Post Revised on Jan 1, 2011: This article tells you why this writer feels investing in timeshare holiday memberships may not be a wise decision (with all necessary analysis and evidence), with Club Mahindra's Timeshare life membership as example. [Only personal and analytical perspective here. Individual experiences may vary.]
Major update: Club Mahindra has given Official Response to the concerns raised in this post. Read the complete interview with Club Mahindra Sr Manager to get got both side of the story so as to take unbiased judgement.
Quick in post Navigation: Pricing* Seasons* Disclaimer*Comments (490+ comments so far) * Club Mahindra Escalation Points *
Club Mahindra (Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India Limited) is part of Mahindra Group which is a $ 6.3 billion enterprise). Club Mahindra primarily own about 30 resorts across India and sell life memberships priced about 2-9lakhs + annual charges, under which members get to stay (Only if vacancy exists-No Commitment from Club Mahindra on this) for around 7 days a year at any of their resorts for next 25 years.
Before I go on to state why it’s not a good option to enroll for their life time membership, let me list what they claim to offer:
As per Club Mahindra, by becoming their life member you get (refer CM ad/website) following benefits:
*7 days inflation free holiday at any of their resorts once an year for 25 years (Own a week at any club Mahindra resort for a week)
*Free 3 year membership to RCI and ability to enjoy international holidays at economic rates due to RCI affiliation.
*Flexibility to upgrade seasons and apartments
*Usually some entry gifts like Sony Bravia TV or free 3D/2N stay or other offers
*Invitation to member only events
Now this is what exactly they offer:
1. It is not a holiday package. All Club Mahindra offers is accommodation at their resort (subject to availability) for few days. You’ll have to pay for travel, food, site seeing and every other expense you might incur during your holiday. For a typical holiday, accommodation is only a part of the expense. So despite the membership you'll have to spend decent amount every year for holidaying.
2. Owning the resort for a week? I’m an owner if I have absolute power over something. I own a house if I have absolute power on the property (to sell, to lease, to rent or even to destroy). At Club Mahindra resort you’ll be one among several other guests. You're just allowed to use the rooms and don’t own anything there, sharing common utilities with other guests. There's absolutely no commitment if you'll get your yearly vacation. All depends on availability- how soon you can book and outsmart other members who'll be aiming for same unit.
3. Inflation free holiday !!!???: Mind you, the club mahindra timeshare holiday is not inflation free. Every year members will have to pay Annual Subscription fee (irrespective of usage, even when resorts r full and you're unable to get your week). This amount is is over and above the regular member ship fee which is in lakhs, described later and ranges anywhere between Rs. 8994 to 17717 (depending on Studio, 1BR or 2BR). This annual subscription fee may increase every year depending on Consumer Price Index and Wholesale Price Index. So the price a member end up paying will obviously keep increasing every year. (between 2007 and 2010, ASF has increased from Rs 6647 to 8994 for Studio Apartment and 13094 to 17717 for 2BR, roughly 10% increase every year-this provides for inflation and you'll have to pay for travel, food and other expenses at actual anyway).The Rs 9000 ASF might eventually increase to Rs 20000 an year say after 10 years. Hence, for the record, Club Mahindra membership is NOT inflation free.
4. Club Mahindra claims to offer five star accommodations but this can’t be validated. (only 5 resorts are RCI Gold crowned at the time of writing this post) If an ordinary well furnished apartment/Hotel unit is passed off as a five star accommodation how are you going to prove that it is or it is not a five star? Further, most of the Indians choose five star hotels only if the expense is reimbursed by their company. When they have to spend from their own pocket, they often choose basic economic accommodation. Staying at a five star place doesn’t make it a holiday and staying there may not be the sole objective behind holidaying.
5. Why 25 years? 25 years is not lifetime! If I’m 25 today I may live up to 85 years and I may wish to holiday till I reach the age of 75. But Club Mahindra terminates my membership by the time I reach the age of 50. By life membership I should get benefit as long as I’m alive. Else it’s not lifetime membership. To be fair, even life time validity of a sim card is 20 years and life imprisonment offered by Indian court is not really till death. So may be we should not complain on this.
6. Why there's no commitment from Club Mahindra regarding minimum time required to ensure guaranteed booking? Why there's no compensation policy if all their resorts get fully occupied and members are unable to take holidays even if they have planned months in advance? (While a member can't expect CM to get him confirmed booking within 15 days notice during a popular season and at a high demand resort, CM shouldn't expect its members to plan their holidays 6-12 months in advance. If Club Mahindra has enrolled more members than the capacity of resorts, some of them will be guaranteed to be disappointed every year. There has to be a SLA governed mechanism to ensure that all members get their share, without holidaying with Club Mahindra membership will be kind of luck based and equivalent of gambling.
2008 Data: For some 700 odd units Club Mahindra already had over 63000 members, which is nearly 2 times the capacity of resorts (No. of units (i.e rooms) * 52 weeks should be the max permissible member count, to ensure accommodation for all)) Also there were 51 Customer complaints pending against Club Mahindra amounting to Rs 5.62 million (As per detailed filed by Club Mahindra at SEBI for their IPO), mainly about false promises made by sales staff and not able to get accommodation.
7. Their commercials and sales staff are often known to mislead unsuspecting prospects by not revealing factors like ASF, how difficult it is to get a booking, cancellation terms, additional expenses etc. This is not a good, because many aren't familiar with the concept of timeshare membership, its pros and cons. They get fooled by exotic resorts shown by marketing staff and by the time they get complete picture, it will be too late to pull out of membership. (None of their front page ads mention ASF...)
CM agents are known to collect contact numbers of prospects in malls promising a lucky draw. Everyone will be called to the office later in the disguise of they having won a holiday, and elaborate presentations will be made to sign them up as members.
To your left is an old image of Holiday Coupon given to prospects. Many have stated that they could never utilize it.
The actual cost of Club Mahindra lifetime membership Go to TOP
The amount is fairly high from a middle class perspective. Refer the image below for the official Club Mahindra rate chart.
Club Mahindra April 2012 rate card
Club Mahindra April 2010 rate card
View Club Mahindra Old Price lists: August 2008 rate card * January 2008 price chart * CM 2006-2007 prices * You'll get an idea how membership costs and ASF are increasing every year.
The official Club Mahindra website doesn’t mention how much their membership costs. The executives will not reveal the price till last moment. All these is probably because they’re sure the price will scare people away.
At the time of writing this post Club Mahindra lifetime membership costs anywhere between Rs 3,85,000 to Rs. 12,64,000 (and more, because this calculation is based on current ASF which keeps increasing every year). That is, Rs.1,60,311 to Rs 8,21,040 as membership fee (The exact amount depends on the season you choose to travel, the type of accommodation, number of EMIs etc) plus Rs. 2,25,000 to Rs 4,43,000 in annual subscription fee (That’s 9000*25 years to Rs 17,717 *25 years). In total, you’ll end up paying anywhere between Rs 3,85,000 to Rs. 12,64,000 all for accommodation, 7 days * 25 years=175 days. Meaning you’ll be paying Rs 2200 (during least popular tourist seasons with basic accommodation for 2 people) to Rs. 7223 per day of stay (in peak season for 2 bedroom apartment). Actual cost will be more than this as ASF increases every year. This is a relatively expensive deal because of reasons listed below
1. With the amount you pay as annual subscription fee (Say Rs 9000 per year), you can get a decent accommodation in hotels for 7 days. Why should you pay rest of the membership fee for? (say Rs 5350 every month as EMI for 36 months)
2. When you go on a holiday, most of your expenses will be on Travel, followed by food and accommodation. If someone is trying to sell accommodation as holiday package, better be aware.
3. While you have to pay lakhs of rupees as membership fee and keep paying ASF (irrespective of usage), Club Mahindra will provide confirmed booking only "Subject to availability". They have no commitment what so ever and no refund/compensation policy. There's nothing you can do if they say "Sorry No vacancy. Better luck next time" . Ideally they should have an SLA (like if you book say 45-60 days advance you must get confirmed booking or else should get some compensation like extending membership by another year, waiving ASF etc). But dont expect all that with Club Mahindra.
4. Assume for 5-10 years out of your 25 year tenure you don't get to holiday with them (when they say all their resorts are full-which may even be vacant for those non members who pay cash), any cost advantage you may be having in becoming life member will easily get eroded.
5. I saw recently in a full page newspaper ad (ClearTrip or MakeMyTrip I can't recall), travel agents are selling holidays at Club Mahindra resorts at quite low rates. As a member who has paid several lakh rupees decades in advance, you would expect a lowest price guarantee and a minimum service assurance. Without these, you may regret later.
6. You may not need the luxury of a resort every time. Homestay industry is picking up fast and for a fraction of cost, a home stay in a remote place can give great holiday experience.
How are the Club Mahindra Resorts?
I've experienced Coorg and Binsar Resorts. This and several other resorts are really good and offer a unique experience compared to typical hotel room. Because of the location and ambiance, they do make considerable difference in the user experience. However not all resorts are said to be of same standard. [I've also visited Munnar and Yercaud campus. Good ones again]
Other things you should know:
Seasons
Club Mahindra has classified 52 weeks of the year into 4 seasons
Pink: Extremely popular timings and seasons: Like New Year eve at Goa. The pink season is not open to members and are sold at premium rates. There’s no way you can plan a holiday if the time and destination combination is Pink. [Update: Observed that No of purple weeks are going up steadily- click here for 2012 week classification]
Red: All popular tourist seasons are classified as Red. If you want to visit their resort during these popular seasons either you’ll have to pay extra or reduce your number of days of stay.
White: Normal seasons
Blue: Least popular season-The cheapest option but if you go to a place in blue season you’re likely to regret as you wont be able to make best of your holiday(for example you can’t enjoy in Ooty during rainy season)
Red and pink seasons make up nearly 50% of the year and only rest 50% is open for you if you’ve opted for white season.
Flexibility: If you increase the number of people, you’ll either have to pay more or will have to compromise on number of days of stay. If you’re going on vacation during peak season (say when children would be having holidays) again you’ll have to pay more and or reduce number of days. This doesn’t make economical sense as the choice you have is very few.(You can carry forward your holiday, advance your holiday, split your holiday).
Once you commit, you can’t cancel or pull out.(Initial 10 days within which cancellation in allowed will be lost before you face reality) You can only send someone else in your place. For the amount and duration involved in the contract, I feel customers should get time till they experience their first holiday, before cancellation time ends. Club Mahindra should offer some commitments from its side w.r.t cost and availability, without which this membership is a long term obligation which doesn’t make much practical sense when you can just check in into any of the hotels with much ease. Taking one time vacation with Club Mahindra might be a risk free and better option than choosing a life membership.
Assess your style of holidaying:
What does a vacation mean to you? Some of us prefer intensive backpacking travel on shoestring budget, others prefer a remote place inside a forest, few might prefer a relaxed stay in a resort. The concept of relaxing at a resort is yet to gain popularity among Indians. For Indians, holidaying often means traveling a lot, visiting places of historic importance or places of tourist attractions etc. So evaluate all possibilities and options and decide if Club Mahindra Resorts are ideal for you.
Below diagram shows room layouts at few Club Mahindra resorts.
The verdict: Club Mahindra is not a comprehensive and all inclusive holiday option. Don't fall for their temptations like Sony Bravia. There's no commitment to limit the membership in proportion to resort capacity. No commitment that week classification will change unfavorably for members, no commitment that if quality of service drops some compensation will be given. So after say 10 years, you'll have to plan holiday not as per your convenience but as per the availability of their resorts.Sales staff make all promises under sun, besides hiding negative factors, to convince you to sign up. It is your responsibility to stay off the trap. Proceed with caution.
Disclaimer: All information provided here were as available at the time of composing this post (Jan-Feb 2007) and updated where possible. Check with Club Mahindra for current rates. I am not a Club Mahindra member and this analysis is purely from a 3rd party view. Please use your discretion.
All images and information courtesy: Club Mahindra.
Updates: Promoters of time share membership often claim that by subscribing to their schemes you get to enjoy tomorrows holidaying at todays expense. i.e. they claim hotel stay expense will increase over time and if you pay a lump sum amount and subscribe to their membership schemes right now, you will be protected from these hikes. However, there's no reason why hotel rates shouldn't come down after sometime. For example, air travel today is far more affordable than it was say 5 years ago. Similarly hotel stay may also become cheaper (like concept of no frills basic stay at minimum amount is already catching up) but Club Mahindra is unlikely to pass on such benefits if any, to you.
So considering advantages and disadvantages, my recommendation is "AVOID". If you're still tempted to become member, try this first before committing lakhs on life membership: Find a known person (friend/co worker/relative) who is a member and take his/her opinion. Else take their one time holiday, visit their resort, talk to other guests there who might be life members, take their opinion and judge your own experience there and then decide. DO NOT take on the spot decision irrespective of what temptations their salesmen create (Like this offer expires today midnight)...
While most of the readers have agreed with me, few say they are very happy with CM. If you’re lucky, if everything happens as promised great. But my primary concern still remains: What do I do if I cant get confirmed booking even when I plan several months in advance? Why there’s no SLA or compensation policy from CM on this? While I stick to my stand readers are under no obligation to take my opinion and are requested to use their own judgment after reading this post and comments.
Club Mahindra Escalation points
Level 1 : feedback@clubmahindra.com
Level 2 : qrc@clubmahindra.com
Level 3 : headmemberelations@clubmahindra.com
Timeshare Exit Option:
If you're looking for a way out of a Club Mahindra timeshare that you've already purchased, make sure you check out one of the various timeshare exit services available on the internet that can help. These services can help you sell your membership on the resale market to someone else and essentially end your maintenance fees.
Similar posts:
Major update: Club Mahindra has given Official Response to the concerns raised in this post. Read the complete interview with Club Mahindra Sr Manager to get got both side of the story so as to take unbiased judgement.
Quick in post Navigation: Pricing* Seasons* Disclaimer*Comments (490+ comments so far) * Club Mahindra Escalation Points *
Club Mahindra (Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India Limited) is part of Mahindra Group which is a $ 6.3 billion enterprise). Club Mahindra primarily own about 30 resorts across India and sell life memberships priced about 2-9lakhs + annual charges, under which members get to stay (Only if vacancy exists-No Commitment from Club Mahindra on this) for around 7 days a year at any of their resorts for next 25 years.
Before I go on to state why it’s not a good option to enroll for their life time membership, let me list what they claim to offer:
As per Club Mahindra, by becoming their life member you get (refer CM ad/website) following benefits:*7 days inflation free holiday at any of their resorts once an year for 25 years (Own a week at any club Mahindra resort for a week)
*Free 3 year membership to RCI and ability to enjoy international holidays at economic rates due to RCI affiliation.
*Flexibility to upgrade seasons and apartments
*Usually some entry gifts like Sony Bravia TV or free 3D/2N stay or other offers
*Invitation to member only events
Now this is what exactly they offer:
1. It is not a holiday package. All Club Mahindra offers is accommodation at their resort (subject to availability) for few days. You’ll have to pay for travel, food, site seeing and every other expense you might incur during your holiday. For a typical holiday, accommodation is only a part of the expense. So despite the membership you'll have to spend decent amount every year for holidaying.
2. Owning the resort for a week? I’m an owner if I have absolute power over something. I own a house if I have absolute power on the property (to sell, to lease, to rent or even to destroy). At Club Mahindra resort you’ll be one among several other guests. You're just allowed to use the rooms and don’t own anything there, sharing common utilities with other guests. There's absolutely no commitment if you'll get your yearly vacation. All depends on availability- how soon you can book and outsmart other members who'll be aiming for same unit.
3. Inflation free holiday !!!???: Mind you, the club mahindra timeshare holiday is not inflation free. Every year members will have to pay Annual Subscription fee (irrespective of usage, even when resorts r full and you're unable to get your week). This amount is is over and above the regular member ship fee which is in lakhs, described later and ranges anywhere between Rs. 8994 to 17717 (depending on Studio, 1BR or 2BR). This annual subscription fee may increase every year depending on Consumer Price Index and Wholesale Price Index. So the price a member end up paying will obviously keep increasing every year. (between 2007 and 2010, ASF has increased from Rs 6647 to 8994 for Studio Apartment and 13094 to 17717 for 2BR, roughly 10% increase every year-this provides for inflation and you'll have to pay for travel, food and other expenses at actual anyway).The Rs 9000 ASF might eventually increase to Rs 20000 an year say after 10 years. Hence, for the record, Club Mahindra membership is NOT inflation free.
