Grand Luxxe is now a Hotel on Expedia

[Eric B]

The $11 pppd is the resort fee charged for RCI exchanges; there’s also a hotel tax of something around $40 (Mexican government’s share). With SFX it’s a flat $75 for the week for the resort fee, plus the tax.

I’m not in II, but understand GL shows up there a lot and has the same fees as RCI.

Last fall, some GL weeks showed up in the priority access part of RCI, which is one of the platinum benefits. I saw it on the points side, but think it may have been available through the weeks side as well (didn’t check because I didn’t have a week deposited).

The Vida Week/Privilege Week thing is even more confusing when you add in the interaction with Vida Lifestyle; they’ve got side arrangements with both SFX and Vidanta and it’s not obvious that everyone knows what each partner is selling. That’s part of what makes TUG such a good resource ....

Anyway, I’m still not sure how the Grand Cascades work. Does your contract stay there or transition to a different one after 10 years? I had heard that about some contracts for those.

 

[Zinjanthropus]

As far as I know from what I signed and was told, yes, it remains there. But from what I know, it seems the same as other properties except we go a free train ride (to and from the resort and the park and GC) and "express line" addendum which is like the no wait pass at other amusement parks.

 

[Zinjanthropus]

Just heard back from Vidanta and our concerns were all resolved. They seem to be trying to remove the bad reputation that they have by working diligently. We were able to retain our old Timeshare without any problem. In other areas of the contract, I had fear that we were duped based upon the documents I have as compared to what he originally told us but I called about it and they were fixed and new documents emailed.

Member services is like night and day as compared to sales team. The member services guy was very helpful and accommodating. I'm reporting this because people often only report the bad crap we go through and not the good stuff. This is an example of a good resolution to our problems.


Another thing is there should be a "1page" or "1sheet" with the package. In music contracts, a 1page is a brief summary of the main points of the larger deal. I noticed that at Vidanta, they never give you the page with the magic upside down writing with the boxes of weeks. They should sign that and give it to you as a basic explanation of your deal as a sort of 1sheet.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

Just heard back from Vidanta and our concerns were all resolved. ......

the page with the magic upside down writing with the boxes of weeks..

The upside down writing was always the best part of going to presentations -

 

[Eric B]

Another thing is there should be a "1page" or "1sheet" with the package. In music contracts, a 1page is a brief summary of the main points of the larger deal. I noticed that at Vidanta, they never give you the page with the magic upside down writing with the boxes of weeks. They should sign that and give it to you as a basic explanation of your deal as a sort of 1sheet.

I kept mine. I also used my phones camera to take pictures of other items of interest I was offered. They didn’t sign it, of course, and it’s not binding, but good to have for future conversations with member services. I did get an addendum regarding the ability to exercise an offer next year at the same terms; they didn’t include the terms, but I had snapped a picture when they were away from the table discussing it....

 

[Zinjanthropus]

My wife said "I should take pictures of these pages for reference later".
I was like "Pffft that's silly, don't bother".
...and now we see who's the brains of this outfit.

 

[Slabrock]

We’re encountering the same thing right now. This is very confusing.

In early Nov. while at RM, we were given a 14,000 discount toward our purchase by selling our timeshare through “Timeshare Resale Market”. This week they called and gave us 2choices;either pay them $3000 dollars and keep our Timeshare OR pay them $2000 and they will sell it for us.

With the first option we get to keep all the profit from this sale “because it is obviously worth a lot more than the 10k we paid for it back in 1996”. I almost laughed out loud. Plus you can go to their website and see several units for sale for 16-30k, lol
But luckily I’ve been reading all over TUG and elsewhere and see that these units are selling for peanuts.

The second option we get to send them 2k and they will sell our timeshare. If it takes longer than a year, then we’re on the hook for another MF.

I wonder if I can simply tell Vidanta that I don’t want to sell our old timeshare and tell “Timeshare Resale Market” no thank you. It seems like Vidanta just discounted the price and it really didn’t matter what we owned. They didn’t check and our old timeshare still has us on the books as owners.

