Grupo Mayan

We bought in 4 years ago at the Grand Mayan level. We have had nothing but good experiences with about a dozen weeks spent all over their resorts. The water park access was important as we have a young son. We also value the size of the units at the GM as we have a large family.

We've subsequently moved up to the Luxxe, and are looking forward to our first stay there next month.

The down side to this corp is that there are so many secrets...you think you've secured the best access to units, then find that only at a higher level ($$) of membership can you book further in advance than others, secure ocean views, or access other limited amenities. It's a bit slimy, but we've had good value for our money so far.

Maybe so, but they're tearing down MP properties to build more luxurious units. Those left holding MP memberships will be competing for fewer units with the same number of people...unless those people upgrade, which is want the GM corp is counting on.

I am an owner at Grand Luxxe. We are looking forward to our stay beginning this Dec. We were never a GM owner so our experience is limited to our stay and purchase while with friends at GM last year. I have read all of the postings and want to ask or comment here. Golf and Spa: We receive 16 rounds and 2 treatments for our purchase per week. Our ? was can we trade off one for one, etc. We were told they were looking into some trade off ratio. Has anyone heard about this? How about ease of getting golf times in the early morning? In one of the replies I saw something about coffee in the room. I distinctly recall 2 Nespresso machines in the Villa. Yes or no? Is there beach access from the GL yet? Does anyone know if a fitness center is planned for GL or will it be just be use at GM next door? Reading about the "Mansions" category, is this a buy up from the GL? Does anyone have the price range and can share their experience with the marketing presentation? Chef cooking in our Villa. This was intriguing and if anyone can share details please do. Cost, experience. A romantic dinner might be nice. Regarding maintainance fees I can confirm that 2011 is essentially the same as 2010 as we have already reserved our time for 2011-2012. BTW, the reservation experience was very simple.

"Chef cooking in our Villa. This was intriguing and if anyone can share details please do. Cost, experience. A romantic dinner might be nice. "

You might like reading the comments dated September 20, 2010 about one Luxxe owner's experience with the chef: http://www.grandluxxetimeshare.com/currentnews.html. There is a link for photos there too, I think.

Can you share the individuals name? We used Alliance Integrated Marketing Systems (AIMS) and what a ripoff!!! We had to pay them $499 up front and that was over a year ago and they have done NOTHING. We were told it was a one-time fee ($499) and to our surprise we get a charge on our card for $34.99 the following year. When I called to inquire, they were rude and said it was a yearly fee to keep searching. Well, here were are $499 and $34.99 poorer and not a single rental. They tell you they will keep you updated and not one single word from them after they collect your money. Please share the individuals name if possible. Thanks.

WE ATTENDED WHAT WAS TO BE A "90 MINUTE NON-TIMESHARE RELATED PRESENTATION" AT MAYAN PALACE IN FEBRUARY THIS YEAR. ON THE 7TH HOUR, HAVING 2 SMALL KIDS IN THE TOW, WE WERE COMPLETELY WORN OUT. AFTER REPEATEDLY SAYING "NO" TO 6 OR 7 PUSHY SALESPEOPLE WE WERE LEAVING THE RESORT BUT AT THE LAST MOMENT WERE INTERCEPTED ** ANOTHER AGENT, HELENA DANIELSON. SHE SOUNDED SO CONVINCING THAT WE BOUGHT "PARADISE WEEK" PACKAGE FROM HER FOR $3000. Every word she said turned out to be a lie. BEWARE OF THESE PEOPLE, THEY'LL SAY ANYTHING TO GET YOUR MONEY, BUT THEY ARE A COMPLETE FRAUD ! WE LOST THE ENTIRE DAY OUT OF OUR 6 DAY VACATION PLUS $3000.

During the presentation, the words "Grand Paradise Club" never came up. I had my iPad with me and could have Googled it on the spot to find out about this scam. But Helena led us believe that we were buying discounted weeks from "Advantage Services" (another shell company in this scam food chain). We were shown a booklet with numerous hotels and resorts that will be available for booking to us. A month later, our welcome package arrived in the mail. As we tried to use the booking system, however, we discovered that inventory available at the website is extremely limited and nowhere close to the one we were shown. For the discounted so called “fast weeks” price manipulation is used where an additional mandatory all-inclusive fee must be paid at check-in that brings total cost of reservation well above market price. Cruise certificate also turned our to be a worthless piece of paper, as other posters on this board indicated.

The website is a joke with many links that are totally inaccurate or broken and does not meet commercial website design guidelines. Only few reservations can be made online, other inventory has a “call” banner next to them. When we called for a reservation, we were told that these discounted weeks were not available. We realized that these weeks are no more than “bait and switch” to get customers to call so that Grand Paradise Club can push other stale inventory to them. Also, GPC charges additional reservation fee of for each reservation made – a fact never mentioned in our contract.

