You must either be depressed, dejected, spiritless victim of Club Mahindra or a prospective bakra who is on
his way to slaughter!!! Take my heed and stop right where you are!! There will always be 2 roads in life. One may seem narrow and have many
obstacles, but still lead to happiness and the other may "appear"
to be wide, smooth, off hand, a real duck soup........( In other words read
" CLUB MAHINDRA") but eventually lead to all the negative adjectives
you can think of !!!!!
I have been a sitting duck for club mahindra and still continue to be. Let me
share my experience here.
It was 10th Of August, 2008. I was going to get married in Jan 2009, so
was looking for different honeymoon packages available at many travel agencies.
One day my Fiance' and I happen to stroll pass the club mahindra outlet at
R-mall, Mulund and decided to stop by to check if they offer anything for
honeymooners. (ooooo how I regret that moment). We walked in casually and
immediately had a session (read brainwash) arranged with their executives. Let
me highlight the points they told me:
1) I get 7 days of holiday (national or International) for the next 25 yrs.
2) + I get 3 days holiday in India
free.
3) + I get 7 days holiday Abroad free.
4) + I get a new members name accredited to mine as referral so I get 5k/month
for the next 6 months.
5) All resorts are 5* (According to them)
6) I get a waiver on the facility tax levied on using extra facilities at the
resorts.
For all of the above I need to pay just 3 Lac in easy EMI. This sounded pretty
straight forward and made more sense because I thought, I would easily end up
paying 50k to 60k (Considering inflation to be at scorching 11%+ then) just for
the honeymoon. 25yrs of holiday for 3 lac seemed like steal to me. He showed me
many calculations and showed the price to be around 2k per day at any of their
5* hotels. This sounded exciting as we had honeymoon on our minds anyway. I was
still apprehensive and wanted more time, but they said this offer is there only
for today and tomorrow I will end up paying 4.5 lac!!! I was also told about
the timeshare concept and the so called "benefits". Without much
hesitation, I paid them by Credit Card. An initial sum of Rs 33, 500/- was
charged to my card. I went home happy and content after committing the
biggest mistake of my life!!!! I should have at least asked a few of my friends
or at least check mouthshut for some reviews, which I did after coming back
home. I was shocked to read the reviews. **I couldn' find a single
positive review about their membership**. Everyone mentioned that you don't
get bookings for the dates you want. I haven't even mentioned the holiday
categories or whatever it is called (red, white, purple etc...). I was in
category White, which means I can't holiday from Nov to Jan and March to June.
When the hell is one supposed to holiday then?. My fiance is a teacher, she
gets holidays only in these seasons. This was pathetic. they didn't explain
this to me there. 3 lac is no joke!! That's how much I earn in a year!!!
I couldn't sleep the whole night. I was very disturbed. Thankfully, I had read
about their "RECESSION PERIOD" in some website, who had
uploaded a scanned copy of their terms and conditions. These guys are very
clever. They will send you the welcome package only after 15 days. The welcome
pack will have the terms and conditions booklet which mentions that **"YOU
CAN AVAIL A FULL REFUND, 100%, IF YOU CANCEL YOUR MEMBERSHIP WITHIN 10 DAYS OF
BOOKING IT"**. Now how will anyone know of this if they get the
booklet after 15 days?? Thank God I found the scanned copy online and I acted
fast. I went the very next day to get it canceled. I had a looooong discussion
with their rep, who called a senior rep, who called the **branch manager to
convince me that Sites like mouthshut are bogus and those reviews are baseless**.
Baseless my ASS!!! I was hell bent on getting my money back. Finally they gave
in and Asked me to do a mammoth task..... Call their call center to get it
canceled. It was the only way to do it. And I could do it only after I get my
welcome pack after 15 days....... which actually took more than 30 days to
arrive!!! But I did call them. they asked me to send them an e-mail, which I
did. I didn't get any response. I sent almost 10 to 12 mails asking for the
update. All of them were just replied with promises of "we are looking
into it and will get back to you".
I was at the end of my wit by the time it was October and stuck with no
response on what is happening. I called their call center and spoke to them.
They kept me on hold indefinitely and to had to hang up. Then I called
again after 3 days and insisted on speaking to someone senior. Finally got
through and Spoke to Vally......... The mails and calls have been forwarded to **Prachi
Desai and Sudeep (67805800)**, who head the member relations in Mumbai. They
promised me that I will get my money back in 1st Week of November. 3
months after I got my membership canceled!!! Today it is the 11th of November
2008, They promise again that I will get the details by tomorrow. Lets wait and
watch.
I have read they have around 70 cases against
them for cheating. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Mahindra_Holidays#Criticism
I can't think of better words than Horrible,
abhorrent, abominable, appalling, awful, beastly, cruel, detestable, disagreeable, disgusting, dreadful, eerie, execrable, fairy, fearful, frightful, ghastly, grim, grisly, gruesome, heinous, hideous, horrendous,
horrid, loathsome,
lousy, lurid, mean, nasty, obnoxious, offensive, repellent, repulsive, revolting, scandalous, scary, shameful, shocking, sickie, terrible, terrifying, ungodly, unholy, unkind
