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Report: #332732

Complaint Review: Krystal International Vacation Club - Cancun, Other

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  • Reported By: mount kisco New York
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  • Krystal International Vacation Club Blvd Kukulcan Lotes 9y9a Cancun,, Other Mexico

Krystal International Vacation Club FRAUDULENT TIMESHARES SALES & UNFULFILLED PROMISES Cancun, QUINTANA ROO

*Consumer Comment: Timeshare Scam

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The marketing practices used to sell timeshares at the Krystal Hotel and Vacation Club in Cancun are intentionally misleading and fraudulent. The following describes my ongoing experience:

Having been promised a free car rental for attending a two-hour presentation on November 18, 2007, my wife and I attended such a presentation at the Krystal Hotel in Cancun.

After being shown around the Krystal premises by a salesman who told us his name was Jose, we were introduced to John Payne, a tall Englishman, who informed us that he had fought in the Falklands War. His business card described him as the Krystal Financial Consultant.

After Payne questioned me about my age (I was 70 years old at the time) and my annual income (I am retired and the only income I receive is my Social Security), the conversation went something like this:

Me: I already have one timeshare here in Cancun. Why would I want another?

Payne: Swap your timeshare at the Royal Sands for one here at the Krystal. I'll make it worth your while.

Me: Why? They don't compare. The furniture at the Krystal is cheap looking and flimsy, the rooms are tiny, there's no balcony, no dining table, and the corridors are dark. Why would anyone swap?

Payne: Buy into the Krystal for $25,940 and receive $33,400 for your Royal Sands unit. The difference in price will balance the difference in quality between the two timeshare units.

Me: I don't think so.

Payne: The usual arrangement is that you can rent out your timeshare unit each year for twenty-five years. However, to make this really worth your while, I can arrange for you to get the rental money up front. You can receive five times the annual rental income from the Krystal timeshare for each of the next five years. That will be another $21,000 a year. $105,000 over five years.

Me: That sounds too good to be true. Put that in writing. Give me written guarantees,

Payne phoned a colleague, Bobby Rudd, and described to him what was happening and that we required written guarantees that we would receive $33,400 from the sale of our Royal Sands timeshare and another $21,000 for each of the next five years from the rental of the newly acquired Krystal time share unit.

Twenty minutes later we were handed faxes of these two guarantees. They are shown at www.gmtacn.com

It is important to appreciate that this all took place in the lounge of the Krystal hotel, which I never left. So far as I was aware, each person I spoke with was a Krystal employee. We had no reason to doubt that Bobby Rudd might not be either a Krystal employee or its agent.

Satisfied with the guarantees, we then signed the contract for the sale. My payment was to be $19,417.47 coming from a Bank of America MasterCard that Krystal obtained for me, and the remaining $6,522.53 from my existing American Express card. I signed for both of these amounts.

At the time I signed the sales contract I was handed several documents listing the rules and regulations of the transaction. Among these I noted one that stated that the resort does not handle rental and resale. I queried this with Payne. He assured me that the guarantees from Bobby Rudd fully covered that area and would present no problem.

At no time during the sales presentation was it explained to me that, whether the timeshare unit was rented or not, I would be liable for an annual maintenance fee of $781 per week per year. This fee could be increased at anytime at the whim of Krystal. Thus, the $21,000 I was guaranteed that I would receive for each of the next five years would be offset by a minimum of $3,905, reducing it to $17,095. In addition, as I later discovered, Rudd expected to be paid $649 each time he arranged an annual rental, further reducing the amount I would receive each year by $3,245. Instead of receiving $21,000 a year for each of five years, the most I could expect was $14,850. Even this reduced sum may sound reasonable, but the dramatic reduction from the promised $21,000 down to a reality of $14,850 or less, an immediate 30% reduction, is a clear warning that anyone dealing with the Krystal Hotel & Vacation Club needs to have a team of lawyers with him to watch his back.

I should add that throughout the several hours we were sitting in the Krystal lounge my beer glass was being continually topped up, so much so that in the end I asked them to remove it give me a cup of coffee.

Unknown to me, while my American Express card was taken into the Krystal office to be charged for the American Express payment, an additional amount of $649 was charged for 'advertising services' for Premier Vacations of Pensacola, Florida. I neither signed for this, nor was I informed of this charge. It was only when I received my next American Express bill that I became aware of this charge. I challenged it and American express attempted to contact Premier Vacations of Pensacola, Florida but received no response. The charge was subsequently removed.