4. Club Mahindra claims to offer five star accommodations but this can’t be validated. (only 5 resorts are RCI Gold crowned at the time of writing this post) If an ordinary well furnished apartment/Hotel unit is passed off as a five star accommodation how are you going to prove that it is or it is not a five star? Further, most of the Indians choose five star hotels only if the expense is reimbursed by their company. When they have to spend from their own pocket, they often choose basic economic accommodation. Staying at a five star place doesn’t make it a holiday and staying there may not be the sole objective behind holidaying.
5. Why 25 years? 25 years is not lifetime! If I’m 25 today I may live up to 85 years and I may wish to holiday till I reach the age of 75. But Club Mahindra terminates my membership by the time I reach the age of 50. By life membership I should get benefit as long as I’m alive. Else it’s not lifetime membership. To be fair, even life time validity of a sim card is 20 years and life imprisonment offered by Indian court is not really till death. So may be we should not complain on this.
6. Why there's no commitment from Club Mahindra regarding minimum time required to ensure guaranteed booking? Why there's no compensation policy if all their resorts get fully occupied and members are unable to take holidays even if they have planned months in advance? (While a member can't expect CM to get him confirmed booking within 15 days notice during a popular season and at a high demand resort, CM shouldn't expect its members to plan their holidays 6-12 months in advance. If Club Mahindra has enrolled more members than the capacity of resorts, some of them will be guaranteed to be disappointed every year. There has to be a SLA governed mechanism to ensure that all members get their share, without holidaying with Club Mahindra membership will be kind of luck based and equivalent of gambling.
2008 Data: For some 700 odd units Club Mahindra already had over 63000 members, which is nearly 2 times the capacity of resorts (No. of units (i.e rooms) * 52 weeks should be the max permissible member count, to ensure accommodation for all)) Also there were 51 Customer complaints pending against Club Mahindra amounting to Rs 5.62 million (As per detailed filed by Club Mahindra at SEBI for their IPO), mainly about false promises made by sales staff and not able to get accommodation.
7. Their commercials and sales staff are often known to mislead unsuspecting prospects by not revealing factors like ASF, how difficult it is to get a booking, cancellation terms, additional expenses etc. This is not a good, because many aren't familiar with the concept of timeshare membership, its pros and cons. They get fooled by exotic resorts shown by marketing staff and by the time they get complete picture, it will be too late to pull out of membership. (None of their front page ads mention ASF...)
CM agents are known to collect contact numbers of prospects in malls promising a lucky draw. Everyone will be called to the office later in the disguise of they having won a holiday, and elaborate presentations will be made to sign them up as members.
To your left is an old image of Holiday Coupon given to prospects. Many have stated that they could never utilize it.
The actual cost of Club Mahindra lifetime membership Go to TOP
The amount is fairly high from a middle class perspective. Refer the image below for the official Club Mahindra rate chart.
Club Mahindra April 2012 rate card
Club Mahindra April 2010 rate card
The official Club Mahindra website doesn’t mention how much their membership costs. The executives will not reveal the price till last moment. All these is probably because they’re sure the price will scare people away.
At the time of writing this post Club Mahindra lifetime membership costs anywhere between Rs 3,85,000 to Rs. 12,64,000 (and more, because this calculation is based on current ASF which keeps increasing every year). That is, Rs.1,60,311 to Rs 8,21,040 as membership fee (The exact amount depends on the season you choose to travel, the type of accommodation, number of EMIs etc) plus Rs. 2,25,000 to Rs 4,43,000 in annual subscription fee (That’s 9000*25 years to Rs 17,717 *25 years). In total, you’ll end up paying anywhere between Rs 3,85,000 to Rs. 12,64,000 all for accommodation, 7 days * 25 years=175 days. Meaning you’ll be paying Rs 2200 (during least popular tourist seasons with basic accommodation for 2 people) to Rs. 7223 per day of stay (in peak season for 2 bedroom apartment). Actual cost will be more than this as ASF increases every year. This is a relatively expensive deal because of reasons listed below
1. With the amount you pay as annual subscription fee (Say Rs 9000 per year), you can get a decent accommodation in hotels for 7 days. Why should you pay rest of the membership fee for? (say Rs 5350 every month as EMI for 36 months)
2. When you go on a holiday, most of your expenses will be on Travel, followed by food and accommodation. If someone is trying to sell accommodation as holiday package, better be aware.
3. While you have to pay lakhs of rupees as membership fee and keep paying ASF (irrespective of usage), Club Mahindra will provide confirmed booking only "Subject to availability". They have no commitment what so ever and no refund/compensation policy. There's nothing you can do if they say "Sorry No vacancy. Better luck next time" . Ideally they should have an SLA (like if you book say 45-60 days advance you must get confirmed booking or else should get some compensation like extending membership by another year, waiving ASF etc). But dont expect all that with Club Mahindra.
4. Assume for 5-10 years out of your 25 year tenure you don't get to holiday with them (when they say all their resorts are full-which may even be vacant for those non members who pay cash), any cost advantage you may be having in becoming life member will easily get eroded.
5. I saw recently in a full page newspaper ad (ClearTrip or MakeMyTrip I can't recall), travel agents are selling holidays at Club Mahindra resorts at quite low rates. As a member who has paid several lakh rupees decades in advance, you would expect a lowest price guarantee and a minimum service assurance. Without these, you may regret later.
6. You may not need the luxury of a resort every time. Homestay industry is picking up fast and for a fraction of cost, a home stay in a remote place can give great holiday experience.
How are the Club Mahindra Resorts?
I've experienced Coorg and Binsar Resorts. This and several other resorts are really good and offer a unique experience compared to typical hotel room. Because of the location and ambiance, they do make considerable difference in the user experience. However not all resorts are said to be of same standard. [I've also visited Munnar and Yercaud campus. Good ones again]
Other things you should know:
Seasons
Club Mahindra has classified 52 weeks of the year into 4 seasons
Pink: Extremely popular timings and seasons: Like New Year eve at Goa. The pink season is not open to members and are sold at premium rates. There’s no way you can plan a holiday if the time and destination combination is Pink. [Update: Observed that No of purple weeks are going up steadily- click here for 2012 week classification]
Red: All popular tourist seasons are classified as Red. If you want to visit their resort during these popular seasons either you’ll have to pay extra or reduce your number of days of stay.
White: Normal seasons
Blue: Least popular season-The cheapest option but if you go to a place in blue season you’re likely to regret as you wont be able to make best of your holiday(for example you can’t enjoy in Ooty during rainy season)
Red and pink seasons make up nearly 50% of the year and only rest 50% is open for you if you’ve opted for white season.
Flexibility: If you increase the number of people, you’ll either have to pay more or will have to compromise on number of days of stay. If you’re going on vacation during peak season (say when children would be having holidays) again you’ll have to pay more and or reduce number of days. This doesn’t make economical sense as the choice you have is very few.(You can carry forward your holiday, advance your holiday, split your holiday).
Once you commit, you can’t cancel or pull out.(Initial 10 days within which cancellation in allowed will be lost before you face reality) You can only send someone else in your place. For the amount and duration involved in the contract, I feel customers should get time till they experience their first holiday, before cancellation time ends. Club Mahindra should offer some commitments from its side w.r.t cost and availability, without which this membership is a long term obligation which doesn’t make much practical sense when you can just check in into any of the hotels with much ease. Taking one time vacation with Club Mahindra might be a risk free and better option than choosing a life membership.
Assess your style of holidaying:
What does a vacation mean to you? Some of us prefer intensive backpacking travel on shoestring budget, others prefer a remote place inside a forest, few might prefer a relaxed stay in a resort. The concept of relaxing at a resort is yet to gain popularity among Indians. For Indians, holidaying often means traveling a lot, visiting places of historic importance or places of tourist attractions etc. So evaluate all possibilities and options and decide if Club Mahindra Resorts are ideal for you.
Below diagram shows room layouts at few Club Mahindra resorts.
The verdict: Club Mahindra is not a comprehensive and all inclusive holiday option. Don't fall for their temptations like Sony Bravia. There's no commitment to limit the membership in proportion to resort capacity. No commitment that week classification will change unfavorably for members, no commitment that if quality of service drops some compensation will be given. So after say 10 years, you'll have to plan holiday not as per your convenience but as per the availability of their resorts.Sales staff make all promises under sun, besides hiding negative factors, to convince you to sign up. It is your responsibility to stay off the trap. Proceed with caution.Disclaimer: All information provided here were as available at the time of composing this post (Jan-Feb 2007) and updated where possible. Check with Club Mahindra for current rates. I am not a Club Mahindra member and this analysis is purely from a 3rd party view. Please use your discretion.
All images and information courtesy: Club Mahindra.
Updates: Promoters of time share membership often claim that by subscribing to their schemes you get to enjoy tomorrows holidaying at todays expense. i.e. they claim hotel stay expense will increase over time and if you pay a lump sum amount and subscribe to their membership schemes right now, you will be protected from these hikes. However, there's no reason why hotel rates shouldn't come down after sometime. For example, air travel today is far more affordable than it was say 5 years ago. Similarly hotel stay may also become cheaper (like concept of no frills basic stay at minimum amount is already catching up) but Club Mahindra is unlikely to pass on such benefits if any, to you.
So considering advantages and disadvantages, my recommendation is "AVOID". If you're still tempted to become member, try this first before committing lakhs on life membership: Find a known person (friend/co worker/relative) who is a member and take his/her opinion. Else take their one time holiday, visit their resort, talk to other guests there who might be life members, take their opinion and judge your own experience there and then decide. DO NOT take on the spot decision irrespective of what temptations their salesmen create (Like this offer expires today midnight)...
While most of the readers have agreed with me, few say they are very happy with CM. If you’re lucky, if everything happens as promised great. But my primary concern still remains: What do I do if I cant get confirmed booking even when I plan several months in advance? Why there’s no SLA or compensation policy from CM on this? While I stick to my stand readers are under no obligation to take my opinion and are requested to use their own judgment after reading this post and comments.
If your concerns are not addressed by your local CM Rep or call centre, below are the escalation points you can make use of:
Other popular and related articles by this blogger: Wish to BUY/SELL a used Club Mahindra membership?- Visit this page
1. My review of Zest Breaks 2. Analysis of 100+ Comments received at this post 3. Detailed review of Club Mahindra Kodagu Valley (Coorg Resort) 4. Interview with Club Mahindra's Sr. Manager, Marketing on my concerns about timeshare 5. CM Marketing Head answers to several concerns related to CM's business
Level 1 : feedback@clubmahindra.com
Level 2 : qrc@clubmahindra.com
Level 3 : headmemberelations@clubmahindra.com
Timeshare Exit Option:
If you're looking for a way out of a Club Mahindra timeshare that you've already purchased, make sure you check out one of the various timeshare exit services available on the internet that can help. These services can help you sell your membership on the resale market to someone else and essentially end your maintenance fees.
Similar posts:
Business: Pros and Cons of Dell * Magic Holidays Timeshare
More Product/Service Reviews * Buy/Sell used timeshare membership* CM Resort Reviews: Kodagu Valley Coorg * Binsar Valley *
Travel: Skanda Giri Bangalore * Yercaud * Wayanad * Binsar * Talakona * Singapore
Go to TOP
More Product/Service Reviews * Buy/Sell used timeshare membership* CM Resort Reviews: Kodagu Valley Coorg * Binsar Valley *
Travel: Skanda Giri Bangalore * Yercaud * Wayanad * Binsar * Talakona * Singapore
Go to TOP
For the information of all readers, some new developments on my ClubMahindra issue: I got phone calls and an email from one Gayathri Umashankar, Manager - Member Relations (Corporate), Chennai - saying they are refunding a part of my money. The body of the email is reproduced below:
ReplyDelete"Dear Dr. Sengupta
It was pleasure speaking to you today.
I sincerely regret that we have not been able to retain you as our Member. As discussed, we will process cancellation of your membership immediately and refund the amount after deducting the following charges. We are doing this as a very special case for you and we are confident that you will re consider your decision at some point in the future. Deduction details are as below:
Amount Paid as on date by you: Rs.41880
Standard deduction @10% on the amount paid by you: Rs.4188/-
RCi Enrollment fee: Rs.3000/-
Total Deduction: Rs.7188/-
Balance refund payable to you Rs.34692
I also wish to confirm that we will dispatching the refund latest by 10th May'08.
Trust this clarifies.
We look forward to having you back as our valuable Member of Club Mahindra at some point in the near future."
I am glad this is a beginning, but I am not prepared to be penalized even the Rs. 7188 that the Company tells me will be deducted from my account. Since I have used none of their facilities or free offers, there is no cost incurred to the company anyway. The lady calling said the cost to MHRIL included man-hours in processing my membership - my contention is that I have lost far more man-hours (and far more expensive man-hours as a medical professional) in pursuing the Company to get justice. But then, justice can't be quantified only in terms of money, and I shall continue to escalate the issue until good sense prevails with the Company.
Dear Shri,
ReplyDeletesurfing on the net & then suddenly i got this piece of controversy. my friend told me regarding his immediate involvement with CM and advised that i should also be a member. being a finance professional and putting certain questions to him, he was totally perplexed what to do. i only said to him "ONLY GOD CAN SAVE CERTAIN FOOLS" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Before reading this blog I was actually evaluating the clubs so that I can get a membership. But now i think I need to add many more parameters to my analysis. Thanks, keep us posted.
ReplyDelete--Ashish Kanak
hi,
ReplyDeleteI joined club mahindra in Feb 2008 and paid them Rs 55292. Within a week of joining i realized how bad they were as they could get me a room during off season in Goa. So i cancelled within 7 days of joining and got a confirmation email.
And since then all i am doing is waiting and calling for my refund. Since Feb 2008, every time i call i get a processing status or i get a new date. At times the dates move by a week and at times a month. In April it was last week of the month. In the last week, it became middle of May. In May it became Jun 10.....so i have to continue to wait.
I shouted, yelled, sweet talked, tried to convince...nothing works as they just throw a date and the date comes and goes....
I think this company is a fraud. How can i get my money back or will i ever get it back ? How can such a company with gross malpractices and such fraudulent intent survive in this day and age ? What can we do to penalize them and to stop their conniving ways ?
Please advise....is there a CM representative on this forum who can help.
Deepak Amin
deepakamin@gmail.com
ID # 619244
@ Dr. Sengupta
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experience.
We wish you success in getting back rest of the money.
@Anon:
But There are several happy customers too. May be they were lucky not to face any inconvenience.
@Ashish
Thanks for dropping by. Yup will try to keep everyone posted.
@Deepak
Unfortunately there're no CM representatives answering your concerns here. May be you can contact other members who are exploring legal options to get their money back and that might help.
Escalate to company top management and see if they respond.
Best wishes.
Myself being a victim, there doesnt seem to be means for redressal.
ReplyDeleteFeedback/emails elicits automated "Cut & Paste" responses.
Am referring to unjustified ASF concept, where Timeshare owners are forced to fork out 7k (in my case) every year (akin to the AMC), regardless of usage of Resort. When my wife was pregnant, we could not travel for two years, but had to shell out the ASF amount, both the years.
Club Mahindra (CM) has now removed the wet kitchens and replacing with microwave (dry kitchenette). For budget conscious families such as ours, the time share concept of some minimal cooking, is defeated.
Having said all this, we continue to holiday and spend exorbitantly, as we have no other choice.
To rub it in, we now realise that the inventory of rooms/resorts are grossly insufficient to the number of CM members - consequently, we dont get reservations for resorts of our choice. When we book 3 months in advance, we are informed of the "full" status and that the resorts get booked as early as 6 months in advance.
Can you beat this pre-holiday experience?
