purchased grand luxxe yesterday, question- should I keep or rescind

[tschwa2]

Well then TUG did its job. Hopefully everything you wanted is clearly written in your contract and you are happy with the price you paid.

I think you will be happy if you want to visit Vida resorts most of the time. Going elsewhere I think your Marriott timeshare and points would be more useful both as an exchange or renting out what you own.

 

[seema]

I will now periodically over the period of time update my experiences with my pruchase and the use of my amenities. This is NOT my last post.

Also please see my next few threads which I will start, to get your experiences on some of the amenities?

 

[carl2591]

Grand Luxxe, Vidanta Resort Mexico timeshare

This is some of the funniest $hit i have read in years.. A long time TUG member talking with the Sales Manager, remember about how to tell when a salesperson is lying? the mouth is moving,, going over point by point concerns posted about this Vidanta resort at a cost of some 43K more or less.

You got to love the level some will go to for justification of something they know in the core is not the best deal in any way shape or form.

At this point all I can do is laugh, say i hope this works out for you like you hope and wish i had 43K to waste on a timeshare that in 3 mins or whatever the resig period is after you sign the contract is worth exactly $1. US..

Who was it that said a "sucker is born every min"...???

I met the sales manager one on one on Thursday. He came on his day off just to meet me and deal with my questions and concerns, many of which have been expressed by others in this thread or other threads dealing with Vidanta resorts (of note- we went over this tug thread and some other tug threads, point by point!).

He dealt with ALL of my points to my satisfaction, and he was able to give a better purchase price than I stated in my opening post. However, due to a confidentiality agreement with him, I can not divulge any details of our discussion - except to say that all of the points in this and other threads were invaluable in allowing to get a better deal than many others tug posters have, when buying from Vidanta. I therefore did get a better deal than expressed in my OP (one indication of this was that the purchase price went down significantly from what I mentioned in that post).


PS-I was busy most of Thursday and Friday (enjoying myself at the resort and in PV), and I was travelling from PV to Ottawa Canada most of yesterday; so I did not have a chance to post until today. Of note, we were scheduled to fly from PVR to EWR to YOW yesterday - but because of the air travel issues in the NorthEastern corridor last night, our EWR to YOW was cancelled; we had to stay at EWR overnight, and we were re-routed to fly from EWR to YOW via YYZ today - so I am actually sending this and the previous post from a lounge at YYZ.

 

[MN2Travel]

Grand Luxxe

We are owners at Grand Mayan and we like the terms of our agreement. We traded in 2 timeshares and although it took a long time, they are gone. I have seen rentals for Grand Luxxe for about 2000.00. As long as you don't want to go there every year, it is a good to rescind. We have not been back for 3 years and don't pay maintenance fees if we don't use. We have booked for March of 2016. We are interested to see the developments that they talked about when we were there last. They seem to be slow on everything except selling and building timeshares. They said a huge waterpark and amusement park would be there in a year. It appears it isn't there yet. We were presented the opportunity to trade up to the Grand Luxxe but did not take it because of the price, the fact that no one wants to go with us, and it was more than we needed. We decided enough is enough. I like the deal we have because we don't have to renew and our children don't have to worry about our timeshare. There are definitely some bad salesmen there but we have found a couple that I would trust. Always get everything discussed in writing. I took a paper and pencil and wrote it down and had the salesman sign it and also when we signed papers had the person processing stamp and sign.
Good luck.

 

[John Cummings]

The good thing is that the Vida resorts are arguably some of the best, if not the best, resorts there are in terms of elegance, amenities, and service. As I stated earlier, I would never buy there for the reasons I stated but I don't know what the financial situation is for the OP. I suspect it isn't too great based on financing it at 10% but that is not my problem.

I bought both of my timeshares from the developer because I wanted those specific resorts and there were no resales as the resorts were still under construction. However I didn't pay an arm and a leg and I paid cash for them.

 

[presley]

The title of this thread doesn't match any of the additional posts by the OP. I think it should have been titled, "I bought and I am going to keep."
At any rate, we all know that people need to buy retail in order for the rest of us to buy resale. What's done is done.

