Are you all ready for a Class Action Law suit, we will reveal the details to all to who wish to sign up against the clause our Lawyers group found, that will win our case. CNN Larry KingLive, is hosting a interview with us, will will let you know further on the date and time. Moreover, we are also pursuing the Mexican entity Concord servicing corporation out of AZ.

Been trying with NO success to get a copy of my contract from Royal Holiday Club for over 2 yrs. They will not cooperate with me. I have called and sent letters numerous times.

On March 18, 2007, my boyfriend and I arrived in Cancun International Airport (CUN) where we were approached by a travel information representative to attend a 60-90 minute Royal Holiday Club presentation. In return, we would receive free tickets to two Cancun excursions, regardless of whether we sign up for a membership or not. We agreed to attend a presentation the following day at Hyatt Cancun Caribe. During the presentation, Royal Holiday Club explained that they are not a timeshare but a vacation club. Members are able to purchase points and exchange these points for vacation time, hotel stay, airfare, and other services. They began by showing us around the Hyatt hotel and their vacation suites. They explained that once members, we can stay in these suites as they are part of Royal Holiday’s vacation destinations.
We were offered a 15-year bronze membership for ~$15,000. We quickly declined this offer as it simply was too costly, and we are not prepared for such a significantly large commitment. The presenters were very persistent and continued to present other offers, lowering the membership length and price. We denied each successive offer and were about to leave when a Mr. Art Martinez, who claimed to be Director of marketing of Royal Holiday arrived. He presented us with a 5-year membership for $3095. We told him it seemed like a good offer, but we would like to sleep on it and first do some research on their company. He said the offer is only good for that day, and continued to give more explanation as to why this is the best offer there is. He assured us that once we were members, if we had any questions he would only be a phone call or e-mail away. He gave us his “personal cell phone number” (011 52 1 (998) 169-1482) and his “personal e-mail address” ([email protected]), and he would be able to personally help us with any issues that might arise. He assured us during the presentation that he’s available anytime for any questions. He encouraged us to call and e-mail him anytime and even told us that he wants to be the first person we contact for any issues with our membership. To this day, Mr. Martinez has never returned one phone call or email.

Mr. Martinez explained that we have 90 days to decide if we want to upgrade to the Bronze 15-year membership. He showed us “examples” in the membership that showed samples of what monthly payments would look like if we decided to upgrade our membership. If they don’t hear from us within 90 days, then we can simply just keep our 5-year membership with no further obligation. We signed up for the 5-year membership, paid in full. To ensure we were on the same page, we reviewed with Mr. Martinez that our membership was for 5 years for $3095 which included the items listed in List A. We were all in agreement. We again triple checked with Mr. Martinez that the charge to my American Express card was for $3095 with no further charges. He said, “Absolutely, no other charges will be made because you are not authorizing future charges.” I also asked him to tell us of any fine prints or hidden fees within the membership. He assured us that there were none. Seven hours later, we were members. After we agreed to a 5-year membership, it was only then when he gave us a large bag that contained a 2-inch tri-fold portfolio which included a book of travel destinations and directories and a box that contained the travel certificates. When we went back to our hotel after the presentation, we went over the membership and the certificates. To our dismay, we realized the “examples” shown to us of sample payments for the Bronze 15-year membership plan was actually a promissory note to make those payments! We also discovered the value of the points was not what it was described to be. Many of the destinations were well over 20,000 points per week – with many restrictions – making the one week per year virtually impossible. You could do one week per year if you went to certain locations during non-peak times (but, this wasn’t how the plan was described). In the back of each travel certificate we found multiple fine prints. These fine prints were purposely not divulged to us even when presenter Mr. Martinez was specifically asked to disclose if there were any. We also found an alarming amount of discrepancies with the membership we agreed upon vs. the membership that they actually sold to us. The value of the plan was definitely not as described or as promised. We called Mr. Martinez’s personal cell phone the very next day to cancel our membership. There was no answer from Mr. Martinez. After multiple attempts, we were finally able to get a hold of someone at the Hyatt Cancun Caribe. We were swiftly and rudely told that there are absolutely no refunds or cancellations and that no one was currently there that would be authorized to help us with the matter.

