In March 2007, I attended a Royal Holiday 90 minute presentation where I met with Art Martinez, the program director of the Cancun sales office set up in the Hyatt Cancun Caribe hotel. He gave us the option to sign up for a 30 year, 20,000 point per annum program for $20,000, but also gave us a 60 day window to cancel our 30 membership and keep the 5 year Unlimited package for the down payment I made of $5995. It has been over a month and I am still trying to get Art Martinez to resolve my issue. I have tape recorded conversations with him over the phone in which he confirms his promise to me that he would let me back out of the 30 year membership program if I canceled within 60 days.
Art Martinez even provided me with his email address and cell phone number, but he has never returned a phone call or an email. I have also tape recorded all my voicemails on his cell phone.
I have done exactly as he has told me. I sent him a cancellation letter at his request via Fedex. I have the Fedex tracking showing that he signed and received the letter. I have him on the phone confirming that he received the letter and was going to work with the Mexico City corporate office to make sure that everything would be corrected and that I would owe nothing additional and would be able to keep the Unlimited Package for 5 years for the down payment I made. He confirmed to me that "Carmen" was going to send the corporate headquarters instructions to correct my plan.
I spoke to Carmen in his office on May 10, 2007, who claims that what Art told me would never be allowed and she has never heard of such agreements being made. She didn't even know about my letter of cancellation, even though she is the one he said took care of everything.
I have also been in talks with my account rep at the corporate office, Migual Angel Juarez, who has been trying to help me, but says that Art Martinez has never contacted him.
Do not do business with these people. My next steps are to hand over all my recorded conversations to a lawyer. I have also written to:
Story Suggestions
Dateline
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020
I encourage others to do so, so we can gain support for this cause. I have send them the link to this website that shows the many complaints that exist for Royal Holiday.
I figure that this would be a great segment, especially since I have so much evidence against them. They love to play taped phone conversations on that show.
I am fed up with the lies and deception. I have over 20 phone calls recorded between myself and Royal Holiday, so you can see how much work I have been putting into this. Please don't fall for the trap. I am not even trying to get out of anything, I am trying to downgrade to the program that was given to me as an option in the very beginning.
I don't understand why none of the news media have picked up on this in the U.S.A. I heard they did an expose on this in Canada. I also don't see how the credit card companies justify doing business with these companies that have a long history of selling contracts without providing services and under fraudulent means. The fact they lie and say there is "no reconsideration period" in their contracts is blatantly ILLEGAL!! I know I told Mastercard about the Mexican Law, I sent a copy of it with my fraud claim. Yet, Visa and MasterCard and others still do business with them. I was told if I put the full amount on my credit card they would give me over $2,000.00 off my thirty year premium plan, so it was around $27,000.00. They called my credit card company for me and waited for me to get an increase in my limit to do the deal. My credit card company should have told me there is an alert out against these types of contracts, do not sign until you investigate, research the company for complaints on the INTERNET. Instead, they gave me the increase, and never said a word. Now I know all the credit card companies have had fraud complaints because of Royal Holiday. I do not know why they are not responsible for protecting their card customers? Why don't the travel agents who book trips in the resorts where Royal Holiday have offices and are allowed to solicit business provide basic information about the history of this company, and the risks of signing long term contracts in a foreign country? We were in La La Land, on our dream vacation, not being scammers ourselves, never thinking people would lie to us to that extent. We are wiser now, but face it, BASICALLY HONEST, HARD WORKING, MORAL people don't think the way con artist do, and trust people. The businesses that are benefiting from our business with them should protect us.
This is an example of what can be done:
I bought a package in Cozumel. When I decided to see what kinds of complaints might be on the Internet about your company, I put in Royal Holiday complaints in Yahoo and Google. When I saw what problems these people had I realized I did not want to be involved. I also saw that it is very important to move fast to get out. First, the lie on the contract, that there is no reconsideration period. The only reason to lie and to cover the Mexican law, is this is a fraud. The other thing, which I did have my financial advisor check out, your annuity is also fake. ABSOLUTELY FAKE!! The cost of the points and annual dues are not value, even IF you get a vacation booked, which I see is a big problem. So I was fortunate to get my money re-credited by your company to my credit card, which I have now cancelled completely, so you can not use that again. My concern is the fact your company destroys customers credit reports. This is why I need an official cancellation of the contract. If you write me and tell me you can do this for me, I will send you my number, for the contract. I read about the terrible HELL people are suffering because of the deception of the presentations and HIGH PRESSURE sales, and it is pure torture, human suffering. If you can really help them free themselves of this agony you are a good person. If you research and read the stories of these people, I am sure you will feel bad for them. Many of these have been going on for YEARS.
Response from Royal Holiday Quality Assurance:
Dear Mrs. Smith,
Regarding your email I gladly inform you that in the next few days our Service Area will send you a Dissolution Agreement of your Royal Holiday contract.
We want to thank you for providing us with comments related to your experiences while being part oh the club. We regret that you haven’t had a pleasant experience as the rest of our almost 60,000 members have.
As soon as you receive the Dissolution Agreement, we kindly request you to remove any current complaint or dispute against Royal Holiday Services or Personnel as well as publishing or communicate any negative comments by any formal media in the future.
Personal, I will take care of this matter; I request your patience and confidence that will be honoring our commitment.
