Krystal is a big Fraud!!

Sadly, your story is all too common. Since you bought over three years ago, your rights of rescission have long passed and you likely will not be getting any money back. That being said, here are some suggestions I have for someone in your shoes so that you do not lose any more money.

1) If it hasn't happened already, watch out for the infamous resale scam. They especially target owners in Mexico. It usually starts with a phone call confirming what you own. Then, when that's confirmed, they get you all excited telling you they can sell or rent out your unit for a huge whack of money. Then they tell you that you have to pay some sort of an upfront fee or tax to close the deal.

2) Watch out for the "get you out of your timeshare" scam. In this case, usually you will see Google ads or shill postings telling you that they can "cancel" your timeshare and maybe even sue the resort or sales crew. They will ask for a huge upfront fee and do little or nothing for you.

3) Law firms or other companies claiming they can get all your money back because you bought based on fraud. While you might legally be able to get your money back because of fraud, the tough part is proving that fraud was involved. It's usually a matter of you said, they said. Unfortunately, that does not hold up in court.

Bummer. What about getting my money back on the I.C.E. portion of deal. I.C.E. sucks. I've tried it twice and the places were absolute dives. The last one was in Barbados. We ended up going to another Resort.

Since I will be in Cancun. I guess it can't hurt trying to request some money back. Guess, they can only tell me to leave. It really sucks that they can get away with this all.

Good day! My name is James Gardiner from Canada and am at the Krystal in Cancun right now February 21,2016. I signed up for an ICE membership $2400 after enduring a battle of five sales people & five hours of refusing everything else and was told by Ricardo & Enrique that after 45 days it would be activated after we pay $850.00 to ICE. Pretty sure after reading your comments I have been screwed! The documents indicate that I can cancel this agreement within five days. Something to do with Mexican law. Not sure if that's even correct based on your comments on the lies & deceit these people use. How did you make out in January? Any other advice or ideas you may have will be appreciated. I am leaving here on February 24, 2016. I am going into there office in the morning to hand deliver a cancelation letter and will call Visa and see if they can work something out for me. GOD ALMIGHTY I wish someone would hang these people. Have a nice day. MY heart is with you.

Make sure you get some kind of receipt that you gave them a cancellation notice. Take a picture on your cell phone with date and time. Bring a witness. Whatever you have to do to prove that you gave them proper notice.

OK good advice. Thanks.

did you get your money back? i got same deal but still need to pay them 1500 i didnt know about the broker fee and the aditional fee for the ice i think it was free.....

Just got back from cancun and overall was very nice the tours but i mistakenly enrolled with this guys did not think because it was so good saved all year to get this vacations now i am broke paid 1085 for the contract and 1100 the down and they are calling for 1576. and i havent had the ice discount at front until the 45 days. Did any body got their money back? they dont explain about the broker and the additional fee for the ice. to me they give me the ice life time still not feel comfortable with this decision

On May 17, 2016, my husband and I attended one of the “90-minute” sales presentations hosted by Krystal Resorts, Cancun. We are both educated and intelligent people who have attended such presentations in the past, but when weighing the costs-vs-benefits of time-share ownership, have always opted out of committing to ownership. In this case, however, our salesman German made a very compelling presentation based upon a “vacation package” offered exclusively by Krystal Resorts called the ICE Rewards program. According to German, if we purchased a time share condo with Krystal Resorts, we could also purchase a lifetime membership in the ICE Rewards program for $875. He assured us that this program offers guaranteed lowest rates on airfare (40% off the lowest published rates), cruises (50% off lowest published rates) and hotels ($199 per week if booked one-month or less in advance, and $399 per week if booked three months out from travel). When queried about what hotels this included, we were informed that it included all the international hotels listed on the ICE website (per German this included the Hilton, Hyatt and Radisson). We asked him to show us what hotels specifically were available for $199 in London, England at that particular week and he pulled up a long list of hotels comparable to those listed on Hotels.com. This offer had great appeal to me as I book a great deal of student travel and getting the guaranteed lowest rate would be beneficial to my job. I had no interest in the timeshare contract, however, and indicated this quite clearly to the sales staff.

