Vida Vacations & Grand Mayan lies

alexp83 wrote:

It really makes me feel bad that people keep falling for this scam. The sales people are highly trained and will do just about anything to take your money. They honestly have no shame and could care less if it affects you financially or psychologically.

Please hang up immediately when anyone calls you to say that they can sell or rent your timeshare. If you don't hang up, you will be scammed again.

The truth is that legally, you can actually just stop paying your maintenance fees and nothing will happen to your credit score.

Which scam are you referring to? You mention three different ones. The first is the developer sales presentation. The second is the upfront fee resale/rental scam. The third is the "Let us cancel your timeshare for you" ploy.

I've been an owner for many years. I began as an owner in Mayan Palace, upgraded to Grand Mayan and made the mistake to upgrade to Grand Bliss. Reason it was a mistake...I can never secure a reservation at the ?Grand Bliss always downgraded to Grand Mayan. I am at the resort right now and this happened again this year. Upon arrival I complained because I saw so many people staying at the Grand Bliss were on an exchange and I as an owner cannot get a reservation there. I made reservation 8 mos in advance and still cannot het into Grand Bliss. Then they want me to attend an update...never again. They want you to upgrade to Grand Luxx...after complaining strongly and posting a complaint on social media I was moved into the Grand Bliss. Should not be how they treat their owners.

One additional comment I would like to add...once the general manager became aware of our dissatisfaction he quickly offered us a unit in the Grand Bliss. I was very grateful for his attention to this matter and we enjoyed the rest of our stay. I did see that a 3rd building is going up at the Grand Bliss so perhaps we owners will not be downgraded once this is complete. As for the staff...no where else will you find a more courteous group of workers always there to make your stay memorable.

We have done our best to unload these properties,but are still stuck . l just refuse to, pay the maintenance, l'm 76 years old, what they are going to ruin my credit.

charles671 wrote:

We have done our best to unload these properties,but are still stuck . l just refuse to, pay the maintenance, l'm 76 years old, what they are going to ruin my credit.

What efforts have you made? A lot of people say they have tried everything but have only scratched the surface.

That being said, never ever pay anyone a large, upfront fee to sell, rent out, market, or "cancel" your timeshare because that is usually a scam.

Agree with the last comment! 1/2 day of our vacation lost... Oh well, live and learn. I thought I would receive literature to take away with to learn more about the company and what they were offering but they wanted me to sign right now on the dotted line! Even when I declined at the end of the very long and exhausting presentation, the manager came to offer us yet another deal! Again we declined. Then we thought again it was over with, upon exiting, another person asked us more questions and kept giving us a 'new deal'! What an awful experience! Long and drawn out! You can't even think after five hours later!

cherw3 wrote:

You can't even think after five hours later!

That's exactly these sales people's weapon. After hours of interrogation and passing you on to sales person after sales person, they hope that you're mentally and physically worn down. And since you can't think straight at that time, you're pretty much saying, "Fine, I'll sign the papers. Just let me out of here already!"

Even though they might not flat out say it, they are subtly implying "Hey, we're giving you a great gift. You don't think we're giving it away implyt for listening to us for 90 minutes, do you? We're not letting you out of here with your gift until you sign the papers."

I didn't buy from the resort. Actually, I bought some kind of ripoff club deal from them for $4000 after not buying a timeshare week. But, I must say that I absolutely love this resort! I am now an owner and as an owner we go a couple times a year for a couple weeks at a time, and we couldn't ask for better vacations. We were just there in February and our service was superb, the food delicious and the weather Devine. The facilities are the best kept ever. So my advice would be to buy second hand. And if you can't seem to (get rid) of your timeshare, just ask another owner if they want it. Chances are good they will happily take it off your hands. Just be alert that I've heard some of the newer timeshares don't transfer some ownership perks, golf, vacation fairs, ability to renew after 10 years? Read contract before buying even second hand.

DO NOT BUY. They will never follow through on the promises. The contract does not match what you were told during the presentation. You will NEVER be able to book weeks at a lower cost than you can find on other websites. They will continually lie to you, refuse to answer your questions, and ultimately threaten you if you complain. DO NOT BUY FROM THESE THIEVES.

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or if you do purchase make sure the contract spells out all of the benefits you were told. Do not sign the contract until they make any and all of the changes you need them to make. There are happy Vida owners and happy Vida owners that have upgraded on more than one occasion. The happy owners read every line of the contract and make sure everything is spelled out to their satisfaction before signing.

