Royal Resorts — Free holiday

Address:	411030
Website:	www.karmagroup.com

We (family of three) were in Goa for the last 3-4 days. On our second day while roaming around in the market street at Calangute a sobre looking soft spoken guy approached us and handed forcefully three vouchers saying no payment, no obligation, just a good gesture that their Karma group’s 23rd anniversary. Two voucher’s read ‘Better luck next time’ whereas third one read lucky guaranteed one prize from Samsung mobile, ipad, digital camera and a holiday at Karma resorts. He suggested to go to their Baga resort the next morning. I had heard of these similar terrible stories but wanted to show my kid and wife the fake world of ‘freebies’ so I pretended to be happy for the honor of free gift and assured to attend their ‘special’ function. I was told a car would come at my hotel to pick me up. And it really came. The fellow didn’t forget to congratulate me at least 5-6 times by calling after our first meeting. We were taken at one of their resorts and made to wait for almost half an hour getting bored. Then when our turn was about to begin we were introduced to their first line ‘manager’ for the form filling formalities. He called one of his team mates and asked to start our program. We were taken at a hall on 5th floor that had some 6-8 small round tables occupied by families similar like ours. The concept was explained without failing to point out the faults in our thinking. I was showing regret on face that how dumb I am but smiling inside as I knew the real picture. After every 10 minutes we were told, ‘now this is a last question, if I feel that this package is suitable for you, we will move on to the next stage or we will end it here itself and we will go to your free gift claiming counter.’ But am surprised that he found us suitable for two hours…hahaha…as his calling for the day never happened. Well. Many success stories were told about Karma group, their founder, his foresight, the lacunas in the plans of Club Mahindra, Sterling holidays and more advantages from Karma in comparison to others and things like that…I told him about the only one hour availability though we had exceeded that but he remained indifferent. Meanwhile we were made to check in the rooms of that building (which appeared to be good honestly) and one more presentation on his i-pad about their holiday homes abroad. I had to tell him that I cannot wait anymore. Then he quickly explained the charges of the plan and his manager tried to pressurize me to pay 3, 50, 000/- only if the booking made that day OR 7, 60, 000/- if we delayed. I was not willing in either. Then for 4 times he said, “Ok. Let us close.” When I said, ”Fine. Thanks.” He used to try to lure me with some additional freebie or discount but was smart enough to not actually close. His manager too had started to be bit rude and force me to pay the booking amount of 9000/- so that he could lock my booking and I could pay the balance in 30 days. I clearly told him, I can’t pay a single paisa on that spot unless I think with my own judgement. It seemed he was convinced that I won’t buckle. So he said good bye and the actual presenter took me to another room (gift claiming). The lady it seems knew what’s going to emerge after scratching the card. She scratched it with her pen without looking at the card and said, “this is your free 7-day holiday gift voucher” and continued in a dry tone ‘fill this form and send a scanned copy to me.” Later after googling for reviews I realized this to be not dependable company. NOTHING IS FREE IN THIS WORLD. Friends, don’t waste your 4 hours in Goa. Instead, spend it at one of the many wonderful locations of that state. Good luck to all and take care. God bless you all.