A Mayan Resorts Cabo Member Gets Royally Screwed- Robert Paisola Investigates

Dear Mr. Robert Paisola,

Your web-site intrigued me. I am a Mayan Resorts member – bought 2 bedroom suite at Regency level in Cabos. Very excited and actually have been invited to use the GRAND Mayan level every year with special letter invite until our Regency is built (not started yet – new Marina area where the golf courses are).

We were so excited to be able to even get through the phone line on July 31 (one heck of a crazy and frustrating way to reserve your winter vacation I would say – that should be disclosed to prospective owners – quite disappointing process). Anyway, like I said, finally we get through and had to accept a Sunday to Sunday reservation which we did quite happily. We were heading to Los Cabos with our family of 6 adults and 1 baby (21 months). Had to make lots of non-refundable air flights (we are in Canada across the border from US at Detroit MI) so we fly out of Detroit – we all got our passports and took time off work – first family vacation in a long time – so anxious to show our kids the area that we fell in love with enough to buy ownership there.

Then the fateful message is left on our home phone late Saturday afternoon from Dallas – “we are sorry Mr. and Mrs. Weber – we will not be able to honour your reservation at the Grand Mayan tomorrow” (this was 12 hours before our flight time). I thought I was having a heart attack. We had prepared so much for this vacation – took care of every little detail so that this would be the vacation of all vacations for my family – and believe me, we have all been through lots of sorrow this year and we all needed this very badly. At this point, we were already heading to Detroit in order to catch our flight out early Sunday morning – we just happened to check messages at home to listen to this most disturbing message. Luckily we had our computer with us – we were in a panic – no assistance from Grupo Mayan and no followup messages – they did not answer the 1-800-421-4161 number (probably because they were closed late Saturday afternoon). This was disgusting and appalling – there was no turning back – we had already spent $3500 US on 6 adult non-refundable flights. We called the Grand Mayan directly and e-mailed them directly – both responses were apologizing for the strike, but re-directed us back to 1-800-421-4161 where no one would answer. We spent significant long distance phone calls waiting and waiting – there was not even a spot to leave a message – the calls were simply disconnected after their message. We were so frustrated at this point. That we decided to call Jairo Romero who sold us our ownership last year. He was kind enough to give us his personal cell # in case we ever had a problem – well, you may know him and realize that he has moved on from the Mayan Resorts – however he was kind enough to re-direct us to the Royal Solaris (where we stayed last year and took the presentation at the Mayan and bought at the Mayan). Because we were RCI members, we got a rate of $1745 per couple - $5,500 US on my credit card, but at least my family got their vacation. I was positive that our ownership would compensate us for this terrible disaster was the strike was over.

Well, after the strike ended on the 6th day of our vacation, we were allowed to tour the facility (we were staying just 2 doors down). As you know, it was not completed last year so we were so excited to see it. Alexandro (the concierge) had been assisting us by e-mail with every detail (including a crib) and was also looking forward to meeting us. He obliged our tour and felt very bad about the strike and the fact that we were not assisted by Dallas. We faxed over our credit card receipt to the Dallas location and he assisted in doing that for us. We waited while he made a phone call to confirm receipt. They told him that they would need our final checkout statement so when we got home, I went directly to UPS and faxed it to them and received a confirm.

Still nothing back from Dallas, so I called there yesterday. They are telling me there is nothing they can do and will not compensate me other than give me my week back (gee thanks - $640 maintenance fee paid last year for this trip already) – there is a big difference from $5,500 US to $640 US wouldn’t you say?

We are disgusted and want all prospective Mayan buyers to be aware of how terrible they treat their owners. They have not heard the last of me, but I was interested in your web-site since you actually train their sellers. Perhaps you should be training the owners too.

Thanks for listening.


Sue & Fred