DEAR shrinidhi, thanks for the quick response, i really appreciate the time and effort put forth by.. your critical analysis of CM. its works well for satisfied members like me. govts. function better with strong and effective opposition.i accept your fact that there are many existing unsatisfied customers who have paid in lakhs for the membership, and again Reiterating that little or no homework has BEEN DONE before spending lakhs.for example i have no issue regarding booking Availability as i always start 6 months in advance. iam a white 1br member and prefer the off to mid season AWAY FROM THE MADDENING CROWD.I have paid 2.33 lacs+ 3.96 LACS ASF AT mean average price x25 years = 6.29 /25 =25160 /7=3594 /2=1797 (rate for a double room 2 pax). the interest on 2.33 takes care of the inflation.+ interest saved on 3.96 which was not paid in one go. you will not get a 4* dbl room even if you double the amount (i.e. Rs. 1797 ). I WOULD DEFINETLY AGREE THAT FOR THE SAME ROOM IF A RED OR PURPLE MEMBER PAYS 10 TO 15 LACS JUST TO BE ABLE TO AVAIL A PEAK SEASON AT 40 TO 50 YEARS OF AGE IS A POOR CHOICE.CM TAKES ADVANTAGE OF THIS GULLIBILITY.
ReplyDeleteHi Ajay,
ReplyDeleteSome times these simple calculations are quite misleading. Look on charts available @
http://what-goes-in-my-mind.blogspot.com/2007/09/what-are-you-paying-for-your-timeshare.html
for more detailed calculation.
It may still be a value buy in terms of per night cost to many people. But for many people this per night cost is not a affordable option.
Problem comes when marketing staff over promises to customer and gives feeling that average per night cost will be far less after deducting free items/weeks/benefits which are either not delivered as it is, some are never delivered as they were false promises in first place.
People are given complimentary weeks and are given impression : "of course as you are buying Red membership you will get these complimentary booking in Red season only" and then later on booking staff says these booking can not be made in Red season.
There are so many such examples in different variations in these comments and else where on the web.
If these are not sufficient I can give many more with the proof.
Dear Narayanan AP,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your concerns. 100s of other comments also share similar concerns...
Ajay,
So you are saying those who buying red and purple memberships are committing big mistake..
Any comments on Bhupesh's reply and concerns shared by other comments in this post?
Bhupesh: thanks for stepping in
bhupesh,
ReplyDeleteyour facts are great stuff. Wish i had the time and energy to take CM to task and appropriate redressals.
Narayanan
WELL AS YOU AGREE THAT IT MAY BE VALUE IN TERMS OF PER NIGHT COST. So it basically boils down to the fact that timeshare is actually cost per night,in a great location,out of the city hustle & bustle with great in house activities, where you can relax and enjoy in a 3* facility whereby with (only club mahindra) you get 4*, 5* standards in half the resorts without any extra cost. THATS A PURE BONUS. some guys expect things for free. YES I AGAIN RETEIRATE THAT red /purple membership is not worth the money for the facts as given by me earlier. it remains a poor choice. AS REGARDS to promises gone SOUR , WELL NO COMPANY ON PLANET EARTH HAS A SALES TEAM OF SWAMI VIVEKANAND. IT is promises= own IQ+ HOMEWORK.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteMrudul
ReplyDeleteme.usual.suspect@gmail.com
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@Narayanan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting again. Explore what best you can make of your membership. It is worth escalating matters as Bhupesh did-give it a try.
Ajay,
You're publishing your comment 3 times and helping increasing comment count of this article...
"WELL NO COMPANY ON PLANET EARTH HAS A SALES TEAM OF SWAMI VIVEKANAND."- True. But timeshare is a relatively new concept in India and many people dont know about it properly. They trust the Mahindra brand name and attractive promises made by sales people and often swipe their card in the first meet itself... It may take some time for awareness to build.
Mrudal,
Thanks for sharing the info about the meet.
hi shrinidhi, it was not my intent to increase comment count, i ain,t computer savvy hence the error( couldn't even delete it). as acknowledged earlier i appreciate the time and effort put forth by you critically analyzing timeshare, but i feel you are being biased towards club mahindra. i accept that many who are unaware of timeshare concept and fall prey to dubious sales gizmos,and it hurts when it comes from CM SALES GUYS.I DON'T AGREE THAT TIMESHARE BY ITSELF IS NOT GOOD IN THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE. your posts give a negative verdict,sending wrong signals to prospective buyers .I wonder what kind of awareness will be build by your posts, except people shying away from this wonderful concept of timeshare,WHICH CAME TO INDIA 20 YEARS BACK.( the best we have in india is CLUB MAHINDRA )ONE'S HONEY MAY OTHER'S POISON. NO OFENCE JUST A HEALTHY POINT.
ReplyDeleteDear Ajay...
ReplyDeleteDont take it too seriously (tripple comments)-Its fine. Didn't mean to hurt you when I said about comment count.
Coming back to the issue, I haven't said timeshare is a bad idea. In theory yes, it sounds excellent. If a timeshare company has a foolproof business plan to achieve that, then it is great. But unfortunately that is not the case when it comes to ground reality.
I would have happily recommended club mahindra if only they could provide couple of simple features like these:
1. Stop enrolling members excess to the capacity of their resorts
2.Minimum service guarantee-as a member I have no clue when and which resorts other members will book. Best I can do is plan well in advance, say 3-4 months in advance. As long as I plan within a reasonable time (say 3 months) CM should assure guaranteed booking for me (or compensate me approriately for not being able to accomodate me). Even if I plan 6 months ahead there is no guarantee of getting an accomodation-which is bad.
They hustle you into taking a decision `TODAY', without your having thought over the matter. Good decisions need time to make and adequate application of mind. Don't fall for sales tactics which do not allow you your space and time to decide on a long term financial commitment. After all, its your hard earned money and your life.
ReplyDeleteNice summary Nidhi. Your article double confirmed my suspicion that CM sales guys are cheating...after the last weekened encounter with them in CM office.
ReplyDeleteWho said blogging hurts :-)
This blog has evolved over time and I believe Shrinidhi will change it in future also. Earlier it' title was
ReplyDeleteNever-go-for-club-mahindra-membership Now it is. ..
Cons & Pros-Club Mahindra Holidays Timeshare Membership
Concept is good and also a bed one ..
Once you have purchased it you loose your consumer power. Now it is on the company management how good they run their business and care their customer. many companies in India and else where have gone burst leaving customer no where. Unlike insurance (another long term commitment product) there is no regulator for timeshare industry in India, self regulation does not seems to be working enough in customer' favor.
Though some one may say that you can sell your membership but once it is in your name you loose straight 30% -50% value on the first day it self, it is quite a big amount for such products.
@Anon:
ReplyDeleteYes. All sales people try to close the deal on the spot. But with CM impact is kind a huge...
@Sarat:
Thanks
@Bhupesh:
Yes, title was changed, as I decided to give both side of the view to readers and let them decide, instead of enforcing my opinion.
hello mr hande i welcome the blog name change it certainly changes the perception. i have raised the issue of certain features with CM ( i am totally with you on this) AS MENTIONED ON YOUR LAST POST TO ME. i should get an answer soon ,a positive one hopefully.will let you know as it come.
ReplyDeleteAjay,
ReplyDeleteOk. Thanks. Lets hope for better...
Hi Nidhi,
ReplyDeleteNice work...I dont understand why Mahindra group is backing this unethical business model. This is a concept copied from USA where the time sharing holiday business is a success.But as you have said it is not at all applicable in India. Here the consumer's behaviour is different. And people dont want all holidays to spend in a 5 star environment. I think the only issue over here is that the Club Mahindra is asking people to pay upfront and build up there own landbank.On one side they talk about owning a property and on the other they are not even giving bookings 5 months prior. And now they are raising money thru an IPO and asking investors to put there into this business. God bless their customers and shareholders.
NIhal,
ReplyDeleteYes...well summed up...
Thanks.
Shrinidhi,
ReplyDeleteIts surprising that in today's day & age, a company so unscruplous in customer service & blatant in making sales commitments that are not kept, still not only is surviving but flourishing & planning an IPO ! Being a marketeer myself I am appalled. In my case I wrote to Ramesh Ramanthan & Ajay Nambiar. They put me onto Ms Gayathri who in my judgement (of 17 years in sales & Marketing) is one the worst samples of Customer Relationship managers. Either her own integrity is questionable OR she has been trained & coached to "handle" complaining customers. She had the cheek to reword my feedback & present it back to me as a non-issue.
CB can improve IF they want to improve. I am convinced that there is no such intent. Intent is growth & profit at any cost.
Hi Tapan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts. Agreed-They have lots of potential to improve but somewhere I feel they are contempt the way it is going-new member enrollment is happening as per target and they are under no obligation to ensure that existing members get to enjoy their holidays (Sorry-all our resorts are full-Thanks for your money-now go elsewhere for your holiday)...
Btb all 3 of your blogs are great...
Hi Nidhi,
ReplyDeleteNice post. Take it to the next level. As i can see from here there are members who are not satisfied with their membership with CM. CM is still marketing their serives like anything. Why not start a blog where in the already existing members can sell their membership to the new aspirants. These way new members will be required to pay less and old dis-satisfied members can get atleast some of their money back. Just give it a thought.
Nitin,
ReplyDeleteWe've already thought about it and a blog post for that has already been launched. Check out this post:
http://www.enidhi.net/2008/04/buy-sell-used-clubmahindra-membership.html
We've given a provision wherein readers and submit their membership details and this will be visible for others who may be looking to buy one. We've got several entries already.
Thanks.
Little over a year ago, I bought a Club Mahindra life membership and I feel it to be one of my biggest mistakes in life. What I am describing here are my views and I have spent a lot of time and effort in trying to speak to Club Mahindra representatives to resolve the issues that I am facing but seems none of the Member Relations Cell Managers have time to discuss issues faced by “members”, they are probably busy spending time enticing unaware and unassuming people in buying this membership and then leave them to rue their decisions.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was happy (read: not a club mahindra member), I was enticed to one of the club Mahindra centre in Gurgaon and a representative spent a considerable time explaining to me the benefits of buying a life membership of Club Mahindra. As in any sales pitch, the nice things were dwelt upon and the issues were not touched or brushed aside with contempt – as if such issues were trivial. I (and probably many others like me) were fooled by this sales pitch.
As per Club Mahindra, by becoming their life member one is promised the following benefits:
• Inflation free family holidays for the next 25 years
• Own a week every year at any Club Mahindra resort or any other affiliated resort in India
• Free three year membership (extendable) to RCI that allows you to holiday at more than 3700 locations worldwide, at Indian prices
• Flexibility in upgrading seasons and apartments upon request.
• Invitation to member meets and other member activities organized by us.
These benefits are explained to prospective member and a very rosy picture is painted about the offerings, but what hits one later are the “Conditions Apply” scenarios – the fine prints.
“Own a week every year at any Club Mahindra resort or any other affiliated resort in India”
The fine print: “subject to availability”.
“Flexibility in upgrading seasons and apartments upon request.”
The fine print: “holidays in a higher season can be booked less than 15 days prior to the check in date subject to the availability”
Agreed, these are reasonable constraint, but there is more hidden than exposed by these fine prints. You can book a vacation only for your entitled “season”. Club Mahindra does not provide any detail on what is the ratio of the number of members for a season and the total availability across all its resorts for the specified season. What is the probability that a member trying to book a holiday in his season of entitlement will get a confirmed booking if he is calling more than 15 days in advance? If a member can only make a reservation in a higher season than his season of entitlement, it doesn’t seem to be “flexible” at all. How practical is this constraint? How many people start planning a vacation less than 15 days in advance? This would have seemed very logical if Club Mahindra guaranteed a confirmed booking (or atleast a high probability of one) when a member books a holiday in his entitled season and more than 15 days in advance. This, when the travel related sites keep posting availability at Club Mahindra resorts when a member is denied a reservation at the same resort, seems like cheating.
After more than eight months since my initial complaint, I am yet to get any answer to the following questions:
1. A member cannot book a vacation in a season rated higher than the entitled season more than 15 days in advance. How practical is this? Who can wait till the last 15 days to plan a vacation?
2. Although CMH doesnt allow members to book vacation in a season higher than the entitled season more than 15 days in advance, it does allow members to book a vacation in any season 'lower' than the entitlement at any time. Does this not put CMH members at a disadvantage?
3. Although CMH is registering new members in the higher seasons, they are not allowing existing members to upgrade their membership to a higher season. Is this practice fair?
4. CMH does not provide any guarantee that a member booking a vacation in their entitled season will get a confirmed booking up to 15 days in advance. It does not even mention what is the probability for a member booking a vacation in their entitled season to get a confirmed booking.
5. CMH does not guarantee any ratio for the minimum number of weeks in a particular season at its resorts. It does mention that the classification of weeks in seasons might change, which could possibly lead to lesser and lesser number of weeks in the “cheaper” seasons. Shouldn’t CMH guarantee a minimum percentage of weeks in a season at all of its resorts?
6. When CMH representatives are talking to potential customers, they elaborate that members can book vacations in seasons other than their entitlement with some changes in their entitled number of days but they never clearly specify that there is a restriction on booking in higher seasons more than 15 days in advance. Does this not amount to cheating?
7. CMH representatives offer gift certificates for travel to some CMH resort for a 'session' at their office to potential customers where they inform them about the benefits of being a CMH member. When giving the certificate, they don’t mention that this free vacation will not be allowed over a weekend. Neither is this fact mentioned on the Gift Certificate. But when one tries to book this 'free' vacation, people are told that this 'free' vacation cannot be availed on a weekend. Is this not misleading people?
8. Despite repeated attempts to find out the process to get my membership closed and my fee refunded, the CMH representatives’ don’t even talk about this. They keep promising to get back soon and then don’t call/reply. Is this not harassment?
9. CMH is on a spree in enlisting more and more members. At the same time, they are not adding resorts at the same rate. This will (probably already has) lead to a situation that the ratio of members with entitlement in a particular season to the available accomodation at all CMH resorts in the particular season to be very low. This will also lead to more demands and a high rate of rejection on the basis of non availability of accommodation. Is this fair practice?
I would recommend all of you to think hard before you chose to spend your money in buying a Club Mahindra membership. If after all the thinking, you still want to go for this membership, I will recommend you to talk to me and I will try to convince you one more time to change your mind. If in spite of my last attempt, you are still adamant on your decision, may I offer you the deal of buying my membership (yes, it is transferable) at a discounted price?
Welcome to the disgruntled club. I have been a CMH member since 2000; it was ok then. When they introduced the ASF concept, it hits you hard. Since then, and with the non-flexiblity in the reservation, it has not been good. However, we have been consistently using the holidays - to the resorts that are available - repeating visits to Goa, Munnar, and other affiliate resorts.
ReplyDeleteam informed that Manali kind or resorts are booked 6 months in advance!!! Must admit that the experience at the resort is alright - but one is forever peeved, feeling cheated - and that wipes out all the good feeling.
Dear Raj Jha,
ReplyDeleteYour comment is detailed enough and qualifies as a post itself.
In fact most of the concerns you've raised-we've already raised them with Club Mahindra senior executives. You may wish to check this post, for a complete list of questions we asked and the response we got:
http://www.enidhi.net/2008/04/club-mahindra-holidays-ipo.html
Despite bringing all these shortfalls and flaws to their attention, the response was pretty diplomatic and doesn't look like they are serious about setting things right.
Also we've a page where those willing to sell/buy used timeshare membership can put their membership for sale- We've got dozens of entries so far-more than 90% willing to sell, and no one to buy- have a look:
http://www.enidhi.net/2008/04/buy-sell-used-clubmahindra-membership.html
Thanks.
@Apn, thanks for visiting again.
Hi Everyone,
ReplyDeleteIf someone is interested to sell off membership, please write to me deepban1@gmail.com
Thanks
Deepak
Deepak,
ReplyDeleteDozens of offers waiting to be picked up- Just have a look at this page, pick the one you like, contact the owner using contact information provided...
http://www.enidhi.net/2008/04/buy-sell-used-clubmahindra-membership.html
An experience with Club Mahindra has been one of the most disappointing and harsh one for me.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, their sales representative had shown me their offer and other details on the 17th of January. He also confirmed to me (when he has come to my office in Bangalore) that in case I decided to choose otherwise, I could decline the membership before 27th of Jan, 2008 and that my credit card wouldn’t be charged. I had called both the sales representative and also the head of their Bangalore branch on the 25th of January and had declined the membership. However, I was still enrolled as a member and my credit card charged, which was HIGHLY UNACCEPTABLE. I had immediately raised this concern with both the Bangalore Sales Head and their Helpdesk.
I have since been knocking their door regularly for the return payment as well as the interest charges on my card due to their unwantedly charging my card, which didn’t happen at all during February (inspite of regular calls from me). It took more than a month for them to issue me a return cheque even though I had requested strongly for a direct debit onto my credit card. That too has fallen to deaf ears.
