Grupo Vidanta
Reviews and Complaints

My sister and I both owned at pueblo bonito, sunset. We were there in 2011 and got sucked into a presentation at mayan palace. Being stupid and believing this would get us out of our existing timeshares, we signed on. We had to pay $13, 000+ to them as well as $7, 000 to transfer ownership through timeshareresalemarket. We made that decision based on repeated lies. We checked with them two years ago and of course they don't want to buy it back and we had not found a reputable sales agent to get rid of it that way. Even we offered to sell it for half of what we paid for it.
We found "mexican timeshares solutions"; we called them and was promised no payment until the contract is canceled. We provided them with everything they needed and cooperated with them to help them do their job. They delivered on their promise they did cancel the contract. We honestly highly recommend their services and do not pay anything until the contract is canceled. After a nightmare, now we can rest.

On July, 2016 we entered into a contract with Vidanta for a timeshare. There are so many lies that were told to us.

We were told that our 1br/1week will be exchanged for 2db/2weeks, Does not say in contract. Says it´s up to the resort and after looking on line, seems that noone finds this to be true from their own experience,

We currently have a timeshare with RCI. They said how bad RCI was and that Vidanta had so much more available and convinced us to trade in our RCI timeshare, we were told that Mayan has been very interested in owner of RCI and offered that will help us to get out of that old timeshare.

We then our information and login for Vidanta and it has an RCI login to schedule vacations! This was very deceptive. I emailed RCI and asked if Mayan was part of or affiliated with RCI and never received a response.

We were told that our new timeshare was for 100 years with no renewal fees. After scrutinizing the contract, we see that we must renew after 10 years for whatever the reservation fee is x100, as of right now, it would be 8000 USD, That´s only if the reservation fee doesn´t go up!

Said that the reservation fee go up only according to Mexican Inflation rate which is very minimal. However, in the contract it says according to US Inflation rate which is significantly higher

Then, we were assigned one of your affiliated companies to sell our old RCI timeshare, we were told that there never, ever a problem selling them. After looking on line, there are so many complaints of people now paying for two timeshares because they were unable to sell.

We feel that this was the worst decision we´ve ever made, We are both educated people who were completely taken advantage of . I´m not sure how you do it, but they keep us hours and hours at the resort convincing us.

We just want to get rid of this nightmare and get back to our old timeshare and forget this bad experience so we have been in communication with a Marco Giustiniani trying to resolve this issue but he has been very closed and not willing to accept to cancel even if we start a legal process

We recommend you NOT to go to Mayan or not even go to Mexico due that these people, even our co-patriots are just a bunch of scammers

I bought a time share at Mayan Palace as an investment and was told I could use the equity to purchase a one or two bedroom. They have totally lied about everything they said they were going to do. They are impossible to contact. They said they fired the manager who originally sold the time share to me I do not believe that happend. The same sales person sold my Girlfriend a time share that I heard him say they would sale her time share for exchange for hers because she was trying to get out of her old one. She signed the papers and was stucked with two. They completely lied to her and continue to do so. She had not had any success in resolving her issue with the same time share company. She also had another couple that were friends of hers that bought and they were lied to and promised a bunch of stuff. Tired of so many lies, we found a company that cancel timeshares, we contact them for a free consultation. They sent us a contract where was established if they do not cancel our contract we do not have to pay anything to them. They got the cancellation of 2 of our contracts and they are working in our other contract. we are happy we the results and we want to share with others in order to avoid more injustice from Grupo Mayan.

It was so bad we left three days early. We had traded weeks at a nice home resort and got assigned a dump at the jungle bliss. One of the beds was broken, we were awakened at 1am by staff who mistook our room for another. We were mistreated by guests from the nicer areas. Did i say we were owners at grand bliss? Not anymore!

There is one underlying common denominator in all of the scams in the Timeshare sector. Namely, the scammers call their victim knowing all of the victim's personal information because the resorts are loosey-goosey with their data bases. This is especially true in Mexico.

Having been the victim of a Mexican scam in early 2015 I was forced to become a student of the scammer mechanics. This common denominator of the scammer is knowing the personal details regarding timeshare ownership of their victim. This is the sole responsibility of the resort who leaked
the confidential information. No matter how they leaked it.

