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To Whom it May Concern,
My name is Tiffany Learnard-Scavo, my husband and I stayed at Secrets Sanctuary Cap Cana from September 11, 2011 through September 24, 2011 for our honeymoon. Upon check in, we opted to upgrade our room from our original booking in the Junior Suite Ocean Front to the Royalty Villa, for which we paid the sum of $3, 250.00. During our stay, we encountered some problems with our room that we did not feel were adequately resolved. Instead of a constant battle with the hotel throughout our honeymoon, we decided to make the best of it and deal with it when we got home.
The first problem that we encountered with our room, was with our jacuzzi, it was completely unusable. Every time we filled it with water, it would fill up with hundreds if not thousands of bugs. Before complaining, we tried to fill and flush the jet lines a few times, thinking that maybe the room had not been used in a while. This was not the case, the bugs returned every time we filled the jacuzzi. At this point, we went to the front desk to complain on or around 9/13/11. We were told that they would have someone come to clean it, in which they did. That evening, we again tried to fill and use the jacuzzi, ending in the same result with bugs. The next morning, we took pictures and video back to the front desk for them to be able to see the severity of the problem that we were still having, this was on or around 9/14/11. At this time we were offered the same room but without the jacuzzi and up away from the ocean. We opted not to take the room in order to stay close to the ocean since we would not have use of a jacuzzi one way or the other.
The second problem that we encountered with our room, also had to do with bugs. On many occasion we would find rather large cockroaches crawling or flying around in our room, the largest being 3”-3 ½”. When we complained to the front desk we were told that someone would come to our room to spray, this was on or around 9/16/11. Since we were still finding cockroaches in our room, we went to the desk again on or around 9/18/11. At this time they offered to change our room from the Royalty Villa to a Tower Terrace Suite, which would have been a down grade in room category. They were not able to assure me that the new room would not also have cockroaches and when I asked about being reimbursed the difference due to the room category change, we were told no because it would be our decision to change rooms. So again, we opted to stay in our current room.
We were offered two fifty minute massages for our “inconvenience”, which are valued at about $200-$300. I no longer have the certificate because it was taken at the time of service. We did not feel that this was fair as we had paid an additional $3, 250.00 upon check in to upgrade our room. When I asked if they would take anything off/refund some of the price for our room for our inconvenience, I was told no, that they had already given the lowest price possible for that room (Royalty Villa).
I called the resort on September 28, 2011, to again try to speak with someone regarding the problems that we had encountered while there. I was handed off the Rooms Division Manager, who just so happened to be unavailable. I was told that I would get a call back or an email within an hour. By the afternoon of September 29, 2011 I still had not heard back from them so I sent them an email containing a letter almost identical to this one. That afternoon (9/29) I received a return email saying that they were investigating my claim and that when they have an answer they will contact me.
It is now October 3, 2011, and I still have not heard anything back from them. It is due to these issues and their unwillingness to resolve them that I have taken the advice from my travel agent to dispute the charge of $3, 250.00 four our upgrade at Secrets Sanctuary Cap Cana.
I know that as of October 1, 2011 this resort was sold to another management company, it is no longer owned by Secrets Resorts. This may be a big part of why issues are going unresolved.
Thank you for your attention. If you may need further information or need to contact me for any reason, please feel free to do so.
Sincerely,
Tiffany Learnard-Scavo
[protected]
This letter was sent to the resort on 10/3/11 and I was told that they are investigating my claim and will be getting back to me. It is now 10/10/11, I have tried to email them for an update and have gotten no response.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Teresa and micheal busby
4895 timber ridge dr
Fl 32571
Usa
Tel-[protected]
Fax [protected]
Dear sir or madam,
my husband and I just returned from a vacation in cozumel mexico at secrets aura resort from april 23 to april 29. we have had a previous vacation at a secrets in montego bay which we totally enjoyed, so we decided to book at another secrets for my husband's 50th birthday.
We called a week prior to the vacation to the resort in cozumel confirming our room and clearly stating I need an easy access room due to ankle injury and walking problem. they assured us it was not problem and all is taken care of. I also e mailed the resort just to make sure there was no misunderstandings.
Arriving at the hotel we checked in to what we thought was going to be our easy access beautiful pool view junior suite swim up room. to my dismay it was the opposite to easy access with no beautiful pool view. we was given a room on the upper level with a slide down to the pool and the view was blocked by large palm trees. I could not use the slide to get down to the pool so the only way was to leave my room and walk down a long slope and the same way back to the room. we decided not to make a fuss and make the best of the situation.