I guess customer responsiveness and ethics are two words Club Mahindra has never heard of.
I am planning to sue them very soon. I would request the working people to forward this mail to the HR of their organizations so that this fast spreading malice can be prevented.
Another bad instance was when I tried to contact Club Mahindra to ask for my finance damages. I met with one of the "so called" managers there, who at first tried to look serious as if Customer Service were his first priority. However he soon realized that his sales people had indeeed goofed up and tried his best to impress upon me that it was my fault.
On insisting, the concerned Sles person Mr. Rajneesh showed up and acknowledged that indded he had received my call for stopping the membership request. BUT WAIT, THE MOST SHOCKING PART OF THE WHOLE STORY IS THAT HE TOLD IN FORNT OF EVERYBODY THAT HIS SUPERIOR (Mr. VINOD , I AM NOT SURE IF I GET THIS NAME CORRECT) HAS ASKED HIM TO FORCIBLY ENROL ME INTO THE MEMBERSHIP.....which according to me and I guess I speak on behalf of every genuine consumer is one of the blatant examples of malpractices and frauds employed by Club "malpractice" Mahindra to meet its sales targets and cajole genuine, trusting consumers like me.
I don't intend to sensationalize this but this goes out to every prospective consumer to think not twice but 10 times before getting into any dealing wth Club Mahindra.
I intend to carry on my propaganda against Club Mahindra till the time it apologizes to me and pays me my dues.
An exasperated Consumer,
Gaurav
Hi All,Shrinidhi,
ReplyDeleteLogging in to your blog after a long time,but happier this time,as NO LONGER A CLUB MAHINDRA MEMBER - managed to sell it to someone at my purchase price,so I did lose some interest on a lakh rupees,but that z that.
But it is too bad that there are so many more ppl duped by mahindra,and very unfortunate that none of us seems to have serious time and inclination to take care of the buggers. I for one am totally available to have proceedings against them(even though I am free from the rascals),so if the members here plan to collectively sue them,count me in.
Ciao Everyone
Nishu Kohli
Hi Gaurav...
ReplyDeleteyet another testimonial... i don't know what to say...
@Nishu
Welcome back.
Hi Srininidhi,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing all the information.
I have purchased the white membership just today with lots of hopes for it. I was not sure if i really wanted it and i was just searching on the internet for review comments etc but after looking at your post i am confirmed that I do not wish to continue and I want my money back. I have paid Rs 29796/- already.
Please advice how can i get that back?
Regards
Nitin
Hi Nitin,
ReplyDeleteSimply write a latter in this regard, first mail it to feedback@clubmahindra.com, then give same latter to the office from where you purchased this membership. DO not forget to take sign with date on a second copy of the latter as proof of the delivery.
Hi Bhupesh,
ReplyDeleteThanks. I read everything that i signed yesterday. It says the charges that I paid are *non-refundable*.
Do you think i should ask for the refund when they have already written that it is non-refundable.
OR
I should wait to get my membership number and my *complementary trips*
and at least enjoy them for the given money. and after the trips stop payment for the EMI (48 months) That way I would atleast get something out of Rs30K i have paid?
Has anyone being refunded any money from CM?
Regards
Nitin
Hi Nitin,
ReplyDeleteClubMahindra practice 10-day (not 10 working days) free-look period. During which you can cancel your membership without any charge. If you are with in those 10 days period , just shoot this latter you may withdraw it latter on.
You will get membership kit only after 2weeks, it may take one month or so also.
If you feel it does not suite you do not get into thought of using 30k worth of services .. as there might be many conditions attached with *complementary trips* like. .. only in white or blue season, or you may not get reservation in August it self and you may end up paying few EMI on your card, ... etc..
Call there Chennai office or call center if you want to ensure cancellation rules .. but keep in mind that 10 days period.
Bhupesh...
ReplyDeleteThanks for stepping in and responding to Nitin
Nitin,
I don't have anything else to add than what Bhupesh has suggested... But I suspect you've already crossed your 10 days period..
A physical gift like a TV or Handycam or laptop etc would have been more beneficial than holiday coupens, which won't materialize that easily.
There're many others who have commented in this blog-you can consider getting in touch with them to see if they have any additional suggestions.
Best wishes.
Thanks Srini and Bhupesh,
ReplyDeleteI am about to write an email at feedback@ cm
but i now realized that i do not have a membership number or any other number that i would wish to cancel.
So what should i right in an email?
I called up cm customer care - they say that my name does not appear in their software as membership number has not be generated. And it take 7-10 days before we get it..
now, look in period is 10 days and i donot have any way to cancel for those number of days !!!!!
Regards
Nitin
Hi Nitin,
ReplyDeleteDo not worry about all this .. , write a letter to the branch from where you have purchased this membership, send it to them by registered post or good if you give them personally (do not forget to take sign and date on the second copy of the letter, and do it with in 10 days). I was asking you to send same letter ( whatever you may have written there) to feedback@
hope it helps.
You may send mail to Srini for quick response, he would not mind :)
I am a blue studio member for last 4 years. I used to like it , thought found it very expensive. As we moved out of India, I have been trying to get hold of them to cancel my membership and get me a refund. They conveniently ignore all emails, dont return phone calls. How do I get a partial refund by terminating my membership. I put it for sale on the spreadsheet provided on one of the links here.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of Timeshare Companies has seen a surge in recent past. There has been approximately 40 Timeshare Companies operating 80 resorts in India with a combined membership base of nearly 2,25,000 members. Despite this it is unfortunate that there is no Regulatory Body in place to monitor the operations of these Companies and to protect the interests and rights of its members.
ReplyDeleteTimeshareforumindia.com is an initiative by a group of professionals to provide a forum to the members across several timeshare companies to come together for expressing their grievances/ problems and taking appropriate measures. It is also a step towards providing a platform to the members to come together and formulate an action plan.
Let us all come together, join this movement and raise our voice and concern at Timeshareforumindia.com
Hi Srinidhi,
ReplyDeleteWe don't see any new post after april 30. what's the reason.
Safdar.
@Nitin
ReplyDeleteAs Bhupesh said, you need to express your desire to cancel membership within 10 days of making first payment. Do that in a way that you have some proof that you’ve changed your mind within 10 days. If this criteria is taken care rest can be fought later.
@ Neelam:
As per CM terms and conditions there’s no provision to cancel your membership mid-term and claim a refund. Your best bargain seems to be either put it for sale (as you did) or if you’re able to get a booking ask your friends/relatives in India to go and take a holiday. Another option is to take a legal course, which may not be practical if you’re out of India and do not have any strong reason to sue Club Mahindra
@Anon 1:
Had a look at your forum-Doesn’t have any contents what so ever. Only some ads. UI looks boring. Kindly work a bit on these lines. All the best.
@ Safdar:
Hello…
What do you mean “No posts after April 30th”? Please visit the May, June and July archives-so many interesting posts out there…
May be you meant “No post on Club Mahindra”. If that’s the case, please note that this blog is not dedicated to Club Mahindra. Club Mahindra is just one of the several products/services reviewed in this blog. I’ve reviewed so many other companies/business ventures-sort by label “Product and service reviews”… Just that CM post happens to be the most popular post on this blog till date...
Hi nidhi, with ref. to my post in june there is definately some ambiguity within the club mahindra setup, as they have failed to address my query to.... Stop enrolling members excess to the capacity of their resorts...anyway lets hope they adhere to better business ethics someday for their own benefit. my purpose of this post was that wish you could review all the cmhr resorts one by one like coorg. it would be really helpful. could you enlighten if self drive taxis/cars are available for a munnar trip for 6/7 days and if so how do you go about it and what would it cost.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNice to see this post crossing 250 comments mark.
ReplyDelete@Ajay:
I got a complementary stay at Coorg, hence reviewed it. Probably CM is unhappy that despite enjoying a free stay I am not writing positive review about CM...
Can't afford to tour all their resorts at my own expense for the sake of reviewing... may be sometime in future...
Regarding Munnar... self drive cars are available in Chennai. Check this post for more details on self drive rentals: www.enidhi.net/2008/06/self-drive-car-rentals-india-advice.html
Cost: Depending the car you chose rent for a week can range from Rs 10000-20000, fuel expense extra (Chennai to Munnar=600 kms)
Hope this helps
Hi Srinidhi,
ReplyDeleteActually I had added your post under favourtite list sometimes by the end of April. And when I went to your blogs using my favourite list, I was at the old posts. Later I saw "Newest Posts" options. That is why I wrote no posts aftefr April30.
Anyway, can Dr. S. Sengupta share his mail id or contact number. I just want to discuss with him how could he made CM to refund most of his money after cancellation request. I too am trying for the cancellation.
Safdar.
sfdr_imam@rediffmail.com
@ Safdar,
ReplyDeleteI still didn't get your explanation... but got some rough idea and that's fine. Don't take my previous reply seriously.
I've forwarded your comment to Dr Sengupta-let him use his discretion and contact you.
Cheers! Nidhi
Hi Shrinidhi,
ReplyDeleteI read your blog on Club Mahindra, have very useful information on Mahindra Club.
I have a very good holiday package other than club mahindra at much lesser cost than club mahindra and plus more destinations.
If you would be interested please contact me on dhiraj.indhankar@gmail.com, 09373235373
Thanks
Dhiraj
Dhiraj,
ReplyDeleteWhatever holiday package/offer you have share the details here as a comment-let others discuss the merits of the same... What is so secretive in it that you want people to mail you?
Hi Srinidhi,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing experiences of members. I had applied for Club Mahindra Membership and after 2 days I wrote an application to withdraw the membership application, because of some family issues. I handed over this application personally to Mahindra's sales person and took the signature on copy for proof of receipt of application. They said that I will get refund in 30-45 days. FYI, I don't have application reference no and cancellation reference no.
I just gone through this blog and as many members experienced the difficulty in getting money back. I am also worried about my refund. Could you provide me contact Nos or emails of their top level authorities?
Hi Chitrang,
ReplyDeleteTo be doubly sure you can mail to feedback@clubmahindra.com and copy same to ajay.nambiar@clubmahindra.com. (Head Member Relations)
or send a copy of acknowledgment to Chennai office of ClubMahindra.
Hope it helps.
Thanks Bhupesh,
ReplyDeleteIt will certainly help.
@ Bhupesh,
ReplyDeleteThanks for stepping in and providing necessary details.
@ Chitrang
best wishes. be sure to come back and share your experiences in recovery.
I was also called by club mahindra last year and the sales person tried every bit of trick to sign me a contract...And was said that they would refund me the whole amt back in 10 days if u wish to change the decision..
ReplyDeleteI agreed. Since I had only 2000 bux in my pocket, i paid 2k bux(which he dint agree at first), and joined..But after reading all those posts, I decided to change my mind...and immediately next day i went him n demanded my money back..Again he tried all possible ways to change my decision, but since i knew that they r only good at cheating, i stood firm n took my money back..Thanks god i am not the member of them..Also Thanks all the members of internet community for posting their views,as a result saving my valuable money..
Also, When i was signing a deal, they said only last day to sign, only 1 member space left, only today if u sign a contract u will get a TV set blah blah blah,..then i came to know they r saying these words from ages to lure customers...:D
Oh Yes! there run promotion year around, only gift item gets changed.
ReplyDeleteIf you are a regular reader of TOI (not sure if they run regular advertisement in other news daily or not). You must have noticed it otherwise see archived paper from
http://epaper.timesofindia.com
or look at it @
http://what-goes-in-my-mind.blogspot.com/2008/04/club-mahindra-different-cities.html
@ dignesh,
ReplyDeleteNot just CM, almost all companies behave like this- as if they are going to shut shop from tomorrow and tempt prospects to buy right here right now...
I am an unfortunate member of club mahindra. I find club mahindra staff totally lack professionalism.
ReplyDeleteI had some issues and wrote emails to every so called manager of club mahindra, they don't think customers are worth answering to emails.
Each one in this organisation is slave of their computer system. For every thing you ask, they give one and only answer, their system does not allow.
If you ask any details from them only answer is their managers are attending conference, will tell they will be get back to you later and they never get back to you.
They have taken clients for granted and there is NO management in this organization. I doubt this organization will survive longer and feel fees paid for 25 years of membership is in drains.
Their sales team sells membership by telling all fairy tales and once they collect membership fees they don't care for their customers.
Their sales person can keep memebers payment cheques for months, no will question them, instead they will keep calling members asking why payment is not made.
They offer for upgrade of membership and they lock your payment towards your earlier membership for six months.
I had studio white membership, they offered me to upgrade to 1 BR white, I had to pay for 1 BR white membership while the payment which I had made for earlier membership studio white will be not adjusted agaist 1 BR white for 6 months. That means upgrading membership is crime and they lock your earlier membership for six months as punishment for upgrading your membership.
I want to come out of this membership, please advise, how can I get my money back from this unprofessional organization
@Mandrawadkar
ReplyDeleteWe dont have any sure shot ways to help you, but you can browse through the comments here and see if anything proves to be useful...
Many people have shared similar concerns and exploring options...
Hi, looking at the comments and responses and the number of people who have been cheated by CMH - I think we should unite and file a lawsuit or a consumer forum appeal against CMH. I guess doing so in a group will be more effective than each of us fighting our individual battles. It will be nice to hear from all of you about this idea and then maybe we can do something about this.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Raj
Simply WONDERFUL!!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome work.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI am club mahindra member and I had very pleasant experiences with CM, contrary to views of others on this blog. Basically CM membership is for relaxing vacations and not for hectic holidays. The resorts of CM are reasonably of good standards and few of them are of very high standards like of Munnar, Kumbalgarh and Goa. I agree that one should plan well before the vacation time i.e. at least 4 months to get the accomodation. I am also of view that cost is not so steep comparing the standards of the resorts. However the food cost is high though the food quality is definetly 5 star standard. Except non-availibity of accomodation at will, i found CM a good bet for frequent travellers..
Ajay Kadhao
Membership No. 555905.
Raj,
ReplyDeleteAll said and done, who will bell the cat???
@Deepak
Thanks
@Dear Ajay,
Nice to see a happy customer commenting here, after a long gap.
Hi Shrinidhi,
ReplyDeleteYou are doing a commendable job by providing a platform to people to express thier views.
Please go a step ahead and create a group email id and add all people you contact you on your blog. It will help people to come together.
Regards
Mandrawadkar
This is one terrific post ... CM ripped apart
ReplyDeleteSmiles,
Vinayak (envyram @ mouthshut)
It was an eyeopener to me when i went through the contents of exhaustive bloggs at ur site.I am not the only sufferer was a big consolation.Total conclusion after all this is that God help us all,nobody including law can ever. Amen!!
ReplyDelete@ Mandrawadkar
ReplyDeleteThere is already a separate post where those who want to put their membership for sale/buy a used membership can enter their details
You're asking me to create a list/group of members who are not happy with CM. Not all those who have commented here have left their contact details. For group discussions and all, I think it will be more apt for people to make use of existing groups in Orkut or other such sites.
I don't see a point in starting yet another group for this. For me, this post was a simple product review at the beginning-nothing more than that- I wasn't intending to stage a war on CM. But the huge response received by means of comments has made this post legendary. While I am thankful to my readers for this huge response, I am not finding enough time for additional activities in this regard. If anyone of you want to do that, I don't mind giving a link and some visibility for the same.
Thanks
@ Vinayak
Thanks
@ Sunil
Let us Hope something works out
hi nidhi, Its good to see you have expanded your post topics. well I just wanted to connect to one of your other happy cm member by the name of ajay. I hope its ok with you. HELLO MR AJAY KADHAO MEMBERSHIP NO. 555905. I TOO BELONG TO YOUR HAPPY CLUB, WOULD BE NICE TO INTERACT WITH YOU. MY EMAIL ID IS ajayvjjain@gmail.com , AJAY JAIN NO. 275866
ReplyDeleteThanks To Srinidhi for an eyeopening and saying lots of people hard urned money going down the drain.Thanks a lot for helping me out. thanks.
ReplyDeleteHarsh.
