Getting Out of a Mexican Timeshare

nice work!

Josh,

Very inspiring…I would love to talk with you if at all possible; I’m in a similar situation and I’d like to think I can recover from this. I noticed you mentioned John at MESCAM – I’ll contact him, too, in case you’re unable to reach me.

Thanks.

Nice Job. It would be great to hear how Mike Lorang fairs. Eventually most folks want to change or move on, so this would be a great help.

Hi – just returned today from cabo – bought a timeshare at playa grande – was told there was no recission period – i even signed a statement indicating such….think I can get out of it?

Thanks,
Linda

Never had to use the law! After asking for my cancellation via email, a few phone calls to Mexico, and stating that “I will recommend your resort to friends and family with the understanding that your business practice is fair and upstanding” I received an email today from Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach Resort and Spa indicating that the contract will be cancelled with full refund. I am very happy that they likely are getting the message that they can’t take advantage and are possibly turning a new leaf with requests to cancel. THANKS AGAIN for the info.

Just finished emailing Pueblo Bonito Sunset. Bought a timeshare on Friday the 3rd and today is the 8th. So hopefully we will get a refund no problem. So glad I came across this blog. Thanks….

Hi Josh,

I just returned from Cabo San Lucas and I also fell into the trap of buying a timeshare at the Pueblo Bonito Sunset. I felt so pressured to buy right then and there because my salesperson told me that the offer would not be available at any other time. The worst part was that the salesperson kept hitting on me. It was such unprofessional behaviour. I am so glad that you posted your experience on line; it has been very helpful. Since I was still within the 5 day cancellation period, I sent an email to Pueblo Bonito asking for a refund. I sent it last night around 11:45pm est, so far I have not heard back from them. Again, thank you so much for all this information.

Madelynn,

The friend that I vacationed with in Cabo had bought a timeshare at the Pueblo Bonito Sunset the day before I did. When she emailed the resort asking to cancel her contract they denied her request since she sent her email on the 6th business day.
After doing some research on the internet, I read that there is some law or rule that allows you to cancel a timeshare contract if you are within 10 days of signing the contract. I cant remember where I read that though. My friend is currently using that law or rule to try to cancel her contract.

In Josh’s blog above, he mentions that you may still be able to get out of a contract even if your past the 5 days. I would suggest contacting John at MESCAM and maybe he can help you out. Good Luck!

It amazes me how someone who is so smart can’t spell renege correctly or doesn’t know that Mexican is a formal noun.

Josh are you still out there? Your story is our story. Two 30-somethings suckered into a timeshare here at Villa del Palmar. I’m actually emailing from my patio here in Cabo. Approaching day 3 of my 5 day cancellation period. We actually went back the following morning less than 24 hours later in person to cancel and Janell the sales manager would not budge. When I went down to talk to her she turned my husband’s words of,”this just doesn’t work for us finacially, we might do some refinancing for home repairs and desperately need a newer car (old 84 honda is about shot) and not a timeshare…we’re on one salary until my wife heads back to school someday…” into “You can afford this. Your husband said you’re going to refinance anyway for a new car and you’re going to go to nursing school to earn more money…” I looked at her dumbfounded. This is my life lady which is none of your business. I want my cancellation and refund which she refused. I’m glad we’re not alone as the only ones to get pressured into such a blatant mess. THank goodness our laptop picked up the neighboring resort’s wifi and I had internet access to start researching. PROFECO has been great with prompt email response on handling the matter. We visited the Consular Agency of the United States and were told we should be just fine for a refund, that the timeshare manager should know better. Tomorrow we head into town to get our letters stamped by PROFECO and I’ll relish the moment when we get to hand it to Janell and ask her to sign as proof of receiving. If she refuses we already have PROFECO’s stamp and our Consular record/complaint. On top of that I have also sent cancellations by email to keep record. This should all be enough to give to my credit card company to dispute the charge in case the refund does not come. THank you for you for posting your experience and letters. MESCAM helped too. THere should be signs in the sales offices stating you get 5 days to cancel. Regarding other elements of the sale I can’t believe how things were misrepresented. I have one more day of vacation left. Thankfully I can relax and my stomach won’t be in knots like the last four.
-Laura

I cut and pasted your wonderful email that you sent them. I edited it a bit but for the most part it is the same. I even used green letters. If they do not comply I will be calling profecos 800 number. Thanks a lot.

