Vida Vacations & Grand Mayan lies

TRY A SUPERVISOR at the credit card co

Try emailing Profeco -- they answered my email after about 10 days. I will be having a hearing with them after the holidays. They take it seriously but it just takes a while with them. Here's the email address: extranjeros@profeco.gob.mx

You'll need to explain everything that happened to you -- where you were, how it all went down, with whom (sales person's name), dates, and how much they owe you. They aren't a group of lawyers, but they want to help you by mediating and trying to get the company to the table to reverse the wrong action(s).

Good luck!

Having a case number means nothing -- you need to contact Profeco and report this. The more reports they get about this company, the more attention they'll pay and finally (hopefully) bring them down. Their email address is extranjeros@profeco.gob.mx

They answered me after about 10 days, and they're scheduling a hearing after the holidays to address my concerns. These resorts are crooks, stealing people's money, so if we all report them to this consumer-protection agency, something can be done. Email them and give them the details about what happened -- where you were, who the sales person was, dates, how much you were swindled, etc.

Good luck!

Thank you very much for the information! I will email them! Happy holidays!

Thank you very much for the information! I will email them! Happy holidays!

lindeh wrote:

Having a case number means nothing -- you need to contact Profeco and report this. The more reports they get about this company, the more attention they'll pay and finally (hopefully) bring them down. Their email address is extranjeros@profeco.gob.mx

They answered me after about 10 days, and they're scheduling a hearing after the holidays to address my concerns. These resorts are crooks, stealing people's money, so if we all report them to this consumer-protection agency, something can be done. Email them and give them the details about what happened -- where you were, who the sales person was, dates, how much you were swindled, etc.

Good luck!

Hello - I too am dealing with Vidanta regarding a purchase they scammed me into on Dec 10, 2019 and now I've been trying to get out of it after the 5-day recision period. I wrote to Profeco and they emailed me back with a form I need to complete and submit in Spanish. Have you had results from Profeco at this point? I'm considering attempting working with Member Services at Vidanta to reduce the amounts, but I would prefer to just cancel all my memberships with them and their affiliates and cut my losses and not go back. I'm also disputing the charges with my credit card company. Any suggestions there?

Disputing the charge with your credit card is definitely worth a shot but your chances aren't great.

The other thoughts you mentioned are also worth a shot.

I don't know how much you have paid into this so far and how much you owe but another (but somewhat costly) possibility is to not pay anything else into this and let Vidanta terminate your membership. You might face collection calls and letters but those usually hold no weight and eventually go away.

The other important advice is to not look for companies or law firms that claim they can "cancel" your membership, contract, or loan or that they can sue the resort or sales people.

If you paid by credit card you can file a dispute .

I got a response from Profeco with a trial date, and Vida Vacations is VERY nervous. As a result, I got my membership canceled and my money returned. Prior to the trial date, I also pummeled Vidanta, Vida Vacations, Grand Mayan, and any and all other of their aliases on social media, divulging how I'd been scammed. Customer service offered to return my money and cancel my membership within two months in exchange for me deleting the posts on Twitter, Instagram, Face Book, and Travel Advisor. Once I received the funds, I did that. Then I got the Profeco trial date scheduled, and I sent them an email saying Vida Vacations/Vidanta had returned the funds and canceled my membership; however, I let Profeco know they were STILL a problem to other travelers and should be closely monitored. I further added that had it not been for my daily assaults via social media on them and also their business associates (i.e. Conde Nast, Travel and Leisure, Cirque du Soleil, and the golf giants who built their courses), they would never have returned my money. Trip Advisor is another vital site, so please leave bad reviews there, if you haven't already.

As for the form with Profeco in Spanish, there is software on line that will translate it for free, which is what I used. It's well worth it. This government entity needs to know about them if they are going to ever be stopped.

Good luck!!

Thank-you for this information. I just sent an email to Profeco and hope to hear back. I had been told in the past that it did no good to contact them, we shall see.

I will also go onto reputable travel sites and relate my horrible experiences at the hands of the sales personnel.

Perhaps if we all start to do this, we will get some where.

Mexican timeshare sales programs are probably the worst and most deceitful to be found anywhere on Planet Earth. They have been exactly that for decades now --- and very little has changed over the years. By comparison, the Mexican sales operations make even the slimy and deceitful sales weasels of Westgate and Wyndham look like saints.

Generally speaking, PROFECO can't / won't do much for a unhappy buyer, UNLESS an egregious wrong was committed (such as the timeshare sales weasels failing to provide the required written notice of rescission (cancellation) rights to the buyer, or the sales weasels getting the buyer "impaired" in the course of closing the deal, or the company failing to process a rescission (cancellation) which was properly submitted within the time frame (5 days) provided by Mexican law. Other than those kinds of truly egregious actions, PROFECO cannot and will not do much of anything for or about a willing buyer who freely and voluntarily chose to make a bad purchase decision --- but regretted it later.

Congratulations! This is a great news! Thank you for sharing. I feel hopeful. I have filed dispute with my credit card company and am still waiting for the result of the dispute. Hoping for the best. Thanks.

Serving alcohol during the "meetings" is illegal, which is what they did to us. That's considered getting someone "impaired", and Profeco takes that very seriously. They also kept us in the office for over six hours and didn't feed us, which makes people light-headed and can lower their blood sugar -- further impairing them and affecting decision-making processes. The problem with most people who might complain to Profeco is that they don't go into enough detail and include all of this. They scheduled a hearing date for us and everything...sure got Vida Vacations attention!