 

[TUGBrian]

It is certainly a very shocking thread...but when it comes down to it as long as you are an informed buyer, you wont get any flak from me about buying retail.

you are an adult and should be the only one to make financial decisions yourself...TUG merely exists to educate and point out the resale market provides huge discounts...as long as you are fully aware of that and still want to purchase new...we will wish you a happy ownership and congratulations on your new purchase!

 

[Passepartout]

The title of this thread doesn't match any of the additional posts by the OP. I think it should have been titled, "I bought and I am going to keep."
At any rate, we all know that people need to buy retail in order for the rest of us to buy resale. What's done is done.

All one needs do is scroll (or read) through the newer thread titled, Vidanta Update, to see the OP of this thread quoting all the exaggerations, obfuscations, and outright lies that the salesweasels told him/her to make the sale. Obviously, the Kool-Aid worked- and I'm sure the Vida sales staff has been watching this thread, and breathed a collective sigh of relief when the last chance for rescission passed.

You're right Presley. Sooner or later another resale will be available for pennies on the dollar.

Jim

 

[seema]

Remember, I signed the original contract for $43K.

But after negotiating with the sales manager, that price went down significantly (beyond which I am not at liberty to say by how much). So I paid quite a bit less than $43K.

I have also decided to amend the financing. I have found out that the interest rate(financed through a Mexican bank) is based on Mexican, but not Canadian (remember, I live in Ottawa Canada) or US interest rates.

So if you do a google search, you will see Mexican mortgage interest rates are in the double digit range. I confirmed this with several people in the Vidanta sales office; many have a mortgage on their new homes and they are paying more than the 10% interest rate charged to me if I were to have financed the the balance. I have therefore decided to pay the balance about 90 days from the purchase date; when doing this, I pay 0% interest. In terms of payment from personal funds; I will see if I can liquidate some assets to pay this balance; if yes, fine - if not, I do have a line of credit which I can use to borrow at less than 3%.


So the moral of the story is this: if I had maintained the purchase from the original sales agent, I likely would have gone through the pitfalls of a purchase from Vidanta, as mentioned in posts in this and other threads.

But in large part due to tug, I decided to approach the sales manager after reading the posts on this and other threads; I conveyed the content of this and other threads (by the way, he was already aware of tug and had read in the past many of the posts on tug; the sales agent was NOT aware of tug) to him, and he did respond to each point to my satisfaction.

I have found out from this encounter and from other sales presentations at other timeshares over the last 2 decades (most of which I did not buy; but some of which I did buy); one will OFTEN (not always, Disney being one exception to the rule) get better terms (both purchase price and other terms of the contract) from a sales manager than from the sales agent.

With all the problems that most of you experienced with your purchase from Vidanta, how many of you finalized the purchase after dealing with the sales manager, one on one (like myself). I would be interested in knowing how many of you after that type of encounter, were still dissatisfied?

Because of tug, I was likely going to rescind- so the first thing the sales manager asked me when I met him on Thursday, was whether I was going to rescind. I answered in the affirmative, but I did say that I would give him a chance to change my mind on rescission - so I went over the points on this tug thread and other threads, and also my other points - over a period of close to 3 hours, - and I was then satisfied with the answers - so I decided to purchase the loft unit, with the amended purchase price and other amendments to other aspects as listed on the original contract. Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to say what were the amendments to the contract; but I suspect if you got the deal that I got (and the deal I got has not been posted by anyone on tug), then I suspect that a certain percentage of yourselves would purchase (but I of course am certain another percentage would not purchase, for the reasons mentioned in the prior posts).

 

[Jason245]

Remember, I signed the original contract for $43K.

But after negotiating with the sales manager, that price went down significantly (beyond which I am not at liberty to say by how much). So I paid quite a bit less than $43K.

I have also decided to amend the financing. I have found out that the interest rate(financed through a Mexican bank) is based on Mexican, but not Canadian (remember, I live in Ottawa Canada) or US interest rates.

