Mar 12, 2008 08:10 PM
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Club Mahindra contacted me multiple times to come over and attend their presentation and for some reason or the other, I could not make time to do it. Finally, I was able to do so. After attending the presentation, my wife and I were genuinely quite interested in the membership but we needed time to finally decide about it. Perhaps, the sales manager could sense our interest and instead of the promised gift coupon of a free stay, he gave us two such coupons. I felt quite satisfied by this gesture but assured him that I would use only one of the coupons.
Months later, I used(only one) gift coupon to book a holiday at Coorg. Again, the process was quite straight forward and I was able to make the reservation.
But it turned out that something came up on the day of my reservation and I could not have traveled on those dates.
I thought, since I have another gift coupon, let me use that. I would, still, be using only one of the coupons – as I had assured the sales manager. I posted the coupon to the address mentioned and awaited the signed copy of the certificate that should be used to make the reservation. When the certificate did not arrive, I called up the office and spoke to the sales manager and told him about the whole situation. He told me that they were out of the printed certificates and were awaiting their delivery from Chennai and I should get the certificate in few days. I felt assured. Minutes after I kept the phone, the junior sales person(who had also interacted me at the time of presentation), called me back and told me that someone had a booking at a later date and had a similar problem and that he can arrange for the other person and me to swap our holidays. That would have worked for me.
But after this time, I realized that it was a pure sales gimmick. Neither did I ever receive a call regarding the swap, nor did I ever receive the gift certificate. I tried calling up the office and tried speaking to the two individuals, but they were never available. Nor did they ever call back even after I left message for them.
Of course, one can argue that it was a complimentary holiday and if I could not use it, I did not loose anything. I just maintained the status quo. Had Club Mahindra never called me up and had I not attended the presentation, none of this would have happened. But the fact is they did.
To my mind, it is a way to drive a potential customer to one of their resorts and make the person like the product and with a good chance, the person may take up the offer. I thought of it this way. I really wanted to see Club Mahindra’s property and make up my mind. But the fact that they did not live up to their promise – to a potential customer - makes me wonder how they would deliver on any of their promises once they have a person pay up the membership fee.
My entire experience certainly does not speak well about Club Mahindra’s commitment towards fulfilling their stated mission. I would not recommend Club Mahindra to anyone.
