May 20, 2010 03:07 PM
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I'm basically copy-pasting an email I wrote to them. I was on holiday to the US last month, n thought i'd take the membership as they had tie-ups with RCI & DAE. But taking the membership was a total waste of my time..
The email is long and detailed. Hope people read it and get educated about club mahindra's modus operandi. If anyone here has their ceo's email id, please let me know, i'd love to pick a bone with him!
Dear Madhu,
As discussed, I'm writing to you regards my decision to cancel the membership, and refund of the booking amount of Rs. 33, 134.00 paid.
What follows is the harrowing experience in detail, which has lead to my decision.
On the 17th of Feb, I accompanied my parents to your CR2 office, where your over-enthusiastic Sales Rep Lalit sold us your holiday package. We were mostly interested in opting for this membership for international travel, as the Indian destinations that were currently available were not so exciting.
Since my sister and I had travel plans to go to the USA & Mexico in April, he updated me by saying the Club Mahindra had a tie up with a company called RCI, who's benefits I could use by paying a rental of approx Rs. 3000 - 4000 (65 - 90 USD) per night in great 3 - 5 star properties anywhere across the world!
This (cost benefit) was the only reason that drew me to taking the membership, as I was going to be covering at least 10 different cities in the US & Mexico over a span of a month, and thought I could save a lot of money by doing so. I had made it very clear to Lalit that my travel date to the US was the 1st of April, and hence I needed all hotel confirmations at least 15 days before my travel date. He initially said that the RCI membership would take approx 35 - 45 days after I became a member, but he would try and getting it sooner within 3 weeks.
Many days passed and since I was not getting any feedback, I thought of cancelling my membership as early as the 1st week of March and told Lalit the same. He then told me of another company 'Dial And Exchange', which also like RCI, had good 3-5 star properties I could stay at, since the RCI membership wasn't coming through.
Most of the properties that were recommended to me were way beyond my budget of 80 - 100 USD, and I requested him again to send me more options. Beyond that, many days passed, and I took it upon myself to get in touch with DAE and ask them why they were being so complacent even after making special requests for speedy action! I spoke to a certain Mr. Bevan in DAE's Bangalore office, and he seemed least interested in giving me any information or help whatsoever, which wasted another week of mine! After I followed up with him several times, I took it upon myself to go to the DAE website, and see which properties I could use.
By this time, I had already made reservations at many cities I was visiting as I did not want to leave anything to the last minute.
After this, I felt I didn't have the time or patience expecting anything positive to come up so I again tried calling Lalit, and was then at his mercy to either take my calls or reply to my messages as and when he pleased.
Last week, after a very heated argument and discussion, he got me talking to Seema Kotak from the DAE office, and assured me that she would assist me in whatever I needed, in terms of hotel reservations for the locations where I hadn't made the bookings yet.
What followed was another waste of time, as Seema said none of the properties I had shortlisted via the DAE website were available at all, and she sent me a list of other 'hotels' in the price range of 80 - 100 USD, which seemed far worse than any dormitory / hostel that I have ever come across.
*Finally, giving up, after many attempts I spoke to Lalit, and said I had had enough, and needed to cancel my membership and wanted my refund.
I was livid when he in turn said that there would be a cancellation fee, if I wanted to give up my membership!
I thought that I was being cheated, as none of this was even mentioned to me while I was being sold this holiday package.
If this is the service I get inspite of trying to give you an added business of a month long rental at your various affiliated properties, I shudder to think what would happen in the regular course of my '1 week per year' 'holiday' which would be spread over the coming 25 years!
I hope this experience of mine is convincing enough for you to cancel my membership and refund my entire amount of Rs. 33, 134.00 at the earliest, without any further discussion.
Regards,
Abhishek MEHRA
