Has anyone heard of this? We made our reservations for hotel transfers and received the following email today.... Sounds shady.... Input or knowledge of this would be greatly appreciated! Hola, I have a quick notice for you! As of May 12th, there is a new government agency called 'SINTRA' that is NOT allowing payment in cash to transportation companies for departures. This agency is to 'protect' the taxi drivers from services they claim they are losing. They are randomly checking vehicles and asking clients if they are paying in cash for the service. Also, taxi drivers and bellboys are asking clients while they are waiting at the hotel 'who they are waiting for and what they are paying' for the service. If the client says 'yes I am paying x', then they radio Sintra and stop the vehicle. Once they stop the vehicle the client is forced to leave the vehicle and take a taxi. Sounds ridiculous? It is, however, at this time there is nothing we can do about it. So, I am afraid I have to change our agreement with regards to you paying a balance on departure. You have 2 options. 1) You can pay the driver in full upon arrival in cash OR 2) We can send you a link where you can pay on-line now for the total service. In either case please reply to this email (include your name or acct number) so we can adjust your account balance and send you a new departure voucher. If you have any questions please let me know.
That sounds fishy. We booked transport through them too and haven't heard anything like this. Have you tried going to their website and calling them directly?
I got the same email and emailed back requesting the link to pay online but also said we would just pay up front when picked up. They DO NOT have any of my CC information on file so I'm not to worried about can't do much with my name, email or reservation # with entertainment plus so I'm not to worried about it. I do agree it sounds fishy and a scam, guess I'll wait to see the reply back if I even get one. That's what I liked best about reserving with entertainment plus was they did not ask for any CC information just went off of good faith you would arrive the day you say you are. I arrive 5/15/10 so we shall see if entertainment plus (USA Transfers is there to pick us up).
I'd be very suspicious....USA Transfers is owned by a Canadian... lol I would forward the email you received to the contact email you have from USA Transfers and ask them to verify it. I goggled SINTRA Mexico and found it's a hotel chain? Nothing about Mexican regulations.
New Airport Regulations Hi all! Unfortunately the government agency Sintra notified us YESTERDAY that it is going into effect YESTERDAY. I understand completely that this seems odd...we can only abide by their rules as they make them. This agency is designed to protect the taxis and will stop transfer vehicles if there are clients inside. Sintra will ask the clients how much the transfer is and how they pay. Sintra is looking for any services which they feel should go to the taxis instead. This is not a problem on arrivals, since the taxi union is not allowed to take people from the airport out. It is on departures that we have the problem. Therefore we (and all transfer companies) are no longer able to allow clients to pay part on departures. We worked until late last night changing the website and notifying affiliates of this change and emailing all clients arriving so everyone is aware of the situation. We do not want clients pulled out of our vans and forced into taxis...that would be upsetting to anyone. If anyone has any questions at all I will check this post throughout the day...we are also on live chat if you have concerns.
I received an email from Brant (the owner of E Plus) today about this very issue, and it is indeed the case. It wont make any difference to the service at all and prepayment is not required as you can still pay the full amount in cash on your pick up. Just that you can no longer pay separately for each leg of a return transfer. Here's the link for booking transfers with EP. Cancun Airport Transportation with Entertainment Plus Mexico often has crazy rules that dont seem very logical, this is just another one of them --------- edit: posted the same time as Trina, thanks Trina for clairfying.
Thanks for verifying this Steve. You may want to tell him to check his FAQs section of the website which still talks about the 70/30 split. I figure it may have just been missed when they changed it.
I think I found all the instances of the 70/30% split on the site, but it has been like that for so long I may have missed some...can you please let me know if you see any mention of that on the site? Thanks for your help!
so with Steve posting on this saying it is TRUE I feel a lot better. I will just plan on paying the $55.00 on the day of pickup. Does anyone know how getting picked up from the hotel on the day of departure will be legit. Do you think there will be something in writing saying you paid in full the day you got picked up from the airport? Not trying to sound really nervous or anything but my plan leaves Cancun at 7am on 5/22 and we are scheduled to be picked up from our resort at 5am (I know it's early but it was either that or layover in ATL for 19 hours). Let me know if anyone has any UPDATED info on this new regulation. Thanks in advance.
