Sunset Group, Fishermen's Village, Sunset Royal Timeshare fraud, misrepresentation and scam Ripoff Cancn Q. Roo, Mexico

We fell victims of Sunset timeshare fraud during our vacation to Cancun / Playa del Carmen in January 2007. Therefore we want to put some warnings for those, who yet are planning their visit to this place, and also recommendation on what to do if you have fallen into this trap

1)This timeshare scam starts when you are offered large discounts (tours, car rental, etc.) in exchange for a visit to a short sales presentation of a new hotel, only 90 minutes. Believe us, you will save a lot of time, money and nerves if you will just decline and walk away

2)We made a mistake and decided to attend the presentation at Fishermen's Village in Playa del Carmen. The presentation lasted well over 4 hours, during which we were constantly professionally pressed by sales reps to invest in to buying membership. They constantly reminded us that this is a one day offer, it will not be valid tomorrow, etc. We were not allowed to leave the room, make phone calls, check internet we were virtually isolated from any information sources that would help us make a correct decision.

3)We initially declined the offer, but they kept throwing in bonuses and discounts. After price was reduced by 3 times we decided to try it. Their lawyer brought champaign and the contract, written in very fine print. He rushed us through the contract, showing the most important points. When we asked several times, what are the termination conditions, we were told "don't worry, if you decide to sell it we will buy it back". In reality the termination period is only 5 days, after which they will charge 100% penalty fee.

In a few days, after we returned to Toronto, we reviewed the contract with our lawyer, and realized that it was a fraud:

1) During the presentation we were told that it is FRACTIONAL OWNERSHIP, NOT A TIMESHARE. In fact the whole presentation was based on showing benefits of fractional ownership vs timeshare. But in reality the contract stipulates that you are buying a TIMESHARE, and you WILL NOT OWN THE PROPERTY OR ANY PART OF IT !

2) The contract was not signed by the property owner (Fishermen's Village developer), but only by a some Marketing company, that does not own, and does not even operate the hotel. In any country this would mean that the contract is invalid. Afterwards their lawyer (Mr. Hector Tornell) said that it is done on purpose, so that there will not be any legal obligation on their side

3) When our lawyer contacted Mr. Tornell and asked for the cancellation of the contract, Mr. Tornell was quite rude. He said that they will never cancel the contract, that they have already did it many times and they are not afraid of American Express or any other credit company, and that we will never get any money back from them. Our lawyer has recorded that whole conversation.

4) We posted our complaint on Skweakywheel.com, Tripadvisor.com and some other vacation forums. Recently we started receiving threatening calls and letters from Sunset Group Legal Department(Mr. Hector Tornell, Ferida Barreiro) demanding that we remove all our postings and that they are passing our case to some collection agency.

Here are the steps we decided to undertake:
Dispute the charges on our American Express card. We have sent them copies of all documents, explained in detail the circumstances of the case and why we believe that the contract is invalid and the charge should be cancelled. Part of our downpayment has already been credited back to our card !
We have sent official letter by registered mail to Sunset Group / Fishermen's Village management, requesting the cancellation of the contract
We are communicating with a large group of people who have fallen in to the same trap with Sunset Group (over 50 people as of today) and preparing for group actions, which will include collective letters to Attorney General in Florida (where Sunset HQ is located), Mexican Department of Tourism, US and Canadian Consulates in Mexico.
We also are working on getting on to a TV show that will be boradcasted across most part of the North America to describe timeshare scam / fraud danger send a warning to those who plan their vacation in Cancun.

If you are interested we can coordinate different events together. We also can share some advises as to how to act in such case.

Good luck to all of you !

Anas
Etobicoke, Ontario
Canada

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