Your comment made me chuckle, it's so true! Well at least you got out of there "alive" and didn't buy into their deception and lies. Unfortunately for me I didn't. After the 5 hours my brain was fried and I couldn't think straight any more, even worst we were hungry, my little boy had fallen asleep on the table and my husbands just disconnected and said, if you want it just get it, just sign so we can get out of here! This whole situation sounds so ridiculous now, even embarrassing. They told me that they were giving me a best price guarantee for my existing timeshare that I own in Las Vegas and that they had given me a retail value discount towards the purchase of my membership with them. If I could sell it on my own for more I could keep the profit but if within one year I didn't sell it then they'd take it over. Although initially what they told me didn't make sense and I kept asking how this could be but they kept giving me the same answer so I figured it must be true. At the very end the sales lady said "look we're going to give you the discount and we'll write if off as tax write-off". You can keep your existing timeshare and sell it on your own on the resale market and then if you want you can use whatever you get for it to pay down some of your new membership with us. Or if you want to keep it then just keep it and I'll go and get the form for that right now. After I came back home and started researching the company and read many other complaints I realized that there was no such form, no tax write off for them, nor any real attempt to ever take ownership of my timeshare. It was all lies and deception, a grand scheme to confuse me and get me to sign. Anyway too late for me. I feel so upset, sad and angry all at the same time. How could I let them fool me that way? I consider myself a smart person but apparently that much :/. To anyone reading this, STAY AWAY from anyone offering free anything and don't walk away, RUN.

cherw3 wrote:

Agree with the last comment! 1/2 day of our vacation lost... Oh well, live and learn. I thought I would receive literature to take away with to learn more about the company and what they were offering but they wanted me to sign right now on the dotted line! Even when I declined at the end of the very long and exhausting presentation, the manager came to offer us yet another deal! Again we declined. Then we thought again it was over with, upon exiting, another person asked us more questions and kept giving us a 'new deal'! What an awful experience! Long and drawn out! You can't even think after five hours later!

HAHA Oh Vida! They are the #1 fraudsters, they tried to pick us up at the airport. Offered us FREE stay, food, drinks, entertainment. Basically gave us a FREE 1 week vacation, they probably would of reimbursed us for our airfare if I asked them to. They REALLY wanted us to buy buy buy, and I kept getting them to JUMP JUMP JUMP. Keep bringing us drinks, food, back massage. No Just kidding! They are crazy down there. You couldn't pay us to go back there. Grand Mayan, Ive never had the pleasure to experience that dog and pony show. I bet its the same as the REST. We will just stick to renting from owners and take the FREE GIFTS. Thank You

We were FOOLED DON’T become a VICTIM to the lies of VIDA VACATIONS (Vidanta Group). Prior to writing this we were told if we did write a bad review we would be hearing from their lawyers.

I sure wish we would have researched online ALL the information on Vida Vacations prior to attending a lie filled presentation by this company and their sales employees. It is very eye opening to find out that this is and has been a huge issue with Vida Vacations. They keep people all day to “break them down” and in the end you are hungry, tired and just want to get back to your vacation and don’t realize you are being conned.

It appears NOTHING has changed over the years they have been “selling” timeshares to people. In fact, if anything they have relished in their success and their ability to adapt to cover themselves in their contract using recorded calls and an additional “3rd party call” to be taped always referring to the contract and not what their sales people say to get you to sign.

If the company had ANY integrity at all or was actually legitimately conducting ethical business they would stand by what customers are saying and release people from their contracts based on the lies their sales people tell. I keep seeing the same comments over and over again which leads me to believe they encourage their sales people to do and say anything to make the SALE.

I have never seen a business not work to resolve the issues of customers who don’t want to be associated with them. If Vida Vacations is so WONDERFUL, ETHICAL and LEGITIMATE they would have positive reviews and customers knocking down doors to buy. They would not need to FORCE people to stay in a contract that was deceptively presented to keep the money flowing in their pockets. At this point I have found 5 lies that were told to us and I am sure if I continue to look I WILL uncover more however enough time has been wasted to this point. Here are five areas of misrepresentation and lies that we have uncovered in the month since our purchase. These questions below were asked by us several times to different sales representatives to confirm we had the correct information. One of our mistakes was not to have them “show us where in the contract this was”.

1. Vida dollars DO have a 1 year expiration (we were told there is no expiration)

2. The weekly rate DOES increase over time (we were told it was a locked in and a fixed rate)

3. Vida dollars can ONLY be used on the Vida website & ONLY with select vendors (we were told as long as a business has a website where you can purchase online you can use Vida dollars)

4. We would have access in 7 -10 business days to the Vida Lifestyles & Vida dollars so we could look and see all the wonderful choices. (When I did not receive my user name and sign in after 20 days I sent an email. The response was “oh it can take 30-60 days or so” Well we are past 30 days and still nothing.

