Grand Luxxe - Scam

acangarlu · Apr 23, 2012

I was upgraded from Grand Mayan to Grand Luxxe prior to its opening back in 2009, so I was supposedly offered a "pre construction" deal. The sales rep told me that the reason they were offering this great deal was that they wanted my weeks back from Grand Mayan to offer it to Golfers in East Coast. On top of so many other lies including a dedicated Butler, limo pick up and drop off from airport he also guaranteed me that for every week they rented from my old Grand Mayan weeks, I would get $1000 credit to be used to pay for my future maintenance fees, plane tickets, credit for resort spending and many others. He guaranteed that I would have that credit in less than 6 months .... IT WAS NOTHING BUT LIES. that never happened. They also sold me on getting 6 weeks so I could rent at least 4 weeks a year and have a nice hefty income. Int heir own words, "WE WILL GUARANTEE BY APRIL OF EACH YEAR ALL YOUR WEEKS WILL BE RENTED". Again, to-date not even ONE WEEK has been rented. Truly I was scammed!!!!! Anyone else have experienced this?

pacodemountainside · Apr 23, 2012

While time share and used car salesman in US have Bachelor degrees in scamming and lying, in Mexico they have Doctorates.

When one buys a house hopefully they have a buyers broker, inspection company, closing company, etc. all looking out for their interests.

Like wise, when buying a new car one walks around and makes sure it is right color and model, has listed accessories, no dings, etc.

Yet, when buying a time share listen to some BS artist they just met for a couple hours and believe everything he says. Then turn around and sign a contract that says in legalize don't believe anything he told you as he is a compulsive liar and if it ain't written in this contract, it doesn't exist and we will NOT honor!

I have heard at least 10 different rental scams, but all are trust me brudder, I am your BFF and going to take good care of you. Time share salesmen do not run rental companies and Developers like Wyndham have EH who takes 40% off the top , but makes no guarantees, at your risk! Nothing guaranteed in writing!

Pre-construction, golfers, naive foreign buyers, Pope, WCTU, etc. you name em!

Developers are infamous for promising ammenties that never materialize!

There are several posts here dealing with this and what others have done which you should read, but at this late date not much hope!

Use em and enjoy! :wall:

Passepartout · Apr 23, 2012

So, uh, what does your contract say? You sound like an intelligent person who knows that verbal promises mean exactly nothing. It's what is on the printed (and signed) page that you can hold their feet to the fire over. I see that you are kinda new here, so if you search or even casually read through posts in the Mexico Forum, it oughtta take about 5 minutes to find Karen Rose who claims to be a Grupo Mayan Customer Service Rep. Many TUGgers- very loyal to Grupo Mayan or Vidanta or whoever they are this week have waxed eloquently about how honorable the outfit is. Make 'em prove it.

P.S. They HATE anti G.M. posts on TUG. Keep up the good work!

Jim

mikenk · Apr 23, 2012

Passepartout said:
Rep. Many TUGgers- very loyal to Grupo Mayan or Vidanta or whoever they are this week have waxed eloquently about how honorable the outfit is. Make 'em prove it.

P.S. They HATE anti G.M. posts on TUG. Keep up the good work!

Jim

Actually, their official name and has been for years is Grupo Vidanta; also, we that own and appreciate the resorts don't hate anti GM posts as long as they are fair and factual. The scheme the OP described is indeed their long standing sales spiel and they are indeed lies; none of that wording makes it into the contract. None of the GM supporters condone this behavior by the sales force; nor do we condone not reading the contract.

The other side of the coin is Member Services honors the contract to the tee, will indeed resolve conflicts ( grupomayanblog@grupovidanta.com.), and has member perks that no other timeshare companies offer. I believe that too many people on TUG judge a timeshare system solely on the tactics of the sales force which is sooo easy to defeat or never even deal with. I must admit that consistent narrow viewpoint does bug me a bit.

