SECTION 1: Foreword to This Guide

Like you probably did already, once not too long ago, I got screwed over by the Bahia Principe Privilege Club.

Here is how that went.

After a long time working and not taking any vacations, through a ton of sacrifice and effort, I put together what at the time was A LOT of money to take my family on a beach vacation.

We deserved it. We work hard, with an honest and transparent work ethic. I make my clients happy. My prices are fair. I end every interaction with a handshake.

I am happy if they are happy.

We NEEDED it, more than deserving it to be honest. We work ourselves to the bone, and it was starting to show.

Like you, Bahia Principe seemed a great value for your money, a reputable company with solid reviews.

Like you, perhaps, I made the mistake of trusting someone who wanted nothing but one hour of my time-- promised me a great gift, and being so limited in resources at the time, it seemed like a great deal.

They used my better nature against me. As they did yours, probably.

And for trying to help someone make a commission buck, I got nothing but years of heartache with these thieves.

I got pressured, IMMENSELY PRESSURED, into remaining in my chair, my wife and I. My children were CRYING to go back to their pool and their games.

They called us crazy.

They called us the liars, for sitting there pretending like we wanted this and then talking about leaving -- why would we do this to them? They would ask. Why be so cheap?

Do I not CARE about my family? Don’t THEY deserve better vacations?

They brought out the alcohol, switched people around -- spent liars out, fresh liars in, and kept pushing and prodding, kept repackaging the same crap deal over and over.

We signed up JUST TO GET OUT OF THAT ROOM at last.

“You can cancel any time” they said.

And we believed them.

Both the embarrassment and a deep confusion (Was it a good deal? Did I just do something terribly dumb, or terribly smart?) kept me from going back to those crooks RIGHT THEN AND THERE. But as soon as I was home, and after arguments over arguments about what we had done with my wife, I tried.

Believe me please when I tell you -- I TRIED. I asked within DAYS (not weeks, not months) to be released of this damned thing. Just to undo it. Just for us to part ways. We hadn’t used their services, the transaction was recent, just give us what we paid, and just as promised, just cancel the damned thing and everyone can go their merry way.

The answer was no.

Over and over again, the answer was no.

Until I went through both anger and depression, the answer was no.

And then I decided not to ask anymore.

And for the next several months, I turned all of this frustration, all of this shame into a careful study of WHO these people are. HOW they operate. WHAT they say. What they DON’T say. WHERE their money is made.

And how their money -- MY MONEY (and YOURS), can be taken BACK.

I poured over their contract. Talked to lawyers and ex employees. Talked to OVER A HUNDRED members and former members. Read every review. Read every complaint. Paid to have others translated to me.

I may, or may have not, used a fake ID to sit in another one of their hellish sales rooms AGAIN, and listen to everything they had to say. And record it. And pour over it. And I may, or may have not, prodded THEM this time, to get their lies on record. I may, or may not have done that, who knows? It’s crazy what a determined person who feels deceived will go through to see justice is made.

By the end, this almost cost me my marriage. Time we should spend resting, vacationing, relaxing, I poured it all into this. It cost me a bit of my sanity. I did talk, dozens of times to my therapist. A lot of good came from that-- and a little piece of the automatic trust I had in people had to die. This, more than the money, hurts me to this day. Distrusting people is my new default, as opposed to trusting them.

Everything I did was done so I could know not only how to get MY money back -- but so THOUSANDS of others screwed over like me could too. Tit for tat. Eye for an eye. Death by a thousand cuts as these thieves deserve.

Not just the drop in the ocean that my money represents -- but the hemorrhage of a thousand, no, TEN thousand others. This is what I wish for them.

My money is not enough. For them, it’s only chump change.

Only payback will be enough.

I got my money back already -- and then some.

Now it’s your turn.