Complaint Review: Grupo Mayan/ Mayan Group

I am sharing my story to warn other Americans and other Travelers of the deceitful and misleading sales practices of the Grupo Mayan, a timeshare company in Mexico.

We were booked to stay at another timeshare resort when we got lured into the Grand Mayan Acapulco property.  Upon arriving at the Acapulco airport after collecting our baggage we were greeted by someone who had a sign with our name on it.  Since we arranged airport pick-up with our hotel, we willingly followed this person meeting us.  Then he took us to a counter at the airport and started offering us discounted tours, lunches, etc  in exchange for a timeshare presentation at the Mayan.  I got very suspicious and asked for the driver who was supposed to pic us up and we were told that he is stuck in traffic and he will keep us until the driver arrives.  After paying 50% of the discounted tours we went outside to find our driver who was waiting for us for several hours.  He was not stuck in traffic as we were told by the deceitful Grupo Mayan rep!

Anyway, as we used the discounted tours/lunches, we were so disappointed that it was not as good as were we told by the Grupo Mayan rep.  We went to this boat tour, snorkeling & lunch adventure only to find ourselves in a horrible boat ride to an isolated island called Palao  that had filthy restrooms with no running water!  The boat ride was the scariest I have ever been in my entire life.  It was overcrowed; we sat on plastic chairs; no regard for passenger safety whatsoever!

Then we went to the Grand Mayan to collect our free breakfast and wasted 6 hours of timeshare force selling.  We felt like hostages there and after being lured with all their promises we bought a timeshare membership with this company.  We moved from our hotel to stay at the Grand Mayan.

This resort is not the Five star that they claim to be.  The rooms are good-sized but furnished very cheaply.  Their bed is rock hard; the beach is stinky -- from all the horses that are"parked" at the beach by those peddlers.  You cannot even have time to relax at the beach without those peddlers approaching you trying to sell all kinds of stuff.  If you are used to staying in five star resorts do not stay at any of the Grupo Mayan resorts.  All told, we came back to the States and received our bill for the balance of our membership fees.  We tried emailing our rep 3 times but did not receive the courtesy of a reply.  We called several times requesting answers to some questions about the transaction but nobody cares enough to return our phone call.  We paid $8500 as down payment; traded our Hilton timeshare for membership with Mayan; and we will be paying $8500 balance.  Anyhow, when the salespeople were after us to get our money they were so attentive and never left us alone.  Now that we have bought into their resorts, they are nowhere to be found nor do they even care to respond to an email or phone call.  Meanwhile, their collection company charged $425 after being late in paying the balance; inspite of the fact that I called the collection company before it was late to explain our situation.  Since Grupo Mayan is a Mexican company, we have no legal recourse in USA.  We will have to sue them in Mexico!

We got ripped off by this company!  When you go to Acapulco, BEWARE of those deceitful Grupo Mayan salespeople!!  When you meet your driver picking you up at the airport, ask to see their ID.  If it is not the name you were given, do not go with this person...most likely it is a timeshare salesperson trying to lure you.  I hope other people will read my story before going to Acapulco and stay away from the Grupo Mayan salespeople.  Please don't be another victim.  If you want to see other stories like mine go to (((link redacted))).  I should have read their stories before being ripped off by Grupo Mayan.