Complaint Review: Vida Vacations Vidanta Resorts Destinos Unlimited - Nationwide

My husband and I were scammed by Vidanta/Destnos Umlimited!! . We went to presentation on 4/27/16 for the timeshare resort in Nueve Vallarta. After the presentation they tried to sell us units startingin the $70,000 range for a two bedroom unit at the Grand Mayan. We told them no several times over a 2 hour period. The were supposed to take us downstairs to collect our “gifts” when another sales lady continued to pressure us to buy.

Paola Anaya told my husband and I that they had a forceclosure for the Grand Mayan that they couldn’t resell because of Mexican law but she could charge us for the difference owed which was much less for us to use the unit. She tried to sell it to us for $7,000 and we said no, to which she offered financing if we couldn’t afford it. We said we could pay it in full if we wanted to, but we didn’t want to buy at that time. She then slashed th price again saying if we paid it in full that day we could get it for $4,000. She said we would get exactly what was promised upstairs except instead of two weeks a year we would get one week a year. We had told her earlier on in the conversation that we wouldn’t come to mexico more than once a year.

She said our contract would be forever and that we could pass it onto our children if we wanted. She said they had a special promotion allowing our contract to be used in 5 year incriments where where we could stack up to 5 weeks at a time (stay 5 weeks at Vidanta resort in a year) but then we would have to wait 5 years before being able to stay there again, or we could just come one week a year if we wanted but we couldn’t accumulate the weeks for more than 5 years at a time.

We asked them to confirm that we were getting the same things and they confirmed and showed us pic of the floorplan again and the 5 weeks a year travel ( 1 week at Vidanta, 2 weeks Worl wide Travel/Diamond weeks and 2 advebture Weeks a year). When we went to sign, we noticed it said destino unlimited on he paperwork andwhen we asked we were told that destinos is the website used for booking all the stays our  vacation weeks and not to worry, we were getting all same things promised to us before.

Our paperwork said 10 destinos week at the Vidanta Resorts (Grand Mayan, Mayan Palace, Sea Gardens, The Bliss), 10 Diamond weeks and 10 Adventure weeks. When we aksed why is said these numbers we were told that  these weeks must be used in 5 years because the contract is for 5 year incriments. She again said that after 5 years, it starts all over where we had 5 weeks to use in a 5 year period that we could stack or use however we wanted and that the contract was forever. I asked whi the contract itself didn’t say it was forever and she pointed to me on the enrollment application where it says membership terms and awknowldegements there are boxes to check that says 2-year, 5-year, 10 year. She said she didn’t mark any of those boxes because is not a 2, 5 or 10 year membership, that its forever. She also said that they were giving us a Check for our purchase price that we could use if we decided to upgrade our membership into a higher tier ( like the Grand Luxxe, or if we wanted a plan with more weeks in the first 5 years of our membership before it re-starts for the next 5 years).

We just went and stayed at the Vidnata Resort in Nuevo Vallarta where we bought our contract and we went to something called an “abbarath?” which we were told is a free breakfast and the opportunity to voice our ideas on what they can improve on and hear about all the new things that were happening with the properties. The meeting infact was nother 3 hour sales pitch!! They NEVER asked about our stay or our ideas of how they can improve. We told them several times we were happy with what we have (the 1 week a year and so on). The sales team then informed us that we didn’t actually own anything with them, that we had purchased a trial or “exit” program where we bought the right to stay there a few times only and then we couldn’t stay there again until we purchased the time share from Vidanta.

My husband and I got very upset trying to explain to them we were sold a “foreclosure property” with the usage rights of one week a year in 5 year incriments forever, to which they were extremy rude to us in return, insulting our inteeligence saying “do you really think we would sell you something that cheap?”. We said yes! That’s what we purchased. They then informes us that we purhcased a lifetime contract with destinos which is a completely separate company and that we didn’t purchase with Vidnata at all. I asked to see our contract and they said they didn’t have it because it was purchased with Destinos and that destinos had it!! I asked why we were told we were buying a foreclosure if we weren’t and he kept avoiding asnwering saying he was trying to help me by offering me to upgrade into a full ownership with them!!

Needless to say we said we were just going to leave and go home to look at our contract since they were telling us the opposite of we were told when we boutght it. Heres the catch! It was a Vidanta employee that sold us the contract, she NEVER said that Destinos was a separate company and that we were NOT buyin with Vidanta! She NEVER said we were buying a trial/exit program. She said Destinos was the booking party for all of Vidanta. We thought they were the same company. When we received our Destinos travel card in the mail a few weeks after retuning home, there is a number on the card to call to activate the card and it’s the number for Vida, the Owners of Vidanta!! So again, we thought Destinos was the same company, just the booking part of Vidanta.

The sales team totally lied and scammed us. Ive tried calling both Destinos and Vida/Vidanta several times to no avail. Destinos saus I need to call the Vidanta Resort where I bought the contract and Vida/Vidanta tells me I bought a Dstinos Contract. Its so frustrating!! Vida/Vidanta (the number on the front of the Destinos travel card) keeps telling me that somene from the resort sales team where I bought my contract will call me, but they never do! I called the resort directly and aske d for the sales team and was told they would have someone call me back that could explain what was going on with my contract but no has called me back.

I looked up Vidanta Scams online afeter returning home from our vacation and found hundreds of comlaints about contract scams with them. Many stories are the same as mine where people were sold “foreclosres” for cheap that were in 3 or 5 year incriments that were supposed to last forever only to find out later that it was just a “trial” contract and that they had only bought the right to stay there a few times for the usage fees ($800-$1400/week). The actual contracts DO NOT say they are TRIALS!! No one ever explained that they are trials or that Vidanta and Destinos are completely separate compaines!! There are also many stories that are the exact same as mine except instead of being sold a foreclosure they were sold a contract where someone else had upgraded (and they coun’t resell it for full price, so it was sold cheap) only to find out it was a trial.

I know this is a huge scam and that I was not the only one who was sold a bunch of lies.