Thank you for posting this on the website.

My husband and me are going there this weekend. You story ensures us to have a stronger will to say NO when they are selling timeshare to us.

Once again, thank you very much.

Wish us good luck then.

Heres some advice which may help you enjoy time shares and be able to enjoy Mexico without having to deal with “out of country” companies. My wife and I have two time shares, both tri annuals, and both with bonus weeks. We did not enteer in to the contract with the intention ofmaking money, either in renting our weeks or in resale, they were just for our enjoyment and to share with others. RCI has a very large network of condos around the world as well as in the US and have a rating system to help you better understand what type of unit you are vieing for. The sales people, who worked with us on the first sale, were “eager” but did not lie to us in any way and made it clear these were not money making ventures. I appreciated their honesty. What my wife and I purchased was a single RED week unit @ Vacation Village in the Berkshires. It is a tri annual ownership of a A-B double lockout unit. Having a A-B unit means the condo you purchase is actually split into two seperate units. You have a common hall enterance with two seperate unit enterances. This allows you to “bank” your unit and receive two weeks credit because RCI can now rent them out as two seperate units rather tnah one. We also received as part our purchase, a bonus week each year for the rest of our lives. Because this is a tri annual, we only pay 1 maintenance fee every 3 years $285. So what we have is actually 5 weeks vacation every 3 years. Purchase price—$4,200. We purchased our second tri annual @ Massanutten located in Va. Same tri annual, same double lockout (A-B unit) same 1-in-3 maintenance fee. Purchase price–$4,500. My wife and I have 10 weeks vacation every 3 years for the rest of our lives with only maintenance fees and a $100. conformation fee per week used. Keep in mind we can use our weeks at any of several thousand resorts around the world. There are also many other travel benefits that are offered through RCI too numerous to mention. So please, if you are interested in a time share, go to RCI.com and see what they have to offer before you decide. P.S. These are deeded weeks which means you can leave them to your family in your will, they do not get reaquired by RCI when you die. You can also give weeks of vacation with a gift certificate from RCI to your friends and family.

My wife and I just returned from a week in Cabo, and I have to say that we had a lot of fun with the timeshare presentations. No, we didn’t buy into any of them, and I honestly don’t feel like we were especially pressured into doing so. Maybe because we presented an air of disinterest right from the start, the salespeople realized that they were fighting a losing battle, and just wanted to get on to the next prospects. Actually, the most pressure came from the people trying to sign us up to go to the presentations! This is the main reason we went to these – it’s kind of hard to turn down offers of $250 cash. We went to presentations for Hacienda Encantada, Hacienda del Mar and Los Cabo Golf Club (where we were staying). Our net take for these three were $450 cash (US), 2 sunset cruise tickets on the Tropicat ($98 value), 3 breakfasts, various discount cards (which we didn’t really use), and the use of the pool/beach for the day at Hacienda del Mar, which was nice since our resort was not on the beach. Not bad for about 5 hours of presentations. We had other offers too, including a $300 cash offer for a place in San Jose del Cabo (the Mayan, I think), but decided enough was enough at that point. I think if one wanted to, you could easily make over $1000 cash by going to these presentations – try to hold out for at least $250 to $300 cash. I read somewhere else that the sales people get $350 for each tour they produce, and get to keep whatever part of that they don’t offer as an incentive. I snuck a peak at one of the lists at the sales offices, and some people were talked into going to the presentation for as little as a free dinner.