Receive my most sincere regards,
Teresa.
Teresa Sandoval
Quality Assurance Supervisor
Royal Holiday
Corporate Offices Mexico
[email protected]
www.royal-holiday.com
This person has been told not to continue to share her experience, so I have, with her permission, changed her name and posted this to let others know that this is not hopeless. Fight with everything you have and use the Internet to be heard and you too can get your contract cancelled and money back.
I literally JUST returned from a week long vacation in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico with my wife, and we made the mistake of even talking to these guys in the airport as we waited in line for our rental car.
The guy seemed nice enough -- and it was only "90 minutes," right? How can this be bad? Since I am the happy owner of a Mariott Vacation Club deeded time share in Hawai'i, I thought it would be nice to hear about the other options available in case I wanted to buy another week.
The next morning, we arrived for breakfast at Los Tules and spoke to a couple folks while we ate. Then a couple of very informed gentlemen began to talk to us about the club (both of which readily admitted owning Mariott Vacation Club properties and not Royal Holiday shares). At about 90 minutes, we stated our lack of interest in their "points-based" solution but thanked them for the enlightening presentation. -- Then, their tactics changed, and some shark rolled up and became argumentative and tried to get us to sell our MVC deeded time share -- which we had absolutely no interest in hearing about. He continued to be rude and argumentative and it got to the point that I insisted that he call over his supervisor. He insisted that he was the floor manager, and I insisted to talk to his supervisor. Finally, some shady-looking shark came over and asked what the problem was. Rude Shark became all smiles and explained that we were not letting him finish his "presentation" and I told Shady Shark that we had no intention to sell our timeshare to them and had no interest to do business with them. Shady Shark said to send over Javier and start the "exit process."
Javier started to administer an "exit survey" which he filled out VERY slowly as though he was dragging his feet. He didn't even want to write down my comments about the presentation and Rude Shark -- I made sure that he wrote down my comments -- I doubt this survey made it out of that room, but it was a survey...
Well, before long, Javier drops back into a sales mode like we had heard previously, only MUCH slower, and he stuttered as though he was new or mentally handicapped. Rude Shark dropped by a couple times to offer us drinks and offer Javier drinks. They found this amusing, but it only made me angry. I looked around for one of the first two gentlemen who were reasonable, but they were no longer on the sales floor, so my wife asked me to go find one of them. I got up and went back into the lobby: raising a ruckus and looking for help. Shady Shark came up and became VERY belligerent and I began to think there would be an altercation, and I was ready to leave. At this point, it had been over 2 hours, and my wife was determined to wait them out and not leave without our "incentives" just on principle.
We were coaxed back to the table, where Javier began his painfully slow offer. We said, "No." Javier started another offer, and although we said, "No," he continued to fill out this offer at a pace that would make a snail blush. After that offer, he began his third offer. We said, "No" and he said he'd give us a few minutes to think about the offer and he got up and walked away. My wife and I took this opportunity to write down any contact information and any names that we could think of. Unfortunately, very few sharks were wearing name tags.
When Javier came back, we told him "no" and he started a FOURTH offer. Rude Shark came over and recommended that he tell us about "deeds" that they had... I could tell that they were trying to wait US out -- on principle, so that they wouldn't have to honor their offer to us. We told them flat out that they would not get a single dollar from us, and Javier began on about how we could get a better deal if we had an International 01 or 02 credit rating and would we give him our credit card information: "NO!" how about our social security numbers? "HELL NO!!" That's right, he actually asked for credit card #s and our social security numbers!! Then, Javier got up and yet ANOTHER shark came over. This one was missing some teeth and talked as though he was drunk. He made little sense and after 10 minutes, Shady Shark finally came over and ended this awful treatment. He had been standing close by and finally realized he was wasting his time. A sucker wasn't born EVERY minute after all.
Thankfully, we got out of there with our wallets and safety in tact. We were incredibly shaken, but the cruise that we got as an "incentive" was all the sweeter knowing it was on their peso.
Lessons Learned:
1) DO NOT even talk to these guys in the airport. We learned that starting in 2008, Mexican law is going to make it illegal for them even to approach you in the airports and on the streets.
2) DO NOT attend a time-share sales meeting for a resort where you are not the guest. If you do, you will be a captive audience, and they tend not to treat you well if you're not a guest, and you have little available recourse. As a corollary, do not EVER allow them to arrange a car to pick you up. For you will be at their mercy as to when you leave. I've heard of people being there for upwards of 7 hours with this scenario.
3) DO NOT buy from Royal Holiday. Use a well-known, reputable entity that does not undertake unfair business practices. If you're in the market for a time share, stay FAR away from Royal Holiday and instead investigate the options of the Marioitt Vacation Club.
I bought a vacation package from Park Royal in Cozumel and have not been able to book a return trip. We purchased the vacation package in January 2007. In March we tried to book a return trip using our Founding Member option, and were told it was not available for our desired April trip. I thought that was a possibility because of spring break. So now I have tried to book for every week in June, or July, or August. I have tried to book a one week vacation for any week in those months, and they say no availability. If I go to Online travel agencies I can book for any of the weeks, it is only through my Royal Holiday vacation package that I can't get any one of those weeks. I can't get my customer service representative Olivia Hernandez to answer my e-mails asking about this. She only suggests we use our points to go somewhere else. I tried that too and were told that I would have to pay a booking fee. That was never mentioned to me.