These scammers are earning big money so they can pay a timeshare salesman or front desk clerk a decent amount for the membership list of the week or month or year. Timeshare scams can only exist as long as the fountain of information (the membership lists) are NOT locked up and kept confidential as is required by law. The root of the problem is the loosey-goosey resorts that look the other way as information is leaked out their back door (or even their front door).

Recovery of funds by the local or national authorities is remote at best. The scamers have already spent our money. They will rot in a Mexican jail if they get caught and can't pay back the money. Catching them is the problem. They are always one jump ahead of the authorities.

However, there is one way where the money can be recovered. We victims can make the resorts responsible for the damage they caused. How did the Mafia get shut down? The government went after the bosses. In time the Mafia was gone. We have to push our case with the government who has the power to close down a timeshare operator's sales until they prove that they are in compliance with the privacy laws.

The resorts claim that they never pass out or sell their membership lists while doing just that. What a joke these statements are. How else do the scammers have our name and telephone number? We don't need a great leap in logic to figure out this one. Do we? Or the scammers get the victim's name from some insider who loads the new transactions for the week onto a thumb drive or email file.

It doesn;t matter how the scammers got the victim's name. The timeshare resort that permitted its membership list to fall into nefarious hands is responsible.

Mexico's Privacy Protection law is very clear on this point. Under Mexico's Privacy law the timeshare resort has to keep the vistim's confidential information confidential. PERIOD!

Here is the English version of Mexico's Privacy Protection Law on leaks.

CHAPTER II
Principles of Personal Data Protection

Article 19. All responsible parties that process personal data must establish and maintain physical and
technical administrative security measures designed to protect personal data from damage, loss, alteration,
destruction or unauthorized use, access or processing.

Data controllers will not adopt security measures inferior to those they keep to manage their own
information. Moreover, risk involved, potential consequences for the data owners, sensitivity of the data, and
technological development will be taken into account.

Article 20. Security breaches occurring at any stage of processing that materially affect the property or
moral rights of data owners will be reported immediately by the data controller to the data owner, so that the
latter can take appropriate action to defend its rights.

Article 21. The data controller or third parties involved in any stage of personal data processing must
maintain confidentiality with respect to such data, and this obligation will continue even after the end of its/their
relationship with the data owner or, as the case may be, with the data controller.

In addition to the above the company has to issue Privacy Notice that incorporates all of the requirements of the Privacy Law.

Our case at PROFECO is in the final stages. They will soon levy a fine on our time share for some$16, 000 USD and give us a certified copy of that fine so we can continue our efforts to recover our funds in civil court.

Meahwhile, we also have INAI, the Mexican Institute that enforces the Privacy law. They are independent of PROFECO and can levy fines up to USD$2 million against offending companies who violate the Privacy Law.

I am looking for other victims who are timeshare members who hae been scammed within the last calendar year from imposters who call them by name, posing as timeshare employees and entice them to send money. All we need are few more people and PROFECO may be able to slose down the sales department of some these offending resorts. I want to add your case to mine at PROFECO. I will do this at no cost to you since it is a very simple process to add your case to mine. We need 3 or more cases against each offending resort for PROFECO to think about closing them down. Its time we made the responsible party responsible.

I made a special email account to start things going. Send me a brief memo of your situation and the name of your resort. Put in your telephone number and a time to call. I will get back to you within 24 hours The email is:

[protected]@yahoo.com

A few months ago I went to Riviera Maya Vidanta. sales people offered us a ride to see the facilities, includig a free breakfast but with an obligatory timeshare presentation. After that many people, a friend and I we decided to buy them a membership . Without clearly read what we were signing by the urgency of the matter. They ask to take out a credit card to cover the down payment. they took a long time to return my card, a comparison to my friend they charge very quick the hitch in her credit card. We were not given any contract. They said they would arrive 15 days after the signing of documents. At home, a week after this what I talking about, without having received my contract yet. I called to the resort to make the timeshare cancellation contract that i still not had it but it would arrive and had to pay. There were many inconsistencies with what they told us at the timeshare pitch at the San Francisco exchange program That is not what we were promised. The resort ignored me, they just passed me from one department to another and nobody knew us an answer. We felt we needed help and wanted to cancel. So seeing the refusal of the hotel we are dedicated to seek help and we found it, we hire a company (Mexican Timeshare Solutions) who gave us a free initial consultation, we could communicate whenever we wanted at no cost and charged until 3 months later when they fully had cancelled our timeshare contract. My friend and I live with a lot of stress because at the time the hotel said we could not cancel and we had to pay, so we believed that we were engaged for 50 years to pay that ! is something horrible and not wish it to anyone, be very careful dont trust what they tell you, avoid timeshare presentations, read your contract carefully before acquire something .