PS – if you rent a car, watch the gas station attendants VERY carfully! Every time I filled up (3 times in Cabo), they pulled a quick switch and tried to convince me that I gave them a 20 Peso note instead of the 200 Peso note I actually did give them!

I am glad you got out of it. I did want to give an insight though. I was probably the one who was trying to rent out some units on ebay. I am an owner. I was able to score some super deal early in 2005 through RCI for 199.00 per unit for a few weeks that had historically low usage (i.e. , empty units), off season. I had rented some but had one or two still not rented and I had not been aggressive enough and with the short time left to rent it out decided to offer it at a much lower price. I got way more money back than I invested.
I too was very unhappy that I had purchased in a moment of exuberance and the money was hard to pay back but 4 years later I have found ways to make it work for me and it has opened up a great world of travel.
But, bottom line, it is foolish to buy a timeshare at presentation. If you want to buy one, buy one at resale.

Hi, I’m in the process of trying to cancel my agreement with the Paradise Vacation Club in Cancun, Mexico and in my search came across Josh and Elise’s Cabo Blogo. I’m trying to get in touch with MESCAM. I’ve been on the website and tried to email, but I received a reply with my email being undelivered due to the email address mescam@verizon.net having fatal errors. Does anyone know if the email address for MESCAM has changed? If so, can someone help and send me the new email address. I’d would like to email Josh and Elise, but I’m sure they’d be bombarded with email from others like us who need the help. I’m really glad they were able to rectify their situation in Cabo! I hope I get the same success! Thanks for any help anyone can give me.

After my dad and sister died of cancer late last year, I took my mother down two weeks ago to the Pueblo Bonito Pacifica Retreat and Spa adjacent to the PB Sunset timeshare resort. We were pushed into the timeshare presentation…the reception folks at Pacifica won’t let you go to your rooms until you “hear” the ladies talk about the “free” breakfast presentation at the sister Sunset hotel..
We went (for the discounts and freebies) and ALMOST fell for it. The large two bedroom apartment was quite well done and my mother actually thought it might be nice to use twice a year (she is over 65 and they offered the semi annual deal plus four extra RCI? weeks…)
But alas we were so anxious to get back to our hotel to sit on the beach ..the presentation ran three hours..that we said no.
After reading all of the above stories, I am glad we didn’t make the purchase and honestly the price for the two bedroom unit seemed very high $29,000.

who has everyone emailed? i need an email address, please help

It is unfortunate that Pueblo Bonito has made such a bad impression, and treated you so poorly. However, I have owned several timeshares in Cabo (Villa del Palmar, Playa Grande, Melia, and Hacienda Encantada) for many years and I love them. If you are not in a postion finacially to afford them, don’t sign up. They are luxury purchases and can only be bought if your other finacial obligations are looked after first. If they are affordable for you, and you plan to vacation each year they are wonderful. I am able to take amazing vacations for far less than it would cost me otherwise.

Josh, I am glad to read that you got your money back.
My situation is a little different. Can you or anybody else offer me some advice.
In Feb. 2006 like an idiot my wife and I took a free trip to Branson, Mo. and listened to the Timeshare hype. Like a fool i went for it. Now here we are 15 going on 16 months later and $3400.00 in the hole. Is there any way that I can get us out of this and maybe get some of our money back. Needless to say we have not been back to Branson as it is about 400 miles from us. They are currently taking $185.38 out of my checking account every month, which I am going to stop my bank from honoring. And they have now sent the maintenance fee that started out at $399.00 and is now $612.00 to a collection agency. one my biggest concerns is the effect that this could have on my credit rating.