I find the Club Mahindra Timeshare memberships in India are all very deceptive and sheer profiteering without creating any value for members. I purchased a club Mahindra Red membership two years ago. Other than availing the initial free gift certificate, i have not been able to avail any holidays. This is when, I purchased the best membership available (Red) (BTW they have created a concept called Purple which is nothing but best days when you can holiday and they sell it outside). I find it a complete waste of my money as whenever I call them and want to fix a holiday, they say it is not available. The system is so opaque, that you don't know if they are telling you full truth. There have been a recent instance where I have caught them lie as in half hour the entire inventory position (availability) changed.
ReplyDeleteThey are always trying palm off days or resort inventory to its members which they cannot sell directly or through RCI (as this is an incremental profit).
I have personally found it to be a complete waste of money. I find that given the overall cost of ownership, Club Mahindra holidays are not for those folks who want to take instant vacations or vacations at times when school kids are home or at best seasons. The overall cost of ownership is quite high compared to what season and holidays you get (You can compute overall cost of ownership by assuming an EMI on the upfront option and add inflation adjusted ASF(annual fees) to it. (It comes upwards of Rs 50 -55 K for stay only for seven days at a single location) The system has been designed in such a way that Club Mahindra has no incentive beyond enrolling new members. At times you think by taking club mahindra, it will create a discipline of taking vacations. Before you fall into this trap and justification, HOLD YOURSELF – The flexible vacation plans are not similar to getting locked into a holiday scheme where you have no choice. You cannot take vacations at time when you want and at place where you want. Thus overall, you end up paying much higher for vacations that are anyways useless.
The only options that you are left with are to exchange this for RCI. Understand RCI comes at an additional cost of membership and exchange charges. Many of the RCI resorts in India are useless and junk. It is good if you are planning international vacations. If you want to take vacations in Europe or US, RCI exchange at India comes out as good option. However many times you can buy this inventory on Internet at cheaper rates, without need to lock in for life in useless holidays. I
did not mind paying money to Club Mahindra initially. But I feel that I have bound myself into an option on which I have no control and visibility. I am a slave to their whims, I am slave to the initial 2.10 Lacs that I have paid two years back and I am a slave to that desire that I will use it somehow someday. The system is so useless that after sometime you feel like not paying the ASF (annual service fees) which keep increasing.
Another problem with them is that they don't have their owned properties. So you end up in some makeshift properties which are useless or management is very weak (and junk). Of the total properties listed on their site, they own only 4 resorts. They are the Airtel of Time Share Holidays (i.e. only a marketing shell company with no deep commitment and investments to keep you going for 25 years). I seriously doubt that this model of tie-ups is sustainable in Indian market. As the vacation resort quality is very suspect beyond few. Either they should do a management takeover and own the full property or construct their own properties. This partial sharing results in a very bad experience and low quality resort, food etc for customers. BTW the four resorts that they own have not been constructed to serve
the members. They are primarily constructed to attract and catch new members. This is where they will bring you with your gift voucher, show you the excellent service, hospitality and trap you.
Instead of increasing inventory for the members, currently they have found that they have milked this market segment enough, so they are constructing new properties under different name or brand (like luxury brand or Zest). This is crazy because even their current members do not have enough options at right time.
My suggestion is a no to Club Mahindra. However, if you are still feeling compelled to buy, and if you are fine going at odd times in year to odd places, it is a fine option for you. Just to give you an example - you may have options to take vacation on beach during rains, or you may get a hill station option in November, December (not in peak Dec). If you still feel compelled to buy, all you need is to take basic membership (the minimum cost - because in any case you will not
be able to avail better days.)
For last 10 years,Sterling fooled me-I treated myself a wise person.Fed Up-I just thought to switch to Club Mahindra-and searched about THEIR Cost .There is no inkling of cost on their web-site today ! Do you buy anything in market w/o FIRST knowing it's cost ? Nobody does. I read many comments and now I am sure I am not going to repeat my Sreling History with CM.Thanks for saving my hard earned money and life long pain.
ReplyDelete******For All Sufferers******
There was a CM which promised me a moon,
I had some money and I fell for it soon,
Then began the Nightmare,
And,
My dreams scattered everywhere,
And nothing could I do against these goons.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI am a CM purple season member from 2002.I have visited most of their resorts in India.My advice to all the people who wish to become a CM member is---get a doctor for your self first and than fall in to the trap.
All these years I have never got a reservation without making plenty of calls to Chennai-"NEVER".Plese add call charges to your membership bill.I can prove this by showing you my bills.
THE TRAP...
ASF has to be paid in the month of APRIL.I get my week credited on the day I got enrolled!!!! funny isn't it? that is somewhere in October.If ASF is not paid you dont get your holidays.I had 19 days of paid holidays pending stil I was refused a holiday.
ASF is increased every year without considering that CM did not provide me with a holiday of my choice,You will land up in some dirty resort in PANCHGINI for the price of ASF!!! and your membership charges are enjoyed by Mahindra family and the bosses of CM playing golf in Havai!!!
Initially I thought these are teething problems but now I think this is the culture of CM(one should check on other Mahindra companies).All their claims are bogus.They are just sucking money from innocent people.If you have time and energy to argue and fight go ahead and spare your 'HARD EARNED MONEY'.
I have exchanged my holidays from RCI and got Vistana Resort in Orlando.It is a gold crown property not worth visiting.Go in any organized tour than these exchanges(you don't save anything unless you are ready to live like a bagger)
I don't deny the quality of their resorts.Food is fine for the price you pay.The problem is one never gets the reservations when you want it!!
If you are prepared to go in off season you can negotiate with them.They are dead cheap.Why pay for membership?
They sell this rooms in peak season at your cost.I have confirmed this and you can also do it.
One can go on writing....Nutshell is --All the Club Mahindra members should come together and sort out this issues with them.
Thanks
one more thing which is very funny..
ReplyDeletethey talk about 5star facility....read this...
In a 5 star hotels swimming pool has anyone seen lady with salwar-kurta?
In Goa CM resort,this is a common site.This people are mostly on free holiday given by CM.The sales man earns commission on every sale he makes for your kind information..
I could be reached on milan2563@airtelmail.in
Hi Everyone,
ReplyDeleteMe and wife got ourself registered and the same night I tought to read the public review on the same. After going through this blog, we decided to put it on hold and told them to cancel our membership and refund the money the very next day. (as per CM policy, if someone cancel the membership within 10 days they get full refund back within 30-45 days). Now here started by worst experience. It is over 55 days now and I have no clue where my cheque is. I have written almost 20 emails and everytime the reply is that we will get back to you very soon. Similarly if I call on there customer care number, they tell to give me call back in two hours and ofcourse noone calls back. THEY ARE HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!
I am laughing at myself on taking this decision.
Regards and thanks to Nidhi who started this blog
Hey Nidhi,
ReplyDeleteWe recently took the membership to club mahindra. But thank god we still have 4 days rescission period in hand. After reading all converstaion on your blog, we are now sent a request for cancellation of the membership.
Thanks
NP
I received a call from some Club Mahindra Salesperson. He did not know that I am a (frustrated) member. I mentioned to him that I have heard it is very difficult to get a room in club mahindra these days. He denied any such problem. What he said that Club Mahindra is adding "30" more properties by Year end?? What a rubbish. Though I thought if it were true. I think Club Mahindra has moved ahead of the membership model as they have generated enough cash and base revenue stream to keep them going while milking the one time holiday, Zest and corporate crowds. They are only selling "Stale" Inventory to members. Beware of it..
ReplyDelete@ Ajay,
ReplyDeleteOk. May be you can join a new group created by Bhupesh to interact with other members. Check end of the post for details of this group.
@ Harsh
Welcome.
@ Thanks for the detailed comment.
@ Anon,
Good poem
@ Justchill,
Thanks for the detailed comments and info.
@ Amit and the 2 anons...
Thanks for the comment.
Club Mahindra Announces the recognition of the problem - A patch up solution planned
ReplyDeleteMahindra Holidays to double room inventory
Bs Reporter / Chennai September 30, 2008, 0:34 IST
Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Limited (MHRIL), on Monday announced that it will double its inventory through a combination of acquisitions, construction of new properties and expansion of existing properties.
With these plans in progress, the company’s room inventory is expected to double to over 1,500 apartments.
I however sincerely doubt their intentions. It seems to be a statement to the IPO market. There is a serious shortage of rooms and there are no reservations. It is completely useless to buy Club Mahindra before you see them walk their talk. I think anyone who is thinking of buying it should hold off and not buy it for at least few more years till you see that you can get holidays.
Vivek
@ Vivek
ReplyDeleteYes, it is good to see that they're doubling their inventory.
But at the same time, it is not clear what has been the increase in member base. Existing members can feel some relief only if the rate of addition of inventory is higher than rate at which new members are added.
Let us hope more and more members get to enjoy holidaying after these new properties are commissioned.
Agreed shrinidhi.
ReplyDeleteI think Club Mahindra is going through a crisis of confidence among existing members and their internal metrics of decline rates on reservations have gone up substantially. I think it is causing serious member trust erosion. Otherwise I see no logic in their coming up with an inconsequential press release about doubling the capacity and talk about not doing IPO. The IPO is dead long time back.
If you read the fine prints of the plan, it still does not reassure that they have something to tide over the peak holiday season this year. They are scrambling to add room inventories at low end resorts while showcasing one or two additions like Taj Garden retreat. There is a clear need for Club Mahindra to do much more to restore the member confidence. Personally I have lost a lot of fun time because of these problems. My wife has already pained me a lot because of me making this decision of purchase and now keeps reminding me for making a reservation before deciding on any holiday!!
Well my experience is as below,
ReplyDeleteI walked into a mall to have a dinner but didn't knew dinner would be so costly. So my bad I turned to club mahindra shop and they told me how lucky I was that day to walk in there as that day was there 11th anniversary and they were giving away great offers which are generally not available to members. That only 25 memberships are available and they were accomodating only people by invitation but they accommodate us as what a sweet couple we look (and yes our 3 months daughter was with us as well).
To cut the long story (horror story unfortunately) following false promised were done,
1. Offer of Laptop - would be available in 2 weeks (ofcourse not in written) but actual time it would take now is about 4 months.
2. There are 40000 members (about 3 weeks back I went there)
3. ASF is constant - Inflation free
4. No mention of RCI clause - that it is only valid initially for 3 years.
5. No mention of 3 star properties.
6. This offer is only valid for that day because it has a) transferable clause b) slitting clause - which now I know is available on all days not on their so called 11th anniversary.
All in all what a shame to hospitality Industry and what a big fool I am :) (Never make mistakes twice) - May be next time I would not.
Dear All,
ReplyDeleteFirstly, would like to thank this blog, for revealing the bare facts of this unscrupulous company. Like most of u all, me and my wife were taken in by the impressive sales pitch of the Club Mahindra salesperson during the presentation. We opted for the Red Studio Apartment and also paid the initial advance of Rs. 41,880/- to them.However, after reading the various experiences of all you people we actually changed our mind. & guess what... we also got our entire money back (though it took us almost 3 months for the same).This is what I did -
1. I had paid the 1st installment by my Credit Card. I blocked it completely, so that no further EMIs could be charged on that, and asked for a new card with my credit card co.
2. There is Ms. Madhu Dewange (Asst. Mgr- Member relations) who sits in the Mumbai office at 7th flr, Solitaire corporate park, Andheri-East. You can call and speak to her & also mail her the cancellation of membership request, with a cc to Ajay Nambiar (Head-Member Relations) at ajay.nambiar@clubmahindra.com ; feedback@clubmahindra.com
3.They usually take 30 working days to refund the cheque as per their policy (it took me 45 days to get mine...but u have to be persistent)
4. If you are from Mumbai, it would be better to try and meet her in person at her office, so that some more pressure could be added.
Last but not the least, be in touch with her and call her on the days she tells u that ur cheque will be ready....
Am writing this, as I know wht most of u guys r goin thru after puttin ur hard earned money in such a fraudulent company...All the best!
i was very much interested in their membership so i gave my details on their website. next day i got a call from a lady .. told me that their representative will come to my place and give all the details.. then the next day one mr kaushal from something zen .... called and took my time, his asistant mr haresh turakhiya was to come..
ReplyDeletehe came and explained me every thing in great details with usual tricks.. finally gave his offer of rs 4,20,000/- for a 1 bedroom in red season and 3,35,000 for red studio..
he offered me
1 20000 spot discount
2 25000/- diamond coupons
3 7 nights free stay
only thing he insisted to book on the spot which i refused..
2hrs later his senior mr kaushal called and tried to explain that this is mind blowing offer.. i was in double mind then he increased his offer.. he gave me 32 inched bravia + 21 days holidays thru rci + diwali goa booking for 4 people..
again the same thing.. i had to book that day!!! i said that i would get back to him.. then discussed it with family and parents.. and we decided to wait until he calls me back..
a week passed and again mr kaushal called ..but i refused to take his calls( meanwhile we had decided against it.. 400,000/25= 16000/+ 10500 ASF + minimum 10% interest on 400,000 is 40000 per year, so the total figure is @66000/- per year!!!! and thier tariff at munnar is 3500/-)
then again mr haresh called and told me that he had "another" mind blowing never before offer and wud like to meet me.. i gave him the next days time..
he kept the same things but added another 26" bravia..said that he had closed a deal with relience in that week .. so he could offer me this..i said i dont want any of your offer.. then he was ready to give cash against that 26" newly added bravia..i said ok that will be 35000/- less from 400,000/-, then i refused to take original 32" brvia, he said he will reduce another 40000/- for that.. but the problem was i had to pay total memebrship cost and then they wud send me the cheque.. i was still not happy with the deal so i lied to him that i had been to another outlet at gorgaon hub mall and they are offering me 1 lac net discount + lcd !!!! he asked me who i met .. i said i met mr satish!!!!! i demanded rs 2.5 lacs for the membership!!he instantly called his senior mr kaushal and told about the latest bombshell!! then he went outside of my office and called hub people and started arguing with them. bechara "satish",, there wasn;t any!!
around 4.00 i got a call from their senior lady, and asked me about the whole incident.. and in the end told me that she had gone to that outlet and there wasnt any "satish".. i was "puzzled" and pretended as i was unware of this fact.. then she again insisted me to take that offer but i refused to accept anything other than 250,000/- .. so the deal cancelled..
then i was searching the web about cm and finally got this site. and after reading 287 comments and a eye opening review from nidhi, i came to the conclusion that i made my most wise decision in my life!!!
god saved me.. may be my lalach( greed) saved me.. but now i think, had he offered me at my cost sooner or later, i wud have certainly taken the membership, but now after reading all this, i will never...
so nidhi and all u people saved me..
as far as mumbai is concerned, beware of zen holidays, beware of kaushal, haresh turakhiya, alaap( "real" manager at Hub mall, goregoan) and any person from club mahindra
and my suggestion is if u really like their resorts, go directly .. it will be a nearly same as membership cost minus lot of headache,
ReplyDeleteplease DO NOT WASTE UR HARD EARNINGS FOR THESE PEOPLE
@ Vivek
ReplyDeleteYes.
Best wishes for your holiday this year.
@aa
Thanks for sharing your experience
@Anon
Thanks for those tips. useful, specially for those in Mumbai
@ Sudhanshu,
"Bechara Satish" part was interesting...
Thanks all
I want to sell off my Club Mahindra Membership. I have just joined in August and have a 2 days/3 nights free singapore package with the membership. If anyone is interested in the membership please contact me at chetsun@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteWhile it is a great platform to buy and sell CM membership through your blog, why don't you extend the same for packages (timeshare). I have seen members not utilizing and hence willing to sell their timeshare. Also, there are members who had done to booking (for fixed days, well in advance) and later can't make it, so wants to sell out.
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeletei bought a time share throgh your portal, before buying the time share i collected the copy of the member ship card and membership certificate, both of them shows membership is from march 2008, then i calledup clubmahindra contact center and the particular branch that sold the certificate both of them told the details are correct.
so i bought that timeshare, when it got transfered to me it is showing my timeshare is starting from dec 2007 and next ASF is due on dec 2008, i contacted clubmahindra why it happened they are giving an explanation that the previous member has changed the installment plan actually that has not happened, the previous owner has paid back the last six intallment together
if the paymet plan got changed then clubmahindra should have issued a new membership card and certicate to the previous owener or other wise when i have contacted them then they should have informed me both they have not done
do you thing it is fair practice, i feel i got cheated where can i sue them,where should i send the complaint, previous owner is a gentl man he was not aware about this
i need your advise
Hi Prejush,
ReplyDelete3-4 month period for 25 year membership is quite small even if you have to pay ASF 3-4 month in advance. As you will be getting 25 weeks holidays any way. This not to ask you to ignore what CM has done, but to advice you that monetarily you have not lost (virtually) any thing. But certainly this mistake/wrong doing is not good for a customer (and his confidence in the company) who is committing business for 25 year.