On our return to our home in the United States, in accordance with the requirement of the Bobby Rudd guarantee that I provide proof of ownership and my deed for the Royal Sands property within thirty days, on December 5, 2007 I mailed these documents to Rudd at the address he gave me. The package was sent by certified mail, receipt requested. The US Post Office found no one present at the address. Several notices were left asking Rudd to collect the package at the local post office. It was never collected. The package was returned to me on January 2, 2008.

Just to be sure, I asked Rudd to confirm the address, which he did, telling me to remail the package to the same address. However, just to be sure, I now used the Milton address instead of the Pace name of the town that Rudd had given me.

Again the package was sent by certified mail, receipt requested. Same result. On January 23, 2008 the Post Office informed that again no one had been present at the address and that, as before, several notices had been left there. Again, no one had appeared at the post office to collect it despite Rudd assuring me by phone and e-mail that someone would. The package would again be returned to me.

I then looked on Google Maps for the address Bobby Rudd had given me. It is close to where Oak Tree Lane intersects with Cam Lane and Garllum Drive in Milton, Florida. When viewed by Satellite, the location looks as if it is a wooded corner property, with no dwelling visible on it. Other houses on the same street are clearly visible from the satellite view; only the address Rudd gave me is not.

I phoned Rudd and asked if the address he had given me was in fact that of an occupied dwelling. This brought forth a lengthy torrent of verbal abuse and threats to sue me for questioning his truthfulness.

It was now obvious that Rudd's only intent was to nullify the two agreements he had signed. By not accepting delivery of either of the two packages I had mailed him, he was ensuring that I failed to fulfill the clause that stated he receive the 20-page deed of ownership of my Royal Sands timeshare within thirty days.

As the agreements from Rudd were received during the Krystal sales presentation and were produced by John Payne, the Krystal financial advisor, as part of this same Krystal sales presentation, I consider that Krystal is fully responsible for Rudd's actions, or the lack of them. Accordingly I phoned the general manager of the Krystal hotel, Mr. JM Vimchis, saying I had a complaint about the marketing of their timeshare units. I was passed from person to person, eventually reaching Ray Rubio, who asked me to send him details of my complaint in writing. I sent him these details by e-mail on January 25, 2008.

On February 2, 2008 I followed up and reminded Ray Rubio that there had been no response to my January 25 e-mail. He informed me that he had passed my e-mail to his management, and that a response could be expected that week.

No response was received so, after waiting patiently for more than five weeks, on March 4 I phone Rubio again. I was passed on to Nadine Goffart, who told me she would investigate my complaint.

On March 7 Nadine Goffart responded to my e-mail, rejecting my request that Krystal either accept their responsibility for the two guarantees or cancel the timeshare sale and refund me all of my money. Instead, she offered to either upgrade the level of my membership from Gold to Premium for free, or to downgrade it from a 2-bedroom suite to a 1-bedroom suite and refund me $6,350. I wanted neither of these alternatives and told her so. I also infirmed her that I would now contact PROFECO, the Mexican government department charged with reconciling problems such as this.

On March 12, 2008 I submitted full details of my complaint to PROFECO, the Department of Conciliation Services for Foreign Residents in the Federal Office of Consumer's Protection, Mexico City. As of today, April 30, 2008, I have had no response from PROFECO, despite sending them two e-mails asking them to confirm receipt of my complaint and to give me some idea when I could expect a response.

On March 17, 2008 I received another e-mail from Nadine Goffart increasing her offer to exchange my 2-bedroom suite for a 1-bedroom suite. Now she offered to increase the refund by an additional $2,000 to $8,350. Again I rejected this. I want my full money back, not just a third of it.

I strongly recommend that visitors to Cancun avoid having any dealings with the Krystal Hotel & Vacation Club. It is a den of con artists.

Ken
mount kisco, New York
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 05/15/2008 02:14 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/krystal-international-vacation-club/cancun-other-77500/krystal-international-vacation-club-fraudulent-timeshares-sales-unfulfilled-promises-can-332732. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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#1 Consumer Comment

Timeshare Scam

AUTHOR: andyfilipi - (USA)

POSTED: Monday, December 21, 2015

A timeshare purchase is never a good idea. Some people buy them with the idea of a financial investment, but a timeshare is not a good investment at all. Besides, there are lots of fees involved. This is a good article that has good information about timeshares: http://www.timesharescam.com/blog/68-timeshare-scams-mexico-vs-us-why-are-there-more-situations-of-fraud-in-mexico/

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