5. If you need to cancel a reservation there is a $50 cancellation fee. Again we were never informed of this but when I complained to the representative I was once again told “it’s in the contract”. Bottom-line: If a customer asks and is told that there are no fees but when the customer calls back to cancel they are told “it’s in the contract you signed”

Also interesting with all their contract paperwork they have to cover themselves against us awful noisy customers who don’t like to be lied to – go figure. When you cancel a reservation they WON’T or CAN’T give you a cancellation number for confirmation. Who doesn’t provide a cancellation number? DISHONEST COMPANY'S like Vida Vacations that’s who!!!!

We have made attempts to communicate with Vida customer service to receive our deposit refund and void our contract without success. We were NEVER give the time to read our contract during the presentation and always rushed through the contract with the sales people pointing out the parts they wanted us to see “selective representation”.

Please if you want a timeshare there are many other companies we have worked with that are great. ViDA VACATIONS IS NOT ONE OF THEM!!!! Staying at one of their resorts (Mayan Palace, Grand Mayan Palace, The Bliss, The Grand Bliss, Grand Luxxe) only supports their unethical behavior and provides them the money to continue to fraud people. My hope is that one day they will be held accountable for their actions and fraudulent behavior. Please don’t support them – stay somewhere else.

First let me clarify...Vida is not a timeshare. You cannot purchase timeshares in Mexico. You pay a usage fee only when you use your flexible time...you have no fixed week/weeks. We've been owners for many years and upgraded to Grand Bliss several years ago. We love the property and have recommended friends who also purchased and love their properties. My only complaint was not being able to get a confirmed reservation at the Grand Bliss so we were put into Grand Mayan. The general mgr heard of our complaint and made good by upgrading us on our second week. The staff at all their properties are the best in hospitality industry. So we look forward to our yearly visits...they greet us " welcome home" whenever we return.

I know it has been awhile since you wrote this post, but I need your help in trying to rent or sell my weeks with Vida

brandyf26 wrote:

I know it has been awhile since you wrote this post, but I need your help in trying to rent or sell my weeks with Vida

Which are you trying to do, rent or sell? The first rule in either case is to never, ever pay anyone a large, upfront fee to sell or rent out your timeshare. That's a scam. the next suggestion is to get a realistic idea of what your unit is worth for rental or resale. Keep in mind that most units in Mexico are worth about zero dollars resale.

If you're trying to rent out, realize that the market for Mexican timeshare rentals is saturated with not enough demand to meet the supply. Many advertised rentals do not garner any bona fide inquiries. Check what similar units are renting for here on RedWeek and that might give you an idea of what you might get for the rental of your unit.

I was thinking of trying to rent our weeks, we have 2, but then after reading all these forums, if I could sell them that would be amazing!! When we purchased our timeshare with Vida in 2014, the salesperson gave us contacts to be able to rent out our weeks if we weren't going to be able to use them, of course now that we can rent them all the potential contacts (phone numbers and websites) are no longer working numbers or websites aren't available.

Hi,

I read your post with interest as it has many of the same elements that happened to my wife and I. We live in Mexico. Mexico contracts do not have an annual fee. We only pay when we use the resort. Maybe you can ask them to change that. We were told by our salesman that they stopped the annual fees for international members some time ago. This change may be applying to you and you don't know it yet. Just passing along what I heard.

Like you, our information was sold or given to one of their favorite scammers who was impersonating as a Vidanta rep. He called us with all of our personal data. He knew our phone number, name, unit size, maintenance fee, etc. Even with that I decided we should check him out. So I called Vidanta and they confirmed that this scammer was their employee. He was offering a bogus 2 x 1 offer which they also confirmed as real. So we bought into it. Now it is all our fault that we got scammed according to their genius lawyers, while they deny any responsibility.

It would be impossible for an outsider to have the knowledge about us and Vidanta details that this scammer had. I think they reward some of their key people by passing out the information of likely "marks" who proceed to sell us a scam while presenting themselves as a "realistic" resort employee using our information against us. They are criminals and things are finally getting some sunshine.

