Fraude de Tiempo Compartido: México vs USA y Cómo Protegerse

Companies are calling us at our home wanting to buy our timeshare. We would love to get pout from under it but how do we know it is for real and not a scam

28 years ago I bought a Timeshare at Plaza Holiday Club in Acapulco. The Certificate of Purchase of agreement No.15340 states that at the end of 28 years the full amount of $16,900 will be refunded from an insurance annuity policy. I have phoned and sent several E-mails and no reply. During the 28 years if the maintenance fee was not paid I would be threatened by collection agencies. Now the management Prisma Resort Services, in San Antonio Texas will not even answer my phone calls. Any idea what can be done to get my money as stated in the signed agreement. , ,

Que tal gracias por compartir este articulo, de lo que si estoy seguro es que nadie esta excento de no ser victima de fraude de tiempo compartido , mis papas hace unos años compraron con royal holiday , firmaron y no adquirieron lo que les habian prometido durante la presentacion de tiempo compartido que les dieron , se lo mucho que batallaron para librarse de eso .Por eso la verdad no les recomiendo involucrarse en una membresia con ningun resort.

En lo personal no se mucho sobre tiempos compartidos, por lo cual fui victima de uno de los resorts de Mexico , estas personas no se tentaron el corazon en dejarme casi en la calle, mi error fue por no leer bien el contrato y resulto ser que todo lo que me prometieron fue una farsa, nose si en mexico es donde mas ocurra esto , pero de lo que si estoy seguro es que si te dejas, estas personas terminan dejandote sin nada, tengan mucho cuidado porfavor.

I dont know how i could be so dumbass , actually i have a very big problem with a resort situated in los Cabos, those people want me to rip off all my money " my mistake was to not read correclty the contract and now i have to pay some maintenace fees that are ridicously high! i dont know what to do to cancel it.

Yo creo que en cualquier parte del mundo uno esta expuesto a este tipo de fraudes, sin embargo hay que tener mucho cuidado en lo que nos ofrecen , en mexico tuve una experiencia muy desagrdable con un resort, por suerte ya me libre de ese tiempo compartido , fue todo una locura

Timeshares are a scam. I found a local consumer protection firm to help me get out of my contract legally named Reed Hein & Associates. They are also know as the Timeshare Exit Team.

I have thought about signing up for a timeshare such as Trendwest where they have properties all over the world and I would use my points to go to a different place each year.
Now I don’t see it as a true “investment”, and I definitely will buy in the resale market but if I buy into it during my working years and pay off the $10,000 and then in my retirement years (when my income is probably lower) every vacation would be low-cost for the housing, that seems like a good financial plan to me.
I still want to talk to people who do it to see if they like it, or what companies are better than others.

My wife and I went to Puerto Vallarta Mexico last weekend for a few days and as soon as we landed and finished immigration we got to a room full of people selling timeshares. This was inside the terminal. As soon as we cleared immigration we were hoarded by a bunch of people inside the terminal asking for cabs and we said no thank you. There were a lot of people offering margaritas which we declined. Then there were a couple of people who were like we will call your car rental company and pulled us to the desk(They all had airport badges). They asked what the company are we renting the car from and I told them who I was renting from and they directed me to a guy at a counter. All this while I was thinking these are officials. So while we were waiting, they asked us where we were staying and gave us a map of the place, recommeded things that we should see, and also bought up a place very close to our hotel saying this is a place you should check out. He said this is a new place and we are doing this for advertisement so if you like the place you can recommend it to your friends. This should have raised flags for us. The guy went into details about different excursions and then asked if we were interested in a hotel tour that included a free massage+ second massage at half cost + a free excursion for two. We had to put down a holding deposit of $80 ($40 refundable when we showed up and $40 for the second massage). At that time I realized the guy will be selling us a timeshare when he gave us the receipt which stated no obligation or purchase required. They also had the general questions such as married, carrying ids, major credit cards, both employed. I had already given the guy the money and I was too tired to argue and get the money back (1 connection + 5 AM start got over me). So I was like what the hell I will just go to the timeshare thing and firmly keep saying no. We were scheduled for a tour the next morning where the guy was supposed to meet us outside our hotel. In the night about 9:30 the same guy called our hotel and asked my wife if everything was ok and how are we liking the place and stuff. That freaked her out and she said we are not going. He called us the next morning also when we were scheduled to meet him and we didnt pick up.

I know I am out the $80 but was wondering if there is any way to get back to them. I know it is a lesson learned but this is not something that someone has to go through. They wasted 1 hour of my time at the airport and called the same evening at the hotel room. I paid cash for to the guy and have a receipt. Should I just reach out to the place selling the timeshare? Any creative ideas? Icing on the cake would be they would refund my money!

Another scam I saw in Cancun, not the Gran Caribe Real resort but I did see this at the Oasis Cancun and the Grand, as well as any resort that has the word, "Palace" in it.
Couples or families with children are the target. They first question they ask you is if you are married. And, if you are on your honeymoon. Either or, they will mold their scam to you, and they are very friendly about it, they say, if you are married but not on your honeymoon, something like, "How many years you been married?! Oh it's time for another honeymoon! How about we give you some free breakfast at so and so resort as an excursion and 2 one hour massages for free and you can use the spa?" And then you will be escorted to the place where they will ask you for your credit card just to know that you are you. This isn't true! Be careful! Show them your passport instead and you will see it's not good enough of an identity for them! Imagine! This is basically timeshare!