Vacation Priveleges/VIDA resorts Bait and switch scam Riviera Maya Mexico

We have a story similar to others. We went there on a vacay last February. We went to the sales pitch. Very high pressure. They were offering two weeks of one bedroom and two weeks of "lock off" uncut, which is like hotel unit, for around $50k. Then they kept dropping price. We loved the resort but we kept saying we did not need that much time. Then another lady came in. She was kind of ugly. Reduced price further and got it down to two weeks total. Talked to us like we were stupid for not taking deal. Then we were ushered outside to patio where another person tried to sell us.

We were still saying no so he called over his manager. She told us the resort has to sell thru agents by Mexico law. But if we refuse them then the resort can sell to us directly with better prices. We still said we would not go to Mexico more than once per year. So she offered us deal for two Privelege weeks plus two extra weeks plus 20 instant weeks we could use at other resorts. This was for a 10 year period. Then because we said we don't take more than 2 weeks per year outside of family visits would give them back 10 of the 20 weeks for $3,000 per year in "savings dollars" which we could use just like money. We were skeptical, my husband asked directly, we come back here for only $399-$499 for a week. And we asked it was the same cost for other resorts too? The cost for this was $8,000. She looked us right in the face and said yes.

She further convinced us to give up a timeshare we have used in N GA for 30 years as part of that low cost. She convinced us we can exchange to there for less than our annual maintenance fee..well we charged the $8K to our credit card. As we try to book our week we had some questions and got transferred to an account rep. 

FIRST Vacation Priveleges is NOT part of the Vida properties. It is essentially a clearing house for various time shares. To get booked into a Vida property will cost us about $900 for a week after we use the two bonus weeks at $399_499 during first two years. And that cost is with using the "savings dollars" to get the cost down to there. If that had been properly explained to us we would not have bought. We were led to believe we were buying weeks at Riviera Mayan Grand Mayan resort. From our comments and direct questions it had to be clear to her that is what we believed. She lied and made no attempt to correct our misconception. 

It is a lovely resort and I would like to go back there several times but at $900, plus $99 annual fee plus $8,000 we spent it has now become very pricey. We will try to make the best of it and try to locate more reasonably priced vacations using the phoney baloney "savings dollars" so it is not a total waste of our money. 

FINAL WORD. Do NOT fall for this. It is not worth the. We could have paid for VCBO condos or houses in the Caribbean for more than  10 years for all that money.