This gives me a great distress to note that despite the tremendous development we have been seeing in india, there are still some very high profile organizations that would resort to cheap tricks to loot the innocent public and there is little that we, the public, can do about this issue.
A case in this context is my personal experience with the country vacation club.
On may 6, 2012, I have received a call from the country vacations informing me that I have received a free 6 days and 7 nights stay in their resorts and that I need to come along with my wife, listen to their demo about the club and go home with the free vacation voucher. I was asked to come to the amrutha castle, near birla madir, hyderabad by 6.30 pm. Unaware of their real intentions, my wife and I have decided to visit them. This has turned out to be the biggest mistake of the year.
We had arrived at the amrutha castle around 6.15 pm and were graciously escorted by mr. Syed hafeez and he has started the demo at 6.30 pm. In the hour and half time, he informed us about various club plans and requested us to join the club. When we have informed that we are in no position to afford them, he came up with a five-year club membership plan.
The details of this membership are as follows:
We need to pay a membership fee of rs. 65, 000(sixty five thousand rupees only) for five-year membership plan.
We can avail a week holiday for five years free of cost at any of the club hotels or the affiliated hotels.
Free car pickup from airport/Train station to the hotel and free car drop from the hotel to the airport and railway station.
Since we are registering for the plan on the same day, we are entitled to the following:
a. Free usage of gym facility in their club for one year.
B. Five years free massages and jacuzzis along with the free usage of sports room.
C. Free couple passes to the events such as new year eve, valentine’s day, deepavali, dasara e.T.C
D. Free hosting of personal events such as birthday, marriage days and other such occasions in their club.
E. A free return air ticket for two, to any of the clubs hotels within india
- I was informed that the amount would be converted into 36 months interest free emi.
When I was still hesitant about the offer, he informed me that:
- After receiving the welcome kit, which contains all the information about the club and what my membership entitles to, I get a free two-week look up period during which if I am not satisfied, I can cancel the membership and I am entitled to the complete refund of the membership amount of rs.65, 000. Also, I was informed that at any time after the free period, I can discontinue and only 10% of the amount will be debited.
Trusting that the club will not do any fraud, using my ICICI bank credit card, I have give rs. 30000(thirty thousand only) to the club and asked them to come the next day to collect the remaining amount. The next day, mr. Hafees came to my house and using my hdfc card I have paid the remaining amount of rs.35, 000(thirty five thousand only). I was give the assurance that within the next 72 hours(three days), I would receive the welcome kit which will contain all the details about the club along with the receipt for the amount paid as well as the details of offers which we were promised.
Imagine to my surprise when the said kit has not arrived even after five days. I called mr. Hafeez on friday(may 11, 2012). He promised that he would look into the issue and get back to me by monday(may 14, 2012). As expected, I have not received any call from his end and when I called him on tuesday, he informed me that monday is a holiday for him(which he has totally forgot to mention on the previous call) and he will check with his seniors and let me know the status of my club membership. By now, I have become very suspicions with his attitude and decided to call the call center. Calling the call center itself was an experience in itself! there appears to be a single contact number which is handled by a single person(and this is called a call center). Many times, I have got a busy signal and I was forced to ‘try’ to contact them for a couple of hours. At last, a woman has picked up my phone and I had informed her about my issue. She helped me get the membership ID and asked her when I would receive the welcome kit, she has informed that very soon I would get it. Not trusting mr. Hafeez, to confirm whether he has provided the correct information, I first asked her about the emi option. I was shocked to know that country club has never given any 36 month emi to anyone and that I have only 18 months emi option. When I had informed her that her colleague has wrongly sold the product, she asked me to ignore this ‘minor’ issue and enjoy the benefits of the club. I was very upset and asked her to connect me to a senior manager or an escalation agent. Immediately, she has disconnected my call. Never before had a call center agent(either in government or private industry) has been so rude to disconnect the call. I have tried contacting the call center a couple of more times in the next few days and every time, when I asked for a senior manager, my call was rudely disconnected.
I started to think that this might have been a bad idea to take membership with the club and started looking for more information about the club using internet. I was startled to know that I am not the first person to whom the club has sold its membership using questionable methods. I have come across an incident where a person was asked to pay rs.5000 as maintenance fee by the club. Just to check if I was totally fooled by the club, I called mr. Hafeez and he confirmed that I need to pay yearly rs. 5000 as maintenance fee.
During the demo on may 06, 2012, he informed me that there would not be any further charges and when I have reminded him, he told that they would not be able to provide all the details about the terms and conditions. I immediately asked him to cancel my membership and refund my complete amount. He informed me that he would check with his seniors and so far, I have not received any update.
To summarize:
I paid rs. 65, 000 for five years membership.
I was promised that the amount would be converted into 36 emi without any additional charges. But now they say that I have to pay complete amount
I was informed that a welcome kit would be provided within 72 hours. Even after 12 days I am yet to receive even the receipt from the country vacation
I was told that I can cancel the membership if I am not satisfied with two weeks after I receive the welcome kit. I contacted customer care as well as the sale executive and now they are saying that it is not possible.
I am surprised that despite the bad reputation this club has, distinguish banks such as ICICI and hdfc back are providing the edc(swiping) machine. – I am interacting with both the banks and if I don’t get a positive response, planning to take action against these banks.
No standard membership fee. It’s more like cheat the customer and get as much as you can from them.
This is a sheer misuse of the trust which the general public has on the club(considering that this club was in existence for a long time and during major events stars like shahrukh khan and amisha patel used to grace this club for major events).