The sales people told us we would own our timeshare forever and it could be given to family members.Turns out it was a 10 year use of the resort on our week.

We were also told that the rental of the week would actually make us money and that it would be a good investment. Completely untrue and misleading.

I believe the sales team intentionally mislead us in order to get us to sign up for one thing while they gave us something else.Their willingness to take almost anything (other timeshares) should have been a clue to how desperate they are to deal.

I went on vacation with my family to Cancun, and at the airport we were invited to a breakfast for 90 minutes, if we attended the breakfast they would give us some tickets to go to xcaret, we thought "free breakfast and tickets, what could go wrong? " and the answer is EVERYTHING, they ruined our vacation, they first did not want to let us go, and even if it sounds exaggerated, they forced us to buy.
Vidanta group is a group of swindlers and liars, avoiding our calls, they told us that would return the calls, made us spend our 5 days that they gives you to cancel, just to then refuse the cancellation.
Fortunately my sister gave us information from a company that cancel timeshares, they are called Mexican Timeshare Solutions and we are very grateful for the work that has been proposed, in order to represent and defend the interests of customers who trusted institutions that seemed reliable, we are very satisfied with the services and results of our cause, from the first moment we contacted we were given the necessary to deliver the representation of our problem, the confidence was growing up through the development process, we want to highlight the work done by Mr. Roberto Guzman, with whom we remained in a fluid and transparent contact all the time.
It is difficult nowadays to find serious and responsible organizations, they are the exception and we thank God to put them our way.
What we do have very clear is that never put a foot in a hotel of Vidanta group, they are like the devil.

My sister-in-law and I bought a timeshare in Acapulco from sales rep Nelson Valdez on November 7, 2015 for Vidanta. We loved the property. He promised us 1 FREE week in Cancun with Grand Luxxe accommodations for 6 people, Joya cirque du soleil tickets for 6 people and 6000 Vida points for 2017 just for signing up. First, he said 2016 but, we couldn't travel during that time period so he extended it to 2017. Brenda Arellano processed the paperwork. Nelson Valdez said it was too early to book my January 2017 trip but, he would book my free week a year out and call me back with the confirmation number and the arrangements. My sister-in-law and I then visited Puerto Vallarta on December 17, 2015 and loved that resort too. We decided to upgrade to the Grand Bliss with sales rep Paola Garcia only after her boss Max said that anything promised from the Acapulco sales office would still be honored. January comes and, we receive NO phone call from Nelson Valdez. Concerned I call in February and, he never returns any calls. I try calling him, Brenda Arellano and the sales office on numerous occasions. No one calls me back. I write a written complaint to member services and finally, Brenda Arellano emails me back. They are willing to give me the 6 cirque du soleil tickets and 6000 Vida dollars but, the Grand Luxxe accommodations for 6 people in Cancun is now no longer FREE. They want me to pay a $2100 usage fee for the week. I say that I was promised a FREE week but, Brenda Arellano says the sales department will NOT honor this. I demand to speak to a manager. William Bustos contacts me back and says he will review my contract and get back to me in a timely manner. He did not, so I called him back at the number he gave me. He said that I had agreed to pay the usage fee for the "FREE" week by signing so in my contract papers. I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT do that. Mr Bustos said he would immediately email me the paper with my signature. He never emailed me this proof because, I never signed such a document. I've called and left at least a dozen messages for him since May to no avail. He never had the common decency to even call me back. Now, I call to complain about the whole situation on July 15 and, I am told my case is closed. That I am not to receive my free week after all. This is complete sales fraud. I spoke to Jaime Hernandez from member services and, she said that she will reopen my case. I reiterate: sales rep Nelson Valdez promised me 1 week FREE Cancun vacation (Grand Luxxe) for 6 people plus 6 cirque tickets and 6000 Vida points for 2017 just for signing up. He originally said 2016 but, we couldn't travel during that time period so he extended it to 2017. Why would I have to pay a usage fee for a FREE WEEK? I'm trying to book my vacation for January 2017. This situation is replacing my good feelings for Vidanta with anger and disgust.

