberately misled us and gave us false promises so we would sign their contracts and give them payment. We therefore hold both companies responsible; NH Krystal for perpetrating the scam and Regal for being a knowing and willing partner to perpetuate the scam.

aliu.

[can54]

Originally Posted by joecarrillo

Please help me!!!
We are in a desperate situation!!!

I went to PV with my wife on March. We end up purchasing a Mayan Palace week there and when we got back and were reading the papers we found out that none of the verbal promises about renting our weeks and selling our other timeshares were in the contract.

We got scared and call them to cancel right away. They told us to relax because they would send the cancellation letter to us but we never received it. Now that I called, they told us that we should have sent a letter of cancellation within our five days cancellation period. We were taken advantage from Mayan Palace twice.

We felt frustrated and taken advantage of. While checking with other victims of Mayan Palace on the web, I found a law firm in Mexico. We were so desperate that we end up hiring their services.

Does anyone have any experience with this company? The name is Gonzalez law firm. Please if you have any past experience with this company or with Mayan Palace, let me know about your case. We are crossing our fingers because we can not afford another timeshare.

Hey Joecarrillo,
Just wondering if you had any success with the Gonzalez Law Firm. We are considering hiring them ourselves.

[floridaharris]

Thanks for this thread. I had no idea about these scams and will watch out for them!

[disgruntled]

I too am a timeshare owner at Sunset Lagoon. Watch out. I'm convinced their annual dues are a fraud. I emailed them asking for annual invoices, but never received one until five years later. Only to see penalties EXCEEDING the due amount. Pure and simple FRAUD.

[snafu]

thank you one and all for posting. You will prevent others from sharing your misfortune.

[rachellazar85]

Wow! Those sounds like horrible scams, made just to eat away at your pockets. Although this won't help you now, any time something sounds like its too good to be true, DON'T BUY INTO IT! Especially with today's economy, taking the risk is simply not worth it. Those people are trained to work with the human mind, and use psychology to persuade people into something they normally wouldn't even think about doing. Now its your turn to train yourself to not fall into their mess.

[snafu]

Going to Timeshare Promotions for the freebies can be an expensive, long term problem. I suggest you check with Better Business Bureau to make sure Mexican Timeshare Solutions are legit, not another scam. I know there are a lot of credit consolidator/counsellor rip off agents waiting to scam folks. Did you talk to someone in government Consumer Affairs who could explain best actions? Anyone else who feels buyer remorse within allowable days would be better served by paying a lawyer to send fax & registered letter notice of cancellation.

[verenciaL]

Be very careful people.