We have filed dispute with Mastercard - had anyone have any success with that ? I will post again once I get a response from the credit card company. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD SO THESE BUSTARDS ARE OUT OF BUSINESS ASAP ! I've seen a post on TripAdvisor.com about setting up a website for a class action - GRANDPARADISESCAM.COM and GRUPOMAYANSCAM.COM. I will let everyone know when they go life so people can join the CLASS ACTION lawsuit. It's a shame Mexican government tolerates this kind of scam going on for years in their prime tourist areas. No wonder Mexico has the reputation it does.

Unfortunatley, we fell for the same scam. We signed for the Mayan timeshare after being there for 7 1/2 hours. Three days later when we tried to cancel the contract it was a bait and switch tactic where we ended up instead with 50 paradise weeks and 50 fast weeks with the Grand Paradise Club. It seemed perfect- no maintenance fees, cheap last minute travel. Everything they promised was a lie. The website is horrible. The resort inventory is terrible unless you want to go to Mexico or Florida in the middle of summer. Definitely not the 4 or 5 star they promised. The cruise certificate is worthless. I regret ever going to Grand Mayan Resort! Let me know how you make out with your dispute! We lost $5500!

I have also had experience with these bait and switch artists. It must be against the law...somewhere.

The Grand Mayan SCAM in Nuevo Vallarta My wife and I were also duped with gifts to come and see this timeshare scam. I kept asking for a guarantee or proof to everything they promised. They just kept double-talking and repeated themselves over and over again. After 5 hours, the price went from $90K to $9K and we bought (temporarily). Back at our hotel, I looked up the Grand Mayan and two days later we went back to cancel. They refused to let us cancel (which is illegal). They wanted us to make an appointment the morning before our flight left. I didn't have 5 hours to argue with them again so we sent an email cancellation from the hotel. I got home and sent a fax cancellation then sent a certified letter to the hotel (still within my 5 day cancellation period). I finally received acknowledgement of cancellation. Fortunately, I realized soon enough what a scam this place is. For your family's money- DO NOT BUY AT AT THE MAYAN.

The Grand Mayan SCAM in Nuevo Vallarta My wife and I were also duped with gifts to come and see this timeshare scam. I kept asking for a guarantee or proof to everything they promised. They just kept double-talking and repeated themselves over and over again. After 5 hours, the price went from $90K to $9K and we bought (temporarily). Back at our hotel, I looked up the Grand Mayan and two days later we went back to cancel. They refused to let us cancel (which is illegal). They wanted us to make an appointment the morning before our flight left. I didn't have 5 hours to argue with them again so we sent an email cancellation from the hotel. I got home and sent a fax cancellation then sent a certified letter to the hotel. Finally they acknowledged my cancellation (within the 5 day period). I also contacted Profeco. Fortunately, I realized soon enough what a scam this place is. For your family's money- DO NOT BUY AT AT THE MAYAN.

DO NOT BUY a membership in Grand Paradise Club regardless of what is promised. Run, don't walk away. I could give you long sad story but will cut to the chase. They promise to sell your existing timeshare or club membership - it does not happen. They promise to reimburse you for annual fees incurred while they are trying to sell - it does not happen. They have something called Advantage Services to make your reservations - be prepared for a nightmare of holds and calling back. It doesn't seem like the Grupo Mayan facilities are too bad. They should be embarrassed to have this Grand Paradise Club scam on their site.

Just back from Los Cabos. Thought we had made a reasonable purchase from what seem like nice people. Now the reality sets in! I am just curious; did you have any luck in recovering your money through Mastercard?

Thanks.

Yes, after 5 months of fighting we got our money back through MasterCard. You just have to be persistent and not to give in on Grupo Mayan's offer to "settle" by signing an affidavit, or you'll be scammed for a second time ! A lot of useful information here : mescam.com. Here is my post on scam.com from last year :

