Grupo Mayan - Mayan Palace refusing to refund our deposit Nuevo Vallarta Mexico
From February 23, 2008 to March 1, 2008 my wife and I visited Mayan Palace on vacation through RCI, During our visit we were solicited to attend a presentation given by Grupo Mayan. The presentation was for a Timeshare purchase which my wife and I decided to accept.
During the next couple of days we reviewed everything in further detail and decided that it was not in our best interest at this time to own a Timeshare. We sent an email and a fax to Grupo Mayan on March 2nd advising them that we wished to cancel our contract and get a full refund of our deposit.
On March 3rd we sent a certified letter and we spoke to Corina Heesh who stated that she would pull our contract and calls us back to discuss. By noon on March 4th we had not received a call so we called Corina again to see when we could expect our refund. Corina stated that they could not process a refund as our 5 business days had expired. We explained to her that Monday March 3rd was only day 4. She said that weekends count as business days therefore our 5 days expired on Sunday. We explained that we had sent an email and a fax on Sunday but she said that it did not go to the international sales department so there was noting she could do. She also stated that we really do not get 5 days because we purchased a resale Timeshare so the prior owners had already exhausted the 5 day period. At that point she said that she had to go and she would call us back on Wednesday March 5th.
After our conversation with Corina we contacted Profeco to find out our rights to cancel the contract and receive a refund. We were advised by Profeco that the 5 days are business days and weekends are not included as business days therefore we had until March 4, 2008 to cancel our contract and get a full refund. We were also informed that it did not matter that we purchased a resale Timeshare we still had the 5 business days to make a decision and that right could not be waived because there were prior owners.
At that point we called Corina again and left her a message and sent an email as well as a fax in regards to this information and asked that they cancel our contract and refund our deposit. We also sent the same email to Profeco.
On March 5th we had not received a call from Corina so we called her and left her another message to call us back. On March 9th we finally spoke to Corina who told us to go ahead and file a Profeco complaint because they were not going to refund any of the money. She tried to sell us a cheaper package as she said that it would be in our best interest since the consumer normally does not win these complaints. She also stated by filling this complaint we will loose our deposit and they will not honor our timeshare contract if we lose so we will be out our deposit as well as our Timeshare.
Corina advised us that it takes Profeco a few months to resolve the issue and that the consumer very rarely wins the disputes so she felt very confident in her decision to deny us our refund. I hope that her statement is inaccurate.
At this time we have no resolution. We have sent everything to Profeco but again they will not do anything until day 20. We have all the documents to support our cancellation as well as all the conversations with Corina were recorded.
We have sent information to the news stations hoping they will do an investigation into it and put it out on air to give people warning about timeshare sales and what to watch out for. Unfortunately we did not know anything about timeshares and now we are battling to get our deposit back instead of enjoying something that could have been great. The Mayan resort is a beautiful location.
Arthur
Lenexa, Kansas
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Richard79
Hayward,California,
Mayan Palace Timeshare Scam
#3Consumer Comment
Tue, July 30, 2013
I had a horrible experience at Mayan Palace!! Not only was the presentation 3 hours (promised 90 minutes), but they DID NOT give us what they promised for going. They offered a 4 night paid vacation, and we got NOTHING. We received what looks like a gift card, and they told us we would just need to call the number on the back to book. When we got back to home and called it was NOTHING. Not a vacation, not a discount for a vacation.....NOTHING. We called and emailed Mayan Palace, and they did nothing about it. They gave us an email address, which we have never got a return email on yet. (several tries). The people on the phone say that is the only way to be helped... they are unwilling to help. Many people have been scammed out of money for attending a Mayan Palace timeshare presentation, so it could have been worse. I've been to other legit timeshare presentations, but this one scarred me. DO NOT GO....and if you do, be prepared for some super hard selling. They will change people on you 5 times before you can claw your way out of there.
A_fuller
Lenexa,Kansas,
U.S.A.
This has been resolved.
#3Author of original report
Mon, April 07, 2008
Once we sent multiple complaints to different companies and I contacted a manager of the sales department, surprisingly with in a week later we received a call back from Corina stating that she had good news and that they were going to refund our money. Funny how that works when they owed us the money from the very beginning.
Anyway- we did receive a 100% refund however we are still receiving emails from the department reminding us of our unpaid balance? We had Corina email us a cancellation letter and we cancelled the credit card that we had given them for our down payment so they cannot charge the remainder of the balance- even though we have cancelled the contract I would not put it past them.