Beware of Club Solaris! They will sell you a bill of goods...

In July me and my wife spent a week at Hotel y Villas Solaris, Cancun. On a given day they proposed us to attend a publicity action of Club Solaris. We accepted (it was raining…) and, during that action, we were harassed with a proposal to purchase time-sharing holiday in one of their hotels (Solaris, Los Cabos). Several arguments were presented, from a privileged geographical location - which itself was a guarantee of good weather throughout the year – until, of course, the quality of service of a 5 stars unit, awarded the Gold Crown by RCI. After several hours of “torture”, we finally accepted the deal buying 60 weeks, usable in 30 years (average 2-week year), of which 15 would be assigned to an apartment in that hotel, usable in odd years, and the remaining 45 weeks would be deposited in RCI for exchanges. The price dropped a lot (initially it was about $30,000 USD), to $9426 USD. The special price resulted from 2 situations: the promotion of that new resort, and also they proposed to accept as currency two weeks of timeshare that I owned in a Portuguese resort (Hotel Vila Galé Atlântico, in Algarve). All in all the exchange appeared to be advantageous since one of their main selling points was that their weeks had no maintenance fee, so I would recover the investment in a few years, as I was paying about 500€ /year (about $650) for the two weeks at Vila Galé. Besides, Club Solaris was Gold Crown for RCI and the unit at Los Cabos was "red season" all year round, highly demanded, and so the weeks I would receive would have much more trading power than those I had in Vila Galé, Portugal, which were medium season. Additionally they still offered me the membership dues of RCI for 3 years.

I stress the 2 main arguments that led us to accept the deal:

1. We would get rid of the 2 timeshare weeks at Vila Galé - for which we paid a maintenance fee - which would be received by them;

2. The weeks we would receive from Club Solaris would have a trading power far exceeding what I had with the weeks of Vila Galé.

We closed then the deal after more than six hours of harassment! The payment conditions were: I had to make an initial payment of 35% ($ 3,299.10, plus a fee of $895 for costs of legalization), and the remaining in 12 equal monthly instalments of $510.57, starting in October 2010.

They told me I would be contacted by a company (Resort Equity Solutions) designated by them to treat the transfer of ownership of Vila Galé weeks. So it was, in fact. In July 29th, I received a message from that company asking permission to debit my credit card for $349 plus taxes to address the issue. I replied that I thought I had nothing to pay (I already paid $895 when I signed the contract), and I was waiting them to send me the details of the new owner in order to start the transfer process.

(Remark: According to information I got from the Notary and Registry in Portugal, the transfer of ownership is made in two easy steps: first, the sellers go to the Notary with the certificate of the property, and make in it an endorsement in favour of the new owner; then, the new owner, with the certificate duly endorsed, requires at the Registry the registration of the property in his name. However, for those acts it was necessary to present data that identifying the new owners, including the Taxpayer number. That applies also for a foreign person, or company, so if they were not yet registered they would have to make the registration in the first place).

With goodwill and spirit of collaboration I gave them the information about what needed to be done. But I never got a positive answer, they never did anything to solve the issue, and have even come to say it was not so used to dealing with things, and things that had to be addressed in Mexico. How's good to see, if the property is in Portugal, registered at the Portuguese Registry, it is there is that the transfer has to be done. No alternative. And for sure there was nothing to be done in Mexico.

Later, after several e-mails, Club Solaris came to say they were giving up of weeks of Vila Galé, releasing me from the obligation of transfer. At first I was surprised, but I said I would accept provided they did so through a formal document (it was a contractual issue, after all). I also wanted an identical document from Resort Equity Solutions. They never sent.

Meanwhile, in October, I asked Club Solaris to deposit two weeks in my RCI account, so that I could explore them in terms of exchange. When I saw they were already deposited I checked in RCI site the “superior” trading power announced, but was soon surprised by an immediate conclusion: the number of units available that each one of those weeks gave access was less than the number of the Vila Galé weeks. A deeper research proved me the fewer opportunities of exchange.

I contacted then Club Solaris expressing my surprise. I received a potentially reassuring response that, in essence, reaffirmed the quality of the project, awarded Gold Crown, it was high season all year round, and since different rules of operation in RCI would come into force in 15 November I would see then how advantageous for me it would be.

