Grupo Mayan
Trapped during sales presentation, suspected pyramid scheme

On a family vacation this past week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, we decided to attend a Grupo Mayan sales presentation in a Nuevo Vallarta. We were lured by a substantial discount, worth a few hundred dollars, for a swimming-with-dolphins session, but my wife has been interested in the possibility of something like a time-share, and we knew the Mayan resort was supposed to be a beautiful one.

The good news: (1) The resort is indeed a beautiful one, the sample apartment they showed us was very nice (though it didn't square at all with the one they were trying to sell us), and we had an excellent breakfast.

(2) We ultimately — on another day, requiring a separate trip, which we had tried very hard to avoid (some things the sales agent who originally sgned us up turned out not to be true), we did get the dolphin swim, which was one of the highlights of our trip.

The bad news: (1) After more than 3 hours there — what happened to "approximately 90 minutes"? I don't think we took an excessive amount of time — we told the salesman quite definitely that we did not want to sign anything that day. I could imagine doing a deal of the sort they proposed, but there was no way I was going to jump into it that day. Too much money, too many unknowns. (If we did this sort of thing, we would want to exchange most of our weeks for other places, outside the Grupo Mayan holdings; that depends on the exchange operation, and all we had to go on about that — it depended on other companies we had never heard of — was oral assertions by the sales staff.) It took about an hour and half more to get out of there, before we got what we were promised (the dolphin ticket, a ride back, and a suitcase we had brought). We were shuttled one by one to five — five! — additional agents of one sort or another. I told them as clearly as I could, "I want to go now." But this did not deter them; evidently they have their routine designed to break down resistance. Their attitude is not what I would expect of a reputable sales organization, "Of course you want to sleep on this to make sure you feel comfortable with it." Rather, it is, "Sign up today or we're really not interested in you, and before we take no for an answer we are going to keep throwing people at you." Frankly, I thought this amounted to false imprisonment. I do not recall ever being as angry at, or as mistreated by, a sales organization in my life — and therefore I am filing this report, something I have never done before.

(2) So what we have here is an organization that is growing rapidly, with a large and very aggressive sales force, determined to make immediate sales, with the benefits to the buyer to be received over time, and in part on the basis of sales to other customers (because they assure you that if you don't want your weeks you can rent them out at rather high rates to future potential buyers). I also wondered how much economic sense the whole thing makes — they presented it as if, having bought their package at quite a low per-night rate, we could trade it even up or better for good places (worth much more per week) anywhere in the world; something doesn't quite match up there. Well, I can't say for sure, but that sure has the feel of a pyramid scheme. What happens if they stop selling huge numbers of contracts? Are they going to be able to make good on their contractual obligations? I suspect not — and if that's so, what rights worth anything do buyers have? I might well be wrong, and in any event I'm sure some people have had good experiences so far. But the whole desperation to sell NOW, the hesitation even to show me, or let me take, a full copy of the contract, gives the sense that they realize that if buyers studied the details rather than going on impulse they would be hesitant to go ahead. The sales staff presented their offer as almost too good to be true — and I wonder whether the "almost" belongs there.

Company: Grupo Mayan
Country: Mexico
City: Nuevo Vallarta
Site: www.grupomayan.com

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