During our trip to the Mayan Riviera. My husband and Iwere asked to attend a breakfast the next morning. We were pressured and tricked into signing a contract for 30 years membership with Mayan Palace. When we came back to USA we wanted to find a way to get out of the contract, but it was almost impossible.We were paying for a 5 years and we never used it. We have spent $10k dollars on various scams over the years with promising to sell it for us.
Tired of wasting our money I called a Mayan Palace and they offer to help resell our contract. They referred us to a Broker company and we paid $700 and after two years this company disappeared. Tired of been scammed, browsing on internet, I came across Mexican Timeshare Solution website, I read the Testimonials and I decide to try once more.I was very skeptical at first but they didn't require any payment upfront so decided we had nothing to lose. They were very professional and had the contract cancelled within six months. We were cleared of our membershipcompletely. We are very happy with the service, and highly recommend MexicanTimeshare Solutions.

Beware, if you see any Mayan palace salesperson run away and if you are in the same predicament I recommend Mexican Timeshare Solutions.

My husband and I visited Vidanta during spring break, April 2016 and were subject to fraudulent sales process. We were lied to on too many cases. Sales People wouldn't let me get close to my husband! there was no photos of us purchasing timeshare because they wouldn't let me get close to him! I was promised cash but instead received Vida Dollars which is a scam by itself! They told us that they would get rid of our current timeshare and we won't need to pay a maintenance fee anymore. But when we were contacted by global exchanged, we found out that we still had to pay for 2 years of maintenance fee, plus a fee to global exchange for processing our timeshare transfer. We immediately contacted Vidanta and asked for cancellation due to lies and discrepancies on sales, but unfortunately, it was after 5 days from sales date. Vidanta refuses to refund my hard earned money, even though I was a victim of their unethical and fraudulent sales process. I would like to expose them so others don't become a victim. I want to know if you are aware of any active lawsuit against Vidanta? I am sure that I am not the only victim and there are others who want to do the right thing and take legal action against them.

On 11/3/15 we sat with Jamie Benner and Gabriel Alvarez at Vidanta in Riviera Maya at the Grand Mayan Resort after a 2 hour sales pitch. They both swore and repeated several times we had 10 days for a full refund if we wanted to cancel. Jamie joked "we don't want to keep your money if you want out".

We cancelled for a full refund within the 10 days like they promised us and we were then told the enrollment fee was never refundable even if the membership was canceled.

They lied right to our face and have been fighting this ever since.

Senior citizens beware!

Want out of this mess now! I am very upset with my decision to become a mayan palace owner, it has turned out to be one of the worst decisions of my life.

It all started when we met eduardo vega, over breakfast he showed us a photo album of his recently deceased pregnant wife or girlfriend who died along with the baby in a car accident, it had my partner deb in tears. I hate to say this but i’m not so sure it was a true story because everything else he told us were lies. The other thing that stands out from breakfast is this big story he told us how m.I. T. Took years to design the way the program was to be used and also how it was sold. Now that’s not why I bought, I mention it just to demonstrate his character as a liar.

The story he had was they rented them high end golfers for the golf tournaments mayan hosted for $3, 700 and we got $2, 700. We already had some 4 timeshares that we used and didn’t really need any more weeks. Well, that was another one of his lies, we traded in all four timeshares for a “discount” of 59, 600. I have since found out that we could have bought the same contract without them taking our timeshares. So, you stole our four timeshares that we paid good money for. We actually wound up buying those timeshares back, another 4, 000 to do so, which further proves that part of the sales was a lie too, how can the value given on those just not matter anymore? The math works out to a 100, 000 when you add up all the lies. If you think I will just let you do this to me that would be a mistake. This is not a couple thousand dollars, its 54, 000!

Their contract states: 9.1. D: the company does not buy, sell or acquire as trade-ins member-owned timeshares at other resorts. Such transactions are between member and the trade-in company and are not in any respect the responsibility of company. This entire portion of the transaction was conducted by the vida sales team. As I said just vile liars!

Rob

I posted here about a month ago.

Short story: Bought a timeshare in Nuevo Vallarta last year. They promised to have a previously owned Shell Vacations timeshare sold in addition they sold us a rental package. Well neither happened.

Longer Story: My recently deceased husband would always handle this kind of stuff, so I was kind of lost on what to do. I told a friend about how I was stuck with this Vida timeshare and they recommended a third party who had a lot of experience in this field. I contacted him and he agreed to help me.

