VIP Travel Club Sunset VIP Scam Artists, Mexico

During the last day of our vacation (!) we decided to stop at a little kiosk that 'sold' excursions. One of them offered was a discounted Submarine trip for 4. All we had to do was to go through a 90 min presentation of the Yachtclub and we'd be able to pick up the tickets.

Having gone through some of these in the past, we knew what to expect so we decided to go ahead. What a mistake! The taxi took us to the alleged yacht club resort to find out that it was full - they were not showing anyone there - we were instead taken to the main resort up on the strip, next to Le Blanc hotel in Cancun. We were offered a buffet lunch (which was very very simple - first hint) and then were escorted to the main room where the sales sharks and their unexpected guests were being 'sold'. Already wary and critical, we spent at least 90 mins to have them present. The initial offer was $40k for a 3 week, 2-BR unit for 30 years.

Any way, we rejected; To cut a long story short, the offer became quickly more and more appealing. When they still didn't meet my number, they asked what the number was - it was $10k - they immediately found a solution and offered me a resale of someone who had upgraded. The sales guy we had was good - very good turned out to - we walked out with $10.5k, 30 'corporate weeks' life time usage, RCI points - you name it, it was thrown in there becuase it was 'christmas' time. Anyways, after the transaction and the payment (we paid 100% down on VISA) we went home, quite excited because we negotiated a good package. Arrived at the hotel i decided to check the reviews and came across all the complaints on ripoffreport - well let me tell you, they were all true!

The next morning we decided that we HAVE to cancel it because there was not just one complaint, there were pages and pages. We went in to their offices and were introduced to the VP Sales and Marketing - a slick mafiosi called Jerry Mancini - he allegedly is the husband of Phaedra Almstead, the owner of the sales group that sells the timeshares (http://www.docstoc.com/docs/36829218/SUNSET-GROUP). Anyway, it started nice, telling us what we would miss out on if we cancelled etc - a minute into his sales speech we interrupted him and informed him that our decision was firm and that we simply wanted to get our money back and cancel - he completely changed is tone, stood up, got upset and raised his voice and threathened that he can make our lives difficult and the cancellation could take years and for us to get out - we on our terms informed him that he had a room full of people that were all being scammed and that we could make a lot of noise - they ushered us out to a backroom to finally get a statement of cancellation....

Morale of this all is:
- Cancellation can ONLY be done in person - they do not accept it by mail (!)
- Make sure that you do NOT engage with these guys - even after they agreed to refund, they still haven't
- STAY AWAY FROM TRES RIOS, SUNSET VIP, MANCINI and all his scammers