To the OP, if getting rental income was your rationale for upgrading, rest assured that you will not get any help from the resort. However, you have things to rent that other resorts do not; you have lots of free golf to include and you can use your equivalency in your contract to split your GL units to get more units. Get creative, rent to golfers; they have money and like to travel together; you have a great package to offer.

Mike

Passepartout · Apr 23, 2012

deleted: duplicate

Passepartout · Apr 23, 2012

Passepartout said:
TUGgers- very loyal to Grupo Mayan or Vidanta or whoever they are this week have waxed eloquently about how honorable the outfit is. Added: They usually take a comment on Mayan's practices as a personal affront. Far better if they combined forces to change Vidanta's sales tactics.

The scheme the OP described is indeed their long standing sales spiel and they are indeed lies; none of that wording makes it into the contract.
To the OP, if getting rental income was your rationale for upgrading, rest assured that you will not get any help from the resort.

See what I mean?

pittle · Apr 23, 2012

Jim - I also own with the Mayan Group (or whatever the name of the year is), and would be what you call a defender, BUT, I am among the first to admit that the sales force is something else!!! The resorts are nice, but the sales force is not. Hubby & I have owned since 1999 and bought resale several times, upgraded to the Grand Mayan once and still own a total of 6 weeks with them. We do not plan to upgrade or renew our contracts when they come up for renewal because our grown kids are not the least bit interested in timesharing.

My new mantra is BUY WHERE YOU WANT TO GO. Do not expect rentals or exchanges. Just go there and enjoy the resort. That is our plan and we are sticking to it. :cheer:

Actually, I think I will add that to my signature.

mikenk · Apr 23, 2012

Passepartout said:
See what I mean?

Sorry, I miss your point. I agreed that their sales force lie and the OP got duped. I complain to Member Services every time I go about the sales force. I also chose to make the point that there is more to a resort system than their sales force. From your comments and innuendos, obviously you disagree.

I also gave the OP some sound advice from personal experience as to how to complain and how to effectively rent his units.

Mike

Asl18940 · Apr 23, 2012

I agree that you shouldn't really expect meaningful rentals, but you can easily get exchanges. You just always need to check out the exchanges on Tug and Trip Advisor, among other sites. I can rent for a little above the maintenance fee, so I don't see it as worth my while. There are a number of GL rental sites, but typically these are for villa units with owners of more than 4 weeks, 2 bedroom. But I fully agree that the rental pitch is to be ignored.

Tropical lady · Apr 23, 2012

3 years later and you just realized?????

Mike and Pittle both said it well.
Passpartout,
It is not taken personally, did not drink the koolaid, and am not a defender of the sales practices. Each of us at one time or another have said this, and documented this. The resorts are great, we enjoy them and have received many benefits. If bought for an investment, that was foolish.
I am curious....bought (upgraded) in 2009. If you did not like GM why upgrade? Surely you were in the system long enough to be "in the know"? Why 3 years later is the upgrade an issue? A delayed reaction? Just curious......

mikenk · Apr 23, 2012

acangarlu,

Since it has been long since you upgraded, I would suggest another thing. Read your contract very carefully particularly the Addenda that are signed by a GM rep. You might have some additional perks you are not aware of; the initial GL offerings seemed to have more stuff than the newer contracts. I am sure there will be nothing about guaranteed rentals, but could be senior discounts and other worthwhile things. I assume you have the no pay MF unless you use addendum, but you need to check and make sure.

Even though it has been so long, I would still send a complaint letter to the email I listed - never know what they might do.