He put in a request to cancel it after I told him how I was lied to. Vida didn't like that and said they would only cancel/refund my contract after:

I told the person I would work with him. Vida didn't want to work with a third party, even though it is my right . So I canceled my agreement with him. They still refused to refund.

Then they said send us a copy of his contract. So I did. Then a Vida lawyer calls me to ask me some stupid questions. Still no refund.

Then they ask how we found this person. I told them I heard about him through a friend who used him. And this person didn't want their name used because their settlement included confidentiality. If Vida knew they spoke they could go after them for the settlement. Karen Rose who has been the voice of Vida during this told me unless I gave the name I would not receive a refund. So Karen told me twice I would get a refund and never delivered. Kind of a theme at Vida.

Vidanta sales conspired with brokers to deceive me and countless others. Ms. Rose constantly refers to Vida's legitimacy so how do they consider deception and out right fraud to be legitimate?

They are shameless!

Elvira

We posted last week about being lied to and Vida has met our verifiable complaint with silence. They can't deny we were lied to because we have proof. So the just hope that nobody will notice this post. Customer Service believes in ignoring problems rather than actually dealing with them.

Ours was their typical bait and switch routine with a side of healthy rental. They don't deny either one was used to induce us to buy because as I say I have proof. They know that going to Mexico and contending the lies is unrealistic. They string out the process so the consumer doesn't realize they've been sold something that's not even close to what you actually get.

The contract is designed that way because they knew before they met us they were going to lie to. If you've seen the YouTube video The Philanthropist and is Mayan Empire you would know that it was a completely organized system to deceive. Just look at the rental list, then google each one of the agents...they go from bad to worse. Why in the world would they send me this six months after we buy knowing it would be completely useless. It just goes to show they are not to be trusted!

We understand that they have changed the lies they tell...but they still LIE! And we will continue to post here and other consumer sites to warn other unsuspecting consumers about Vida's HUGE problem with telling the truth...

Mary M

Vida's/ Vidanta's Disney Dream

I am posting AGAIN to continue bringing awareness to how Vida Vacations/Vidanta deceived me.

Because I'm still an owner I receive their promo emails. I think that this new partnership with Cirque du Soleil is wonderful for the folks who purchased it as a vacation vehicle. Unfortunately I fell hook, line and sinker for their investment pitch and I am not in a position to use it, so I'm stuck.

Vidanta is obviously attempting to get into the space where Disney, Universal Studios and other premium theme parks exist. And there's little doubt they will achieve it. However contracts like mine are their dirty little secrets.

So my question is, would Disney ignore their Members having been sold using fraudulent sales practices? Doubtful.

If Vidanta really is the leader they are say they are, how then do they reconcile with situations such as mine? Up to this point their strategy has been to blame me for believing the sales rep they assigned to show me their product. I think it's pretty safe to say that given the same circumstances Disney would not be supporting the deceptive sales practices used on me. Unfortunately that's exactly what Corporate Mgmt. at Vidanta has decided to do.

If Vidanta wants to be mentioned in the same breath as Disney can they ignore people like me? They are either the next Disney and all that it entails or they're not. Disney is recognized as the world leader in that space. Their Mission Statement refers to integrity and respect, I have received the exact opposite from Vida/Vidanta. Again, they lied to me and refuse to repudiate the fraudulent manner in which I was sold.

Please properly deal with my situation and reject fraud and deception.

Forcing consumers like me to pay a huge price for your lying sales reps is not what a legitimate company does. It's simple, you are either a company that has integrity or you are not.

Christie.

During the timeshare presentation Jorge, the sales rep, made a comparison on regular timeshares and mayan palace timeshare. Jorge wrote down and assured that mayan palace timeshare was way better since 1. they have 4 new resorts under construction, in addition 2. CIRQUE DO SOLEIL will have a yearly shown season at The Bliss. 3. Jorge emphasized that mayan palace timeshare is a real estate property with equity, on the other hand regular timeshares don´t have such gain. MY RESEARCH HAS SHOWN THAT HIS PROMISES ARE FALSE.

We tried to schedule a trip, but the fact the we need to plan 6 months before, and with some block dates, made us realized that we will never use the plan. Does anybody knows how to cancelled it? we tried to rent it but it´s pretty much impossible.