So then we take our case to PROFECO, Mexico's consumer protection agency. PROFECO has decided in our favor. They are going to levy a fine, some $16,600, against Vidanta soon. This amount could double when the PROFECO internal write-ups are done, but I am not sure. More victims will certainly help here. The fine doesn't matter since PROFECO keeps that money. What we get is a public document that Vidanta scammed us that we can use in civil court. Also there is INAI who can levy much bigger fines for violation of Privacy laws. Like maybe $2 million USD. This would really get their attention. INAI is the Institute that enforces the Mexican privacy law.

So first we get a decision out of PROFECO, they fine Vidanta. Then we get that decision as a public Mexican document to use in civil court and at INAI for the next step. The civil court could void the contract and make Vidaanta return all of our money. This is my hope but I am not sure on this point as yet. I will know soon about this.

PROFECO says that if we can get a couple more victims who can show they lost money because of privacy law or consumer law violations in the next month or so they might increase our case against Vidanta where they will close the sales of Vidanta until their illegal practices are stopped. This appears to be the first PROFECO case against Vidanta in all of Mexico, which is very surprising. Vidanta has been doing this for years, but only recently with an expanded domestic sales department. For some reason, Americans and Canadians don't think to use PROFECO. For us PROFECO has been very straight forward and business like. They want to clean up Mexico's image and the Timeshare sector. Imagine if they stop the sales at Vidanta until Vidanta cleans up their act. What poetic justice this would be if that happens.

I want to make sure your case meets PROFECO's standards of the victim losing real money resulting from Vidanta's violation of the privacy law by passing out your information to scammers. As you know, Vidanta is careful to separate the lies of the salesmen from the written contract at the end of the sales process, but maybe we can defeat that practice too. Time will tell.

celsal wrote:

Unfortunately we became members 7 years ago, and have never use the Grand Mayan Palace or Vida Vacation resort. We had been scammed not once, but three times and the scam is still keep on going by paying this yearly maintenance fee. These company has brought us so much grief that my husband and I almost got a divorce from all the arguments we had over the years. When we got scammed the third time it was a big a mount of money in the $10,000. Until now we are being slave to pay the yearly maintenance fee that keeps on going up in price, it's started up at $400 and now its in the $700's. I feel we are wasting our money since we've never use their resort anyway. Four years after we signed up, somebody called us and said, they re going sell or rent it for us, we paid them $1500, and nothing came out of it; and then the second time somebody called us again, the deal sounded too good to be true, my husband took a chance and did it any way, sure enough it was one the big scam; they said there is a buyer /renter, we just to have pay $10,000 for the closing and we will be getting $30,000 dollars for the so many weeks they are going to rent it. It was my husband who did the dealing, he was instructed to wire the money to Mexican bank, but after my husband wired the $10,000 to their bank, they did not answer our phone calls anymore. Evidently they sold our information to a bunch of scammers,..we don't know if these scammers are a part their circle because they used the same tactics and manipulation when we first signed up, they try to sweetened the deal they are very cunning and skillful, as if they went to school and have Masters Degree on fooling people, they are equipped with answers for every leery question you may have. We been fed up and frustrated with their lies,... I want to cut our ties with Mayan Palace, or at least get the money we paid for the time share. I'm so mad at these people, until now we are continually being screwed over by Mayan Palace because we don't want to ruin our credit, so every year we reluctantly pay $600 for nothing, this years bill is now is almost $700. We have never use the Mayan Palace Resorts but yet we pay every year for the maintenance fee. They have never stood up of what they promised, this could mean breach of contract, they were supposed to have it rented for us and we should be receiving rent money every time it supposed to be rented!,..bunch of liars!! Now I'm about ready to hire a lawyer and maybe start another Class Action Law Suit! I want to talk to their customers service first. And if I don't get the result I want this is what I'm going to do! Our story is similar to those who made some complains about this resorts, they use high pressure sales tactics, then lied to you about getting it rented, they said a part of that maintenance fee is to pay for somebody to help manage and get it rented, but until now we haven't received any amount money from any renters. I remember I went to the bathroom before we signed the contract, and the sales person waited and trapped me at the door, I told him I want to speak to my husband first before we make our decision, but he was so skillful at trickery and before we knew it, we managed to signed the contract with out having a chance to discuss about it first. We want to at least get our money back we paid for the time share, and get what we paid every year for the maintenance, and apart from this amount, we already been scammed $11,500. I think this company should be band from operating their business!! Or should be off limits to all Americans!! " I'd like to know what other's are saying about you don't pay unless you used?" cause I pay every year whether I use it or not and now I just received a bill it's almost $700!!! I just so had it with these company Mayan Palace!!

your are right...do you think is there any way we all owners can get together and do something about this...than just complain?????lets do something