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On August 26, 2015 MESCAM received an email from Miguel and Susana Daboub who were attempting to cancel their timeshare purchase at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach Resort. The Daboub's first contacted us when the resort tried to say that the couple had to return their "FREE" gifts if they wanted to cancel their contract. MESCAM emailed the couple back and copied Pueblo Bonito's Sales Director Kurt Murat on our response. Kurt took offense to some of the advice we provided to the Daboubs, and made the mistake of deciding to pick a fight with MESCAM. Following is the script of the various emails that were exchanged. It is important to note the advice MESCAM gives to the Dabouds throughout the email exchanges on how to fight these timeshare companies through the US court system and how this advice infuriates Kurt. Unfortunately "Little Kurt" does come up in the discussion (although Little Kurt is not a big subject), so if this subject matter offends you, please skip this article. Initial cancellation letter by the Daboubs. August 26, 2015 Pueblo
Bonito Dear
Pueblo Bonito timeshare, We were
invited for a "welcome breakfast" and tour at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach when we
arrived at the Pueblo Bonito Blanco for our family vacation on August 23, 2015.
We were taken for a tour of the grounds on Monday August 24, 2015 and then sat
through a presentation with Jeannette Rodriguez, who told us about the universal
points AND preferred program that would amount to 4-6 weeks of hotel timeshare
access per year. We thought it would be an investment for our family of 5. The
salesperson assured us we would have all the documentation and items we
discussed in her presentation. However, upon our return to our hotel we
reviewed the paperwork and noticed that all the information and timeshare access
we discussed in the presentation was not provided as promised. Therefore we
decided this timeshare program is not for us. We are
writing you today to cancel Miguel and Susana Daboub's contract #147688 for 100
(one hundred) Pueblo Bonito Universal Points purchased on August 24, 2015 and
request a FULL REFUND for the a total of $3,642 ($3143.00 + $499) which was
charged to our American Express Card ending in xxx4000. I am
providing you with notice that I have cancelled this contract within five
working days from (the delivery of, or the signing of) the contract IAW Article
56 of ARTICLE 56 OF LEY Federal de Proteccion al Consumidor. (Article 56 of the
Federal Consumer Protection Law states: "the contract will be perfected within
five working days from the delivery of, or the signature of the contract, which
ever occurs the latest. During this period, the consumer will have the right to
revoke his consent without any responsibility. The revocation will have to be by
means of warning or delivery of notice, in person, by registered mail, or
another method of average reliability. The revocation according to this article,
will terminate the contract. In this case, the costs of shipping and insurance
will be the responsibility of the consumer. If the contract is for services,
this article will not be applicable if the date of receipt of the service is
less than ten working days from the date of the order of purchase." I am
aware that my right to cancellation and a full refund is non waivable (the buyer
cannot give it up) and even if the buyer is convinced to sign a document to give
it up (waive the right) that waiver is not valid and the buyer still has the 5
day right. Any argument you have claiming that my enrollment fee is
non-refundable is invalid according to Mexican law and this has been verified
with PROFECO. I have
been in contact with other Americans and know what my rights are under Mexican
law. If you plan on sending me an email stating
"indicated in our agreement - you
may cancel your membership at any time but the enrollment fee is
non-refundable", I am afraid I cannot comply with your request. You must comply
with this request by law or face fines. Please do not send me an email saying
that filing a complaint with PROFECO will tie up my refund for months. I know
this is not true. Any
attempt to refuse this request will be immediately forwarded to PROFECO. I am
also sending a copy of this e-mail request to PROFECO. As
indicated in the dated e-mails below, I have made a good faith effort within 5
working days to resolve this issue and request a full refund in a professional,
polite manner and with full intent. Please
comply with the law, cancel my contract and send me my refund immediately. Your
timely response is greatly appreciated. Regards, Miguel
and Susana Daboub Sent from my iPhone Initial Response from Kurt Murat Sales Director of
Fractional and Vacation Ownership Sales, On Aug 26, 2015, at 10:19 AM,
Kurt Murat <kurtincabo1@gmail.com>
wrote: Hi Miguel and Susana, I have received your request for
cancellation and would just like an opportunity to go over the contract with
you... You mentioned that some of the information that Yaneth presented to you
was not in the contract.. Would you be so kind as to tell me what is missing?
