Royal Holiday Vacation Club review: Got money back and contract cancelled! 43

I got an e-mail from a woman who was successful in getting her contract cancelled and all money back. Royal Holiday is now calling her and pressuring her to quit the Yahoo Royal Holiday complaints group, and not helping others with problems. I have her permission to repost her SqueakyWheel site here since she is going to have to remove it. Squeaky Wheel's policy is that resolved complaints are removed.

Update May 24,2007: Letters cancelling contract received, they are going to call me to have me discontinue my telling others about the problems. I am interested in hearing what they need to say to me. Since they are continuing to contact me I do not feel this is completely resolved. Only when they are finished calling me will I consider this resolved. I want them to leave me alone.
They also did respond to the BBB of Southeast Florida, whom I complained to.

Update April 29,2007: I have heard from BookIt.com and am satisfied I was wrong in blaming them for any part of the scam. I received a letter from our California State Attorney General's office stating they are keeping a file of complaints, and if it warrants when enough complaints show a pattern of abuse they could take action.

Also, Royal Holiday has reversed both charges for the down payment and the balance to my MasterCard account. The total was over $27,000.00

My Experience:

While at the Park Royal in Cozumel 0n April 04, 2007, Fernando De Leeuw, the project manager, promised that we could get 100% of our money back. This was in a form of a certificate that I have found is worthless. People who have sent them in have never heard from the annuity company. He promised us all the services that other members have not gotten too. I have seen accounts of people who never were reimbursed for the air fair coupons they were given, why would they treat me any differently? Where I really took the bait was when the legal representative, Helene Lacouture, got us to put the full amount on my credit card by offering a discount. They led us down the garden path, and when I did research on them for complaints I knew I would have to fight to get my money back. They could offer us anything, it is now apparent they had no intention of delivering any services. Even though they had the no reconsideration period clause in the contract, I believed we had the guarantee of the money back. Now I know that Mexican law gives five days. Sellers do not tell buyers they have that time. When I called Royal Holiday they told me I could still cancel by sending an e-mail to an address that rejected it because it's mailbox was full. The people I talked to on the phone told me I could cancel, but no one would answer the numbers they gave me. I calculated the worth of the points by dividing the contract amount by thirty adding it to the anual dues (which can go up) and figured out the worth of the points. Then I went to a resort, took the number of points, divided it the value of the points and compared the two amounts and found it cost $301.00 more to use the program than to rent the condo for a week. Some bargain. I have been trying to get them to respond to me and reverse the charge on my credit card and they ignore me. I would hope that someone with authority would just do the right thing and put the money back in my account. I filed a fraud case with MasterCard demonstrating a pattern of misrepresentation with the accounts posted on different Internet sites. I found out more by researching a lot of sites. I believe the thing that helped me the most was reacting fast. If you are becoming aware you too are a victim of this fraud, use the support of others though the Internet. I was strengthened knowing I was not alone, others had gotten results, and others were being warned not to fall for this.

The most helpful group is a yahoo group: [protected]@yahoogroups.com

If you have access to any bulk mailing lists send links to these sites out and warn Americans about these Mexican scams. Also, go here to write the Mexican Administration for Tourism: http://www.sectur.gob.mx/wb2/secturing/sect_8509_mailbox

As you can see, if you are persistent, you too can get all money returned and out of the contract. Do what she did, and you too will have good luck. Mexico does not have class action suits, and since these agreements were signed in Mexico, you can not file a class action suit. What you can do, is use the power of the Internet, be heard, share your story, and as others join in we are more powerful than a class action suit. People who put things like this on the Internet are pressuring Royal Holiday. They are going to have to change their ways or go out of business because we are speaking out.