So if you do a google search, you will see Mexican mortgage interest rates are in the double digit range. I confirmed this with several people in the Vidanta sales office; many have a mortgage on their new homes and they are paying more than the 10% interest rate charged to me if I were to have financed the the balance. I have therefore decided to pay the balance about 90 days from the purchase date; when doing this, I pay 0% interest. In terms of payment from personal funds; I will see if I can liquidate some assets to pay this balance; if yes, fine - if not, I do have a line of credit which I can use to borrow at less than 3%.


So the moral of the story is this: if I had maintained the purchase from the original sales agent, I likely would have gone through the pitfalls of a purchase from Vidanta, as mentioned in posts in this and other threads.

But in large part due to tug, I decided to approach the sales manager after reading the posts on this and other threads; I conveyed the content of this and other threads (by the way, he was already aware of tug and had read in the past many of the posts on tug; the sales agent was NOT aware of tug) to him, and he did respond to each point to my satisfaction.

I have found out from this encounter and from other sales presentations at other timeshares over the last 2 decades (most of which I did not buy; but some of which I did buy); one will OFTEN (not always, Disney being one exception to the rule) get better terms (both purchase price and other terms of the contract) from a sales manager than from the sales agent.

With all the problems that most of you experienced with your purchase from Vidanta, how many of you finalized the purchase after dealing with the sales manager, one on one (like myself). I would be interested in knowing how many of you after that type of encounter, were still dissatisfied?

Because of tug, I was likely going to rescind- so the first thing the sales manager asked me when I met him on Thursday, was whether I was going to rescind. I answered in the affirmative, but I did say that I would give him a chance to change my mind on rescission - so I went over the points on this tug thread and other threads, and also my other points - over a period of close to 3 hours, - and I was then satisfied with the answers - so I decided to purchase the loft unit, with the amended purchase price and other amendments to other aspects as listed on the original contract. Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to say what were the amendments to the contract; but I suspect if you got the deal that I got (and the deal I got has not been posted by anyone on tug), then I suspect that a certain percentage of yourselves would purchase (but I of course am certain another percentage would not purchase, for the reasons mentioned in the prior posts).

As long as you are happy that is all that matters.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

 

[LannyPC]

Would it do any good to warn you about the upfront fee scammers who target owners of Mexican TSs saying they have buyers who are ready to pay you nearly double what you paid or rent from you for triple your MFs?

Or are you going to fall for their lines too? Anyway, like someone else said, I wish I had [insert your new purchase price here] to throw around at a product that was worth about $1.

 

[AlbertaTravel]

Lighten up

Would it do any good to warn you about the upfront fee scammers who target owners of Mexican TSs saying they have buyers who are ready to pay you nearly double what you paid or rent from you for triple your MFs?

Or are you going to fall for their lines too? Anyway, like someone else said, I wish I had [insert your new purchase price here] to throw around at a product that was worth about $1.

like previous threads said its not our money. If this person is happy then good. If he has the money for this good. i hope he enjoys his purchase. Instead of complaining cause this person bought directly we should be thanking him and every other person who bought directly. Just sounds like to green eyed monster in a lot of these threads.

 

[ilene13]

Although we do not own at the GL, we have done their sales pitch on our trades into the properties. The most interesting was the first one where there were 7 different salespeople. They first offered us a GL 2 bedroom for 375,000. Then it came down to 49,000. (For 2 weeks and assorted other types of weeks). Then when we said no we were offered a 1 bedroom unit for 2 weeks+ assorted other weeks for 30,000. I'd rather exchange into the properties. They seem to change their prices on a whim. Also, the OP is spending more money as the Canadian $ us not on par with the US $.

 

[MuranoJo]

...
With all the problems that most of you experienced with your purchase from Vidanta, how many of you finalized the purchase after dealing with the sales manager, one on one (like myself). I would be interested in knowing how many of you after that type of encounter, were still dissatisfied? ...