I now see so many others like me who do not get anything for the money they have been given. I am not paying anymore, and will do everything I see possible to get my deposit and this year's dues back.
Do not EVER sign a contract if they say the deal is ONLY good TODAY. It is high pressure. Do not sign a contract without researching the company on the Internet. Put in the company's name and the words complaint, fraud, scam. If I had done that before I left the resort I would have known then what I know now. I would have canceled, even though the contract said I couldn't. I have learned Mexican law gives five days, even if the contract says no.
This is eating me alive. My blood pressure is up and I am so upset. I can not afford to throw my hard earned money away. No one can. Stay away from vacation package sales.
We can't book one either. Has anyone out there been able to use their free return trips? How about using points? We have not been able to use anything they sold us.
We are sick to our stomaches!!! My wife and I purchased a vacation plan in September 2006 in Cancun, Mexico at the Oasis Hotel with Royal Holiday, and we too are experiencing all of the same issues as many of you. We were given "extra" vacations for purchasing our plan on that day and even given the certificates to use whenever, however we went to try to use one of the certificates we were told that we couldn't and that they were not part of our contract... Typical bait and switch! We have yet to be able to use our 15,000 credits that are part of our contract to book a vacation, and are dealing with the same rude Royal Holiday representatives.
We all need to get together and sue this company and put them out of business, so they will stop scamming people out of their hard earned money!!!
We fell for the same scam last week. I can't eat or sleep and I feel so sick. There is no getting put. Stupid me signed the part of the contract that days I wasn't drinking. They fed me tons of alcohol throughout the presentation too. I'm so pissed off
I don't understand why we were not warned about this scam by the travel agents, air line, state department, any of the agencies responsible for giving consumer alerts. From what I have seen by Googling Royal Holiday Complaints, there is so much information out about victims. The problem is no one warns the traveler who is on their way to a place in Mexico where there is a Park Royal, or other Royal Holiday resort about the situation. I am using the advice of other victims to get my $23,695.00 back and out of the annual dues of $655.00 a year that the contract has. I feel confident that I will get it back, but it would be nice if I had been told in advance, DO NOT sign a contract in a foreign country without researching the company thourally. If anyone tells you the deal is ony good today, what do you think they are going to tell the customers they lure into the trap tomorrow? I think PROFECO should have the airlines pass out a warning when they are passing out the immigration forms to enter Mexico. It would save us the time it is taking to fight this, and them the resources to focus on other problems.
I am going to do the things all of the people on these sites are telling me to. Thank you so much for putting your experiences out here so we can benefit from them. I have been reading everything I can find for scams, fraud, complaints with Royal Holiday and what an awakening. I believe I have a chance to get my mother's money back for her. She came home really happy about the program, and was telling me about it, so I just put in Royal Holiday complaints into Yahoo, and WOW!! We have one day to document the filing. If all of you had not written about your being scammed, it would have taken months to discover the truth, then it would take about a year to get her deposit back. Anyway, from what I have read, it seems if you wait a few months it takes about a year. Keep up the fight!
I went to Park Royal resort and was given many "free" things for signing a contract on the spot. Now, after they took my money through my MasterCard, I can not talk to anyone about why I can not get the vacation I want. This is driving me crazy. I can see it is ridiculous to continue to try to deal with Royal Holiday and need to get my money back and keep them from ruining my credit. I just realized this today, when I was going online to Royal Holiday and I saw the complaints pages under their homepage in Google. I thought, I wonder what kind of complaints there are. Oh My GOD!! This is the worse than I ever could have imagined.
On October 21, 2006 after presentation of Royal-Holiday club at Ocean Bavaro resort at Dominican Republic and explanation given by Resident Manager Mr. Victor Pena tel. (809)221-0714 we signed a “preliminary” contract because no documentation were offered just verbal explanation. Also we were assured that all that we were doing was signing a promissory note to buy the “real” contract after we will receive all the information once we arrived back home and we read the information we could chose to either enroll in the company or not. That was told us in front of our 4 friends were together with us. After we had arrived back home we waited nearly a month for the information which we were promised would arrive within seven business days, we contacted the company on multiple occasions and on each occasion they assured us that the information was on its way. After approximately two months of waiting I called Royal Holiday Inc. to cancel everything and receive my deposit of $5622.35 back since I had never received any information from this company except a bill to charge me money for a membership that I had never agreed to. Everything that we had been told in the presentation we later found out had been misrepresented and that we were lied to and nothing was as it seems. The contract effective day was on January 1, 2007 but on December 18, 2006 I sent notarized request to stop my payments and return money back to my American Express credit card. After almost seven month of investigation credit card answered that Royal-Holiday club wrote that the “buyer” should request cancellation directly from them. I requested to cancel my contract through the only one contact phone 18009611810(x2610) manager Tony Hernandez who in very bad manner told me that I never can cancel this contract. I sent cancellation request through e-mail but never got respond. Up to now I cannot cancel this contract because the club Royal-Holiday doesn’t want to loose their clear profit.
I am writing to you to report the unethical actions of RHC, unable to cancel their contract or return our money.