Once unpacked we started a slow walk down to find the beach and restaurants. while walking along the beach along the property line by the restaurants I felt something sharp under my left foot and stopped to see what it was to my surprise it was bleeding badly and a large piece of skin was hanging. I sat down while my husband went for help. somebody from the dive shop kindly gave me a chair and water to place my foot in while he sent for the first aid assistant. when first aid help arrived he said I needed to go with him to the office for treatment. after hobbling with my foot bleeding no suggestion of a wheelchair, he administered treatment, I had to have the skin hanging cut away, then the hole which I had in my foot cleaned. he told me I would need to go on cipro, an antibiotic for six days because there was a possibility for infection. he made a call to a doctor and a taxi was sent to pick up the medication which I paid for in cash. I left the first aid office with my foot wrapped up and no extra dressings because he said he had none to give me. my husband went to buy dressing at the resort shop but they didn't have any not even band-aids so once again a taxi was sent to get some from a local store.
The injury left me barely able to walk and that made our room even more of a problem. my husband went to the front desk and explained what had happened and asked for a room on lower level, (which we had booked and paid for) we told them we wasn't worried about swim up just an easy access room, after all now with the injury and possibilities of infection I couldn't swim but the only way they would move us was if we paid more money which I think was another $100 each per night. we asked to speak to someone in management and they said they would send someone to talk to us. about an hour later someone came but it was one of the entertainment employees not management. we was informed they would not do anything because the beach belongs to the mexican government not secrets. I was in total disbelief. we declined to spend the extra money and I spent the next 3 days using room service and an upset stomach from the cipro in tears in the room.
On the saturday april 27th my husband had had enough and he went to the front desk and said he would pay to move us and we got a beach view non swim up room for the last two days with easier access to the amenities.
After spending a week at a secrets resort previously and was completely satisfied with the staff and amenities I just couldn't understand this kind of treatment and non compassion from this secrets aura. I understand it has just been taken over by secrets, but in my opinion it clearly is not up to secrets standards and not an upscale resort. after experiencing secrets resort in montego bay and its outstanding entertainment and amenities that was why this vacation was booked for my husband's 50th. from this vacation we have just been left with such a huge disappointment and an extremely large waste of money. we don't feel like we had a vacation at all and that is disheartening after working and saving over the past two years for.
Stay far away from unlimited vacation club / am resorts as you possibly can! the problem we had wasn't with the hotel, now and secrets hotel and staff are great, it was with the unlimited vacation club in punta cana, dominican republic. stay far, far away from them. talk about having no compassion, as well as no professionalism and absolutely no integrity! this is them, hands down.
we traveled from the u. s. to dominican and decided to go work for unlimited vacation club, am resorts is the parent company out of pa.in the u. s. wow, what a mistake. this company has no scruples whatsoever. they actually teach you to lie to the clients! the upper management tells you that all they are selling is 'air' but if "pitched" correctly, the 25% discount package that they are trying to sell everyone can be sold and they start the packages off at $50, 000 and will drop all the way down to $5, 000 if the client keeps saying 'no'. they are a big ripoff! stay away from unlimited vacation club and am resorts.
We actually own timeshare and a vacation club and are very happy with both of them. if used correctly, they do save you money and you can stay in really nice resorts. if it wasn't for us owning these, we would have never been able to vacation in a lot of the places we have. we definitely have saved money with them. but with unlimited vacation club, you will lose money. we know. like I said, we not only own, we work in the vacation industry and this is a company where you will be lied to and lose money if you join.
After you check in, there are people called "opc's" that will come over to you and bribe you to go on a 90 minute sales presentation at unlimited vacation club, and for doing so, they will promise you all kinds of goodies which you will receive after the 3 hour (not 90 minutes) presentation. then while you are on this presentation, they will lie to you and tell you that you can save 25 % on all future hotel stays, as well as discounts on car rentals and cruises, but you can actually find cheaper prices online like on expedia or hotwire! and at the end of the presentation, they will show you prices from anywhere from $50, 000 all the way down to $5, 000. do not let them sucker you into this! there are cheaper and much better vacation clubs out there.
This company, am resorts / unlimited vacation club is the worst company we have ever seen, and after being in the vacation business for many, many years and experiencing so many other companies out there, this one is hands down the worst company going. it may be a fairly new company, but they are the absolute worst company, and it's companies like this who give other vacation companies a bad reputation.