Mike

rpennisi · Apr 23, 2012

As a MP owner who has owned for 5 years, I agree, the OP should have known better. I have exchanged for GM a number of times. and will soon use exchanges for the GB and GL. I love the Grupo Vidanta resorts in all respects but one...their sales tactics.
However that may be, I cannot give a pass to Grupo Vidanta, for after all these years and all these pissed off people complaining, for allowing such tactics to continue on and on.
Does success in sales justify to them the tactics of their sales force? If so, shame on them.
Ron

ilene13 · Apr 23, 2012

We exchanged to the Grand Luxxe in February. We had a horrific experience with the sales force which I wrote about in another thread. What I will say is that the resort was wonderful. I would exchane again in A heartbeat. We met quite a few GL owners. The majority of them complained that they rarely get the weeks they want and their extra weeks are never rented through the resort program. One family owned at the GL but was staying at the GM because there were no available GL units. If I was an owner and that happened to me I would be furious.

mikenk · Apr 23, 2012

rpennisi said:
Does success in sales justify to them the tactics of their sales force? If so, shame on them.
Ron

Certainly, shame on management at Grupa Vidanta (and others of course) for allowing the lies to continue and for the high pressure tactics. I don't see it changing as long as people don't read the contract they sign.

On one of my complaint sessions, a lady in Member Services (they sign the contracts) said she had no idea what the sales person had promised; she asks before they sign whether the person has read and agrees to the terms in the contract. They say yes and all sign. Clearly, it is also stated in the contract that one has 5 days to cancel and it is easy to do, but few even read the contract over the next few days.

An interesting question is what percent actually complain. There is lots of complaints on TUG and other sites, but the Mayan people volume through sales is probably 10 times other resort systems - just guessing. A few years ago, I purposely interviewed a bunch of folks during happy hours in Cabo; it is amazing how many knew they paid too much and were lied to but had long since gotten over it and now laugh about it as they drink their Negra Modela (my favorite beer there). I am guessing there is a lot of monitoring going on of complaints versus sales volume. It would be nice if management would decide to do the right thing regardless; Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the business way in today's world.

Mike

Karen G · Apr 24, 2012

I think I may have some psychic ability--every time I start to think that things are really quiet on the Mexico forum, up pops another thread about Grupo Mayan.

acangarlu · Apr 24, 2012

Additional info ...

Thank you all for the feedback and information provided here. I wanted to give you some additional info about my contract and reason for upgrading from GM to GL. I originally back in 2006 acquired only 2 weeks at GM for personal use without anything else in mind. Later I upgraded to 6 weeks and started renting out the other 4 weeks which was working just fine for me. In one of my visits back in 2009 I was presented the option to upgrade as part of pre-construction to GL. Of course, the sales pitch was that you are one of the original members therefore you will get "all these benefits", the difference between GM and GL (Hotel vs. private resort), reason wanting to take back my GM weeks, credits to be given, etc. etc. etc... The contract was presented as "work in progress". I paid a hefty upgrade fee for 6 weeks of Master Suite Villas. Everyone is absolutely right about the contract and shame on me for accepting the terms with these missing items, but you would think a large organization with such well established procedures will not allow the sales force to make such false promises. There were many other things stated during the sales meeting that I just don't have the time to post here ....

As for why I waited this long: 2010 was the 1st year of operation for GL. I gave it a year to establish itself and open in other locations. Worked with some recommended 3rd parties to see if they can rent my units and continued to be patient for another year. Now being completely frustrated, I went on-line to see if anyone else had the same issue. The interesting thing is that these referred 3rd party companies are saying they are having issues renting out due to bad publicity in Mexico, but yet I have had hard time in booking for many times multiple times at different properties. Go figure!

Finally, I have a problem to separate the sales team from the customer service or their operations. It is all one company to me.

Karen G · Apr 24, 2012

acangarlu, you have nothing to lose by contacting the Member Services dept. at the email address mikenk posted in post #4 above. See if they can assist you in any way.

mikenk · Apr 24, 2012

Karen G said:
I think I may have some psychic ability--every time I start to think that things are really quiet on the Mexico forum, up pops another thread about Grupo Mayan.

Yes indeed, it was getting quite boring around here with no "danger in Mexico" threads or GM threads. Shoot, I almost broke down and read one of the Royal sale saga threads.

