News & dispatches

The timeshare companies have come up with a new scam to stop you from exercising your right to cancel within 5 business days — reported mostly at the Sunset Group Resorts. It starts when you figure out you can cancel. The staff accept your request with a smile and tell you everything's fine and you'll get a full refund. The twist: they make sure no evidence exists that you actually cancelled.

Usually they have you write and sign a cancellation letter — which they never sign and you never get a copy of. You leave thinking the nightmare's over, and all the evidence vanishes. Because you think it's done, you never follow up with an email or fax to document it. You don't realize anything's wrong until days or weeks later when the charges keep hitting your card. Now you're outside the 5-day window with no proof, and you're stuck with the contract.

These people think it's perfectly fine to lie to any non-Mexican. Assume everything they say is a lie. If you cancel within 5 days, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE HARD PROOF: a signed copy of the cancellation letter on resort letterhead, and videotape the whole transaction if you can. For final protection, email the resort a duplicate and copy PROFECO. Don't rely on faxes — you can't prove what was sent or received. Don't just take their word, or this will be the second time they've scammed you, and they'll be laughing about the stupid gringo over margaritas that evening.

MESCAM received a letter from Lynn T. Galuppo of the law firm Cox, Castle & Nicholson, an attorney supposedly representing Mayan Palace (you can read the actual letter on the Resources page). It's appalling that a US attorney and law firm would side with a foreign interest against a site trying to help American tourists being cheated out of their hard-earned money. This convinces me all attorneys are scum. Ms. Galuppo demanded the removal of "false and disparaging" statements — referring to a copy of a Mayan Palace sales manual.

The material was initially taken down to avoid a fight, but enough people asked about it that it's back, with this explanation: it reads exactly like the sales presentation I got at Mayan Palace. The manual instructs salespeople to tell buyers they can cancel within 5 days but that their deposit is non-refundable — which is not what Mexican law says. It also scripts what to say about rental income, future value, and what a "good investment" a timeshare is. Reading it helps people understand how and why they were misled by a very well-trained sales force. If you can vouch for its authenticity, it makes good supporting evidence in a PROFECO complaint. It's available on the Resources page, along with a Krystal International purchaser's waiver form.

A group of eight U.S. and Canadian tourists who bought timeshares at various Mayan Palace resorts banded together through MESCAM and won a significant settlement. Their approach: obtain domains closely matching the resort's own — mayanpalace.info and mayanpalace.org — and build sites warning tourists about the aggressive, often untrue sales tactics at Mayan Palace presentations.

The philosophy: the resort is first and foremost a business. Hurt its revenue by warning tourists away, and eventually it has to negotiate. It didn't happen overnight — it took months to build the sites and get them ranking at the top of Yahoo and Google for "Mayan Palace." Once searchers started finding those sites instead, they learned the truth and avoided the presentations. The losses added up, and the group got their settlement.

Visit mayanpalace.info or mayanpalace.org today and you'll find they're now pro–Mayan Palace: as part of the settlement, the group had to hand the domains over, and a non-disclosure clause bars them from even confirming the settlement exists. MESCAM helped set up the group and draft the initial sites, then stepped away once serious settlement talks began, to avoid conflict. We knew a deal was reached when the sites flipped to pro–Mayan Palace. Best guess based on the last discussions: the group recovered 80–90% of their money.

Finally, one of the many people who emailed us for help took a stand against the credit card companies that profit while you get screwed by these resorts. Mr. L filed a small-claims lawsuit against BankAmericard, arguing that he cancelled within the 5 days allowed by Mexican law and that the resort's continued charges amounted to fraud — and that since BAC did nothing to stop it, they were in breach of their credit card contract. Mr. L got a judgment of $4,750 against BAC.

If you legally cancelled and the resort keeps billing your card, that is fraud — and if your credit card company doesn't act, they can be held liable, as the court found BAC was. By US law you're only responsible for the first $50 of a fraudulent charge if you notify them in a timely manner. Mr. L won by default because BAC never showed up. On a $5,000 charge, the card company makes maybe $250 — are they going to spend a thousand dollars sending someone to small-claims court to defend that? No. They allow a default judgment and reverse the charge back onto the resort. Once we start making the credit card companies pay the bill, they'll rethink supporting these crooked resorts.

For the first time in nine years and 33,000 visitors, someone visited the site before vacationing in Mexico — forewarned and prepared not to become a victim. Normally we get about 10 visitors a day looking for help after they've already been scammed. Bruce, from the UK, wrote to thank us; he didn't need help because he hadn't traveled yet, and he promised to be careful.

It's a lot more fulfilling to help someone before they become a victim than after. The only sad part is that the first person to use the site as preventive medicine was from the UK — I'd have hoped my fellow Americans, who pride themselves on being smart shoppers, would do a little research before vacationing in Mexico. Hat off to Bruce. Whether you've avoided the timeshares or been burned by them, please tell your friends and family about this site, so more people go to Mexico, enjoy their vacations, and come home without becoming victims.

I just wanted to write to say I cannot thank you enough. My sister and I went to Cabo, and I was naive to the whole timeshare-scam situation down there. I got scammed to the tune of $5,000 by Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach into buying their Passport package when I thought I was getting a great deal on a timeshare. I signed a document saying I had no ability to cancel or get a refund.

When I realized what I'd actually bought, I was distraught — and convinced I couldn't get my money back because of what I'd signed. I'd nearly given up when someone mentioned the 5-day rule, and I started researching it. That's when I found MESCAM. I drafted the letter you suggested, took it to the resort the next day, and was extremely firm with the sales manager. I was treated terribly — but as soon as he read the letter, he knew I meant business.

I have all of my $5,000 back, and I know it was because of that very forceful letter that I borrowed from your website. Thank you so, so much. Lesson learned. — Gratefully, Michelle K.

The Mexican Government issued Official Standard NOM-029-SCFI-2010, establishing new business-practice standards for timeshares. The part that matters to you is section 5.5.14, which requires every membership contract to include a cancellation section.

The key parts: (1) the cancellation period must be at least 5 working days, starting the day after you sign; (2) on cancellation you suffer no prejudice in payments — you get a full refund — and your total initial investment must be returned within 15 days; and (3) cancellation by email is acceptable. You can read 5.5.14 in full on the Your Rights page.