Good luck with the credit card companies. Bank of America refused to help me. I just have to take the hit on my credit. I’m not paying nothing

zeew6 wrote:

Good luck with the credit card companies. Bank of America refused to help me. I just have to take the hit on my credit. I’m not paying nothing

Credit card entities have no real basis on which to "help" a card holder when there is a valid charge involved, freely and voluntarily made --- particularly if the only basis for dispute is "buyer's remorse".

Overt failure of a merchant to provide a purchased product or service is one thing, but a buyer merely regretting their purchase decision later is not going to enlist credit card issuer sympathy, support or assistance, since they really have "nothing at all to work with" after the contract rescission period has expired on a valid contract (the rescission period is 5 days in Mexico). The "timeshare merchant" can (and will) easily produce a valid contract bearing the buyer's voluntary, original signature. It may be worth a try to attempt to file a dispute, but once the applicable rescission period ends, without egregious and verifiable wrongdoing by the sales weasels, the odds of success are very slim --- and "buyer's remorse" alone ain't ever gonna cut it.

Yes, I understand you. The case with us is that the product is "not as described". We bought the contract because the sales lady told us we can "earn" Vida Dollars (which is equivalent in value to US dollars) each time we vacation with them and use the Vida Dollars to redeem for other travel and merchandise such as cruises which we were very interested in. That was why we bought the contract.

Although the document we signed had mentioned we can use the Vida Dollars to "as a partial payment to buy down the purchase price of travel and lifestyle purchases, it did not give any specific detail. We only knew from the examples in the sales lady's presentation that if we spent $1000 to stay at the resort, we will earn $1000 in Vida Dollars and we can spend that towards the price of our cruise. This did not sound like a "discount program" to us, it sounded like a earn and redemption kind of program.

Since we did not receive our login information to this members only website for Vida Lifestyle until after the rescission date, we didn't know that "Vida Dollars are a form of payment that you can use to buy down the price you're spending on vacations and merchandise, by eliminating the markup other retailers place on these products." This verbiage is viewable on the website only after you have logged into your account.

Here is an example to clarify the issue: If there is a cruise that costs $2000 and I have $1000 in Vida Dollars to use in my account, the program will not allow me to use that $1000 "as a partial payment to buy down the purchase price” of the $2000 cruise. In the program as it actually exists, the buy down is not necessarily a set percentage, it can be any amount the company sets based on a variety of factors. In other words, you might only be allowed to buy down $150 on your $2000 cruise. This is materially different from the contract.

If the above had been disclosed appropriately in time and not in a misleading way, we would not have signed the contract in the first place. Or if we have had access to log in to the account to see how the program actually works before the rescission date, we would have cancelled. We were not given access to the account until after the rescission date. It is a huge difference in the value received from the contract by many orders of magnitude. If it was made clear to us that the amount of buy down is an arbitrary number which the company sets based on a variety of factors, (in other words, complete unknown), why would I pay them so much for the rights to spend more money with them?

By the way, we were with the sales people for 12 hours (from 8:30 am to 8:30 pm), in the afternoon I felt I was about to passed out, finally we were allowed to leave to grab some food and then return to their office. I think what they did should be illegal.

I get what you're saying, Michelle M. The methods, practices, lies, and half-truths that many of these sales people employ are deplorable. That being said, yes you can file a dispute with your credit card if you want. Your card issuer might side with you. However, if your complaint is that you were sold a pack of lies, you have to prove that that's what the sales people told you. Right now, it would just be a matter of your word against the sales people's.

By the way, why did you stay there for 12 hours? Did they strap you down in a chair? Couldn't you have just got up and left?

lancec13 wrote:

.... if your complaint is that you were sold a pack of lies, you have to prove that that's what the sales people told you. Right now, it would just be a matter of your word against the sales people's.

I don't know much about whatever passes for "law" in Mexico, but I suspect that the situation is even worse than as quoted above.

Here in the U.S., for comparative example, if something is not overtly stated in writing within a timeshare contract, that "something" essentially does not exist. Any and all "conversation" during a sales pitch is just meaningless noise, temporarily floating around in the air.

The written content of the contract is what really matters. In point of fact, many developer timeshare contracts actually state in writing, within the contract that any and all oral representations made outside of the written contract content are not binding. This very convenient dodge enables the developers to shield themselves (and their hungry, lying sales weasels) from culpability and accountability when their sales personnel inevitably make absurd verbal exaggerations, factual misrepresentations and outright false statements in their relentless efforts to "close the deal".

That said, I am truly astounded that anyone would voluntarily subject themselves to 12 hours with timeshare sales weasels. That is just entirely beyond my ability to even begin to comprehend.

12 hours without food IS illegal!!!! You need to report this to Profeco, as I did. They will provide you with a hearing date, as they did for me. Honestly, it's worth the fight....I got my contract canceled and my money back after two months of fighting. It was a slog, but worth it in the end.

I know that sounds crazy. We own other timeshares and we are happy with them. These people just kept telling us bad things about our timeshares and what we can do with what they were selling. We wanted to leave but as I said, they were selling us on all the benefits that come with it, so we said we wanted to think about it, but of course, they will not let you go back to think about it, everything is "I can only make this deal now" and they just kept going over and over, and basically make us feel "why wouldn't you take this opportunity?" As you know when the blood sugar gets low, one cannot think straight, I kept saying, I can't listen anymore, I have to eat, of course they didn't say anything, they just wanted to prepare the documents, so by the middle of the afternoon, they let us leave to go get some food and then we can come back to see what the final deal is. It's like a trance, I think when you are in the middle of it for so long you can't think straight any more... We were still hopeful that what they told us (the benefits I mean) were all true. In other words we trusted them, until when we finally were able to log into our account to see what the benefits really were, it was different, but by then it was after the 5-days...

Never again will we go to anything that has anything that even suggests "show you around our resort"... It's all a big lie.