Yeah!! Thank You Josh & Keiko,
Your words of wisdom helped us write the right e-mails and
make the right phone calls to get our $5900.00 refund totally
back and confirmed cancellation with the Hacienda Encantada.
And all within a two week period!!
Thank you!!
God Bless you ALL!!
Loretta and Don Stone

My husband and I bought our week in 1986 at what is now part of the Mayan Palace resorts. We purchased a red week, 1 bedroom, for $3,000. We spent most of that first vacation feeling sick and unsure about what we had done, but we stayed with it. For many years we vacationed every other year depositing our unused week with RCI. We enjoyed the exchanges we acquired for the first few years but eventually it became more difficult to find an equal exchange. We found that we had to settle for smaller, less desirable units. We now vacation every year and use only our registered week which can be used at any of the Mayan Palaces. This coming year we were given the opportunity to book directly into the new Grand Mayan in San Jose del Cabo and are looking forward to it. Cabo is one of our favorite Mexican destinations.
We have been to a few presentations over the years but have always managed to say no, mainly because of how expensive these weeks have become. I think that if a person really wants to get into timesharing they should look into purchasing a resale. Just please do some research on what you are buying. Is it Red time (prime)? Is it floating or do you have to vacation the same week every year? Is it annual or biannual? How many years are left on the contract? This last point can be important if the price looks to good to be true.

Does any one know if Hacienda Encantada even exists? I was so snowed by the sale from that nice Austallian man, Dudley (the name suits him I now realize). I bought in as I was with my 18 year old daughter and I thought won’t this be nice to share with family and friends. I have contacted them so many times, and have not yet heard if I really own anything. I have really resigned myself to learning a very big lesson, at a cost of almost 10 K I’m afraid. It makes me so sad because I really liked Cabo.

This was a great posting. I am 3 days in and have decided to bail out of the Tahiti Village after I got home and realized that to refinance the very high rate is going to be difficult and compete with us selling our home in the next 8 months. I’ve “borrowed” much of Josh’s language, but am trying a different and more positive route. I’ll let you all know how it goes.

We bought a time share in PV recently and were told that we could rent out our award weeks and grand weeks. Now we fine that we can not. We were also told that due to some exchange clause that we could not rescind in the five day period. Well we fine that that was not true either. We are now trying to dispute our credit card charges and cancel the contract. Can this be done and if so how. Please any advise is welcome that may help.

Hello,
I would invite everyone who has had this similiar experience with Pueblo Bonito to visit http://www.tripadvisor.com and share your input with others. Potential clients for that resort can then understand that their vacations will include high pressure, rude and potentially fraudulent sales presentations shoved down their throats. The Sunset Beach property is particularly notorious for ruining holidays for people. Be making others aware prior, hopefully we can affect a change with the unscrupulous managment at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach.

Trying to find the email address for PROFECO bought a place in Playa Car at Sandos Resort and Spa
any help with the correct email for PROFECO would be great!

Suzanne – wondering how your situation turned out? I am within the 5 days. We also signed a cardholder’s acknowledgement that says I understand my earnest money is non-refundable! How did things turn out with B of A?

We have two timeshares. A Penthouse at Sunset Beach and a three bedroom at Fiesta Americana. We have five children, and vacationed at a resort in Scottsdale. AZ for 18 years in a row. The resort finally closed. My wife and I vacationed in Cabo with another couple for many years, and always wondered how we could bring the family, given the expense of the rooms (and the small size). We loved Twin Dolphin and stayed there many years, but we would have needed five rooms for all of us, and at $400 per night it didn’t make sense. We looked at many resorts and finally found a unit large enough for our family (and boyfriends/girlfriends/etc). We purchased a Presidential at Sunset Beach in 2001, before the property was built (the Penthouse wasn’t thought of yet).

My wife and I went in 2002 with some friends, since the resort was still under heavy construction. We upgraded to a Penthouse seeing it would fit our needs better. We took the family in 2003. It has been a wonderful experience and we all talk about our excitement of going all year long.

Many have read a complaint I had with Pueblo Bonito on a web page of ours. But it wasn’t about getting out of a contract. It was about selling units advertising travertine flooring and showers, when units being built in 2003 were using porcelain tile. THAT’S an issue. It’s selling a unit with high price finishes and is being replaced with a cheap imitation. I’m a contractor so I know the cost savings. But the unit prices were never lowered.

