Menu
Login
While staying at the Royal Villa as the guest of an owner, we agreed (after several attempts to say no) to attend a 90 minute sales presentation. They promised us breakfast and to pay for one of our tours. We told them in no uncertain terms that we were not going to buy and that we were going to leave after 90 minutes.
We signed a contract saying we would stay for 90 minutes. at 90 minutes, we told them we were still not interested and that we would give them a few more minutes before leaving. They pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed before we physically stood up and left. By the time we got back downstairs, our "gift" was forfeited because the salesman didn't "sign off" on something. The argument continued downstairs (the sales mgr followed us into the lobby)with them insulting our behavior. We ran into a friend who complained of a similar situation which also resulted in a knock down, drag out fight.
I would not recommend staying at a place that would treat its guests so terribly.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
OMG! They are such ###s there! Here's our story...
On 4/28/2009 my wife and I were approached by a timeshare salesperson while walking down the street in Mazatlan where we were vacationing. We agreed to attend a 90 minute presentation with Royal Villa giving us breakfast and $200 in US cash for our time.
We arrived at the Royal Villa Hotel and were introduced to our salesman “Kenny”. Kenny took us on a tour of the hotel and breakfast. We then followed Kenny upstairs to a room where he tried convincing us to buy a timeshare with Royal Villa. After telling Kenny no many times and explaining we were not interested, he had his manager (unknown name) come over and try to convince us to buy a timeshare. By this time, we had been at the hotel for nearly three hours. I told Frankie we were not interested many times as well. My wife and I were getting very worn out from this pressure so I told Frankie we were ready to leave.
The manager had Kenny bring us downstairs for an exit interview to see how the presentation went. My wife and I were introduced to “Nicholas Kinzie” at this time. Nicholas began asking us questions about the timeshare presentation, but then soon began trying to sell us into a much cheaper package. Nicholas promised us six weeks of timeshare, a free 7 day cruise voucher, and a free 7 day stay at Royal Villa voucher, we would be receiving that day. Seeing the price was much cheaper, and being at the hotel for around 3 1/2hrs, I signed the application thinking I was joining Royal Villa timeshares and getting nice signing bonuses. Nicholas charged my credit card and packaged up our purchase in a manila envelope.
As we left Royal Villa, they only gave us $2400 Pesos ($160 US) instead of $200 US cash as promised. My wife and I went back to our hotel room where I opened up the manila envelope to review our purchase. I was shocked to learn the free 7 day cruise voucher and 7 day stay voucher was not inside as promised. I also learned there was nothing stating we had purchased into the Royal Villa Hotel, but into “My Way Vacations.”
I went back to a different timeshare salesman at my hotel and spoke with him. He told me the package we purchased was not for Royal Villa, and we in fact paid double what we should have. He also told me of a law they have in Mazatlan where you have five business days to cancel a contract or transaction. He instructed me to try and cancel it with the hotel first, and then to take other steps like “Profeco” (MX consumer affairs).
The next day (Sunday 4/29/2009) my wife and I returned to the Royal Villa Hotel and spoke again with Nicholas. We told Nicholas we wanted to cancel the agreement and have our money refunded. Nicholas told us he needed to get his manager so he excused himself and brought back “Brad Johnson”. Brad Johnson introduced himself as the hotel director. We told Brad we wanted to cancel the agreement and get our charge refunded. Brad became very rude with us, telling us we had buyer’s remorse and he would not refund anything. I told Brad I felt we did not receive what was promised to us, and according to Mexican law we had five days to cancel. Brad became very verbally abusive telling us we bought into a US company and that didn’t apply. My wife told Brad to quit being unreasonable and stop acting like a “dick.” Brad told my wife, “You are a dick… leave or I’ll have you thrown out!” Brad continued yelling at us across the lobby trying to bait me into a fight with him, but we just left.
The next day (Monday 3/30/2009) I went back to Royal Villa and asked to speak with a different manager other than Brad. I also learned that neither Brad, nor Nicholas was actually employed by the hotel, but leased space as separate sales for the My Way Vacations. This was total misrepresented to us originally since we thought we were dealing with timeshare ownership. One of the salesmen told me I would have to speak with a “Frankie Kelly”, but he wasn’t in that day.
On Tuesday (3/31/2009) I went back to the Royal Villa Hotel and spoke with Frankie Kelly. I once again explained how I wanted the agreement cancelled and a refund due to the aforementioned reasons and the five day rule. Frankie half heartedly glanced over my agreement and said he couldn’t help me. I told Frankie I would be going to the US Consulate and MX Profeco if he didn’t want to resolve this issue with me. Frankie told me there was nothing he could do and the contract was binding. I left the Royal Villa Hotel.
