Mar 27, 2010 11:20 PM
6497 Views
I would have saved myself if I had read reviews on this site earlier. But it is too late now. I took Studio Red package. Mr.Giridhar from Sales committed the following complimentary offers:
32" Sony LCD TV: To be delivered in 90 days from the time I sign.
4 nights at any Club Mahindra resorts in any season.
14 nights at any International Resorts RCI affiliated.
Much to my astonishment, none of these were true when Mr.Sandeep from customer support called me. His version was:
32" Sony LCD TV: To be delivered in 90 days after the realization of 1st payment.
4 nights at any Club Mahindra resorts only in White & Blue seasons.
14 nights at any International Resorts DAE affiliated.
I happened to struggle to reach Mr.Giridhar but he washed his hands-off & was never reachable. He did not have basic courtesy to call me back either. Luckily, I had the email contact of his senior Mr.Vikram. After a stinking email to him, the first 2 points got sorted out & he confirmed the offer as made by Mr.Giridhar. As of now, the worst shocker of this whole package is the 14 nights international stay.
Giridhar did not communicate about DAE.
He said all the resorts in the world would be applicable & Mahindra will take care of doing the needful when I request for booking.
He did not say that I can use this 14 nights stay in maximum of 2 locations.
I spent lot of time & identified locations resorts based on RCI. I was disappointed that it was not RCI that was committed for the 14 nights complimentary stay but DAE. Since I didn't have any choice, I spent lot of time again to chose couple of locations from DAE. I further get a surprise that the chosen locations are not applicable for me as they are rental places. Again I had to exchange some stinker emails with Vikram after which he asked me to the resorts chose under "Resorts" tab of daelive.com website. This was precisely that I had done earlier. Subsequently, he corrected stating that I need to chose from "Destinations" tab.
I got very uncomfortable about their other commitments & sent another email to Mr.Vikram asking on how do I believe their other commitments that too for 25 years (yet to receive a response on this). I also requested him to connect me to someone senior as I would like to talk to him on what that person would do to fulfill the commitment made by Mr.Giridhar. Vikram said that Mr.Belliappa (branch manager) will call me on Tuesday, 23rd March 2010. But I got an email from Vikram in the evening stating that he was busy as there was some audit going on for last 2 days. He also committed that Mr.Belliappa will call me on Wednesday, 24th March 2010. I did not receive any call from Mr. Belliappa.
I could see a pattern in after-sales service/communication from Mahindra Holidays. The pattern is that they were experts in not honoring customer commitment & it seemed to be embedded in their culture. After all this, I felt that I have been taken for a ride & no one in Mahindra Holidays cares for my problems as the Sales is already done. Hence, I sent a cancellation email on Wednesday, 25th Mar 2010 late night to Mr.Vikram for which I promptly received a call on Thursday, 26th Mar 2010 from Mr. Sandeep.
Sandeep clearly mentioned that I will not get back my down-payment money. He also mentioned that I should have made a thorough analysis of what's being offered & shouldn't have believed the words of Mr.Giridhar. Sandeep's words were very true & I shouldn't have believed anyone from Mahindra Holidays.
I am just keeping my fingers crossed to be taken for a ride for the next 25 years!
Friends, Please don't get into any trap with Mahindra Holidays. It is waste of time & hard-earned money.
PS: At this point in time, I haven't experienced points apart from "Value for Money". I believe that I would experience the same for other points as well & hence have rated all of them the same.