If you have a problem, don't ever expect anyone to help you out. it doesn't matter who you contact in this company, whether it be from someone in upper management all the way up to the ceo of am resorts, alejandro zozaya gorostiza, none of them will ever respond back to you. it doesn't matter how many times you call or how many emails you send, you will not get a response back. we know, we have tried over and over again. we tried contacting the ceo and no response, we tried the executive vice president, gonzalo del peon, and no response, we tried the vice president of sales and marketing, collette baruth, and no response and we also tried the senior director of sales, matthew mullen, and no response. that just tells us what type of company they really are, uncaring, rude and unprofessional and a company without an ounce of integrity.
If you want to enjoy your vacations and save your money, stay far away from anything to do with unlimited vacation clubs and am resorts. you will not be missing anything if you do. if you enjoy being lied to, taken advantage of, wasting your hard earned money, being treated like you don't even exist, then am resorts / unlimited vacations is the place for you to do business with and also work for! they are great at treating people like they are the dirt beneath their shoes!
I agree, try to stay away from any am resorts/unlimited vacation club if you can. I myself been ripoff and still fighting for my down payment refund. this people does not care about you hard earn money to give it back. we cancelled our contract within the ten days but still not recevied my refund and the worsrt is you will not get any phone call from them.
First they will give you cash coupon and discount to attend the 90 minutes and ask you if have visa or mastercard as for membership. that should be "red" flag but we ignored it and as it turns out they just check to make sure you have the money for the down payment. they will tell you all the bogus and "lie" discount that does not exists as being a member. the only discount you get as a member is 25% off the am resorts. the room that they will show looks great and get to think that those are the kind of room you get as being a "vip" member. that's not the case, it all depends on the rate and discount you purchase. you can ended up getting the worst room you can have.
Believed me as what I have done when I got back home and do all my calculations. it's not worth becoming a member. you would rather get your discount to online service such as expedia, travelocity and other discount agency. just try to stay away from this people and you could ended up saving more money than being a member.
I am sorry that you are a victim to these ruthless people. I have posted complaints about this company, unlimited vacation club, anywhere and everywhere I possibly could so the public is aware of this scam. I hope that you will continue to fight for what is rightfully yours, your money! do not give up. I have received numerous emails with stories such as yours and through constant persistence, they have been refunded 100% of their money.
Please let me know what happens. good luck and do not give up!
I too have just become a victim of this scam on holiday 8 days ago, if anyone could give us any advice on how we can rescind from this club and get our money back it would be greatly appreciated. what avenues do I need to take to get my deposit back and to assure that they don't take the remainder of the payment. feeling completely embarrassed and taken advantage of...
we just went to a presentation today. They kept us for 4 1/2 hours of our vacation time. The salesman was promising all kinds of things but then would take them off the table. They promised our cab fare but when we said no they did not follow through. They promised us lunch since they held us so long. My husband went to get our son who had been in the room for 4 hours waiting for us, but when we said we were undecided lunch was off the table. The price kept dropping but they had a lot of contradictions in what they would give us. In the end we did not commit and said maybe the next day. When we got back and read all the complaints we are glad we said no.
I think they are very unprofessional. If you have a real product to sell it would be one price any time anyplace. They would not have to close you in a room that day.
I complaint at profeco, any tips to get my money back, I payed for 2 years, and when I tried to use my uv benefits, imposible, please give me some advice, juanita ramirez
We just returned from secrets st james in montego bay. I can't say enough about the resort, our preferred club experienc and the staff. however, we were asked to attend a short orientation meeting to tour the resort and the new breathless resort next door (also owned by am) on our first full day there. as soon as we walked in to the meeting meeting room it was obvious what was up. we made it clear we were not interested nor in a financial position to buy into anything but they were relentless. we agreed to stay to hear them out if only for the mobay vip passes we were promised. 60 minutes turned into over 2 hours of our vacation we will never get back. they are relentless and one person won't release you until the next person talks to you. four people tried to convince us no matter how much we objected and insisted we were not in a position to pay even the 25% of the $10, 000 grand (miraculously down from the initial $40, 000) buy in fee. meanwhile around us champagne bottles were popping as others bought in. I have to wonder if they were staged to create a sense of fomo (fear of missing out)! we are not seasoned travellers but we sure learned a lot on our first trip in 18 years!
Was this problem ever resolved? I had a problem at a resort and im trying to reach to amresorts.
I am a travel agent and helped book a trip for a customer. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. Now 5 months later, they don't want to pay out commission.
They only they are out for is your money!
Do not support brands like this. Remember we give them this power by using them.
We were here for 4 days in October an Absolutely dismal stay - the suite was filthy and moldy -restaurants subpar - the service underwhelming. I emailed the corporate office after our return a month ago . Not even the decency to respond - avoid at all costs . So over priced for a Motel 6 experience- nothing luxury about this place at all .