After about 5 months back-and-forth with the credit card company we got full credit ($3000) for the mistake we've made with Grand Paradise Club. I felt so stupid for believing even a tiny portion of their lies ! We supplied credit card with all the facts proving that Grand Paradise Club/Grupo Mayan is basically a fraudulent operation, including excerpts from this site. Their salespeople are exploiting the fact that Western business culture is based on trust. If you are not trustworthy, you don't stay in business for long. Well, apparently not so in Mexico, where they rely on constant influx of first-timers lured in their spiderweb by free "gifts" offered at the airport. The gifts, by the way, are not even worth the 6+ ours of vacation time a typical victim would waste on a supposedly "90 minute non-timeshare related presentation". That's why the first question they ask travel-fatigued people at the airport is - "Is it your first time in Mexico ?". First timers are their primary target. Half way through the process, GM found me and offered to "settle" provided I removed my posts from TripAdvisor, scam.com, redweek.com, mescam.com and other sites. I saw some people retracting their posts, but how could I be sure that I won't be scammed again ?! Just search for "Vera Christopher" on this forum - this lady from the UK has fought for 3 years with no result ! Grupo Mayan demanded that I execute all paperwork and remove my posts UPFRONT. So they ask to be trusted with MY MONEY having lied to me and thousands of other victims before but they's won't trust ME with anything ?! That's what defines crooks ! The "settlement" required that I sign a bunch of legal mambo-jumbo surrounding all the rights to ever make details of the settlement public. I ran it by my lawyer and he stated that this so called contract is basically non-enforceable piece of s**t as a person can always hide under a different nick which is not traceable back to the individual. All it is designed for is to scare stuff out of honest law-abiding citizens. Nonetheless, there was always a chance that my signed settlement could be used in credit card dispute as a proof of my dropped claims, so I decided to press with the credit card first. I am glad I did. I guess other posters where less lucky in their credit card dispute process and had to succumb to Grupo Mayan demands. My gut feeling was that they won't part with the money easily, always trying to sell you something else, just as they do after an unsuccessful timeshare pitch at so called "exit interview". That's where we were belittled by Helena Danielson for not having "faith in humanity". I do have Faith in Humanity, Helena, but YOU are NOT part of the humanity as I define it ! After we wasted whole day away from our 6 day vacation, my 2 small kids were sweaty from the heat and dehydrated, but they would not even allow kids to use swimming pool ! Imagine if you are treated like that BEFORE they grab your money what would it be AFTER you sign on the dotted line ! GM has a whole investigatory department stuffed with English speaking American and Canadian ex-pats who traded their integrity for a perpetual vacation mode lifestyle in Mexico. Their job is to cut losses and sweet talk internet posters into removing or retracting their posts. Their typical line is "Everyone has complains. Apple has complains. Honda has complains". Sure. As if dropping a name or two of great companies next to a scam operation would somehow cleanse them from their wrongdoing. Search Scam.com for Honda or Apple or Best Buy. I am sure the'll appreciate it if you let them know of any hits !

We just got back from Mexico and now find ourselves in the same exact boat. I also used an MC for purchase, can you suggest anything that can make this dispute process smoother.

We have been Mayan Palace owners for 8 years and had no problems. We bought in Acapulco, but have traded to the Riveria Mayan and even upgraded to the grand Mayan . Two years ago we went to Cabo and loved it. We are planning on going back this fall and I hope to have a rainy day because I think I will take all of these post and spend a day wasting all of their time.. Guess we have been lucky.

I just got back from Cabo where I made the same mistake as many others. After getting back to the hotel and realizing what I have done, I called my credit card and the pending payment was canceled, along with the credit card. I'm wondering if I need to do anything else - seems like sending cancelation letters is just a waste of time.

Send the cancelation notice and get return receipt. Make sure you cross all your " t "s and dot all your " i "s. Don't give them any excuse to charge you for the purchase. It's a small investment to protect yourself. They will definitely come after you for the money if you don't protect yourself.

amelias18 wrote:

I just got back from Cabo where I made the same mistake as many others. After getting back to the hotel and realizing what I have done, I called my credit card and the pending payment was canceled, along with the credit card. I'm wondering if I need to do anything else - seems like sending cancelation letters is just a waste of time.

As Don stated, you need to go precisely by what is in your legal contract as far as rescission and send the rescission letter USPS certified mail with return receipt (don't forget you have only a few days to rescind .... I believe it's 5 days in Mexico) . Your credit card company did not rescind your purchase .... they only took the down payment off and cancelled that credit card. If you signed a legal contract then you are still responsible for ownership of the timeshare.

You need to rescind ASAP.

Are you a victim of the mexican timeshare fraud? Do not waste your time waiting for verbal agreements to be accomplished, there are many people trying to get rid of their timeshares (timeshare for sale, timeshare for resale or timeshare to rent) but they are not able to reach their goal.

jacobog wrote:

Are you a victim of the mexican timeshare fraud? Do not waste your time waiting for verbal agreements to be accomplished, there are many people trying to get rid of their timeshares (timeshare for sale, timeshare for resale or timeshare to rent) but they are not able to reach their goal.

There's no way any entity can cancel a signed legal contract .... the only entity that may be of help if you think you've been scammed concerning a Mexican timeshare is www.profeco.com (the consumer advocacy agency in Mexico). If it's stated in a contract that you have no rescission period after buying a Mexican timeshare then that's out and out fraud and the only entity that will get you out of your contract via that type of fraud is Profeco. It's what's in the signed legal contract that counts .... not what a timeshare salesperson tells you verbally = he said, she said.