Were scammed in puerto vallarta they promised to exchange our existing timeshare to their's (better one) were given a prelimanary offer form the Group that was purchasing our exsisting timeshar - they asked $2600 on top of the 8,560 for interest for closing cost of purchase- it never happened. We closed rci account with B of A-- they are trying to get it back -- we are fighting this-- don't know if we have the support of Bank of America, now they are trying to collect maintance fees...
Please help.
In 2008, 20/20 did an episode on them scamming people and I just wrote to 20/20 and dateline myself to see if they would do a follow up showing that nothing has changed! I know that just one email isnt going to do much so I am hoping that everyone who reads this will also go to ABC news online and email 20/20 and dateline asking if they would please do a follow up because you were scammed. The more emails they get, the more likely that they will take this seriously. In 2008, the people who were interviewed for the program got their mone refunded to them by Royal Holiday. Please email them, at the bottom of the ABC news page, there is a link to contact us.
I bought a timeshare with Royal Holiday and they lied to me at everything, every time I check for travel dates are not available and it's cheaper to booked flight and hotel with Expedia. The service is really bad, I asked to speak to the manager and was told that I cannot talk to her and that I cannot cancel my membership.
Its been a nightmare for me!!! I was doing a research on internet about this fraudulent resort and how to get out of this fraud, i found this information and i want to share it with you, i hope it helps someone:
http://www.timesharescam.com/blog/189-how-to-cancel-a-royal-holiday-timeshare-membership/
Royal Holiday vs. Unsuspecting Vacationer, like David and Goliath
If you look at Royal Holiday’s web site and printed materials they are a big company that has been around for decades. Their in business and the business is sales. They have studied the psychology of sales and practiced on customers that don’t have the experience and information to make informed judgments.
The vacationer is often in a foreign country, a beautiful resort setting like Cozumel Mexico Park Royal, when they are offered the opportunity to be able to return as often as they desire if they join today. The presentation begins by showing the vacationer inflated membership prices. Then the offers begin, the initial prices, etc. begin to be cut in half. One freebie after the other is put on the table. Even free airfare for your next trip back. Actually being there is part of the incitements. It is beautiful; you are having a great time. Wouldn’t it be great to have the ability to be able to afford this more often.
Of course, now you are home and you have tried to use the membership, the incentive coupons, etc. you see they could offer you anything, because they were not intending to give you any of it. One of the patterns you will notice is they ignore you. You call to cancel, they tell you to write, they never answer. They give you phone numbers that don’t have people in authority there to deal with you. They put you off. They rely on you taking so much time trying to work with them that it will be too late for you to get help. The more you read of the accounts of Royal Holiday members as you do research on the Internet you will understand.
First, the average membership for 30 years is around $20,000.00. Then you pay annual dues which are around $650.00. These dues can go up. They have a contract for you to pay this, and they go after you with collection agencies and put bad credit ratings on your reports. Then you can hardly if ever get a vacation you want, because they have people paying cash for the rooms you would use points for. Those people are potential victims of the fraud. If they give the rooms to members they won’t have the chance to make more money. Often by the time a member realizes this they feel hopeless.
You are not hopeless. Join groups on the Internet where people are sharing information. They have been successful. Use these accounts to demonstrate a pattern of misrepresentation and fraud with your credit card complaint. File a complaint with PROFECO. They take claims up to a year after the contract was signed. Like David, the victims who took action got the money back. For those who waited to research they have taken around a year. For those who discovered the scam early within the month. Just send as much as you can to your credit card company with your fraud claim.
You can do it, others have. Royal Holiday is not invincible.
I know what you say is true. I felt like such a fool to believe all the lies and sign the contract. You help me to understand that it wasn't that I am stupid, but they are clever, experienced scammers. I have heard from a woman who just got all her $27,000. put back on her MasterCard. She signed the contract in Cozumel on April 04. When she got home she saw complaints on the Internet, and filed will everyone suggested. She let Royal Holiday know she filed with PROFECO, MasterCard, BBB in Southwest Florida, California Attorney General, e-comerce.com. She sent out an e-mail to a bulk list and got everyone she could to read about the scam. When she filed her credit card fraud claim she printed up everything she could find on the Internet to verify that there was a pattern in their business practice. She showed they lied and said no reconsideration perion on the contract by printing up the Mexican law of five day cancellation. It is not even the end of April and she has every penny back through reverse of charges. She is still going to pursue getting her contract officially cancelled with Royal Holiday, because she has read that they come back later and try to claim you owe them money. So she is not cancelling the PROFFECO action. If enough of us do this they won't have the reason to continue this business. We can drive them out of business. Everyone fight as hard as you can. Write your stories for others to see and use as testimony against these crooks. No one can fight alone, but if each of us takes a stand they will be forced out.
I believed the lies too at Park Royal-Cozumel. It was a beautiful hotel. They seemed so professional. Now I know they were professional con artists. They got my confidence. I believed I would get the things they gave me documents for. I have tried for almost five months to book a trip under the "Founding Members" program, and it is never available. Spring break was spent at home trying to get answers from the customer service (what a misnomer) department. I have given up trying to get any of the services I was sold, I am now trying to get out of the contract and get my down payment back. I have filed papers with the agencies I have heard about from other victims by reading complaint boards, putting in Royal Holiday. There is a lot of good information to help retrieve the money. PROFECO must have a team dedicated to this one company. I don't feel like a total fool because there are so many of us, they were just professional liars.