After reading many complaints here and elsewhere, I have to ask, WHAT WERE YOU GUYS THINKING? Did you have too much to drink? Were you trying to impress friends? Were you too proud to say no? What? I’m sure there are some of you with legitimate complaints. But for the majority, it sounds like too many jumped in without thinking, OR counting the costs before hand.

THAT isn’t Pueblo Bonitos fault, or any other resort. It’s YOUR fault. It was good many found a way out from their mistake. Maybe next time someone won’t make a financial decision when they’ve been drinking free beer and margaritas offered by the sales people, and then scramble for a way to get out of it when they finally come to their senses!

Gina,

How did your “clients” pay for the timeshare? If they used a credit card (most likely), and PB isn’t honoring the contract, simply dispute it. If you send the contract to the credit card company and explain that PB is not honoring the contract they signed, the CC company will fight for you and remove it. You can also go over Alfredo’s (Ramirez) head. He isn’t very far up the pole. On the issue I talked about above, Alfredo made a promise to me he couldn’t keep, but it wasn’t in writing like their contract is.

I too have been suckered by Pueblo Bonito Sunset in several different ways. Primarily is that when given the sales pitch they out right lie to you, or knowingly withhold information, even when asked a specific question. For instance, when asked if we could use any of the Pueblo Bonito’s for our purchased week we were advised we could . They neglected to tell us that we would first have to deposit our week into RCI and then pay the exchange fee, just like we would with any other exchange.
Today, I found out that even if I use one of my weeks to go to Cabo using my US owned time share at Vacation Village in Massachusetts; because I am a Pueblo Bonito owner, the only resort that we will ever be able to stay in must be a one of the Pueblo Bonito resorts. So by becoming a Pueblo Bonito owner I have restricted my use of my other time share ownerships. This is very unfair and I will do everything possible to get out of my ownership at the Pueblo Bonito becuase of it. I fell RCI is also a part of this unethical practice since they allow the Pueblo Bonito to put this restrictin on my account. I now feel it is also necessary to cance my RCI memebership and use Red-Week or some other exchange company for the vacation exchanges. I bought last year and only stayed at the Sunset for the first time in May. Although it is a beautiful resort, it is not where we want to be. We wanted to be in town, and bought there, only becuase we were led to believe that we would be able to use our week at the Blanco (which we loved). Anyway, if I cannot get out of my contract, I will take my losses and cancel my ownership and search every blog on the internet to warn people of the Pueblo Bonito’s deceit and unethical practices. BUYERS BEWARE. STAY AWAY FROM MEXICAN TIMESHARES.

Maryellen,

I’ve listened to enough time share talks to know they don’t “out right lie to you, or knowingly withhold information, even when asked a specific question.” You asked if you could stay at any PB resort and the answer was yes. Whether or not it’s as easy as you had hoped didn’t make what they said a lie. Did you ask the simple follow up question, “how would we go about doing that?” If you didn’t, it wasn’t anyone’s fault but yours.

Why would you only be able to stay at a PB resort? If you used RCI to exchange from Vacation Village, you should be able to go to any resort in the RCI network. That’s false information you were given.

As I heard from others and learned from, you buy where you want to go, not just buy any location to exchange it. We bought at Sunset Beach and Fiesta Americana. We love them and don’t have any reason to exchange them. We have access to all the PB resorts, Fiesta Americana resorts, and Hilton International (affiliated with FA), without using RCI.

Don’t blame the Mexican Timeshares. People need to do a little more homework before they invest. Most of the complaints here are related to that.

Hi Josh & Elise,

This is all new to me and I hope this is how I contact you for needed info.

My daughter and I bought a unit at Hacienda Encantada more than one year ago. We charged the total amount to my VISA card at the time. We continued our Cabo vacation for the rest of the week and upon returning home, called to cancel. We were told that because we had paid the full price, the contract could not be cancelled. Sadly, we believed them.
Here is the big question. My daughter was not 30 years old at the time (27) and I was not divorced. Can she now cancel the contract citing it is invalid because she was “under age” at the time of signing? (She turned 29 this month). I was actually married at the time we signed. If we try this approach can we be prosecuted? Has anyone tried to void the contract because of age and/or marital status? Thanks.

