Let me preface this rant with the fact that I am in no way opposed to getting a product, for any price, if you receive what was promised. I have already lost $12,000 and a lot of my sanity because of the lies, deceit, and sales tactics of the folks at the Occidental Grand in Cozumel, and their "Occidental Vacation Club". If nothing else comes of this legally, I can sleep a little easier at night knowing that I have hopefully steered others clear of my mistake.
We were first time travelers to Cozumel, and Mexico in general. At the airport, we were quickly offered a "free rental car" if we came and listened to a sales pitch for a vacation club. Sounded like a decent deal to us. So we agreed to this. At the end of the sales pitch from the two American sales people (Jason and Joshua), we decided that what they were offering was in fact a good deal for us, so we signed on the dotted line. The biggest factor for making that decision was that 1) Occidental Vacation Club partnered with all major airlines to get members rates 30-50% off that of published rates. They didn't say "possibly", or "maybe", or "from time to time"... they said it as if it were a regular, ongoing agreement between their company and the airlines.
Because of this, I factored that if we regularly spent $800-$1,200 USD round trip per person to visit the Caribbean and Mexico, that we would now be able to get it for approximately $400-$600 USD per person. Since we regularly travel twice a year, that's an annual savings of $2,400. If we brought more than just the two of us (friends and family) the airline savings would be even more evident. This was enough of an incentive for me to sign the contract.
We came home, and after a few weeks I started to check into this agreement that Occidental had with the major airlines, and much to my surprise, no one at Occidental or RCI had any idea what I was talking about. There were several other things that also were dishonest at best, including acting like this whole book of "$5 Travel Adventures" was so easy to use and navigate, when in fact it's next to impossible to book anything without the airfare that again, I thought I was getting 30-50% off.
When I sent an email to the Mexican "lawyer" with whom we signed the paperwork with about the airline discounts, this was her response:
When we went through page 5, clause 26, I clearly explained that the reservation department may provide the Airline booking service and I recommended to you to check also with RCI and the Airline Company to compare prices as we can not guarantee preferential or the lowest rate.
So as you can see, she says she told me all about how no one can guarantee preferential or the lowest rate, yet the sales people (standing in the next room no less) told me with 100% certainly that we could always get the special travel deals on airfare if we signed up for their vacation club. THIS IS WHERE I HAVE A VERY BIG PROBLEM. If that's not bait and switch, I don't know what is. They lie, lie, lie, and then once you get in the room and they go over the 10,000 legal items, they have you legally hooked on contract.
Should I have listened better to Page 5, clause 26? Absolutely. Is this partially my own fault for not paying complete attention? Again, yes. However, after spending the better part of six hours in a sales pitch, mixed with alcohol, and the excitement of what I thought was an awesome deal I was getting; you can forgive me for not listening line for line through her broken English.
The bottom line is OCCIDENTAL VACATION CLUB sales people have been taught to say whatever it is you need to say to get the sale, and then leave it to the legal department to get us to sign on the dotted line, with no intention of ever fulfilling the promises made by their sales staff.
Also, they have free will to "upgrade you" for the remainder of your stay to their top of the line rooms (which was very nice), as well as take you out to dinner and use of their private yacht. The sad part is, we really enjoyed these things thinking it was their way of saying "thanks" for signing up. When in actuality it was just another sales tactic. I am so utterly disappointed in this company, and how they conduct business. While I will probably never see my money back, I Would at least like to see that no one else out there gets taken to the bank like I did.
As a business owner myself, I know that sometimes employees do things outside of their training, or what I have taught them. The few times that has happened with me, even though it cost my company money... I bent over backwards to ensure my customers that that was a poor individual decision by a bad employee, and didn't reflect us as a company. It seems that with OCCIDENTAL VACATION CLUB, it's business as usual.
*p.s. - If anyone (other than Fabiola Márquez) from Occidental would like to talk to me, I would be more than happy to listen to your explanation of what happened to me.