I decided to wait and, in the meantime, unfortunately, I let the instalments of October and November to be paid...

After November 15 I went again to RCI website and then I could see more clearly the great lie of the trading power: indeed, although Gold Crown and "red season", the power exchange of each week of Club Solaris Los Cabos, was only 12 points, while my medium season weeks in Vila Galé were worth 18 (or 22 or 24, if deposited one year in advance).

With this finding it has become evident that I had been victim of a complete sham: first, the promise of acquiring the Vila Galé timeshare weeks did not happen (and it is easy to realize that was one condition that led me to accept the deal, because otherwise I would never consider buying more timeshare weeks than those I already owned); on the other hand, I could only then state the trading power of that excellent unit in red season, in such popular destination, instead of superior was well below of those I had with Vila Galé.

In these circumstances I decided to send them an e-mail cancelling the contract, holding Club Solaris responsible for the failure of a contracting term (not taking possession of the weeks of Vila Galé) and the lack of correspondence between the promised characteristics of the product and the truth it (the trading power of their weeks). I urged them to reimburse me the sum already paid. But their answer was that if I did not continue to pay, the contract would be resolved and I would lose the money already paid.

Of course I might go to court. I think I have more than enough arguments in my favour. But in the meantime I decided to give publicity of these facts in appropriate forums. And I also prepared and sent a complete file to RCI so that they may eventually take this into consideration on their evaluation of Club Solaris. Besides the quality of service, their sales policy may also be considered, right? Maybe they lose the Gold Crown

If you think you have been defrauded by a resort in Mexico you can send your complaint to Profeco, the consumer advocacy agency in Mexico. You can get their contact info by searching forums (top right corner under 'I want to').

Thank you for the info. But do you think they might be available to support a foreign consumer (a non-resident in Mexico)?

mariom48 wrote:

Thank you for the info. But do you think they might be available to support a foreign consumer (a non-resident in Mexico)?

Yes, they have helped buyers from countries other than Mexico.

There's also a law firm named Gonzales and Gonzales that supposedly helps timeshare buyers that believe they have been defrauded, however I can't recommend them one way or the other .... you can research the name of the law firm to find out more.

I will probably not hear back from you as your post was 7 years ago, but I recently was tricked into buying a Club Solaris timeshare at $13500, only to find out the promises were empty. I am wondering if I stop paying, will they send it to collections in the US? I'm very curious what happened in your situation.

We didn't realize that the card that Solaris had to bill us was expired and and after 4 or 5 months they sent us a letter canceling the contract and saying we had no further obligation. Would've lost all we put into it thus far, so we called to find out they were unable to bill the card b/c the expiration date change (card number was the same). We paid up and are back on track.

If you want to get out though, just stop paying.

Hey I wanted to know since me and my girlfriend paid with a debit card not credit card. If she just went to the bank and got a new card. Would we be out of the contracts? We only put $200 down. And worked out a payment plan to pay off the down payment. If we got a new card without paying would we be free

anthonys492 wrote:

I wanted to know since me and my girlfriend paid with a debit card not credit card. If she just went to the bank and got a new card. Would we be out of the contracts? We only put $200 down. And worked out a payment plan to pay off the down payment. If we got a new card without paying would we be free

Cancelling that card and getting a new one would not in any way impact the existence or validity of the contract that you voluntarily chose to sign. A valid, executed contract does not magically disappear just because you change or close bank accounts.

You have 5 days to cancel a timeshare contract executed in Mexico. If you are already past that 5 days rescission (cancellation) period, your down payment is gone forever, but you can still make the choice to not pay anything further. Getting a new account number will make sure that no further withdrawals / charges can be made on that particular account but, as stated already, a new card or account number will not make the contract (which you voluntarily signed) magically "disappear". The valid contract continues to exist; you would merely be "closing the door" to any future charges or withdrawals on the original (now closed) bank account.

On the other hand, if you are a U.S. (or Canada) citizen and the executed contract was a RTU contract in Mexico, the Mexicans have no leverage or jurisdiction to actually enforce the contract if you stop paying after changing or closing your bank debit card / account.