Thank god we didn't fall for this on our trip to cancun. We were tricked by someone wearing our hotel's uniform to go see a "new hotel" that was all she said and that it was not sales and we would get a free gift for visiting the hotel. Lie lie lie! The guy were with showing us the place said "i don't know" to every question i asked. The saleswoman at the end wouldn't stop trying to confuse us with numbers. Thankfully my man is a math wiz and was like no that's crap and showed them up big time. Some sorry couple fell for this program while we were there i feel bad for them.
If something sounds too good to be true, it def is!!!
Thank you for all the pertanant information. I really needed to see this. I can't believe all they said and gave me is based on lies. Now I know why I could not book the two vacations I tried to at Park Royal Cozumel. I am a "Founding Member." I guess that means I just found out my membership is worthless.
I am grateful to your sharing your experience and the research on how to get help.
Regards,
Tom
I can't believe the 'Royal' group is still in business! We attended a presentation in Cancun - Feb 1999 on the promise of free breakfast, a bottle of Tequila, 2 'Mexican' blankets and 2 day trip tickets to Tulum/Xel-Ha (sp?).
We went into this presentation with absolutely no intention of buying. After breakfast and a tour of luxury rooms (which we knew we would never see again if we purchased), we were offered a package at $ 14,000.00 US.
We continued to insist we would only deal with a company with offices in Canada. Despite the fact that several of the 'senior' sales staff were Canadian (embarrassing), we continued to insist we wouldn't deal with a company operating out of Mexico (they claimed their headquarters were in Florida).
Each time we refused, a more senior closer was introduced, and the price dropped. After over two hours of intense sales pitches the price for the 2 weeks had dropped to $ 2,5oo US!!
After they gave up on us, I insisted on the gifts promised... and we got everything!!!
When we returned to Canada we also discovered on the Internet that Royal had hundreds of complaints.
On the other hand, we have heard from many friends that have successful time-shares - but none through Royal.
I am trying to get out of my contract with them. Anyone who sees this, please, don't give them anymore money.
This is so true...
WE JUST RETURNED 3 DAYS AGO FROM COZUMEL AND MY HUSBAND AND OUR OUR FRIENDS EACH INVESTED $20.000 IN PARK ROYAL. I AM SICK READING THIS. I HAD A REALLY BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS FROM DAY ONE AND TOLD MY HUSBAND. NOW I SEE I WAS RIGHT. WHILE THERE WE TALKED TO 7 PEOPLE WHO WERE MEMBERS. ONE MAN HAD BEEN A MEMBER FOR 15 YEARS AND WAS VERY HAPPY. I AM READY TO START THE CANCELATION PROCESS BUT NOT SURE WHAT HUSBAND WANTS TO DO. HE WILL HAVE TO READ THIS PAGE.
My wife and I were scammed by Royal Holiday! We were encouraged to upgrade our membership by representations that have proven to be untrue. Our complaints involve Granthix Capital, Ltd.
We will be filing suit shortly. Our attorney has prepared the pleadings seeking a declaratory judgment against both RH and Granthix.
I invite you to share your comments. While I am willing to read about your specific fact circumstances, I am much more interested in what efforts you have made (successfully or unsuccessfully) to try to overcome your complaints.
As soon as I realized the truth about Royal Holiday I hit it from every angle. I printed every story I found about them. There are a couple on there now that are showing results. I sent those with a copy of the contract, which stated there was no reconsideration period, along with a copy of the Mexican law which says there is a five day cancellation period. I presented this to my MasterCard that it was fraud, used the accounts of other victims to establish a pattern of fraud, and got all my money back. At the same time I also filed with PROFECO, and will let that run its course in order to have the contract officially cancelled. But I got the charges reversed on my credit card.
We were scammed in Puerto Vallarta by Royal Holiday sales tactics promising to buy a prior timeshare April of 2006. So far we have no success demanding our money back, no response from PROFECO and no help from our State Attorney. NOW the State Department has issued"warning" re: Royal Holiday but I see no real support from our US Government to protect us from this "Mexican" company. There is no rule of law here.
I would like to file a formal complaint against Royal Holiday and also specifically against the Park Royal Hotel in Acapulco which is a Royal Holiday Resort. Our specific complaints are that the staff of the Park Royal Hotel made fraudulent promises during a solicitation for upgrading our membership and that the company Royal Holiday has failed to honor a $1000 travel reimbursement coupon we were given as part of that upgrade. I am also making a formal complaint to the Attorney General of the state of Florida regarding Royal Holiday.
This is a review of the events that have occurred:
On November 14, 2005 we upgraded our membership at the Royal Holiday Park Royal (Acapulco) facility and as part of this upgrade received a coupon for airline ticket reimbursement up to $1000.00 usd. Prior to use of this coupon, I contacted Royal Holiday customer service line for instructions on redemption. I followed these instructions exactly.
On September 15,2006, I purchased 2 airline tickets for $862.00 usd through the Royal holiday preferred travel agency Golden Tours. As instructed, I faxed in the receipts from the tickets, copies of the coupon and copies of the tickets to the Royal Holiday office. On 10/12/06, I received a confirmation email from Ms. Gonzalez Marin indicating that the information had been received and the refund would be processed in 3-5 weeks.