We did sign an equity value agreement saying we agree to sell it but I’m not positive that this is a binding agreement or more smoke up my pants since I just called and we still own it. If it is binding, I would rather counter offer them a lower amount and keep the timeshare and then dump it for cheap rather than pay them 3k to keep it or 2k to sell it.
It’s not worth the 2k I would sell it for but the reason I signed for it was because the 14k discount seemed like a good deal.

What do you think about our issue?
Would Vidanta care if we backed out of selling the old timeshare?especially since they have no financial interest in the sale.
Would they be willing to help us out of the deal with the resell company?

Also, When we went to rescind while at Vidanta two days later, were told by sales guy that it was too late because you only get one time per ten years to start the process of selling a timeshare, and that this process had already begun and if we stop the process, we would be stuck with it till 2027.

Zinjanthropus,
I am currently in the same situation with our current TS and and the equity value agreement to pay "Timeshare Resale Market" for the discount I received on my Vidanta membership.

Would you be so kind as to let me know if you backed out of using Timeshare Resale Market without any legal consequences?

They do not have good reviews on BBB site.

I called Vidanta Membership Services and the representative I spoke to said I had no obligation to go through with the process, and to let TRM know that I did not intend to use their services. However, in my experience, I have found over the years that you can get different responses from different customer service representatives, and I am new to Vidanta.

 

[Eric B]

I had similar experiences with an equity trade in with Vidanta in NV with a different company. I spoke with customer service and had them get the company issue me a release to be sure there were no misunderstandings. The rep is probably right; unless the agreement you have was signed by both parties it’s not really a contract. Not legal advice, of course; Mexican law would govern, but that’s a general proposition in contracts.

 

[Slabrock]

Just heard back from Vidanta and our concerns were all resolved. They seem to be trying to remove the bad reputation that they have by working diligently. We were able to retain our old Timeshare without any problem. In other areas of the contract, I had fear that we were duped based upon the documents I have as compared to what he originally told us but I called about it and they were fixed and new documents emailed.

Member services is like night and day as compared to sales team. The member services guy was very helpful and accommodating. I'm reporting this because people often only report the bad crap we go through and not the good stuff. This is an example of a good resolution to our problems.


Another thing is there should be a "1page" or "1sheet" with the package. In music contracts, a 1page is a brief summary of the main points of the larger deal. I noticed that at Vidanta, they never give you the page with the magic upside down writing with the boxes of weeks. They should sign that and give it to you as a basic explanation of your deal as a sort of 1sheet.

 

[Slabrock]

Z,

Looks like I could have read further to find the answer to my question about retaining your TS.

Thanks!

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

Zinjanthropus,

I called Vidanta Membership Services and the representative I spoke to said I had no obligation to go through with the process, and to let TRM know that I did not intend to use their services. However, in my experience, I have found over the years that you can get different responses from different customer service representatives, and I am new to Vidanta.

Vidanta wanted you to be an owner : and you bought .

"Trade in" is a way to overcome the objection - "I already own xx TS (s)" . It works and TRM etc are part of the process / but Vidanta does not really care if the "Tow Truck to $1 ebay timeshares take your old TS or not .

The resorts are great and very well run . Vidanta continues to build and grow .

 

[Zinjanthropus]

Sorry, I missed your post. Basically they knocked down the price by the 11k we paid for our timeshare in exchange for us selling it through timeshare resale market.... then when we changed our minds about selling it, Vidanta kept the price lower. I guess they just needed an excuse for dropping the price.
I have/had no interest in paying them to sell our timeshare.

The strange thing is they do list timeshares at a high price on their website in hopes of either selling them at that price or proving to people that they actually do sell them at those prices.
They probably list them for a while, then dump them into Global Vacation Network or similar and rent those weeks out.
...or as mentioned, they sell them on eBay for pennies.