As a Mexican American, I feel very ashamed and angry at these people that are doing so much harm to Mexico, with their perverse commercial behavior, as we have learned that we are not the only ones that have suffered the deceiving treatment of the VIP Travel Club and/or the Sunset Lagoon Resort. I think it is time for the Mexican Government to stop once and for all this Company, and for the international tourism to be aware of these malpractices when visiting Mexico, especially Cancun.

These persons contact exclusively the international tourists that arrive to Cancun, even at the airport or at the car rental facilities, where they have agents to do so. It seems that their purpose is that of deceiving people that, once in their own countries, will find it very difficult to pursue the reimbursement of the money they invested on this fraudulent timeshare.

On Sunday May 28 of 2006 I and my family attended a timeshare presentation at the Sunset Lagoon Resort in Cancun, Mexico at 10:00 am. After a way longer-than 90 minute-presentation and declining to buy a timeshare property, Mr. Mario Davila and Mr. Julio Fernandez, both employees of the Sunset Group, offered to us a special promotion which they explained to us as including a total of 20 weeks that could be exchanged through RCI or Interval International, and also included unlimited weeks in the resorts belonging to the Interclub through the VIP Travel Club, to be used within the next ten years. They explained that we would have to pay a yearly membership fee to the VIP travel club and a maintenance week would have to be paid only when any of the unlimited weeks is used during high season. Mr. Fernandez and Mr. Davila also assured us that the 20 exchangeable weeks could be deposited in RCI or Interval International for exchange for cruises. We confirmed the details and restrictions with them several times, before considering buying. The above package had a price of $5,000.00 USD. At about 5:00 PM, tired and after a day of being harshly pushed to buy, we accepted to what we thought was a good deal, then, they rushed us to reading and signing the contract, however we did ask for clarification in the statements that were unclear and they “clarified” those points to us, explaining how it fit with what they had told us. They even issued us a credit card to make the down-payment of $2,716.09 that same day.

Mr. Julio Fernandez gave us his e-mail address as well as a cell phone number telling us to contact him if needed.

In mid-September I called the VIP Reservations Office in order to exchange one of the weeks for a Cruise through RCI, but the customer service representative explained to me that that was impossible since we do not own a timeshare property we cannot do an exchange through RCI, that we could only use the weeks that the VIP travel club has available on their website, and for those we would have to pay a reservation fee, regardless of whether the week is reserved for high or low season. The 20 weeks that were offered to us do not exist; instead they provided 10 corporate weeks to be used in the Sunset Lagoon Resort in Cancun only when an all-inclusive plan is purchased.

On September 26th, I tried to call Mr. Fernandez’s cell phone with no answer, sent him an e-mail requesting an explanation, with no answer as well.

On September 30th I called the Sunset Lagoon Resort trying to contact him, with no success, therefore, I requested to speak with Mr. Mario Davila as well as his supervisor, Mr. Julio Mayer. Both of these men said that we had misunderstood what they sold us and they could not cancel our contract or give us any money back. Mr. Davila assured us that he was going to talk to Mr. Fernandez and call us back on Tuesday, October 3rd, but we never received a call back. Right now, we are still trying to get our money back.