German informed us that the ICE program was only available if we purchased a time share studio at Krystal resorts for $18,000 for 25 weeks of rental and with an annual maintenance fee of $625. The full contract was for 25 years at one vacation week per year, but we were given the option to rent up to five weeks annually through their rental agency Latitude 21. We were guaranteed that IF the condo rented, we would receive $1,250 per week of rental ($6,250 – the annual maintenance of $625, per German’s math or $5,625). According to German, the cost of the time-share would pay for itself in rental income. I was concerned by the verbiage of our contract (section 8) which indicated that maintenance fees must be paid in advance for each week of rental. When I specifically asked German, what happens to the 20 remaining weeks of maintenance fees if we rent or use all 25 weeks of our timeshare in the first five years, he assured us that “it goes away.” I clarified, “you mean we don’t have to pay it?” and he assented that this was correct. I also asked if we could book up to nine rooms simultaneously in one year, say for a destination wedding and he assured me this would be no problem. After clarifying the muddied sections of the contract verbally with the salesman, we signed in good faith. We were never informed of how we might extricate ourselves if we had a change of heart on the contract. Less than two weeks after signing a contract with Krystal, we were contacted by the listing agent and asked to pay the “listing fee of $675.” To date, there is no evidence that the condo has ever been listed for rental. Our ICE Rewards program did not activate until 51 days after we signed our contract (over a week later than promised).

All aspects of the sales pitch were a lie. The ICE Rewards program can be purchased separately on an annual basis for just a few hundred dollars a year. It does not offer hotel rooms for $199 and $399 per week in major cities across the globe, nor are the rates any cheaper than Hotels.com or Cheapoair.com. It has a handful of bargain hotels (six when I looked in July) that were offered at comparable low rates, in undesirable locations like Grenada and Gatlinburg, TN. In fact, in comparison, the rates at the same hotel for the same period in London, England were $15 per night higher on the ICE web site than at Hotels.com. When I pointed this out to the ICE customer service staff, they made no effort to match the price but did finally acknowledge my right to withdraw from the program since I was within the ten-day trial period.

I was not so lucky with the Krystal Resort customer service staff. When I pointed out the deception involved with their sales tactics they simply said that I “signed a contract.” I then requested to book nine rooms for January 2017 per my contract in order to extricate myself from the time share as soon as possible. I was told that I could only book nine rooms if there was availability and that I only had priority booking for one room. Furthermore, I would have to pay the $625 maintenance fee nine years in advance to reserve the rooms that I could not be guaranteed. So, German’s assurance that using my weeks in advance would cause my maintenance fee to “go away” was also false. After doing my own math given this situation, I determined that I would be paying Krystal Resorts $200 a year to not use the condominium, assuming that I would be able to rent it regularly, which is doubtful. When I requested to quit claim deed the condo back to Krystal and walk away from the $6000 I had already sunk into the down payment and closing costs, they informed me that my contract said I was responsible for 40% of the remaining cost of the time share or an additional $7200.

It is my interpretation that by international law, a contract is only binding if both parties understand the stipulations of the contract and any explanation involves complete disclosure on the part of the contractor. If deception is used to misrepresent the articles of the contract, the contract is no longer binding. I would assert that Krystal Resorts used deception and fraudulent sales tactics to trick me into signing a contract that I did not fully understand. When I asked specifically for clarification, I was given deliberate misinformation. I fully intend to sue the company for its fraudulent business practices and warn anyone considering purchasing a time-share with Krystal of the dangers of working with this company. Certainly, do not purchase a condominium only to join the ICE Rewards program, however, as you would be far better off with the cheap annual membership than committing to a lifetime membership with time-share strings attached.

Beware of any company that claims they can get you out of your contract. There are a few scammers out there posting in the forums claiming they can do just that. They specifically target people who purchased timeshares in Mexico. Keep posting on social media so hopefully you might save someone else from becoming a victim.

We were nailed just the same. Howdo we get out of this mess. Do we just stop paying, i think note because they have arranged payment thru a us bank corp for the monthly payments.

Are there any suggestions dto getting out of this ongoing scam?

Do you know anything about Universal Marketing in Orlando ? I'm used to getting endless winning wonderful scam vacation calls but this company wanting to tell me about renting our Diamond timeshare was new.

