Villa del Palmar Cancun review: Scammed 1

On June, we arrived in Cancun and checked into our hotel, Westin. We then took the bus to Walmart to get groceries. We were stopped by Eric (?) inside the Walmart and gave us the pitch of attending a timeshare at a new resort owned a Mexican company.

On the morning of June 2nd, 2014, we were meet by Eric and some girl, he got us the taxi and told us the resort would pay the taxi fee. We arrived at the location and met by Arlene, who talked to us a bit then we went to eat breakfast. Then she gave us the tour.

We went to the sales area and that is when Ron Santiago came to tell us about the deal.

He show us figures of the timeshare cost, 98, 000.00, we told him we can’t afford that (we had been offered beer and champagne, which my spouse and I drank) as we are ready to ask for our gifts and leave, he states, you have a timeshare already? He was told by Arlene prior. We said yes and he said we were lucky. He told us of a timeshare that was “returned” by an elderly lady who couldn’t use it anymore. This one had 6 weeks to use every year and we could rent out week (like he did) and use a week for maintenance fees and he could take our paid off timeshare and use that for a down payment. He said we were lucky because we could revert to the old price of $28, 000. Then the paperwork was begun and that piece of paper he used initially was never given to us. It wasn’t until we got home that we started calling and emailing to ask for where those 6 weeks were and other questions.
1/2
Date of purchase was June 2, 2014. Cost 28, 245.00. Sales persons Ron Santiago and Arlene Fernandez (?).
Ron told us there isn’t a cancellation period because the company was a Mexican company and we had to sign off that we were told this. He also told us not to tell anyone at the Westin about us buying their timeshare because they aren’t allowed to pick us up from hotel. By the time we left, it was 4 ½ hours later. He said he wanted to meet with us on Thursday to buy us lunch, since that was his way of thanking us for buying. We told him if we could (we had activities planned) we would, we were just tired and hungry and wanted to get back to our hotel. He wouldn’t let us leave until we locked in a time for Thursday to have lunch with him.
We wondered how this could happen? We hear about timeshare horror stories and being timeshare owners in the USA, feel incredibly duped. I can tell you, from the time the salesperson sat down, he started the “scam”. Stating that he was a high level representative and just happen to be at this location, so we were lucky. He engaged our children and told our son (who was currently unemployed) if he wanted a 6 month internship, free room and board at the resort, just to call him anytime and he would hire him. He gave us his business card and said any questions we had, to call or email and he would respond within 24 hours. He told us he was from New York, he lives and works in Cancun, he was a retired seamstress, told some family stories. Once I told him I was retired from the police department (civil division), he said he had family members in the police department. He said he owned a timeshare there and rented it out for $3, 000.00 a week.

We felt, at that time, we were very lucky to have this opportunity. To own, to offset as rental income for our future retirement and our children’s future too. We found out, as the cliché states, “it was too good to be true”.

When we explained to our children what has transpired, they could not believe it, they said, “He wrote it down, he was so nice and funny, it was a great deal, where’s the paperwork?”)
We told them, unfortunately, scams happen to a lot of people and now it’s happen to us.
Now we demand for the reimbursement of the money paid and the cancellation of the contract but they only ignore us and send messages in Spanish..?