Good to be back to normal.
Mike

travelbug54 · Apr 24, 2012

Grande Luxxe

:shrug:

Its amazing we are smart people and yet the allure of relaxation and luxury as well as being able to use the un-needed weeks as income is alluring in the beginning. We were also told we could rent out weeks and there would be help at our first sales meeting in 2007 but the company has not tried that since. They have been incresingly more honest.
When we came for our first visit as a Myan Palace owner we did not get a room in as good shape as the one we were shown at sales. We were put in a GM and then asked to upgrade. Of course we all WANT to believe these are nice people selling you these opportunities even though your spidey sense says RUN
Our secind visit was as a GM owner and we had a great location. Then we traded our extra week into RCI and used it at GM Riviera and asked for a suite clise in due to hop and knee issues. We were far far away broken and non appearing carts blah blah. So we fixed it by upgrading to Grand Bliss :wall:

Yes we are smart people???????
We have had to change rooms many times in our stay at Grand Bliss and then there was no room for us so downgraded to GM which really has the better location in NV.
Its beautiful and we love the resorts in RM and NV and as ling as we aren't stuck looking at construction its a perfect vacation but we did "just Say No" to the upgrade to the Grand Luxxe and wish you luck in your Vida Vidanta Mayan Oddesey. I have a great rental package but no bites yet for me either :doh:

acangarlu said:
Thank you all for the feedback and information provided here. I wanted to give you some additional info about my contract and reason for upgrading from GM to GL. I originally back in 2006 acquired only 2 weeks at GM for personal use without anything else in mind. Later I upgraded to 6 weeks and started renting out the other 4 weeks which was working just fine for me. In one of my visits back in 2009 I was presented the option to upgrade as part of pre-construction to GL. Of course, the sales pitch was that you are one of the original members therefore you will get "all these benefits", the difference between GM and GL (Hotel vs. private resort), reason wanting to take back my GM weeks, credits to be given, etc. etc. etc... The contract was presented as "work in progress". I paid a hefty upgrade fee for 6 weeks of Master Suite Villas. Everyone is absolutely right about the contract and shame on me for accepting the terms with these missing items, but you would think a large organization with such well established procedures will not allow the sales force to make such false promises. There were many other things stated during the sales meeting that I just don't have the time to post here ....

As for why I waited this long: 2010 was the 1st year of operation for GL. I gave it a year to establish itself and open in other locations. Worked with some recommended 3rd parties to see if they can rent my units and continued to be patient for another year. Now being completely frustrated, I went on-line to see if anyone else had the same issue. The interesting thing is that these referred 3rd party companies are saying they are having issues renting out due to bad publicity in Mexico, but yet I have had hard time in booking for many times multiple times at different properties. Go figure!

Finally, I have a problem to separate the sales team from the customer service or their operations. It is all one company to me.

acangarlu · Apr 30, 2012

My issues have been resolved!!

I am posting this Retraction as I have been talking to the Customer Service and they have now satisfied and met my demands, and everything is clarified. I appreciate everyone's recommendation on this board to speak to the Customer Service. It really helped. Now I can enjoy my vacation weeks without carrying an old problem with their sales department. :clap:

Karen G · Apr 30, 2012

acangarlu, glad to hear it! Congratulations.

Passepartout · Apr 30, 2012

Once again.... buyer mentions 'scam'. Cust Svc gets involved and *poof*, retraction. Everything's rosy in Mayanville.

Jim

Aimfair · Jul 19, 2012

And, thoughtful posts arise....again....from MikenK, Pittle and rpennisi.

thilmony · Jul 19, 2012

I feel like i got a "fair" mayan palace deal - i mean i paid retail but in general i'm ok with the hustle i got.

i feel like i should complain just to get something more!

Grand Luxxe - Scam

acangarlu

pacodemountainside

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Veteran

mikenk

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Veteran

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Veteran

pittle

TUG Review Crew

mikenk

Asl18940

Tropical lady

mikenk

rpennisi

ilene13

mikenk

Karen G

acangarlu

Karen G

mikenk

travelbug54

acangarlu

Karen G

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Veteran

Aimfair

thilmony