We later discovered that this statement alone along with a clause written in the membership agreement is illegal according to Mexican law. (See http://www.mexicolaw.com/LawInfo24.htm) There is a clause in the contract that states that I am not allowed to cancel the contract. This clause is illegal. Mexican law does not allow me to waive my right of cancellation. Mexican law also requires that I receive sufficient and truthful information about the products acquired
(Articles 32, 33 & 34 of the Federal Consumer Protection Law). Clearly this was not the case. Mexican law also gives me the right to rescind the contract when the products acquired are defective in manufacture or hidden defects (Article 82 of the Federal Consumer Protection Law).

After finding this out, we started online research on Royal Holiday Club and found yahoo and msn online groups that have been formed by people who were also scammed by Royal Holiday Club along with multiple sites with dozens of complaints against this company.

http://groups.msn.com/RoyalHolidayClubConsumerAction/messages.msnw

http://www.ripoffreport.com/results.asp?q1=ALL&q4=&q6=
&q3=&q2=&q7=&searchtype=0&submit2=Search%21&q5=royal+holiday&Search=Search

http://www.complaintsboard.com/?search=royal+holiday+club

A week after returning from our Cancun trip and many unsuccessful call attempts to Royal Holiday Club, we finally received 2 voice messages from “John,” a representative from the Royal Holiday Guest Relations Department. He welcomed us to the club. He stated he is our contact person should we have any questions. We called him several times but no answer. A week later, we received two letters from Concord Servicing Corporation (CSC) stating that my American Express card will be charged monthly for our Royal Holiday membership. We immediately called CSC to explain that we have fully paid for our membership and that I did not authorize any further charges to my account. CSC suggested contacting Royal Holiday.

We again attempted to contact Mr. Art Martinez. This time, the cell phone number seems to be out of service and we never get a single response to our emails. After failed attempts to contact Mr. Martinez and “John”, we tried the toll-free number for Royal Holiday. Several more attempts were made to contact Royal Holiday, at least once a day since we received those CSC letters. Of these attempts, there were only 3 occasions when a live person answered the phone. We first spoke with “Alvin”, a customer service representative. We explained to him that our 5-year membership was paid in full and we don’t owe Royal Holiday anything. He said it is showing up in their database that we are members for 15 years and have a balance in our account. He said they may have made a mistake at the presentation. It’s possible that the presenter and the secretary who wrote up the membership may have miscommunicated. He then said he will inform our ‘personal advisor’, “Mike Mora”, of our situation and to make sure Mike Mora calls us back the next business day. Our phone calls were unreturned.

The second successful phone call, we finally spoke with John. John listened to our issues. However, said he could do nothing about it because he was unauthorized to make any changes. We asked to speak to our ‘personal advisor” Mike Mora, but John said Mike Mora was unavailable but will call us back the following business day. Again, there was no call back. When we finally were able to speak to Mr. Mora on May 11, 2007, we explained the same issues to him. He said he will call the Royal Holiday Cancun office to clear things up and will call us back the following business day. Once again, unreturned phone calls. Again, we continue to make calls to cancel our membership, but time and time again have no success getting a hold of a live person that can help or at the very least give us any definite answers.

Royal Holiday Club gave a presentation of deceitful lies. They purposely withheld important details and provided falsified information to lure us into signing up for a fraudulent membership to take our money.

I was on vacation in Cozumel, Park Royal in May. I was given some free tours and a promise of free return trips when I purchased a vacation package plan from Royal Holiday. I have been trying to rebook a vacation in August, and can not get any help from the people I have been e-mailing and talking with. They say they can not honor the coupon I was given. It was not part of the contract. The contract does not look exactly like the one I signed. I signed four copies, and was given one. They said one was for the location of the hotel, another for the bank to secure the trust, one for the home office, and I got the third. I did not read all the copies, believing that they were all the same. I don't believe they were, and now they say my contract did not include the other things I was given with the coupons, so they do not have to give those things to me. I was supposed to be able to return to Cozumel for five years without using my points, so I could use them to go on a cruise. The cruise will take all my points, then I have to pay a fee because the cabin is all that is included, not the food. This is not what I was told when I purchased the plan. I don't want to be part of this any more. I now see the warning our government has against buying things like this. Why wasn't I given this by my travel agent? What good is a warning if you have not seen it? I can see that I should get my money back, it will take a fight with ruthless, greedy people. It would save my bank, the BBB in Southeast Florida, Profeco, the Attorney General's office, e-commerce, The Federal Trade Commission, and the State Dept. a lot of work if they would just have somebody give a flyer with the warning to all tourists going to areas where these resorts host the scammers. Please, write all these agencies and push to have warnings handed out. I will do what ever it takes to get my money back. It just seems like time wasted if someone in our government would do the job they are being paid to do, protect the tax payers and citizens of our country.

