Sunset Fishermen's Village (Playa Del Carmen) - How did we do?

Hi,

We just returned from Playa Del Carmen, where we stayed at an Iberostar All Inclusive. While there visited the Sunset Fishermen's Village presentation in exchange for lunch, a snorkel trip, 5 shirts, a bottle of tequila, and a bottle of Kahlua. The presentation ran well beyond the promised 90 minutes, but I expected that so no big complaint.

We had a number of offers presented to us, starting at $80,000 and stepping down through $40,000, $16,000, and $11,000 in various configurations of 1 and 2 BR, EY and EOY. Said no to all. The last offer intrigued me as it was different than any I've had before:

- 2 weeks vacation per year for 10 years (20 weeks total), half in any Sunset property and half outside of the Sunset network through VIP interclub, RCI, or II; all 'platinum season' (any time of year).
- 3 bonus weeks in Sunset network in off-season only.
- No exchange fees.
- Any size unit from 2 BR lock-off to 1 BR or Studio
- Pay 'maintenance' (reservation) fee only at time of booking; for 2 BR lock-off it is $695 for the week, lower for the smaller units. If we don't use some weeks we don't pay the maintenance.
- Pay $49 per year for exchange documents.
- Non-ownership, exempt from assessments.
- Total cost of US $4,995.
- At the end of 10 years, if we don't buy anything else, it all ends with no further obligation.

By the way, Fishermen's Village has daily All Inclusive for a current rate of $50 per person per day, your choice whether to use it and which days if so.

As you can guess, I bit. I figured I was getting each week at a cost of about $961 (assuming 2 BR), or $137 per night (not accounting for the time value of money on the $4995). We figured it was a fairly safe way to try out a form of TS (this is our first) with limited liability. Also, we really liked Playa Del Carmen, which is only a 2 hour flight from Houston, so we do see ourselves able to take advantage of the time in PDC.

Thoughts / comments?

Thanks,

Barry

I'm still very skeptical of ANYTHING the Sunset Group offers. I'd be suprised if they came through with what the offerred. I don't have personal experience with them, but have been around TUG long enough and have heard too many horror stories about this company.

My opinion, based solely on the bad reputation of the outfit, is to recind as quickly as u can. Others might have different opinions, but i think most on TUG would agree with me.

Barry,
Check my response on the Mexico Board, and BTW ur gonna get a zing from the administrators, double posting is not allowed on TUG.

I couldn't figure out how to delete the first post, when I thought I had it in the wrong place - hopefully I can beg forgiveness.....

BarryTX said:

I couldn't figure out how to delete the first post, when I thought I had it in the wrong place - hopefully I can beg forgiveness.....

Click to expand...

Not a problem... I took care of it for you, and merged the other response into this Thread.

Thanks and sorry for the confusion on the posting.

Okay, back to the original question -

I see several threads where owners who wanted to recind had major complaints against Sunset, but I am missing any owners who actually use the Sunset properties listing concerns. Is there any reason to believe they won't hold up their end of the bargain if I hold up mine?

Thanks for the feedback.

Barry

Basically your paying 5K for twenty weeks plus $695 maintenance per week if its a two bedroom. There are much better deals to be had. I would rescind and look for a better way to spend the 5K on a timeshare.

Sunset

You will be lucky if you get any use out of it, as they are oversold.

After much consideration and further research, we decided to rescind. Sent in the letter within the 5-business day time frame by e-mail, fax, and certified letter. Thanks much for the input.

Barry