On Wednesday (4/1/2009) my wife and I went to the US Consulate Office in Mazatlan. I presented my case to the consular agent who stated I was within the five day cancellation period, and that it was a valid law in Mazatlan. He had me fill out a statement, which he notarized. The Consular agent referred us to Profeco.
My wife and I had the cab take us further into Mazatlan to the MX Profeco Office where we made our complaint. After reading the enrollment application and hearing how I tried to cancel the transaction, the MX Profeco agent told us Royal Villa had to refund our money. The agent also stated Profeco would be contacting Royal Villa, investigate their practices, and request the refund. Profeco provided a document to us in Spanish. I later had this translated to me by a hotel employee. The document basically states what I just mentioned.
We still have yet to get our money back.
In February of 2009 we attended a vacation package (timeshare) presentation at the Royal Villas Resort in Mazatlan, Mexico ( " BIG MISTAKE " ). During the course of the presentation which lasted approx. 2 hours we stated numerous times that our vacation period was in the month of Febreary, preferably the later two weeks. For the past ten or so years we have gone down south in Febreary to get a break away from our cold and snowy winter months here in Canda. Mazatlan being the spot that suited us the best and after the presentation at the Royal Villas we were very happy with the package that we purchased from the Royal Villas and of all the verbal promises we were given.
When I phoned the Royal Villas a couple weeks ago to book our two week vacation for February 2010 I was told that the contract we bought into was for June or September only. For a start, why would we have signed that contract if we had know the condition? We stated specifically that our winter holidays were in February. I am involved in the wedding business and marketing and the busiest season is from May until the end of October so why would I knowlingly signed for such a contract.
When I spoke to "Gabriela" a couple of weeks ago she said that this was all explained to us during the presentation, NOT SO, the first I heard of the word "select" was when your reservation rep. explained it to me. she, meaning Gabriela, told me that she would "give us one week this year, either the last week in January or the first week in March, to go down and talk things through, just this year ONLY". First of all we don´t have the time or the finances to go down there when the airfare alone is $1, 000 USD each and secondly I feel so bitter about Royal Villa´s representation I just want to forget this ever happened. It´s an awful feeling knowing that you are trapped in a deliberate and fraudulent scam. What was told us at the presentation and all the promises that were made are not worth the time or effort. We are honest and fare people and work hard for what we get and to be taken in by such a scam is disheartening.
We would like to see this rectified in our favor as they promise, We want that they honor his contract or to cancel our contract and give us our money back "OUR MONEY NOT THEIR MONEY"
PLEASE BE AWARE TRAVEL FELLOWS FROM ROYAL VILLAS
Write me: ptobin@gmx.com If we are together we can achive our goal
Look on this site for My Way Vacations and you'll see what other have to say. Scammers seem to be operating at several places in Mazatlan, Royal Villas being one.
I am the 71 year old woman who wrote originally about the RV scam. Interesting fact, I also bought on April 28th, we were there together! I also talked to Gabriela who agreed to remove the $4500 that went to the collection agency, but I am stuck with $5000 on a credit card I can't pay and June and Sept are the only weeks I can use my timeshare. I live in Mt so I need to get away in winter, not summer. I think the sales staff are an outside company who contract with RV. I spoke with the sales managers, the Norton brothers from Scotland. Very nasty bits of work, couldn't care less. I suspect all the different names used there are aliases. I plan on going down to stay at another timeshare in April and see if anything could be done to help this situation. For one thing they gave me 30 years membership is a joke for someone who is 71. We do need to band together if we are going to get anything done. Please e-mail me at abritbrat@juno.com.
Carole
We too bought into RV in feb. 2009, We were promised 4 rental suites that would not be for our use for 5 years, and would receive an annual rent of $1500.00 per suit. Also 4 weeks anytime for us to use, plus 4 TPI anytime weeks. The best deal of all was their absolute guarantee to buy our El Cid points for $59, ooo.oo .under 90 days. We returned to RV march 11 to 25, 2010 and received a free 26 of tequella and a free golf game. Gabby didn, t seem to even recognize us and James or Phillip our sales people had never set foot at RV. There's alot more to this story, and all the grief and anxiety for the whole year of 09.Jean and I are in our 70th year and you would THINK we'd know BETTER? Just wish we could help prevent our folks the misery RV has caused us. We live in Saskatchewan Canada and have delt with thousands of dollars on a hand shake. My name is Jim and can be reached at [protected]
Thousands of International travelers, particularly from the US and Canada, have fallen victims of timeshare fraud while vacationing. Resort developers hire skilled salesmen to represent their timeshares as many different attractive packages, such as financial investments, deeded properties, or vacation clubs, just to increase their sales. http://timesharescam.com/