Complaint Review: J. Gondos - Nationwide

El Cid Vacation Club is the biggest Scam/ Rip off!  True to the popular concensus that you should stay away from people selling "time shares" my husband and I got sucked into a presentation in order to receive tickets and a rental car.

Though we were fully prepared to "walk" after the quite lengthy presentation we were intrigued by an offer made to us as we said no to all the others.  10 1-week all inclusive vacations over a period of 20 years.  Hmmm now this might not be bad.  We paid 8900.00 for this deal...  on top of that there was a yearly fee of 349.00... hmmm now that's getting a bit pricey, but since we paid 4500 with air fare to spend an all inclusive week in Cozumel during the holiday (this included airfare) the deal seemed reasonable... Not too good to be true, Reasonable.  

Now let's do the math... $ 8900 plus $ 6980  ($349 a year for twenty years) comes to that's $15,880 for 10 1 week all inclusive stays:  that's 1588.00 per week's vacation in a "5" star facility.  Now when you look at that it seems reasonable since they had my money up front to use and were getting an additional $349 every single year.

HOWEVER, the second year we had this so called package I called to make reservations.  I was told it was only for a room - not all-inclusive!  What?  I said I'm sure you are mistaken, the package was presented as 1 week all inclusive any where we wanted to go.... In fact the Sales rep threw the book on the table and said look... anywhere in this book!  Isn't that Great!

We didn't use the vacation that year and paid a fee to roll the points over to the next year.  I called the next year and was told the same thing!  Only room and depending on where you go it may not be for a week!

Again, I dropped it out of sheer frustration!  However, I called again today, you see they were hounding me because my now "ex" hadn't paid the maintenance bills and I owed 120+ dollars!  I spoke to Christain in the billing department and told him of my frustration.  He referred me to customer service where again I was told that what I bought was "points" 77,000 to be exact, to be used every other year.... Yes, I stated I understand this but as I was totally told that this 77,000 points would get us our 1 week all inclusive "any where" we wanted to go!  She said "Ma'am" you did not buy a week, you bought points... in order to do what you want to do you would have to add money to that!  What!?!?!  I am livid to say the least.

In fact I am as mad at myself . I am an educated woman who is careful with her money and I got totally scammed into giving 10,645.00 to date for absolutely nothing!!!!   I would have NEVER AGREED TO PAYING THAT MUCH MONEY IN ADVANCE  for simply a "roof" over my head for a few days!  Are we kidding here.  You can go to Jamaica or Punta Cana right now, all inclusive, with airfare for under 1200!  I bought this because I was told and sold one thing and am getting nothing!!!!  I would be a total fool to continue to pay into this scam.  5 years to put up with this is 5 too many!  I am out 10,645!!  I am now forced to write a letter to El Cid relinquishing my "membership" in order to avoid any further "maintenance" fees!    What a fool I have been!

 There's an american salesman at Puerto Morelos who is helping to real all us dummies  in, though his name isn't on any of the papers I believe it was something like "Cy" from Indiana if I remember correctly!  BEWARE of him as well!  Smooth Talker!