Many times it is in the contract but owners cannot find it... We have two parts
to the program, usually its the additional weeks that owners cannot find which
is on the Pink Pueblo Bonito Preferred form... So please let me know what is
missing and we will show you where you can find the information.. Thank you MR. KURT MURAT SALES
DIRECTOR OF FRACTIONAL AND VACATION OWNERSHIP SALES PUEBLO
BONTIO SUNSET BEACH RESORT AND SPA
PREDIO PARAISO ESCONDIDO S/N
CABO SAN LUCAS, BCS, MEXICO 23410
Phone_ 624-142 9999 ext..7020 Fax..624-1438300
Visit us at www.pueblobonito.com for
a glimpse of our Oceanfront Resorts and Spas
Pueblo Bontio Sunset Beach Resort and Spa and Pacifica Holistic
Retreat and Spa named among the Top 10 Mexico
Resorts by CONDE
NAST TRAVELER READERS The Daboubs' Response to Kurt Murat's Email. On Aug 26, 2015, at 7:48 PM,
Miguel Daboub <miguel_daboub@att.net>
wrote: We do not wish to discuss this any further. I am again providing you with notice that I have cancelled this contract within five working days from (the delivery of, or the signing of) the contract IAW Article 56 of ARTICLE 56 OF LEY Federal de Proteccion al Consumidor. (Article 56 of the Federal Consumer Protection Law states: "the contract will be perfected within five working days from the delivery of, or the signature of the contract, which ever occurs the latest. During this period, the consumer will have the right to revoke his consent without any responsibility. The revocation will have to be by means of warning or delivery of notice, in person, by registered mail, or another method of average reliability. The revocation according to this article, will terminate the contract. In this case, the costs of shipping and insurance will be the responsibility of the consumer. If the contract is for services, this article will not be applicable if the date of receipt of the service is less than ten working days from the date of the order of purchase." I am aware that my right to cancellation and a full refund
is non waivable (the buyer cannot give it up) and even if the buyer is convinced
to sign a document to give it up (waive the right) that waiver is not valid and
the buyer still has the 5 day right. Any argument you have claiming that my
enrollment fee is non-refundable is invalid according to Mexican law and this
has been verified with PROFECO. I have informed American
Express that any charges posted to my account are not authorized by me or my
wife and will be seen as fraudulent charges and treated as such in accordance
with US law. Comply with the law and
refund my account. This contract is cancelled. Thank you Miguel
& Susana Daboub Kurt's Response to apply conditions before processing the Daboub's legally requested timeshare contract cancellation refund. On Aug 26, 2015, at 10:38 PM,
Kurt <kurtincabo1@gmail.com>
wrote: I understand, I will expect you return the gifts that
Yaneth paid out of her own funds before I cancel and refund you money... The Daboub's Response to conditions being placed on their legally requested contract cancellation
From:
Miguel Daboub [mailto:miguel_daboub@att.net]
Kurt, the gift you referred to was not part of this
cancelled contract #146788 and was freely offered up by Yaneths own free will.
We did not ask or require that she provide us a gift. Yaneths gift to our family has nothing to do with the
cancelled contract #146788 so either you refund the money $3642 or the
transactions will be seen as a fraudulent one and you will be fighting American
Express not me. The contract #146788 is cancelled. Thank you Miguel Daboub MESCAM's Initial advice to the Daboubs provided since MESCAM was included on the email distribution. (Important Information) On Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 9:56 AM, MescamWebmaster <wm@mescam.com> wrote: Miguel, Do not get worried about this guy’s demand for the return of the “free” gifts. The gifts were provided as an incentive to get you to show up to the sales presentation. The gifts were never a part of the purchase contract unless they were specifically listed in the contract, which I really doubt. This is just another one of PB lies to stick you with a BS contract. Since it appears that PB is not going to willingly comply with Mexican law and cancel your contract even though you have complied with Mexican law and provided proper notice as Mexican law requires, you need to waste no time in writing your credit card company and notifying them that PB is violating Mexican law in regards to this contract and any charges appearing on your account from PB should be considered to be fraudulent. Tell your credit card company you will comply with U.S. law and you will pay the first $50 of the fraudulent charges, but the remainder of the charged amounts American Express will have to pay themselves. Any attempt by American Express to charge you for these fraudulent charges and you will file a lawsuit in California’s small claims court. Based upon where you live, you will need to file your lawsuit against American Express in the Central Justice Center located in Santa Ana. The actual court papers are easy to fill out and you can even file them electronically. You do not need to worry about the actual trail since it is highly unlikely that American Express will even show up. Even if American express does show up, what are they going to say? They were not there at the sales presentation. The only thing that American Express can testify to is that you notified them that you cancelled this contract in full compliance with Mexican law. As such, American Express is not going to waste their time and money sending a representative to court simply to lose. They will probably not show up and you will get a default judgment which will