Jun 09, 2007 01:07 PM
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(Updated Oct 08, 2007 01:48 PM)
A sales person of Country Club, Mathew Varghese, approached me and discussed about the country club offer. I bought time to think over and check out the plots on Sira Road, Tumkur. We drove down to Sira Road and only then I realized it is 120 km from my place and this plot will not be of any use to me. After some thought, I decided to go for just the country club membership paying Rs. 35000/- and not to become a COOL member.
The Day of Deal :*
The sales person insisted in coming down the same day as he had to meet his monthly target. He gave me an application form to fill out and as I was filling that out, he asked for my credit card. I handed it over to him and he called someone from the Country Club office and gave my card number. I was shocked when he asked the other person to charge Rs. 1, 15, 000 to my credit card. I immediately stopped filling the application form and asked him why he is charging Rs. 1, 15, 000/- He apologized and said he had misunderstood. Then I realized the form that I was filling was also for COOL membership and not the other one. Meanwhile, my card had already been charged. I asked him to cancel the transaction and charge only Rs. 35000/- as that was my preference.
Now the drama began. The sales manager called me up and promised me over phone that he will give me another additional 545 sq. ft. of land and when I was sticking to my point, he went ahead and promised that for every introduction that I do, I will get 1633 sq.ft of land. Meanwhile, Mathew promised me that he will get me 2 introductions on his behalf so that I get 2 additional plots. At one point in time, I was convinced that I may be getting easily 4 plots if I just let the deal to close.
After-sale Scenario:*
After all this troublesome deal, the only thing I was happy about was that I got the receipt and welcome letter from The Country Club within 3 days. After this, I made numerous calls to Mathew and his manager Mr. Pavan. No one picked up my calls. When I once got to speak to Pavan, I realized that all those verbal promises made on the day of deal were disappearing one after the other. No one seemed to remember what we had spoken. I tried calling him up later, but he had quit the job..!
I got my membership cards after 3 months of consistent and daily follow-up.
Their promises:
The Bushbetta vacation **is an eyewash. Only accommodation is free and you will have to pay Rs. 1000/- per person for availing that.
The Royal Goan Beach Clubstay is also something like this. I am yet to check the rates.
Plots:Ultimately, the plots that they promise is not to be seen and at least the rightful 1089 sq.ft. plot should have been given. But I recently found out that every sales manager will be allotted 10 plots in every phase and they have to "use them wisely" for their sales deals. Mathew had given me a plot number and phase number but when I checked with Amrutha Estates in Indra Nagar, this belonged to some other person..!
My suggestion to those who want to join Country Club would be:
Do not become a member of Country Club. If you want to become one, go for the lowest available membership, not for one with hoards of promises. If you are a veg (ghas-poos), non-drinker, non-smoker, don’t think of joining any club..!
Do not get conned by the sales executive or manager’s verbal promises.
Do not believe in any of their offers.
Their clubs are suboptimal and provide only basis amenities. Do not anticipate miracles or ‘superb’ treatment from the Club managers.
Clearly, Country Club has a very long way to go to think of retaining any of the existing members, forget about servicing them or keeping them happy.