First you should demand full financial statement of this membership from the beginning and ask explanation (get it in written /mail) why membership date got backdated. Wait for the reply, escalate it to higher management with this reply (or if there is no reply).
To add to my previous comment, you can delay payment of ASF till March next year if you are not taking any vacation in between.
ReplyDeleteAlso, not sure you had BUY entry in BUY/SELL table, but definitely one Sell entry candidate of deletion.
If you can put comment on BUY/SELL page indicating which membership you bought from the table.
@ Chetan
ReplyDeleteYou can make an entry at the buy sell membership page, link included in the post.
@ Amit Jain
We're exploring the pros and cons of that idea.
@ Prejush
Assume you're happy with Bhupesh's reply
@ Bhupesh
Thanks
i belive the revise the price again could anybody upload the new price list or somebody tell me how much one white studio cost
ReplyDeleteAt Anon,
ReplyDeleteI've now included August 2008 price list (courtesy a member who sent it by mail. Refer the post again now.
thanks srinidhi for updating the latest price list
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Emmanuel for sharing them
btb this is 300th comment for this post
Thanks everyone...
Friends, I too agree with Dr sengupta and unfortunately I did not get to see this blog before I signed with CM and unfortunately ended up paying almost Rs2.5 lacs.
ReplyDeleteI want to warn all my friends that Club Mahindra is pathetic in terms of service and the options they have. They will demand lots of money from you and will be very nice to you till the time you pay all ur money but will change faces after that. There is hardly any customer orientation and the service levels are pathetic. There is no update for months together after you place a request for the holiday and this leads to lot of frustration and waste of your time and money. This would also spoil your holiday and the mood of ur family and you end of repenting for life for paying so much hefty amounts and you only get pain in return.
Friends, pls beware of such people and I dont recommend this to anyone at all.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI am engaged and my fiancee was telling me to join Club Mahindra, So that next year we can go for honeymoon when we get married.
I was checking the Club Mahindra web site to know how to register. Unfortunately Internet Explorer closed (IE always sucks). So searched club mahindra in google.com and what I found was LOTS and LOTS of complaints. I read your entire BLOG and took the printout to show it my wife..
And today we are happy WITHOUT Club Mahindra. We will go for Honeymoon for sure.
Thank God, I did not join and spoiled my honeymoon plans. U cant wait 5 months asking Club Mahindra whether any availability of Rooms are there or not...
Thank you so so much because I Am not very very rich. So, I cant waste my money..!!
Any Idea whether any good Tour operators are there in India?
Thank you so much, God will help you
Thanks Shrinidhi Hande
From
Siraj.
I started off with a very bitter experience with CM. After a long period of agony where refunds or adjustments were refused, I reconciled to going ahead with making them give me the service I paid for rather than asking for a refund.
ReplyDeleteMy first free vacation was scheduled. All things went well. Properties are good, staff at the resorts is amicable & helpful & the overall vacation experience is good.
I also met with members who have signed up a few years ago & all of them had good things to say about their experience.
My conclusion at this stage is : CM has gone well beyond a startup situation but has failed to put proper processes, values & culture in place.
Sales believes in Hit & Run & Customer Relationship ensures that u remain hit & runned all over ! Quickly they will need to hire better people & demonstrate higher professionalism.
All said & done, its not that CM is an isolated case of bad service...I can state instances of lousy service & big issues with my experiences with names like Taj, Oberoi, Swissotel, Jet Airways, HDFC & ICICI Bank etc etc....ultimately they simply have bad people & worse processes !
PP, Sykes and Tapan Mehta
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experiences and opinions.
@ Tapan
Well, agreed that Taj, Oberoi and everyone else have their share of blame. BUt in all those cases, it will be usually one off incidents-at the max a couple of thousand rupees will be at stake- next time you can avoid this service provider and opt another one- With Club Mahindra, people are expected to commit lakhs of rupees in good faith. When that faith is shaken, the disappointment will be huge, because the amount is large and there's no alternatives.
Hi Shrinidhi, I congratulate on your execellent and actual review of the Binsar Resort, May you from time to time keep on extending your list of reviewed resorts, it really helps.I would like to ask you a small favour, just for my curiosity I would appreciate if you could let me know , what was the the name of the NAUKUCHIATAL CMHR before club mahindra took it over. I tried other sources without success.AJAY JAIN GUWAHATI ASSAM
ReplyDelete@ Ajay
ReplyDeleteEven I am not aware of its erstwhile name. Sorry. Looked like it was a hotel. Try searching for hotels in naukuchiataal and see if any photos match.
To whom it may interest, The club mahindra dancing waters resort at naukuchiatal was a SCHOOL before their takeover, named as PINE GROVE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL.
ReplyDeleteI agree Srinidhi,my point is, make them do what they committed rather than work on a refund.....with so many customers affected...we have the collective leverage of making this happen.....
ReplyDeletewhat says....
@ Ajay
ReplyDeleteThanks for that information. This link has more details:
http://www.nainitaltourism.com/pine_grove.html
@ Tapan
Probably CM thinks the number of unhappy customers is not significant enough (few hundred out of 70000 is just 1 or 2% which they may feel normal or unavoidable in any service industry.
But then yes, there is no mechanism that ensures delivery of whatever is promised-that's the primary cause for all these I believe. A bit of strong will power should be able to address this. Just my opinion.
So many of us are affected adversely by the false sales promises and lousy services of CMH. Can we not collectively form a group and sue club mahindra? We could hire a lawyer and collectively bear the entire cost. Any takers?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion instead of sueing CM we should have a collective forum where by it can voice their grieviences, which will address all. It can compell CM to up their professinal attitude and cover grey areas. SO I SUGGEST LETS ALL GET TOGETHER IF WE ARE SERIOUS ABOUT MAKING A DENT IN THEM. Nidhi can start by giving his valuable idea in ways to go about it with his bank of knowledge about CM.
ReplyDelete@ Raj Jha and Ajay
ReplyDeleteBhupesh had created a MSN group earlier for CM members-that seems to have some issues- probably he will create another group in Google groups or yahoo and let everyone know. if anyone else wants to take charge, pls check with him and go ahead...
Yes, collective voice is always more powerful than solo one. But a blog is not that ideal for live discussions, compared to a forum or a group
Some interesting statistics of CM as per their DRHP ( Draft Red Herring Prospectus) filed for IPO.
ReplyDeleteMain source of income : Acquisition Of New Memberships???
No. Of members as of Aug 2008 : 79,699 !!!
No. of resorts : 23 ( on page 31) AND 27 ( YES on page 32)
No. Of Rooms ; 1082
So the total number of weeks available : 1082 X 52 = 56264
NUMBER OF MEBERS WHO WOULD BE DENIED " FAMILY HOLIDAY " = 79699-56264 = 23435
And they will go on acquiring new members ONLY to deny them " Family Holiday" and this will be MAIN source of income.
This is quite akin to pyramid schemes which have been floated and sunk without a trace. The promoters always go missing and so does the investors money.
HOW LONG WILL THE PAID UP MEMBERSHIPS BE SAFE?? HOW LONG BEFORE THIS SCAM IMPLODES??
Ciao,
Sachin
Hi Shrinidhi,
ReplyDeleteI find your blog is losing sheen as google search is displaying your blog very late in search result. Probably CM has played trick so that all their official links will appear in search result and your blog will appear very late. Earlier your bolg use to be only second in search result, only next to only offial website of CM.
You should do some thing to put your on top of the search result in google.
Good Luck.
Hi. Good to see you change your stance. I am in complete agreement that CM is the best. It was you who had raised the issues without understanding the concept.
ReplyDeleteWhat made you change your mind? How did CM manage this? Has anything changed over the last year or so to make you change your mind and also the heading of your blog. I am sure it will be a fantastic case study to know how to manage such nuisance on the net. Did they offer free fully paid vacations? I am sure they must have ensured you were taken care of right from your home to back to home.
This is perfect business model, First raise concerns against a company and once paid up let the pressure go.
Are you saying your best company (CM) has bought a blogger(critic)?
ReplyDeleteHello all
ReplyDeleteIt’s quite some time since I responded to comments in this post. Most of the comments are kind of repetitive in nature, which I’ve already responded sometime earlier, hence it is boring to repeat the same stuff..
Anyway
Sachin,
Good observations. Thanks for sharing.
Regarding the drop in Google position:
Yes, it has dropped from no.2 to page 2. Search engine indexing is a dynamic phenomenon and one cannot stay on top forever. Google might have changed its algorithm, others might have built more pleasing websites for that keyword etc and positions keep changing. I moved my blog from enidhispeaks.blogspot.com to enidhi.net- this resulted in loss of some links and page rank. There are many other factors for drop in position…It is a tough battle and I cannot afford to spend time, energy and money on this, beyond a limit. Club Mahindra also has its own SEM strategies and they have built several websites to dominate all results on page 1. I think I still have a chance when readers search with more specific keywords than just club Mahindra.
As a reader you can help by a. linking to this post in your blog/website or b. when you spot my blog in Google search pages, use the UP arrow to indicate that this is your preferred site and be moved to first page. When lots of people do the same, the position of the page is bound to improve.
I’m still adhering to my earlier views. I’ve not deleted this post, nor have changed the contents. I’ve only changed the title and included Q&A from Club Mahindra so that readers get both side of the view and can decide which has higher merit for themselves. It will be totally wrong to say that a blogger has been sold out to CM. I do not understand the basis for such a statement. While I admit that some of their resorts I’ve visited are very good, I am still apprehensive about the timeshare membership.
These were the comments on previous post !
ReplyDelete> Are you saying your best company (CM) has bought a blogger(critic)?
If I change it a bit
A so called best company is trying to buy instead of convincing a critic. Who is more dangerous this company or blogger?
Oh ignorant anonymous! this is time you should wake up!
Dear Shrinidhi,
ReplyDeleteI am also in the same boat as that of Mr Senguptha. I am a new member of the clubmahindra white studio(memb id 140285). I have already paid Rs.49651(down payment and one emi). I got suspicious of their modus operandi and also because of their rigid attitude, I decided to quit the membership. Your blog really helped me in making up my mind. Thank you so much for that. Now they are telling me that I am not eligible for any refund as I did not request for that within 10 days of signing the contract. Nearly 60% of the entire membership fee is admin charges and it is not refundable. Since the amount that i paid is less than the admin charges no refund will be given. Is there any point in going to the consumer court since I have already signed the initial contract? I am also willing to fight clubmahindra if there is any legal stand for my case. Please advice. My email id is sajiissacjohn@gmail.com.
Dr Saji Issac John
This is very good forum. I suggest we have an association of club mahindra members. Then we can fight with them collectively. We should be in touch with everybody and fight for all.
ReplyDelete@ Sangeet
ReplyDeleteWell, there're already groups in Orkut for Club Mahindra members. Also anyone is free to start a group or forum using any of the appropriate platforms like Google groups or more formal association for that matter...
Shrinidhi,
ReplyDeleteYou have done excellent work. It is eye opener for many innnocent victims of Club Mahindra.
I humble request is to preserve this blog, try to spare some time regularly for the blog.
Good Luck !!!!
Hi Srinidhi,
ReplyDeleteI need your help! I send the first comment on this blog 6 months back in July. see above [Sunday, July 27, 2008 2:05:00 AM]
I applied for the cancellation of membership within 2-3 days of applying for the same. I got email that i should get the refund in 45 days.. and ever since i have been calling them i am getting email back and also telephone assurance that they will refund it *NEXT* month on 10th. Do you have any suggestion on what should I do. They talk very politely but never seems to be doing anything on the refund!!!!
Please help!
Regards
Nitin
Member# 1173610
Mandra,
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'll preserve it...
Nitin, unfortunatly I haven't been able to do much to address grievances like this. We can hope some other reader who've experienced similar situation to suggest a way out or hope a CM staff responds. I'll forward your comments to a Club Mahindra staff.
Dear All,
ReplyDeleteHere're the escalation points for Club Mahindra. First one is obvious. If you don't get fetch satisfactory response then you can escalate to level 2 or 3. Be sure to include all related details and some proof...
Level 1 : feedback@clubmahindra.com
Level 2 : qrc@clubmahindra.com
Level 3 : headmemberelations@clubmahindra.com
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI am lured already, and did the mistake of signing the application for blue membership today. Already know what is it going to be. paid 10% advance & agreed for balance in 12 instalments.
Please advice on the cancellation procedure.
How to get back advance paid on visa card?
How to stop the instalments again on Visa card?
Thank you.
Shivaprasad k
Dear Shrinidhi
ReplyDeleteIt was a very descriptive visit review of the Binsar resort, look forward to many more of such reviews. I wish to request you since that now you have an extensive insight about Club Mahindra membership and the ways and method of this timeshare company to start writing about the other 2 major players in this industry, namely Sterling and Country Club, as this open a bigger pandora's box and highlight the pluses and negatives of this business, and maybe ease some of the Cmhr members woes by showing the bigger gullibility of these other timeshare companies, on the other hand maybe it will give an insight to some positives if some corrective measures have been implied by these companies to improve upon their past misdeeds which saw their downturn.It is my strong view that you with your vast knowledge can be a big help to the cause of injustice which these timeshare companies indulge upon garnering members with all modes and ways giving false promises and wrong guidance. Also would clear your integrity from some who doubt your single concentration in only one timeshare player in the market. Ajay Jain guwahati
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Shivaprasad,
ReplyDeleteYou need not do all those trick of canceling your card etc ..
You can cancel your membership with in 10 day (do count Sunday/Saturday also). Give a written request to the center from where your bought it. Do not forget to take acknowledgment ...
also write to
[feedback@clubmahindra.com]
You may not have membership number, just give all detail like from where you bought it, your name, telephone number, address you mentioned in the form etc ..
Hi Shivaprasad:
ReplyDeleteBegging to differ with Bhupesh's comment about not cancelling your credit card, I would suggest that apart from writing in to CM, please ensure that the card you used to make the payments and EMI authorizations is cancelled and blocked. Ask the bank to block the card with immediate effect, and issue a fresh card to you. It'll cost perhaps Rs.100.
CM can and WILL collect the EMIs as soon as they are due, even a few days ahead of schedule. As a result, you will need to fight with them not only to return your 10%, but also the additional EMIs. At the end of the day, they may return your money after deducting 10% as "incidental expenses" - so if thay've managed to collect the EMIs from you in the meanwhile, they'll return 10% less of that too. "Our system did not recognise that you had asked for cancellation" is a standard reply.
Good luck.
Thank You Bhupesh & Dr Sengupta.
ReplyDeleteCompleted formalities. Now let me wait for my 15K to be returned. Thank you for saving me from all hassles.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteWhat is the reasonable price for Red stdio in second hand market? Do you reccommend buying this at all?
Sivaprasad
ReplyDeletehope you got answers to your questions. Thanks to Bhupesh, Dr Sengupta and other active readers.
For used memberships, refer to this post www.enidhi.net/2008/04/buy-sell-used-clubmahindra-membership.html -several members have put their memberships for sale-you'll get an idea on the price expectations...
Ajay
I'll certainly do that. Thanks.
Hi Shivprasad,
ReplyDeleteFor Red Studio any thing less then 1.65 Lakh is distress sell. More then 1.65 Lakh is bargain price and at around 2-2.25 Lakh it is fair price (still +20% cheaper compared to CM price), that' my view.
It all depends on you what value you give to CM' accommodation/membership, how much value you can extract out of RCI.
Calculate what you will be willing to pay for per days at ClubMahindra resorts (given the membership constraints). And work back words.
These post may help you with your decision, Cost Table:
http://what-goes-in-my-mind.blogspot.com/2009/02/club-mahindra-membership-cost.html
and this post
http://what-goes-in-my-mind.blogspot.com/2008/12/before-considering-club-mahindra.html
Guys, simple mathematics - CC has made more than 700 crores of all the enrollments. Now thats how the company has been growring to other sectors and acquisition through common man's money. Thats how they get richer everyhour every minute and get the common man on road.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the comments I am a member cheated by Club mahindra and always under pressure to utilise the week bec I am stuck with them
ReplyDeleteI am unable to get the bookings inspite of trying to book well in advance .