Can't say I agree with some posts (standard TUG 'mantra' churn) that a Luxxe is only worth $1 and resale is the only way to go. Heck, thought it was pretty well known that Vida had pretty much closed that resale loop with high transfer fees that almost kill a resale prospect. Could be the transfer fees are worth it, who knows.

Not sure I'd be willing to pay even $43k or whatever for a Luxxe, but that's simply because I have other things I want to do with my money. However, if I really wanted to use the Luxxe every year or even rent it out for a tidy sum, I'd grab it at the right discount--even from the developer.

Full disclosure: I own the lowly MP of Vida but am able to rent for 3-4x my m/f for my holiday weeks. No plans to upgrade.

 

[Jondan]

Grand Luxxe residence club loft pre-construction NV -originlal price before fees and taxes $143K. Reduced by 2/3 through redemption of other timeshares. This is a red week.

Two loft one-bedroom units for 100 years, and third one for 10 yrs, Most reviews on the resort itself on tug or elsewhere quite good; most posts on sales pitch or customer service or on amenities and perks not so goo.

MIne include the Ambassador program, ability to accrue weeks, 2 Vida weeks for life, 2000 vida dollars, 2 year lifestyle concierge, 1 year registry collections membership.

Can exchange weeks through 2 for 1 or get upgrade through SFX. Free diamond SFX membership for two years.
Closest thing to maintenance fee is usage fee which gets? Reimbursed through a travel account.

Must pay usage fee every other year for the 10 yr unit.
Must pay usage fee? Every 10 years for each of the 2 loft units
I do not think that these fees get reimbursed to the travel accont.

Rescind....we purchased a unit, have never used it to date. We were offered a trade in with our starwood timeshares, which fortunatly we did not do. We paid the fees in the first year but via their exchange scheme only received about 2/3rd of the MF back. We now only have to pay MFs when we decide to use the unit. We were so disgruntled with the purchase I was prepared to write off the deposit, we eventually downgraded units to save costs. Take a step back and look on line for resales. We are very happy with our Starwood timeshares, hard sell for this one blinded us, buy in haste, regret at leisure. Hope this helps.

 

[seema]

I am interested if anyone else from TUG has bought directly, on the re-sale market, any Vidanta unit here or elsewhere in Mexico.

If the Vidanta units are so cost-ineffective, then why are there enough owners from TUG of Vidanta units, forgetting the American/Canadian public for a moment.

 

[tschwa2]

They are cost ineffective to use them as exchange deposits to go elsewhere. They are cost ineffective if you don't want or use the extra perks like the discounted golf (or free golf old contracts), messages, no MF's if you don't use, discounted and free mf when you reach certain ages (old contracts), etc. You can exchange in cheaper but you lose the perks and may end up in a unit next to construction as exchangers don't get any priority as to unit location.

If you want to stay there regularly and use the perks on a regular basis and have the discretionary income than buying may make sense even buying retail because you can't get the same product with the perks buying resale. If you are looking to make money renting or trading to similar type properties during prime season through exchange companies then it doesn't make sense. Yes you may be able to rent the right weeks for more than your MF's but not enough to cover the buy in cost.

There are plenty of people who pay rack rate to stay in a Westin Maui studio at 3-4 times the MF's rate of the timeshare. They do it because they have the money and that is where they want to stay. That is the same reason that happy owners bought Vida Grand Luxxe units. As I said earlier, those that buy for other reasons end up being the unhappy owners.

 

[akp]

This thread stressed me out so much I could barely read it.

 

[MNMomof3]

Trying to decide whether to buy can you help?

See my thread about Grand Luxxe deal. Everyone is telling me DONT DO IT!

 

[drguy]

See my thread about Grand Luxxe deal. Everyone is telling me DONT DO IT!

I'll disagree. If it brings you and your family pleasure and you can afford to purchase the unit, do it. If not, pass and move on.
There are no trades available if no one buys from the developer at some point in time. Developers may trade in units to bring in new prospects, but if no one buys, no more units will be developed.
We enjoy our Grand Luxxe Loft unit.