I do know The Licensed Timeshare Resale Broker Association said Diamond has nixed the resale market among licensed brokers by manipulating the restrictions on use of points purchased on the secondary market. Prior to Diamond's acquisition of resorts, LTRBA members were able to help owners by renting their weeks out. Members of the LTRBA also told me Diamond does not allow third party legitimate brokers to rent Diamond weeks or points. I'm thinking this UM group is someone contracted by Diamond paying UM a cut so Diamond could make more money on top of maintenance fees. They say they rent for RCI and IL.

Is this a new one! Do you know anything about them?

Timeshare seems to have turned into white collar crime at its finest. Eventually and hopefully enough people will get scammed to be their demise.

It sounds like a scam. Did they give you an unexpected telemarketing call and does the offer sound too good to be true? If so, then it is likely a scam.

They will tell you they have renters lined up or they can find renters who want to pay you way more than market value. Then when you're all excited and not thinking rationally, they tell you that you need to pay some sort of fee or tax to close the deal.

By the way, if the rent for RCI or II (exchange companies), then they would not need your unit to rent out.

Lance it looks like a shill posting contact information. I reported her to Redweek for posting the contact phone number. Shills come into the forums all the time trying to steer victims to their scam. They try to look like they are curious but that's just to get their contact information out there.

NEVER pay anyone money upfront that claims they can rent out your timeshare. If they are legit they will take their cut out of the rent. Once they demand money upfront they are a SCAM !!!

I think I made the same mistake? I was promised that Latitude21 Resourts would rent out my weeks for me and send me a check in September. Well, it is October and all I get from Latitude21 is up selling. They want various levels of membership to rent out my weeks faster. They also claim a monopoly of renting out these Krystal weeks.

Were you able to get your money back?

Anyone know a lawyer? Can we do a class action here?

I bought these week in a small group of 5 (we were traveling together) so I there are plenty of witness to the empty promises.

Hi, I have also been contacted by Latitude21 offering to rent a timeshare (which I'm not even sure if it exists). They wanted me to pay 900 USD upfront and "guaranteed" they would rent out my apartment for a huge amount... They said that they got my information from the previous company handling my rental. This company (Global Marketing Connection) promised me to rent out my unit during two years, but I haven't seen any money yet. I have tried to find more information about Latitude21 on the web, but only find their own pages. Have you received any rental income through the company yet? I hope it works out, but I' m afraid it may turn out to be a fraud as well.

petras16 wrote:

They wanted me to pay 900 USD upfront and "guaranteed" they would rent out my apartment for a huge amount.

Never ever pay anyone a large, upfront fee to sell, rent out, market, or "cancel" your timeshare. Any legitimate rental agency will take its commission out of the proceeds of the sale or rental, not an upfront fee.

Thank you, that's what I thought. It's sad that these type of companies are allowed to exist. As I said, I already paid almost 700 USD to the previous rental company which resulted in nothing, so I don't know why I even considered giving Latitude21 a chance.

petras16 wrote:

As I said, I already paid almost 700 USD to the previous rental company which resulted in nothing...

Yes, unfortunately this is a common scam along with the resale scam. This forum is loaded with stories like your of how timeshare owners paid upfront fees to these scam operations to supposedly sell or rent out their units.

The previous company that you mentioned is a scam and you might want to report it to the Attorney-General of the state where this company is located. This can easily be done online. Whether or not you'll get the desired result, I don't know, but some Attorneys-General have arrested many of these scam artists.

Can you please tell me what happened with your case, I was at Krystal cancun and I was coughed in their lies and sing a contract with them. Now I am 13000 dollars in the hole. Trying to contact them, but they never answer the calls. Send about 10 emails with not response. If you know anything that can help me I will really appreciate your help.

yeseniaa4 wrote:

Now I am 13000 dollars in the hole....If you know anything that can help me I will really appreciate your help.

How are you $13,000 in the hole? Do you mean that you paid $13,000 for a timeshare there that you are still financing? If so, then you have a couple of choices:

1) Continue to pay off your mortgage and make good use of what you bought. You might have overpaid for something that is worth only a few bucks but at least you have something.

2) Call the resort and say that it can have the unit back and that you are not paying another penny. You will probably lose the amount you put down but any more you put to paying off the mortgage is paying off something that is worth maybe a couple of bucks. The resort might release you from your contract.

But do not pay any company or firm any money that claims it can get you out of your timeshare or the mortgage.