The RCI membership is useless
Besides the member relations team is very rude and careless in their approach.
I have put up my concerns to them since the time I have taken the membership since 2004 and experience is horrible , my concerns not yet resolved .
SO Beware when a maketing man from Club Mahindra calls you , taking this membership is wasting money
There is no flexibility in their time share as they claim
I feel cheated
At Club Mahindra Coorg, our holiday was an unforgetable experience! The stunning location, the picturesque greenery and the wonderful climate was the perfect setting for relaxation. Every facility made available to us was good and it catered to both adults and children. The fine food and the warm help assistance in all areas and the programs arranged in the evenings were much appreciared. This was our first holiday with Club Mahindra and we look forward to more beautiful holidays just like this.
ReplyDeleteMr. Chirag Doshi & family
Club Mahindra member family
Chirag,
ReplyDeleteGood to see a positive comment after long time in this post. Just wishing that every other member gets to enjoy similar services.
Thanks Shrini, finally i got my money back after 7 months. your suggestion to escalate it to head member relations worked :-)
ReplyDeleteClub Mahindra holidays are fun-packed, offering unique experiences for every member in the family.
ReplyDeleteI have holidayed in Coorg, Goa, Munnar & Binsar. All the resorts are excellent! Luxurious rooms, kids meal options, super rates on dining and holiday activities make this membership great value for money. I look forward to many more happy holidays in India and abroad.
Nitin,
ReplyDeleteGood to hear that. Better late than never. Happy to see CM responding to member concerns and do the needful, though after escalations.
Hetav,
Good. All the resorts you've mentioned are some of the best they've got. Enjoy your holidays.
Club Mahindra made it a really exciting and memorable honeymoon trip for us.
ReplyDeleteThe resort's ambience was extraordinary.
- Mrs. & Mr. Rahul Rege
Club Mahindra member family.
Rahul,
ReplyDeleteGood to read about your great experience.
Can you share some details for the benefit of other members?
How early did you plan your vacation and how easy was it to get booking confirmed?
Hi Rahul,
ReplyDeleteYou have expressed your honeymoon visit experience earlier in Jan-Mar 2008 ClubMahindra' Hello magazine.
http://www.clubmahindra.com/hello/Mag2008Mar/memories.html
and on their blog in July 2008
http://clubmahindraresorts.wordpress.com/page/2/
and recently on 2nd April 2009 on http://www.complaintsboard.com/byurl/clubmahindra.com.html
Today on enidhi.com
Is it really you or ClubMahindra staff (just jocking!).
No doubt once you are in their Gold Crown resorts experience is going to be good. Good you enjoyed your honeymoon.
Have you visited more places in last 15 month or so .. share about those trips also. You may also share your membership buying and booking experience, how much in advance you booked your holiday .. etc.
Ms. Bharti Gitay de-stressed at the Spa and also tried her hand at making decorative pots. Her son, on the other hand, had a blast trying out jet skiing and parasailing.
ReplyDeleteMs. Bharti Gitay's experience in her words:
Becoming a Club Mahindra member was the best decision we made. We have holidayed at many places in India & abroad and consider ourselves very lucky to be Club Mahindra members.
Ms. Bharti Gitay & family,
Club Mahindra member family.
Ms. Bharti Gitay de-stressed at the Spa and also tried her hand at making decorative pots. Her son, on the other hand, had a blast trying out jet skiing and parasailing.
ReplyDeleteMs. Bharti Gitay's experience in her words:
Becoming a Club Mahindra member was the best decision we made. We have holidayed at many places in India & abroad and consider ourselves very lucky to be Club Mahindra members.
Ms. Bharti Gitay & family,
Club Mahindra member family.
Hetav, Rahul Rege and now BhartiGitay, are so obviously figments of an incompetent ClubMahindra PR team's warped imagination, trying to make people believe that members are having such a grand time! How stupid and gullible do they think people are?
ReplyDeleteDear Hetav,
ReplyDeleteI wish to keep this blog post fair and transparent by giving equal considerations to both positive and negative comments. While it is good that you wish to promote positive experiences, publishing same comment multiple times under different identity and from same IP address can be comfortably termed as SPAM.
Please avoid doing it. For both positive and negative comments, readers are usually smart enough to make out which one is genuine and which one is fabricated. Even if I don’t delete such comments, other readers will see through it. I would recommend CM reps reading this post should use this platform to address various concerns raised by disappointed members. At least make a honest attempt to try resolving them. If you resolve their issues and keep them happy members will automatically give positive feedback and promote CM.
If you feel any of the negative comments are baseless you can always counter it with appropriate arguments and we can have a healthy debate.
"We were made to feel Special"
ReplyDelete"We are relatively new members of Club Mahindra Holidays. We joined up purely based on sound recommendations from existing members. We are very pleased with their services and the awesome treatment we received at Club Mahindra Lakeview, Munnar, when we vacationed there this summer. It was truly an enjoyable experience for us as a family. We look forward to a long and healthy relationship with Club Mahindra."
- Mrs. Ferzin Farias & family
Club Mahindra member family
“We had a very pleasant and & fun filled holiday. We spent more time in the resort instead of sight seeing”
ReplyDelete-Mr Sourabh Agarwal and family
“Our experience at the resort was exhilarating and wonderful”
ReplyDeleteExcellent information indeed. I too got call from them, but since I went through all the detailed discussion and answers from CM, I could immediately decide not to go ahead with them. Thanks a tonne again.
ReplyDelete“We had a very pleasant and & fun filled holiday. We spent more time in the resort instead of sight seeing”
ReplyDelete-Mr Sourabh Agarwal and family
Club Mahindra member family
hi,
ReplyDeleteshrinidhi could you please upload the latest price list of clubmahindra,
Dear Vijayan Sulochana,
ReplyDeleteSorry I do not have latest price details. August 2008 is the latest one I have, from which you can expect a +/- 5% deviation for latest price-You may call Club Mahindra and ask otherwise.
Also requesting my readers: If anyone has latest price chart pls send to admin@enidhi.net, I'll include it in the post with credit
We had such a wonderful time at Club Mahindra Varca Beach, that the only time we felt sad was when our holiday came to an end. We De-stressed at the while the kids had a blast at the potters wheel and playing beach cricket.
ReplyDelete-Mrs. & Mr.Dhawan
Club Mahindra member family
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteFirst let me thank Shrinidhi for sharing this useful thaught.
While its true Club Mahindra is cheating its members...I would like to share my experience with them....
As they have unethical business practice, CM keep some unemplyed youth at malls, petrol pumps to figure out effluent middle class and take their contact no. After that they will start calling and giving false promises to pay a vsisit to their outlets for a presentation. Presentation is nothing but no correct information, only they will show pictures of their resorts to lre customers. Another thing is that they will always ask you to come with your wife and kids so that you can be more easily trapped.
On one fine day I also got trapped as these CM person sitting in their outlet managed to convince me when I was about to leave. I purchased a holiday package and was promised two way flt tkt and 7 days stay, EMI and continuation to be decided by me after I avail this offer. I realised their fraud after paying 30000 INR and when tried to book a holiday, its never available and they asked me to go to a third rated place where noone would like to go.
When I asked them to cancel my booking and refund my money, they started avoiding my calls and bluntly told I cant get money refunded.
My fight continued with this outlet in Vashi Navi Mumvai and after 2-3 months when I openly threatened them of bringing this case in TV channels and file a case in consumer forum, they agreed for a meeting with their official.
I finally managed to get my cancellation done and got my money refunded but it was an impossible task achieved. It was my hard earned money which was being sucked by CM and that is what aggravated me.
I would request someone to expose unethical business practices (reasons well explained in Shrinidhi's blog) to general public in big way so that common people dont get trapped in their net and repent afterwards.
PLEASE NEVER THINK OF CLUB MAHINDRA MEMBERSHIP AND WARN ALL YOU KNOW.
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteFirst let me thank Shrinidhi for sharing this useful thaught.
While its true Club Mahindra is cheating its members...I would like to share my experience with them....
As they have unethical business practice, CM keep some unemplyed youth at malls, petrol pumps to figure out effluent middle class and take their contact no. After that they will start calling and giving false promises to pay a vsisit to their outlets for a presentation. Presentation is nothing but no correct information, only they will show pictures of their resorts to lre customers. Another thing is that they will always ask you to come with your wife and kids so that you can be more easily trapped.
On one fine day I also got trapped as these CM person sitting in their outlet managed to convince me when I was about to leave. I purchased a holiday package and was promised two way flt tkt and 7 days stay, EMI and continuation to be decided by me after I avail this offer. I realised their fraud after paying 30000 INR and when tried to book a holiday, its never available and they asked me to go to a third rated place where noone would like to go.
When I asked them to cancel my booking and refund my money, they started avoiding my calls and bluntly told I cant get money refunded.
My fight continued with this outlet in Vashi Navi Mumvai and after 2-3 months when I openly threatened them of bringing this case in TV channels and file a case in consumer forum, they agreed for a meeting with their official.
I finally managed to get my cancellation done and got my money refunded but it was an impossible task achieved. It was my hard earned money which was being sucked by CM and that is what aggravated me.
I would request someone to expose unethical business practices (reasons well explained in Shrinidhi's blog) to general public in big way so that common people dont get trapped in their net and repent afterwards.
PLEASE NEVER THINK OF CLUB MAHINDRA MEMBERSHIP AND WARN ALL YOU KNOW.
Dear chiranjiv4638'
ReplyDeleteYou are being as naive and foolish in expressing your opinion in a language which can best be described something like HINGLISH on a subject you dont understand as when you got convinced by some cheap mall standbys to take up this membership. I am a CMHR member since 2006 and have enjoyed every moment of it, and if you get the hang of how get your favourite resort reserved in advance then there is no problem at all. So pl. dont discredit a co. just because you wern't cut out for it. AJAY
Dear Ajay:
ReplyDeleteIs your surname "Nambiar"? How come you did not sign off as "Club Mahindra Member Family" as other members are in the habit of doing?
dear Sengupta'
ReplyDeleteMy name is Ajay Jain and I am from Guwahati Assam . And one not write as CM family member to be one. we have booked our resort recently to Mashobra /shimla wispering pines in july on a single call to them , it was indeed very satisfying . I believe you are one of the few who have backed out . Cheers Ajay
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI am Rajesh Nagle, Membership Number 224135 member since November 2006.
I have been trying to book my holidays at the resort of my choice within my Red Season 3-4 months ahead of time but every time my request was declined. One should accept the fact that in today's dynamic global situation one does not have visibility beyond 3-4 months. The experience is getting worsen day by day. Further, I am surprised to see the Club Mahindra marketing division’s aggressive sales drive and I fail to understand if they can't keep their existing customers happy why are they selling more memberships?
Considering the above fact I would never be able to enjoy the holiday at my preferred location on my preferred dates. Hence I requested Club Mahindra in person to cancel my membership from
Club Mahindra with immediate effect and refund the membership fees after deducting the charges for the holidays I have consumed. In response to my request I received the following working of my refund amount form the customer service department:
-----------------------------------
Dear Mr Nagle
Greetings from Club Mahindra!
With further to your personal visit to our office regarding cancellation of your Club Mahindra membership.
The cancellation charges are as under
Amount paid till date Rs.199200/-
Deductions:
60% cancellation charges of membership cost Rs119520/-
Cost of Holidays Taken Rs. 18235/-
Cost of RCI enrollment Rs. 6000/-
Cost of Gifts dispatched Rs. 20000/-
ASF Overdues Rs. 13685/-
Total Deductions Rs. 357440/-
Refund Amount Rs. Nil
In view of the large amount you stand to lose, we once again urge you to reconsider your decision to cancel the membership.
Thanking you and assuring you of our best service and attention always.
Thanks & Regards
Preeti Singh | Member Relations | Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd
-----------------------------------
I strongly believe that this is harassment form Club Mahindra as they are neither giving the service nor refunding the well deserved refund amount. Please also note that the Total deductions worked out by Club Mahindra is incorrect i.e. they have calculated Rs. 357440/- instead of Rs. 177440/-.
Further I would like to share my experience of my visit to Club Mahindra Branch Office at Solitaire Corporate Park, Andheri, Mumbai on Saturday, April 18, 2009. I happened to meet two disgruntled members in the same room where I met Gayatri the customer relationship executive. Both of them had similar experiences. Extrapolating this I am sure there would thousands of cheated members and many more to join.
On repeatedly writing my concerns to Madhu, the Customer Service Manager, I am not getting responses to my concerns but I get some very vague responses without any commitment.
I request anyone of you reading my experience to revert back with the advice to teach a lesson to Club Mahindra and prevent the prospective members to get caught in their trap.
Thanking you in advance.
Thanks & regards,
Rajesh Nagle
Cell: +91.9820290756
e-mail: nagle.rajesh@gmail.com
@ Ajay Jain: Yes, I am one of the very few who have managed to back out without a major financial loss, and I thank God for it. As you would have discovered on this and many other forums, there are hundreds and thousands of others who are extremely unhappy with the services offered by CM, but unfortunately cannot back out despite wanting to, without incurring a major financial loss. The latest to write in is Mr. Rajesh Nagle. But then, as you have agreed in a post in May 2008, and to quote you, "FOR THE SAME ROOM IF A RED OR PURPLE MEMBER PAYS 10 TO 15 LACS JUST TO BE ABLE TO AVAIL A PEAK SEASON AT 40 TO 50 YEARS OF AGE IS A POOR CHOICE.CM TAKES ADVANTAGE OF THIS GULLIBILITY". How can you justify a company taking advantage of customers' gullibility (read: CHEATING) just because you have been fortunate enough (or well-connected enough) to receive favourable services from CM when others don't?
ReplyDelete@ Mr. Nagle: I can well understand your predicament, as I have been through that too. The wording of "in view of the large amount you stand to lose .... reconsider your decision..." is so stereotyped from CM - the same wording appears in their emails to me as well.
I'm returning to this blog after about a year and glad that there are some positive comments now and this has not degenerated to 'Cribbers Society of India'.
ReplyDeleteWe just returned after 5 days in the CM Goa resort and it was fabulous. This was our 6th or 7th .. maybe 8th trip there in 5 years !
Back to your blog .... most of the disgrunted posts are related to the initial Sales process (opaque) and the Inability to get a room when you want. Let me share some best practices on the latter ....
- I presume we all use their call centre (the web booking is still not upto the mark).
- If there is no vacancy, insist on making a 'wait listed' booking and get a booking ref #.
- You can book for 2-3 alternate dates. My experience is that a lot of people {like myself ;-)} block rooms well in advance, and closer to the date tend to cancel, as there is a no-obligation cancellation 15 days prior to the vacation. And I've been told by some of the CM folks I chatted up during my holidays that the RCI bookings have upto a 50+% cancellations.
- Book well in advance ... bookings open up 6 months in advance (so April 20-25th bookings for instance will open Nov 1 the previous year).... Make an entry in your calender, call and make one or multiple bookings. In the first week you invariably get a booking for the period you want.
Now to some this will seem like a lot of trouble ... but its really worth a little bit of pre-planning. Their rooms are great, resorts well maintained, and overall exceptional value for money. And post IPO they are flush with funds and opening some newer ones (Simla has opened, Thekady was acquired from Taj recently, they have taken over the heritage Dasaprakash property in ooty recently). Also CM as a concept has been created keeping in ming families with kids. Automatically school holidays are a constraining factor in any case.
And finally a short word re the Sales process - well the poor undereducated (?) sales rep who is pining for his/her commission will hard-sell and commit to almost anything. How many of us have not fallen for such sales reps / processes in much higher value transactions eg buying an apartment - is the apartment what was promised, are the facilities as described, were all costs explained upfront and finally when they delay the construction, what does the builder do - hide behind the fine print !!!
BTW will be a good idea to have a Best Practices section - right from Buying a membership, to making a booking, to getting the best rooms etc there are come nitty-gritty insights that can help - positively that is !
Dear Hakuna Matata,
ReplyDeleteFirst, you are acknowledging the problem that' good and your suggestions of creating a Best Practices section is also good. I have one on my own blog
http://what-goes-in-my-mind.blogspot.com/2008/12/before-considering-club-mahindra.html
though not all points are covered.
