Unfortunately I took the membership in Bangalore a few months back. I keep going out regularly and thought of getting membership of a club. Incidentally the country club people called me and I agreed for an appointment on Sunday. The person names Bishwanath Kar arrived my place on a fine Sunday. He explained me the scheme and I liked it . mainly because there was a Goa trip with one way air ticket for two and EMI option on credit card payment.
I just wanted to take the membership on some other day. He asked me about the credit card. I told him that I did not use my credit card for long . so I would like to check with credit card people and then do it. He said . he can check it out on phone. He called one number and muttered some nos . then he informed me that authorization for 1 lac has been done. I got a little upset but thought that anyway I needed a membership. He did not even bother to ask me once. I asked him several times about the EMI option and he assured me. Then I gave him the other card for rest(45K) payment.
This was a special scheme in which I got two free plots instead of one. I had to tell that I introduced a person . in fact I did not know that person(some P. Das and DOB 15-Jul-1977). When I got the kit . to my surprise there was nothing like the special offer. I was too busy during that time . I could call Biswanath after a few days and asked . he said that my offer was valid and their people sent the common kit. For any clarification or help including booking I could get in touch with him. Though later I found him quite different. After a few days . I got my credit card statements and to my surprise I found out that there is no EMI and I need to pay the full amount(the sales person had told me the EMI amount 4-5 times). I called him up and he kept on telling me that they have to send a request for EMI conversion which has been sent and I should wait for some more time.
When I persisted in my enquiries he made me meet his boss . Mr Anil. He told me the same and asked me to wait for another week. I was sick during that week but still went there . it was a matter of 145K for me. Later I approached another country club sales office and there a person told me that such an offer was not available on the cards I had and I had been cheated by the sales person. I finally had to pay minimum amount due and incurred 40K losses in interest. They gave me a holiday package that must have costed them 10K.
In between I asked Bishwanath about surrendering the membership but they told me to offer 25K less. Had he told me about it earlier, I could have got the amount converted to EMI by paying some amount. But the conversion expires on AMEX cards after 25 days of purchase. Later I asked for my membership cards and Bishwanath and Anil promised me to deliver on some day. They did not and when I called they did not bother to even pick the phone. After about 2.5 months from the bad day I got my membership cards. That too is a very unpleasant story. I called the customer care people after that to ask about the offers for my membership.
Bishwanath knew that EMI option is not available on my cards, still he swiped my cards without my concent. I could have been saved from the 2 month long sufferings if I had any idea about his ulterior motives. Later he accepted about this and not responding to my phone calls. He later told me that I need to pay 3K for annual maintenance also.
I am not sure what will happen when I finally go to use my holidays. I will not be surprised if they say . sorry sir your offer has expired.
I want to take this matter to the right people in country club. Please provide me with information regarding the same.
Looks like there is no option to write more than one review. So adding to my previous review.
I tried booking a resort in Coorg today. The first problem you encounter is that you do not get the right number in their phone book. I ended up making 3 calls instead of one. Then the person told me that they will inquire and call back. I got the call after half an hour.
Then they told me that there is one resort available for booking. I told them that there are 3 mentioned in the catalog. The person told me that there is only one available. Long back, they used to take bookings for all the 3 resorts but the feedback was bad for other 2. These people are just trying to show the numbers. . so many gazillion resorts . The real count is very less. If anytime in the history they sign any deal with any resort in the world, they will add it to their list.
Then I asked about the rating of the club. The person told me that it is a 2-star resort. I am not sure what was the rating of other two. The person was telling me that it is a good resort MOST PROBABLY without herself seeing the resort.
Then I asked, since it is an affiliated resort, I can book it directly. I inquired about the general rent of the resort. She told me that being Country Club member, I get 10% off. Great. I thanked her and told that I will book myself in Coorg, probably a better resort . AFTER having a look of the resort.
That is all I guess, I will be able to get from Country Club after buying a membership worth 1.5 lacs+ Credit Card interest charges for 6 months.