On 12/12/06 I sent an email asking about the status of the coupon and received no answer.
On 12/18/06, I called Royal holiday customer service center and spoke with Ricardo, who said that they were waiting for an reply from Acapulco. A week later, I called again and spoke to a woman, I think her name was Charlotte, who said that "Alexandria" in Acapulco was not answering their emails about the problem.
On 01/04/07, I called the Acapulco office directly and asked to speak to Mirna Jouer. We had been given her name and number as a contact if we needed help with anything. I was told she was unavailable and left a message for her to call me back. She never returned my call.
On 01/18/07, I called Royal Holiday customer service and spoke to Joey - he asked me to give them "one more week". On 01/24/07, I called and spoke with Joe (ext. 2708) who confirmed that Alexandria in Acapulco was not responding to their emails. He said I could email her directly, but they were unable to call her or provide me with her phone number. I asked Joe to have his supervisor Juan Carlos look into the matter and call me. I have never heard anything more. I have since sent an email to our "host" in Acapulco Mario Alberto and did not receive an answer either.
On 02/17/07 I sent both an email and a letter to the Customer Service Center for Royal Holiday reviewing the events. I received an email response on 2/21/07 from Olivia Gonzalez Marin stating that my request was in review. Again since that time, we have neither received a check for reimbursement nor notification as to when reimbursement will be made.
I got scammed at Park Royal Cozumel, same story, different location.
I still have a voucher from 3 years ago for free airfare for 5 from NYC to Dominican. They never honored it.
That may have been the case before, but i recently went to park royal and i had an extremely "magical" trip. It was the best vacation i have spent. I understand that the resorts have gone under a big change and the staff was very kind when i went, so i would perhaps try once more. The staff may just not be understanding your needs well.
My wife and I got scammed in buying a vacation membership in mexico in 2004. We attended their so called...
What we were promised upon signing up with royal holiday back in august 2005 has never materialized so far. We did pay the total fee for 30 years and 10,000 credits per year which could be reduced down to 15 years while doubling the annual fee to be paid in december each year.
But so far, very difficult to get in touch with them by phone and e-mail, point of contact keeps changing, travel plans never accessible, no flexibility for destination and dates, and above all always something additional to pay.
We were told that credits paid fpr would cover free accommodation and meals for a one week stay. We are now told that additional amounts have to be paid each time for both accommodation and meals at fares that have no interest over normal standard packages that can be found in the global market.
This is actual lies and racket and we want to step out of this unethical nightmare.
We want our money back in order to be free to go wherever we want, whenever we want as we were told and at conditions we can still negotiate and be confident in the fact that they will not change over and over again.
What can we do to voice our rights, be listened to and heard and get out of that endless trap?
Every promise regarding the opportunity of having a 3-4 days free accommodation per year with our Bronze plus 10000 points has never been respected. Not later than today I was offered a 459$ fee for 3 nights at Las Vegas for a simple accommodation. NO meals included. Lies from the beginning and our wish is to recover our money back (around 9000$ paid once and for all - to avoid the huge interest they were charging yearly- )
Expecting to enroll in any group claim that would sue this company. Thanx for any support. Alfred Homsy
All I was told is a big fat lie too. They make it sound that is so simple to get a vacation. Look in book, call, and use points. The points are not enough. I need more points. I call about a trip to Las Vegas for place in book because I have points for that. They say no openings, all booked. Later I tried for a few days in San Diego. SAME thing, all booked. I am not paying no more. I am glad I did not have money or room on credit card for more than they have. I will still go to PROFECO to get the money back and cancel contract officially so they do not do to me what I read happens to others. These are SCARY people. What kind of people do this to others? I did not think they could be so hurtful. The sadness is great.
I bought a timeshare with Royal Holiday and they lied to me at everything, every time I check for travel dates are not available and it's cheaper to booked flight and hotel with Expedia. The service is really bad, I asked to speak to the manager and was told that I cannot talk to her and that I cannot cancel my membership. Its been a nightmare for me!!! I was doing a research on internet about this fraudulent resort and how to get out of this fraud, i found this information and i want to share it with you, i hope it helps someone:
http://www.timesharescam.com/blog/189-how-to-cancel-a-royal-holiday-timeshare-membership/
In the above comments there are 4 fake profiles trolling for business leads! Just click on any profile with a link in the description. You will see there are dozens if not more comments posted by that user about different vacation clubs and travel services. These users have created postings here on complaints.com and comment to lure people to use their service. Some profiles have complaints against 2 dozen resorts! That is impossible. You can't possibly buy into 2 dozen resort programs, can you? Seriously someone at Complains.com needs to examine this crap. How can we trust complaints.com with obvious spam like this as trustworthy reviews.