include not only the full amount of the charges against your credit card, but American Express will also have to pay all your court costs which can amount to a couple hundred dollars. The biggest charge will be in serving AMEX with the court papers and I will even do that for you at a cost of $300; and I am so confident in you winning that you do not have to pay me unless you win the case. I will even show up and testify against Amex and PB since I have years of records concerning other Americans who have been victimized by PB. You do not know how lucky you are since I live within 30 minutes of the Santa Ana courthouse. Of course I do have a basic witness fee of $800 which You would have to agree to pay, but I would only hold you to the agreement if you win and the court awards you the money to pay me. You will automatically be awarded the court costs, which will include all witness fees and process serving fees, and AMEX will have to pay them. Then it will be up to AMEX to decide if they want to eat those costs and the award amount of the money on your charge account, or whether AMEX is going to pass all these costs back to PB. Of course you do not care if AMEX or PB ends up paying all the costs since you will already have your money. If PB is really stupid and sticks AMEX with any of the costs, you might get lucky and help out future victims since AMEX could simply cancel PB merchant account and stop doing business with PB, so this whole thing becomes a win-win-win situation for you. In closing, do not worry about this Kurt guy's threats. Mexican law is quite simple and clear about you being entitled to a full refund of all your money, and U.S. law is quite clear about not requiring you to pay for any fraudulent charges on your credit card account. AMEX really has no dog in this fight since even if they were to win, which is unlikely, the most AMEX will get is their 3 – 5% of the charged amount which is about $300 at the most. That does not even pay for the transportation cost to get their person to the courthouse. This is a no brainer. Amex will not show up, you will get all your money back, I will collect $1,100 in court fees, and I will even pay for lunch and we can laugh at how PB is going to be eating all these costs unless they want to alienate AMEX and be dropped as a AMEX merchant. Let me know when you want to file in court and I can send you copies of the court papers already filled out except for your name and address. MESCAM Kurt Murat's Response to MESCAM's advice to the Daboub's to sue their credit card company in a US court. (A US lawsuit really scares these Mexican Timeshare companies.)
From:
Kurt Murat [mailto:kurtincabo1@gmail.com]
Subject: Re: Cancellation for Pueblo Bonito
timeshare contract 147688 Are you for real??? A single mother makes a sale, and in
good will she gives her new owners gifts from her own pocket, they change their
mind and want to cancel the contract which the sales director says is fine and
will refund the money with no problems just give back the girl her hard earned
money... I'm not talking about the gifts the company gave them to attend the
presentation just the ones that Yaneth gave out of her own pocket... And now you
want to charge these people to represent you to get back their money??? Really??
Pueblo Bonito has no problem cancelling this contract we just want that Mr. and
Mrs. Daboub do the right thing... Is that too much to ask?? MESCAM's Response to Kurt Murat and Pueblo Bonito trying to create an excuse for not canceling the contract On Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 12:18 PM, MescamWebmaster <wm@mescam.com>
wrote:
Kurt,
You guys are crocks. I get contacted several times a week from innocent
people, newlyweds, elderly couples, etc., who you have scammed into signing up
for timeshare packages that are ridiculous. The only reason that you operate in
Mexico is because if you did what you do in the U.S., you would be in jail.
Unless the “gifts” are listed as part of the contract, Miguel has no obligation
to return anything. By your own words, these items, whatever they are, were
“gifts”. You have even stated so multiple times in your email. These items
were GIFTS. If anyone screwed this single mother, it was you by clearly stating
that these items were GIFTS. No judge anywhere in the U.S. is going to claim
that this cancellation is invalid because GIFTS, freely given were not
returned. The ONLY reason you are harping on these freely given GIFTS is
because you want to use this as an excuse not to comply with Mexican law and
cancel this contract.
You know full well that it would be next to impossible for Miguel to return
these freely given GIFTS now that he and his wife are back in the U.S. Of
course, not knowing exactly what these freely given GIFTS are, if they are not
consumables, like Tequila which Miguel has already drunk, and they are something
that Miguel can easily ship, I am certain that if you ask nicely, Miguel would
be willing to sent them back if PB sends him a prepaid shipping box so that all
he has to do is drop the freely given GIFTS in the box and drop the box at the
nearest post office. If you expect Miguel to start paying more money to ship
these freely given GIFTS back, forget it.
You can either cancel the contract in accordance with Mexican law, or I will
personally help Miguel to file suit in the Santa Ana courthouse against AMEX.
For my troubles I will ask Miguel to pay me reasonable fees for serving the
court paper on AMEX and reasonable fees for appearing as an expert witness as to
the number of people victimized by PB, both in being lied to during these high
pressure sales presentations as well as when PB uses lies to justify their
refusal to comply with Mexican law.
