Complaint Review: Mayan Palace Puerto Pinasco

Having seen on your site several complaints about the Majan Palace Time Share sales, I would like to document my experience with them, and confirm that I will be available as a witness to support any litigation on this matter.

I spent the week-end of May 25, 2007 at the Mayan Palace of Puerto Pinasco. While checking in I understood I had bought time share nights availability from a time share member of the Mayan. I got interested and wanted to know how the time share arrangement was working, asked a few questions. I was therefore invited to a free breakfast and a presentation that should have lasted max. a couple of hours. I did that the morning of May 27th, Sunday.

We skipped breakfast as the line was too long and got directly into the presentation.

A lady sales person made sure I understood that the only opportunity to by time share space with the Majan Group, was going to be that same day, after that the purchase could not be done. She explained that there were two levels of membership, practically one was the "Standard", and the other was the Exclusive. Many other amenities were attached to the one or the other, I will not take the time to describe all the sale process, but as a summary, the Standard had fewer possibilities of re-selling or exchanging Time Share weeks, while the "Exclusive" was guaranteed for that by the Mayan Group. Prices started at $399,000..... I believe it was for the "Exclusive" membership for four weeks per year, plus other amenities. Maintenance fees at $70.00 per day per year, but very good, only if the time share weeks were used....
I told them I was interested in only one week per year for not more then $10,000. After a lot of pressure and discussions, I found out that I could have two "Standard" prime weeks every two years plus two secondary weeks, but I had to sign right there. I went for it... gulp!
I requested to have the time to read the documents I had to sign. I was told that as the time was limited, they had prepared a cover page that was summarizing the content of the main document, and that by reading the cover page I could be reassured that I was not signing anything different. I read the cover page, I underlined that point 9,was saying that the contract: "... once Active could not be cancelled, and the customer would loose all deposits if he/she wanted to cancel...". This by Mexican Law. We than started to go through the main contract. Every point was practically as in the cover page. We went to the last page of the main contract (I believe 5 of 5), and the sales lady was very careful in pointing out that the last and only paragraph of that page, before the signatures, was repeating what read in point 9 of the summary page, I.E. that the contract could not be cancelled by Mexican Law, and:" Please -she said- just initial this box to validate that I told you this". I initialed the box. I had a witness with me through all the process. He told me several time not to buy and go.... I signed the contract and paid 30% deposit.
To end this story, the same night I found out through other people staying at the Mayan that it was quite impossible to book any time with them, they had tried for two years and only got three days of the four weeks for the first time.
I got scared and decided that I was going to loose my deposit but for no reason, I was going to pay the balance. I was convinced I could not cancel. These people also told me that they tried to cancel the contract several times, but they could not.
That night we reviewed the contract to find out that the paragraph of page 5/5 was not saying that the contract could not be cancelled, but on the contrary, it was saying that the contract could be cancelled in the first five days, it was therefore "active", only after five days from signing. The sales lady was very careful to leave us under the impression that the contract could not be cancelled. By the time we had returned to USA and got to a Lawyer, the five days would have gone by and I would not have been able to cancel the contract.
I went back to see their CPA,Lance Dobbs, the morning of the 28th, told him I wanted to cancel, told him I had been misinformed during the sales process... He cancelled the contract, returned the deposit and gave me a cancellation letter. Since then there were two attempts to collect made by the Desarrollo Marina Vallarta organization, of Houston, Texas and Dallas, Texas (Grupo Mayan). I sent them a copy of the cancellation letter, and copied BBB and the Attorney General of both cities. I hope I am not going to hear from them further. The above for your info.

Linda
scottsdale, Arizona
U.S.A.