I assume you may have also written to ClubMahindra management to improve their sales process. (Though you may not be one of the victim)
Second, What Mahindra name is worth? If it worth same as any other builder who does all those thing as you have mentioned in your comments, then let this word spread among prospective buyers, so that they can discount all those problem while making purchasing decision.
Bhupesh
ReplyDeleteI have not and do not intend contacting Mahindra. And the name Mahindra's worth is similar to the names like Raheja, Hiranandani, Purvankara or even Fiat or Ford !!
Its the buyers who need to watch out .... the good old philosophy of "Cevat Emptor" or Let the buyer beware .... should apply to all our investments specially those involving a high amounts !!
@ Dr. Sengupta ,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on being a financial winner vis a vis CM . Its your opinion against mine, a few hundreds of disgruntled and unsatisfied members or ex members hardly counts as 1 to 3 % of the 70000 members is a normal scenario everywhere in any service industry in fact it is very good, because of these fellows the negatives which are definitly there improve with time. I am a person with a positive attitude in life and do not weigh things with a negative evaluation, but first see the brighter side .
Yes I stand by my statement as quoted by you, the onus of buying RED or PURPLE is with the potential customer not the company and his own judgement. I have written this because a friend of mine owns 1BR purple paying 6lacs so that he can go to goa on 31st night. well that in my opinion is a poor choice and a good one for him so its just a matter of personal choice difference.
I have never advocated that CM is flawless and that there are no problems but then weighing upon my calculations I find it a very good deal. Just to let you know my mindset ..... I am going to Mashobra for 7days and then to jodhpur ( through RCI ) for another 7 days and have booked 2 studio aptments in both cases and even if I calculate the minimum tarriff @6000/- x 2 = 12000 x 14 = Rs. 168000/- I have already recovered this out of the total 238000/- which I have paid. PAISA VASOOL + 23 years to go .
And for your kind information being located in one of the most remote part of the country, neither am I well connected nor fortunate it just a routine service which I + others have got from the company.
One last thing the blog of Mr. Shrinidhi which we all follow have overtime become more impartial and non-critical towards CM by difference in the tone and outlook which was portrayed earlier and now , with even some beautifully written reviews of the resorts & services visited by Shrinidhi .
AJAY JAIN
Hakuna Matata @ bbhupesh I absolutely go along with hakuna Matata I myself have said so "" GULLIBLE BUYERS ""
ReplyDeleteAjay
Is Club Mahindra and its marketing department are two different entities?
ReplyDeleteIf one can not ask ClubMahindra to improve their marketing, let GULLIBLE BUYERS ease their frustration through this or other blogs and in this process teach other prospective buyers how not become GULLIBLE BUYERS.
Timeshare is not very well understood concept (it is not as understood as buying an apartment) I will say their marketing staff take advantage of this situation. .. even CM does not seems to be a timeshare as it does not guarantee accommodation theoretically or otherwise.
I also book in advance and cancel it 15 days before if I am not able to manage my vacation. But if every one become as smart as you and me .. I think it is not difficult to imagine what will be situation ..
I have written earlier .. it seems a business of keeping 75-80% customer happy at the cost of rest of 20-25%.
If you share your email id with Shrinidhi I can give you more facts to counter GULLIBLE BUYERS and 1-3% figures comments.
Wecome Bhupesh I Do share the link
ReplyDelete@ Bhupesh
ReplyDeleteThe point of everyone or the 80% getting smart is definitly a good one and maybe a cache22 situation will be created, and as is the corporate norm CM will try and get smarter by increasing the advance booking to 1 year whereby I am sure 50% of the bookings will be a no show , whereby we are back to square one and the 20% will continue to suffer due to reasons best known to them. ( no understanding, wanting reservations 15 days in advance, etc )
Ajay
Glad to find a like minded positive individual like Ajay! Looking at the brighter side of things make life more enjoyable !
ReplyDeleteAnd Bhupesh - businesses cannot be expected to be saints !! They are here for a profit motive for a business like CM that is driven by customer satisfaction.
If a business today is focussing on keeping 75-80% happy and succeeds in doing that - they will be a phenomenal success.
If that number starts falling, and gets into the 50's or lower, that business is in deep trouble.
And trying to get that number into the 90's or beyond will be herculean task and put a huge strain on that business so much so that it could hurt them long term.
So from a corporate perspective what CM is doing is absolutely right - they follow the 80:20 philospophy. And from the customer perspective - let the buyer beware - and welcome to the real world ;-)
club mahindra zest breaks holiday membership and maintance fees are much cheaper than club mahindra holidays. zest resorts are considered as speciall arrangement resorts for clubmahindra members,if club mahindra members wants to use zest resort we have to pay Rs 500 per night extra, what a fun....., real cheats....
ReplyDeleteClub Mahindra is a case of what happens when a hundred take from a single cake.
ReplyDeleteThey should change their logo to
Fooled Fully Forever
We had a great time at Club Mahindra resort. We stayed for 4 nights, 3 days. The food was excellent, the property is simply beautiful and there is so much for everyone to do that 3 days is not enough.
ReplyDeleteMr.Govind Krishnan
Club Mahindra Coorg resort is fabulous, it does feel like you are at home. All the staff members are very well trained and complete care is taken of even the smallest things.
ReplyDeleteMr. Ninad P. Lendhe
We have been visiting Club Mahindra resorts all over India since last 3 years. We are very pleased with all the resorts we have visited. Go to any Club Mahindra resort and you will experience what heaven is like.
ReplyDeleteMr. Jayant Jhaveri
I am totally satisfied with my Club Mahindra membership. I have holidayed in the Coorg resort and everything was perfect, the resort, staff, food and the activity centre.
ReplyDelete- Mr.Anuj Zaveri
Club Mahindra member family.
Hi all,
ReplyDeleteI am one of the member of club mahindra who has not received his booking amount back after cancellation of membership. I am working with commisioner of police of pune to get my money back.
Would request you all guys/gals who has been hit by same problem of CM, please let me know your below details so that i can lodge a complaint . It will make pressure on CM peoples.
Your Full Name
Membership Number
Date of membership purchased
Cancellation date
You can call me on 09370673626.
Thanks
Saurabh
Mr Sengupta, Please let me know if you can help me in below mail..
ReplyDeleteHi all,
I am one of the member of club mahindra who has not received his booking amount back after cancellation of membership. I am working with commisioner of police of pune to get my money back.
Would request you all guys/gals who has been hit by same problem of CM, please let me know your below details so that i can lodge a complaint . It will make pressure on CM peoples.
Your Full Name
Membership Number
Date of membership purchased
Cancellation date
You can call me on 09370673626.
Thanks
Saurabh
We had an unforgettable family vacation, thanks to Club Mahindra.
ReplyDeleteMr. Easwara Moorthy
It was a great experience at Club Mahindra Kodagu Valley, Coorg. The staff was great and so was the food and all the facilities.
ReplyDelete- Ms. Isita Koradia
Staff at Club Mahindra is very dedicated and sincere. The atmosphere is so homely and we can never forget the wonderful experience we had at Club Mahindra Kodagu valley.
ReplyDeleteMr. Rashid
I would like to congratulate Club Mahindra for their excellent resort and services. It was like staying in our own house. We enjoyed a lot. We were in no mood to leave the resort when our holiday ended as the hospitality, extra activities and the food served was excellent.
ReplyDeleteMr. K. Srinivas
Club Mahindra member family.
We feel our decision to join Club Mahindra is the right one. Staffs at the resort are genuinely warm and courteous. Service as well is excellent.
ReplyDeleteMr. Kumar Vishwanathan
Club Mahindra member family.
I am confirdent that starting 2nd june, club mahindra has assigned its employees a job of visiting this blog and putting positive comments.The hospitability might be good. But it is like you see mysore palace, know that it is owned by somebody else and you pay to see that. When you pay, they throw smiles. But when you try getting in, they remind you every time that you havent owned it.They treat you like dogs. And their internal system is so rotten, that a mere customer representative's personal ego is more importnat than service. you can spot many club mahindra employees using objectionable language all over near their offices enjoying how they have fooled new prays today. How anand mahindra thought of having such business.
ReplyDeleteI am a member for the past 7 yrs and stayed in most of the resorts in South India. Earlier it was not that difficult to book the rooms, at least few rooms used to be available in one resort or other. I couldn't book the rooms last year and had to loose 6 days. I am trying to book this year and the rooms are not available in most of the resorts for next few months. I may end up loosing 7 days this year also.
ReplyDeleteNumber of members have increased but not no.of rooms.
Mahindra is also renting a lot of rooms to non-members so that they can make more money. They already got the money from members and there is no way we can findout whether the rooms are sold to non-members or members (I used to meet a lot of non-members at the resort -some were on package tours). When I took the membership I was told that except for few rooms in Munnar all the other rooms are exclusively for members.
These are basically the 2 reasons for non-availabilty of rooms.
Venkat
Mahindra advertises several resorts (to show a big number)under their name, for some resorts they just have a tie up for utilizing few rooms in that resort. For e.g the resort in Poovar is not owned by them, club Mahindra just blocked 5-6 rooms in that resort. Few years back I tried to book a resort in North India and it was not available, the same day my friend (non club Mahindra member) called that resort directly and he could get a room at a very decent price. Only few rooms are available for CM members in this resort also.
ReplyDeleteThe food, service and other facilities are good at the resorts but what is the use of all these if the members are unable to book the rooms after spending lakhs of rupees as membership fee and paying close to ten thousand rupees per annum as maintenance fee.
Few years back I used to suggest my friends to take the membership but now certainly I will not recommend any one to take the membership.
Venkat
I believe Club Mahindra and Country Club... both are involved in this fraudlent practice.. One of my friend who worked in sales team of Country Club himself suggested me NOT TO OPT for any of these clubs as they dont have necessary infrastructure to support their words. Later on, he himself was fooled by them as he also didnt get his incentives worth more than 40000, not only with him but others in the sales team in country club were not given their incentives. Location : Lucknow.
ReplyDeleteJSK YOU ARE RIGHT ABOUT COUNTRY CLUB , BUT PLEASE DONT COMPARE CLUB MAHINDRA WITH CC AS THEY ARE POLES APART.FRAUDULENT/ CHEATING IS DIFFERENT FROM SALES TALK TO GULLIBLE CUSTOMERS. COUNTRY CLUB IS NOT EVEN 25% OF CMHR. IT IS A COMPANY HEADED BY A CHEAT .
ReplyDeleteHi Shrinidhi,
ReplyDeleteThe answer to my Ques is solely reserved at your end to answer...
Q) Running a Blog for expression of one's personal views to an empathy of wrong doing from somebody, but what does it stand for you, have you ever had a taste of the same before commenting on it???
Q)What stand or right you hold to express your concerns or reviews on the salt you've never tasted????
Q)Timeshare is one prepect where you stand no knowledge of, for this I need no proof to state, coz this reflects in your own blogs, to the people you have not reverted in do you no anything?????
So pls stop blogging & wasting your own time.
Yes People may have been fooled, as per their sayings, but timeshare is what you have to undersatnd properly before indulging in it...
Looking at gbajaj's comments, I am much inclined to say that we should not protest the activities of murderers because we have not been murdered ourselves.
ReplyDeleteHello Srinidhi,
ReplyDeleteVery well written post. Written a long time back but still holds true to this day. I went to their office today as a special invitee because I won a free gift voucher from their company. I talked to the guy and his manager and they were down flat out on their faces because of my questions. But still, they gave me at least 7-8 offers increasing the stake every time so that I take the membership there and then. I said a clear NO and came home. As usual (for me) I searched the net and found this excellent post which made my fears come true. If any sane person uses even 10% of common sense, he will himself not opt for such a fraudulent system anyways (as of today).
Also, It's easy to say that people should call CM for booking 4-5 months in advance. In today's jet paced life, who can say what sort of emergency he/she will see in even one month. Recession was one such example (although quite a rare one at that, but I am just implying).
Further, I will also like to say something for the people who had a so called "positive" experience with the company. I am not saying that all of them are liars, but looking at the pattern, if you make a check, I can bet my life on, you will find that they will have similar IPs.
I couldn't read all the comments here, but here are some interesting ones.
In one of them, I read that the poster was very satisfied and the company has "only" a 2 to 3% of unsatisfied customers. With 80,000 members, even 2% customers mean 1600 customers. And if they paid Rs. 2.00 lac as an average each, the company is sitting on a Rs. 32.00 crores pileup of unsatisfied customers' money!!
Further, I also read someone say, that he invested in CM's shares and the way they have performed made him a hero in his family/relatives' eyes. And judging by the same, CM is an awesome company (although not directly, but the commentator quoted this share episode just to prove a point, didn't he?). This made my evening. Had a hearty laugh. Only if people in Satyam were that lucky.
Much said. Great work man. Keep it up.
Regards,
Yogesh.
hi everyone i have read lot about club mahindra membership here ......but i think most of time share companies in India cheat people in some way or other as There is no regulatory body in India to govern timeshare industry so who knows what they are doing ?
ReplyDeleteI REQUEST THE PEOPLE HERE THAT EVEN U CAN TALK ABOUT AND WRITE ABOUT ROYAL GOAN BEACH CLUB MEMBERSHIP EVEN THEY ARE CHEATING PEOPLE LIKE ANYTHING .....
Mr.Srinidhi,
ReplyDeleteI ws expecting a Answer from you, it so happens you also seems to be sailing in the same boat, " Stop Ducking Ques "
As for Mr.Anonymous, Yes we ought to protest against murderers, just tell how much time you've spared to protest???
Its easy said than done....
Mr Bajaj
ReplyDelete1) Please go through the blog again. Shrinidhi has written only what he has tasted .. rest are comments from the readers.
2)Let timeshare companies teach their customers what timeshare is all about with their multi crore marketing budget, why are you so annoyed with this one blog.
(they will not do it because ultimately it will affect their own sale. As this concept is not for every one and they want to sale it to every one.)
Hello all, sorry for not responding to comments here for sometime. Multiple reasons are there for this and let me not go into details or post an excuse. Dr. Sengupta, Bhupesh and others have kept the discussions active by responding to comments-thanks to them.
ReplyDeleteGood to see lots of "Happy Club Mahindra Family" members posting their good experiences. Most of these comments have originated from an airtel broadband connection in Delhi. For a moment I thought of deleting them as spam, but later decided to give them a benefit of doubt, because there've been lots of negative comments posted under anonymous which we didn't suspect.
I'm sure readers are smart enough to distinguish between genuine comment and framed ones, so faking positive comments is unlikely to help anyone. Hope everyone takes it in right spirit. Will consider keeping a close watch on such comments.
@chiranjiv4638,
Thanks for sharing your experience. CM maintains that only negligible number of their marketing staff are like that (i.e. misleading and desparate for sales), but unfortunately I haven't got any comments appreciating straighforwardness of the staff.
Hope you got some consolation for your grievances.
@ Ajay Jain,
You said "if you get the hang of how get your favourite resort reserved "... I feel all paid members should have equal opportunities and a fair and transparent procedure to get bookings confirmed. Its not fair to expect that one needs to be extra smart to get what he has been promised.
@ Rajesh Nagle,
Keep us posted on the updates. I'm sure refund calculations can be revised in your favor depending on how aggressively you follow up/escalate. Did you try to follow the suggestions given by Hakuna Matata below? (for bookings)
Hakuna Matata,
Thanks for coming back and for the detailed comment and tips.
Regarding "Also CM as a concept has been created keeping in ming families with kids. Automatically school holidays are a constraining factor in any case", most school holiday seasons are classified under Red.
"Best practices" is a good idea. If you can submit a draft, we can revise it and publish for the benefit of others. Please consider. Due credits will be given to contributors.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI became a blue member after one guy (Ismail) came and request me several times. After they took the payment, now they were not able to book me in any or their resorts within my preferred dates in the blue region of the table. Then within 5 days I realised that it is not for me and I requested to cancel my membership and refund my money since I received the welcome envelope 5 days ago. But now they are saying that it is 12 days past and I am not eligible to get the return since it is 12 days past. Before taking the money, they were very polite and after they ate my 15 thousand rupees, they became different. They are kind of scam I found just to eat our money. Still I am fighting to get my money back.
ReplyDeleteWrite to Ajay Nambiar, Head Member Relations (look this page for email address http://www.gurgaonscoop.com/story/2007/1/4/42433/20997). If it does not work forget about your 15k and enjoy.
ReplyDelete