My aunt and I was invited to a tour at Grand Mayan hotel, but realized it a scam afterwards. We put down a down payment of $3943 for the vacation club membership since they promised that we can cancel the packaging anytime with full-refund within 5 days of the day of purchase, by giving them a call. THIS IS A PLAIN LIE!! The sales representative even secretly takes away the paper that he wrote with all the "bonus" and "promises" from the contract package. We found out that there are many hidden charges after reviewing the contract that was never mentioned.
The next day when I call to cancel the package, they demand us to go back to the vacation club for cancellation, and say if we don't bring the contract back, they cannot cancel the purchase (which is totally different than what the sales representative told me. Since I'm leaving Cancun that day, I told the representative I can't make it, he told me I have to take a TAXI there right now with my own cost! Terrible and discussing!
He then said we can send the contract to another VIDA office in another city, and once they received my contract they will process my refund. The contract has to be postmark within the 5 days of purchase, so I sent out the contract with express mail right away, spending another $290 peso out of my own pocket! I tracked that the packaged has arrived and signed on 9/6, but they lied again!!! They DID NOT process my refund, instead, THEY CHARGED ANOTHER $3945 TO MY CREDIT CARD WITHOUT MY AUTHORIZATION! Now I have $8000 USD in their hands.
Now I am trying every way to contact my VISA company to stop the payment and look into legal action against this terrible scam company VIDA VACATION.
DO NOT FALL INTO THE SAME TRAP and PLEASE SPREAD THE WORDS TO ALL YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHO WILL TRAVEL TO MEXICO!
About one year ago we purchased ""fractional ownership"" with the Mayan Palace. We recently found out it is now called Vida vacation club. We were lied to for 5 or 6 hours and we unfortunately believed what we were being told. We have now tried to use it for one year and it is terrible.
You can never get in when you want to. You cant ever exchange to the places you want to go. You cannot rent out the weeks like they tell you. We may have made our mistake but we don't want anyone else to. I ask that you reply to this post if you have been ripped off.
I would love to brainstorm ways to stop this fraud. We were told this was a good investment and IT IS NOT. We have emailed them numerous times in the last couple weeks but they have not replied once.
We too purchased "fractional Real Estate" as least that's what they call it with the Mayan Palace. We were told that you can't stay there unless you are an "owner" then we come home and see all over Craigslist you can stay there for less than our maintenance fee. So you pay the purchase price, plus maintenance fee to stay and anyone else can go. We did enjoy our stay there but since coming home and trying to book our "Vida week" find that you can't go anywhere in the world and not for the cost we were quoted.
We contacted the sale rep letting them know that we feel we were lied to and received a phone call from a Representative asking us what did we think we were purchasing and other questions so we scheduled a phone call this afternoon to discuss. It is very confusing between the Vida Lifestyles, Vida dollars, Vida Week, very confusing who to contact to book a vacation and what you are actually getting vs what was promised in the one on one sales pitch.
Anyone able to get out of their contract? If so, how did you do it?
Timeshare ordeal at the Grand Mayan – high pressure sales, fast talking, false promises, lies, and another unhappy customer. The resort looks to be very nice, but absolutely stay away from the timeshare sales.
“Marco” hit us up at the rental car office, after we were stung by a $99/week car rental turned into an over $500 car rental due to Mexico’s absurd insurance rates. Marco promised $450 off the car rental, plus some other perks, if we would attend a 90-minute sales presentation for timeshare at the Grand Mayan. Our first mistake…
Grand Mayan – long story short, our 90-minute presentation took 7 hours, with deals and promises and lies. In the end, I agreed to a purchase. 3 “Bliss” studio weeks, plus two “Vida” weeks, with the promise that I could “return” the Bliss weeks and they would pay me $800 per week each year – immediate wire transfer when I returned the weeks. Also, they would buy my timeshare in Vail CO (so I can get out from under the $1000 annual maintenance fee) but I could exchange a Vida week for the same condo only $699 per week. Sound too good to be true?
You don’t find out the details of the lies until well after your Mexican holiday – there is a 5-day rescission period, but 5 days after you are bullied into the contract, their offices are closed. Then the other agencies start to contact you regarding their bits (timeshare exchange, Golf Network, etc), and you don’t find out about the original lies for a month after you’ve signed the original contract.
How obvious is it that when you do an internet searches on Golf Network CVM, Grand Mayan timeshare, Vida Vacations - the first sites that display are complaints from customers!
Lies:
The $800 rental return is not guaranteed – you only get it IF they rent it. And I had to pay $399 for the privilege of them not trying to rent it. The sales monsters at the Grand Mayan had adamantly promised I would get this money.
The Vail property is not even listed in the Vida Lifestyles inventory.
The resort trades are not a fixed $699; rather, it varies by property.
I was told I could use the Vail condo in 2014, since I already paid the maintenance fee – not true
I was told I had two Vida weeks per year. Now I find out I have three Vida weeks for a two year period.