I have found quite a few here they are:
https://www.complaintsboard.com/profile-1530723 - Susan 68 - (26 spam comments)
https://www.complaintsboard.com/profile-1579005 - Deby Cole - (160 spam comments)
https://www.complaintsboard.com/profile-1307040 - Evita 75 - (12 spam comments)
https://www.complaintsboard.com/profile-1011642 - Venessa Moore - (27 spam comments)
https://www.complaintsboard.com/profile-460192 - Jay Gonzales - (11 spam comments)
https://www.complaintsboard.com/profile-1066237 - Al Mor 68 - (5 spam comments)
https://www.complaintsboard.com/profile-1497003 - Mark Miles - (40 comments)
I signed a Royal Holiday contract on January 31, 2006. Literally, every promise made to me at the sales presentation proved to be false. This included: them selling my current time share to purchase the Royal Holiday plan; rental of Royal Holiday credits (they promised $1000 for every 5000 credits); 5000 credits would get me a one-bedroom unit for a week at any of the resorts in their directories or any exchange company they worked with; and other issues. I have been fighting with them non-stop since March. That is when a New Member Services representative called me (2 months after the contract was created) and revealed that everything was a lie! Reaching Royal Holiday by phone is a joke (unless you enjoy spending hours on hold and getting the run-around when you actually do speak to someone) and emails are only responded to when they want to speak with you about something. I have reported them to the Better Business Bureau, but have not made any progress. My investment is only my down payment and closing costs (totalling a little over $2000), but it is the principal that matters. This is fraud, plain and simple, and others have lost far greater investments because of it. Please let me know if anyone has had success resolving their disputes with Royal Holiday and getting their money back. I'm sure everyone could benefit from your advice! Good luck to all the current victims, and beware to all the potential victims!
I had a similiar experience at Park Royal in Cozumel. Shown beautiful suites I could reserve and use for my family only paying a small all inclusive meal and drink charge per day for five years as a "Founding Member." That was a perk that was one of the incentives given above and beyond the normal program. I have a certificate for $1,000. to be reimbursed for air travel, another $1,000. for diving. Fernando told us he would rent a private boat and dive master for our next trip. We were also give many free things during our trip. My husband had five diving trips, we had a free rental car, free tours, and VIP service. All that made us believe it was legitimate. When we got home I immediately tried to book a return trip for August, and was told there was nothing available there at that time. I went to an online travel site, Orbiz, and put in the dates, and there was availability. I called back and asked about this, and was told they sell rooms to Orbiz. I tried two other online sites, BookIt, and Expedia. They also had the dates. I figured that paying customers get priority to members, and they black us out unless no paying customers are available. I put -Royal Holiday complaints-in Yahoo search and found literally hundreds of members with problems with this company. Thanks for the information on these sites. I immediately started the process with PROFECO. I filed with everyone else too. At first Bank of America Visa turned down my fraud claim, but I am appealing this, and protesting their refusal to help. I am sure from all the reports and claims turned into these card companies they KNOW about this. We need legislation making them accountable. They are making money by doing business with con artists. I am faithful that I will get all of my money back, and I will join the commitment to put these people out of business.
We also are trying to get rid of a membership with Royal Holiday. We understand all of your frustrations and would like any advice you can pass back to us to help us get RH off our backs. They are scammers and cheats. Hoping that all of the comments made on here will prevent others from getting taken in by them. G and L McSparen.
My wife and I made the horrible mistake of purchasing a Royal Holiday membership in Cozumel in February 2005. I have been trying to use our "5 Year Unlimited Cozumel and Play del Carmen" benefit ever since. We have paid over $11k, and still they refuse to honor the commitment we have in writing. Our agreement states "You have the option of 5 years unlimited use in Cozumel at the PARK ROYAL RESORT paying the $42 USD tax included per day per person for the all inclusive fee. Children from 6 years to 12 years old pay half price & children under 6 years old are free, without deducting from your Royal Holiday credits." Royal Holiday refuses to honor this agreement and states we must pay the prevailing rate, which is almost double. I'm afraid if we did, we'd probably never see the inside of a room anyway. They are liars and evade every one of our attempts to use the benefits of "the club".
After getting the runaround from the normal phone reps, I was given the name of a supervisor (Erica), but have obviously been unable to speak with her despite calling well over 20 times. She is never there and does NOT return calls...surprise, surprise!
Actually, our history of problems with Royal Holiday goes back much further back than this, but we figured we'd give this one last try before going to back VISA to have all of our money refunded (we have already contacted them and they have agreed to do so when we provide the necessary backup).
I would advise anyone looking to invest a penny with Royal Holiday to walk away and look for a reputable vacation company. This operation will cause you nothing but trouble. I am looking for anyone who has had a similar experience and/or a positive outcome to their problems. Also, if there is a class action lawsuit I could join, I would be interested in receiving information.
Sincerely,
Jim Venema
I am very familiar with Royal holiday Club.
For the past 14 yrs I have known the company. In-fact I know of happy members, in many u.s. staes and many other destinations around the world. In respect to your situation, have you requested other destinations? Did you requset prime time as your vacation dates?
Continue trying to contact the supervisor and/or try another number . I suggest 1-800-961-1810.
EVERYBODY LISTEN!!
The thing to do is to simply STOP PAYING THESE CROOKS!!
Those people who have stopped paying fees are RIGHT! I intend to do the same thing. I hope and wish a class-action suit is began (I will GLADLY join!), but until then the best thing we can do is to just STOP giving them anymore of our hard-earned money!
Just think. In 30 years at about $400/year, that's another $12, 000 wasted!
After all. With today's economy, just about everyone's credit has a mark or two on it anyway!
