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At the Cancun airport, right outside of baggage claim area, beware of
the people who dressed in uniforms and wore ostensible "official" badges that claim to be the official tourist assistants for the city. They are anything but! Stay away from them! I just came back from a trip to Cancun, Mexico. I was approached by one of those people at the airport who seems to be very eager to offer his assistance in providing me with traveling tips in Cancun. This person told me that they are hired by local Mexican-owned hotels/resorts in Cancun to prompt their businesses to American travelers. The reason of such directing method of marketing is that they couldn't afford advertisements in the US, which later I learned is just one of their many lies. I was offered with a no-obligation tour with one of the resorts which they happened to promote during that week. The resort name is called Royal Sunset, Sunset Royal Deluxe Resort, or Hotel Sunset. All those names apparently operate under a business entity called Sunset Group. All I had to do was to show up at the hotel (they even provide free transportation from my hotel to their resort) and eat a free breakfast and take a look at their facility. If I liked it, I can recommend to my family and friends. In return, I was offered with the following perks: free day-trip ticket to Chichen Iyta, or any other destination on the list; a free breakfast (which I really didn't care anyway). They ask you to give them $40 USD as refundable deposit (which I did get back later) as a way to ensure you will show up. My suspicion grew as they insisted to bring at least one major credit during the tour as those major credit companies (such as Visa, Master, AMEX) are the "sponsors" of their promotion as they put it. That's just another lie. To make the whole thing looks legit, they told that you don't have to show anyone your credit card numbers, you can just flash the logo only. This requirement sounded awfully peculiar but it's my fault I wasn't able to figure out why at that time. Anyhow, it sounded I didn't have much to lose by simply showing up at the resort next morning, eat breakfast and tour the resort and give my thoughts and get free day-trip ticket. At the agreed time next day, the person who I spoke to at the airport did show up promptly at my hotel and took me to Sunset Deluxe Resort, also called Hotel Sunset just off the 10 kilometer post on Blvd. Kukulcan. I was greeted by a hostess who did want me to show her the major credit cards. I did show her my cards but remained cautions by not letting her see the card numbers. I was then introduced to a person who said his name was Max and he will be showing me the facility today. While sitting down to go through the paperwork, the credit card question came up again! This time, I was told that there will be a raffle tonight and if I can provide up to 10 credit card expiration dates then I would be have better change to win. Yet another flat-out lie. Then Max told me this is a time-share presentation and he asked if I am current own any timeshare properties. I told him no. Max called to his manager, who speaks prefect American English and said he will "authorize" Max to proceed with the tour despite that we don't have timeshare property as long as we remained open-mined, I said fine. I think they purposely left out mentioning timeshare until this time. Not at any point prior to this I was asked if I was a owner of a timeshare nor this is a timeshare presentation, which I knew I wouldn't want to get involved if I was made aware of before this "tour" took place. Max showed us couple rooms at the top floor with ocean view, "this is the only type of rooms we had left for sale because all other sold out." Max told me. Yeah right, as I believed that lie. Obviously being on the top floor and the view, the unit is the most expensive one. The build quality and the interior was not top notch (at best, an equivalent to a 3-star hotel in U.S.) as you can tell by the material they used. After the tour we then went to downstairs to work on numbers. After Max had presented several pricing options, I was clearly not interested given the facts presented in front of me. I said to Max that I am not interested and I'd thank him for his time. Max was clearly disappointed and said his manager would expect a deal done with every other person he met. Funny I don't understanding how is this my problem? I told him again that I am not interested and I'd like to conclude this meeting. Max called up to his manager again who came and said to us he's willing to slash the offer price. I told him again that I am not interested. At the end, I had to meet 3rd sales person who offered to slash the price even further. Finally, I was led to a ticket counter and given the voucher for the free tour and my $40 USD cash back. "The bus will pick you up at 7:30am sharp at the hotel, don't be late." The lady says to me. Next day, I waited at the hotel lobby since 7:20am and guess what? No bus even came! I called the number on the voucher and was asked to a bunch of strange questions such as what was I wearing today, etc. Then I was told the bus must "missed" me, and now I must take a taxi to other meeting place to join another group. At this point I knew the whole thing was a lie and simply hang up the phone. Lessons learned: there is no free tour, as long as you are not buying the timeshare. The so called "no obligation offer" was a complete lie to begin with. They had no intention to honor their promises no matter what they told you on the hand-out or in-person. Those people are crooks. They interested in your credit card because more you have the more indication to them that you are type of person who probably will buy in with this kind of stuff and it's my theory that the more credit cards you have the better chance they get you money (down payment or some sort) on the same day! With the substantial down payment (thousands of US dollars) they could split the charges to multiple cards to avoid hit the credit limit on a single card, that why it's very important for them to know if you have credit cards and how many do you have. The following is a list of properties managed by Sunset Group in Cancun Mexico: Sunset Sea Star Isla Mujeres, Sunset Lagoon Resort & Yacht Club, Sunset Royal De Luxe Resort (or Sunset Royal deluxe Resort), and Hotel Sunset. Stay away from those places like hell!!! |
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thats an exhaustive post.. thanks..
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I thought this scam was just going to be another airport baggage handler scam but wow, that's a long one. It sounds like if they couldn't get you to buy they'd definitely be trying to use your credit card. These days even just flashing my card logo I'd be scared they had some wireless camera's set up trying to catch my credit card number when I flash my card.
And give them 10 expiry dates for a raffle? No thanks! I thought it was bad when I got taken by a fake baggage handler at Beijing airport first asking for an airport tax, and when I refused he helped me with my bags. He was all dressed up. Looked very official. When I got as far as the elevator he wanted 100 RMB for helping me with my bags, I said no way, he lowered the price.. he was starting to get angry when he got to 50 RMB then I caved. But at least I was rid of him. It's unfortunate they don't have more security around airports making sure people can't get away with scams like this. Protecting your tourists should be part of your tourist industry business plan. It will certainly keep tourists feeling safe about coming back. |
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Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Stay away from Royal Sunset Hotel in Cancun, Mexico | John Williams | Caribbean | 0 | December 16th, 2003 02:50 PM |