Vida Vacation Club Reviews
My aunt and I was invited to a tour at Grand Mayan hotel, but realized it a scam afterwards. We put down a down payment of $3943 for the vacation club membership since they promised that we can cancel the packaging anytime with full-refund within 5 days of the day of purchase, by giving them a call. THIS IS A PLAIN LIE!! The sales representative even secretly takes away the paper that he wrote with all the "bonus" and "promises" from the contract package. We found out that there are many hidden charges after reviewing the contract that was never mentioned.
The next day when I call to cancel the package, they demand us to go back to the vacation club for cancellation, and say if we don't bring the contract back, they cannot cancel the purchase (which is totally different than what the sales representative told me. Since I'm leaving Cancun that day, I told the representative I can't make it, he told me I have to take a TAXI there right now with my own cost! Terrible and discussing!
He then said we can send the contract to another VIDA office in another city, and once they received my contract they will process my refund. The contract has to be postmark within the 5 days of purchase, so I sent out the contract with express mail right away, spending another $290 peso out of my own pocket! I tracked that the packaged has arrived and signed on 9/6, but they lied again!!! They DID NOT process my refund, instead, THEY CHARGED ANOTHER $3945 TO MY CREDIT CARD WITHOUT MY AUTHORIZATION! Now I have $8000 USD in their hands.
Now I am trying every way to contact my VISA company to stop the payment and look into legal action against this terrible scam company VIDA VACATION.
DO NOT FALL INTO THE SAME TRAP and PLEASE SPREAD THE WORDS TO ALL YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHO WILL TRAVEL TO MEXICO!
About one year ago we purchased ""fractional ownership"" with the Mayan Palace. We recently found out it is now called Vida vacation club. We were lied to for 5 or 6 hours and we unfortunately believed what we were being told. We have now tried to use it for one year and it is terrible.
You can never get in when you want to. You cant ever exchange to the places you want to go. You cannot rent out the weeks like they tell you. We may have made our mistake but we don't want anyone else to. I ask that you reply to this post if you have been ripped off.
I would love to brainstorm ways to stop this fraud. We were told this was a good investment and IT IS NOT. We have emailed them numerous times in the last couple weeks but they have not replied once.
Vida Vacation Club
We too purchased "fractional Real Estate" as least that's what they call it with the Mayan Palace. We were told that you can't stay there unless you are an "owner" then we come home and see all over Craigslist you can stay there for less than our maintenance fee. So you pay the purchase price, plus maintenance fee to stay and anyone else can go. We did enjoy our stay there but since coming home and trying to book our "Vida week" find that you can't go anywhere in the world and not for the cost we were quoted.
We contacted the sale rep letting them know that we feel we were lied to and received a phone call from a Representative asking us what did we think we were purchasing and other questions so we scheduled a phone call this afternoon to discuss. It is very confusing between the Vida Lifestyles, Vida dollars, Vida Week, very confusing who to contact to book a vacation and what you are actually getting vs what was promised in the one on one sales pitch.
Anyone able to get out of their contract? If so, how did you do it?
Timeshare ordeal at the Grand Mayan – high pressure sales, fast talking, false promises, lies, and another unhappy customer. The resort looks to be very nice, but absolutely stay away from the timeshare sales.
“Marco” hit us up at the rental car office, after we were stung by a $99/week car rental turned into an over $500 car rental due to Mexico’s absurd insurance rates. Marco promised $450 off the car rental, plus some other perks, if we would attend a 90-minute sales presentation for timeshare at the Grand Mayan. Our first mistake…
Grand Mayan – long story short, our 90-minute presentation took 7 hours, with deals and promises and lies. In the end, I agreed to a purchase. 3 “Bliss” studio weeks, plus two “Vida” weeks, with the promise that I could “return” the Bliss weeks and they would pay me $800 per week each year – immediate wire transfer when I returned the weeks. Also, they would buy my timeshare in Vail CO (so I can get out from under the $1000 annual maintenance fee) but I could exchange a Vida week for the same condo only $699 per week. Sound too good to be true?
You don’t find out the details of the lies until well after your Mexican holiday – there is a 5-day rescission period, but 5 days after you are bullied into the contract, their offices are closed. Then the other agencies start to contact you regarding their bits (timeshare exchange, Golf Network, etc), and you don’t find out about the original lies for a month after you’ve signed the original contract.
How obvious is it that when you do an internet searches on Golf Network CVM, Grand Mayan timeshare, Vida Vacations - the first sites that display are complaints from customers!
Lies:
The $800 rental return is not guaranteed – you only get it IF they rent it. And I had to pay $399 for the privilege of them not trying to rent it. The sales monsters at the Grand Mayan had adamantly promised I would get this money.
The Vail property is not even listed in the Vida Lifestyles inventory.
The resort trades are not a fixed $699; rather, it varies by property.
I was told I could use the Vail condo in 2014, since I already paid the maintenance fee – not true
I was told I had two Vida weeks per year. Now I find out I have three Vida weeks for a two year period.