[Resolved] Club Starwood — refund of holiday package money. | |||||
Before I write my description, I would say that Club Starwood is a totally unreliable company. The company is in the business of selling vacations / Holidays from 1 year to 30 years as per your requirement. For this the company lures various customers with very lucrative packages and offers. The company called us for a meeting in one of very good hotels and offered us dinner and a 3n/4d package for listening to their talk on 08 July 2018. We were offered various lucrative packages with a 10 year vacation package. We were tempted by the offer and took the package. It cost us Rs. 1.6 lakhs. The company immediately deducted the amount from our credit card and said that the offer was only for that day. They gave us a receipt of the amount. Also they got our signatures done on terms and conditions. The company gave us a copy of those terms and condition but did not agree to sign on that saying that we will receive the copy in a few days time and that no person present there was authorised to sign on those documents. (Although later I found that one of the persons present – Mr Alam was a director of the company. You can check on the website that it is a private company having on board two directors – Mr Alam and Mr Morvin Massi with a paid up capital of only Rs 10 Lakhs registered in March 2018) In a package of 1.6 lakhs for a vacation of 7D/6N for 10 years, they offered us the following additional deals: • Rs 20, 000/- Gold Voucher • Rs 20, 000/- parlour voucher(VLCC/VIBES) • 4N/5D stay in Dubai for 2Adults with 2 Air to and fro Air tickets • 5N/6D stay anywhere in India • Immediate refund of interest on 3 months EMI for paid amount of 1.6 lakhs from credit card company to be credit within 10-15 days. Later on when I reached home, I read the terms and conditions and found that they were not the same that the company had offered during the meeting. I searched the net for company name Club Starwood. No results for this company was there. However, there were search results about another very similar company – Starwoodhotels. I got suspicious about the intentions of the company and shot a mail to the company saying that there were several differences and they should send me a signed copy of the agreed to terms and conditions. They agreed to this. However, I never received the copy. Then I shot a mail to the company mail ID which they had given. I got the reply that they agreed to what I had written. Still not satisfied by the response, I insisted them on sending me a written document for terms and conditions agreed upon. But they always said that I will get that along with the kit within 25 days. This made me suspicious. And I asked for refund of the amount. The company never replied me back. My suspicion grew each day. Then I decided to visit the premises of the company to have a feel of the office. When I visited the office, I was shocked to see its condition. It resembled a call centre where in a small cramped space, 20-30 persons were busy in luring people into vacations. I enquired from the manager present there. He was a very nice person to talk to and offered me tea. However, he had joined just one day back and knew nothing about the details of the company. No other senior person was present. All other employees looked like from a call centre. I made a call to Mr Alam, the director of the company, who had offered me package and insisted that I want my refund immediately as I was not happy with the company response. Also that there was no authorised person sitting in the office who can provide me written acknowledgement of my cancellation request or refund request. I only got a confirmation mail of my cancellation stating that I will be getting a refund in 45-60 days time. I insisted that he should give me this thing in writing, but he refused this also. Now, friends, after seeing the condition of the office and the response of the company to my requests for providing me a signed copy of terms and conditions or to acknowledgement of my cancellation, I seriously doubt the capability and intentions of the company. I made several requests for early refund but Mr. Alam insists that it will be processed in 45 to 60 days time as per the company policy. This in my view is to harass the customers who seek refund. Why processing time of 45-60 days is required. What is the company policy. There is no such things in terms and conditions. Further no one from the company has signed terms and conditions. And most of the terms and conditions on which the company has taken my signatures are wrong. The company should immediately refund me my amount. I am also thinking of writing to Prime Ministers grievance portals within 2-3 days. I am attaching here few photographs of the company office from where you can guess what type of office space the company is having. I do have many more photographs and audio recordings of conversation with the company. I cannot let go my hard earned money. I very much doubt that the company will refund me amount after 45-60 days. I have very little confidence on the company. My mail Id is [protected]@ymail.com. Harish Kumar Gupta Was this information helpful? | |||||
Nov 29, 2021 Complaint marked as Resolved Complaint has finally been resolved. The company has refunded me the full amount. Feb 25, 2019 Updated by hkgupta1165 Kindly refer to my previous complaint regarding the company.Because of non-refund of my money from company, I have approached consumer court and filed a case for my grievance. However, there was no representative from the company. I have come to know that the company has shifted their office. In case the company has shifted their office, all the correspondence from their previous office must be redirected to their new address. I presume it must be a wilful non-receipt of the mail. To check the new address of the company, I visited company website and app. There were two addresses mentioned under ‘Contact Us’ - (See image file attached) RMZ Millenia, Level 1, Tower B, No 1& Murphy Road, Ulsoor, Bangalore, INDIA - 560008 Roshpa Tower, Ground Floor, Ranchi, Jharkhand, INDIA - 834001 RMZ Millenia is the first address mentioned on site and app. RMZ millenia is a grand business space in Bangalore and having an office space there speaks great about the company. I was really impressed. I decided to visit the company to resolve my grievances. When I reached there, I enquired about the company from the receptionist sitting there. He told me that there are a lot of companies who are having their offices here. About this company, he told that it only had a virtual address there meaning that it was like a post office box - Any mail received at that address would be redirected to the company. In my view, the company took that address so as to impress the customers about the presence of the company office at a great location in Bangalore. When I further asked about the address to which they redirect the mail, (as nobody attended my consumer court case), he refused to offer me any help saying that the services to the company were suspended owing to non-payment of rent. They will not receive any correspondence addressed to that company till the payment issue was solved. He also refused to give me information about the company address also saying that he would only help if I come there with some legal authority. I was shocked to hear all this. To resolve this I had to file a police complaint in the Ulsoor police station. The Sub-inspector there was a nice person as he gracefully attended me and offered full help against the erring company. He filed the complaint against my request and asked two police persons to accompany me to the RMZ Millenia for my help. On reaching there, after seeing the legal formalities, the receptionist immediately provided me with the information about the company credentials they had. I fail to understand as to why the company hoisted a virtual address as their primary / first contact address on their website. Also, is the company not having sufficient funds to service the rent? And if they have failed to pay for the rent, why it is still kept on the website. Why the mail which was sent at the earlier address not redirected to the new address? In my view, all these questions point towards bad intentions of the company. Yesterday (23 Feb 2019), during discussions with Mr Marvin, I came to know that several other persons had seen the reviews posted by me and had posted their reviews and decided to not continue with the membership. I have no intention to malign the image of the company by posting reviews. I have posted a true complaint to the consumer complaint portal to get my grievance resolved. I am sure, other complainants also only want their money back as they are not satisfied with the services/ credentials of the company. I feel cheated by the company and my only concern is that I should get back my hard earned money back at the earliest. That's the reason why before raising my concerns through various consumer portals and going to the court, I requested the company several times through mail to return me my money. In the past two days, I have sent three mails to the company requesting them to send me their new address, but of no use. I once again, through this portal request the company to 1. return me the amount paid by me. 2. send me their current address/es Failing which, I will proceed further with the legal action. Harish Kumar Gupta  | |||||
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Dear all, My case is still under progress. The judge has asked for clubstarwood director to be produced in court for the last at leat 4 times. Nobody has come for the same. Due to covid also, proper hearings could not be conducted. Now courts have allowed in-person hearings. I am not going to relent. I am very much hopeful that I will get my money back. You can mail me at hkgupta1165[at]gmail.com
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