# Grand Mayan and Vida Vacation Club SCAM!



## chris3694 (Mar 1, 2014)

I want to share our experience with the Grand Mayan so that hopefully no one else gets sucked into this web of lies.  

We went to Nuevo Vallarta a few months ago on an Interval International exchange from a different resort that we already own a timeshare with here in California. During my stay, I attended a timeshare presentation at the Grand Mayan.  

The salesman, Mike, was a very easy going guy with a nonchalant attitude toward towards the sales process.  He was asking us personal questions as well as sharing personal details about his life and family.  We felt very comfortable around him at first and he didn’t seem like the normal pushy type of timeshare salesman.  That brought our guard down as our intention going into this was to compare resorts and enjoy their complementary gifts.  

As the morning continued on, Mike told us how he owns multiple 2bd master suit units in the fancier Grand Luxxe, which he rents out every year for around $5K each AND which he already has rented out for the next year.  There are more weeks than he needs and he looks at them like an investment, giving him supplementary income and allowing a more flexible/stress-free lifestyle.  He explained that people are on waiting lists to book at the Grand Mayan so that they can enjoy the on-site world renowned golf courses, so renting your units is super easy and guaranteed.  

During the tour of the resort, we were told that demand has been so high that the Grand Mayan was expanding and building more units.  There was a massive undertaking going on with construction everywhere.  We asked about the empty lagoons and he explained to us that they had been having issues with crocodiles and families were very worried about their safety.  Crocodiles?!  Really?!  Wow, glad I didn’t have little kids running around.  Mike then explained that we couldn’t get to the beach area because access was limited with all of the construction.  However, views from the upper balcony during the room tours indicated that there was actually very little sand and not much beach out in front of the resort.  That should have set off an alarm at that point, but we kept going.  

There was also a large project underway to remove the natural lagoons and 

After the tour, we sat down and Mike gave us the pitch.  This was not a typical timeshare that we’d be getting into, this was a property ownership.  That means we would actually have a unit that we could book at anytime during the year and have it guaranteed available as little as 1 day before arriving!  Sounded great since my other timeshare required a lot of notice before being able to book a week.  And forget about paying that annoying maintenance fee every year, we would only pay if we used the weeks!  AND if we rented them out, we were not responsible for the usage fees, so it was a win-win! Right?  Wrong.  We were given the pitch for 3wks per year for a 2bd “Master Suite”.  Here is some of the small print that took some time to read and interpret:

1: You are actually only getting 1 week for 10yrs that you are paying for (“Vacation Club”.  That week requires payment of usage fees before the end of Feb every year, whether you use it or not.  AND when booking the week, it is subject to availability, which means it is NOT guaranteed.  

2: The other 2 weeks are a promotion “Vacation Weeks Program”.  This is a program only for filling available inventory with availability based only on unused or unsold units.  The operator is not obligated to set anything aside for these weeks, so there is a possibility you won’t even get to use them if you wanted to.  If you want to extend this week beyond the first 10yrs, you have to pay a fee (half of the reservation fee).  

This small print was not explained as we were rushed through the contract and was not understood until well after the 5 days following the signing of it.  Oh yeah, you have to get back to the Grand Mayan within 5 days of signing the contract if you want your money back.  Otherwise you can take them to the Profeco and try your luck in the Mexican courts, but you have to be there to fight it.  Unfortunately we were still on vacation and did not have internet to do our research during that period.  Otherwise we would have cancelled right away.

Before knowing all that information, the 3 weeks sounded like a great deal.  We told Mike that we definitely did not need 3 weeks and it was too much for us, but he kept pushing it, reiterating that we could rent out the weeks we didn’t use just like him.  It would be a guaranteed $2800 per week without being required to pay the usage fee!  Again, he said he didn’t have any problem renting his weeks what so ever.  So we moved forward somewhat intrigued.  Having that extra income would really make a difference.

*Lies that we came to find out only after we did some research:

3: Averaging over 40+ rental listings from multiple sites for the Grand Mayan master suits for basically the highest holiday peak season (Christmas/New Years) were $1200 per week, well below the $2800 basically guaranteed by Mike.  

4: Obviously no waiting list if there are 40+ posts of people wanting to rent (in December and January alone).

5: Research showed that the list of rental companies given by Grand Mayan were basically scam companies taking money up front and then not renting out people’s weeks.  If they have your money, then why would they do anything for you after that?  Not one good thing written about people’s experience with them.  

Now, what are we looking at for such a great deal?  How about $89K for those 3wks.  Yeah right, we were about to get up and walk away.  But wait, because Mike understood what we had vs. what he believed would be best for us, he would help us out.  He would set it up so that the Grand Mayan would buy my current California timeshare from me at the advertised price. Wow, that’s pretty generous, but $49K is still way too much for us.  So this is where things got interesting.  

Mike paused and said that they don’t normally do this, but he would do something special for us.  He was willing to buy our current timeshare at the advertised rate and then give it back to us!  The Grand Mayan would take it as a tax write off, basically a loss on the year and give your timeshare back!  So they took $40K off the list price for Grand Mayan and then returned my Cali timeshare back to me.  He then went back and did research of they’re own where they said that an average of over 1000 sales of my timeshare sold for $27K.  The manager (Chris) said that my timeshare would then be mine and that I could easily get $27K for it if I tried selling it.  Well that just brought the price down substantially to where we were listening.