I would just like to send a big THANK YOU to Josh Janicek for this post. Thanks to his letter and direction, we were able to receive a FULL refund of the $2,945 charged on our visa by Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach. We signed on 3/25/09 (Wed) and requested a full refund on 3/30/09 (Mon). We were luckily within the 5 day cancellation period. I sent both emails and the letters postmarked within the 5 day cancellation.

The salesman was very savy – he knew that the wife had enough questions about cancellation of the contract to make him leary that he might lose a sale so he ‘accidentally’ had all of the contracts drawn up in only the husband’s name. The wife was distracted enough to not read everything hubby signed, ESPECIALLY the Cardholder’s Acknowledgement, whereby any of the deposits paid would be retained and non-cancelable or non-refundable! This document was conveniently located within the stack of many to sign and we were verbally told it was merely an ‘authorization to charge your credit card.’ When we got home and read through all of the documents, we truly thought we were locked into this arrangement. WRONG! Reading Josh’s post SAVED US.

We also immediately notified our credit card company of the dispute, providing them with a copy of all contracts signed, including the Cardholder’s acknowledgement, and a copy of the email/letter to PB Sunset Beach.

On 3/31/09, I received the following email:

From: Alfredo Ramirez [mailto:aramirez@pueblobonito.com.mx]
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 12:23 PM
To: XXXXXX
Subject: RE: Cancellation of Timeshare Contract No. 115XXX SB

We´ll proceed with the cancellation of the contract and refund all monies paid todate within the next 15 days as agreed on the same contract,

Alfredo Ramirez

Member Services

On 4/6/99, a FULL REFUND was applied to our credit card. WHEW!

Although we were foolish to sign this contract, we were so relieved to know that there was a way to undo such a mistake. I HIGHLY recommend ANYONE who has a weakness, especially under the influence of tequila and/or beer, to NOT go to any timeshare sales pitch. THANK YOU AGAIN TO Josh Janicek!!
Signed, L&R – Nevada

I’m so grateful you began this website! We too were able to revoke our contract with Pueblo Bonito, and received a refund of our deposit. I’d be more than happy to send a contribution toward keeping up your website–let me know if you’re open to that. I’ll also send in some $ to MESCAM. Thank you!!

Thank you very much for this information. It was helpful to me and I do know that it is helpful to others. I very much appreciated the email correspondence that was posted. It is great to have information out there to inform others of their rights, how to proceed, and to read about the experiences others have had. I am hoping that my cancellation will be processed as they stated with a full refund.

Fred

I bought a timeshare at Sunset 2 years ago. Of course what the salesperson said and promised was a lie. Two days later I personally talked with a manager and told them I wanted to cancel, gave them my book etc. Manager said ok. Found out later when I was back home in the states and I called the credit card company to find out if I received my refund they told me that it wasn’t canceled. I have been around the block many many times on this situation that it kills me to think about it. I’m stuck with a timeshare I don’t want and can’t even get a week when I wanted to make reservation. Please stay away from the timeshare gimmick.

Thank you for all the valuable information. I just got my refund today from Real Resorts

I just wanted to let you know that the information that you posted here to get out of the timeshare was VERY valuable to me in recovering my money from PB Sunset.

I received confirmation that the monies will be refunded in 15 days from the Director of Member Services. We’ll see if it happens. I am also requesting for confirmation of contract cancellation.

It is very important to send your emails with a delivery and read receipt notice since the sales people will not respond to your inquiries. Also very important to copy (cc:) PROFECO on all email correspondence.

Good luck to all who have encountered this problem. One of life’s very valuable lessons.

I’ll still go back to Cabo to vacation, but now i just need to walk by the hagglers and just say “NO!!”

Thanks Josh and Elise!