If you are SO concerned about this single mother, then why doesn’t PB simply
reimburse her for the cost of these freely given GIFTS. In the end it will be
cheaper for PB and it will be the smart business move. If PB does not agree to
cancel this contact in full compliance with Mexican law, whether he likes it or
not, I will drag Miguel, kicking and screaming if necessary, over to the Santa
Ana courthouse and walk him through the entire process of suing AMEX, and I will
generate more court costs for him which AMEX will be forced to pay. Do not
worry about me “taking advantage” of Miguel because any agreement that he signs
will only obligate him to pay the costs on a contingency basis; that means he
only pays if he wins and the court awards him the costs. Of course if the court
awards him the costs then he does not really pay anyway, it will be AMEX who
will pay the costs.
Of course you and I both know that AMEX is not going to waste their time and
money on this “Mickey Mouse” lawsuit, especially since the most that AMEX will
get out of it is maybe $300. AMEX will let it go to a default judgment and then
pass all the costs on to PB and you will have no choice but to pay the judgment
and all the court costs, or have AMEX drop PB as a merchant.
I think that is “checkmate”.
Nice talking at you, have a nice day, and do not cheat any other American
tourists. I will always be out here waiting to help all the people you try to
take advantage of.
MESCAM Kurt's Murat from Pueblo Bonito's second response
From:
Kurt Murat [mailto:kurtincabo1@gmail.com]
I think YOU ARE THE CROOK!!!! Taking money from these
tourists.... I have not once said that I wouldn't cancel the contract and refund
their money.... Why they are paying you is besides me.... Anyway, Mr. Daboub can
keep his extra gifts, I will pay the sales person myself and you shouldn't be
taking any money for doing absolutely nothing but putting fear into these
people... And as far us scamming innocent people I would like to inform you
that we have over 100,000 owners and over 50% of our business is from our
existing owners upgrading. These same owners have also bought over 60 million
dollars in real estate from "us scammers" in just the last 7 months.... JUST SO
YOU KNOW!!! MESCAM's Reply - sorry but this response does get off subject and discusses Kurt Murat personal shortcommings On Aug 27, 2015, at 4:46 PM,
MescamWebmaster <wm@mescam.com>
wrote:
Wha, wha, wha. Please don’t cry Kurt.
What is it with you and the multiple punctuation. In your last
email you were obsessed with the question mark. Now to have an obsession with
the exclamation point. Is English like your second language or is this some
reference to your manhood? First you could not get it up, and now you can? Of
course the exclamation point is smaller than the question mark.
If you could understand my last email, I was never even
suggesting taking any money from Miguel. The only reference to money was about
fees that would be on a contingency basis. (These words, like contingency, are
not too big for you, are they?) Contingency means that the fees would only be
paid if Miguel won his small claims lawsuit against AMEX and AMEX was ordered to
pay the court costs. Any money would come from AMEX, not Miguel. Of course,
AMEX would not be happy about paying those court costs so they would have given
PB the choice of paying the court costs or being dropped as a merchant.
As far as me having done nothing, that claim is absolutely
ridiculous. I have had to take time to deal with an idiot like you. I should
be getting paid double time for having to deal with stupid people. You are only
mad because you could not scam Miguel. With my help Miguel outsmarted you. You
were looking at the choice of either giving Miguel all his money back, or seeing
Miguel sue AMEX and then having AMEX coming back after PB for a lot more money.
You are just mad that you were outsmarted.
Finally, you cannot even get indignant with me without lying.
Not one “owner” of PB is an owner of anything and not one of them has bought a
single piece of real estate. Mexican law specifically forbids foreigners from
owning property in Mexico except in very limited situations. Not one of your so
called owners has a deed of trust in their hands saying that they own a piece of
your resort. I own a timeshare in the U.S. and I have a deed of trust that
specifically says I own a specific percent of my resort. I can understand why
you do not provide your owners with a deed of trust. Aside from the issue with
Mexican law, if you did provide deeds and you added up all the percentages, we
would probably find out that you have sold more than 100% of your resort.
I am sorry but I now find you boring. As my dad would say,
don’t go away mad, just go away.
MESCAM Kurt Murat's Third Response to MESCAM and Kurt's attempt to insult MESCAM's income
From:
Kurt [mailto:kurtincabo1@gmail.com]
MESACM's final Response to Kurt Murat On Aug 27, 2015, at 7:35 PM, MescamWebmaster <wm@mescam.com> wrote:
Kurt,
It is important to note Pueblo Bonito's response to this entire exchange. These Mexican timeshare companies lose all power over their victims once their victims take charge. By legally canceling your contract and then going after your credit card company for processing fraudulent charges, you take the fight into a US court where the Mexican timeshare companies have no power and they stand to lose more money that just refunding your deposit. |
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