6: Research later showed that no one was even listing (let alone getting) their re-sale of my exact timeshare for more than $14K.  That left a huge gap between what I was expecting as the minimum re-sale and what I would owe on this new timeshare.  Mike had given me his “personal” phone number in case I had any questions and I called him to ask where he got those sales figures so that I could try to set up my timeshare sale.  He did not answer nor did he return my call.  Silly me to think that he would help me out after he had his sale complete and got what he wanted.

Now the down payment was reasonable too, if I opened a credit card through them so that I could give them the money on the spot.  After a couple of alcoholic beverages provided by sales team, this option didn’t sound too bad.  I could rent out all 3 of my weeks at the beginning of the next couple of years and my down payment would be basically paid back.  The numbers seemed to work, but unfortunately reality proved that those were not real numbers.  

At the time, it sounded like a good investment.  We left the resort not feeling that bad and were looking forward to the rest of our vacation.  Of course, we spent the next 5 days trying to relax and did not want to spend this precious time worrying or stressing about the timeshare.  One of the biggest mistakes my life.   

Oh, and get this.  They sent my contract to someone else!  Another member received my contract with all of my personal and confidential information.  I in turn, received his contract.  Is this how a reputable company treats its customer’s private information?  They said it was DHL’s fault, but come on.  A diligent and professional company should take better care of such important information.  I feel violated and abused, and the Grand Mayan could care less.  

Now, they have over $14K of my hard earned money that they are unwilling to return, even though I haven’t even used any of their services!  The customer representative told me multiple times that it’s “corporate policy”.  So I guess “corporate policy” also includes them giving your contract and personal information to random people and selling you a long list of lies just to get your money.  WHAT A SCAM!

I have spent the last 2 months going back and forth with the customer service, trying to remedy the situation.  Good luck trying to get a hold of them. I must have called 50 times, only getting a hold of someone who could help maybe 5 times.  Once my case was open, the Grand Mayan would only let me speak to the one person working on my case.  At times she was very rude and would go weeks without returning my calls.  Each time I finally got a hold of her, she said she had been busy with customers and couldn’t take my calls.  They conveniently waited until a few days after my full amount was due to return my call and explain the situation.  I was stressing out that my window had closed and now there was nothing I could do!  She eventually offered me what was equivalent to a 1wk hotel room per year under a 10yr contract.  After all that I’ve been through, why would I want to continue to deal with a company like this?  I didn’t want to give the Grand Mayan and Vida Vacations any more of my hard earned money.  Don’t get fooled into trusting these people and their lies!

I strongly recommend that anyone who comes across a Grand Mayan resort to stay away from their timeshares and don’t get robbed!


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## saywhat (Dec 11, 2014)

I know this is 9 months old Chris but what was the result....if any?
It's unusual that Mayan Customer Service didn't respond.


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## Kaz (Jul 16, 2015)

*Vida/mayan contract lies*

I have had a similar experience in sign onto the Grand Luxxe. In my situation they traded in 2 timeshares and gave me credits for those but they were significantly lower than what they were worth. They then did a "special" thing for us and took one of our timeshares traded it in and gave it back to us. They said they would get it written off as a tax loss. Our total outlay so far has been over $40k!  We have yet to use the week. We have only just found out that we have 1 week not the 3 they promised and they said could be used on exchange. They lie to your face. They explained how with our current timeshares and what our yearly outlay in maintenance  fees were this would be a bargain and it would be a saving. In effect we are worse off. We had to endure a 7 hour presentation and eventually  sign a contract that was not clear and they deliberately  misled us into believing we had more options more weeks and more money to spend because of what we saved. They are saying to me that they have actually undersold a 2bed unit to us! So 50 +20k for maintenance fees equals 1 week per year at the Grand Luxxe. Does this sound like a bargain or is it fair!? No, but then again we did not know we had only one week! They even duped us with the Vida dollars scam witch saves you no money and expires after 1 year. They also sold us on the idea that we would pay maintenance fees for only 5 years in the 10 year contract, the rest were free. Lies, Lies , Lies. The years you do not have a mandatory maintenance fee usage, you pay on use. Effectively you can choose not use your week and not pay for not using it. So instead of having that 1 week for 10 years at the cost of 5, you have it either for 5 years at the cost of 5 years or 10 years at the cost of 10 years. This is on the fine print and not clear  when you read the contract. If you try and read the Vida contracts you will struggle to digest the information. The deliberately  lay it out in a misleading manner so that you misread and browse over the parts that confuse you or that are just ridiculously worded. The sales team use no such terminology for your weeks and therefore when signing the contract you will be lucky to understand the difference between the two types of weeks you can use. PLEASE PLEASE, do not agree  to sign  a contrace with them until you have read every  page and asked them a question about what every page means. If you act dumb then  they will find it difficult to con you when you ask questions  about specific parts of the contract. When I say act dumb I mean get them to write down what they say when they explain it to you and makes sure you question any promotion. They will sell you anything  if they can!.


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