[Resolved]  Club Mahindra Holidays — Refund of membership money paid so far

Address:

Gurgaon, Haryana

On 6th of November 2014, I visited branch office of Club Mahindra Holidays in DT Megamall, Gurgaon with my wife to listen to a presentation by them. Thinking its from club mahindra representative, I didn't mind going and listening to them. During the presentation the representative explained so many lucrative things. My plan was to just listen to what they had to offer and decide later what to do about it but they just don't let you go once you sit. He explained everything about the membership which was rosy and beautiful but never explained the cancellation policy and the pain points. This was done intentionally by the representative because had he been transparent, nobody will take the membership. I made downpayment of around Rs. 27000 there itself. Also and EMI of Rs. 8464 per month was also planned to be paid for a total of 48 months via my credit card. We were happy at that time. Club Mahindra member ID was generated that day itself. He told me I would receive a confirmation/welcome call which I did receive the call on 25th of November. The representative on call also spoke about the positive aspects of the membership and did not say a word about the cancellation policy or anything about it. I have SMS evidence for this date in my phone. So clearly it took around 19 days to get the confirmation call and confirm the membership from Club Mahindra Holidays. My EMIs were to start from January 2015 due date for which was 8th of every month. I paid the EMIs without a miss until the month of July 2015. By then I realised that I am not able to plan any holidays due to lack of time. I was not even able to avail the complimentary holiday vouchers. Also during this time, I am facing a financial crisis. I am in situation where in I need to save money. Realising all this I planned to cancel the membership. I dropped an email to the club mahindra holidays on email id: [protected]@clubmahindra.com to stop the EMIs and called the representative to cancel my membership and refund the money. I wash shocked to know that he did not know the cancellation policy of the their company. He told me that he will talk to his manager about that and let me know. Here is the mail I wrote to club mahindra to stop EMI: Hi, This is Rajesh Kumar co-applicant with Vandana Rajesh Kumar. My member ID is 2599349. I want to inform you that due to some financial crisis at hand, I won't be able to pay the membership EMI for next few months. I request you to immediately stop the EMIs for the next month(August) and next few months until further notification from my side. I will let you know when you can start charging the EMI again. I also posted request to cancel the membership on Facebook page of club mahindra. In response to the Facebook post I received a call from club mahindra. A girl named Pooja spoke to me. I told her that I want to cancel the membership and get my refund with full interest on the money. To this she replied that she was not fully aware of the cancellation policy of the company and that she would arrange a callback from the head office about this. In the meantime she did her best to retain me as a member. After 3-4 days I got a call from Jennifer from their head office. She clearly said the company do not refund the membership fees paid at all until and unless the member has paid the full cost of the membership. This was totally unexpected from a person calling from the head office. I told her this can't possibly be true and there might be some misconception that she might be having. She told me that they refund around 40% of the membership fees only to those who have paid full 100% of the cost of the membership. Since I had paid only 20% of the fees, I was not eligible for refund. By this time I could realise that this is some big fat cheater and fraud company cheating on people of their hard earned money. If I have not availed a single service from them, how can they keep my money. After a week or so I received following email from the Jennier: Dear Vandana, Greetings from Club Mahindra. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to address your concerns. This is with reference to our telephonic conversation dated 07th August 2015. We must say that it is indeed with regret we note that you have decided to cancel your Club Mahindra membership. While I understand from your correspondence that our team has tried its best to retain you as our valued member, however you are keen only on cancellation. As mentioned by our colleagues earlier, in case you are going in for cancellation then there would not be any refund applicable as per the standard membership terms . While cancellation is not in the best interest to both o[censored]s, we once again urge you to reconsider your decision on the membership. Do write back to us in case you have any further queries/concerns. Our team would be delighted to be of service to you. Assuring you of our best services. Warm Regards, Jennifer Member Relations. I replied to her email with following: Jennifer, When and where have I agreed/accepted the fact that there will be no refund of the amount I have paid? This has not been reconciled yet. I yet another time request you to please refund the amount paid so far towards the club mahindra membership. The only amount club mahindra is liable to deduct is the registration/file charges which by the way I am ok with. Since I have not availed any of your services post membership, you have no right to keep the paid money. I have been repeating this simple thing over and over again but you guys are not listening to it. By saying that there will be no refund clearly highlights club mahindra club's malicious intentions. This shows that it wants to cheat on people in broad day light which I am not going to let happen with me. This way you are earning a bad name. Let's be honest and do what is in best interest of both of you as a caring company and me as a consumer. Also please keep the turn around time to refund the amount as small as possible. I want to quickly close on this one as I am in need of money right now due to some financial crisis at hand. I once again request you to please process my refund as quickly as possible. I would be very thankful. Looping in Rizwan Khan, your representative who sold me this membership. Thanks Rajesh Kumar Club Mahindra Membership ID : 2599349 The very next day I got another mail from Jennifer which said: Dear Vandana, Greetings from Club Mahindra! Thank you for writing to us. We regret to know that you have decided to cancel the membership and would like to reiterate that in case you are going in for cancellation then there would not be any refund applicable as per the standard membership terms. We once again urge you to reconsider your decision on the membership. On our part we promise that we will look into the issues that have led to your decision and rectify those that are within our power to correct. We hope that you will renew your trust in us and we look forward to offering you many years of memorable holidays with us. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be of service to you. Warm Regards, Jennifer Member Relations. I replied to the above email with following: Do you want me to lodge a police complaint against your representatives at Gurgaon office and have my money refunded with legal proceedings is it? I have no issues whatsoever in doing that because this is a clear case of cheating and fraud. Now I really feel it was big mistake going for this membership in the first place. Seems like you don't want to finish the matter on a good note. Be rest assured I will do my best in my capacity to have you guys pay if you do not refund my hard earned money. This is the last message I have sent to the club mahindra. Getting refund should not be this hard if the consumer is not interested in the services of the company. Club mahindra should behave professionally and refund the money with immediate effect. Rs. 1 Lac is not a small amount to be kept without any reason. This is not how companies like club mahindra should do business. I request club mahindra to seriously look into the matter and process the refund without delay. Thanks Rajesh