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Watch out the scam! Royal Hotel Sunset in Cancun, (Sunset Group, Hotel Sunset Cancun)



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 16th, 2003, 03:58 PM
John Williams
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Default Watch out the scam! Royal Hotel Sunset in Cancun, (Sunset Group, Hotel Sunset Cancun)

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!!!
  #2  
Old December 16th, 2003, 05:05 PM
Charlie Hammond
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Posts: n/a
Default Watch out the scam! Royal Hotel Sunset in Cancun, (Sunset Group, Hotel Sunset Cancun)

In article ,
(John Williams) writes:

At the Cancun airport... I was approached by one of those people...
[who] told me that
they are hired by local Mexican-owned hotels/resorts in Cancun to
prompt their businesses to American travelers.


As you now know, these are sales people for either time-share condominiums
or points based vacation clubs.

The reason these people tend to be rather agressive is -- you guesed it --
MONEY. About half the price you pay for a time-share on vacation club
membership goes into promotion and sales cost. A good bit of that goes
to the sales people -- but only if they sell. Keep this in mind.

If you are intersted, my personal advice is to consier ONLY deeded
onwership arrangements. Avoid 99 year "right-to-use" and points-based
vacation clubs. Given Mexican law, it is my understandting that a US
citizen cannot directly own real estate in Mexico, so that rules out Cancun
for me. I think that in general you will be better off owning a time-share
in your own country. If you buy wisely, you can trade your week[s] for
locations world wide.

As with any real estate purchase, location is the main thing to consider.
(Well, after or allong with price and the quality of the property.)
For time-shares, you want a location that has both high demand and low
availabilty. This makes the property more valuable and allows you to
trade more easily. Cancun certainly has high demand, but there is also a
high availability -- lots of hotels and condos -- so I would not consider
owning there, even aside from the legal problems for a US citizen in
Mexican real estate. BTW, Orlando, FL, fails to pass this test for the
same reason: too many condos available.

Finally, consider the trading organization the resort works with. There
are two major ones -- Resort Condominiums International (RCI) and Interval
International (II). Some resorts work with both of these. RCI includes
about three times as many resorts as II; thus RCI has more varried choices
and more locations, both in the USA and world-wide. II tends to have more
upscale, very luxurious resorts. You should consider what you want.

(We own two time-share weeks. One is in a resort that was RCI when we
bought it and now works with both RCI and II. I have had very good luck
trading through RCI and am pleased with them. The other told us they worked
with RCI when we bought, but changed to II just after that, dropping RCI
affiliation. My personal experience with II has been unspeakably dismal.
I have reached the point that I will not even attempt to deal with II
any more. If I did not love the location and/or if there were another
resort avaialable in this location, I would sell this unit in a flash.
Obviously, others have different experiences and you should consider them
in addition to mine when evaluating RCI and II.)


...they insisted to bring at least one major credit [card]...
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. ...


*NEVER* *EVER* give your credit card information to *ANYBODY* unless
you -- not them! -- have initiated a trasaction and YOU want to pay
by credit card. This is especially true if you are outside the country
where you live.

If anybody declines to deal with you on this basis, be asured that you
are better off NOT deailing with them.

And you should never be on vacation with 10 credit cards! One or two --
three at the most -- plus your ATM card is more than adequate.
(It is good to have at least two different "brands" with you -- i.e. VISA
and Mater Card.)

In fact, you probably shouldn't have that many cards -- if you do, it is
foolish to carry them all around with you.

--
Charlie Hammond -- Hewlett-Packard Company -- Ft Lauderdale FL USA
-- remove "@not" when replying)
All opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily my employer's.

  #3  
Old August 6th, 2009, 07:54 PM
cartecredit1212 cartecredit1212 is offline
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Posts: 1
Default

thats an exhaustive post.. thanks..
  #4  
Old August 20th, 2009, 07:44 PM
thesarasmile thesarasmile is offline
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Posts: 1
Default

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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