Mayan Palace - I want everyone to know about this scam

I would like to take a minute of your time to tell you about a business that is using fraudulent information and illegal sales practices to steal thousands of dollars from unsuspecting citizens, who are now victims of fraud. My story is just like hundreds of others that are documented throughout the internet; a victim of a timeshare company who is only interested in money and power. It started off as a planned trip to Mexico with my girlfriend, through an RCI exchange. We arrived at the Mayan Palace in Nuevo Vallarta on August 27, 2006. During check-in we were asked if we wanted to upgrade to the Grand Mayan in exchange for attending a 90 minute timeshare presentation. We accepted and went the next day at 8am. The 90 minute presentation turned into a six hour sales pitch marathon.

Don't get me wrong, the Grand Mayan Resort is beautiful and breath taking. But the tactics they use to get you into a contract and keep you in that contract are illegal:

- I was told after signing the agreement that I was "locked in" and the contract could not be canceled. I trusted in what I was told by Vicente (my salesman) even though I had doubts about what I had done after the transaction. If I had known about the 5 day "cooling-off" period I would have done research while still in Mexico to verify what I was told in the presentation regarding value of the timeshare and rental prices, which are not even close to being accurate. After discovering this information I would have canceled my contract.

A female named Priscilla guided me through the paperwork process. She had me initial next to each paragraph in the new member verification statement after she read it aloud. Nothing in this document talks about the five (5) day cooling-off period. The only document that does mention this was skipped over and not explained at all. Priscilla merely told me to sign the bottom of the page and then quickly put the document into my binder. Vicente came over and reminded me that I could not cancel the contract now that it was complete. Later, Vicente told me he threw in an extra vacation week for me next year. I asked Vicente how he did that and he said he added it in the paperwork and the management didn't catch it. I later found out there was no mention of any extra week in any of my paperwork, nor did customer service know anything about it when I called them after returning home.

- Vicente told me that a one-week rental of a 2-bedroom unit was renting for $2,500. Vicente wrote this and many other figures on a laminated piece of paper showing how I could pay off the money I spend to buy into Mayan Resorts in nine (9) years and anything after that would be total profit. None of this information that Vicente wrote down or talked about was put into my paperwork. I did research on the figures that Vicente gave me after my vacation was over. I found the figures he gave me were NOWHERE CLOSE to what is accurate. Timeshare User Group is renting the same units for $500, and Ebay lists them for $650. I even found timeshare RESALE on Redweek.com for $3,000. Just the maintenance fee alone is $785 per week you own, which makes this deal a total loss. To make the deal work, Vicente gave me a $20,000 credit if I would give my fair weeks back to Mayan Palace. Nowhere in my contract does it make any mention of this account. RCI has bonus weeks offered to my Mayan Palace that are less cost than my maintenance fees. During my research I found that these are developer weeks, which Mayan Palace rents out at my cost.

- Vicente assured me that the resale of my timeshare would increase greatly, especially with the new resorts being built. He told me that prices would increase in January , and would continue to increase at 15% a year. As I recently reported, I found a Mayan timeshare resale listed at $3,000 on Redweek.com and a 2-bedroom unit on Ebay sold for $6,500.

- Vicente did not tell me, nor is it mentioned in my paperwork, that once I became a Grand Mayan member, I could not trade into Mayan Palace or Grand Mayan resorts through RCI as I previously did. Mayan Resorts has placed restrictions on current owners, preventing them from exchanging, even I uses weeks from another timeshare.

- I was told that I would receive a golf package with my purchase, which entitled me to 20% off. Vicente listed off the names of the cities they currently have resorts in, but failed to mention that Mazatlan does not have a golf course.

- I purchased red weeks, but it excludes Christmas, New Years, Easter, and Holy Week, which I was told of. I was never advised that the resort in Mazatlan excludes the months of February and March.

- Two months after I got back from Mexico I called to see what the status of my timeshare was that I traded-in to be able to buy into the Grand Mayan. I was told that Mayan Resorts canceled the trade, so I was still responsible for that timeshare as well.

This scam is very well thought out. Mayan Resorts have you initial paperwork to assure that you were not deceive or misled in any way. Which is true at the time, so people initial it. After completing the contract and doing research, it is obvious after the fact that it is a trap.

There is no doubt that the Mayan Resorts are very beautiful. I had a wonderful stay there and would have recommended the resorts to anyone. However, due to the illegal sales practices and the fraudulent information I was a victim of, I want everyone to know about this SCAM, so no one else has to suffer.

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