I know how you feel, and it seems like this is a common problen in Mexico. I purchased a travel program through Sandos Playacar at Royal Elite Timeshare Resort in Playa del Carmen last March and I requested to cancel within the 5 day grace period but they still have not refunded my down payment of over $9000 US dollars. I have been in touch with people there and they say they are working the process but it takes time. It has now been almost 5 months and I am losing faith they will ever pay me back. This is another forum with more complaints about this company:
http://www.timesharescam.com/timeshare-complaints-resorts-black-list/6-royal-elite-sandos-timeshare-complaints/
I believe we should do something about it, as I understand Mexican regulations forbid the offering of gifts, free vacation certificates or any other promotion strategies without informing the consumer the specific purpose of the offer. I want to complaint with PROFECO about this, and get my money back
My problem follows similar patterns to many of the others. My wife & I purchased in Cozumel in Dec. 05. We decided to join based the incentives(vouchers) they offered and a signed contract addendum that said we could use our home resort for a fixed all-inclusive fee for 5 years as often as we wanted without using our credits.
We tried to make our first reservation in March '06 and started to have trouble. We have kept very careful records with dates & names of the numerous phone calls & the four times we faxed copies of the documents to them because they claimed no knowledge of the benefits we were trying to use.
A short version goes as such... We were told our vouchers for airfare, diving, etc can't be handled by them but yet they are unable to tell me who handles them and the vouchers have the main phone number [protected]) printed on them as to who we are to call when we are ready to use them.
No resort availability at anywhere but our home resort.
Our "personal representative", Nicolas, charged our credit card for the all-inclusive fee when we made the reservation and then 1 week later we were told we owed an all-inclusive fee. Several phone calls later we are told that Nicolas has been fired and since he is the one who credited the money to wrong account ( this is info we found out when we called Concord Services in Arizona to get a tracking #, something RHC said they couldn't do) we would just have to pay the fee again.
The new all-inclusive fee was much higher & we (after faxing the contract to 4 different people) were told that they had decided not to honor this contract because their costs had gone up since the hurricaine. We explained that we had purchased after the hurricaines when reconstruction was already underway and that (at least on my understanding of contracts) one party can't decide to not honor a contract because it's no longer a good deal, we were told by 2 different "supervisors" that they weren't honoring it and that just the way it is.
We contacted our credit card company and they started a dispute and we contacted Çoncord Services that no more payments were coming and explained why (they were suprisingly professional and even helpful on how to proceed). We received a call from Tony Hernandez in the legal department that our credit card company had contacted them and they were going to "allow" the dispute to go unchallenged and were cancelling our contract and reservations. We asked about the $900 in payments that they still had and he said they were going to keep it but if we wanted to reactivate the contract we could work it out. In this conversation we asked if our promised benefits were now going to be honored if we reactivated the contract and he said "absolutely".. He claimed that whoever told us they could not honor them must not have had the contracts and had been mistaken. I then told him that HE had been one of the four people we had faxed the info to and gave him the date and even his extension # he had us fax them to. He became defensive and first said there are two Tony Hernandezs at that extension. He had earlier said only 3 other people (only one Tony) use that extention. Then he said I could trust him, so go ahead & tell my credit card company to resend the $10,000.
I don't think I trust him. As of right now, I'm still out $900.
I like timeshares and own 4-5 weeks worth with Fairfield and have used them very successfully over the last 10 years and have travel with them (& RCI) through out the Carribean, Antilles, Mexico, Canada, & the USA. Normally I would have researched RHC better but the benefits they offered were very appealling. My fault for not doing so before getting involved with them. However this "bait & switch" and blatant refusal to honor their contractual obligations shows a pattern of fraud. The number of complaints on this web site and others (i.e. [redacted]) is disturbing. As I said, my wife and I like timeshares and for us they serve the purpose we want them to but ROYAL HOLIDAY IS NOT OPERATING IN A ETHICAL MANNER. If you are interested in timeshares or vacation clubs, please research them & I'm sure you will find one to suit you. It won't be Royal Holiday.
I am so embarrassed that I fell into this. I can't believe I was so gullible. All I have to say in my defense is they showed a beautiful product. The Park Royal in Cozumel is so well done after the renovation. They promised we could return without any deduction of points for five years and bring friends and family only paying the food fee. When asked why, they said it was marketing, they get new customers this way. I guess they don't get new customers this way, because I have never heard of anyone there on that program. All the red bracelet guests were new members. I asked all members I saw, if they had been there before, and all were new. Now I know why, existing members were told no availability. That is one reason I put in a search for Royal Holiday in Yahoo, and found all the complaints. They REFUSED to let me cancel. My dream vacation has turned into a nightmare. How can these people be so evil. They must know the anxiety and pain they are causing. My wife can not sleep. She is worried sick. I am getting an ulcer. If any Royal Holiday employees read these complaints, if you are decent at all, do something for us. Act like a human being.
I bought a timeshare with Royal Holiday and they lied to me at everything, every time I check for travel dates are not available and it's cheaper to booked flight and hotel with Expedia. The service is really bad, I asked to speak to the manager and was told that I cannot talk to her and that I cannot cancel my membership. Its been a nightmare for me!!! I was doing a research on internet about this fraudulent resort and how to get out of this fraud, i found this information and i want to share it with you, i hope it helps someone:
http://www.timesharescam.com/blog/189-how-to-cancel-a-royal-holiday-timeshare-membership/
I would like to know if there are any class action suites against Royal Holiday. If not, we should band...