I got an e-mail from a woman who was successful in getting her contract cancelled and all money back. Royal Holiday is now calling her and pressuring her to quit the Yahoo Royal Holiday complaints group, and not helping others with problems. I have her permission to repost her SqueakyWheel site here since she is going to have to remove it. Squeaky Wheel's policy is that resolved complaints are removed.

Update May 24,2007: Letters cancelling contract received, they are going to call me to have me discontinue my telling others about the problems. I am interested in hearing what they need to say to me. Since they are continuing to contact me I do not feel this is completely resolved. Only when they are finished calling me will I consider this resolved. I want them to leave me alone.
They also did respond to the BBB of Southeast Florida, whom I complained to.

Update April 29,2007: I have heard from BookIt.com and am satisfied I was wrong in blaming them for any part of the scam. I received a letter from our California State Attorney General's office stating they are keeping a file of complaints, and if it warrants when enough complaints show a pattern of abuse they could take action.

Also, Royal Holiday has reversed both charges for the down payment and the balance to my MasterCard account. The total was over $27,000.00

My Experience:

While at the Park Royal in Cozumel 0n April 04, 2007, Fernando De Leeuw, the project manager, promised that we could get 100% of our money back. This was in a form of a certificate that I have found is worthless. People who have sent them in have never heard from the annuity company. He promised us all the services that other members have not gotten too. I have seen accounts of people who never were reimbursed for the air fair coupons they were given, why would they treat me any differently? Where I really took the bait was when the legal representative, Helene Lacouture, got us to put the full amount on my credit card by offering a discount. They led us down the garden path, and when I did research on them for complaints I knew I would have to fight to get my money back. They could offer us anything, it is now apparent they had no intention of delivering any services. Even though they had the no reconsideration period clause in the contract, I believed we had the guarantee of the money back. Now I know that Mexican law gives five days. Sellers do not tell buyers they have that time. When I called Royal Holiday they told me I could still cancel by sending an e-mail to an address that rejected it because it's mailbox was full. The people I talked to on the phone told me I could cancel, but no one would answer the numbers they gave me. I calculated the worth of the points by dividing the contract amount by thirty adding it to the anual dues (which can go up) and figured out the worth of the points. Then I went to a resort, took the number of points, divided it the value of the points and compared the two amounts and found it cost $301.00 more to use the program than to rent the condo for a week. Some bargain. I have been trying to get them to respond to me and reverse the charge on my credit card and they ignore me. I would hope that someone with authority would just do the right thing and put the money back in my account. I filed a fraud case with MasterCard demonstrating a pattern of misrepresentation with the accounts posted on different Internet sites. I found out more by researching a lot of sites. I believe the thing that helped me the most was reacting fast. If you are becoming aware you too are a victim of this fraud, use the support of others though the Internet. I was strengthened knowing I was not alone, others had gotten results, and others were being warned not to fall for this.

The most helpful group is a yahoo group: [email protected]

If you have access to any bulk mailing lists send links to these sites out and warn Americans about these Mexican scams. Also, go here to write the Mexican Administration for Tourism: http://www.sectur.gob.mx/wb2/secturing/sect_8509_mailbox

As you can see, if you are persistent, you too can get all money returned and out of the contract. Do what she did, and you too will have good luck. Mexico does not have class action suits, and since these agreements were signed in Mexico, you can not file a class action suit. What you can do, is use the power of the Internet, be heard, share your story, and as others join in we are more powerful than a class action suit. People who put things like this on the Internet are pressuring Royal Holiday. They are going to have to change their ways or go out of business because we are speaking out.